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Literally, on my left temple from a stinging insect that was in my hat while in Arizona and finally on the mend! Well the big one happened later on our journey a couple of days later. While traveling on Monday, May 9th going west on Central Avenue (old Route 66) in Albuquerque, New Mexico we were involved in a traffic accident. Fortunately no one was seriously injured, but we sustained body damage to the front passenger side of our truck. The good news was the truck was still safe to drive back to Kirtland AFB where we had left the fifth wheel so we could run errands and do some sightseeing. Honestly, both Karen and I were not impressed with what we saw of Albuquerque. Even if we hadn't gotten into an accident, the city is dirty, has a crime problem and serious transient issues. The place has a spiritually dark feeling to it. We couldn't wait to get out of town and back on the road. The biggest problem we had to work through before we left involved a detached passenger side towing mirror. I was able to reconstruct most of it from the broken parts with black duck tape and a couple of sheet metal screws. A large replacement mirror and a small convex mirror, totaling $15 dollars from the Auto Zone and we were good to go. So we safely continued onto our next destination, Roswell, NM. We are on the lookout for aliens as we camp at Bottomless Lake State Park campground. Hoping the aliens know how to do body work....on the truck! I ordered an after-market replacement mirror on Amazon. It is getting shipped to our Livingston, TX address and should arrive before we do. So life on the road is no different than in a stick and brick house. Things break and accidents happen. The new twist is dealing with this moving target! I have an appointment for an estimate on the truck's body work scheduled in Spring, TX while we are in Livingston. However, with the shortage of skilled labor, truck parts and the long waiting time for repair work we may be driving a damaged truck for a while. The unofficial USCG motto applies to this situation. Semper Gumby (literal meaning - always flexible). Is it me or do you see it too? Gumby looks like an alien?

Sunday, May 8, 2022 was Mother's Day and we celebrated in windy Winslow, AZ. We arrived at the Homolovi State Park on Saturday, May 7 for two days of rest and recreation. Our campsite location is #9. Paved, level, 30 AMP electrical and water, with freestanding BBQ, fire pit and picnic table. Impeccably maintained campground for $25 a night. We will definitely return here again for a longer stay when visiting the area. Our only complaint was the windy condition during the two days we stayed in the park. I mean windy... like 15 to 25 MPH with gusts to 40 MPH! It made going to the archeological sites problematic, so we only had time for a visit to Homolovi 1, closest to our campground. The other site, Homolovi 2 is larger and contains an estimated 1,200 to 2,000 rooms. It is believed that these pueblos are where the ancestors of the present-day Hopi native people lived. Activities on these sites dates back to the 14th century. Homolovi or Homol'ovi (the Hopi spelling of the word) is a Hopi word meaning "place of the little hills". The park is located near the Little Colorado River just over a mile north of Winslow, Arizona. Sunday morning we attended church services at "The Well" in Winslow and shared in worship and fellowship. Then took Karen out to lunch to celebrate Mother's Day at the Old Town Grill on Second Street and had a great meal together. Tried their Beer-Battered Pickles...awesome with Ranch dressing! While visiting "The Well" we met another couple camping at the Homolovi State Park. We invited them over to the rig to hang out together. Roger and Vicki came to Arizona with members of their church community from Ohio to do construction work at a Native American school. We shared stories about our travels, families and our faith journeys with dark and stormy's, wine and cheese. Tomorrow , Monday, May 9th, as the song lyric goes it's, "On the road again...." We depart in the morning before the winds get gnarly for Albuquerque, NM with plans on staying at Kirtland AFB FamCamp.

Houston, we have lift-off of crew of "Trinity" on their first mission to the state of Texas to establish their new domicile. After packing the rig for the journey they departed 91 Grant School Road in Healdsburg, CA at 8:50 AM heading south to meet Jeff Guidi for coffee at the Coddingtown Starbucks. The hardest part of leaving; all the family and friends we will miss. Parting is indeed such sweet sorrow. We left Santa Rosa at 10:00 AM heading through the bay area traffic on our first leg of the journey is to Bakersfield, CA. After a number of stops to check the overall rig, get fuel and eat we arrived at our Harvest Host site - The Links @ Riverlakes Ranch at 5:04 PM. We have been here before and love the quiet, laid-back atmosphere that the golf course provides during the evening. Just look how easily Karen got use to the facilities! Parked the rig right next to the pitch and putt section of the course and got comfortable. They lock the front gate of the golf course after sunset, but open early in the morning. Safe and secure digs for the evening. Tomorrow we head up the Tehachapi Mountains, across the Mojave desert to Needles, CA on the Colorado River border between California and Arizona.

Yes, after her work day Friday, April 29, 2022 she walked out of the office of Total Concepts (TC) for the last time as a full-time employee. After 18 years she is stepping down from her role as the company's controller to begin a new life on the road as a full-time RVer. I think the photo below, with her teammates Tabitha and Sandra from the TC accounting staff, expresses the joy of this moment. The photo was created on one of the many annual company trips to Cabo San Lucas. That evening, her employers John, Mark and Hank Rechin sent her off in typical "TC style" by throwing her a wonderful retirement party at Cafe Frieda's in Santa Rosa. Thank you TC for a incredible evening of good food, great people, fun roast and honoring stories of her time in the company. As great and exciting as the future appears to be for our new life on the road, this was a bittersweet event for her leaving this wonderful company and the day to day interactions with the TC team. These are great people, good friends and friendship is forever. We look forward to more fun together with all of them in the future when our paths cross again.

A new piece of equipment was recently added to our imaging capability. The DJI Mini SE is a small aerial drone that can record both video and still images. It weighs less than 0.55 pounds (249 grams) and has a flight time of 30 minutes. This is considered a starter drone, however I'm finding it possess plenty of features for an entry level device including 4km HD Video Transmission, Vision Sensor + GPS Precise Hover, and 3-Axis Gimbal 2.7K Camera. I started flying it a week ago and learning the controller features and functions. During the first flight I was impressed with how amazingly stable the drone was in flight. The image on my cellphone attached to the controller showed relatively little effect from the changing wind speed where the drone was operating. After a few conservative flight profiles I ventured out higher and farther from my control location. The test images I recorded, both still and video are very sharp with detail. During one of my flights I flew over the fifth wheel to inspect the recently installed solar panels. As I surveyed the roof I noticed one of the solar panel brackets was missing Dicor sealant. An additional benefit as an inspection tool. I purchased this little drone so we can capture a more scenic perspective of the location we see in our travels. So look for more posts and interesting angles as we begin our adventure in May.

After living in our fifth wheel for a couple of months, it became apparent to me that any long term dispersed camping (boon docking) would be problematic. Our 12 volt system of two 6v lead acid 225 Ah (amp hour) batteries was under performing so we need our gasoline generator every day. So I began my research into a feasible solution to meet our power usage for the future. Where did I go to get my information you ask? YouTube of course! I decided I would make my modification in three phases: Phase 1 - Replace the original lead acid batteries with LiFePO4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries which would provide us with sufficient amp hours in the power bank. The best choice was 4 - 100 Ah 12v Battle Born batteries. These batteries are equipped with with a battery management system (BMS) that makes them safe for RV and marine applications. The 10 year warranty and 3000-5000 depth of charge cycle features made it a little easier to pull the trigger on the purchase...a little easier. Phase 2 - Installation of a Victron MultiPlus II 3000w Inverter to power our 120v AC system from the 12v DC battery array when off shore power. Phase 3 - Install 4- 180w Newpowa solar panels on the roof of the rig to recharge the batteries during daylight hours. After hours on YouTube, I viewed a number of very well produced videos and found some extremely helpful sites. I came up with a design, consulted and made my equipment purchases with Dragonfly Energy out of Reno, NV. They are the distributer of Battle Born batteries and Victron components for the project. I ordered the batteries on January 24th and got started in earnest. After getting the new battery system installed we had all the power we needed! In March we ordered the inverter, solar panels and remaining components. The project was completed on April 6th and we now have the ability to stay out as long as we have sunshine and fresh water!

On March 3rd we traveled down to Cozumel for a week of scuba diving with Aldora Divers. We left our land yacht at the Herrick Vineyard Property for a needed warm water dive trip. Flew down to Cancun on Southwest with points from Oakland, California. Picked up the ADO bus at the Cancun airport for the one hour drive to Playa del Carmen. After a dinner at Señor Frogs we boarded the ferry to Cozumel. A short taxi ride to Villa Aldora and we were there after a long travel day. Took it easy on Friday and rested up, explored downtown using the hotel bicycles, stopped by the dive shop to fill out the obligatory paperwork and got some groceries at the Mega store for the week. Dove eight times from Saturday through Tuesday along the east side of Cozumel. All our dives were over an hour long on Nitrox (32%-36% oxygen air mixer) with a maximum depth of 90+ feet. Water temperature averaged 81ºF and the visibility (viz) was 60+ feet. Plenty of current to move us effortlessly along as we explored this wonderful diving venue. The largest creatures from the deep we visited were Eagle Rays, both solitude individuals and multiple schools of rays along with the occasional Green Sea Turtle. The smallest critters included Flamingo Tongue snails (photo above), Arrow Crab, also known as the Spider Crab, and Fire Worms. The rare treat for me was encountering a Caribbean Reef Octopus (photo above) during the day. These creatures usually hide themselves during daylight hours and become active at night. I visited briefly hoping he might come out of his hole and move along the reef, These animals are incredibly smart and this one chose to play it safe. The week was wonderful. Great diving, delicious food and great weather in March. Highly recommend both Villa Aldora and Aldora Divers to our scuba diving friends and community. Next time, at least a ten day stay on the island.

On December 11, 2021 we picked up our Alliance Avenue 32RLS fifth wheel trailer. Five months before our scheduled departure across the country we brought our rig back to Sonoma County for functional modifications for full-time living. This shake down period was planned to work out the "bugs". Our first week was tough (Herrick Vineyard Property) Living in the rig for an extended amount of time really reveals what initial challenges need to be addressed quickly. We had no hook-ups when we arrived in Healdsburg on a Sunday night in the rain. Backing up the rig in the dark was a challenge in the best conditions. Well, I barely touched the rear of our truck cab with a little kiss from the Ally nose cap. No big deal because I stopped in time but we "baptized" our RAM 3500 and now know the limits of our turning radius, The weather in the area was near freezing at night that week. Because our 2-6V lead acid golf cart batteries failed to provide enough 12 volt power to last we were cold throughout the night. Our interior was in the low 40 degrees. Plenty of propane for the heater, just not enough amps to keep the heater fan functional. Karen was not a happy camper. Not the warm bed she was use to when "glamping." Used our Honda 2000 generator to charge up the batteries every day with some degree of success. Full hook-ups and our cat disappeared On December 19th we looked forward to moving to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds with 50 amp service. Unfortunately, prior to packing and hooking up for the short ride south, our cat disappeared. Sully didn't show up all day and we were worried because he didn't come home for breakfast. He had a GPS monitor on his collar but I couldn't get any signal. We waited until the last moment but no Sully. We left him some food and planned to return to search for him after we got set up at the fairgrounds. I had a scary moment after leaving our friend's property in Healdsburg. As I drove down Old Redwood Highway I suddenly realized that there was a railroad trestle just south of Eastside Road that I would pass under! How tall is the rig?! With Karen following behind me in our Toyota Avalon she watched as I drove under the 13' 11" structure. The 32RLS is 12' 10"....dodged a bullet. We spent the Christmas and New Years holidays with friends and family in Santa Rosa until January 8, 2022. We had plenty of water pressure, electricity and full sewer hook ups. Nice to have an electric fireplace with heater, microwave, toaster and Keurig...very civilized. We continued to return to Healdsburg every day in search of our beloved Sully, but to no avail. Our next location was Westside County Park out at Spud Point, Bodega Bay, CA. Westside Park (no hook-ups part 2) We pulled into space #23 and set up. In addition to our Honda generator I pulled out our 100w solar suitcase panel and solar controller. We used the panel to charge the batteries during the day and augmented with the generator after sunset until the 8 PM quiet period. Much better luck with power management, but quickly realized a more efficient battery system was in our future.