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.

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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Well, we’ve had a great three weeks here in Menifee, CA.  The NACO/Thousand Trails park, Wilderness Lakes, has been a nice place to stay.  We’ll be back here in a couple weeks, and it will be interesting to see how it changes with the weather.  There’s a dairy next door, and we’ve heard that heat, fly’s, and odor, become an issue as the temps increase.

While here, we got to meet some of the other Fulltime Families that we’ve only “met” online.  The McCloskey’s were here for a couple weeks, and the Northram’s arrived about a week ago.  I think Molly enjoyed meeting other kids, and having some different things to do.  We got to see what this thing called “Candy Bar Bingo” was all about, and even a night of Karaoke with lots of kids and adults joining in the fun.

The next week is going to be chaotic.  On Saturday, we’ll be taking the RV in for service.  It needs an oil change, and there are several things that we hope are covered by the extended warranty.  Just to make note of them for our “journal”, we’ve got a slow gray water leak when the tank is half full, the gray tank isn’t draining right (likely blocked vent), the water heater is only working with electric and not gas, and the slides are blinking some error codes when going in and out.  There’s also the engine Air Conditioning and a battery switch that are not working.  So, it might be a few days to get these fixed, so we’re planning on being in a hotel for a week.  We’re going to take advantage of that, and do some fun stuff on the weekend (Palm Springs and Quarzite) and then use some of my Marriott points for a nice place during the week, and stay close to the OC.

We’ve seen other Fulltime Families posting about all the happenings at the Wilderness Lakes TT park here in Menifee, and now we’ve finally made it here ourselves!  We’re booked for 3 full weeks here, so we should be able to see all the activities they have to offer, and hopefully meet up with some of the other Fulltime Families!

The drive from Orange was super easy, and took about an hour.  We had a couple hours worth of visit from Diane’s parents and MEGAN!  It was nice to show them the RV and how we have it setup now.  It’s been a few months since they saw it, and there’s been just a change or two of importance since then.  We made some tentative plans for them to come out here to Menifee to, which should be fun.

I hope to do some other updates to the blog and site here over the next couple days.  There’s a blog post writing challenge from www.fulltimefamilies.com that I’ll probably participate in, and then we just need to get some more data posted up here.  I need a banner picture too.  Might take out the camera and see what we can find tomorrow.

On New Years Eve, we pulled in the lines, slides and awning, and headed from Pio Pico in Jamul, CA, to the Orangeland RV Park in Orange, CA.  Orangeland RV boasts a couple of wins for RV Park of the year, and it’s easy to see why.  The staff is very friendly, everything is super clean, functional, and appealing.  Laundry, bathrooms, pool, store, and even the sites themselves.  It’s not cheap, but still very nice.  Rates are high, so make sure to take advantage of Good Sam and AAA discounts to get 10% off.  Orange and Lemon trees are everywhere, and you’re free to pick from your site, or an empty site.  Or, just pick some up in the boxes outside the store.

We went to the Irvine Great Park for a New Years Eve celebration with some friends from Homeschooling activities.  The Anderson’s, Jones’s, and De Los Santos’s were there as well.  It was a very foggy evening, but the mood was not hampered by it.  There was a DJ with dancing and games in one building, and then a live band outside on a stage with the big orange balloon as a backdrop.  They had a countdown at 9pm to celebrate with those on the east coast, and for the kids.  Fireworks went off, and since it was a ground show, the fog didn’t hurt it at all.  Only issue of the night was the long lines for the food trucks, but the ladies took off and got some fast food from Carls Jr to solve that.

We’ll be here at Orangeland till Saturday, then out to Menifee for three weeks with Thousand Trails.

For those that registered for the RSS and e-mail updates, they should start rolling in now.  I think we have it all fixed up.  🙂

We made it!  The drive from AZ to OC CA was pretty uneventful.  I started out just after 6 in the morning, and Diane made it to the front of the RV a little ways before we crossed into California.  Got a little bit of rain which made a significant mess on the CRV, but no real trouble for the drive.

The plan had been to say at a recently started RV park / campground that is on a retreat center back in Black Star Canyon.  Well, we got there, though it seemed we were offroading to do it, but then found that the cell reception, and therefore Internet connections, did not exist there.  It was good we found this out before we went through the even bigger efforts of getting the RV to the site.

So, quick couple phone calls, and we drove over to our local favorite, Canyon RV Park in Yorba Linda.  This is where we started from way back in late October.  We’ll be here till after Christmas, but not sure where we’ll be for the week between Christmas and New Years.  Could be here, or Thousand Trails in Menifee, or could be in Anaheim.  We will be moving to Anaheim for New Years and the week after.  I’m now signed up for a VMWare class in the area that week.

But for now, Diane got to see her girls for her birthday, Molly is back “home” in the RV, and we’re settled in for work and activities.  We’ll be working on our storage situation this week, and picking up a couple things that we stored, and dropping off some things that we can now store.  Hoping to get the bikes with us from now on, and a ladder.  Oh, and the bread machine.  Yummmm.

We’ll call this the last post for the “First Big Trip” series.  From this point on, we’ll be in regular fulltime mode, moving from one Thousand Trails park to the other, with some “vacation” spots mixed in with the Komfort Kruisers or family.

Merry Christmas everyone!