Pros and Cons

We can't seem to make up our mind about our upcoming winter adventure. I would go sit in the desert and come to town once a week when the sewer tanks needed attention, and my wife would find a five star campground with every amenity in the center of town and go shopping at all the malls every day.

So we can never agree on our destination. Once we get to these big cities, there never seems to be any RV facilities that are acceptable. Seattle was no exception. The RV parks were rat holes where indigent folks long termed in old junky trailers. So finding what my bride is looking for becomes a challenge, to put it mildly. Since the RV industry is largely for vacationers, and folks don't vacation in the center of the city.

As we have discussed possibilities for this winter, we are not sure we want to stay in one place as long as we did last winter, but then we had the car wreck, and I had the broken ribs, and we were glad that hitching up and driving the pickup and trailer wasn't necessary. I just paid for another month, and we hung tight.

In the process of all this analysis, we are mired in the mud of indecision. Time is passing, and we need to make a reservation if we are going to spend time in a formalized campground. Otherwise, we will boondock in the BLM ground. And that will be completely ok with me.

So since Mesa is in the city, and is a highly rated facility, I cast fate to the wind and made a Reservation back at Mesa Spirit RV Resort. Reserving three months and selecting a different site, closer to the main clubhouse, and important to Loyce, the laundry. She really likes to be able to head over and wash a few things almost every day.

Now we are discussing when we will go and when we will come back for the holidays. I made the reservation starting the 15th of November, and it will take us to the 15th of February. That will take us thru the heart of the cold part of the winter, and quartzite in the last of January.

We can make day trips all over the center of Arizona, and even take the motorhome to different places from Mesa as the home base. More importantly, it gives us a mailbox for the winter, and we can receive packages like our prescriptions and the like even if we are out and about for several days with the motorhome.

So the decision is made that we are going back to Arizona, and perhaps points beyond if we get bored in one place for too long. It will satisfy the boss that we are in a place that has fabric and quilting stores, and a campground with a quilt club, where she already knows some of the ladies. Yet it will be warm, and I can take the scooter with me and bop off to the desert for a quick ride or two!

I picked November 15 as a start date since it was on the weekend, but perhaps that will come under significant fire before we get the date set in something more solid than pudding.

On the second decision of the day, I contacted our RV dealer, and discussed our list of stuff that needs corrected on the motorhome under the warranty. We have nothing major wrong, as the basic coach is solid and the chassis seems to be mechanically fine. But the nagging stuff, where something doesn't work just right, or the wood has warped and the door latches hard now.

The switch in the vacuum cleaner remote port doesn't go off when the door is closed when removing the hose. The intermittent wipers are intermittent 100 percent of the time. They never come on. We do need the windows in the center of the coach hall replaced, as the seal between the dual pane windows has broken.

The list goes on and on, so I spent time this afternoon emailing the faults to the Des Moines office of Shorewood RV. They have promised to see about getting parts, and scheduling a date that will coincide with our trip to Prairie Du Chein at the end of this month.

Tonight, I made out the estimated payments for income taxes as it is the 15th of the ninth month as the law reads. Have you sent in yours? And for my Canadian readers, we get closer to having our health care be just like yours, and I am waiting to hear that we will be adding a VAT tax to fund it. I can't wait.

Retired Rod