Two years ago, we stayed at Mission Bay RV park, located right inside city limits. While the park is literally a parking lot (with full hookups and a few trees), you can’t beat the location. There isn’t a lot of space between you and your neighbors but in this case, we were willing to sacrifice outdoor camping space for the location. As an added bonus, DeAnza Cove Park is right outside the RV Park gate. It’s a large public park open for outdoor activities with flat walking trails, perfect for Opie to strengthen his legs and build up his endurance. Since Mission Bay provides a 50% discount for monthly stays during their “winter season”, we decided to settle into the warm weather for five weeks — one at Sweetwater Regional Park just outside San Diego, and then our half-price month (April 2019) at Mission Bay.

San Diego is known for beautiful weather year around so we decided to take advantage it and take a nice hike to Los Penasquitos Waterfall located in the Los Penasquitos Canyon Reserve. It’s an out-and-back 6-mile hike (actually more like a stroll) to a pretty waterfall. The hike is dog-friendly and relatively flat but Opie wasn’t ready for that distance yet so we had to leave him behind, but it was nice to finally stretch our legs and enjoy the sun and views. The trail is packed dirt but there is a nice creek that follows the path, and some pretty hills surrounding the area.

We also enjoyed a bike tour with Hike Bike Kayak. We met at their store in La Jolla and they drove us and the bikes to the top of Mt. Soledad to start with some spectacular views, including a view of the Miramar airstrip where Top Gun used to be and where the movie was filmed. From Mt. Soledad, we coasted down through some beautiful neighborhoods and saw Monterey Cypress trees, the inspiration for Dr. Seuss’ Truffula trees in The Lorax. We stopped at Windansea Beach to watch some surfers tackling the waves, and biked over to Children’s Cove to watch the seals and baby seals soaking up the sun. From there, it was a short bike ride to La Jolla Cove to see (and smell) the sea lions relaxing on the rocks. Last stop was to the Sunny Jim Sea Cave, a tunnel dug down into a cave that opens onto the water, used to smuggle alcohol and other illicit goods into La Jolla. The cave was named by Frank Baum because the outline looked like Sunny Jim cartoon character. We really enjoyed the tour and our tour guide provided lots of fantastic information during the ride.

We were happily surprised to find our friends 2WanderAway also staying at Mission Bay. That meant hanging out, playing games, and enjoying Shannon’s mad bar-tending skills! She made us some amazing drinks, and good times were had by all. If Shannon ever offers to make you drinks, definitely take her up on it!

Not only did we meet up with old friends but we made new friends in San Diego. I’ve been using meetup.com to find local gaming groups when we’re in one area for a while and San Diego was no exception. We joined a weekly group meet at a coffee house and one of the members invited us to join their weekly meetup at their home. It was a large group of grad and post-grad students so we felt a wee bit older but they all made us feel very welcome. We learned a lot of fantastic games and started our introduction into the heavier-weight board games (ones that last 4-6 hours) like Power Grid; Heroes of Land, Sea, Air; and Rising Sun. We really loved the camaraderie and ability to play with the same group of people every week and hope they’ll still be around the next time we’re back in San Diego!

Continuing our slide into the boardgame addiction, we experienced our first boardgame con in San Diego. Kingdom Con is a small con with only a couple hundred local people, which was a perfect venue for us to try. They had a room for board games and a small game library to borrow games, a vendor room (yes, I had to buy a game), and a huge room dedicated to Warhammer 40k, wargames involving a lot of intricately painted miniatures, rulers, and dice. It was a fun day experience and I’m already looking forward to a larger game con focused more on board games!

After spending 5 weeks in Vegas, and another 5 in San Diego, we realized that we enjoyed the slower pace immensely. For the previous 5 years, we’d been traveling almost non-stop and I think we were getting a little tired. Our original spring/summer plans involved traveling through the middle of California visiting Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, then the Oregon coast, Washington, and up into Canada to see Banff and Jasper. However we decided to cancel all our spring/summer plans and just take it much slower for the rest of the year…

After we left Baja (in February), we made it back into the US with very little trouble. In fact, entering the US was faster than entering Mexico! I think US Customs saw 50 RVs piled at the border crossing and just decided to let all of us through so we would stop holding up the queue. A quick hello, passport swipe, and we were back into the US.

Due to Opie’s ACL tear, we rearranged our plans to stay in Vegas for 5-6 weeks for his surgery, recovery, and follow-up appointments, rather than the one week originally planned. We took Opie to Las Vegas Vet Specialty Center, a referral-only center filled with specialists, including orthopedic surgeons. Since we’ve experienced torn ACLs on a few of our dogs and fosters in the past, we knew what to expect and we were not looking forward to post-op procedures. After the surgery, they don’t put any cast or bindings on his leg but his activity is limited to just bathroom breaks for 2 weeks. No climbing stairs, jumping on sofas or beds, and no hardwood or tile floors (to prevent tumbles). Unfortunately since we live in an RV, Opie has to take stairs to get into/out of his home, and we only have tile floors. That meant man-handling Opie down a ramp with a full harness and also staying home 24 hrs/day to make sure he didn’t jump on anything or slip on the floor. Yeah, so that was an exciting 2 weeks for all of us. After the 2 week imprisonment, we were able to allow Opie on very short walks and he was allowed to finally climb onto the sofa but still no jumping. He about gave us a heart attack one afternoon when we went out and found him on the bed, meaning he jumped up there. We were sure we screwed up his leg but thankfully everything was fine.

As boring as that all sounds, we finally got some time for ourselves once we could trust Opie alone for a couple of hours (which meant closing off the bedroom and putting stacks of stuff all over the sofas so he wouldn’t jump on/off. We had bought tickets to the Cirque du Soleil Beatles show several months ago, the reason we were already headed to Vegas before Opie’s detour, and enjoyed a nice night out at the show. We’ve seen multiple Cirque shows in the past and enjoyed them but after the 7th or 8th one, they tend to blend together. We found Beatles to be a refreshing change since it was an homage to Beatles music with a fun accompaniment of acrobatics thrown in. I often found myself singing along with the music during each act and really enjoyed the entire show. Apparently we’re bad luck with Vegas though as they did get a light dusting of sleet and snow that same night. Coincidentally, the last time Vegas had snow, we were visiting too so I think Vegas just doesn’t like having us there.

We also spent a day wandering around Vegas and the various stores scattered between the hulking casinos. We got a close-up look at the ginormous ferris wheel, High Roller, but not really sure we wanted to spend 30 minutes watching the Las Vegas skyline. We also took a visit to a buffet because hey, Vegas! We tried the Wicked Spoon which has some fantastic reviews. Instead of heaping tables of unending food, Wicked Spoon has small helpings of each type of food to allow people to try lots of food without overfilling on just one thing. The quality of the food is good and I love the small helpings, especially the desserts! Course our day walking around Vegas confirmed our belief that Vegas is not just about gambling anymore, it’s all about entertainment and everything is darn expensive.

Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately for our wallets) while the Strip and casinos didn’t click for us, we did find a different dangerous pastime off the Strip at Meepleville. Meepleville is a board game cafe located a bit further west and hosts a game library of over 2,000 games available to play, and a cafe with food and drinks. It’s usually $7/person to stay as long as you want, but they also have monthly memberships and specials on various days for half-price or even cheaper. We found ourselves there regularly to feed our growing tabletop gaming addiction. Yes, it sounds odd and rather geeky, but board games have changed a lot in the last 20 years and modern board games are quite an industry. This isn’t your grandpa’s Monopoly and Parcheesi games; many of these games incorporate chess-like strategy, cooperation, or amazing themes. Many people have heard of Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, and Carcassonne, but there are thousands of other games available with varying levels of difficulty. We’ve become deeply and happily immersed in that cult. Needless to say, we learned a lot of new games and ending up buying several new ones. We even met up with a few Xscapers gamer friends and introduced them to the wonders of Meepleville!

After 5.5 weeks of Vegas, Opie’s knee was healing enough that we could leave without worrying about setbacks from the surgery. The bone was starting to heal and Opie was finally allowed to extend his walks, so we packed up and headed to San Diego for a month of warm relaxation.

Catalina, and Tucson in general, is popular with RVers in the winter since we all love warmth. Since we rarely cross paths with friends, we were pleased to see many friends gathering in Tucson at the same time this year.

We first met Laura and Kevin of Chapter3Travels in Virginia a few years ago when they were about to begin their full-time travels. Since then we’ve kept in touch but only met up again briefly two years ago. To our delight, they were staying at Catalina at the same time as us, and they had a fantastic new puppy dog, Thor, and wanted us (and Opie) to meet and socialize with him! We were also happy to see that Laurel and Eric’s (Raven and Chickadee) stay at Catalina State Park overlapped ours for a few days. We met them at Lake Powell a couple of years ago for a brief meetup and hadn’t crossed paths again until now. Andrea and Shawn “followed” us to Tucson and were staying at the fairgrounds but that didn’t stop them from coming by to visit (and help with some plumbing issues… more on that later). We also made some new friends, Joodie and Mark (Chasing Dirt) since they were also staying at Catalina.

When this many RVers gather, there’s always going to be photos of happy hour, food, and drink and this is no exception. We enjoyed some tasty tidbits at Guadalajara Grill and multiple happy hours at various rigs. A few of us even decided to go old school arcade at Cobra Arcade Bar in downtown Tucson. It’s not quite as extensive as Free Play Bar in Providence but they did have some fun games, including Centipede, Rampage, Tron, 1948, and Gauntlet. All games are 25 cents, except Fix-It Felix from the Wreck-It Ralph Movie. I guess someone had created Fix-It as a tie-in to the movie and it was free to play!

Even though Catalina has a few dog-friendly trails, some of their nicer trails don’t allow dogs. Since we almost always hike with Opie, we’ve never had an opportunity to try those trails; however Mike had to finish some work, so I was able to leave Opie with him (guilt-free) one morning while I tagged along with Chasing Dirt on a hike to Romero Pools. It had been over 6 months since I had done any real hiking so I thought Romero Pools would be a good starting point. I was wrong. It ended up being over 7 miles roundtrip with 1000+ft elevation gain but the great views and fun company made all the huffing and puffing worthwhile.

Since Laura and Kevin wanted to socialize Thor to other people, dogs, and situations, we enjoyed regular evening walks with them. Opie is good at ignoring other dogs, so we decided to walk them together, starting at a distance and slowly bridging the gap as Thor became more used to the situation. After a few days, the two boys were walking side-by-side and sniffing all the smells together. I have to admit that I totally fell for Thor and would have smuggled him into our RV when we left except I think Mike, Laura, Kevin, AND Opie might have noticed.

We had a wonderful Christmas Day meal with this awesome group of folks too! Laurel mentioned that tamales are a Southwestern Christmas tradition so we all decided to give it a try. Laurel and Eric were gracious enough get the tamales and everyone brought food/sides/drinks. We had a great night comparing upcoming trip ideas, providing recommendations, eating, and sneaking tidbits to the dogs.

So back to the plumbing issue. Back in New Mexico, we noticed an intermittent leak in our hot water manifold in the wet bay. Thankfully the leak was small and only in the wet bay so the rest of the coach was unaffected. Since it was too cold in ABQ to work on repairs, we decided to wait until Tucson to fix the problem. Once in Catalina, we were able to finally focus our energy on the leak.

While we love so many things about R2, we really really hate the wet bay setup. It’s almost impossible to fix any leaks behind the sheet metal cover that makes things look pretty. The only way to reach behind the cover is to disconnect all the knobs, switches, outlets, and connections, and unscrew the entire faceplate from the bay. Even then, the cover is too large to fit through the compartment door (it was installed before the compartment doors were added) and will not come out of the wet bay compartment. After disconnecting everything, we were able to drop the panel down a foot or so to reach behind it to work on fixing the the leak.

Luckily Shawn has quite a collection of plumbing parts and experience with this kind of repair. He graciously came by with all his tools and helped Mike remove the panel and all the bits attached so we could get to the leak. We think the leak was due to either a cracked plastic elbow or bad PEX fitting but either way that section had to be replaced. Since we had access to that area, we ended up replacing most of the plastic elbows with stronger brass ones to try to prevent more leaks in the future. Putting everything back together was far harder than disassembling it, and took us a day and a half! If we have issues in the future, we will either need to cut some large holes into the metal cover for better access or hire an RV tech, ’cause I’m not doing that again!

After a very full two weeks of socializing, puppy-petting, eating, and hiking, it was time to pack it up and head to our annual dentist visit in Yuma.

Our three hikes on Acadia’s Mount Desert Island

One popular “hike” regularly mentioned is the Precipice Trail which isn’t so much a hike but more like a climbing route with iron rungs, handrails, bridges, and ladders. It’s not meant for the faint of heart or those with height issues and I highly recommend watching some of the youtube videos to see the trail highlights before deciding. I was raring to go but unfortunately the Precipice Trail closes from March until August every year for peregrine falcon nesting so that was a non-starter. There is a different trail that reaches the the same Champlain summit as Precipice, that’s dog-friendly and open so we tackled that one instead.

Our hike started at Seiur de Monts and ended at Sand Beach with an option to continue to Otter Cliffs. We prefer hiking early in the morning to avoid crowds, so we had no trouble finding a parking spot at Seiur de Monts. We took Wild Garden Path to Beechcroft Trail to the top of Champlain Mountain. Once at the top, we continued on Champlain South Ridge Route down to Sand Beach. Since the hike is less than 4 miles, we planned to add Ocean Path Trail as it’s a popular and beautiful walk along the coast. Unfortunately by the time we made it to Sand Beach, the area was already crawling with tourists, so we aborted.

NPS does not recommend Upper Beechcroft Trail for pets due to the rock scrambling and scaling involved. Opie did great and only needed one or two boosts from us. The trails pass by small ponds, lakes, and rainwater puddles which made for a cool and happy dog.

Watch your step!

The views from the trails are gorgeous… ok, they would have been gorgeous if it wasn’t completely fogged in while we were hiking but using my imagination, I’m sure they were breathtaking. In actuality, the views were a little creepy since everything is completely shrouded in white as though there’s nothing else out there. It had a definite sci-fi/horror feel to it, this is what happens when one is “blessed” with a vivid imagination. Once we reached the end of the hike we took the bus from Sand Beach back to our car and stopped at Mainely Meat BBQ for some much-needed energy replenishment.

Start at Sieur de Monts. Wild Garden Path > Beechcroft Trail to summit > Champlain South Ridge Trail > Sand Beach

In Southwest Harbor there are some nice easy hikes and they tend to be less populated. Ship Harbor Trail located along the southern tip of MDI, near Bass Harbor had been recommended by WheelingIt so we took a quick drive to the trailhead. The trail forms a figure-8 and spends some time hugging the coast along Ship Harbor, hence the name of the trail. It’s a very easy mostly flat 1.7 mile walk/stroll with some nice views of the ocean, rocky coastline, forests, and the inlet. While the views are pretty, we much prefer higher elevation views and more challenging trails. This is a great stroll for families and a good spot for a picnic lunch. If you want to add a little more, there’s a nice easy hike right up the street, Wonderland Trail which is more through the forest and is also only about 1.5 miles.

One of the great things about Smugglers Cove campground is the vicinity to Acadia NP and nearby trails. Lurvey Springs Rd is a gravel road (cars are allowed in the summer) that lead to multiple hiking trails and to Long Pond and Echo Pond. Unfortunately for Opie, both Long & Echo Ponds are used for local water supplies so no swimming is allowed. So while it was a pleasant 3 mile walk to Long Pond, it became an unpleasant tug-o-war with Opie to keep him out of the water and I’m sure he sulked the entire way home.

From our campground, we could spot a fire tower on a nearby mountain. After some research, we discovered it was the iconic Beech Mountain fire watch tower and we could reach the tower from the campground instead of having to drive to the trailhead.  From the campground, we walked onto Lurvey Springs Rd which meets with Valley Trail. We took Valley Trail to South Ridge trail to the top of Beech Mountain. There are some fantastic views of Acadia and Southwest Harbor from the top of the mountain. The tower was closed so we could walk up to the first flight of stairs but no higher than that. We enjoyed the views, the quiet, and a granola bar split three ways before going back down on the West Ridge Trail for some nice views of Long Pond. West Ridge Trail is a bit tricky going down as there are no switchbacks and the descent is rocky and steep. The whole hike is around 5 miles with a total climb of 1000 ft, I’d consider it a moderate hike with some tricky rocky areas. It’s dog-friendly but I’d say it’s geared more for an active dog that can handle steep rocky areas. Opie did just fine on this hike. An easier option is the Beech Mountain Loop. It’s an easy 1-mile loop that will take you to the fire tower from the parking lot right from Beech Hill Rd.

Starting at Smuggler’s Cove Campground. Luray Springs Rd > Valley Trail > South Ridge Trail to summit. West Ridge Trail > Luray Springs Rd > Campground

For the second half of our visit we camped on the Schoodic Peninsula. We merged multiple trails to make a nice scenic hike from the bottom of the peninsula at Blueberry Hill up to Schoodic Woods where the campground is located. We first drove to the Blueberry Hill parking lot where Opie was able to get a quick soak in the water before starting our hike. We started on the Anvil Trail which ends at the Schoodic Head summit. From the summit, we took the Buck Cove Mountain trail which crests the summit (at a whopping 224 ft above sea level) and continues all the way back to the campground. This was probably the least crowded hike we’ve done in Acadia. The only people we meet were two park rangers clearing out fallen trees, otherwise we totally owned the rest of the trail with its quiet forest, shade, and peek-a-boo views of the ocean from the top. The Anvil trail is probably the hardest part with some steep rock stairs but the rest of the trail is quiet and very relaxing. The entire trail is less than 5 miles and only 800 ft elevation gain. This is definitely a trail that almost any dog could handle.

Once we made it to the campground, Mike took the Island bus back to our car to drive it back to the campground. It would have been more convenient if we could take the bus to the trailhead but we hike early and the buses don’t run at that time. However the trail is almost completely shaded, so taking the bus and starting later would be an OK option too. We chose the South to North route since the steepest part of the trail is by Schoodic Head. We prefer climbing up steep areas vs trying to navigate down steep inclines and it’s nicer to tackle the tougher areas earlier in our hikes.

Start at Blueberry Hill Parking Lot. Anvil Trail > Buck Cove Mountain Trail > Schoodic Woods Campground

We had hoped to tire Opie out with the various hikes in Acadia but I think we simply built up his endurance. He (and us) loved all the trail options in Acadia and I know we would love to come back and try even more trails.

After 3.5 years and 35,000 miles, we’re doing the (almost) unthinkable: buying a new motorhome! Don’t tell Rover, although I think he’s starting to catch on with all the cleaning, photos, and fixes we’ve been working on recently. He’s been a fantastic traveling companion and has been very good to us, but he’s being replaced by a bigger, stronger, fancier model. Don’t worry Rover, we’ve found you a new family to take care of!

Rover a couple weeks ago in Kansas.

When we set out on this adventure in early 2014 (we placed our order for Rover in January of that year) we had never spent more than a few minutes in an RV before. We weren’t sure how long we’d last living and traveling full-time in a 350 sq. ft. box. We’re pretty sure our friends and family were making bets behind our backs! We pressed on, did lots of research, made plans, and ended up with what was probably the perfect RV for our adventures at the time. While everyone “in the know” said you have to buy a diesel rig, Rover had the comforts needed to keep us happy, the more reasonable price tag of a gas-powered rig, and to top it off we got a great deal on our purchase. We argued that if we ended up hating RV life, the risk was minimal… we could sell the RV for a small loss, and admit defeat.

Earlier this year, possibly because we passed our three year “nomadiversary”, Kathie and I found our discussions frequently centering around how much longer we wanted to do this (a long, long time), or if we wanted to settle down in a house (we don’t). We quickly agreed we enjoy this mobile life so much, and decided to “renew” our commitment to roaming, indefinitely!

Rover’s interior, one of many photos taken for our “For Sale” page.

We usually had, in the back of our minds, the thought that if we were still doing this (and loving it) after 5+ years we’d eventually upgrade to a diesel motorhome. We even started some preliminary research at the Tampa RV show in January of this year. When we made our decision to continue indefinitely, we started thinking about the benefits of waiting a few more years for that diesel rig vs. upgrading sooner. We got serious about planning for an upgrade in 2018… and then “why wait?” kicked into overdrive and we decided “there’s no time like the present!” We did lots of money math, researched new rigs, dealerships that provide good discounts, looked into used pricing for selling Rover, and decided we could make this work! We even made a trip to the Tiffin factory in Red Bay Alabama in early August to see the new 2018 rigs in person, look at colors and options, and discuss some customizations with the sales department. With our decision made, we placed our order for a 2018 Tiffin Phaeton 40IH! As before, we’ll be going to the factory to watch our build a few weeks from now, and we will take delivery in October. And through word-of-mouth we already have a buyer lined up for Rover! Check out his “For Sale” page to see what they’re getting!

But why upgrade in the first place? Isn’t Rover enough? In many ways it was a tough call, especially since Rover’s been 100% reliable, has never left us stranded, and has generally needed relatively minor (and expected) repairs like a water pump or roller shade. There’s no one feature of the new coach that made us take the leap, but there are a lot of individual factors that combined into a pretty compelling case! In our next few articles we’ll introduce you to our upcoming rig and walk through some of the upgrades and features we’re looking forward to the most!

Part 2 – Welcome to Diesel Town

Part 3 – Roughing It… Even More Smoothly

Tiffin Phaeton 40IH Catalog Photo

The view from Colorado River State Park

A full-time RV friend of ours once described his life as Jello travels, there’s always a little wiggle room in his plans. I like that term to describe what we do. In general, we have mostly firm plans but sometimes there’s a little wiggle to deal with life. Well, our plans wiggled while in Grand Junction. Our inverter circuit breaker was acting a bit flaky for the last couple of weeks but while in Grand Junction, the inverter completely died. Unfortunately we were planning to dry camp in a national forest near Breckenridge next which meant an inverter was a necessity. Since the inverter was still under warranty, we called Magnum and they offered to send us a new inverter and we could send back the broken one. Of course that meant we had to be in a location that could accept packages for us, plus we had to find a campground that provided electricity. We have an extremely accommodating friend in Denver who was happy to receive deliveries for us so Mike spent a few hours furiously searching for places to stay near Denver on short notice. July 4th weekend was coming up which made things tough, but he found one RV park in Golden CO with a site available for 2 nights, and another not far away with a site for 3 nights. So no Breckenridge for us this time around, but that just means something else to look forward to in the future, right?

Our last-minute accommodations in Golden CO

We re-routed to Golden and successfully installed the inverter. Since we were already on a roll with Rover, we used that time to replace his failing front window shade motors and finish up our monthly maintenance list to keep Rover running smooth and happy. With everything lubricated, cleaned, and fresh, we decided to reward ourselves with a jaunt to Denver Comic Con with our friends. Mike and I dressed up in matching R2D2 outfits (in every other circumstance, we try extra hard to never ever wear the same clothes, or even the same color clothes simultaneously) and enjoyed a day at the Con. We enjoyed walking around, gawking at the costumes, and seeing what the vendors were selling. Denver Comic Con whet our appetites for the upcoming DragonCon in Atlanta. Yes, we’re going and yes, we are excited!!

Checking out Denver ComicCon

On the virtual bridge of the Enterprise with James

After our successful maintenance/repair stay in Golden, we made it back onto our firm schedule and drove north of Denver to St. Vrain State Park in Longmont CO. It’s a nice state park near Boulder and makes a good anchor spot for day trips into Boulder. Since Opie hadn’t been hiking for a few weeks due to hot weather, then maintenance work, we thought we’d reward him with a nice hike. I found the Royal Arch Trail, a popular 3.5 mile out and back hike in Boulder that has a natural arch at the end of the trail. It was rated difficult but we’ve managed difficult in the past and 3.5 miles isn’t that long so that sounded like a good hike for us.

Out in the hot sun along Royal Arch Trail, Boulder CO

As normal, we made it to the trailhead before 8am on a weekday expecting a nice quiet trail. I could not have been more wrong! The parking lot was already full with many hikers on the trail already. Fortunately the trailhead is the beginning for multiple trails so while the Royal Arch trail was busy, it wasn’t overcrowded. The first half started out in shady areas with some great views of the Flatirons in Boulder and started a steady climb up through the forest.

Flatirons in the distance while climbing up and up

Without any pools of water for Opie to cool down, we had to continually wet him down and make him drink water to prevent overheating or dehydration. With at least 1/2 mile left to reach the top, we realized we had already gone through 2 of the 3 liters of water we brought with us (mostly drunk by Opie). The last 1/2 mile is steep and rocky, Opie looked beat, and we were low on water. We made the decision to turn around because we didn’t want to kill our dog. We did find a large flat boulder in the shade where we could let Opie rest until he recovered. Poor guy, he has really aged a lot in just the last 4 months. This hike made us realize that Opie can’t rock scramble or hike in full sun any longer. I do believe as long as the temperature stays cool, Opie can still handle some nice hikes in the future but I can’t keep choosing tough ones going forward.

Making our way along Royal Arch Trail in Boulder CO

Since we were able to tire Opie out with his hike, Mike and I took a day to visit the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder. It’s an R&D center funded by the National Science Foundation. The center provides equipment and technologies for the science community to study the Earth’s atmosphere, including meteorology, climate, pollution, sun and space weather, environmental and societal impacts on weather and climate. Visitors are welcomed free of charge and there are guided and self-guided (iPad) tours available to the public. The tours are available during the week but since we were there on Saturday, we were on our own. NCAR has so much great information on display that we didn’t need the tour. There’s information about forecasting, types of weather, and climate change. There are also some fun interactive displays and a small theater that shows various types of movies about atmosphere and severe weather. We easily spent a couple of hours perusing the displays and learning a fair bit. We even caught a small glimpse of their computer room in the basement and the type of supercomputers they use for research. It’s an impressive place and definitely worth a visit if weather and climate interests you.

After Boulder, we drove to the south side of Denver to stay at one of our favorite places, Cherry Creek State Park. We like this campground for a number of reasons: it’s huge and has nice sites with full hookups, there are a lot of great places to walk or bike inside the park, it’s close to Denver, and it has a gigantic (100+acre) fenced dog park with Cherry Creek meandering through it. There is a $2 fee to access the dog park (or $20 yearly fee) but we think it’s quite worth it. There are nice walking trails through the entire park with the creek on one side so Opie can trot along to his heart’s content while we trail behind him at our own pace.

Cherry Creek Dog Park

Denver ended up being a good friend meet-up spot for us. We have a niece who lives here so she and her dog spent the day with us while we caught up on family news and tired out the pooches at the dog park. Plus we spent a fair bit of time with our Denver friend, James and sucked up a lot of his internet while visiting. He is a fantastic host and spoils Opie rotten. Last year Opie got an entire steak for dinner, and this year Opie got an entire chicken cutlet for dinner. I’m not sure Opie wanted to leave James’ home! We even met with 2WanderAway, a full-time RV couple we follow on Instagram. Dave had noticed our wifi SSID and sent us a message since they follow us on Instagram also! We spent a fun afternoon chatting with Shannon, Dave, and their friend Eric. It’s always fun to meet up with other full-timers and this was no exception. We can’t wait to cross paths with them again!

Meeting fellow RVers Dave and Shannon of 2WanderAway

We wanted to do another hike while in Denver but there was no way we were tackling another 14er, so Dave recommended Red Rocks and Matthew Winters Park located about 30 minutes west of us. It turned out to be a perfect hike for all of us. We did the Dakota Ridge/Red Rocks trail, a 6.5 mile loop with a 1300 ft elevation gain. The trail is well-maintained with no rock scrambling, and the day was cloudy so Opie actually enjoyed this hike a fair bit.

Hiking the Dakota Ridge/Red Rocks trail

Plus a nice bonus was the small creek halfway through the hike so Opie was able to wallow in the water to cool down. The Dakota Ridge trail walks along the top of Hogback Ridge (I have no idea why it isn’t called Hogback Ridge trail, but I digress) and provides some nice views of the Red Rocks amphitheater and surrounding areas. It’s a popular bike trail so we did have to keep a sharp lookout for oncoming bikes so we wouldn’t clothesline them with Opie’s leash. Like most of our hikes, the trail started almost empty in the morning but by 11am, there were a lot more families, bikes, and trail runners out and about. I much prefer empty trails and cooler weather so getting up early is really worth the extra privacy and quiet we gain.

Opie found this creek-crossing halfway along the hike quite rejuvenating!

Hiking the Dakota Ridge/Red Rocks trail

Next stops in our travel plans are Colorado Springs and Santa Fe… but then our plans wiggled again…

Draper Natural History Museum in the Buffalo Bill Center

The museum has various free programs through the day, including a raptor program, people of the west, Yellowstone history, and wildlife of the west. We joined the wildlife of the west tour which takes about an hour (or a little longer if you have a very enthusiastic docent like we did). Our guide talked about the history of bison and how Indians used to catch them before horses – chasing them over cliffs and harvesting all the parts needed to survive. The often controversial wolves and the results of reintroduction into the Yellowstone ecosphere. This is fascinating since ranchers and hunters in the area hate wolves but wolves also help curb prey population, allow trees to grow (less prey grazing in the open) which brings back birds and often anchors river banks from erosion, etc. They obviously make a positive difference to an ecosystem and are protected within the Yellowstone area but they are fair game once they leave the boundaries.

The specimens on display typically died of natural causes, injuries, or other unavoidable means.

He also talked about bears (difference between grizzlies and black bears), wolverines (often difficult to find in the wild), and small mammals that are losing their habitat due to climate changes in the upper elevations of Yellowstone. The tour traveled through the natural history, plains Indians, and the art museums and the docent did a fabulous job tying everything together into the history of wildlife in the area. Excellent tour, if you’re in the museum, definitely take advantage of the free programs, they really provide some great information. By the way, all the animals on display were either confiscated from poachers, found dead by the park service, or donated.

After the tour, we finished off the natural history museum (our favorite) and went through the Buffalo Bill museum. William F. Cody (aka Buffalo Bill) was probably one of the most well-known figures of the old Wild West. He created Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in the 1880s, a traveling showcase of cowboy themes, horse tricks, races, and sideshows. The show included people like Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane and Sitting Bull and traveled the US and even throughout Europe from the 1880s until 1908.

Rover at Steinaker State Park, Vernal UT

William Cody was instrumental in creating the town of Cody, WY with the hopes that the proximity of Yellowstone and newly opened rail line would bring throngs of tourists. What I found most surprising was that Buffalo Bill wholly supported women’s rights and and Native American rights which seems so unexpected in the late 1800s. He famously said of women, “What we want to do is give women even more liberty than they have. Let them do any kind of work they see fit, and if they do it as well as men, give them the same pay.” He once said of Native Americans, “every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government.” There’s a lot of great information about William Cody and his show at the museum and we spent a fair bit of time in that area. We did skip the Firearms section and the Art Gallery. While they are probably outstanding, they just don’t interest us as much as the other museums. If you’re in Cody (or nearby), this is an excellent museum for just about anyone.

Timeline of the rock layers at Dinosaur National Monument.

After Cody, we headed to Vernal UT right near the border of Utah and Colorado. Vernal is known as Dinosaur Land due to the location of a quarry rich with dinosaur fossils, now Dinosaur National Monument. (There is a UT entrance and a CO entrance, be aware that you can only access the dinosaur quarry from the UT entrance.) The fossil bed was discovered in 1909 by Earl Douglass, a paleontologist and declared a National Monument by Woodrow Wilson in 1915. Earl Douglass and his team were able to excavate thousands of fossils and ship them off for further studies. They believe these remains are from the Jurassic period, 150 million years ago. The theory is that during a drought many dinosaurs died near a river’s edge. After the drought ended, floodwaters carried the bones of over 500 dinosaurs into one area which were then covered by river sediment. Over time, the riverbed was uplifted, tilted almost vertically, and eroded until the fossil layer was exposed enough to be discovered.

The Wall of Bones at Dinosaur National Monument

While thousands of bones have been excavated, there is still a “Wall of Bones” protected by the quarry building for visitors to see. It reminds me a bit of Mammoth Hot Springs where the fossils have been chipped away and you can still see the bones sticking out of the area. There’s even a small area where you are allowed to touch some of the embedded bones. There are some damn big bones here!

Replica of dinosaur Discovered at Dinosaur National Monument

After gawking at the big bones, we took a drive along Cub Creek Rd. There’s a great auto guidebook for the road, either at the visitor’s center or at the start of the road ($1 donation requested). There are some well-preserved petroglyphs created by indigenous folks, some up to 7,000 years old! There’s one long wall of petroglyphs created around 1,000 years ago by the Fremont people. We took a short but steep walk for a closer look at the wall and found many symbols, animals, and people carved all over the area.

Petroglyphs along Cub Creek Rd (including close-up of 6-foot long lizard).

There’s also some great stop points along the route that explain how/why the uplifting occurred in the area and why the Green River split the mountain in half (instead of finding a way around the obstacle). The last stop on the road is Josephine Morris’ home. This outstanding woman lived by herself out in the middle of nowhere from 1914 until 1964 when she slipped on ice while feeding her horse. She broke her hip, dragged herself to her house where friends found her a couple days later. She was taken to the hospital and never returned back to her home. She died that spring at 89. Josephine Morris took care of her home, livestock, and herself until she was 89. It boggles my mind, especially since I can’t even kill a bug by myself!

The house that Josephine Morris built and lived in.

We also found a easy dog-friendly hike to dinosaur tracks at the nearby Red Fleet Dinosaur Trackway. It’s an easy 3 mile out-and-back trail down to the reservoir where there are fossilized dinosaur tracks around the edge.

Hiking to the Red Fleet Dinosaur Trackway

Depending on the water levels, some of the tracks are underwater but there are signs posted around the edges with maps of the tracks. We were able to find a few set of tracks but I think most of them were under water at the time. It was a very neat experience to find the prints and imagine dinosaurs walking in those spots so long ago!

Opie checking out some dinosaur tracks.

Our next drive to Grand Junction CO took us over Douglas Pass, a steep twisty mountain road. While doable in the motorhome, it was a very “technical” drive, with tight turns, narrow lanes, and careful speed management on the way down. We found the drive interesting enough that we made a short video of the highlights from our dash cam on Rover:

After that drive it was nice to arrive at Colorado River State Park (Fruita Section) in Grand Junction CO to relax for a week and a half. It was over 100ºF during our stay, but Opie loves the Colorado River and has swum in so many parts of it that we’re thinking of making a map of all the places he’s sampled its waters!

Opie cooling off at Colorado River State Park

Rover relaxing after a long, tough, mountain pass drive.

Montezuma Castle National Monument

The name Montezuma Castle is a misnomer. The cliff dwellings were discovered by Europeans hundreds of years after they were abandoned and the explorers thought the dwellings were somehow connected to the Aztec emperor, Montezuma. The cliff dwellings are about 90 feet up, nestled securely within an alcove which probably explains why they’ve survived so well over time. There’s a short paved trail with some informational plaques but they stopped allowing visitors inside the dwellings after 1951 to protect the site.

Montezuma Well

From the Castle, it’s a short drive to Montezuma Well. There is another short paved path that leads to the well with stairs that lead down and next to the waters. You can see some cliff dwellings around the well, plus some interesting historical graffiti. People have been visiting the Well since the late 1800’s and would sometimes write advertisements on the walls for nearby businesses. I guess it’s human nature to draw/write on anything. Another 1000 years and those advertisements will no longer qualify as graffiti but as pictographs.

Graffiti from the late 1800s.

With clean clothes, sheets, and towels, we headed north to the Land of Red Dust. Last year, we spent a couple of weeks in Sedona and loved it. There are so many incredible dog-friendly trails that we wanted to come back this year to hike a few more. Last year we stayed in town at Rancho Sedona RV Park for a week. It is right in town so you have access to all the amenities of the town but it’s expensive and still a fair drive to get to most of the trailheads. This year we (and by “we” I mean Mike) decided to find a good boondocking site right outside of Sedona.

Our pretty awesome boondocking site.

There is one main unpaved Forest Service Road (FR 525) that most boondockers use and after scouting it with the car, we found a great spot to hang out for a week. The spot was large, with a great view, and most importantly, a strong cell signal. The dirt road to get to the site is full of ruts, bumps, and washboard sections, making the drive slow and challenging. After a LONG 4.7 miles, we made it to our site and just basked in the views. When we first arrived, there was only one other RV there but over the next few days, more meandered in until we were a little neighborhood. It turns our one of our neighbors was Away We Winnebago, fellow bloggers who we’d followed online but never met in person before, and camping with them were American Landlopers who we’re following now.

Our main limiting factor when boondocking is finding a fresh water supply. We’ll usually scout the town and see if we can find an open spigot somewhere we can get potable water to fill our portable 5-gallon water tote. We found that the Bashas’ supermarket in Sedona has 24/7 water dispensers for 15 cents/gallon, but our tote was too tall to fit in their dispenser. Fortunately, right next door was The Water Store where they filled our tote for 35 cents/gallon. Since Rover’s water tank holds 70 gallons and we’ve gotten good at conserving water, we only filled up our 5-gallon tote once during our week-long stay, and found we didn’t even need to do that (but it’s always nice to have a little extra water).

On the electricity side of things, our solar panels did a great job keeping us powered up… until we had a couple cloudy days in a row. While we still got decent solar energy through the clouds, it wasn’t enough to offset the greedy demands of our residential refrigerator, so we ran our generator for an hour or two a couple of mornings to give our old lead-acid batteries a much-needed boost.

Watching the balloons pass overhead.

I loved boondocking in Sedona. We were surrounded by mountains and we saw hot air balloons around us almost every morning. We even had an unexpected balloon visitor one morning when they set down right in our neighborhood. Unfortunately we also experienced the loud engines and dust of jeep tours and ATVs driving down the road but since our camping side was away from the road, Rover was a nice dust-block (as long as the windows were closed!)

A few days into our stay, this balloon landed right in our boondocking area!

Last year, since we were camped in Sedona proper, we did some dining and exploring inside the town. Since we aren’t much for towns and city sightseeing, we skipped it this time around and spent almost all our time hiking some new and fun trails…

… to be continued

Since we were already at Quartzsite, Los Algodones was the closest option for us. Also Los Algodones seems to be the most popular choice for most RV’ers which means there was a lot more information online regarding dentists and people’s experience.

Walking through Los Algodones to our dentist’s office.

Yeah, I know, it’s Mexico and it’s cheap which sounds pretty shady. Like dentists in the US, it’s important that you do your research before you randomly pick someone. I’ve certainly had bad and good dentists in the US and it’s the same thing in Mexico. Surprisingly, many of the dentists in Los Algodones have either received their dental education within the US or else continue their education through US accredited universities. There is a lot of good information online regarding mexican dentists: What Clinic and Dental Departures provide reviews, rv bloggers often post their own experiences, and even tripadvisor has a Los Algodones forum.

Since I had to get two implants done (let this be a lesson to those who eat WAY too many sweets!), I did a fair bit of research to hopefully avoid becoming one of the horror stories I read online. We decided to visit Dr. Eva Urena (well-liked and highly rated from everywhere I checked) and the periodontist that works in her office, Dr. Luis Barrera. She is awfully popular so it’s necessary to make an appointment at least a few weeks in advance. We were very pleased with her office, personnel, and (so far) the dental work.

The courtyard to our dentist’s office.

Getting into Los Algodones is easy. There is a large parking lot on the U.S. side run by the Quechan Indian Tribe and it’s $6 to park the car for the day. From there, you literally walk across the border and that’s it. Los Algodones is only around one square mile and caters to tourists so you’ll find all sorts of vendors, hawkers, and of course dental, pharmacy and vision businesses. Some of the restaurants smelled great, but when you’re jacked up on Novocain it’s never fun to eat so we had to pass on trying the food. The town feels very safe and we did notice various military personnel around the perimeter. Since it’s such a huge source of income, I’m assuming the Mexican government doesn’t want any incidents to scare off the tourists.

Even getting from Los Algodones back to the US isn’t that difficult, just make sure you have your passport. The line at customs moves pretty quickly and usually we waited less than ten minutes, though once when we returned in the late afternoon the line was very long and took around an hour.

Since implant work takes a few trips, we had to stick around Yuma for about three weeks. Instead of staying in one place, we decided to split it between a resort and boondocking. The resort was great since they had a nice hot tub and pool, plus fast wifi at the main area which meant I was able to update all my apps (sometimes it’s the small things in life that mean so much). Then we spent some time boondocking and enjoying some quiet time without others nearby.

We did get to experience our first rodeo while in Yuma. It’s different and definitely something to enjoy but I think once was enough for us. We watched the bucking broncos, bull riding, steer roping, trick riding, barrel racing, but I think we liked the mutton busting the best! Mutton busting is where 3-5 year olds ride a sheep until they fall off. These kids are made of some serious stuff; after falling, most just got up and shook it off. Here’s a short video:

Yuma’s weather makes it a peak destination for snowbirds in the winter. We’ve been here two winters now and definitely agree the weather is perfect. Unfortunately we have to be back in the summer to follow-up with more implant work. That means experiencing 110+ degrees and hoping the RV will stay cool enough with both air conditioners running full-time… but it’s a dry heat, right?

Average Monthly Temperatures

Wondering where to spend the winter months in your RV? Aeris Weather provides a series of maps showing the normal high, low, and average temperatures across the U.S. for each month. You can zoom into various regions (like “Pacific Northwest”) to see more detailed data. For example, below is their map of average high temperatures nationwide in January. http://wx.aerisweather.com/maps/climate/normals/normmax/01/us.html

U.S. Water Hardness

Concerned about hard water in your RV? Find out where you might need to use a water softener. There are quite a few water hardness maps out there and they don’t always agree, but here’s one example to start with:

Light Pollution / Night Sky Darkness

Zoom into any area in the world to see what the local light pollution levels are. The less light pollution, the more amazing the night sky will be! http://www.lightpollutionmap.info/

Noise Pollution / Peace and Quiet

Want to find someplace really quiet to camp? The National Parks Service has measured ambient noise levels at 600 listening posts and generated a model covering the entire country. Download an extremely high-resolution PDF version to check out specific places. http://www.nature.nps.gov/sound/soundmap.cfm

North American Time Zones

Is traveling back and forth across North America getting confusing? Get a handle on time zones with this map. Just keep in mind that Arizona does not follow Daylight Saving Time, so during the summer it matches the time in California, and during the winter it matches the time in Colorado!

U.S. Gas Prices

Added November 9, 2015: We all need gas, and with the GasBuddy price map you can figure out which state to fill up in, and which station has the best price. Special thanks to commenter geraldz for suggesting the gas map.

Sun Angle Calculator

Added November 14, 2015: If you rely on solar panels for energy when boondocking, it can be helpful to know the position of the sun throughout the day. If you tilt your panels, parking your rig so the panels face the sun can make a big difference in solar energy gathered. Just enter your location into the SunCalc map to get a view of the sun’s position relative to you throughout the day! http://suncalc.net/

Do you have other suggestions of maps to help RVers? If so, share your favorites with us and other visitors in the comments!