Well happy Cyber Monday, I have been up early making a few purchases, my first purchase was some new Berkey filters for our water filter, got a great deal more than a 30% discount usually ten percent is the best I can normally get. And the deal that makes me really smile was able to snag some Battleborn lithium GC2 batteries at a greatly discounted price, they are blemished but I believe beauty is more than skin deep, these cuties have full warranty, and are fully functional…now just have to wait for them to arrive.

We arrived early afternoon yesterday at Sonoran Skies Campground to a warm welcome from the owner Miss Joyce. We have not stayed here before as this campground was not operational two years ago, in fact it was two years ago that Joyce purchased this property while she was visiting the next door campground at the same time as us. So far there are only six sites as she has been fighting red tape since taking over the park. The joy of small town politics, it just so happens the campground next door is owned by the local water utility, the little village has a population under 200, and some people think they are much more important than they really are, it really is a case of bullying, and this involves someone’s ability to make a living, just wrong in so many ways but I will go there later on.

We will visit next door today as that is where most of the folks we came here to visit are, Joyce had a happy hour last night with a fire, so we got to meet a couple of of the campers in this park, and a few ventured over from our old park. I can see Miss Laurie being busy helping with some of the gardening during our stay, I have lots of things that I need to address while I’m here, with temperatures in the high sixties (high teens) it will be perfect for some maintenance. And I have some new batteries that will have to be installed and the solar reprogrammed for lithium, as well as adjusting the charger on the inverter.

Now I just play the waiting game, I expect items to start arriving tomorrow morning, and then there will be no end to the items to install or repair in the next few weeks. I found a number of items that we need at some great pricing. So the Black Friday items will be the first to arrive and the cyber Monday items will be a week or so, getting items on the road are difficult unless you are settled into a park that will except packages or we have them sent general delivery to a local post office, which works but is not the most desirable, so this month will be hard on the credit card as I gather lots of item…just saying

Day 789

Moving day, everyone is hitting the road today, going in every direction other than North. The Flagstaff area got lots of snow when we got our last rain storm, in fact the freeze altitude dropped to 4000 feet so Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Winslow, all the spots we just visited got snow many well over a foot or twenty centimetres, yes this is were the altitude of a location makes such a huge difference.

I’m sure there will be tears today, our little group is breaking up, again I feel so blessed to have made such good friends, and I feel so lucky to have met everyone, sitting down to enjoy a meal, playing what ever activity the group has decided on just feels comfortable, there are no awkward breaks in conversation, everyone gets jabbed or teased a little. Everyone has many of the same interests, we are all full timers, a lot of our concerns are the same, you don’t feel like the odd person in the group. I think it was Miss Karen that said over dinner last night that everyone just settled into this new park like we had been here before, it is obviously easier when you have friends with you, as they help provide that comfort zone, there is no urgency to met your neighbors, or get involved in park events…I think it is safe to say this gathering just felt right, it was like we had just been together last month or a few days ago…just saying.

Packing up, becomes just like any regular event, you develop a system, of doing and rechecking every task as it done. There is no right or wrong to most of it, but as we do it with repetition it is just what needs to be done. I have seen all kinds of different check lists, but most don’t work for everyone, and a lot of times even my process changes because of equipment we had out, the weather, or whether we are doing a last minute load of laundry like this morning, these all adjust your packing up process. And this morning will not be any different, oh it will be emotionally harder, as we part ways, but we are already planning our next opportunity to get back together. So it is a difficult day as we say goodbye to the Bannon’s and Savino’s we are looking ahead and forward to seeing many people we said goodbye to almost two years ago, the first winter of our full timing adventure.

It was a core group of people that we met at a little park in a little village just 30 miles north of the Mexican border that changed our lives, they became the first members of our ever growing RV family. I remember like it was yesterday Miss Cindy inviting us to happy hour at the park almost before we stopped moving, and that was when we realized that this was the right life direction for us. It was here that I realized it didn’t matter where you were from, whether you live in a million dollar Prevost motor home or a small tag along trailer, we were all just living our best lives, and meeting people from all the different walks of life, different areas of the map we call home, we all had this adventure bug in common.

Day 788