Category: Journal

Journal entry – 20-23 Dec 2015, Sun-Wed – last week at the tree lot

Slow at the tree lot, we take advantage and call everyone off. This will help us keep our labor costs low (which hopefully helps us reach the threshold to earn a bonus) and also just keeps them from being bored. Poor Cole B. came in one morning and sat there, bored, with Ashley. They played Spot It to pass the time.

During our slow mornings/afternoons we watch through Season 1 of Heroes and generally enjoy having the place to ourselves. I run to the Post Office a few times to pick up gift packages. I believe we’ve got them all, which is good since we’re leaving Christmas Day and the last day they’ll hold them for us is the 26th.

We’re thoroughly enjoying our Christmas packages!
From Mom and Tobey: cookies, chocolate/caramel/nutty/saltines, photos from Tobey, and the chocolate orange were wonderful to receive!
Norma and Jim included some tea, delicious home-made salsa, and apple sauce from Carvers!
(Yes, we received non-food items as well. I’m using my ninja-turtle wash cloth and we’ve blown quite a few bubbles. Ashley wears her defuser necklace daily and we’re excited to wear our new bicycle jerseys.)

Pipers, still our favorite/tea coffee shop, sent along a vinyl sticker with the latest tea order. We thought it’d go perfectly above our “coffee station”. And we were right!

Pipers Coffee and Tea!

Pipers Coffee and Tea!

In addition to those sent by others, we also ordered some items from Amazon that have been on our list for some time. Since we have a fixed mailing address for a bit now seems like the perfect time to do so. A new coffee maker for me (pour-over cone, the old one works but has a couple of cracks) a bicycle light set for Ashley’s Christmas present, metal license plate bracket for the trailer (they seem to only sell plastic ones in stores), a new shower head that is our Christmas present to each other, and even some batteries (you can buy watch batteries in bulk far cheaper online than in any store – quite a savings for our flashlights).

I install the VIN plate on the trailer and the license plate bracket. After 5 months now we’re finally legal in all of the states. Horray!

The new shower head makes a huge, HUGE, difference. There were times where the water basically just dribbled down the handle instead of any kind of actual stream. This one is a full-on spray, however. I’ve read numerous reviews saying how much of a difference this new one makes – they did not exaggerate. Now we’re debating if it uses more water or if we are just taking longer showers. Either way, we’ll have to be conscious of our water usage with this new shower head, even more than before.

Journal entry – 21-24 October 2015, Tues-Sat – Gilbert, AZ – Peddling pumpkins

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Wednesday

Woke and went for a bicycle ride down along the canal. Slightly annoying to stop for a road crossing every .25 miles but quiet, peaceful and otherwise pretty. So definitely worth it! Stopped by The Coffee Shop halfway and then home to find Jose putting up lights on our fence.

I start making pumpkin pancakes when a semi pulls up. Surprise! We’re getting more pumpkins.

Jose leaves to get the tractor and returns with a crew to help unload. We get everything arranged about lunch time (and we’re more than ready to eat) so they head on to the next lot and we finally eat.

Out of room in the tent, we pull the tables under our awning for the register and carving kit/pattern displays. Very convenient, right next to the door. Our commute just went from 100′ down to 3′. 🙂

    

I run to Trader Joe’s for tortilla chips. The salsa is very tasty!

Thursday

Ashley took the morning off – bike riding and exploring the area. She went to The Coffee Shop and enjoyed a delicious lunch.

Friday

I took the morning off – grocery shopping and then heading to The Coffee Shop for a tasty sandwich and wifi. Really enjoyed a relaxing morning.

  

Mel stopped by for a couple hours. Brought a new battery for the big generator and looked over books with Ashley.

Busy evening! Captain America and Cinderella came and bought pumpkins.

Saturday

Productive day. Cleaned and oiled bicycles. Washed the motorcycle. Sold the most pumpkins yet.

Almost out of propane in the RV and Ash doesn’t want to unhook and pack everything away so I can go get more. I was planning on buying a T so that we can use our 20lb tank as a supplement and call around for options. Lowes and a DIY is the best bet so, after 3 trips to get all of the right parts, we now have a way to get back-up propane. Very handy!

Journal entry – 20 October 2015, Tues – Gilbert, AZ – Running the pumpkin lot

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Cooking day! Ashley manned the register while I cooked. Baked and boiled pumpkins to make home-made puree. Worked well, though boiling is quicker. Maybe baking a smaller pumpkin is a better options… Also roasted two batches of pumpkin seeds.

Also put together a batch of salsa. We do love salsa and just go through jars so quickly! Having 2+ quarts in a go is perfect!

Finally topped it off with Japanese cheesecake. It’s like a cheesecake soufflé. Never did brown on top but tastes delicious anyway. Baked it in muffin cups instead of a cake pan.

  

Yesterday I put together a batch of fridge pickles and let them sit over night. Tried with supper today and they’re delicious. Took maybe 15 minutes to make and will last a couple of weeks. Definitely a good recipe to save.

Journal entry – 15-19 October 2015, Thurs-Mon – Gilbert, AZ – Running the pumpkin lot

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

People trickle in throughout the days and we sell pumpkins in groups of 1-5 or so. A dust storm on Thursday has us buttoning down hatches. We have to undecorate the awning 🙁 to close it. With the wind we re-set up our decorations at least 6 times over a couple of hours.

  

Thursday evening I catch Andy, the maintenance man, over at the church. He remembers a hookup last year and shows me the spigot. I get hoses stretched out and refill our tank before hooking up. Horray, water!

Friday, Mike and Mel arrive with old carpets from apartments. We put two under our awning to help with dust. They approve my PVC layout and suggest getting an additional drinking water hose.

It rains Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The carpet may never be dry. The hose I pick up is too short, so I have to redesign the PVC and then old connections crack. It takes 3 days and half a dozen trips to Lowes/Home Depot for me to finally get water run. We eventually have water hooked up to the RV and throughout our lot. There are three hose connections that we can use to spray off the trees when we switch seasons.

  

Sales seem fairly steady. Apparently it’s a mad rush at the end, so on the 30-31st we will actually go through our stock. Another load to fill out our stash is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday.

One woman picks up a pumpkin and comes back the next day with it hollowed out for a photo shoot with her baby. He fits inside perfectly.

   
    

Another woman picked up a large pumpkin and some tiny ones to use for a pregnancy announcement. She plans to cut open the big one and carve a heart in it then out the small one inside it. Fun!

We have three generators of different sizes. The largest has an electric start, but the battery is dead and won’t take a charge. I have to run a generator and hook up my battery charger in order to start it.

  

I run all the errands – between my bike rack and the motorcycle I can carry things more easily than Ashley could in a backpack. She’s ready to get out and about with a purpose, not just aimlessly wandering on her bicycle.

We do a quick fitness test and are sore for 2 days.

With pumpkins to throw away daily – unsellable due to bad spots, we carve jack-o-lanterns, roast seeds and plan on trying lots of different recipes. Pumpkin smoothies, pumpkin pancakes, soup, blackbean and pumpkin chili, etc. Plenty of raw material, it seems a shame not to experiment when we so readily have the chance!

Journal entry – 11-14 October 2015, Sat-Wed – Gilbert, AZ – Prepping the pumpkin lot

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Over the next few days we inventory our supplies, receive accessories to sell (pattern books, carving kits, and candles) decorate some (banners, flags, lights on the RV) and wait. 30 straw bales are dropped off, the fence is installed, a porta-john and dumpster are delivered, and lights are installed on the tent.

We take the opportunity to get out and explore the surrounding areas. Lots of little “patches” of stores – old towns that are now all one urban sprawl. There is a Latter Day Saints (Mormon) church every half-mile or so around us. We find a million grocery stores (including Sprouts and Trader Joe’s), a few coffee shops (not as many as we expected – which should save us some money) the food truck court, and the usual suspects – mall, Target, WalMart, etc.

I start calling the church next door about hooking up for water. The spigot is easy enough to find but we can’t seem to catch anyone there. We run out of water in our fresh tank, so I take our water jug on the motorcycle and buy water from a Glacier water vending machine.

  
On Wednesday our pumpkins arrive, along with a crew to help unload them. After a few hours our straw is arranged and we have piles of pumpkins scattered throughout the tent. Everyone heads on to the next patch while Ashley and I finish arranging and decorating. We set up two photo areas, a “graveyard” and generally have a blast. In our completely unbiased opinion, everything looks amazing!

  
One pumpkin is sold that evening. How exciting!

   
 

Journal entry – 10 October 2015, Sat – Phoenix, AZ – Lot manager’s meeting

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

We head in to the managers meeting at the hotel next door. 7 couples are there, the other 3 are still on the road. One other couple is our age while everyone else is middle-aged or elderly. We learn about inventory and paperwork, receive cash registers, credit card terminals, starting cash (gas for generators and change for the register) and a padlock key.

The meeting is wrapped up by our lunch appointment at MiMi’s Cafe. We ride over with Mike and Bonnie, receiving lots of advice on the way. Lunch is very tasty and is a work treat. We realize that this is only the second time we’ve been treated to a meal since leaving in June, and boy was it appreciated! So nice to have a meal we neither had to make nor pay for. 

Afterward we pack up and head on to check out our lot. Can’t miss it, the tent is already set up. Other than a shipping container (that our key unlocks) and a lone palm tree, it’s a big, empty gravel lot. Markings on the ground indicate a parking area and where the fence will be set up.

  
We glance through the shipping container and stroll around the neighborhood. Across the street is a little shopping center (breakfast place, quick-serve fondue restaurant, a Crossfit gym and more). Diagonally across the intersection is a gas station and directly across from us is a Walgreens. Next door is a church building.

We stock up on groceries at Sprouts, a farmer’s market style store and park. It’s home and settled till after October…

Journal entry – 9 October 2015, Fri – Phoenix, AZ

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

We slept well with no disturbances throughout the night. After breakfast we head to a nearby (different) mall to hide from the day’s heat. Nearly 100! Wandered through both floors, bought some tea for Ashley, soaked up wifi at Starbucks and hit up happy hour at the Cheesecake Factory.

Eventually we headed to the lot near tomorrow’s meeting place. 3 other RVs are there. We pull in and get settled before going to chat with Mike and Bonnie, who will be managing this lot. They have been working here for 13 years now. Mel, the owner, is there as well so we get to meet him before he heads on home. Another couple came to chat, also.

Journal entry – 8 October 2015, Thurs – Phoenix, AZ

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

We watch our second movie from yesterday and then go see about extending our stay a second night since we don’t have to be in Phoenix for 2 more days. Park is already full so no such luck. We quickly pack up and head back into the mountains – me on the motorcycle and Ashley following with everything in the RV. A few miles up the road is a turn about/parking area just in the Prescott National Forest. We leave the RV there and motorcycle on up to Sedona.

Along the way we detour to the Red Rocks State Park but don’t feel like paying to get in. Beautiful country, though. We head into town but don’t stay long. A quick walk around does it for us – it’s very touristy.

  

Back to Jerome for lunch (since it’s on the way). Yesterday The Bordello caught our interest. A themed restaurant with fun names for their meals. I have the “Skinny Mistress” – a bison burger. Ash had a falafel pita – no fun name for her. Everything was delicious!

   
   

We head on after eating, load up the motorcycle and hit the road. Ash gets a nap while going down the interstate. Just 6 miles from Saturday’s meeting place we stop at Arizona Mills, a mall that very much feels like Opry Mills in Nashville. I buy some new jeans at Old Navy (about time) and we head back to the RV. Another one is parked near us so we’ll try spending the night.

Journal entry – 7 October 2015, Wed – Prescott to Jerome, AZ

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

After a morning close to home (Ashley yogas and bicycle rides a bit while I work on a web business idea) we hop on the motorcycle for a ride over the mountains to Jerome. It’s an old ghost mining community turned artist town and our cashier and man behind us in line yesterday at Trader’s Joe said it was well worth the trip.

  

The ride over the mountains is a lot of fun and it’s a nice little town. We walk around and stop for a snack with a beautiful view over the valley.

Then we ride back toward home, returning and picking up a couple more movies for the night. What luxury!

We wonder if some of the well-known motorcycle rides will be a dissapointment. We’ve been on a lot of spectacular roads here recently, whether great views or just really twisty as they work their way up or down a mountain range, or both at the same time. Guess we’ll find out when we get to some of them.

Journal entry – 6 October 2015, Tues – Prescott, AZ

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Decided to head west to Prescott for a few days. So we packed up and headed that way. Drove past our campground and on into town for Trader Joe’s and RedBox. It’s raining steadily when we finish. Backtrack to the campground and move into our spot, which we’ve booked for two nights.

We top off propane and I hook up in the rain. Horray for rain gear! Great afternoon to enjoy some movie watching, so we do. We haven’t watched a rented movie in forever, what a treat!

Supper is finished as the sun is setting. We go outside for a better view.