What's up with the team this year?

Looking forward to AZ and those wonderful saguaros!

Well, I can't believe that in less than 2 weeks we'll actually be on the road once again! Frankly, I'm more than ready to "get out of Dodge" and see some different country.

Sadly, due to Covid concerns, we won't be doing a bike tour this year even though we are fully vaccinated but instead we will be breaking in our new Airstream trailer - Tango - on an extended "glamping" trip of the western US.

So why name a trailer? We discovered that it's a "thing" with Airstream owners. Quite like naming your bike. You can even register it with the international Airstream club and get a medallion to put on the trailer.

Unfortunatly names such as "Silver Bullet" were already taken but we wanted something more unique. Since we're ballroom dancers and love dancing the tango, we thought it was a fitting name for our new home.

Tango is our 27 ft. Airstream trailer that we purchased and ordered in January. We found that the little Ascape trailer we had last year was just too tiny for us to be comfortable in for an extended period of time.

After 6 weeks of bumping butts while camping in AZ last winter, we decided that while we enjoyed the RV'ing lifestyle a lot we needed something more comfortable for extended periods of camping.

So we sold the little trailer and just received the Airstream a few weeks ago. It's quite luxurious with a separate bedroom with 2 twin beds (no more taking the table down everynight just to sleep), dining area, shower and full bathroom with a toilet/sink. There is also a fully equiped galley with sink, large frig/freezer, stove, oven and microwave. Even 2 TV's! Oh, and 4 solar panels for those days we might be camping with no hookups.

We've done a few trial run outings in Colorado and are slowly getting used to having a larger home on wheels. It has an amazing amount of storage space, including a large closet for our dance clothes.

With a larger, heavier trailer, we also had to purchase a more capable tow vehicle than our mini van. That ended up being a Toyota Tundra in "basic black". With limited stock available at the time, we didn't have a choice in the color but it does look snazzy pulling the Airstream!

Of course, our tandem "Garfield" will coming along for the fun and a new addition to the family - "Sprite" - our bright green inflatable tandem kayak.

The kayak was a impulse buy this winter. We used to own a canoe and did some quiet paddling in the lakes around home. Although we've never kayaked before, we thought it might be a fun activity after seeing others doing it in AZ near where we were camped last year. So we've tried to reserve our camp spots at places that have lakes or mellow rivers.

Sprite actually hasn't been on the water this summer because I've spent the last few months having cataracts removed from both eyes. The eye surgeon didn't want me to get any potentially contaminated lake water into the eyes until they were fully healed.

The doctor finally gave me the green light last week so I should be good to go getting accidently dunked! Hopefully that won't happen, but we will be wearing life jackets at all times.

Our general plan is to spend the next 3 months or so camping at various state parks and some RV parks, exploring Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, California and Arizona.

We'll be doing day bike rides, trying out the kayak and of course, dancing when we can which might just be on our dance "floor" in the campground. That depends on Covid and our level of comfort at group dance venues.

I'm going to try to keep this journal up-to-date as we go but that will depend on our internet or phone coverage. One of the items Don bought was we-boost antena on a pole. It's supposed to boost your phone signal so we could do a hotspot for internet. We'll see......

So let the fun begin!

Here is Alice - our tiny Covid escape pod. Garfield is as long as the trailer!

And here is Tango - our new luxurious 27 ft. Airstream being pulled by our new truck - Black Beauty. Pictured behind is a cool spaceship sculpture that is near our home. It was orginally on display in San Francisco before being to moved to the former Lowry Air Base in Denver. There is now an ice cream store in the base.

And finally, meet Sprite -our new inflatable tandem kayak.

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Kathleen JonesHappy trails, Marilyn and Don. I look forward to hearing about your adventures.
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3 years ago