It's About the (RV) Journey....: Tucson...........

Lovely Tucson! We arrived about a week ago, and we are just now settling in. We stayed in this campground last year for a couple of weeks, and liked it so much we came back again for a month! Last year, however, we were not here long enough to get involved with many activities, and we were too busy sightseeing. This year, we have slowed down our sightseeing pace (I'm trying...but it is really hard for me!) and relaxing a bit more. Last year, I only had time for yoga and water aerobics. This year, I have checked out a few more activities that I just love...yoga, quilting, beading, needlework...the pool...in between our hiking and excursions! It is very peaceful here, and we are really enjoying the sunrises and sunsets. We like the desert (in the winter), and being surrounded by mountains. Just beautiful!

Christmas cactus getting ready to bloom....and see the windshield crack?

view to the left of our motorhome-and the beautiful moonrise

the "chef"-grilling up dinner

looks like a big storm coming in behind us! Navy blue clouds moving fast!

no worries...the storm went around us...read on

the best sunsets are when its cloudy

our new neighborhood

intense colors

a look down our street

the pool is down this street

another Arizona sunset

We had a quiet Thanksgiving, just the two of us (with a facetime fix with the family, phone calls and emails). I managed to cook our usual feast of turkey, stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, dumplings, veggies, gravy. Not so easy in a motorhome...especially when there is only one pot and one pan....hahahah. There was a lot of juggling and planning of this meal to have it all work out. It was delicious, and we really enjoyed stuffing our faces. Best news...we have a lot of leftovers to get us through the weekend without cooking. We hope to enjoy hiking in the days ahead to work off some of those bazillion calories!!

carving the turkey (breast)

Cheers!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone

Since we arrived here, we have had the RV into the shop for the day to address some service and warranty issues. AND, just TODAY, we finally had our windshield replaced. That was a long haul. So many issues with the windshield. We were supposed to have it done in Virginia, at a small shop. It took a week for the windshield to arrive, and then unfortunately, someone dropped it and it broke. By then, we were ready to leave to drive westward, so the job was put on hold until we got here to Tucson. It worked out way better! The glass company came to us (well, after all, we did call a mobile RV Glass place)-5 guys and 3 vans-and they were here all morning. They did a beautiful job and we are ever so grateful!

A note to fellow RVers: To get our windshield replaced, we called a nationwide mobile RV glass repair company, and had the work approved by our insurance company before the work was started. You would think that a mobile RV glass repair company would come to you, but that is not necessarily true. In small print, it mentions that you may have to go to the repair shop.It depends where you are and what small companies the nationwide company deals with in the area of the country where you need the work done (since they aren't doing the work). When we were in Virginia, that is exactly what was in line for us...to GO to a shop. That was the case in Charlottesville and Roanoke....both fairly large cities on the east coast. Not exactly in the middle of nowhere. We were surprised there was no mobile RV glass companies around to do the job. It takes a few days for the windshield to set, so we would have had to stay in hotel for the duration. AND, I forgot to mention that the glass has to be ordered and shipped to the shop that is actually doing the work, and in our experience, it takes a week for just that to happen. We took a chance traveling with the cracked windshield to our next destination...Tucson.Thankfully, there really was a mobile RV glass company that came to us. It ultimately worked out great, but it took a couple of months. Our learning from this: if you need a new windshield, find a company that will come to you. Its preferable to have the windshield "set" for a week-no driving or leveling of the rig. Its a big job!

Another big learning: We had our safety check and 45-point service done at Camping World in Roanoke (a designated Winnebego dealer in the area), and had a few other issues we wanted looked at. We were told we needed to replace one of our level jacks, but it would take a week to get the part. Since we were not staying in the area for that long, we were led to believe that Camping World in Tucson could do the work. We must have misunderstood them (ahem), because once I called Tucson to see if they could have the part ordered for us, they said they would have to do the diagnostic work before ordering anything. In other words, they would be starting all over. Lesson learned-Camping Worlds are not really related like that. You must have diagnostic and repair work done in the same shop, no matter what the service department tells you! We therefore went to a different place (also a designated Winnebego dealer) to have the work done and all is well. Nothing is simple. Hope our experiences can help someone else out there. (By the way, I'm not dissing Camping World...just saying what happened to us, and I'm sure that could happen at any chain type of industry).