APRIL 2003

Earl took the Chevy in for its first oil change, tire rotation, and to get the electric mirrors fixed.
On Thursday, the 3rd, we took the Arctic Fox out of storage...where it'd been since we bought it...parked it next to the New Horizons, and started unloading stuff from one fifth wheel to another. We got everything moved over by Sunday morning and spent the rest of the morning cleaning the New Horizons...pretty easy, as we'd done all the heavy cleaning before this (cleaning the carpet, oven, refrigerator, etc.). After all that was done, we moved it to the spot that had been reserved for Ken and Debbie and hooked it up for them. Ken and Debbie arrived later that afternoon together with Ken's brother who had come along to help them with the drive back, as he's had experience driving big rigs. We did a basic run-through of some systems and then we went out to dinner at On The Border with Ken and Debbie.

Monday and Tuesday were spent going through all the systems, showing them how everything worked and then teaching them how to drive the truck -- with and without the fifth wheel in tow. They got a much better education that we did when we bought the truck and fifth wheel, and, I dare say, better than most people get when they purchase a new rig.

Once Ken and Debbie left on Wednesday, we had a chance to concentrate on getting things organized in the Arctic Fox. We found out quickly that the connection at the back of the toilet wouldn't hold, so we had to work off the water pump for a while. We finally got it repaired at RV Lifestyle in Quartzsite and had a shut-off valve installed, too.

We took a trip to Quartzsite with a load of boxes on the 12th and stopped again at Taco Mio for lunch.

On the 15th, we rented a truck, went to the Room Store warehouse in downtown Phoenix to pick up our furniture, and drove to Quartzsite to unload it. I didn't think we'd ever get everything into the house, particularly the couch that has recliners on both ends and is very heavy! But we did get it all in and were back in Goodyear before 9:00 PM that evening.

The next day we returned the truck, then hooked up the fifth wheel and took it to Quartzsite. We still have stuff in storage, but most of it will wait until we return in the fall. In the meantime, we got busy unpacking the boxes we'd brought with us -- and unloading all the furniture from their boxes. We were knee-deep in cardboard boxes by the time we were through!

While the fifth wheel was at RV Lifestyle having the toilet fixed, we talked with them about installing solar, so the next week we took it in to have the solar installed. Now we're all ready for boondocking and are prepared to leave here on May 1 to begin traveling until this fall.