A pre-birthday outing

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

While we wait for our new home (RV) to be built,

we've been busy doing normal things.

I continue to help my Mom out,

and George and I have been purging things out of Harvey :-)

My 60th (!) birthday is Sunday,

so George asked me what I wanted to do.

The weather is starting to get nice, with almost 70° temps.

I chose to go to my favorite place,

anywhere where I can see the ocean :-)

One place I'm ashamed to say I've never been

is the Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove.

It's a grove of Eucalyptus and Cypress trees where

the annual overwintering of the monarch butterfly happens.

They begin arriving in October,

then cluster together on the trees.

The monarch can not withstand freezing temps,

so to survive they overwinter in mild climates.

The temperature has to be just right..

not too cold as to kill them, 

and not to warm to sap their energy.

Pacific Grove is just perfect for that!

The story of their migration is pretty interesting,

and can be read here.

By February they are in their mating cycle,

and more monarchs are emerging from their cocoons.

 

The sanctuary is set up with a few stations

that have descriptions of the life cycles of the monarch.

We only wish we would have come in November,

when there are more than 30,000 monarchs!

Today there were approximately 1,200.

George and I moved on to a drive along the coast.

We're at the tail end of some storms 

that have been pounding the area with rain.

The waves have been pretty impressive,

even sweeping a few tourists off the rocks :-(

There are always lots of seagulls preening their feathers.

Never tire of seeing the sea otters floating around too.

Soon after we went to Domenico's for drinks and appetizers.

It was nice to look out and see some otters playing.

We had such a terrific time!

Harvey II

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

Funny things happen when you go to an RV show.

Yesterday we spent the day with our friends Connie & Greg.

We started with breakfast out,

then headed up to Pleasanton to go to the

Alameda County Fairgrounds

and the RV show.

We paid our entrance fee, and took a look at some of

the little class C's that they had in the first building.

Around the corner was La Mesa RV,

and a sign with the VanLeigh logo on it.

Right out the door was a new VanLeigh Vilano fifth wheel.

I had heard that Tiffin had started manufacturing fifth wheel trailers.

Van Tiffin is Bob Tiffin's son,

and Leigh Tiffin is Bob's grandson.

Anyway...we wanted to see what it looked like!

We all walked in, and the salesman was

a great help asking questions, etc.

We had no intention of buying a new home.

George and I have talked a lot about the future,

staying on the road, coming off, etc.

If we stayed on our current course,

we would no doubt need to upgrade or replace

our Montana at some point.

They gave us a great trade in,

and with the show price on the unit itself,

we couldn't walk away.

Here's what we got...

A Vilano 365RL

It has so much more storage space,

the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling,

and are twice the size of the Montana.

We love the accent lighting above the cabinets,

and we have an full island instead of a 'U' shaped kitchen.

I'm excited about the stainless steel sinks,

and residential refrigerator with ice maker.

The back splash is lovely!

George is excited that there is a dishwasher...:-)

You can read about the features here..

The TV is a 50" with nice sound system,

and fireplace of course.

There is solid vinyl flooring throughout,

that makes it look like hardwood,

it's beautiful..no more carpet!!

We also decided on the lighter cabinet colors,

which makes the inside look so spacious.

It does come with a theater seating unit,

and sofa bed.

Of course we had just bought the theater seating,

so we're going to swap the one in the Vilano with ours.

We may keep the sofa bed, and leave our two

Lazy Boy recliners in the Montana.

Either way, they'll all go well together.

We are going to swap out our brand new tires,

our satellite dish,

sleep number mattress,

and Splendide washer combo.

The bathroom has a full sized shower,

and a wonderful linen closet.

We didn't have any storage in the Montana bathroom!

The bedroom has the king sized bed,

with small nightstands on either side,

and a 'walk-in' closet.

We like how roomy the dresser is,

it's longer and has deeper drawers.

The TV in the bedroom is 32", nice :-)

George was busy taking pictures inside,

and so did I,

but neither of us thought to take any outside.

The RV has a big pass through basement storage,

and the convenience center comes heated 

with electric gate valves.

The power cord is also located in the convenience center,

with an electric powered retractable feature.

We're happy to find out that we have heated tanks as well.

We opted out of the slide toppers on this unit.

Ours are getting pretty ratty from the winds we've been in.

Central vac was a must again, as was a second awning on the

passenger side.

All in all, even though we had an 'oh s**t, what did we do?' moment,

we're pleased with our decision.

We did get an extended warranty,

and they added 2 years (for a total of 7) at no extra cost.

They're hoping to find a unit in one of their 11 locations,

but if not, 

we'll get a brand new build.

That may take 8 weeks,

but we're patient (sort of!).

Can't wait to get it!!

Some updates to Harvey

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

It's been a busy week here.

With some Christmas money

I bought a new kitchen faucet.

Ours was getting pretty worn, 

and I wanted one that was a bit higher.

George had no problem removing the old one..

and getting the new one installed.

We really love it!

I also got one of those salt lamps..

the jury is out yet on its effectiveness,

but it's sure pretty!

Our theater seating finally arrived.

We ordered one from Ashley Furniture

several weeks ago.

The guys that delivered it had no problem

getting it in the door, as the backs come off.

It fits perfectly, is very comfortable,

and George says it's perfect for snoozing!

All the rain California has been getting has

turned the surrounding mountains and hills

nice and green!

Yesterday we got up nice and early (3:30 am!)

to take  my Mom to the hospital.

She had a scheduled heart ablation

to help control her A-Fib issues.

I'm happy to report that it went well!

She's feeling pretty good,

and is going to be discharged sometime today.

Time will tell if the ablation did its job.

She'll get her energy back I'm sure!

On to 2017!

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

Happy New Year to all our friends,

and here's hoping 2017 is filled with great times!

New Year's eve was spent with some friends

who stayed here at the park.

Sheldon and I knew each other from the church.

He and his wife Pam have a toy hauler fifth wheel,

and come to Yanks once a month to get away.

They live in Salinas.

We invited them over for munchies during the day.

I bought a VR Gear with some of my Christmas money,

it was a big hit for all of us.

Sheldon loved the roller coaster :-)

You can see our sofa bed is missing. 

We sold it on LetGo.

Our new theater seating will be delivered Thursday, yay!

Later in the evening we walked over to their RV for dinner.

It has been pretty cold, as you can see!

We huddled around their propane fire pit, 

but it didn't help!

We opted to eat inside.

Great meal of tri-tip, salad, and great wine.

We topped it off with some cheesecake.

Selfie didn't turn out very good :(

It was great to get together with them!

Today George is installing a new kitchen faucet.

Our other one was getting nasty looking

from mineral deposits, etc.

Love the new look!