"You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave" - Hotel California by the Eagles

Leaving
California did not happen as smoothly as planned. It turns out that a
medical treatment I received every six months could not be given eight
days early. I thought it would be a shame to miss an important medical
treatment because of just a few days. However, our house is now sold and
we were homeless. We are in our motorhome but have no place to park
it?

That's when an incredibly generous friend came
to the rescue. We parked in his RV accessible driveway. We were able
to hook up to sewer, water and Wi-Fi. 

However, our
electricity was limited. We ran an extension cord to the house but, it
was not quite enough power for two air-conditioners on the hot summer days.
Luckily we got to enjoy the full run of the house... AC, TV,  kitchen,
etc.  

HAPPY GIRL 

I decided to
squeeze in a little fun with my extra California time. I was able to say
goodbye to some favorite places and, hug some important people. 

  

 

Because
California is such a large state we needed one more stop. Some very
good friends of ours live in the high desert. Summertime in this area of
California means very high temperatures! I have multiple sclerosis
which means heat is a terrible thing. Since there was only shore power
available, we could only run one air conditioner. Bottom line…. The
visit was a quick over nighter. Always keep in mind the time of year when
you do your travel planning.

 

We
traveled North on Interstate 5, and took our sweet time descending the
very steep Grapevine in hopes of not repeating a "Pile-up on Interstate
5". In this area
(Gorman) a lot of people come to enjoy their ATVs, motorcycles and
mountain bikes. As we continue on I noticed that there were a lot of
beautiful rest areas. Sadly, I also noticed that most of them were
closed, so be prepared. Still traveling north you will pass the town of
Redding. Now your scenery completely changes. You're now driving
towards beautiful Lake Shasta in the gorgeous Shasta mountains.
Breathtaking...

It's
been a very long day of driving so we stopped for the night at Grass
Lake Rest Stop in Weed, CA. This is a clean and graffiti free pit stop.
It is quiet and except you were near the train tracks and, the train
will sound its horn every time it passes by. There is running water,
restrooms and a large area for your pets. They do not supply doggy bags
so, watch your step. There is even a handicap designated pull through
site. No worries if the handicap spot is taken, all of the spots seem
very wide. 

Next stop is Bend, Oregon…

Turning life upside down

I
wanted to leave a blog post of apology and explanation. No, I did not
give up on my blog. My life just seemed to get a bit crazy. We had always
planned to move from our Southern California home after my husband
retired but, we were not sure where that would be.

My
husband and I decided to use our motorhome adventures to find our happy
place. In the past three years we have traveled across the country
three times. It turns out that our happy spot is clear across the
country. For so many reasons, we love Western North Carolina.

This
is when life really got nuts! How exactly do you leave everything you
know and love? Family, friends, routines and your stuff? First step was
preparing to sell our house by fixing any dings and boo-boos. Next step
was to choose a realtor and put the house on the market. We had no idea
when the house would sell but we thought it might go fast. Fast was an
understatement! We had our first offer in four hours. Three days later
the house was off the market with a 30 day escrow. We were naïve and
thought 30 days would be no problem. Turns out that the buyer has 17
days to change their mind, secure their loan, inspections, etc. All of
that time we could not do a thing because the sale could fall through
and, we will be back to square one. Yay, the house sold. We now had less than two
weeks to pack and move out.

Now,
what to do with our stuff? Do we have a shipping company pack it all
up, put it into storage and ship it to us when we find a place? That
option was very expensive! So now we thought that we would radically
down-size. However, to store and ship a small amount of our stuff was
equally as expensive. So now it gets even crazier! We decided to pack up
the motorhome with whatever we could and get rid of the rest. We
divided our life in the three piles. What we could not live without,
what we would get rid of, and what we would like to keep only if it fits.

We
worked nonstop hours. My husband became a superhero, magician and
wizard. He packed, did repairs, cleaned, shopped, canceled utilities,
did last doctor appointments, shredded years worth of documents (5
boxes) and took care of old prescription drug disposal. The stuff that
we couldn't take with us we either gave away, donated to charity or,
sold at an estate sale.  Everything was made even that much harder
because, we lived in a place where the motorhome had to move every three
days.

Next,
we had the final visits to our favorite places, our friends and
family.... sadly, there's never enough time for everything.  After
taking care of our personal, financial, medical, and legal obligations, we were
ready to start our next epic adventure… A BRAND NEW LIFE.

Arches National Park

We only stopped for one night in Moab/Arches. It was a great place for a layover between Breckenridge, CO and Bryce, UT. We arrived early enough to spend a few hours in Arches National Park. For me, this was more than enough as my eyes become visually over stimulated. Spend an extra day or two here if you want to explore more.

Arches is
located in Eastern Utah(adjacent to the Colorado River and 4 miles north
of Moab, Utah). Wind, water and underground salt beds have created the
most incredible monuments. Definitely a must see. After you
see it you will be left saying to yourself " What did I just see?" 

Cost
to get into the park is $10 per car but with a National Park Disabled access pass, the fee is
waived. You can view much of the park from your vehicle. A few scenic locations have wheelchair accessible trails to view even more spectacular sights. There is so much to look
at and the road is constantly turning, so if you're prone to motion
sickness be prepared. There are several designated stops along the way
to take beautiful pictures. Other activities in the park include hiking, biking,
backpacking and climbing. My recommendation is visiting in the spring
or fall because summer temperatures can become quite brutal.



I
do not have an RV park to recommend. The place we stayed at is
going out of business. There were a few other RV Parks in the area to choose from.



 















Another
fun thing to do in this area is shopping and eating. The city of Moab,
Utah is flat with tons of shops, restaurants and bars to choose from. We
ate at, La Hacienda. It was really good!

Breckenridge, Colorado

Breckenridge
is located in the state of Colorado with an elevation of 9600 feet. The
population is about 4500, but they are mainly part-timers with
vacation homes. Breckenridge is mostly known for snow skiing. However
it's pretty popular for outdoor summer activities… Mountain biking,
hiking, fishing, etc. Being in a wheelchair I wasn't sure what I would
find, but I knew my husband would have a blast.

               We stayed at:

      The Tiger Run Rv Resort

             85 Revette Drive

      Breckenridge, CO 80424

              970-453-9690





 

Amenities include;

Full RV hook ups

Extra large sites

Chalets (cute log cabins)

Wi-Fi (that actually worked)

Indoor pool and spa

Tennis court

Volleyball and basketball

Game room

Kid and dog friendly

Laundry and showers

Etc.…







This
place is beautiful. Well-maintained and beautifully landscaped. Each
spot seems very private. Some of the RV sites are up to 60ft. deep and
20ft. wide. All of the sites are privately owned and at times owner
occupied  All have picnic tables and some have much more.  ** they do
not allow truck trailers, pup pup trailers or anything under 20ft. in
length or more than 20 years old. If you want to give the RV a rest, the
cabins are a wonderful alternative to a hotel. The cabins come stocked
with all of the basic necessities and room for four adults. The only problem I
have with this RV resort is that I am now forever spoiled.



**
If you rely on GPS make sure you look at the route it wants to take you
on. Ours had us get off the freeway and drive up and over a steep
mountain road (above the tree line). Only to find out, that if we stayed
on the freeway until the next exit we would be right at the entrance of
our destination..



Breckenridge has a lot of outdoor activities.
In the winter of course there is skiing. The rest of the year is for
bicycles, hiking and fishing. There is a paved trail that leads all the
way to Vail, Colorado. A motorized wheelchair or scooter would have no
problem on the trail. This is just a beautiful place to be outside.

The
actual town of Breckenridge is NOT wheelchair friendly, at all. The
streets and sidewalks are in rough condition. The curbs are high and
most of the parking is not close by. We look for a restaurant, but
everything way found was up a flight of stairs. In all fairness, this
is a high mountain ski destination. We were also visiting during
Oktoberfest. Because I didn't want to completely miss out on the
celebration, I had a beer and bought a beer stein.







Close
by is the town of Frisco. Frisco is extremely wheelchair friendly. The
streets and sidewalks are mostly flat. Shops and restaurants are easy to
get into. If you like pizza you're in luck… It's everywhere. We ate at
Kemosabe Sushi. It was delicious!

One scary night in Kansas

We
were driving from Nashville, Tennessee to Colorado. Due to a heat wave across the South we decided to take
the most direct route and cut straight through Kansas on I70. After we
crossed into Kansas my husband asked if I knew anything about the state.
Jokingly I said, "No, except I've seen The Wizard of Oz". I70 from the Turnpike to Topeka would be our first ever toll road. Who knew that this day would
be our first for a whole lot of things.



As we drove on the wind
started to pick up. Drizzle began to fall in the sky got darker. We saw
the most spectacular lightning display in the distance, across the horizon. Our only
concern was trying to capture the perfect photograph. The rain and the wind got
very intense, and the sky went dark. At the end of the toll road there
was a note on the toll booth that read, " No Toll. Find Shelter". We explained to
the kid battening down the hatches of the toll booth that we were from California and
understood earthquakes, but had no clue what to do in a tornado. He gave
us a quick tutorial, and said we would have no problem because the
tornado was behind us. Wow... was he wrong. All of the weather
conditions became worse. We could not see where to go.  Driving speed
was now down to about 20 mph. It seem like we were the only ones left on
the road. There were very few buildings and nothing but open space. Not
even an overpass. Our radio and the cell phones were going crazy.
"Tornado Danger – Get Low! Flooding Danger – Get High"!!!



Suddenly,
we saw light off in the distance. My husband said, "That is where we
are going". It was a small truck stop filled with more trucks then I have
ever seen. The trucker that we pull behind said something that I will
never forget and actually made me cry, "You are safe now, my truck is
not moving until the morning". Eventually we were packed in like
sardines, and I never slept better.



The morning was quite
surreal. The sun came up and birds were singing. We saw the trees that
actually blew up from the lightning strikes. We saw the freeway signs
that were twisted like pretzels. There was a semi truck that was mangled
in the ditch. And then there was someone on an overpass
waving and American flag, because oddly enough it was the anniversary of
9/11

Nashville, Tennessee pt.2

 

Nashville was a convenient place to stop and have a little fun on our way back across the country. We stayed at the Nashville KOA.

2626 Music Valley Dr.
Nashville, Tennessee
(615) 889-0286

This
RV park is really nice! On our first trip to Nashville we stayed here,
and had no reason to try anything else. They have tons of amenities...
Full hookups
Wide level spots
Patio furniture w/ fire pit
Pool, Jacuzzi and sauna
Playground for the kids
etc...

There
is a shuttle available that will take you into downtown Nashville.
However, the shuttle is not wheelchair accessible and does not have a
lift. On my first trip to this RV park my big complaint was that I
couldn't find the trashcan. This trip I figured out how it works... Each
morning your bagged trash gets picked up from your site (how great is
that).

Downtown Nashville is NOT wheelchair friendly. The city is
built on sleep hills and the sidewalks are in poor condition. I did
find that C Street is definitely manageable. It's mostly flat with
restaurants, bars and plenty of shopping. This is the place to go.



The
Country Music Hall of Fame should not be missed and is definitely
doable in a wheelchair.… As long as you get dropped off in the front of
the building. The best parking for this is at a close by church
parking lot. It will cost you about $7 for the day. In different areas
throughout the city there is underground parking around $15.

Close
to the Nashville KOA is the Grand Ole Opry. I wanted to visit The Opry
but it was very expensive, so I chose to go downtown instead. In
hindsight I wish that I had spent the money, because downtown was
extremely difficult... Maybe next time.

Ranger

In loving memory of Ranger. 

1-2000 to 7-2016

I
feel blessed to have had Ranger in my life at for 15 of his 16 years.
He was a smart, loving and kind Labrador retriever. He had a huge
personality and could always make me smile. He was sweet but definitely
the alpha dog in the house. We adopted him from Pet Orphans in Van Nuys,
California. They found him at a local animal shelter. One of my
favorite memories of him will always be… During our adoption home check I
showed them our dog doors and the dog-run where he would go potty. I
was told "that dog will never do that". I said , "give him 10 minutes ". I
was wrong, it only took him 5 minutes. I really can't take any credit
for that. Ranger was scary-smart.

He was a known escape artist
who love to explore. If we weren't careful, when a door would open he
would wander out. Luckily he loved people and people loved him.
Neighbors would escort him back home and strangers would call us after
reading his tags. His wandering spirit never stopped.



After we
started traveling in the motorhome, Ranger could not have been happier. He
got to travel and explore with his family. He got to visit many state
and national parks. He left his mark in countless forests, lakes and
trails. Truck stops and rest stops were equally fun. He traveled in and
out and through so many different states. He clocked in an estimated
20,000 miles.  Definitely, a life well lived!







I will forever miss my love puppy.

Rest in peace, Ranger.