5:22 PM, Friday, January 29, 2021, we FINALLY had possession of our new home, a 38’ 2000 Newmar Dutch Star. Now, we needed to return the rental car so we could get on the road toward Denver. The closest return place was Forty-five minutes away and closed at 6:00 PM. I’m not much of a mather, but that math didn’t seem to work out. We found another hotel for our real last night to return the car and get on the road first thing in the morning.
Inside our new home
We stayed at the Springhill Suites in Denton, TX. The following day they allowed us to fill our freshwater tank before departing. We returned the rental car and were on our way for real! The winds had a different idea. We weren’t ready to drive this large shoebox in wind gusts up to forty miles per hour. So we did what any self-respecting new RV owner would do. We stopped at the local Cracker Barrel for breakfast then headed over to the Walmart for a few supplies. While at Walmart, we tried figuring some things out and failed. Like how to use the water tank we’d just filled. After a while, we’d had our fill of the Walmart parking lot and exited stage left.
Somewhere in Texas
The wind wasn’t atrocious. We were doing pretty well until the dashboard started screaming at us with a STOP light on the instrument panel. Whenever we were under load going up a hill, the dashboard would screech, and the light would warn us to stop. Since we couldn’t figure out the water situation, we ended up in another motel for the night. Waking up Sunday morning, we knew Raton Pass would be a nightmare with our screaming dash issue, and we were not disappointed in the hell it was. 25 MPH with it screaming the entire way. This was definitely not addressed in the inspection. All we needed to do was make it back to Denver, where we would park and remodel in the oldest child’s driveway. And search for a mechanic.
Damage to the road from high-centering the RV trying to pull into the driveway
We arrived in Denver with no significant issues on Sunday afternoon. Other than high centering our 38’ home while pulling into the driveway. Two-and-a-half hours later, Tom figured out using the jacks and putting boards under the wheels to create a ramp would help get it unstuck. We parked our home on the street, and when we awoke the following day and went inside to shower, it felt a little too much like street living, so we checked into another hotel. The Residence Inn in Greenwood Village, CO. We found a mechanic who could get us in at 5:30 AM Tuesday, February 2, 2021. We asked at the Residence Inn if we could park our RV in their parking lot overnight to have it to the mechanic at oh dark thirty. The manager wasn’t very friendly about it but allowed us to bring it later that night and be gone very early in the morning. Tom and Liv, in the RV, beat us back to the hotel. When M and I pulled up, they were standing outside looking at the RV. Looking up, it became apparent they were looking at our damaged roof. The back quarter of our roof-line looked like someone had taken a can opener to it. 2020 taught us that in life, you need to pivot. In RV life, there are sometimes big pivots. It was at that moment we named our new home Pivot Big. (our license plates automagically came with BIG as the first three letters.)
Very early Tuesday morning, we met our new best friend, Jack. Jack is a character and storyteller, and you decide where the truth is stretched in his stories. He was very knowledgeable and friendly. We had a laundry list of items to be checked out, including the remarkable screaming dash. We were returning to Oceanside, CA, for a volunteer commitment. Jack would complete the mechanical work then drive it to the body shop for us. What happened to the roof? How did it look like a can opener had been taken to it? None of us had any idea.
We’d made it to Denver; it was time to put some serious effort into our search for an RV. We knew we wanted a Class A diesel pusher motorhome. With three girls and one guy, the toilet needed to be in a separate room from the rest of the bathroom. We also knew we wanted to remodel, so older didn’t matter to us. In fact, we preferred older. Tom spent a lot of time and made a spreadsheet of the Class A’s built better for full-time living. We had our price range, our brands, and we were ready to buy. It didn’t take long before we found a 2000 Newmar Dutch Star for sale just outside Dallas, TX, and started a conversation with the owner. It was definitely still available, and he was agreeable to allowing us to send an inspector out. While Tom was on the phone with the inspector to schedule an appointment, the owner called to inform us that a couple from San Antonio were on their way with cash. The RV was sold. Feeling a little beat down and defeated, we asked him to call us if anything changed and started our search again.
Mid-morning the next day, the owner was back on Tom’s phone. He’d sent the people from San Antonio packing without the RV, and it was ours if we wanted it. We immediately scheduled the inspector, who went out the next day. On the first day of the inspection, we received news that the RV was in good condition cosmetically. It was stored inside their shop for the last 17 years of its life and escaped weather damage. With only 60,000 miles on it, the inspector said if we didn’t buy it, he and his wife would, after finding no significant issues the second day of inspection. He sent us the report, and we booked tickets for the following Wednesday to fly and pick up our new home. In the meantime, we discovered that the credit union we use required you to go into the branch to start a wire transfer. That was a problem since our credit union was in California. We had met a branch manager through our networking while living in California, so we reached out to him. He said he would help us get the wire out without requiring us to show up in the branch.
Kim and Tom at Denver International Airport
Wednesday, January 27, 2021, Tom and I were sitting in Denver International Airport waiting to board our flight to Texas. We received a call from the branch manager who would help us, and one of his employees had tested positive for COVID. They were all locked out of the branch until further notice. He wasn’t going to be able to follow through with his plan. We ordered another margarita while looking at flights for Tom to fly from Houston to San Diego and back to Houston after starting the wire transfer with the credit union. We landed in Dallas, rented a car, and drove to our hotel, Tru by Hilton in Frisco, TX.
We awoke early the next day with anxiety over how to make this work and hoping the owner would still allow us to make it work. We were going to look like flakes walking in with some excuse. Before our 2:00 PM supposed pick-up time, we had to figure out how to get a wire. We spent the morning on the phone and came up with a plan. We would priority overnight personal checks to our friend, David, who banks at the same credit union. David would take the checks to his local branch. Our branch manager acquaintance would call and remove the standard holds. David would immediately send the wire. The owner of our new home was understanding when we showed up. He showed us around the RV, and we made an appointment to pick it up at the same time the next day. Friday.
The cool bathroom at The Grand Hotel in McKinney, TX
We dropped our checks at FedEx and searched for a fun hotel to book for the night as our last night before moving into the RV. We enjoy quirky hotels and stay in them whenever we need to book a room for a night or two. The Grand Hotel and Ballroom in McKinney, TX, did not disappoint. The room was excellent and, the bathroom was super cool. We’d noticed a place called Sugarbacon across from the hotel, and we are all about anything bacon. If ever you are in McKinney, TX, Sugarbacon is the place for dinner. We had the candied bacon appetizer, of course! I had the thickest, most enormous, most delicious pork chop I have ever had for dinner. Tom had a delightful steak, but that pork chop was to die for!
Sugarbacon in McKinney, TX
The following day we checked out of The Grand Hotel and Ballroom and went for lunch. All the while tracking our FedEx package that should arrive in California by 10:30 AM PST. In Texas, we were two hours ahead in Central Standard Time. About 12:35 CST, our FedEx tracking went from delivery by 10:30 AM to ‘delivery by the end of the business day.’ WHAT?!?! NO!! This cannot be happening. The wire has to be sent by noon, and David has another commitment. Tom gets on the phone with FedEx and tells them it can be delivered to David’s office or the credit union, it doesn’t matter, but it needs to get somewhere fast. Finally, at 11:00 PST, David has our checks in his hand, but now he’s in the middle of his other commitment and can’t make it to the credit union for a bit. I was freaking out. The wire went out at 11:52 AM PST, just before wire cut-off. We could breathe easy again.
Fuel run while waiting for the wire.
We show up to our 2:00 PM pick-up, and the wire isn’t there. We’re confident it will show up soon, so the owner’s son takes us out and fills the fuel tank. Shows us around a little more, and by the time we get back to the shop, no wire. The son, who got stuck with us on Friday afternoon, wanted to leave early but had to confirm the wire before handing over the keys. By 5:00 PM, I had blown up David’s phone, and I was in tears. 5:22 PM, the son, came walking out, keys in his outstretched hand, and informed us the wire was showing pending in his father’s account. We were free to leave with our new home.
We started in Carlsbad, CA, at 2:50 PM on Thursday, January 14, 2021. We planned to drive straight through to Denver to drop off the dog with the adult children who lived there. Because we were moving into an RV we hadn’t yet purchased, we knew some hotels would be involved, and hotel living is much easier without a dog. And a lot easier on the dog. Coco, the dog, is in her 11th year, and old enough that she lived with the adult children in the house years ago, so she knew them. Somewhere between Carlsbad, CA, and Barstow, CA, we’d changed our minds and were going to take the scenic route. To take the scenic route, it needed to be light out. I booked the St George Inn and Suites for the night to take advantage of Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park on our way out the following day.
Zion National Park
After grabbing breakfast, by the time we arrived at the scenic drive of Zion, it was closed because they were at capacity. We still got to enjoy the beauty of the rocks at Zion and the Zion-Mt Carmel tunnel, which is such a cool tunnel if you’ve never experienced it. Cars and trucks are ok. Bigger RVs would need to get a permit, and they would close the tunnel so it can travel down the middle where the tunnel is at its tallest. One thing I found interesting, there are no pedestrians in the tunnel, but you may hitchhike through the tunnel. In case you need to do that. Next, we dipped down into Bryce Canyon National Park and experienced some of that park from the pull-offs. In the middle of January, it can get downright chilly with the wind blowing. I have Southern California girl blood at this point, and anything below 70 degrees is cold. We weren’t too disappointed with not spending much time in either park. We’d hiked both parks in August 2019 when we took a road trip to twelve parks/monuments in twelve days.
Bryce Canyon National Park
After a drive-by at both Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, I booked, and we headed for the OYO Hotel in Hanksville, UT. As we pulled into the parking lot, we were lamenting how it felt like we were pulling into a horror movie. The parking lot was dark, and so was the one-story motel beyond it. The OYO sign was the only thing lit. As our lights swept the parking lot, they came upon a large piece of plywood with the word Office spray-painted on it, with an arrow pointing at a motel room door. As we parked, a man exited the room next to the office and entered the office. We were ready to bolt but went in to check it out. It was definitely a room turned into a makeshift office. He had a dresser just inside the door with two upside-down bar stools on top. Atop the barstool legs was another piece of plywood holding the office computer. He told us he had just purchased the place and was working on fixing it up. When asked about our travel plans, we explained the adventure we were on, and he said he’d offer us the Bounder he was working on fixing up, but it was probably a little too Breaking Bad for us. It needed more work than we were willing to put in. Our room was newly remodeled and clean. We were only there overnight and had a nice stay.
Hanksville, UT
After waking up and seeing the place in the light, we decided it wasn’t so creepy, and away we went. We came upon a scenic turn-off, and of course, we had to see what magic it held. We were the only souls we saw, and the view was spectacular. The silence wrapped its arms around you in a calming peace. We saw shiny circular things and a long runway looking something below in the distance. Even trying to zoom in with the camera didn’t help us distinguish what it all was. A little farther into our journey, we came upon what we had seen from above. Hite Campground with round picnic tables and a boat ramp. A campground that used to exist on the shore of Lake Powell. There was no water in sight.
Hite Campground – Hite, UT
Our journey had us passing Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, so we swung in for a few scenic view-point stops and not much else. There was snow and ice on the ground, it was cold, plus we had the dog and National Parks are not very dog friendly. As the sun was setting, we traveled through Curecanti National Recreation Area, where we saw ice-fishing huts out on the lake. Hopefully, they were catching fish. We lay our heads on pillows in Gunnison, CO, for the night before continuing to Denver.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Ice Huts on the lake at Curecanti National Recreation Area
Keeping with our back roads theme, we traveled two-lane highways from Gunnison to Denver. We traveled through Woodland Park, where the Hayman Fire area is starting to regenerate and grow again, creating its own type of beauty. The dirt road from Deckers, CO, to Sedalia, CO, had just as many great views as it has always had. If you have never driven through this part of Colorado, we highly recommend you do. We avoided I-25 the entire way into Denver and traveled along Santa Fe for a less chaotic experience.
After visiting Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, our desire to leave California was growing. Moving back to Colorado, South Central/South-Western was on the table. So was the Kingman, Arizona area. We decided to plan a recon trip for mid-January 2021 and give our 60-day notice at the end of January 2021. In mid-December, we received an email from our property management company that would forever change our lives.
Denver, CO
A little back story. We moved from the Denver Area to North County San Diego in August 2015. The biggest reason for our move was my fibromyalgia. I had noticed when the barometric pressure would change, my pain level would skyrocket. The snow made it horrible; the cold got in my bones and never left. Denver has weather fluctuations like nowhere else I have ever lived. On paper, San Diego seemed much better for me pain level-wise. It was. It is. But San Diego comes with many other things, and it was our time to move on.
Oceanside Harbor – Oceanside, CA
Our landlord had fallen on hard financial times through COVID-19 and needed to sell a couple of properties. Would we be willing to move in 30 days for $5,000? Five people, one of whom was moving at the end of December, a 2,000 square foot home, one dog, 30 days to move. Maybe not for $5,000, but it wasn’t entirely out of the question. We sent back our response and received a request for the real estate agent to take a look at the house. When the agent came and toured our home, he apologized because he believed the house would sell fast. Because we work in the real estate industry, we knew the house would sell before he arrived. A whole week passed before we heard back that they would accept our offer. We kept the original January 15, 2021, move-out date, so we had about three weeks left. Time to kick it into gear.
Where were we going to live? We tossed the Colorado and Arizona idea around. Just move up all of our planning. I posted our dilemma to my friends on Facebook. One friend asked if we wanted to borrow her RV for a month or two while we figured out what we wanted to do. This really got me thinking. And dreaming. I woke up one morning, turned to Tom, and said, “What if we live in an RV full-time?” “Really?” he asked. “Yes!” “Okay” Then the question became, what do we do with all of our stuff?!?
I started posting free items on Facebook to my friends but didn’t really think that was the best way to go. One friend suggested my local Buy Nothing Project Group. I joined and started listing things as single items/groups of like items. That quickly became too much to keep up with. I had a lot of stuff to give away. After following guidance from another member and reading through posts, I decided to have a Free Yard Sale. We would gather everything we wanted to get rid of and put it in the driveway from 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM on Sunday afternoon. Post my address in the Buy Nothing Group, and voila, all my stuff would disappear. Right?!? It really did kind of work that way.
Let’s sidetrack to the Buy Nothing Project for a moment. If you haven’t heard of them, they are a group that promotes giving and receiving from those in our community and building a community in the process. I had excellent success with it. I don’t believe I had a single person flake on me. Months later, I discovered I may have flaked on someone because of the Messenger sorting system. If you’re reading this, Sorry, person I may have flaked on. A note on the Free Yard Sale. Don’t post your address early and tell people to show up at whatever time. You have the rule-followers who will wait, and you will have the non-rule followers and the neighbors going through things before the rule followers have a chance to show up.
Free yard sale
With the help of some terrific friends, we put the majority of our belongings in our driveway and front yard, free for the taking. It is a weird feeling watching people shuffle through the contents of your life and toss it to the side uninterested. By 3:00 PM, we had a few oversized items left, including a couple of mattresses. If people had taken the mattresses, we weren’t sure what we would sleep on for the week. At exactly 3:00 PM, we were relaxing on our couch, in the front yard, when a man with a trailer pulls up yelling, “I’ll take it all,” as he pulls to a park across the street. He took everything minus the mattresses. We poured him a shot of our favorite tequila, Suavecito Anejo, as a thank you for taking such a massive load off our shoulders. And out of our front yard. The remainder of our belongings were headed to storage.
Our storage unit after everything we owned was put in
We borrowed a truck from the storage facility, gathered a couple of my oldest child’s friends, teenage boys, to help us move everything into storage. We rented a twenty-four-foot by nine-foot storage unit, and when we were done unloading the truck, the unit was nowhere near full. We had things we wanted to save forever, but we also had our RV boxes. The items we believed we wanted to have when we found our home and moved in. We closed the door on our storage unit and temporarily moved into The Marina Inn and Suites. This was still during California’s COVID-19 strict lockdown, and we were only allowed to stay in the hotel because we didn’t have a home to stay in anymore. We spent the next three nights there as we cleaned and tied up loose ends in Oceanside, CA.
Fitting song for the moment we were in
On Thursday, January 14, 2021, at 2:50 PM PST, we were pulling out of the parking lot after turning in our keys. Destination: Denver. Our plan was to drive straight through to Denver and temporarily drop off the dog with the adult children who lived there. We knew we would be hotel living for a month or so, and that is much easier without a dog. And easier for the dog. Our straight-through drive turned into a meandering wander through Utah and Colorado’s back roads. Follow along for all the adventures we’ve taken and will take in the future!
