My Trails

The main purpose of my blog is so that I will have a record of my retirement years. When my mind starts to forget, I can look back at my blog and remember: Oh I hiked the Appalachian Trail, or that’s right I drove to Alaska! It’s my form of a rudimentary diary of sorts.  

It’s hard to think about and even harder to realize I haven’t added an entry in over a year. I think there are two reasons why I don’t write much anymore – let alone I procrastinate everything and I’m lazy – but when I’m not traveling much, I find it harder to think of anything interesting to talk about. The second reason I don’t blog much is because the family keeps close contact with each other through text apps, and a blog post is old news. It’s the main reason most of the family has given up blogging. And we are not writing for the world to read anyway. Our blogs have always been generally read by family and close friends. 

As I get older, I find that I travel less than I did a few years ago. And not only am I getting older but my vehicles are getting older too! Ever since Covid, I have stayed in Arizona, traveling up into the high country in the summer and scooting down to the desert in the winter. I like to think of myself not so much as a snowbird but as a migrating nomad. I don’t ever want to live where it snows again!

I usually live alone but Donna spends a few weeks camping with me up in the national forests in the summer, and Karen and Damon spend a month camping with me in the winter. Everyone is planning to meet up again this January in Yuma.  I still have friends I have met over the years that I will camp with once in a while, but things are always changing and friends come and go. 

I’ve made some changes to my motorhome this year. The mini split, 12 volt fridge, and Starlink have all improved my lifestyle. I have enough solar and batteries that I can survive on total electric. I even removed my onboard generator and bought a small dual fuel portable just for emergencies. I was carrying around a 400 pound generator I only used once a year, if that. 

I found out my mini split worked better on heat mode if I placed a fan by the ceiling to move the heat down.  The built in fan doesn’t circulate the warm air down to the floor without a little help. I solved the problem when I purchased a small ceiling fan that fits perfectly in front of the mini split. 

I got rid of the old broken-down, ragged couch that I didn’t have any use for, and replaced it with an 8” twin mattress. I built a platform out of plywood and framing lumber, and left the plywood so I could slide it out  to the full twin size. Then I cut 8” off one edge of the mattress and made sections that I could drop behind the bed to sleep, and remove them and slide the frame back to the wall to convert it into a couch. I still like my over-cab bed, but there will be a day when climbing up and down in the middle of the night might become a problem. 😂

I think I’ll stop here. I’m thinking not many have made it this far anyway. I’m staying in Quartzsite at the present but heading down to Yuma in another week. I have to have a clutch put into my Jeep – $1700! Ouch!