vacation

Summer 2018 Update #2 – NV to UT

declutteringthestuff Summer 2018, Travel in 2018 , ,

We left Las Vegas, Nevada and made our way to Salt Lake City (SLC), Utah. We spent 5 nights at the Salt Lake City KOA.  This is our go-to “camping” place in SLC.   It is close to the Family History Library so Barb can do genealogy research.

The bus/train stop is at the corner and drops off downtown about 2 blocks from the library.  If you drive, the library is about 2 miles straight up North Temple Avenue.  Parking about a block away is $5/day (or your hubby drops you off and has a day alone!)

While in SLC, we ate at Ruth’s Diner for breakfast one morning.  Ruth’s started with an old train dining car.  Now the building and patio almost hide the original train car.  It was a beautiful morning the day we visited and were able to sit on the patio for breakfast.  The day warmed up to 95 F on this day so we enjoyed the mid 70’s temperature.

Ruth’s Diner has amazing breakfast food, especially the biscuits!  Barb had “Trevor’s Potato Burrito” and BISCUITS!!  John had sausage and eggs with hashbrowns and grapefruit – no biscuit for him (celiac disease and biscuits don’t do well together!)  Wish I had thought to take pictures – guess that’s what happens when you just enjoy your meal together.

One disappointment was that Jason’s Deli in SLC has permanently closed!!  It is one of our favorite sandwich shops AND they provide gluten-free products with care taken to prevent cross-contamination.  We had to make our own sandwiches one day for lunch.  So SAD!  If we had known this ahead of time, we would have purchased sandwiches in Las Vegas before we started driving to SLC.

distance traveled:  432 miles

gas prices:  $3.109/gallon in North Las Vegas, Nevada [Pilot Travel Center]
$3.029/gallon in Salt Lake City, Utah [Flying J Travel Center]

 

Summer 2018 Update #1 – CA to NV

declutteringthestuff Living Small in RV, Summer 2018, Travel in 2018 , , ,

So here we are – three weeks into our vacation and an attempt to update you.  This is an update of our first couple of days.  For those of you interested, I’ve included gas prices.

Day 1 –  We purchased our first tank of gas for Winne 2017!  Up to this point, all our quick weekend trips and running the generator “weekly” haven’t used the initial tank of gas up!

Hesperia, CA – we try our darnest to purchase gas at Pilot or Flying J.  Reasons:  John likes their coffee; we get a 5 cent per gallon discount by using their Good Sam Reward card (after a certain number of coffee purchases, you get one free too!);  they are the cheapest around; Flying J also has dedicated RV pumps.
Gas price $3.469 per gallon (with discount).

Las Vegas, CA –  We stay at the Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort.  It is close to the freeway and Las Vegas Strip.  Dinner was at the Bellagio Buffet.  We have always had great service here – especially if you sit at the bar.  Just ask and you usually can.   Here’s our grip with the Bellagio – they now charge $9 for parking!!  Like they don’t make enough on our dinner and gambling!
Pilot/Flying J in North Las Vegas the next morning:  Gas price $3.109 per gallon (with discount).

Here are a few pics of their lobby – they frequently change it up so every time we visit, it is something new.  We always love it!

Guess we really need no-spend months now!

declutteringthestuff Purchases ,

So you know those stupid postcards places will send you in hopes you are an impulse purchaser???  Well, they got to us!

Last Friday we received a postcard from Winnebago Motorhomes.  All it said was “Look at our new models”.   We are were not in the market to replace Winnie (so we thought!), but what the hey, let’s look on the website and see what’s new.

They have our current motorhome floorplan!  It is new and updated!  I happens to be a foot longer with an extra slide-out in the living area.  WOW!  We both said “I wonder how much different it is?”

winnebago-outlook-floorplan-29B
The Old floorplan

 

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The New floorplan – we have the table and chairs option with a buffet and retractable TV as well as the overhead loft bed.

So we search the RV sites and (unfortunately?) there are 2 at the RV place about 10 miles away.  What the heck, let’s go look!

Saturday we wander over and look.  The first one (2018 model) is really dark on the inside and while basically our floorplan, it didn’t really wow us.  Then the salesman says he has one on the lot that is on sale (about $50,000 cheaper)  because it is a 2017 edition.

OH MY GOSH!  It was love at first sight!!  We can’t believe someone hasn’t purchased this one!   We gush over it and then say goodbye.

When we got home, we measured the front driveway and (unfortunately??) the new one would fit in the driveway.  Now the real dilemma begins.  Do we want to trade up??

Our old motor home is a 2006 with 65,000 miles on it.  Any vehicle 12 years old will undoubtedly will begin to have problems at some time when we least expect it.  We have seen that some RV parks only allow vehicles under 10 years old.  Some also only allow class A.  Our old one is a class C.

After weighing the pros and cons of the purchase, we decide to go back for another look.  This time we are leaning towards purchasing.  As we approach it, someone is looking at it and acting like they really like it.  My gut does a flop and says “you can’t have it.  It’s ours!”

In case you can’t tell yet, we bought it on Sunday!  We were convinced to start this entire endeavor by a 20 cent postcard!  Can’t wait to pick it up!!

Vacation Derailed

declutteringthestuff Life Happens

Our 6 week vacation lasted 4 days before “disaster” struck.

Barb tripped over her own feet on the evening of the 4th day.  Dislocated shoulder and trip to the ER was the excitement of the evening.

Here’s the initial x-ray.  Our niece replied “that don’t look right!”

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We ended up coming home on the 6th day.  She just couldn’t handle the RV life with the amount of residual pain.  Besides that, follow-up appointments and physical therapy at our home facility will be more convenient and much less costly than paying out of pocket.

As a side note, we have a reputation of ER visits during vacations – kidney stones, broken arm, urinary tract infection, scratched cornea are just a few reasons for ER visits.

Maybe some decluttering will get accomplished this summer hahahaha

Back to Work

declutteringthestuff simplify , ,

Vacation is officially over. Both of us are back to work and exhausted!  We need a vacation to recoup from vacation!

It’s amazing to us how you can be busy all day long while on vacation but a week of work leaves you so tired.

Our stress levels were definitely reduced for an extended period giving our bodies time to mend what needed mending.  Do our brains mend while we are destressing?  Seems like we werent’t as forgetful during vacation.

Guess the days of simple living while on vacation help more than we realize.