6:59 am - Monday - October 19th - TWW - 50° F, humidity 56%, cloud cover 39%, wind 12 mph out of the south.....very cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 67° F. On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Panguitch, UT....
....at Bear Valley RV Park watching the sun set. We were on our way to Bryce Canyon, which was amazing! The view this morning.....
....there was a lot of monsoonal rain this summer, and things have become a bit overgrown.....time to get out the ECHO string trimmer!
The 'last' of things that have given you so much pleasure over the years is always bitter sweet, and that feeling is strong as we have now come to the end of that "long, and winding road" which has brought us HOME. When we moved into our 1982 Newell Classic to live on February 1, 2011 we had no idea we would still be living in her almost 16 years later. We thought we might travel for 1,2 or 3 years before finding a place to settle, but as the months, and then years passed into the rear view mirror we found we could not imagine living any other way. Being able to change our view on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis without the necessity of an escrow is, and has been very intoxicating. I have looked out the drivers' side salon window to some amazing views over the years, and as I sit here this morning looking out that same window at The Wilson Wilderness, and specifically my sister-in-law's 1982 Newell Classic (the sister coach to our 1982) I find myself smiling. It has been a long, but wonderful journey to come to this point, this place, where we have decided to spend the rest of our days, however many they might be.
When we first arrived here at The Wilson Wilderness back in October of 2024 we had no idea how much we didn't know about living off the grid. The first month was a trial by fire trying to figure out how to configure our entire power system to be self sustaining, and require very little generated power assistance, and just rely on the sun to keep both of our Bluetti solar generators charged and sending electrons into our coach to power our 12 volt, and 120 volt systems. In fact, we actually discussed abandoning our dream at one point, but we persevered, and with the addition of many more solar panels now have continuous power to the coach and the trailer, and here we are back at TWW to live here full time.....winter, spring, summer and fall.
We left the TA Express truck parking lot to drive the final 112 miles back to TWW a little after 8 am, and were transitioning from US-93 to I-40 in Kingman, AZ in less than an hour. We exited I-40 4 miles later at US-66 to drive the final 59 miles to our final destination in our wonderful, reliable, comfortable 1982 Newell Classic 36 foot diesel pusher.
We have had only had three minor issues on the road since we purchased her back in March of 2008. The first was in June of 2008 when the left front tire exploded on I-10 about 90 minutes west of Mesa, AZ. The tire service guy was there in 90 minutes, changed out the tire, and we were on the road home in less than 30 minutes from the time he arrived. The second was in October of 2009 when we pulled off I-40 in Needles, CA late at night to take a break. When I went to start the Newell nothing happened. Once again, we called Good Sam (it was around 1 am), and the mobile mechanic was there in 90 minutes, fixed the problem (a shorted trigger wire for the starter), and we were on our way by 3 am. The final issue was an auxiliary coolant line feeding coolant to our onboard air compressor ruptured in April of 2016. We pulled onto a side street, found the leak, and drove about 2 miles over to a specialty hose place to have a new coolant line made. In all we were delayed less than 3 hours, and back on the road. Considering we have traveled over 100,000 miles in her since 2008, it is remarkable that we have never had a major breakdown.
About 10 miles east of Kingman I took a couple of pictures of US-66....
.....by 10:25 am we were exiting US-66 on the north/south arterial (unpaved) which takes us to TWW.....
.....within 30 minutes we had parked the Newell in her permanent site....
....where she has spent the last two winters, and then, with Charles' help backed our 2007 American Trailer into its final resting place....
......within minutes we had plugged the Newell into the Bluetti battery bank, and had power. Our Eco Worth Dual Axis solar tracker was working as it should, and within minutes of plugging in the batteries were at 100%! Everything was just as we left it six months ago. Is this the final time we will take our 1982 Newell on the road? Probably, but one never knows, does one?
Once we were plugged in I deployed the Starlink dish (on the trailer in the picture above), and settled in to watch some NFL football. Around 4:00 pm we headed over to the house to have dinner with Charles and Phyllis which was baked potatoes, pot roast, onions and carrots.....delicious....
....I took our first 'usie' as we finished our dessert....lemon bars. We are HOME, and we are happy!
Thanks for stopping by!
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