Winter Travel Plans Revealed!

So many places to visit so little time! For years (12 now), we have been somewhere down south for the winter. Even after building and moving into our home, we have made an annual pilgrimage somewhere down warm.  One of these years we will spend an entire winter here, this is not the year. 

But where to go? For the past few years we have been going to Florida by way of Kentucky, Pennsylvania and then heading south along the coast to Florida. We absolutely love everything Florida has to offer (except the bugs); the fishing, the food, not to mention the friends and family we have down there. Sadly, we are not going there this year. In fact, we are not going East/Southeast at all. 

For years we have been wanting to explore the Texas coast from Port Arthur to Port Isabel. While that is still on our short list, this is not the year for that either.  

That leaves the Southwest where we have spent several years basking in the desert outside Quartzsite Arizona, but again, not this year. Well, at least not Q. We ARE however going to Arizona! Why, you ask? Several reasons. One, we have several friends who spend the winter down there. Two, it is warm. We need warmth! And lastly, we need to go to the dentist. For those of you who are RV'ers or former RV'ers, you know that Los Algodones Mexico is the place to go for affordable dental work. Both Barb and I have broken a tooth over the past couple of months and need some work. Luckily, neither one of us are in pain, nor are the broken teeth up front, but we do need to get them taken care of. So, it is off to Arizona we go!

We have plans to spend a few days in Yuma while crossing back and forth into Mexico. Once that is done, we plan to spend a few days in the Tucson area visiting friends who are wintering down there and we have a few days planned in the Prescott area, again visiting friends. 

Not a long trip, maybe a month, but it will be nice to get away for a few weeks in the heart of the cold season in South Dakota. And bonus, we found someone to stay at the house while we are gone! We are not leaving until late January, which will allow us to have Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years at home. Heck, we may even get some ice fishing in!

Speaking of ice fishing, we had our first hard freeze on Wednesday morning. Mother Nature did not mess around. While we have been below freezing a time or two, this was our first hard freeze when it got down to 17°f. The good news is that it did away with all those darn stink bugs! Which reminds me, the other night, at like 2am, I feel something crawling across my head. I swatted at it and "crunch", I smashed a stink bug on my forehead! 

While that was the lowlight of the week, the highlight was getting the new generator installed! What a pain, I can see why no one wanted to work on it. Barb and I built a system using boards, milk crates and a jack to get it back up into its housing. We got it almost all the way up and started hooking things back up; the gas and three wiring harnesses. Once that was done, I went into the camper to test the remote start button and....it started! Loud, as it still did not have the muffler on, but at least it was running! But now the true test; did the remote shut off stich work....Nope. 

From previous troubleshooting I knew it was not the switch, it must be the wire somewhere between the switch and the generator. To confirm this, I removed the switch and was going to splice it in at the generator. I set about removing the wire nuts at the generator to splice in the switch. As I removed the first wire nut, I noticed something, do you see it?

Look closely at that white wire, see the greenish discoloration on the end? Corrosion! Meaning it was not making a connection. I cleaned all those wires up, restripped them, added a wire nut and viola, the remote shut off worked! After months of dealing with this issue, I basically tripped upon the cause. 

Barb and I were able to then lift the generator back into place using the jack, reinstall all the mounting brackets and it was back in!

So glad to have that project behind us!

Meanwhile, Barb is still going crazy inside the camper. And when I use the word "crazy" I mean it quite literally. After removing the toilet last week and installing LVP, I expected to see a completed bathroom. But no, she went ahead and ripped out the sink and countertop! 

But wait, she is not done. She then went about ripping out the carpet under the dinette. You know, the spot where Dakota spends all her time? Barb said it was disgusting. The carpet was both glued and stapled so she had to remove each of the staples one by one (right picture) after she got the carpet removed. 

I "think" she is done tearing apart, but I have thought that before. Time to start putting things back together. 

Tuesday, we rented a trencher to trench a path from the power pole to the shed and then the shed to the garage so we could have power out there. This was my first time trenching. Not too bad, but the rocky terrain did make it challenging. 

Over the next few days I laid the wire, installed a couple of breaker boxes, wired some outlets and I now have power in both the shed and the garage! I just need to wire in the rest of the outlets to call that project complete, but no more extension cords running across the driveway!

That was not the only electrical work I did this week. Neighbor Jim had a couple of breakers and a GFCI he needed installed and Dan had a couple of breakers and a three-way switch that needed wiring. I also helped Jim install a butcherblock countertop in his laundry room. 

A day or two later he sent me this picture of the completed project. He had installed trim, a sink, backsplash and shelving. It turned out great!

That pretty much wraps up the work for the week. We did get out three times for fun; lunch with Dan and Bonnie, we had Kevin out one night for walleye supper and friends Allen and Elizabeth invited us over for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner! Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes, salad and a pecan dump cake for dessert. Something about us being the guina pigs for their real Thanksgiving dinner. So good! So full! Of course, no pictures were taken in any of these outings. 

Deer hunting has been going well. I got out almost every morning and night, even when it was in the teens. I am seeing lots of deer but have my eye on one specific deer. I have him on camera, yet to see him in person. Hopefully soon! 

While I am out hunting Barb has been in a baking mood making both pumpkin bars and apple crisp! You are going to need to roll me out to the blind if I keep eating like I did this week! Barb peeled, cut up, vac sealed and froze 10 gallons of apples that we brought back from the farm. Enough to keep us in apple desserts for most of the winter!

Barb and I did make a run over to Buffalo Gap to get some bulk whole corn to feed the deer over the winter. They have a chute that they put into my tote to fill it up. Roughly 2,500lbs of corn, cheap entertainment to watch the deer as we are huddled inside next to the fire this winter. 

No blog is complete without a dog video, right? And being it was Halloween yesterday what better video and picture than Sophie and Zoey dressed up for the holiday!

So scary, have a spooktacular weekend!