New views, new roads, new adventures........

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7:08 am - Friday - October 20th - Panguitch, UT - 44º F, humidity 54%, wind 9 mph out of the south.......feels CALM.  Forecast high for today is 65º F here in Panguitch, and 60º F in Bryce Canyon, where we are headed today.

Good morning Panguitch!

Around 7:30 am my brother, Dwyer, rang our door bell (yes we do have a door bell) to say his 'until next times'.....he was headed off to work, and we were headed south.  It never gets any easier, and this time was no different.  Soon, he was in his truck heading off to a job, and we were putting things away inside the Newell in preparation for our mid morning departure.  I was able to utilize the 'Trailer Valet' once again to move the trailer forward and drop the tongue on the hitch.....I have to say once again that the acquisition of the 'Valet' is one of the smartest purchases I have ever made.....it just simplifies the difficult!

Originally, we had planned to visit the local Smith's Fuel Station to top off our 180 gallon diesel tank at $2.78/gallon, but I really did not like their steep driveways......I have to be very careful going in and out of driveways pulling the trailer as it is very easy to ground the hitch.  So, I did some more research and found a Texaco station about 72 miles south in Nephi, UT that had diesel for $2.75/gallon, and it was a truck stop, so the driveways would be pretty flat.  That one decision saved us driving through town in rush hour traffic, and 30 minutes of our time, at least.

We were merging on to I-15 southbound around 10:50 am in mildly heavy traffic.....it took us at least 30 miles to escape the vortex of the Salt Lake City-Provo corridor traffic.  Our total driving distance for Thursday was 221 miles....a longish travel day for us.  There just weren't any places to stop with the 'IT' factor.  The place I ultimately chose to stop overnight was a relatively new RV park with a magnificent, panoramic view of the local valley and mountains, hence the long driving day.  We pulled into the Texaco truck stop after 90 minutes of travel, took on 105 gallons, and were back on the road within 25 minutes.  It was less than 20 miles later that we hit traffic.....apparently there was an accident about 4 miles ahead, and that combined with a construction zone requiring us to merge into one lane cost us about 20 minutes, but at least we never stopped....we just moved along about 10-20 mph for 4-5 miles before we got past the bottleneck. 

We exited I-15 at SR-20 at the 201 mile mark with just 20 miles to go, but what a 20 miles that was......first we had to climb an 11 mile, 8% grade which saw us grinding along at 28-30 mph in 2nd gear for that entire distance.....the engine, tranny and oil temps where the highest I have seen for a long time at 210º.  Finally we crested the summit of the climb at over 7,800' elevation and began the rapid descent on a very windy, twisty 8% grade.....again, in 2nd gear all the way down.

At last we arrived at Bear Valley RV Park right at the intersection of SR-20 and US-89 a little after 4 pm.  We quickly paid for our overnight site, moved over to Site #1 (a pull through site) where I quickly connected our electric, water and sewer.  Within minutes we were both relaxing and watching the lighting change the appearance of the land across Bear Valley......

......then came a magnificent sunset.....now do you know what I mean by the 'IT' factor?

So, we have now covered a little over 800 miles of our drive south to the Grand Canyon....we have just over 200 miles left to go, and can now slow down a little, enjoy the warmer climate, and a just a 'few' new views!

Game 5 of the Cubs/Dodgers best of 7 MLB NLCS began at 6:08 pm, Mountain Time.....I was hoping the Dodgers would get off to a quick start, and put the game away early, and that is exactly what they did......by the end of the 4th inning it was 7-0, and by the last out of the game it was 11-1.  This will be the first time since 1988 that the Dodgers have made it back to the World Series.....there have been so many disappointments over the years, but alas they have made it back to the Fall Classic!

Kike Hernandez hit three home runs including a grand slam accounting for 7 of the 11 runs....he was a one man wrecking crew, and single-handedly wrecked the Cubs' hopes to return for the second year in a row to the World Series.  If you were a Dodger fan, or a Cub hater it was a wonderful game!

We were off to dreamland by 11:30 pm thinking about the adventures awaiting at Bryce Canyon National Park.....are we ever stoked!

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Shop 'til ya drop!

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8:17 am - Thursday - October 19th - South Jordan, UT - 42º F, humidity 41%, wind 5 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy skies with a forecast high of 74º F.....today is moving day.....heading ever southward.....next stop Bryce Canyon National Park!

Wednesday was a very busy day....I was up before 7 writing my daily blog entry, and by 10 am we were in the VW embarking upon a very ambitious day of shopping......in all we visited four local thrift stores......Savers, Goodwill, Calvary and Deseret (owned by the LDS folk).....we found a number of things we were looking for.....snow boots for TLE, another pair of pants for moi, some sweaters for TLE, a black sweatshirt for moi, a long, ankle length wool coat for TLE, some gloves and thermal socks for both of us......we will be spending the winter at the Grand Canyon at just over 7,400' elevation after all and it's time to round out our winter weather wardrobe, right?

Of course, there was a required stop at the local In 'N Out Burgers for lunch (#2 combo for me), then stops at Trader Joe's, COSTCO, the Utah State Liquor store, and finally a stop at a local fuel station to top off the VW tank......we paid the cheapest per gallon cost for premium unleaded ever.....$2.29/gallon!

We arrived back at the Newell with our plunder about 4 pm after 6 straight hours of shopping.....after putting things away I took a much needed nap.  I think 6 hours of shopping is a new world record for me.....and I got to spend all that time with The Lovely Elaine!

Around 6 pm we went inside Dwyer and Lori's home for our second dinner in as many nights.  I think I mentioned in a prior post that it had been maybe two years since we had visited them here in Utah, but it has actually been 4 years!  It doesn't seem that long ago.  We had another lovely evening of good food and conversation (my sister-in-law, Lori, is a wonderful cook!).  Since Dwyer is still in the 'workaday' world he needed to get to bed, so we bid our good evenings around 9:30 pm and headed back to our home parked at their curb.

It has been a quick two days here in South Jordan, UT, and I wish we had more time with Dwyer and Lori, as I always do.  There will be a next time, and this time we won't wait four more years!

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SLC.......

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6:46 am - Wednesday - October 18th - South Jordan, UT - 37º F, humidity 60%, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast......forecast high for South Jordan, UT today is 71º F with clear blue skies.....suweet!

Our Jello goal for departing Downata Hot Springs was 10 am.....we rolled out the gate about 10:15 am.....not bad!  We were on I-15 southbound within 10 minutes, then it was just a matter of setting the cruise control, then hang on to the steering wheel and enjoy the view........and what a nice view it was.

Our total driving distance at the beginning of our day was around 144 miles which would take us into the urban bowels of Salt Lake City traffic.  To be fair, traffic in downtown SLC does not even come close to the quagmire of traffic congestion that SoCal is, but when you spend 95% of your life living in rural America where there is often not even a traffic signal, and perhaps maybe only 1, or 2 stop signs, venturing into any area with any kind of traffic is disconcerting at best.

As we drifted ever southward at 60 mph the amount of traffic slowly increased, and as we entered the Ogden, UT corridor on I-15 additional new southbound lanes began to appear until we hit 6 lanes in downtown SLC.  Suddenly you go from seeing one vehicle in your side view mirrors a mile, or so back to being surrounded by dozens of vehicles all changing lanes back and forth in front of you.  The collar on your shirt seems to be shrinking, your left foot begins to tap out a nervous staccato rhythm, and you feel your right eye beginning to twitch.....yup...welcome back to urban life Clarke!  As we continue to ooze into the ever increasing congestion I begin looking for every opportunity to keep moving my 38,000 pounds and 62 feet of metal to each new lane which keeps appearing to my right.....every time I think I'm as far right as I can be another new lane is added.  I know from past experience that at the point where we exit the Interstate for my brother's home it is 7, or 8 lanes wide, which includes the two 'EXIT ONLY' lanes.  My right blinker is on, but the vehicles to my right are not yielding.....I've got less than 1/2 mile before I pass the exit.....I finally slow down to let traffic pass me, and squeeze in front of an oncoming semi just in time to make the exit....whew!

I breath a brief sigh of relief....the palms of my hands are sweaty, and that deodorant I applied just a couple of hours before has given up the ghost.  Within a mile we have pulled to the side of the road to unload the VW before we enter the very narrow streets of my brother's neighborhood.  He lives on a culdesac and it is impossible for me to make the u-turn in the culdesac required to park in front of his home, so I must turn right away from his home and then back up about 100 yards into his culdesac, and then position the coach and trailer in front of his home in such as a way as not to block local neighborhood traffic.  We've done this maneuver about 7, or 8 times over the years, but it never gets easier.  Sometimes we get it first try, and sometimes it takes several tries before we are positioned correctly.

Of course, this time we have a tool we didn't have the other half dozen+ times we have come here.....we have the 'Trailer Valet'.  The hardest part about parking in front of my brother's home is getting the trailer bent around the corner and out of the middle of the street.  This time, once we got the trailer close to where we wanted it, we dropped the trailer, pulled the Newell forward a little, then maneuvered the trailer into its parking spot.....so much easier!  Then we adjusted the position of the Newell, and we were done.....by this time it was closing in on 3 pm.  I got busy running about 70' of 50 amp extension cords into my brother's garage where we plug into a 20 amp receptacle....this means we won't be rocking 4 electric heaters for a couple of days.....maybe one at a time.  Fortunately the overnight lows will be in the 40's the next two days so our water bay is safe from freezing.  Once that was done I was ready for a nap, and that is exactly what I did.

My brother, Dwyer, was home from work around 5 pm, at which time we went inside to spend the evening with he and his wife, Lori. It happened to be 'Taco Tuesday', replete with Margaritas.  We had a wonderful evening laughing, and talking......hard to believe it has been four years since we were last here!

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Jiggling Jello.......

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6:55 am - Saturday - October 14th - Ririe, ID - 31º F, humidity 80%, wind 7 mph out of the northwest.......there is NO wind whatsoever, but it is has been, and is currently snowing.....about 5" of snow on the ground as I write......

Looks to be about 5" and still accumulating

What a difference a night makes

......wait, what?  There was nothing in last night's forecast about snow......but, come on.....how cool is it to awake to a winter wonderland?!  And, then, of course, there were the Jello plans we had to move further south today......and then the Jello jiggled.  Just another reminder that we need to move south a little more quickly.

So, back to Friday's shenanigans......originally we had talked about driving into Idaho Falls Friday to do a little 'junking', possibly see a movie, and then have an early dinner at a local micro brewery we have frequented in the past, but as the morning wore on we decided to just stay home and enjoy not doing anything, or imposing any kind of a schedule upon our persons.  Another compelling reason for not going anywhere was the relentless winds which were in the mid to high 20 mph all day long with gusts into the 30's on a regular basis.  And, finally, there were about 10-15 recorded shows in our DVR queue (NCIS, NCIS L.A., Blacklist, Designated Survivor, Survior, Gold Rush, Last Ship, NCIS New Orleans, etc.) which we needed to whittle down a tad.

Of course, there also had to be a walk around the campground, and around 3 pm we did just that.......

 Yup, it is cold!

.....it was still in the low 40's, and adding in the windchill factor I would say it felt like the mid 30's, so we bundled up against the cold and walked for about 40 minutes taking a few pictures to memorialize our visit before retreating to the heated comfort of the Newell.

There was another very good MLB ALCS playoff game pitting the hated New York Yankees against the Houston Astros......it was a well pitched game with Houston prevailing 2-1 in a game which could have gone either way.

Back to the present (7:41 am, Saturday), waking up to 5" of snow on the ground reminds me of how well built Newells are......well insulated, heated water bay, electric heaters, gas heaters, chassis heaters.....they are definitely 4 season coaches.  We have plenty of propane, we have 50 amp electric service (really 100 amps), and we have no schedule to keep.  We may, or may not roll our wheels today.  Oh, and one more thing.....it has stopped snowing, so we've got that going for us!

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The 'IT' factor......

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8:34 am - Friday - October 13 - Ririe, ID - 34º F, humidity 53%, wind 9 mph out of the south by southeast.......when you see windmills on the hill near your camp there is no way it is not going to be windy, right?

We awoke, finally, to a windless environment Friday morning.  I haven't talked a lot about the the wind, but over time wind kind of wears me down.   Any day I wake up without the ubiquitous sound of the wind makes me happy.  Our original Jello plan was to continue south from Dillon, MT on I-15 to Idaho Falls which is always a natural stop off point for us when traveling the I-15 corridor.  Sometimes we have stayed at a local in town RV park, or in the local Walmart parking lot.  As I was thinking Thursday night about where we might stay my mind kept rejecting these familiar options so I began to look outside of town for someplace new to stay for a couple of days.  I checked Freecampsites.net and found numerous free boondocking options, of which there are many in this area, but knowing the overnight lows would be in the very low 20's I began to look to places where we could at least have access to electricity.  Initially I thought we might stay at the local Elks Lodge, but they only offer 20 amp service with no water, or sewer, or dump station.  The price, $10/night, was attractive, but I really didn't want to be back in a situation where we had to think about what electric appliances we could use.....we did that all summer and, frankly, I'm over that.  I just want to plug in and not have to manage our electrical consumption, especially with the cold temps being forecast.  I checked Passport America, but none of the parks nearby had that 'IT' factor, even at a 50% discounted rate.  Finally I checked RV Park reviews dot com and found this cool out of the way Bonneville County Park which overlooks Ririe Dam/Reservoir.  This park seemed to have the 'IT' factor, so that is where we headed about mid morning.

We had one big pass, Monida (6,870' elevation), which stood between us and the Idaho border.  Fortunately the grade heading up to the pass is quite gentle and I was able to keep the Newell in cruise control the entire time.....that is rare......95% of the time I have to shift down to 2nd, or 3rd gear to get over most passes, or summits.  Our total driving distance for the day was modest......just 146 miles.  Normally I would take time before we leave a location to clean the windshield, but it was soooo cold I decided to put it off until we got down the road aways.  About 45 miles into our day I spotted a rest stop near Lima, MT which we had stopped at previously, so we pulled in and I spent the next 15 minutes cleaning the windshield and side windows......it was still quite cold!

We exited I-15 about 10 miles shy of Idaho Falls and took a few country roads over to US-26 which took us the final 6 miles to Juniper Campground, which is aptly named as there are juniper bushes everywhere.......

.......as we entered the park around 2 pm it was obvious that we would be the only ones there.....we essentially have the entire park to ourselves!  Most of the sites are long pull throughs so it was just a matter of finding one with the 'IT' factor, and then settling in for two days.  Since the overnight temps are getting below freezing most nights the water has been turned off.....that's cool as we had over 100 gallons of fresh water still left in our tank.....more than enough for two days.  At least we have access to the sewer to dump our gray tank water, and we have 50 amp service!

Around 7 pm we noticed we were getting a great sunset.......unfortunately, my meager photographic skills did not capture its true grandeur, and beauty......

.....we spent most of the evening watching the MLB game five between the Chicago Cubs and the Washington Nationals.....the game lasted over 4.5 hours and was ultimately won by Chicago 9-8.....the Nationals just made too many errors in a game they should have won handily.

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Newell Rally in Spearfish, SD

Site of our next Newell Mini Rally

One of the amazing, unexpected benefits of owning a Newell coach are the many friends we have made over the past 5 years.  Friends who also own Newells of varying vintages.  I'm not talking about casual friends, or friends who are friends just because we own the same motorcoach, but friends who are true friends in every sense of the word.  I know from reading blogs of other folks who own Airstreams, or GMAC's, or Bus Conversions, and other RV's made by many other manufacturers, all feel the same about the people who have come into their lives because of their choice in RV.  All I can speak for is my particular users group, and they are an amazing bunch of people.

 Austin, TX

When I was in the process of buying our 1982 Newell I joined the only users group that existed at the time, www.newellclassic.com, and introduced myself.  I was immediately welcomed by half a dozen people who were regulars on the website.  I found out one of them, Michael Day, lived part time in his 1992 Newell in Newport Beach, CA, about 50 minutes from where I lived in Ontario, CA.  I was anxious to meet other Newell owners so I suggested to Michael, while online one day, that TLE and I drive down to meet he and his wife, Georgia, one weekend.  He was very enthusiastic about our visit.  As it turned out another of my eventual good friends, Tom McCloud and his family were on an extended trip in their 1990 Newell that summer and were going to be at Michael's RV park, Newport Dunes, that same weekend.  Little did we know that we would become close friends starting that weekend with not only Michael and Georgia, but Tom, his wife Darlene, and their daughter Heather.  

Tom (Encantotom) and Darlene at Creede, CO

David and Denise - Creede, CO

Since that weekend we have spent time traveling with Tom and Darlene twice on the way back from a Newell Rally held in Austin, TX, and then a second Newell Rally held in Creede, CO, and we have spent 12 days at their home in Arizona at the beginning of our current journey.  We have spent a week at the home of Georgia and Michael in Austin, TX.  Just this past summer our good friend Tom McCloud started a new users group called www.newellgurus.com.  I still visit the other site, but all of my friends have migrated over to the new site, so that is where I spend my most time when online.

Steve and Patricia (Prarieschooner)

This is a story that has repeated itself over and over again on our journey the past 13+ months.  We have been invited into the homes, and on to the properties of Newell owners all across the U.S.  There is just this immediate kinship.....a feeling like I have known these people all my life.  

Denise and Elaine - Austin, TX

This summer from June 22nd to June 29th we will be attending another Newell mini rally....the first since August of 2009.  The location is in Spearfish, South Dakota.....smack dab in the middle of the Black Hills.  The rally was the result of an e-mail conversation with a new Newell owner Todd Flickma, who lives in Sioux Falls, SD and myself.  He recently purchased a 1984 Newell Classic from a guy in Texas.  Over the course of several phone conversations, and many, many emails we have become friends, and we are so much looking forward to meeting him and his family this June.  At first we were just talking about our two families getting together in the Black Hills.  Subsequently this gathering has grown into a 19 coach Newell Rally.  Many of the folks coming I have met in person already, but there will be new people I have not met before, and am looking forward to becoming closer friends with them, too.  We will even have a representative from the Newell factory there at our rally.  

Richard, Rhonda and son - Creede, CO

Information about the rally can be found here: Newell Gurus Mini Rally.  We don't charge a registration fee for these informal rallies.  The only money you will pay is for your RV site at Elkhorn Ridge RV Resort, and your travel expenses to and from the rally.  Now, if you don't need, or want any new friends, then please just ignore this blog entry, because if you come you will gain a whole new family of friends.

TLE and I - Creede, CO

If you have found this blog entry through a Google search, or some other search engine, and are thinking about owning a Newell, or have a Newell and want to get together with a bunch of really cool, genuine folks  who also happen to own Newells, please come and join us in Spearfish!

Wishing we were already fulltiming

It's Thursday morning, and I sit here reading online journals of people who have escaped the gravitational pull of the work week world, and are living and travelling fulltime in their RV's. Elaine and I are a little less than 2 years away from realizing our dream to do the same. We've spent countless evening hours sitting by our outdoor fireplace planning, and talking about fulltiming.

Six years ago we were not evening thinking in these terms. We had not owned an RV for 23 years, and our only camping experience during those 23 years was tent camping. When we travelled to our favorite vacation destinations we stayed in timeshares. We have owned a timeshare week in Palm Desert, CA for about 23 years that we have transferred that week to many other places such as Kau'ai, June Lake, Lake Tahoe, Washington, etc. In the Spring of 2002 my son and his wife had purchased their first travel trailer. He and I share an insurance brokerage office together, and he would come into the office every few weeks telling me about their latest weekend trip in their trailer. We owned a 26 foot Columbia sailboat at the time, and had owned it for 11 years at that point. That sailboat was our weekend getaway, but it was always in the same marina. The idea of being able to go anywhere we wished began to appeal to us more and more, and a year later Elaine and I purchased our first motorhome, a 1987 Fleetwood Tioga 26' Class C on a Ford E350 chassis. It needed a lot of work, but we bought it with that knowledge. Over the next 4 years we travelled all over California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington taking several 2-3 week trips per year. We just completely fell in love with the RV life. Ultimately we decided that the Tioga was not big enough to live in full time and began to talk about what our next motorhome would be.

About 3 years ago our son, who owned the travel trailer, bought a Fleetwood Expedition diesel pusher with 4 slides, which he still owns to this day. We love his motorhome, but buying something like that would require us to take out a loan, but we didn't want to add a monthly payment to our budget. We wanted to buy something for which we could pay cash. Based on our price range we felt we could afford a 10-12 year old diesel pusher, so we began to look in ernest for something in that price range.

We spent a day at the 2008 RV Show at the L.A. Fairgrounds in Pomona looking at the various manufacturers to get an idea of who was making the kind of coach we wanted. We liked Country Coach, Monaco, and Safarai, so we began looking at used coaches made by those manufacturers. These coaches look great new, but after about 10-12 years they begin to look pretty threadbare. In most cases the wood cabinets, flooring needed refinishing. The upholstery was worn out. Quite by accident I stumbled across a 1982 Newell on Craigslist in the Palm Springs area. It was way older than I wanted, but the pictures really caught our "eye". We were planning on attending a wedding that weekend in the Palm Springs area,(February 2008) so made an appointment with the owner to "just take a look". I had never heard of the Newell brand before, but found a few articles on the web about the founder, and an owners forum that impressed me.


Well, stopped by the storage facility where Fred Hornbacher, the "current owner" stored it, and he proceeded to give Elaine and I an hour and a half tour of the coach inside and out. Well, as I have written elsewhere on this blog, we bought that 1982 Newell 36' coach, and have never looked back. The picture at the right is the exact picture used in the Craigslist ad.

We now spend time trying to divest ourselves of a lot of "stuff" that we don't need. I have been selling some of my bike "stuff" on Ebay, and have made some good money getting rid of the excess stuff. We will eventually tackle the stuff in the attic that has not seen the light of day for 10 years and get rid of "it". It's a long process, and even though I have made the adjustment in my mind to living in a smaller space, and living more simply, the actual execution of that will be a little more difficult, but we will get there. I am blessed being married to someone who is very flexible, and willing, no wanting to live more simply, so we will each have the other to cheer us on toward the finish line. Really, the finish line will the the starting line for our new mobile, simplified life on the road. I can hardly wait.