The RV adventure is ON!!!

We have been in Arizona for a week now; busy visiting with family and friends, but tonight our first night actually camping in a campground. We are at Kartchener Caverns which is SE of Tucson. There are amazingly preserved caves in the area which we visited a few years ago…wow, actually 12 years ago, the first year Dave and I were dating. We would have never guessed then that we would be back with an old RV and three kids in tow. But here we are, ready to explore in a different way!

On the way here today we stopped in Tombstone, Arizona. Founded in 1881, it was the real deal and a true old Wild West town in its day. We walked the old boardwalk sidewalks, played in a park next to the OK Corral which was the site of an actual gunshot showdown, and of course found an ice cream shop to enjoy a yummy treat.

We are super excited about our RV life and all the adventures we have in store for the future. I didn’t really know what to expect as far as the details of how the car seats would fit, where the kids would sleep, whether or not the RV would actually run and be in working order. But, other than a near disaster the first time Dave went to dump the black water. Basically he accidentally flooded the back end of the RV with water (clean water, thankfully). We got it all cleaned up and moved past that setback and I am pleasantly surprised how smoothly we have gotten used to the close quarters. We got it all cleaned up and are having fun playing house, getting organized, stocking up with supplies and food and getting a new stereo installed…priorities! A big thanks to Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Dave, seasoned RV’ers who loaded us up with must have items to get us started. And to a few of Alice’s friends in Prescott who were a wealth of knowledge in RV know how.

Seems like we keep making more plans of other details we might want to do to fix up and make this a fun little home away from home. Like we would love to put in cork floors, and switch out the sea foam green colored blinds, but we will see, for now we just love all the creature comforts the RV life grants. For example: the bathroom, the cozy bed, all the storage to keep ALL the food and baby equipment, clothes in cupboards, refrigerator, heat, and hot water. It has rained at night a few times; we love it and are thankful for the actual roof over our heads instead of soggy tents. I never would have expected to be such an RV lover, but in reality I see that it means the difference between doing a trip like this and not.

One of the key purchases are these little tent peapods for the boys to be contained in while they sleep. One less thing to worry about with a couple of almost one year olds sleeping up high in the bed above the cab. There is a story about my sister falling out of this same type of bed when my parents took their month long RV trip when I was just one month old. She landed on my sweet little head sleeping peacefully in a bassinet below her.

One of the highlights of our trip so far…Out of Africa, a super cool “zoo” featuring lions and tigers and giraffes to name a few. We got to feed carrots to the giraffes and watch tigers play with their human care takers and the kids even pet a tortoise. Hearing the lions roar was super cool, but watching the black leopard stalk the kids through the chain link fence was kind of creepy. The way the cages were set up, we got to walk amazingly close to these beautiful animals…such a treat, thank you Grandma Alice for taking us to this fun attraction.

The timing of our trip allowed us to meet up with Mike and Dan Shaw at another friend, Sven and Kelly’s house in Tucson. We were all there to watch Dan attempt to win the Tucson marathon, but unfortunately the victory was foiled by a bum Achilles tendon that stopped Dan (who was in the lead) at around mile 14. That was too bad, but we all had a great night before hanging out on Sven and Kelly’s roof overlooking the city lights and telling stories and catching up. We are excited to be on our own for a few days, but we have thoroughly enjoyed Grandma Alice’s extra hands and help and ability to allow us to sleep in while we have been with her. With all the excitement of being on vacation, our kids like to wake up extra early, so extra shut eye is so nice! Thanks Grandma! We still have more friends and family to see before Christmas, but for the next few days we will be seeing some sights and enjoying the RV life. Over and out…