We had applied the Postcard theme from WooThemes (see link lower right part of page) a long time ago.  And, it’s had all kinds of crazy links and logo’s added to it along the way.  I finally got around to taking one of the photo’s of the RV, and getting it in suitable shape for a banner of sorts, and I took the time to organize all the other “stuff” that’s accumulated over time.  Much cleaner now.

We’re also getting ready to move from Menifee into Anaheim.  I’ll be traveling and in Atlanta 3 of the next 5 weeks, so the girls will be staying someplace a bit nicer, and close to friends and family.

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The main reason we had scheduled a week in Las Vegas was for me to attend a class there on VMware products.  It was a fantastic class, and I learned tons.  This will greatly help me at work, as I’m supposed to be the “VMware guru”.  I feel more guru-ish now.

While there, our fulltime family friends showed up, and we got to spend a few days with them before we split up again.  Lot’s of hanging out and chatting, a trip to the Hoover Dam, and a lovely dinner with super excellent fish taco’s, nacho’s, and such.  I enjoyed the Hoover Dam tour, and getting to say “Dam” without Molly charging me a dollar every time. 🙂

The whole “gang” has kinda been together on and off since early February I believe.  We had met the McCloskey’s earlier, but met up with the Travaglino’s and Garrison’s in Quarzsite for a visit, then “living” with them starting at Pio Pico.  Now, some are headed up the western coastal states, others to the north, then across to the Northeast.  All the talk of moving on, and the planned changes for Megan’s living arrangements have inspired Diane and I to look at making some excursion plans as well.  It looks like our summer will have us touring CA, but the fall will see another trip east.  This time, as far north and east as PA, then down to FL, and then a slow trek back.  We’ll be out there for Halloween in NY or NC, Thanksgiving in GA, Christmas in FL, and just to see if certain family members are paying attention, we should be in IN staying at the Horseshoe Lakes Thousand Trails during the Covered Bridge Festival.

Ok, back to Vegas…

We enjoyed the campground there.  It is a bit cramped, but the facilities were nice, and clean, and the staff was super friendly.  You can see certain undesirables in the area outside the park, but they are kept outside.  We’ll have to check it out again in the future, when the pool is open.  Also, there are a few other RV parks/resorts that are located nearby as well.  They didn’t seem to be gated like the Thousand Trails, but the rates looked low, and the grounds looked well kept.

Our next stop… Menifee, CA, for a week or two.

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Finally adding Nevada to our “Been to” State Map.  Had a nice tail wind for the drive, which is super awesome considering the rise in gas prices.  Hopefully they shift to our next destination on the day we’re heading out. 🙂

The Thousand Trails park here is TIGHT.  Not sure how the 40 foot or 5th wheel people do it.  We got a spot that faces off to the mountains, and we’ll be out exploring soon.

We went out for a bit of an adventure today.  First, some chores around the house such as laundry, and finishing some camp setup.  Then, off to Vegas!  Molly had wanted something from the David and Golliath store at the shops in the Venetian, so we went there first.  This took a bit to park, then walk what seemed like 15 miles to the shop.  From there we went off to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.  Such a great and entertaining dinner, with great music and videos going, plus a touchscreen unit at the booth that lets you browse all the memorabilia they have.  Awesome.  We then stopped by the M&M store and Coke-a-Cola store next door.  Finally, ended the day with a stop by the airport to pickup a rental car.  This way, I can get back and forth to the class everyday this week, and the girls can still get around as needed.

It was a good first day.  Hopefully a bit slower tomorrow. 🙂

We had a great time during the month of February, but didn’t do much posting here. 🙂  At the beginning of the month, we were able to meet up with several other Fulltime Families that we’ve met via Facebook, here… http://www.facebook.com/groups/FulltimeFamilies/  You would need a Facebook account, and then request to join the group in order to see all the postings.  IF you are in anyway interested in living in an RV and traveling fulltime, it’s a good resource for information.

So, we met the Travaglino’s, who run http://www.fulltimefamilies.com/  I just saw that we are in a picture taken at Quartzsite, which is where we met them.  We also met the Seeley’s who own http://rvsunshadecompany.com/.  I expect we’ll be getting some of these sun shades in the next month or two, when they are back in AZ.  The McCloskey’s were there as well, and about 6 or more other family’s.  Our RV was in the shop then, so we only visited for a few hours that evening, and then parted ways.  But, as happens in this fulltime RV lifestyle, plans changed for some.  They decided to head to Pio Pico, then back up to Wilderness Lakes in Meniffee.  So, we adjusted as well, and caught up with 3 other families in Pio Pico.

With all the different plans and types of Thousand Trails memberships, people are in and out of these parks all the time.  The Garrisons were at Pio Pico, but then needed to leave because of their type of membership.  We had to get to better cell phone and internet, plus a planned get together with the Komfort Kruisers, so we took off to Pechanga.  After Pechanga, we headed back to Meniffee, and the Garrisons were already there, with an open spot right next to them.  Perfect!  A few days later, the McCloskey’s and Travaglino’s were there, and in adjacent spots as well.  After a few more days, in came Northam family came back after getting their truck all fixed up, and then the day before we left yet another (new) family arrived.  We had some good times swapping stories, laughing at ourselves and our kids.  Pre-teen behavior is kinda funny, even from adults. 🙂  A few field trips were held during the month, Sea World, a local Dairy, and some shopping outings. All the kids had a blast swimming, watching movies, playing mini-golf, and just hanging out.

But, life and work call, and it was time for us to head out.  I have a class next week for work, in Las Vegas.  We won’t be without company for long though.  Some of those families are heading out from Southern California for other adventures, as warmer weather north should be here soon.  We expect to see a couple of them here in Las Vegas in a couple days.

Just saw this article over at Gone With the Wynns, about a family making use of their RV to see the country…

Confessions of a Traveler…Meet the Garlands | Gone With the Wynns.

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We left our Komfort Kruiser friends earlier today, and headed up for a couple weeks at Menifee, CA, at the NACO Wilderness Lakes campground.  And… Our buddies the Garrison’s are here!  They had to leave Pio Pico before we did, and have arrived here at Menifee a couple days ago.  This place is PACKED, but luck was with us, and the spot right next to them was open!  Our timing was perfect it seems.  The girls were hanging out right away, and I got busy on catching up on the blog, which has been lacking since we left the RV for maintenance a couple weeks ago.  For all those reading the updates today, thanks!  Sorry for the big blast.  Hopefully I can be a little more regular, and possibly add some photos in the future. 🙂

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Last fall, we were contacted by the Komfort Kruisers, and invited to attend one of their events.  This was triggered by the fact we had joined the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) and our address (at that time) was in southern California.  It sounded like fun, so we ended up joining them in September at Canyon RV.  What a great group of people.  Granted, we are the youngest, but they are a fun and lively group.  Everyone is ready to help, and it’s been fun getting to know all of them.

We haven’t been able to join them again till now in Temecula, and since this is our second time, we are eligible to be voted in as permanent members of the club, should we choose to join.  It is a great group, and there was no question that we wanted to join.  Another couple, Rich and Jaimie, were also making their second outing with the group, and it was great to see that all of us were voted into the group.  We’re looking forward to more outings with the Komfort Kruiser gang.  Our next one will likely be in Valencia, in May.

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Had a great time over the weekend with all the Fulltime Families.  The evening group dinners and campfire were a nice change to our normal “just us” routine.  Got to chat with all of them at different points, and get to know everyone.  The kids all got along great too.  Seeing how they have things setup gave us  some ideas.  I definitely want to add a cell booster and upgrade my WiFi grabber ability.  Chris Travalingo has a nice setup that attaches to the TV antennae, and gets an awesome range, but I’ll do the cell signal booster first.  Just need to order the bits from Amazon or the 3G store.

And then…

There was a company call today, that would trigger a significant increase in my phone usage.  Couple that, with a degradation of the Pio Pico WiFi, and we had to move.  I made a call to the Pechanga RV Park in Temecula, CA, and they had a space available for us.  This was to be our destination for Thursday evening, but we needed to head there early in order to have good phone and Internet coverage for the work activities.

We’ll just be acclimated to our surroundings in advance of the big upcoming Komfort Kruisers event.

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So, on Monday, we headed from Palm Desert to the Yorba Linda, CA, area.  We picked up Francy from her Pet Hotel, and spent the next couple days in a Residence Inn.  These are nice, as you have a kitchen, a separate bedroom, and they are pet friendly.  They also have free breakfast and dinner almost everyday.  Being able to stay for free, using points gained from business travel, just makes it that much sweeter.  I wasn’t so sure about all the stays I had at various Courtyard Marriott’s this past year, but now I’m pleased with them, and look forward to more points!

On Wednesday, I talked to Shawn at Giant RV, and found out our RV would be ready to go Thursday.  We had held off making any kind of RV reservations so I then started working on finding a place we could “move” to.  We’d thought about heading to a place in Temecula, as we’d be staying there about a week later, but we also found that some of our friends we’d met with in Quartzsite were now staying at Pio Pico in Jamul, CA.  So, they had space available, and we made plans to head there after we picked up the RV.

We got the RV around lunch time Thursday, and found out what all was found, covered, etc.  The run down was pretty good, and most everything was covered.  The errors on the slides were due to a need for alignment, which is not covered, and kinda costly.  The leak was actually coming from the shower, and it just ran across the top of the gray tank to the other side of the RV.  The rest were fairly straight forward, and  so now the AC, the booster switch, and the water heater, are working as they should.

Diane headed back to Orange county for Thursday night, and to do some local things Friday, and I headed off for a lunchtime drive down the road.  A quick stop for Propane and gas, and I was on my way.

At Pio Pico, it was pretty easy to find our friends.  They were parked on the side with no sewer hookups, and our spot ended up being just across the road from them, just two spaces away from where we stayed last time.  So, across the road we have the Travaglino’s, the McCloskey’s, and the Garrison’s. They were away when I arrived, but came back later in the evening.

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Through the whole time we were thinking about our RV adventures, then with all the steps to make it happen, we kept hearing about Quartzsite, AZ, and that we just had to go there when they had their big RV show.  Well, our planned maintenance period (about a week) is starting right at the end of the show, and we won’t be able to “live” out there, but, we can visit.  Also, we found out that some of our online friends from Fulltime Families were planning on hanging out there for a few days. So…

Our planning for this maintenance period was to stay out in Palm Desert, CA, Saturday and Sunday night, so we could go out to Quartzsite during the day Sunday, and join the gang Sunday evening for some dinner and campfire.  We had a great time touring the big tent of the RV show, and picked up several RV items along the way.  Diane feels that we’ve done it, and that is enough, but I can see us coming back again if we keep RVing.

That afternoon, we headed out to some BLM land at the edge of town, and followed some yellow boots and hats to find the gang, with their RV’s all circled up and a camp fire pit ready for the evening.  We got to see the team from from RV SunShade Company installing some windshield and side window shades on The Garrison Family RV.  This is definitely on our “to do” list, and I hope we can work it out that they do the job. The Seeley’s, who own the company, are great people!

The dinner and fire were fantastic, and it was great to meet the 9 families that were there.  We headed back to Palm Desert for the night, and enjoyed the hotel amenities, that our friends in the desert were away from for the night. 🙂

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