2016 – A Year of Grand Adventure
2016 – A Year of Grand Adventures
(As we enter the New Year still on the road I have made a resolution to do better on my blog entries. As every other resolution tends to go down the drain I hope that this one will not. My goal is to update our website every week with a review of the past weeks happenings. Of course if we are in a cellular dead zone the post will have to wait but I will still have it composed and waiting for when we are back in service. My goal will be to have updates posted by every Wednesday of each week. PS: We are currently parked in an area where I can barely get a signal out, as soon as I am in better internet range I will update this post with our favorite pictures from our travels over the past year.)
2016 was an amazing year of changes and grand adventures for Gary and I. In all in 2016 we have travelled to 11 states, 10 by RV and 1 by plane. We have driven over 8,700 miles over 10 states in 3 different rv’s and the end is not even in sight. Follow along as we recap an amazing year of Pau Hana Adventures.
It all started off with a house full of friends celebrating the New Year in our brand new stick and bricks home back in Washington. What a wonderful evening spent with our friends and family. Shortly after friends went home and the deep winter took ahold of the land Gary and I got the bug to upgrade our 38’ toy hauler into something more livable and hit the road to see this great country we live in again. And so the adventure began.
For hours upon hours we delved deep into the world of YouTube researching every type of recreational vehicle out there. From truck campers, Super C’s, 5th wheels and Class A’s we looked at them all. Next we found ourselves traveling around the Northwest going from the Coast to Montana visiting different RV dealerships and RV Shows to touch and feel rigs to see for ourselves what we liked and didn’t like in person. Because let me tell you everything you see on YouTube is not always true.
While researching on YouTube we also began to come across and watch many different RV vloggers who filmed their travels adventures, gear recommendations and rv modifications for all the world to see. We welcomed these strangers into our home via YouTube and soon felt as if they were our friends as we followed their travels and adventures. With these new found friends we also found our RV Club the Xscapers, who tout themselves as the next generation of Rver’s. We were hooked. We knew we found “our tribe” and this was our destiny; to hit the road and see this great country of ours and to meet fellow Rver’s our own age that share the same lifestyle with us along the way.
Being that it was now early March we were getting the itch to take the toy hauler out and get our early season camping on so we packed up the Carbon with all our cold weather essentials and hit the road for the Oregon Coast. We met up with our good friends The Hestons in McMinnville Oregon and took up residence at Beverley Beach State Park just north of Newport, Oregon for a week full of fun. The very next weekend after returning home from the Coast we ventured out again to Hells Canyon Idaho with another great couple Jeff and Julie, friends from high school who just got a brand new Forest River Georgetown motorhome. It was on this trip that we made the final decision that a new home on wheels was in order. The hands on research over the winter helped us out tremendously and soon we found ourselves narrowing our choices between a Class A Motorhome and a residential style Fifth Wheel (not a toy hauler).
By mid-March the decision was made and the papers were signed on a brand new 2016 43’ Forward Living Cardinal Fifth Wheel (forward living means the living room is up in the cap where normally a bedroom resides.) We took delivery near the end of March and we were soon off on our 1st adventure traveling throughout the State of Idaho once again with Jeff and Julie. This first trip in the Cardinal was an educational mess. Five feet is HUGE in an RV and switching to a propane generator was quite a hassle as the new rig had a residential fridge and for the batteries to keep up with the fridge the genny had to run A LOT!. However we enjoyed traveling all around Idaho. From McCall Idaho in the mountains, to the Boise/Mountain Home area and then to Twin Falls we had a blast together. We then parted ways as Jeff and Julie headed back to home base and Gary and I headed towards Montana. Next stop was Craters of the Moon National Park and then up Hwy 93 to Big Sky Country and the Lolo Hot Springs. At the end of our trip we decided to run the new rig across the scales and ran into a huge problem. With barely anything in the fifth wheel and tanks empty we were 400 lbs overweight on our cargo carrying capacity. We knew we would be close with the only 1264bs of CCC in the new rig but were shocked to see we were over.
Now for normal weekend warrior campers this might not be a big problem but we had some big trips planned for the future. We discussed this with our RV dealer and thought we had come to a solution of upgrading axels on the Cardinal. We put the issue on the back burner for a while and got back to life back back at home base.
In April our next big adventure took us to the Big Island of Hawaii with Gary’s parents, grandparents, Uncle and Cousin’s family for a week of fun in the sun. We had a wonderful time exploring the Island together. We stayed on the Kona side of the island but did venture to the Hilo side one night to have a day to ourselves. During our week stay we drove the entire island including to the very top of Mauna Kea. We also visited the Kileaua Volcano Crater twice, once during the day and once at night and we splurged and took a 3 hour helicopter tour over the island. Hawaii holds a special place in our heart (obviously with our Pau Hana lifestyle) and thoroughly loved this trip back to the Islands. We cant wait to get back again and it might be sooner than later as we hope to go back to Kauai in December of 2017 for our 5th wedding anniversary.
May was a tough month for both of us as we both lost our Grandmothers. Gary’s Grandma Elaine passed away peacefully in her sleep at 96 years young and my Grandma Pat passed at age 92. Both were incredible women who loved to travel and see the World. No wonder we are such travel bugs… we’ve got great genes from these adventurous women. At the end of May we once again set out for another adventure where we spent the Memorial weekend with Jeff and Julie camped along the Columbia River at one of our favorite campgrounds. This was our first trip taking Spirit our 5 year old Siberian Husky along as we had some big trips on the horizon and we needed to get her use to traveling with us. Prior to this trip Spirit had to stay home because of her puppy-like tendencies that comes with her breed. She did pretty well except for literally pulling me (Stacey) out of my shoes and making me do a face plant on the beach one day.
With summer just around the corner and the weather getting warmer our travel bug syndrome was in full effect. With Grandma Elaine’s funeral planned for mid-month on the Westside of the State we decided to turn it into another camping adventure. We left home on June 17th destination set for Bend Oregon where our sister-in-law Jaki was going to a wedding. We offered to give her a ride down as well as a place to stay while visiting with her family. It actually turned into a full family affair when our Brother Jason and nephew and niece Jake and Justine showed up for the weekend as well. In all, the Cardinal housed all 6 of us for the weekend. It was a great time spent with family.
At the end of that weekend Jason, Jaki and Justine left us to head back home but Jake our nephew stayed behind to camp with us on the Coast as we worked our way up to Olympia for Grandma’s funeral. We ended up at the Pacific City Thousand Trails campground for two nights where we spent the Summer Solstice on the beach just north of Cape Kiwanda sitting by a campfire watching the sun drop into the ocean behind a set of clouds. It was great to have some one-on-one time with our nephew. It is special when a 14 year old boy still wants to hang out with their aunt and uncle for a couple of days. Our next stop up the Coast was the Long Beach TT (Thousand Trails) and then finally up to Olympia where we met up with Gary’s parents in their 5th wheel as well as his older Brother David, nephew Ryan, and Jason, Jaki and Justine again. The next two days was full of family visits as Elaine had a rather large family. It was a special time of bonding and coming together as most Elaines family is spread out across the country.
After the funeral everyone headed back home except for Gary’s parents and us. The four of us headed back to the Ocean to visit some family friends in Greyland, WA just south of Westport. This began our month long Olympic Peninsula adventure. Gary and I headed out on Hwy 101 visiting many places in the Olympic National Park including South Beach, Forks, Cape Flattery, Sol Duc Hot Springs, and Hurricane Ridge. We ended up spending the 4th of July at my Cousin Sally’s house in Sequim and then headed across the Puget Sound on a Washington State Ferry over to Oak Harbor where we camped at Deception Pass State Park and then a week at the La Conner Thousand Trails were we visited Gary’s Grandma and Papa at his Uncles house. During this time we went crabbing in the Sound and caught quite a haul of Dungeness crab (45 crab in 2 days.)
After our visit with the Grands it was time to head back over the mountains and spend some quality time at home base while we got some warranty issues taken care of on the Cardinal as well as work on final preparations of a charity function we run during the summer. It was at this time we discovered Forest River would not allow us to upgrade our axels therefore we had an unsafe RV because we were overweight. We still wanted to put solar on the roof and with this change it was now impossible to do. Let the negotiations begin. At first things weren’t going our way but after some closed door conversations we were able to come up with a solution that both the dealership and us could agree on. This lead us to our Class A motorhome, a 2016 Fleetwood Discovery 37R. We always knew we would eventually get into a Class A, we just never thought this soon. However we couldn’t be happier with the change.
On July 27th we picked up the Disco for our maiden voyage, a quick overnight trip to the Little Diamond Thousand Trails in Newport, WA just a short hours drive from home. In this overnight adventure we noted a few issues that needed to be addressed and then returned the rig to the dealer for shakedown repairs and a 400w solar system installation and battery upgrade. On August 11th we picked up the motorhome and did another short shakedown trip one mile from home at our charity function Dam Days.
Dam Days was a huge success once again. This is the third year I have chaired the event and I am proud to say that over the past 3 years we have been able to raise and donate over $18,000 to the four parent-teacher organizations of our school district. Six days after our event after we closed business Gary and I left on what was to be a three-month adventure to the Southwest. Little did we know we would still be on the road over the holidays. That wasn’t in the plans.
Our great Southwest Adventure began on August 19th when we turned the wheels East and headed to Fairmont Hot Springs in Montana. From there we headed to Yellowstone National Park where we spent a week exploring Yellowstone and celebrating the 100th birthday of the National Park System within the Park. From there our adventure took us to Grand Teton National Park and down thru Western Wyoming to the Flaming Gorge National Recreational Area for Labor Day.
September was spent mostly in Colorado. We started at Dinosaur National Monument on the Utah/Colorado border and then a few days just outside the Rocky Mountain National Park in Granby, CO visiting our friend Brian King. Gary had always wanted to drive Interstate 70 across Colorado as this is the highest in elevation Interstate in the country. So on moving day we headed down to I-70 and took it West through the Eisenhower Tunnel and over Vail Pass some 11,000 feet above sea level. The Disco climbed those mountains like a knife cutting through butter… easy peasy! Our next stop was the Crystal River Valley and a campground just outside Redstone Colorado. You’ve probably never heard of Redstone but if your ever in the area its a must stop. A pristine river flowing through majestic mountains with the aspens turning gold throughout the valley. You couldn’t ask for prettier scenery. While here we visited the small mining town of Marble Colorado where the marble of the Tomb of the Unknown Solider was mined from. We ended up taking an AMAZING truck hike here to the Crystal Mill which is a photographers bucket list shoot location. From here we ventured down the road to our next National Park which was Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We stayed here for 2 days and then we climbed another 12,000ft pass (Monarch Pass) to Salida, Colorado for our first Xscapers Convergence.
In Salida we were joined by 12 other rv’s for a week and a half of fun! The friendships gained at this gathering were amazing learning how others live on the road full time. It was here in Salida that we started to think maybe our trip should be extended beyond our original plan of 3 months. Our new friendships were strengthened and the decision was not hard to stay out longer. Most everyone was going to meet up again in Quartzsite Arizona in mid-January and we really wanted to be apart of the action. While in Salida we also visited another National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park where we went sand sledding with all our Xscaper friends. At this Convergence is where I also got very interested in upping my game in photography. One of our friends gave a photography seminar and I made the decision that a DSLR camera was in my near future. (Prior to this all photography was taken on my Samsung Galaxy cellphone.)
At the end of our Southern Colorado Convergence we headed South into our 7th State of New Mexico and made camp just outside Taos, New Mexico, before heading to Albuquerque for our next Xscapers Convergence. Taos was a neat mountain town full of artsy shops and restaurants. We also visited the Taos Pueblo that dates back about a thousand years.
Our whole trip to the Southwest was to meet our RV Club at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta at the end of September for 2 weeks. We arrived at the balloon grounds on the 29th of September and got parked smack in the middle of the action. In all around 24 Xscaper rigs showed up at the Balloon Fiesta Convergence. Just like our first convergence many new friendships were made and many good times were had by all.
Gary and I volunteered during the Balloon Fiesta and we ended up crewing for our pilot 8 days out of the 9 our pilot planned to fly. Of those 9 days we were able to launch on 5 of them. We took one day off and 3 times flights were cancelled due to the weather. Because we volunteered almost every day the pilot took both Gary and I up on flights on separate days. It was an amazing experience for both of us and one more thing checked off the bucket list.
After the Balloon Convergence we started our journey westward towards Arizona as our next big thing was to go see the Seahawks play the Arizona Cardinals at the end of October. Our first stop was in the NW corner of New Mexico called the Bisti Badlands. We stayed here on BLM land for a few days while we explored the area and more specifically Chaco Culture, a World Heritage Site that was built back in 800AD. Some of the stone building still stand at this National Park and it is amazing that it is very unknown to most. One of the highlights of our trip. If you are ever in this part of New Mexico we highly recommend the drive in to Chaco… but don’t take your motorhome as its a rough 20+ mile dirt road into the Park.
After staying at the Bisti Badlands we turned the wheels towards the Four Corners to get our over-priced picture of standing in 4 states at once. Although cheesy it was fun to stop at this tourist trap. Next we turned the wheels towards Canyon de Chelly on the Navajo Nation. Canyon de Chelly is home to ancient cliff dwelling ruins and some fabulous hikes atop the canyon rim. We could have paid for a tour on the canyon floor where some Navajo Indians still live the old ways but decided against it… maybe next time. It was now time to head back to civilization and we made our way to beautiful Sedona, Arizona. We found an amazing boondocking location just south of Sedona where we called home for a week. While here we met up with some of our Xscaper friends Eric and Kala with LivingLite.net again for a couple of adventures as well as hit some great 4×4 trails in the area in our truck. The red rocks of Sedona made for some amazing sunsets. Such a magical place. I am glad we spent time here and look forward to visiting again some time. This is a place I could come back to time and time again.
After spending a week in the red rocks it was time to head to the big city of Phoenix. We had reservations at an actual RV Resort for our stay which was necessary considering the mercury was near triple digits when we rolled into town. We also got to go swimming in the pool of the resort which was welcomed after a month of not being near water. Our whole purpose to go to Phoenix was to see the game and we had a great day. We were able to meet up with a former co-worker of Gary’s before the game for some drinks and then we headed over to the stadium for one of the craziest football games we had ever seen in person or on TV. The game ended in a tie!!! When the heck did football games end in a tie??? Strangest feeling ever walking out of the game with no devastation of a loss or elation of a win! Oh well… just another amazing adventure to add to the list.
After Phoenix it was time to decompress and relax. We ended up going a short 80 miles NW of Phoenix for a week to an Escapees Park in Congress AZ to hook up to some power and water and get caught up on laundry. We also spent this time to do some much needed maintenance and modifications in the motorhome. Being on the road we have found that you pretty much need to be your own mechanic and Mr Fix It because dealers don’t want to work on your rig unless you bought it from them. Ever since taking possession of our motorhome we had a major lighting failure where we had lost over 50% of our interior LED lighting over the past 2 months. We were able to get the lighting manufacturer to mail us 30 new lights in Sedona so we took this time to replace all the burnt out lights in our rig. While there we took a couple of day trips into Phoenix and also drove to the mountain town of Prescott to site see.
From Congress we decided to head to the Parker Strip and park on the banks of the Colorado River for another week. The weather was still 80+ everyday this first week of November and we found ourselves cooling off every evening by swimming in the Colorado in front of our rig. We found a great place to call home called the La Paz County Park. We ended up with a waterfront site with a nice patch of grass in front of the motorhome. While here we were excited to run into friends who were traveling through the area from back home. Karen and Marc are boating friends of ours and they ended up staying two nights with us while camped in Parker. During their stay the four of us travelled up to Lake Havasu City to visit the London Bridge and check out the Lighthouses of Havasu. Once again it was nice to have company and to visit with friends from back home. That is one thing about long term travel… you miss your family and friends. But we didn’t have to wait long for more friend visits as our next stop was Las Vegas where we met up with about a dozen of our friends from back home who were all coming down to Vegas for a wedding.
Vegas was a blast… and well you know the old saying what happens in Vegas… stays in Vegas and then maybe ends up on Facebook. Hahaha. No but really we had a great time with all our friends: Erika & AJ, Jesse & Mike, Heidi & Joe, Mary & Nate, and Katie & Vince. It was a weekend packed full of adventure, roller coaster rides, horrible customer service, and expensive drinks. After a week at the Las Vegas Thousand Trails it was time for some more boondocking, off grid adventure and another National Park. Death Valley National Park became our 15th National Park visit on this journey and we ended up staying 3 nights inside the park. Death Valley was amazing but was also the start of “winter” for us as the weather no longer was feeling summer like. While inside the park we actually got some sprinkles which is very rare for the park as its the driest place in the United States. Its actually a pretty spectacular National Park where you can go from the lowest point in the United States at 284 ft below sea level to view the highest point in the lower 48 (Mt Whitney) located just outside the park from one of the highest viewpoints in the park, Dantes Overlook.
After Death Valley we decided to go to the Trona Pinnacles just NE of Ridgecrest, CA. The Trona Pinnacles is a popular filming site for movies and commercials such as Star Trek, Planet of the Apes and countless car commercials. It was truly an out of this world camping experience. The dark sky here was amazing and was the first spot where I really started to nail some milky way shots with my camera. We ended up staying here for 5 days before we made our way to Palm Springs to spend Thanksgiving with Gary’s Grandma and Papa. The night before Thanksgiving we did our very first urban boondocking staying at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio. Our reservations at the TT didn’t start until Thanksgiving morning so we came in a day early and parked in their parking lot. We had a wonderful dinner in their Bistro Restaurant to pay it forward.
At Palm Springs we stayed at the Thousand Trails and this was one of the first TT that we liked. Although very tight parking between the palm trees the park was clean, had great facilities and was close to the Grandparents house. Our friends Eric and Kala were also in the park for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend so we ended up have a few cocktails with them again and we also went and checked out Pioneer Town outside Yucca Valley with them and had dinner at Pappy and Harriet’s, a great old western bar and steakhouse. While in Palm Springs we also took advantage of having a physical mailing address at Grandma and Papas house and ordered a few items to be delivered for the RV and for Christmas presents. We knew we would be back in a couple of weeks for Christmas so we took full advantage. Poor Papa told us when we returned for Christmas that we owed them for rent for filling their den with shipments.
While in Palm Springs we got in contact with a guy out of Quartszite who does solar installations who said if we could get to Quartzsite (the Q) that week he could give us a solar expansion consultation and quote and possibly get us installed if the timing worked. Our 400w system was getting us by but we really did want to expand our system especially with the winter sun so low on the horizon and having to use our generator more and more as the days got shorter. So we left the Coachella Valley and headed East to the Q at the beginning of December. We ended up staying in the Q for almost two weeks and met with Brian Boone with Got Solar Installed. We felt the quote was reasonable so we ordered up all the parts necessary and soon after Brian was over doing the install. We expanded our system from 400w of solar to 1040w. We also had to upgrade our solar controller to accommodate the new system. We now foresee a battery expansion as we would like to add 2 more AGM batteries but we are making due for now.
As we wrapped up our solar expansion we were craving a change of scenery. It was also our wedding anniversary just around the corner and a run to the Pacific Ocean was in order. As we left the Q, I (Stacey) climbed back into the drivers seat for the journey to San Diego and over 2 days I drove us all the way there. We did stay just outside Yuma on the side of the road for an overnight stop less than 3 miles to the Mexican border. We were tempted to go have dinner in Mexico but we opted to stay at the rig for the night. The next day we rolled into El Cajon and driveway camped at a friend of Gary’s house for the next 5 days.
Our anniversary week was wonderful. From bike rides on the boardwalk down at Mission Beach, to watching the sunset at Moonlight beach we couldn’t ask for a better time near the water. Just the humidity alone made my heart melt. But soon it was time to head back to the desert and spend time with Grandma and Papa for the holidays but we will be back, sooner than later.
We spent a total of 11 days back in Palm Springs at the TT there over the Christmas holiday. It was another great visit with Grandma and Papa with many meals over at their house. On Christmas Eve we decided to take Grandma and Papa to the mountains and get a white Christmas for a few hours at least. We drove to Idyllwild, CA where over 10” of the white stuff had fallen overnight. It was a nice reminder of home but it was also nice to leave after an hour playing in it. So we headed back to the Coachella Valley where it was a nice 60 degrees and sunny. We also took this time in civilization to go to the movies a couple of times. We managed to see Rogue One and Passengers while there. Nothing like escaping the real world for a few hours and travel to a far far away place and let your imagination follow.
Back at the TT it was amazing to see how big our little RV Community really is. At one point I was turning on our wifi and I recognized a signal being broadcast across the park as someone I follow on Instagram (@RVOutlawz) so we made contact and soon found ourselves over at their rig for several cocktail hours over our stay. We were also invited over to a holiday party over at Marc and Julie’s of @RVLove before Christmas where we met several other full time rvers. Our network of friends seems to grow every week and really helps when we are on the road. It now seems we are always near someone we know. Goes to show this really is a small world.
After the hustle and bustle of Christmas we pulled up the stabilizers and found ourselves headed West again over the mountains to the Coast. We happen to come across some awesome seats to the NCAA College Football Holiday Bowl in San Diego where our almost home town team the Washington State University Cougars were to play the University of Minnesota Gophers. It was to be a short stay, just 2 nights, to see the game. We got a waterfront site at Campland on the Bay for the 2 nights and during our stay were went down to Old Town for dinner and also got to visit my Cousin Kim and Great Uncle Steve who live in the area. Another great opportunity to see family while on the road. The game was fun and well we “Coug’ed It” meaning we lost… nothing new with our Cougars but it was still fun.
Whew…. almost done. This now leads us to our travels back over the mountains and back to the desert. We turned the wheels East on Interstate 8 and headed towards Ocotillo Wells just west of the Salton Sea where are our friends @RVOutlawz where camped in a very popular ATV area of the Anza-Borrego State Park. We arrived just before sunset and crashed their campsite for the evening. We had a great night around the campfire with Denny and Veronica and it was nice to be boondocking again after several weeks of RV parks. The next day we left the ATV park for quieter grounds up the road in Borrego Springs. We found a nice patch of desert to call home for the rest of the year, which was in reality only 3 more days until 2017. As we started to setup camp another rig pulled up near us and they came over to ask a question and low and behold they were fellow Xscapers headed to the Q in a couple of weeks as well. We made introductions and invited them to camp with us over the New Year weekend because its always more fun with others. Jamie and Scott with @AwayWeWinnebago have been great rv neighbors and have really made the past couple of days in the desert a blast. We have a lot in common and just get along great. Looking forward to getting to know them more as we continue to camp together before the big gathering in Quartzsite.
New Years Eve was spent at our campsite with our friends Mike and Tabitha from San Diego and our RV neighbors Jamie and Scott. The evening was full of great times including sitting around the campfire catching up on past times, watching fireworks being set off by others around us, a great game of cards against humanity, a little beverage consumption, a lightening storm off in the distance, some dark sky photography, chinese lanterns and a hell of a windstorm to end or start the New Year.
Well there you have it, 2016 in review… a rather wordy review but we’ve done a lot this past 12 months. Everyday is a new adventure and I cant think of a better person to spend it with than with Gary. 2017 the adventure continues as we travel down to Quartzsite to meet several dozen of our fellow Xscaper friends for two weeks of fun in the desert. Then we will start making our way back to Washington via California with a visit to Yosemite National Park planned as well as several weeks on the Oregon Coast. Once back at the home base we will take the disco in for some warranty work and then provision for our next adventure where we go North to Alaska for the summer. So stay tuned for weekly recaps of our Pau Hana Adventures of life and be sure to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter for daily photos and updates.
We truly have found our calling in this little world of ours; We are Gary, Stacey, Spirit and Sofi, were taking our motorhome around the country, throughout North America, were on the road, its Pau Hana Travels… here we go.
