I started a new hobby in Feb. 2020. It is quilting. My friend told me fabric stores in different parts of the country will often have a section of fabric MATCHING their surrounding area. (For example, a fabric store in the Southwest of the USA might have more fabric that shows a southwestern theme.) She showed me a book she used when they traveled around the country. The book has a new updated edition often. It is called Quilters Travel Companion and shows fabric stores from every state. Kevin bought me the latest edition and we decided that we “must” look up a fabric store in the places we travel. 🙂 This book is how we came upon the idea to stop at Rupert, Idaho. I had looked up the store on the map a few days before and saw there is only parallel parking in front of the store so we knew we would need to park a few blocks away since we were pulling our travel trailer. It being a Saturday, it wasn’t a problem to park farther away in an industrial area. The Gathering Place boasts 10,000 sq feet of fabric. Of course I found a cute Autumn fabric to buy. 🙂 Kevin liked this store a lot…he could relax while I looked around!
1st – Day 1-4, Sept 4-7, 2020 On the way to Craters of the Moon. Idaho
It was so hard to wait for Kevin to get off work because we were both so excited for our first camping trip in our new trailer. The second he was done, we were out of here. As Kevin was driving, the truck would seem to float and at some times seemed like it was picked up and when the front came down, it might almost be in a different lane. It was really bad when the road was rough. The ride was so bumpy. He had to slow down quite a bit. I thought we would just have to camp very close to home because it was so hard for Kevin to drive and almost made me motion sick. We were both disappointed. Maybe we just need to sell the trailer?!
Charla, staying out of the way!
We stayed at Aspen Grove Campground in Tremonton, UT. We pulled into the campground and was shown to our site. It is fairly new so the trees weren’t grown. No campfires allowed. I guess because it is in the middle of the town and maybe people would not like the smoke? I don’t know. But that was fine with us. Kevin got electricity and water all set up and I did my job…stay out of the way!
Why do I need to stay out of the way? Well, how do you ask someone on the other side of the trailer to do something when she is deaf and can’t hear? HAHA It is easier for him to do the set up then run around, find me, sign (American Sign Language) to me, and then go about what he was doing. 🙂 Once Kevin had the hoses, cords, chocks, and stabilizers all set up I was able to set up inside. This being our first night out in our trailer I had made a pasta salad at home and put in the fridge. We ate outside in our camp chairs. After supper, we decided to go for a walk and look for geocaches. Downtown Tremonton has some neat old buildings. Because of Covid, we weren’t able to go into them but hope to at some point down the road. I was able to take a picture of a very old building. The center park was pretty. We only found one of a chain of geocaches but that was fine with us. We enjoyed the walk. Went back to the trailer and sat outside as it got dark. Our trailer bed is a queen and so so so comfortable! I couldn’t believe it. We both slept great.
The next morning, after bagels and coffee/hot chocolate, Kevin emptied the black tank (holds stuff from the toilet) and gray tank (holds the water from the sinks). He noticed they were very full for how little we used them. Then we were on our way. Immediately we could tell a difference in how the truck felt. It turns out…the gray and black tanks were full! The RV place had filled them to check for leaks but didn’t empty them and didn’t tell us. THAT is why it was such an uncomfortable ride!! HAHAH Whew, we were so relieved we were giddy. We don’t have to sell it!! The rest of the drive was smooth and we could go faster.
Next stop…Idaho.
I wonder what this building used to be used for. Tremonton, UT1st camping spot. Tremonton, UT.
Covid 19 in 2020 was and continues to be a big deal to everyone. I don’t need to tell you about it because everyone in the entire world experienced the “shutting down” of life as we knew it. On March 19, 2020, I experienced something different. I became 100% deaf. I was Hard of Hearing (HoH) for several years. I was deaf without my hearing aids but with lipreading and the aids, if I could hear the cadence of the voice, I did pretty well. But all that changed on that day. Thankfully, we knew this would happen at some point but were a bit shocked it came earlier than we had hoped. Over the past few years we have been learning American Sign Language. What a blessing! Kevin and I are still able to communicate by using this beautiful language.
Below is a picture of me watching a movie on my iPad. I have to have the closed captions on. Sometimes they help but sometimes they are a mess!
The fun logs is the balcony of Daniel’s Summit Lodge. We spent a great weekend here including lots of walks in the mountains, relaxation, and even our first time on Razors. Whoa, what a blast!
Be sure to follow along because I will be sharing tips, tricks, and my experiences as I navigate this world and traveling while being deaf.
I noticed something that other ladies probably already know. When Kevin and I travel, he usually feels hot and I feel cold. From the car to planes to hotel rooms, the temperature is either too hot for him or too cool for me. What should I do about this problem? I definitely don’t want to roast Kevin out of the room! I will design and sew a Travel Quilt.
I added several states. California, because it is such a great place to visit. Kevin and I have been there numerous times, from the southern end to the northern line. Florida, because that is where we have been getting on our cruise ships. Utah, because it has such beautiful landscapes. From “The Mighty 5” National Parks, to State Parks, deserts, red rocks, mountains, trees, lakes, high elevation to low, definitely a state to explore in its entirety.
It was fun putting this together. On the back side is flannel with blue and red anchors. I keep it on the bed of HOWE (Home On Wheels) because it looks so pretty there. I should probably take it off and wrap myself in it when I get cold.
I like to cook. I like to cook a lot! So much so, that when we look at travel trailers, the very first thing I look at is the kitchen. I am not as talented as many cooks who are able to use a small space to create amazing dishes. Nope, I need room and lots of it. As soon as I saw this kitchen, I was “sold”! The stove has a cover that folds back and gives 3 large gas burners. It has an oven, which made me squeal with visions of all sorts of food coming out of it. The microwave is fine, I don’t normally used one much. Kevin likes microwave popcorn so this is nice to have. The sink is very large and is the “farm style sink” which means it is one big open space. I don’t mind it at all. If we are boondocking, I will use a small wash basin if I need to conserve water. I can’t wait to share with you some things cooked in HOWE (Home On Wheels). Of course, we don’t limit ourselves to only cooking in the travel trailer. Lots of cooking is done outside. Watch for more posts about food, cooking, storing, packing, and of course, eating.
Thursday, August 27, 2020 I got a call from the dealer in Bozman, MT that one has sold. That afternoon, we went to General RV in Draper. Jefferson Moser asks us how much we want to spend, first thing. That was impressive because he never wavered from it. He drives us in the little golf cart to the upper lot and shows us a 2020 Shadow Cruiser 225RBS and we absolutely “love” it. We saw two others but the kitchens were tiny and the floor plan was choppy with bedroom walls and doors. We bought it immediately! We were told by several salesmen that, like us, many people wanted to travel or get away and aren’t able to because of all the restrictions and so people bought travel trailers and camped locally. The new truck needed a special trailer brake put on and they couldn’t do it until Tuesday. Jefferson said some people had to wait more than 2 weeks this summer. That would have been very sad.
Friday, August 28,2020 We start buying all sorts of things that are needed for the truck and trailer. It was a blast. Like we did before when we had a trailer for a summer, we bought everything new to pack it completely with what is needed.
Tuesday, Sept 1, 2020 Pick up day! Our appointment was at 8:30 AM. It took a little more than 2 hours to be shown everything and to sign the papers. Oh, so exciting.
Charla and I really miss traveling due to Covid restrictions. We have had several cruises cancel (including a big one to Ireland) and no one knows for sure when cruise lines will be allowed to open up for travel. Over this summer, we have taken a few small road trips: in June we went to Burley, ID and visited City of Rocks National Park, Shoshone Falls, and Snake River. For Kevin’s birthday, we went to Daniel’s Summit Lodge and had a fantastic time. But we miss going and traveling more.
Monday, August 24, 2020, Charla and I decide we want to buy a travel trailer. We look at some RV dealers online and find one we want.
We were staying at the beautiful Zion River Resort in Virgin Utah. If you would like a campground near Zion National Park, this is it! The staff there are very nice. We got a site near the river, and all was well. Charla and I always sleep so well in HOWE, our Home on WhEels.
At 5 in the morning, I woke up to hard rain – but it was not raining on the roof, It was raining on the side wall next to my bed! For some reason Charla didn’t hear it. 😎 It took me a minute to wake up enough to realize what was happening. Then I remembered our hot water heater is on that side of HOWE. I was afraid that somehow it had ruptured and was spewing water. I stumbled out of bed, found some pants, and went outside. Water was running off the side of the trailer. I walked up to it and realized where it was coming from. There was a tree nearby, and irrigation line was ringed around it. I think it was supposed to have a soaker hose or small nozzle there, but it was missing, and a geyser was shooting from it hitting the side of the trailer! I implemented a very sophisticated fix for this situation. I put a tote over the top of the geyser and put a block of wood on top of the tote!
Right about my feet is where the geyser was. I had to relax the next day to recover!
I went back inside, and now Charla was awake. She was asking me what was wrong. But a dark trailer in the dark night is not conducive to communication with a deaf person. I used a text to speech app to tell her the story. She instantly fell back asleep. I however took quite a while for the adrenalin to settle down. Oh the fun of RV living.
Travel Means Life 