It has been a busy week since my last post. Over the weekend we put the Nissan Frontier to good use hauling numerous loads of stuff out of the motorhome to our new-to-us park model home. It’s amazing how much stuff we’d been hauling around the country. Over time, it’s easy to forget about some of the items buried deep in the basement compartments of our motorhome.

The home we bought came fully furnished – including things like kitchen utensils, pots and pans, silverware and plates. This made it harder to decide what we needed to move from the coach and also where to put everything. It’s an ongoing process – I keep searching for things as Donna reshuffles storage. Something I found in one cabinet yesterday is now in a different location. She’ll refine her organization of stuff soon and I’ll learn where to find things.

We spent our first night here on Sunday. It was an adjustment. After nearly eight years in the coach with only a few exceptions, it felt strange. On Monday morning, I had an appointment at Cliff’s Welding to have the Roadmaster base plate installed on the Frontier. It took longer than I expected – I didn’t get out of there until 1pm. The truck is set to be towed behind the coach when we depart from here.

Tuesday we got what should be the last load of stuff out of the coach. I drove the coach over to 202 RV Valet for storage, Donna followed in the Frontier. This RV storage facility is new – I think it’s less than two years old. It’s owned by the same people that own RV Renovators where we had extensive work performed a few years ago.

The coach is in a covered space, but it will get partial afternoon sun. I covered the tires to mitigate UV degradation. The space also has a 20-amp service – adequate for the batteries to maintain a charge. Of course, when I went to hook up to the electrical outlet, I realized my 20-amp adapter was in a box of stuff I moved to the shed at our new place. Not a big deal though, the storage yard is less than two miles from Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort and we have 24/7 access.

As we slowly settle in, we’ve been taking time to enjoy the back deck, watching golfers – and occasionally watching out for errant golf balls – and enjoying the view and weather.

We also have a nice view to the east from the front room and side deck at our entry. We look down the 1600 Lane of the park at the Superstition Mountains.

We’re liking the transition into a more conventional dwelling, but we’ll still be hitting the road. Our tentative plan at this point is to leave Mesa, Arizona by May 10th. This date was predicated on the billing policy at 202 RV Valet. If you take your rig out of storage by the 10th of the month, they pro-rate the monthly fee. If you move out after the 10th, you have to pay for the entire month. I don’t like the policy, but it is what it is. It’s not like they would lose money if you left on the 11th or later – they told me they have a waiting list of more than 140 people!

We haven’t made a plan for our exit from the Valley of the Sun at this point. Presumably we’ll head north to a cooler climate, but we don’t really know where we’re going.

Did I mention the new place included a barbeque grill? It’s a large CharBroil grill with four burners, a large grilling surface and also a side burner suitable for a pot or pan.

Yesterday, Donna marinated a pork tenderloin with her mojo marinade and I grilled it on our new-to-us grill. This was the second time I’ve used the grill and I’m getting used to the settings I prefer. A new grill always takes some time to learn its adjustments for fine tuning temperature settings. I’m not used to grilling on such a large grill. When we were in our sticks-and-bricks home, I had a large Weber gas grill, but it’s been eight years since I’ve manned that.

The tenderloin came out fine.

Donna roasted cauliflower in the oven – yeah we have a kitchen with a real oven and stove.

The weather has been pretty much as predicted – on the very warm side. The week started with mid to upper 80s. By Thursday, we were in the low 90s. Yesterday we hit 93 degrees and the forecast calls for the same today. After a couple more hot days, they say we can expect to return to the low 80s for most of April.

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