Opie came to us at 18 months old and with high energy. We loved him so much as a foster dog that we just had to adopt him, even with all that energy. His original name was “Panther” but we were determined to change that! After trying a multitude of names, Mike flippantly suggested “Optimus Prime” which I nixed immediately. A friend of ours then suggested O.P. mostly as a joke, but then when said out loud, it turned into Opie which we both really liked. The name worked perfectly for all generations since he could have been named after the Andy Griffith Show’s Opie, or Optimus Prime of the Transformers, or Sons of Anarchy’s Opie.

This dog LOVED to chase the ball but he did have one quirk. Once he chased one ball, he would “lock” onto that ball and would not chase any others. That became a hassle at dog parks when another dog would take his ball and Opie would REFUSE to play with any other ball but would stare at us eagerly for us to throw the right ball. If we got his original ball back, he would refuse to retrieve it because it was now contaminated. Opie was also our most fanatical water dog. When we first got him, he jumped right into the hot tub with us because it looked like a pool to him. We set up a kiddie pool in our backyard and he was always in it. Even if the pool only had a few inches, Opie would lay on his side and kick and wiggle to get as wet as possible and come out with a big grin on his face. No matter where we were, if there was water (including mud puddles), Opie would wallow on it.

During our RV travels, Opie loved all the places we visited. It gave him a chance to sniff many new spots and mark so much more territory. Opie’s higher energy made us take longer and longer daily walks; however he would still get restless so we started to hike with him. It started small, just a couple of miles maybe once or twice a week which settled him down. But we made a terrible miscalculation! Instead of tiring him out, we increased his endurance and stamina so we had to increase our hiking distance and frequency. Before we knew it, we were taking 5-8 mile hikes a couple times a week and his daily walks had also increased. Mike also planned our campground stops either at county or state parks with a lot of walking trails, or nearby hiking trails. Due to Opie, we visited some amazing hiking spots like Sedona AZ (one of our favorite hiking spots), Ouray CO, and many national forests. Thanks to Opie, Mike and I found a new appreciation of National Parks by hiking their many trails.

One of my favorite Opie hiking memories is climbing Mt. Bierstadt, one of the “easier” 14’ers in Colorado. A 14’er is a mountain with a peak over 14,000 ft in elevation. Due to the higher elevation and lack of oxygen, Mike and I had to take lots of breaks to catch our breath. Opie had no such issue, he would happily find random other hikers and walk with them for a little while before coming back to us to see what was taking so long. By the time we finally reached the peak, the hikers there recognized and greeted Opie like an old friend. I’m sure Opie walked twice the distance that we did and ended up only half as tired as us.

Unfortunately Opie’s heart had no space for squirrels, groundhogs, and cats. His favorite activity at Tucson campgrounds were to find groundhog burrows and dig furiously until his muzzle and paws were coated in dust. I’m sure the groundhogs had a great laugh at Opie’s expense. Even as Opie got much older and slower, a squirrel’s chirp would still immediately catch his attention and he would frantically look for his arch-enemy.

Opie was our first (and hopefully last) “Boop”-ing dog. One day, Opie gently touched my leg with his nose while we were eating. I looked down and he was staring at me so cutely, I did the natural thing… I gave him some food. His food-motivated brain realized he had hit the jackpot so the booping dog was born. Opie’s booping (increasing in frequency and force whenever I ignored him) became a regular fixture in the RV, house, and car. I’m surprised his nose never developed calluses from the amount of booping. If I ignored him, he would get desperate enough to boop Mike which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. Opie’s booping still makes me smile.

When we settled back into a house, Opie was thrilled to finally have full-sized windows to stare out of. He loved to lounge on the dog bed in Mike’s office and watch the neighborhood’s goings-on. In his golden years, Opie was happy to relax and take life at a slower pace. He still loved his daily walks and would immediately rush over doing a little happy dance when it was time to go out but he was also happy to be near us, nap on a comfy dog bed, and boop us if we had food nearby. Opie made so many friends on our travels—dogs and people alike—and many people still ask after him even after we’ve settled back down.

Over the past six months, Opie’s health began to truly decline. He had a lot of hind end weakness and muscle atrophy, but his GI issues were also getting worse. Opie caught pneumonia (for the second time) and vestibular disease (for the second time) and his body just couldn’t fight anymore. We put him to rest on August 21st. Opie added so much to our lives and we will miss him terribly.

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.

Thank all the RV gods, there was a week between convergences. That extra week allowed us to re-charge our introvert batteries, tackle the never-ending chores/maintenance list, and get ready for another 10 days of hanging out with people. This is Xscapers’ second annual Mexico convergence to San Felipe. It’s a good destination since it’s only around 140 miles south of the border and RVs are able to make it there and back on one tank of fuel (apparently fuel quality in Mexico is hit-or-miss). Since the attendance is capped by the limited number of spots (~50 rigs) at the RV park, the convergence sold out within a day of opening! The part that really sold us on the Mexico trip? We all would meet at a mall in El Centro, California the night before and convoy together to San Felipe in the morning.

We needed to purchase a travel visa online and get supplementary Mexico driver’s insurance for the RV and car before the meetup. Border regulations states you also need a health certificate for animals signed by a licensed vet within 7 days of arriving at the border but those who have been across the border says border agents have never ask for the certificate. Since the Yuma vet wanted $80 for the health certificate, we decided to be rebels and forgo the certificate (border patrol never asked for it).

Once at the border, we were treated like rock stars! The mayors of Mexicali and San Felipe met our caravan at the border to welcome all of us. Once the schmoozing was complete, we passed through the border quickly and even had a big police escort through Mexicali! The escort wasn’t for safety but for convenience. Trying to keep 50 rigs together through a busy city is impossible, so the police would race ahead to each traffic light and hold all traffic until we passed through, then the next set of escorts would leapfrog ahead until we made it through Mexicali, non-stop! From Mexicali, it was an easy drive south to San Felipe. It was a tight fit but we all made it into Victor’s RV park. Mike was able to book us into the full hookup area (yay electricity and water!) which could only hold a handful of the larger RVs like ours; many of the attendees were in the boondocking area exercising their solar panels and water conservation skills.

Victor’s RV park is located right on the beach so it’s a 30-second walk from the RV to the beach to enjoy the sun, sand, and surf anytime. They even have a little restaurant with cheap and tasty eats and drinks and the main town waterfront was an easy 10 minute walk. We spent many of our afternoons here playing games, drinking, and eating.

A couple days into our stay, Opie decided to make things more interesting, and not in a fun way. During the previous week in Yuma, we noticed Opie started limping, probably due to all the activity at the dog park playing with his new besties, Porthos and Connor. We assumed it was a sprain and limited his activity. In actuality, Opie had partially torn his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) which holds and stabilizes a dog’s back knee. Then Opie got on the beach in San Felipe and completed the job by chasing some birds. We took him to the local vet who did some leg manipulation and confirmed that Opie had torn his ACL. Since San Felipe is a small town, they don’t have the facility for X-rays or surgery so we would have to wait until we got back to the States, and just put him on a severe activity restriction.

Torn ACL is actually pretty common among Labradors and we have experience with it from our previous dogs and fosters. We knew it wasn’t an emergency and just needed to reduce Opie’s activity and inflammation/pain until we could get him to a surgeon. Too bad Opie didn’t understand why he couldn’t go to the beach, take long walks, or run off-leash! While we spent more time indoors than expected due to his injury, we still had time to hang out with other Xscapers. Luckily a few of the gamers from the Annual Bash were also at the Mexico convergence which meant lots more gaming right by the ocean! We learned more new games and taught a few others, and had a great time.

One of the Xscapers brought his RZR and set up an ATV event for anyone interested. It sounded like a lot of fun so Mike and I joined about 25 other people for a half day of zooming around San Felipe off-roading through dirt trails and beaches. This was the first time for me on an ATV and I didn’t realize how fast those things can go! It also takes a lot of core muscles (unfortunately mine are the consistency of jello) to stay stabilized over the washboard trails and tight turns. We had a fantastic time and I would love to do that again; however my body and I were not on speaking terms for the next few days as it was very angry with my attempts to act like a 25-year old.

Since the Mexico convergence was significantly smaller than the Annual Bash, it was much easier to meet new people and hang out, plus the restaurants and clubs were within walking distance, so there was much eating, drinking, and being merry.

The 10 days passed pretty quickly and it was time to go home. A few of the smaller rigs decided to go further south into Baja for exploring but the rest of us packed up for the convoy back to the States. Getting back into the States was just as easy, probably because US Customs really didn’t want 50 RVs to back up the queue to get into the US. After scanning our passports, they let us back in and it was time to take care of Opie. We re-arranged our plans so we could stay in one place for five weeks so Opie could have his surgery, recovery, and follow-ups with the same veterinarian. Off to Las Vegas we went!

We really enjoyed both the Annual Bash and Mexico convergence. There’s a lot of camaraderie and inclusion at Xscaper meetups. I preferred the Mexico convergence due to its smaller size. While there are more activities at the Annual Bash, the laid-back atmosphere and smaller group of the Mexico convergence appeals to me. If our schedule works out, I think we’ll try to sign up for the Mexico convergence for next year. Hopefully Opie will be able to take advantage of the beach next time!

Xscapers is an offshoot of the Escapees RV Club. Xscapers was created to cater towards the working-aged RVers. It’s not age-related but more a state-of-mind, plus since many Xscapers work during the day, most activities occur in the late afternoon and throughout the evenings. There’s a lot of drinking, 4×4 adventures, hiking, parties, dancing, bonfires, and camaraderie. Xscapers started about 4 years ago and we attended their first convergence when it was only about 20 of us boondocking in Quartzsite. In the ensuing years, the group has exploded in popularity and the convergences often number in the hundreds.

We did have some friends give us the side-eye when we mentioned we were attending the bash. “Aren’t you guys introverts? You’re going to a convergence with 500 other people? Have you hit your head?” While true that over 300 rigs/500 people registered for the Annual Bash (AB) and we would all be corralled closely in the Lake Havasu Fairgrounds, Mike and I could always escape into our RV and turn out the lights if we went into people overload. We really wanted to experience an Xscapers Annual Bash since many people raved about how much fun Xscaper convergences had become.

After our week stay in Yuma where we did our regular dental visit across the border in Los Algodones and recharged mentally for a week of socializing, we made it to the Lake Havasu Rodeo Grounds to meet up with 500 other RVers. There’s a great blog entry on the Xscapers page about the annual bash, so I don’t need to go into the nitty-gritty. There were planned and unplanned activities for the whole week and the nice thing is we could do whatever appealed to us.

Many Xscapers have dogs and there was a daily morning dog walk from the fairgrounds to the nearby dog park and lots of nearby trails for the dogs. Opie isn’t a “walk in a group with other dogs” kind of dog, so we only did the morning dog walk the first day, realizing that Opie prefers to meander at his own pace and causes all sorts of traffic jams behind him. We (and probably all the other dogs and owners) were much happier walking our own path along the multitude of trails around the fairgrounds.

The three of us also enjoyed a nice morning hike on Lizard Peak Trail to the top of the nearby butte. The trail is a bit of a huffer as it ascends 600 ft in about 0.5 miles. Halfway up this switchback, there’s a dead-end side spur that gave us a great view of the giant stone lizard someone created on the floor of the canyon.

After most of the ascent, we reached the worst part of our hike. There is a set of three ledges that have to be climbed up and over. The first one was high enough that I needed a boost from Mike which meant they were way too high for Opie. Between Mike lifting Opie from the bottom and me grabbing Opie from the top (and a lot of patience from Opie) we were able to get him onto the ledge without breaking any bones. We’ve had to lift Opie over boulders before but 4-5 feet into the air is a new record for us!

We made it to the top (where someone had actually hauled up a picnic table) and enjoyed the panoramic views. We then continued on the trail and discovered the other side of the trail is less steep with no ledges so it’s a much better route if you have dogs; however there is no view of the stone gecko from this side of the trail.

One of our favorite meetups involved finding new tabletop gamers! There was an evening meetup for gamers where we met new people. From then on, we met regularly every evening in various RVs to learn (and covet) new games and introduce some of our games to others. We made it out of our comfort zone to attend a few seminars, potluck dinner, and even the dance rave on the last night (briefly)!

Xscapers Rallys are what you make of them. The people are incredibly friendly and will welcome you into the group but it does take effort to join in. It’s also easy to find a small group of people and just spend time with them. In the case of the Annual Bash, I found it was hard to join some of the bigger activities simply due to the huge number of people in attendance (many who already know each other) but if you can find others who share the same interest as you, it becomes easier to mingle. We knew only a few people before we came to the bash but we left with several new friends and that is a huge success in my (very introverted) world.

Overall we enjoyed the AB and everything it had to offer. We will probably try to attend more Xscapers convergences in the future if our plans and locations mesh up, and especially if we have friends who we know we’ll cross paths with there.

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.

We also ended up using this time to add solar panels to R2. When we originally bought R2, we waffled about adding solar. R2 is an all-electric coach (no propane) and quite an electricity hog. We also found that we don’t boondock (camp without hookups) often; however we did have some “off-grid” plans for the winter in Lake Havasu and Sedona for multiple weeks and we wanted some sort of renewable energy without having to run our generator for hours everyday. Even if we conserve by not watching TV or running any appliances, our big residential refrigerator is slowly draining our battery reserves all day and night.

On Rover we added 600 watts of panels (six 100-watt panels). For R2 we doubled that to 1200 watts (six larger 200-watt panels). We’ll still need to run the generator once in a while during the winter when the sun is low on the horizon and the days are short, but it’ll definitely be an improvement over multiple hours every day without the panels. Thanks to our previous experience installing panels on Rover, and the solar wire pre-installed during R2’s build, our solar panel install went smoothly and easily.

Usually after the holidays we head south to Florida, then west to the warmth of Arizona. This year we made other arrangements: after Thanksgiving we headed north to Shipshewana, Indiana. Yeah, not really a smart choice for December, but we had a good reason, really! Ever since we moved into R2, we’ve been disappointed with the main sofa in our living room across from the TV. It’s a sleeper sofa which makes it uncomfortable to start, and in addition, the back is nearly vertical and the seat cushion length is so short neither of us could get comfortable on it long enough to watch a movie.

Tiffin did have an upgrade option for reclining “theater seats” but those were two separate chairs with a table in between, which just doesn’t work for us. I prefer a full length sofa for a number of reasons: 1) I can nap stretched out on the sofa, 2) if we have company over, 3-4 people can sit, and 3) most important, Opie can hog share the couch with us.

This year, we discovered Lambright Comfort Chairs in Indiana builds a full-length sofa that fits into our small space, the two end seats recline, and the middle can fold down into a table. The only disadvantage is losing the fold-out bed option which means our friends will have to be comfortable on the airbed on the floor (sorry friends, apparently our comfort is more important than yours!).

Unfortunately we hit some freezing cold weather on our drive to Indiana and ran out of boiler fluid in our diesel Aqua-Hot furnace while driving. Since the boiler fluid is essential to heating R2 when it’s below 40 degrees (our heat pump won’t work when it’s that cold), it was imperative to find more before moving on, especially to keep our water pipes from freezing. Fortunately Shipshewana is right next to Elkhart, the RV capital of the US. After several calls we found an RV service shop who could refill our boiler fluid before we all turned into ice cubes!

After a cold, long two-day drive to Shipshewana, we spent a night nearby and arrived at Lambright just before dawn for our install.

After our quick sofa install, we drove cross-country in record time (for us) and arrived in Albuquerque to visit our friends Lanni and Ben. Originally full-time RV’ers, they’d just found a house in ABQ to use as a home base. They plan to still travel part-time but for now they are spending some time working on their home. They are fabulous hosts and we extended our stay an extra week because we were having such a great time!

They are our gaming soulmates which meant ridiculous amounts of gaming (and drinking… and eating…) but we also put together our first lego set, an x-wing fighter, which was great fun! Lanni is a fantastic baker and Ben a great cook which meant we ate a lot more than our pants permitted but it was totally worth it! As a bonus, Andrea and Shawn were in ABQ so we were able to meet up with them for food and socializing too.

There was gaming…

There was eating…

And there was our first Lego project!

Even with all the gaming, eating, and socializing, we had time to enjoy touristy fun activities. We took a nice stroll through old town ABQ, the historical and cultural heart of ABQ. We spent some time perusing the art and of course had to take a detour into the gourmet chocolate store.

We also visited Petroglyph National Monument, one of the largest petroglyph sites in the US, containing approximately 24,000 images carved by ancestral Pueblo people and early Spanish settlers. There are four hiking trails in the area. Boca Negra Canyon, the most popular hike, does not allow dogs but Rinconada Canyon allows dogs and contains 300 petroglyphs. Rinconada Canyon trail is relatively flat and less than 2.5 miles so it’s a good easy walk for most everyone. Bring some binocular as the trail skirts along the right side of the canyon wall and some petroglyphs are difficult to see due to distance and height.

We also took a day trip to visit Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. Meow Wolf is an art installation created and maintained by employees and artists. It’s an immersive experience where people are encouraged to touch, read, and investigate everything. There is an overall storyline or you can also enjoy each area individually. We spent about 4 hours visiting Meow Wolf and perusing all the various rooms, clues, storylines and I still felt like there was a lot I missed. It’s reminiscent of an escape room but mixed with art (visual, tactile, and auditory). It’s imaginative, different, and worth a visit if you’re near the area. Basically it’s weird and fun!

After our fun and food-filled 2 weeks in ABQ, it was time to finally move on to warmth at one of our favorite spots in Tucson, AZ.

We drove the length of the park and stopped at various overlooks with views of the river and various waterfalls but the majority of the sites were located south, including the three large waterfalls (creatively named Upper, Middle, and Lower falls), museum, and visitors center. Since all three waterfalls are relatively close together, a short easy walk along the trail allowed us to view all three while Opie enjoyed the sniffing/peeing opportunities.

While crowds tend to flock to the big three waterfalls, I enjoyed the Wolf Creek cascading waterfalls, located further north. The Genesse River falls 225 feet through this area over wide ravines in 4 different sections. We could only see parts of the cascades on the Gorge trail and the Wolf Creek overlook but I loved the look of the cascades as it flowed over the rocks. It reminded me of a giant open waterslide, except for the imminent death waiting at the bottom of the falls. We enjoyed Letchworth State Park but we covered all the interesting areas within 2 days of driving and hiking; six days is overkill.

After all this nature, it was time to assuage our adrenaline addiction with a trip back to the rollercoaster mecca, Cedar Point Park in Sandusky OH. Boasting 17 roller coasters, Cedar Point has six coasters higher than 200 ft, and is the only amusement park with a coaster in each height category: kiddie, hyper (200ft), giga (300ft), and strata (400ft). Since we love coasters, we try to visit Cedar Point every 3-4 years. This year, we spent two full days at the park (three nights at the campground). That allowed us to try all the coasters we wanted and to repeat favorites. Since we find the experience often differs in the front and back seats, we tried almost all rides twice to see which experience was better. More importantly, staying at Cedar Point’s campground got us into the park an hour early each day so we could ride the newest coaster with only a half-hour wait instead of the 3-4 hour wait it turned into when the main gates opened.

*Warning, the rest of this blog is geared towards coaster-fiends. If this isn’t your thing, you may find it boring.

In the last 7-8 years, a new type of coaster has been making the rounds. Called a steel/wood hybrid coaster, the ride often marries an old wooden coaster track with a new type of steel track (ibox). This allows a super-smooth steel ride but still has a wooden coaster identity due to the structure. Since it is a steel coaster, all kinds of great inversions, corkscrews, and barrel rolls can be done which feels freaky on a wooden coaster frame. We’ve ridden several hybrid coasters in the last couple years and they have become our new favorite coaster.

For 2018, Cedar Point opened a new steel hybrid called Steel Vengeance. Built on the old Mean Streak wooden coaster frame, Steel Vengeance broke 10 world records when it opened, including tallest (205ft), fastest (74mph), steepest (90 degrees), and longest drop (200ft) hybrid coaster. At 2min and 30sec (5740ft), it’s also the longest hybrid coaster and it really did feel like it went on for a long time! We enjoyed the front seat since it gives great views of the tracks, twists, and turns but the back seats are the best on this one with the super-fast speed and it never stops moving. Steel Vengeance was truly an awesome ride.

We had to also hit Millenium Force, a traditional favorite and the world’s first gigacoaster (300ft). On this ride, the back is ok but feels surprisingly tame after all these years. The front seats are the best for this ride. We feel faster in the front and both of us also experienced narrowing of vision during the first banked turn, apparently common due to the sustained g forces at the beginning of the ride (but that just made the whole experience even cooler!). Mike even did a new trick of catching a gnat in his teeth on this ride!

We were disappointed with Rougarou, the floorless coaster. We rode it when it first came out a few years ago but it’s become bumpy and with the restraints close to the head, we ended up with headaches from banging our heads during the turns and twists. Even though it’s only a few years old, it feels like an old coaster. We were also really sad that Magnum has become a “no go” for us moving forward. Magnum, build in ’89, was the first hypercoaster (200 ft) and we’ve enjoyed it every time we visit. Due to its age, Magnum is now WAY too rough and herky-jerky. In the front car, we often felt like the back was pushing us around and the car felt very jumpy on the track. We both ended up with headaches and the ride only has lap bars!

Top Thrill Dragster, built in 2003, was the tallest coaster at the time and is currently only one of two strata coasters (400 ft). The train is hydraulically launched and moves from 0-120 in 3.8 seconds to climb straight up to 420ft. It’s a great thrill coaster and we think the beginning is the best part of the ride. Both the back and front are great seats for this ride but after 15 years, the track is more bumpy and rough than the last time we rode it.

Maverick is steel coaster that uses linear induction to send the train over the top and halfway through the track. It makes for a smooth quick ride. We did both the front and back seats. The back seats feel faster but we enjoyed the front seats more due to the visibility of the twists and turns.

Valravn is currently the tallest, fastest, longest dive coaster in the world. Dive coasters contain only three rows of seats but 10 seats per row. It also stops the train at the bend of the first 90 degree hill which allows the passengers to look straight down before the train releases for the rest of the ride. Valravn pauses for 4 seconds at the bend of the first hill and then descends 214 ft. The front row gives a perfect view of staring straight down while paused but we found the back a lot more fun since the first drop feels weightless. Overall a really good ride with greed speed and turns.

Now the best for last, Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper, built in 2013, is a wing coaster where pairs of passengers sit on either side of the track with nothing above or below the passenger. Because there is nothing below or above, it feels almost like free-flying. Like suspended coasters, the only seats worth doing are the front seats. Every other seat is obscured by the seat in front but the front gives complete visibility and the sense of nothing around. I love coasters, I love the thrill and stomach-drops, I love the height, inversions, corkscrews, banked turns, bunny hills and completely immerse myself in the experience. Gatekeeper was the only coaster at Cedar Point where I loved the ride but also felt actual fear. I rode in the seat furthest away from the track and therefore felt like there was nothing around me at all. During the loops, spins, and dives, the seat swings away from the track and I feel like I was going to get flung out into space. Mike started laughing during the ride since my usual screams of glee had turned into screams of fear during some of the twists and turns. After the ride finished, Mike couldn’t stop laughing at how hard I screamed during the ride. With the exception of Tatsu in Magic Mountain, this is the only coaster that gave me fear-sweats. I’m so ready to do it again!

And that is how we ended our East Coast tour for 2018. After Cedar Point, we went south to Red Bay to finish off any last warranty work before heading back to the DC area to visit family and friends for Thanksgiving.

Dog Mountain is home to the Stephen Huneck gallery. Stephen Huneck is known for his paintings and carvings of dogs and had built a Dog Chapel on his property in 1997 after a near-death experience. The dog chapel is dedicated to dogs and everyone is welcome to leave notes and pictures in remembrance of their deceased dogs. Dog Mountain is open to all dogs and people and contains a lake, open meadows, the gallery, dog chapel, and trails meandering through 150 acres of land. They also host events and parties, including the summer music series where we were able to enjoy some bluegrass music.

Which one of these is not like the others…

Dog Mountain is owned and operated through a non-profit and they depend on donations and sales. With all the great artwork on shirts, prints, and mugs, it was easy for us to buy a few souvenirs and support Dog Mountain at the same time. I’m sure if we didn’t live in an RV, I would have bought a LOT more from their gallery. We came back a second time since our RV friends Susan and Ken (and their black lab, Jazzy) were in the same area and we were excited for Jazzy and Opie to finally meet. The lab meetup was very anti-climactic as Opie was more interested in the lake and Jazzy in the ball but they did do some cursory meet n’ greet (sniffing of the noses and behinds) but we had a great reunion with Susan and Ken. Dog Mountain is a wonderful mecca for dog lovers and if you’re in the area, don’t pass up the chance to wander around and enjoy the various views, sculptures, and artwork.

With an 8-year-old’s taste buds, visiting Ben & Jerry’s was a requirement for me. Unfortunately we picked a massively busy day so we had to wait an hour before our tour began (no photos allowed on the tour). They start with a short movie about the history of the founders and then move us to an enclosed catwalk above the production floor. Our group got the “special” tour as there were some technical difficulties with the capping machine at the time, which means the assembly line was halted while the techs frantically tried to save the uncapped ice cream from falling to the floor. Our tour guide did explain the process and showed us each station so we could understand how it all worked. The production floor works on a non-stop 72 hour cycle then a 7-9 hour cleaning cycle (federally mandated). After the cleaning cycle they choose to either continue an ongoing order or change flavors. Ben & Jerry’s has 6 manufacturing plants across the globe. The visitors’ center makes the top 15 ice creams and they have one plant that only does core ice creams (the pints with two flavors and a core of flavor goo). The last part of the tour provides a generous free sample of ice cream for us to try. We were given CinnDOUGHrella, cinnamon/caramel ice cream w/cinnamon bun dough, shortbread cookies, and oatmeal cinnamon cookie swirls. Super rich and very delicious! After the tour, we took a walk around the Flavor Graveyard to see all the deceased Ben & Jerry flavors. Mike took a silent moment to mourn the loss of his favorite, White Russian.

Since it was nearby, we drove to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill to sample their tasty wares. We watched, strangely mesmerized, as they took fresh pulverized apples (harvested from nearby farms), placed them in layers on a large wagon, then used a hydraulic press to squeeze out the fresh juice. We sampled the fresh cider and bought half a dozen of the cider doughnuts and a couple mini pies. While the doughnuts had a good flavor, my sweet tooth liked them a LOT better once I drizzled sugar glaze on top.

Making cider

Unfortunately the Cabot Creamery visitor center no longer allows tours through their factory, so we stopped at the nearby Cabot Annex a quarter mile away from Ben & Jerry’s to check out all their samples. Cabot Creamery is a co-op of dairy farmers in Cabot, VT. Started in 1919 by 94 farmers, they created the cooperative to turn the glut of milk into butter and market it throughout New England. Today Cabot is still 100% owned by farm families and exclusively makes cheddar cheese. We enjoyed sampling the huge array of cheddar cheeses (who knew there could be so many kinds!) and left relatively unscathed with only a block of the super sharp and yummy “Vintage Choice Aged Cheddar”, pepperoni, and maple cotton candy.

Another day brought us to the Goodrich Maple Farm House. They provide free tours, but we were lucky enough to receive a tour from Mr. Goodrich himself as he happened to be at the site meeting with coffee vendors to discuss making coffee infused maple syrup and maple infused coffee. Goodrich Maple Farm has been family owned and operated since 1840 when they first started with wooden buckets and huge metal staves. Currently the maple house uses pencil-sized needles that only enter the tree 2 inches deep and are connected via plastic piping network throughout the woods. We already knew that 40 gallons of sap makes 1 gallon of syrup but we didn’t realize that different amber colors are based on when the sap is taken from the tree, not how long the sap is boiled; later in the season creates a darker amber and richer flavor. Plus the freeze/thaw cycle is crucial to creating sap since the tree uses the sap to nourish the buds. We learned a maple tree has to be at least 40 years old before they begin tapping for sap and many trees on their property are hundreds of years old. Just like taking blood from a human, it’s vital to only take a small amount of sap from each tree to allow the tree to stay healthy.

Interestingly we found that other trees can provide sap for syrup but birch sap tastes terrible and black walnut sap is tough to find and therefore extremely expensive. Overall maple sap has the best flavor (I couldn’t agree more) and after the tour/information ended, we got to try the different amber syrups, coffee-infused maple syrup, maple almonds, and maple butter. Of course it’s all a trap since the products are so delicious you end up buying all sorts of tasty goodies!

After fulfilling my sugar fantasies and enjoying the pretty views, we packed up R2 and headed towards upstate NY.

Relaxing at Dog Mountain

The last few weeks, we’ve been back in Red Bay, AL finishing the rest of our warranty work on R2. While it does keep us busy, there isn’t much else to do in Red Bay which meant no more excuses and time to catch up on blogging.

So back to our regularly scheduled program, last we left Mike and Kat, they had just left Canada (minus some mini peppers and tomatoes)…

Our next couple of stops in Bangor, Maine and the White Mountains of New Hampshire were supposed to be to resupply and re-energize after a frantic (for us) 3 weeks of activity in Canada. It didn’t turn out quite as quiet as we planned but we did have a great time with friends. In Bangor, we met up with Andrea and Shawn of 40 Foot House for the first time. They were working in Bangor for a few months and coincidentally happened to be at the same campground, Pumpkin Patch, as us.

Andrea, Shawn, and their very cute dog Elvis have been full-timing for a few years and they are super-friendly and approachable. Mike and I are introverts (as mentioned ad nauseum) but they made it so easy to hang out and relax. They even let us introduce them to tabletop gaming and in all good humor, played Forbidden Island with us. I do hope we cross paths with them again, I even promise not to make them game with us next time!

Since they were familiar with Bangor, they were able to recommend a couple places for food. After being in Canada for a while, we were craving something with a little spice, so we all headed to Happy China for a rather huge buffet menu. With all the various choices, we got a little bit of everything which should hold me over until we get back to N.Va and my mom’s spicy Korean food. Then since this was probably one of my last chances to get lobster (*SOB*) before leaving the area, we ate at Anglers which has a nice selection of seafood (yep, Mike got the burger).

Andrea also suggested the Kenduskeag Stream Trail, a nearby riverwalk, since we were looking for a nice stroll for Opie. The trail is well-maintained and meanders around the stream until the Kenduskeag reaches the Penobscot River, passing through downtown Bangor. It’s an easy stroll with some nice small waterfalls, open areas, and forests. As usual, Opie found all the entries into the river and enjoyed some nice soaking. I believe Opie’s goal is to add his dog hair to every major stream, lake, and river in the US and he’s working hard to reach that goal!

After a few days in Bangor, we drove to Shelburne NH near the White Mountains and stayed at the Timberland Campground for a week. It’s a private campground but has a nice rustic feel and a trail right along a river. Indoor Nomads met us here in their RV so we could hang out for the week. Ben and Lanni are probably our closest RV friends and we love spending time with them, especially since they enjoy tabletop gaming and have so many similar interests.

We spent the week playing new games, trying new recipes (we took turns cooking, so that was great!), drinking, and even broke them gently into the hiking scene. There’s a small section of the Appalachian Trail close to the campground and since doing the AT was on their bucket list, it was easy to convince them to give it a try. It was a bit tricky with roots and mud but they seemed to enjoy the 3.5 mile hike (they never once gave us the stink-eye) and got some nice photos of the stream that meandered next to the trail.

As always, we had a fantastic time with Lanni & Ben and can’t wait to cross paths again but it was time to pull up the jacks and head to Vermont, land of maple syrup and cheese!