Friday, March 10, 2017

Final Days in Tucson


Our time in Tucson has come to an end and it is time to move on. We have been here for just 5 weeks and the time went really fast. This past week we all moved a couple miles down the road from the Snyder Hills BLM area to Justin’s Diamond J’s where we have full hookups! We were trying to remember the last time we had full hook ups and the best that we could come up with was last November when we left North Dakota and that was for one day. Previous to that it was almost a year! Forrest, Somer and Lily will be here for a total of 8 weeks while stayed just one week.
Our site at Diamond J's
So we took advantage of it. Barb spent several days cleaning the inside of the rig. The dust from Quartzsite and Snyder Hills was in every crack and crevice. She ripped everything apart, vacuumed and wiped it down. I cleaned the outside just getting the surface dirt off and finished taping and dicor’ing the roof.
Barb took a road trip to meet her friend Nancy who is currently staying in Casa Grande. Nancy and her husband Greg are part-timers from Minnesota. Nancy picked a restaurant that was in the middle for traveling distance and outside of a town called Marana.  Although the outside looked kinda sketchy, they had great food, a friendly waitress, beer (of course), and a fun place to hang out for a couple hours!  Barb had not seen her in a couple years and said it was great to finally get together and catch up.   


We managed to get out to dinner one night to one of the two Mexican restaurants that Barb wanted to get to while we were in town. And bonus…..we went on her birthday! Jim and Brenda arrived back in town for a few days and joined us and bought Barb a Prickley Pear Cactus Margarita…thanks guys!

The biggest news of the week was that our window came in!!!! The day before we were set to leave…..nothing like cutting it close. It was a week later than the 4 week maximum that promised but it was the right window and fairly easy to install.


First we had to remove the valence around the window, remove the day/night shade and then remove all the screws around the inside of the window. Getting the old window out proved to be a little challenging as they use a very sticky caulk tape to secure it in place.

After getting the old window out I had to thoroughly clean the surface around the opening, apply the caulk tape around the new window and slide it in place. But things are never quite that easy. There was a noticeable gap at the top of the window. After removing it and adjusting it several times we noticed that the old window had a couple of shims to hold it up so we stole those off the old window and got it in place! Finally we are whole again and ready to roll!!!

20 comments:

  1. Safe travels as you move on! It was so nice to meet up finally and get in a hike together. Having FHU's must have felt like a little piece of heaven! Of course, you give up your view and lack of crowds. There is always a trade off. We look forward to reconnecting again. Good luck in SD! Hope things workout:)

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    1. Thanks! It was great meeting you guys. We will keep you posted on out SD prospects!

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  2. Just when we thought that we'd meet up again you're leaving. It's not often you find folks that you just click with.
    Safe Travels and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    1. Bummer! Hopefully we will meet up somewhere down the road again....

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  3. Glad you finally got your window. We hate waiting for stuff too. We loved Tucson and still have loads of stuff to see when we get back there again.

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    1. We really enjoyed our time in Tucson but we felt really helpless just waiting for the window hoping that it was being made, would be the right one and ship on time. Everything worked out great!

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  4. That is so true, nothing is ever easy. Glad you got it done. Travel safe.

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    1. As long as you go in knowing it is never as easy as it should be you can prepare mentally.

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  5. Good job on the window, Jim & Barb! Hopefully this one doesn't decide to fall out like the old one. 😃

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  6. I am glad you got your crevices clean and your window arrived. See you down the road.

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    1. Unfortunately we had to take a few gravel roads to get to this destination so we are all dirty again!

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  7. Glad the window worked out for ya. Safe travels!

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    1. I still have a little clean up to do but it is nice to have it in!

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  8. Sitting here with a camper full of Texas dust and not looking forward to the deep clean it needs. Good for Barb for jumping in ther and getting it done!!

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    1. I can only imagine the dirt and dust you have been living in!

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  9. Whew! A clean rig and a new window that fit! Doesn't get much better than that does it? I'm sure you be enjoying time with your family - how awesome to be able to have so much time together!

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    1. It was nice spending that much time together....as have no idea when we will see them again.

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    2. Glad you got the window fixed! Seems we'll just be missing you. We will finally escape next weekend! We'll be heading to Apache Junction then slowly to the east coast. Happy Travels!

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    3. We have been watching your travels to see if we were going to be near each other but it does not look good. Glad to hear you guys are FINALLY getting out. That will be a winter to remember!

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