The Dance's Excellent Adventures: The adventure continues PART ONE

It’s been awhile… A good long while since I've put together a post on our blog.

So let’s get to it! I believe we left off at our arrival in Mesa for our workamping job at Sun Life Resort last fall. The winter was spent socializing, making new friends, visiting with family, helping Bob’s parents get settled in at their new house, and of course working. At six hours per day, two days per week, it was rough but we managed through it. J Instead of partaking in outdoor activities we chose to shop and piddle about. We did however kayak once (it was great!) and hiked once. We made it to one Giants spring training game. It was good to experience a 55+ resort but we will try to avoid working in highly populated areas in the future.

Just a few of our new friends, Mike and Denise.

And Rose and Matt.

Mid February we took a “vacation” and attended a boondocking rally in Quartzsite. Remember boondocking is free or low cost camping usually without hook ups, otherwise known as dry camping. We looked forward to meeting up with Howard and Linda of RV-Dreams.com again. This was their first boondocking rally and they did a fabulous job. We spent a week and a half out in the desert learning lots of stuff with close to eighty people, many of them full-time RVers, just like us!

Valentine’s Day in the desert. I took pictures of the decorations and made a collage.

As part of the rally experience Linda taught a t-shirt braiding class and also some seed beading classes. I really enjoyed the intricate work of seed beading and am totally hooked now. I have been making and giving away bracelets and even sold a couple of anklets to Denise for her granddaughters. Here’s a few of my favorites.

We found out that I have a first cousin, once removed, living in Quartzsite. Small world? So we met up with Paul and Pat, former full-timers, for lunch and a local’s guided tour of Quartzsite. A visit to the bookstore is a must! Paul, Pat and I posed for a picture with the proprietor… Disclosure here: The guy’s a nudist so if that offends you skip the next picture!

Okay moving on…

Before we left Mesa I decided I’d like a window seat made for the back of our RV. Bob being the handy guy that he is (and a wonderful husband too!), built one for me. The cushion was made by Custom Cushions of Arizona and the arm rest storage containers were purchased at Hobby Lobby. The four doors were purchased from Heartland RVs. Bob made the rest himself! We have tons more storage and the cat box is nicely tucked away on the right side. We love it!!!

When we left Mesa on April 3^rd we spent our first night boondocking in Quartzsite! This was the view from our window.

Our next stop was at an Orange County campground up in the hills, only a hop, skip and a jump from Mike’s house in Irvine. Spent three days visiting with Mike, Julie and our grandson Caden. Went kayaking around Balboa Island!

Next stop Port San Luis at Avila Beach, just north of Pismo Beach.

Full hook ups in a tiny, tightly spaced RV park.

With a humongous ocean view.

And our favorite dog beach.

AND dog friendly pier complete with sea lions and pelicans.

Next stay was at John and Shaun’s home in Atascadero. We met this couple at the boondocking rally in Quartzsite. We took full advantage of their wonderful hospitality including dining at their café in Paso Robles, Odyssey World Café. The food was fabulous! Thanks guys, hope to see you again!

Our site at their house surrounded by very large oak trees.

Their backyard was beautiful.

We headed north for a week in Pacifica at the only RV park in town. Tight sites and lots of pavement but worth it for the proximity to Jim, Bob’s good friend from high school, and Bob’s sister and brother.

View from the ocean looking inland.

The RV park is at the ocean atop a sixty foot cliff that crumbles away every now and again. Only a year and a half ago we parked on the cliff side. This year those sites are without hook ups because the infrastructure for the sites fell off the cliff along with some of the pavement!

This is the cliff. It’s bigger than it looks!

Looking north from RV park.

We spent the week visiting with all our friends and family in the bay area. It was very nice to see everyone! Jim, Mary and Bebe, Dan and Sherry, Dave, Bing and David and their dog Koda, Leanne and John and their dog Duke, Doug and Carol, Julie, Doug and Melanie, AND Julie’s parents Bob and Karleta.

Off to Cloverdale we go to visit with Bob’s other sisters. Always a good time with lots of laughter and hugs. We spent three days with Jim and Kathy and their new rescue dog Sunny. Diane came up from Tracy for a BBQ with her dog as well and we had a grand old time! Kathy is a HUGE SF Giants fan so I made this bracelet for her.