Getting Not Behind

Seems no one knows what we're up to. As of the date I post this I will not be behind!!! To take off where I left off, I believe we were in Washington at Battle Ground Lake State Park. We had made an appointment to have some solar work done on the RV in Springfield Oregon at the end of October and needed a place to hang out until then and Battle Ground was perfect! We did some sightseeing, found a few waterfalls and some lovely flowering shrubs.

Of course Battle Ground Lake State Park has endless photo opportunities...

Bob hard at work...

With park employee, Dennis.

My son, Daniel came for a visit. It's only 550 some miles. No problem he says. Stayed for three nights, did some fishing. At least someone used the kayak while we were here...

It was great to see him!

Shortly after we arrived at BGSP we had mail delivered and opened the Escapee Magazine to find an ad by AM Solar announcing an RV Solar Installation Workshop the first week of November. Hey! We were already going to be there at the end of October and thought this could just be the thing we'd been looking for. We cancelled our appointment, extended our stay a few days and committed to a future in RV Solar installation!

It didn't take long for November 3rd to arrive. We said our goodbyes, received an unbidden letter of recommendation from our boss (how nice!) and headed south to Springfield. We parked the rig behind AM Solar's shop, hooked up to 30 amp, and prepared to ration our water use as we didn't have access to sewer. The next six days were hectic, tiring, enlightening and full of information! I say six days even though the workshop was only five days because Saturday turned out to be a shopping day. We purchased enough components to upgrade our system for two reasons. First we'd like to start boondocking more and secondly we'd like to be able to proudly display the product we plan to install once we get our new business up and running. Thanks Deb and Greg, owners of AM Solar, for your hospitality, flexibility and willingness to share your years of hard earned knowledge with us!

We left Oregon on Sunday November 10th and then spent three nights in Sparks. We rolled into Sparks Marina RV Park, pulled into our site and realized the outside air was warmer then the air inside the rig! We enjoyed the best weather one could hope for in November while we were there. Sunny skies with highs in the low 70's. No sewer hook-up means no laundry being done in the RV so the first order of business was laundry detail. I had two medical appointments to deal with and we got to see Daniel a couple of times. Also had dinner with him and Josh and Jene. Always a good time!!!

We took three travel days to get to Mesa. The first night we found a great spot to boon dock at The Pond just south of Beatty, Nevada. It's right off Highway 95 but it was a surprisingly quiet spot. Very pretty too...

The next night we stayed at the Burro Creek Campground off Highway 93 about halfway between Boulder City and Mesa. It's a no hook-ups campground, very lovely, until the neighbors fire up their generators! Pretty too. The best neighbor arrived on a horse leading two other horses.

Finally arrived in Mesa on Friday the 15th. Originally we had not planned to be in Arizona at all this winter but Bob's Step Dad, Leon's health took a turn for the worse and we decided to change our plans and visit for a month as soon as we could after the workshop. After researching places to stay I decided we might be able to save some money by working at Sun Life Resort again. I gave Ruth a call, and not expecting a positive response, tentatively asked if she would be interested in having us for such a short period of time. How surprised and pleased we were when she said yes she would! Also we were able to extend our arrival date at our winter workamping job in Atascadero. (Thanks John and Shawn)  

Sadly, Leon passed away in October much sooner than anyone expected and we made the difficult decision to not attend the funeral but continue with our plan to go to Arizona in November. So we are back, doing our old jobs at Sun Life, visiting Bob's mom, Marlene and Bob's sister, Mary and her family (four kids, two of which are married with two kids each!) over the Thanksgiving holiday and catching up with friends we made here last year.

Oh and in our spare time we are working toward our future in RV solar installation. Lots of time has been spent researching and buying tools and equipment. I made a schematic of how our system will look after we install the new components. This was very time consuming as we has to figure out what we had, what we would have and how it all goes together! Check it out...

And the best part? 

How does Sun Dance Solar (a mobile RV solar installation company) sound to you??? We hope to install our own parts before we leave Mesa and do some boon docking on our way to the central coast of California. We will be gone by the end of the month for sure, probably sooner. That's it for now. Be kind and laugh a little today for we know not what tomorrow brings...

R.I.P. Leon

You will be missed...