Monday Sept 26, 2018
After we were settled in last night JP drove us way up the road until I could get some cell service. Most of the time we have at least enough bars to text but not so here – so no Wi-Fi. I hate to admit how weird it feels to be “disconnected”!

JP was up early to head out in his pontoon. I was happy to hang at camp and get things settled in Lucky. It’s nothin’ but blue skies and sunshine! Husband came home a happy camper. He caught a couple of bass and had a good day on the water. Our camp spot is near enough to the fish cleaning station that we could hear the fish tales as the guys cleaned their fish. JP has a new direction for tomorrow. He is on it!

Sunday Feb 25th
And we’re are off – with new Lucky in tow. We headed to Alamo Lake but made a pit stop at Wickenburg. Traveling on Sunday means most small town stores are closed. I’m putting it on the list of places I want to go when we pass through AZ again – because Wickenburg looks interesting!

We pulled into our camp-spot at Alamo Lake State Park, which by the way is in the middle of not much but mountain view’s, cactus and apparently wild burrows. It took JP no time to talk up the fisherman and get the skinny on the lake. He’ll be up and at ‘em in the AM.

Friday and Saturday February 23rd and 24th, 2018
We took a break from the details of our trailer replacement and all that went with it and spent our last 2 days with our friends in Surprise.

JP and Randy went out to see some spring training college games, Friday they watched the Beavers beat Ohio and then on Saturday they saw the Beavers beat the Nebraska. 

While the guys were gone, Jean and I treated ourselves to a pedicure. We had plenty of time to go shopping so we hit the Goodwills so I could buy some books and movies for the road. Then she took me on a tour of the Home Store where there are so many rows of throw pillow that making a decision would be nearly impossible. Each color had its own entire row of throw pillows, and there a a lot of colors!

We finished Friday with a meal at Arby’s so she could try my new favorite treat – the salted carmel chocolate chip cookie – served warm. Crazy good. It was a great way to end a stressful and exhausting week!

Thursday, February 22nd 2018

Wow! Buying a trailer is exhausting!
We thought we had most of our business at Camping World taken care of, but alas no – on to the the finance department! After that we were able move all of our stuff from Old Luck to New Lucky. We showed up at our walk through appt. time of 11:00 and drove off the lot at 5:00. Exhausted but relieved we are good to go again.
New Lucky is almost identical in floor-plan. We lost a little storage here and there which is a little challenging and like many things the older version seemed sturdier and old school better in some ways.

But Old Lucky didn’t have an electric tongue jack, LED lighting, electric awning with pretty purple LED lighting, new tires and oh yeah –   a new mattress. It’s also 8” taller, because it has better ground clearance. Not that we have 4 wheelin’ plans in the new trailer!  New Lucky (soon to just be LUCKY again) looks very pretty with  Black Jack, our Silverado.

Old Lucky was left behind for the insurance company to collect. He was a good old boy. I hope he lives on to travel with a new crew someday.

Wednesday Feb 21st , 2018

OK one more day of miscellaneous business about  Old Lucky and New Lucky and we will have it wrapped up. We’ve been so busy with the whole process there hasn’t been much time to look into our next stop in Alamo Lake so today was a good day to do some prep work for that and just cool our jets for a day. We did manage to sneak in a Costco visit – who doesn’t love that? I mean, where else can you get lunch for 2 for 3 bucks? 

Tuesday Feb 20th, 2017

This has definitely been the week for dreary but necessary business, so while the insurance companies and the RV Dealership were finishing up their end of the things, we took the day off! We ran a few quick errands then headed into Surprise to visit with Jean and Randy in Happy Trails. Jeannie made us presentable again – JP got a haircut and I got the works! It was great to kick back, visit, have a raspberry margarita (or 2) and finish the evening off with dinner at the Golden Coral, A great place to eat to your hearts content and waistbands dismay! Nothing like a good nights sleep on a full belly! It’s always fun to hang with the Miners! I’m hopin’ we can get together again before we head to our next destination on Sunday in our NEW Lucky!

Monday Feb 19th, 2018

This week sure won’t be the most interesting of blog posts because we are all about the trailer search. Today we spent the day looking online, on our phones and in rows and rows of RV’s.

Then for some relief we went to one of my favorite AZ restaurants The Wildflower Bakery where they have awesome turkey waldorf salad and sourdough bread to die for! Then back to the drawing board.

It seemed like this would be easier but there aren’t many trailers in the size we want and there aren’t very many used trailers on the lots. We scoured RV Trader and Craigslist everyplace we thought we may be staying at or driving through but just couldn’t find a match. We did find a new Springdale trailer in Turlock Ca. but we wouldn’t be headed that direction for another month.

So Camperworld in Avondale (25 min away) is a Springdale Dealer – and had the brand new version of our original Lucky. Some things have improved in 7 years and some things not as handy but pretty darn close. SO – I had the ad info from the Turlock Trailer and after all the negotiating for best deal, we told the sales guy we would likely hold out for the Turlock trailer because the price was still less than their very best final offer  – so they matched it and the deal was done. We are on the way to having a 2018 version of Lucky! The rest of the day was a blur of terms, condition, insurance and finance stuff. We were beat by end of day and happy to get back to “old Lucky” before dark.

Sunday Feb 18th, 2018

We were up and at ‘em and on the road from Tucson to Buckeye today. It’s a couple hours with traffic so we pulled in mid-day. We’ve really got a routine down so we were set up in no time. It’s hard this time of year in AZ to find available sites. We checked into Leaf Verde RV Park. Ours was their last open site, at the end of the road, with a fire hydrant at our door and no room for a picnic table. It would be a bother if this week was going to be anything but shopping for a new trailer. So it isn’t great but it’ll do. Buckeye has all the basics like Wally World, a shopping center and a Panda Express. We’ll be fine here! Plus there’s the extra bonus! Surprise AZ is only a half hour away so we can spend some time with our friends Jean and Randy . 

Saturday Fed 17th, 2018

We were up and prepared with our lunch packed and a Denny’s breakfast onboard when we headed out to the many RV Dealerships here in Tucson. The traffic here is awful and the roads lights and on-ramps are all really really confusing! So at least the Dealerships were all in the same vicinity. No rain, clear skies and only a little cool. A good day to find the perfect new Lucky 2 or 22 Lucky or ???

Most lots were big enough that they had carts so you didn’t have to walk across acres of units. We looked, we looked hard. The sales folks were helpful and not pushy at all. We made it easy because we know what has worked for us so we could give specifics to narrow things down. And  . . . Lo and behold! We weren’t able to find anything that fit the bill. We aren’t trying to upgrade, or add size or change class. We just want to be as comfy in our next trailer as we have been in ours. But literally nothing we saw was a fit for us. 

Once we like something we keep it and often when the time comes, we replace it with something similar. My friends will attest to that about me in almost every situation. But I was totally on-board to support whatever new and different trailer JP thought would be best for us and in the end – we BOTH just want the trailer we’ve been calling home on the road. Now the quest is to find another Keystone Springdale 179QB somewhere to fill the bill. Ours was a 2011 (used only 3 times) but this go round it will likely need to be a new or newer version if we can find one – and in a hurry!

BTW – JP was feeling better today so we finally got to go to an excellent Mexican dinner! It will be nice to have him back to his old self again,

Friday Feb 16th, 2018                                                                                                                       

It has to be done and there is no good day to do it so we found the nearest library and spent most of the day there working on our taxes. Back in the day librarians helped you locate a book, stocked books and checked your loaner books out to you. Now they have to be computer techs as well. No matter how easy the instructions read they are never quite right or complete and the poor librarians are there to rescue you. I’m glad we are almost done with taxes now. It is actually the hardest thing for us to do while we are traveling. 

JP still sounds awful but seems to be a bit more himself. We called it early and plan to be up in the AM with a packed lunch to head out on a quest for our new trailer.