What are you still doing in Arizona???
We arrived in Arizona nearly 6 weeks ago. In that time, we’ve experienced only one day in which the high temperature was below 100 degrees, and many of those days in excess of 110. You’d think that when you have location flexiblity, we’d take advantage of the first opportunity to escape to cooler climates.
While the notion of following the weather is a nice one, and we definitely get why so many RVers make this a priority – it’s not always our deciding factor.
This isn’t the first time we’ve gotten our seasons mixed up. In 2009, we spent the winter in single digit temperatures workamping at Amazon.com in Kansas, followed by spending the holidays in St. Louis with family. And last summer we spent a considerable amount of time in hot and humid Florida to be with family during a tough time.
Our travels are primarily determined by people and experiences, not places.
And the same is true now.
Since we bought our bus in Yuma a month ago, we returned to Lake Havasu City intending to stay a couple days with our friends and perhaps tackle a couple projects before moving on. But they had other things in store for us – such as a surprise technomadic bus rendezvous. And then a nearby fellow ‘bus nut’ and 2-stroke diesel mechanic guru (known affectionately as the ‘Yoda of Buses’) invited us to bring the bus over.
After the bus passed his approval with no notable concerns (just some more filters that needed replacing, as well as an O-ring on the power steering pump), we seriously considered moving on to nearby higher elevations for cooler temperatures.
But in the end, we opted to return to Lake Havasu.
Being with dear friends won out.
Especially when those friends have bus parking, a garage full of tools, lots of skillsets to share and a shipping address to receive parts. We don’t get the opportunity to have access to this combination of resources often, and we couldn’t imagine such a scenario happening again anytime soon. We can handle small projects as we go, but it was quite appealing to get a lot of projects done at once.
We’ve made so many improvements on the bus in these past few weeks, it’s incredible. Here’s just a sampling:
- Fresh water system fully functional and improved
- Smoke, carbon monixide and propane detectors installed
- Night vision back-up camera & monitor installed
- Dinette taken out
- Counters repainted
- New kitchen sink, faucet and undercounter filtration system
- Bluetooth handsfree stereo system installed
- Furnace removed
- Bunches of small tweaks & projects
- Lots of upcoming projects researched and ordered
And all this while enjoying the company of awesome friends and immersing ourselves in community. Staying places longer is exactly the pace we want to switch to, so it seems right to start off our bus adventure by staying still.
Next week we’ll leave the bus parked while we fly back to St. Louis to bring Kiki home and visit with Chris’ family. We’ll also grab some stuff we left behind before departing on our bus hunt back in May.
While we’re gone, new floors will be installed.
And then we have every intention of starting up the engine and driving away. We’ll probably head to the west coast, maybe towards San Francisco, where temperatures are 30-40 degrees cooler.
Your new digs look amazing! It looks a bit more spacious than your previous home on wheels.
The back-up camera seems like a must and I love the addition of the handsfree stereo system. Really like who you guys are doing with the bus. Look forward to seeing more of the other projects!
Thank you for sharing so much valuable information. After 40 years in Tucson my wife and I are nearly “houseless” by circumstance. Tomorrow I will trade my work truck for a 33 year old RV. The prospect is almost terrifying but thanks to you and others sharing their knowledge and experience, the fear is being replaced with action and anticipation.
Havasu is brutal in the summer, hats off to you!
This bus looks fantastic! I have recently made the switch to a location-independent lifestyle and I love seeing all of the different lifestyle iterations that people have when they are not constrained by what they ‘should’ be doing. I can definitely understand the draw of staying near family and friends, despite crazy weather.
I’ll be interested to see the campground you pick in the San Fran area. We picked one in Vallejo. I have RVParking on my iPad and iPhone. There’s not a lot of reviews posted so far, but hopefully it will grow. It has a lot of potential. Anyway, it is indeed cooler here in the San Fran area. We head out on Tues to go to Fort Bragg. Cooler there, too.
Whenever we stay more than a few days in the Bay Area, we’ve picked Treasure Island Motorhome & RV Park in South San Francisco. Just 2 blocks from BART and a Trader Joe’s 🙂 We love it. We’ve also stayed at a county park up in the hills behind San Leandro for shorter stays, and of course, street camping at friend’s places throughout the area.
Ft. Bragg is awesome.. we found a free forest campground not too far from there a few years ago. Google for ‘Egg Camp’ and you might be able to locate it. Don’t think we’ll be getting there in the bus tho.. twisty turning tight steep dirt roads.
Agreed on the potentials of RVParking.com. Love the concept, and hope it takes off! We leave reviews for every campground we stay at.
We might have to try Treasure Island on the way back south. Trade winds here in Vallejo is a plain Jane, but the location is awesome. Near the ferry, an hour from Sacramento, a half an hour from Napa, and 90 mins from Pt Reyes. TJs, Costco, etc all within easy distance. A week’s stay works out to be about $31 a night. Anyway, it’s another park to add to your San Fran list. Thanks for responding to my comment. We enjoy your blog.
I’m wondering if you guys have decided if you’re going to make it to the Burn this year? I’d love to see the new bus and chat with you guys. Or maybe in SF beforehand.
No decision on the burn made yet. SF is looking good tho, and if we do end up there – we’re thinking about having a sort of ‘open house’ to show off the bus. Would be lovely to meet up while we’re in the area.
It’s looking awesome! Love the dark flooring! We are looking for a backup camera solution as well. What did y’all go with?
We ended up creating our own mash-up solution by piecing together these two elements:
Waterproof CCD Nightvision camera: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCIBQG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=technomadia08-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004DCIBQG
Screen: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BT5HFS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=technomadia08-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B000BT5HFS
We’ll be doing a full wrap-up of all the tech we installed, with our research & reasonings 🙂
Ooh, those look quite sweet. Thanks!
Seattle is about 10 degrees cooler than even SF right now. Now Seattle IS the place to head for 😉
Compared to our 108 degree day today… that sounds downright chilly! I’d have to buy a sweater before going there. (We’d love to get up to Seattle and spend some time there.)
Think about overnighting at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park on your way north to San Fran…..we’d love to meet you and treat you to local Riverside fare…
Thanks guys! We’ll for sure let you know if our routing takes us your way this time around.
Looking good, look forward to seeing more of the remodel!
Thanks! I’m sure I won’t be able to resist sharing at each major stage 🙂
Looking good! I have to admit the lure of a local expert and friends would be pretty strong for us too 🙂
It’s nice and cool up in the high CO mountains right now, but heating up just about anywhere lower. San Fran should be lovely too…always loved those foggy summer afternoons when we lived there.
Nina
We keep being tempted to go to higher elevations nearby (such as Flagstaff) to escape for a bit. Glad you’re enjoying CO.. some lovely lovely parks up that way this time of year.
You’d be hard pressed to find too many places where it’s all that much cooler. Except of course, as you mentioned, the West Coast. Just got a “weather report” from our daughter in Burlington, Ontario (Canada, eh) telling us it’s 36, with a humidex (or “heat index) of 49! Just a sec while I convert that.
Um…right, that’s hot! (that’s the official conversion)
Actually it’s 95 and 117 in the F scale…
At the moment I don’t mind not being there.
So much for the “Great White North”.
So true.. when I looked at weather forecasts across the country for the week, I felt there weren’t that many places would offer better temps anyway. Might as well be where we can get stuff done 🙂
Yes tools, skills, and shipping address are not a combination us mobile folks see often enough to pass them up. Especially when the rig is new. Doubly so when they come with friends attached. I totally understand.
It really is a blessing that it’s all lined up like this.