Tucson to Denver
Arizona and New MexicoFrom our last posting, we had just arrived in Tucson from Mexico. We had made our reservations at the Voyager RV Resort while still in San Carlos for a space near friends, and Excel Club members, Gerri and Carl. We thought we would stay a week, but we liked Voyagers so much that we stayed a total of three weeks.
This was our first Resort for RVs. It is a large complex of 1,576 RV sites, many of which have been leased on a yearly basis to Snow Birds who fell in love with Tucson’s winter sun. So what is the attraction of a large
RV resort? They are all-inclusive communities with high quality entertainment in the evenings (Branson style as well as local and regional), dances of all kinds, theater, jazz, sporting activities (a bicycle club, 3 swimming pools including a lap and an exercise pool, a large hot tub, multiple tennis courts, volley ball, the new rage of “pickleball,” bocce ball, golf, shuffle board, billiards), game rooms for cards and board games, and our new favorite of Jokers and Pegs, exercise classes from stretching to aerobic, craft shops and classes (lapidary, silver, stained glass, beading, woodworking, ceramics, machine embroidery, fly tying, oil painting and watercolors, quilting, wood carving) and so much more. Planned activities are only available during the winter season, but the fixed amenities are operational year around. Many people have made Voyagers their permanent home and have moved into this or one of the other Voyager neighborhoods of modular or stick-built homes. RV resorts are available across the Sun Belt and this coming winter we have reservations to stay in Alamo, TX at one of the Rio Grande Valley Resorts (McAllen to Harlingen).
Our retirement plans have always included RV travel, so we decided to go one step further. We did not want to have the responsibility or expense of the fixed home while pursuing our retirement goal, so just before leaving Mexico we contacted our friend and local realtor, Vanecea, to talk about listing our townhouse for sale. The Denver market is not a good one, but we felt we had a good location in the Villas, an age restricted community. Our townhouse was built in the late 60’s, so before moving in two years ago we laid oak floors throughout, completely redid the kitchen with new cabinets, flooring, counters and stainless steel Kitchenaid appliances, paneled over the old rough cedar beams, remodeled both bathrooms and installed a Jacuzzi tub in one. Basically, I guess we gutted and refinished the house, which means we spent too much money. With the support and skill of Vanecea, who sells the lion’s share of the property in our community, we added our construction costs to the price we paid two years ago and hoped to find some interest. No property has every been listed for this much per square foot in the neighborhood, but three weeks later, she had two offers for us at the same time. One offer was over asking price so we said “YES!!”
From that point on, our lives were different. Our plans to linger in Arizona with friends changed to a focus of moving out of the townhouse. What personal belongings will we save? What will we store? What will we do with the rest? Where will we live? We still had the usual milestones of inspections, title search, question and response deadlines, but the buyer was paying cash and really wanted to move in right away. How could we make all of our decisions by the contract time? Sister-in-Law Rose Anne said it best: we will have to make a decision on what to keep and what to discard, right down to the last paper clip. Oh boy was she RIGHT! (I shredded old files for a week).
We shortened the time we had planned to visit Arizona friends in order to focus on the task at hand. We still had two Excel Club meetings to attend, one in Las Cruces, and one in Colorado City before arriving back in Lakewood. This timing fit in well with the real estate process, so we began our planning.
We had a short stay at the Val Vista RV Resort in Mesa, and Cochise Terrace RV Resort in Benson with a little site seeing in Sierra Vista and Tombstone.
Our next stop was Las Cruces, NM for the New Mexico Excel Club gathering at the Hacienda RV Resort. This is a big club due to the hard work of the BEST EXCEL DEALER in the country, our dealer from Moriarty NM. 80 rigs showed up and as we drove into the park to register, we were met by Good Year Tire representatives with a set of wheel scales. Every rig and tow truck was weighed at each wheel to determine load balance and to see if we were overweight on axles or tires. I was stunned! We were not yet full-timers, and our rig was overweight! Well, we got out the Weight Watchers scale and began to scrutinize our load. I had 13 pounds of magazines that I was saving because I had the physical space. Within a half an hour, Betty and I had disposed of 60 pounds of “fluff” we were keeping just because we could. The next day we attended a seminar put on by Good Year’s regional manager to help us determine how to be weight compliant. What a GOOD program this was, necessary for safety as well as comfort. Now, we not only had to downsize our townhouse, but trim down the weight of the RV!
At Colorado City, the Colorado Excel Club had its largest turnout of 31 rigs. We saw old friends and got to know others. We feel so blessed to have the friendship and camaraderie with others who enjoy the same pursuit as we do, and in the same brand of rig. They guys try to solve each others rig challenges during the day, and we eat and play games in the evening.
Our last stop before Lakewood was in Colorado Springs. Thanks to a tip from Excel friends Vaughn and Joanne, we stayed at the Pikes Peak RV Park in Manitou Springs for a few days while we visited niece Kate, husband Scott, and children Sean, Timmy and Lizzy.
The Pikes Peak RV Park is an older park, immaculately cared for, right on the river and shaded by huge trees. Because it is an older park the spaces are tightly nestled among the big trees and it was a learning experience to maneuver our rig into our cozy spot by the river. This is definitely a repeat.
For the next seven weeks, Betty and I worked to trim down our material possessions. I purchased a cargo trailer on eBay in which we will store the items we decided to keep. We took a week out of packing and sorting so that I could go to the Goshen Indiana factory to pick up the trailer. We stopped off in Lincoln, NE to see Betty’s aunt, uncle and cousins; went to Sioux Falls, SD to register to vote (yes, South Dakota is our legal domicile), then back to Lakewood to pack. Upon arrival back in Colorado, we decided the best thing to do was move out of the townhouse immediately, so we located our RV in a nice mobile home / RV park in southwest Denver and began living full time in the trailer.
In our younger lives, we were given lots of items for our new household by older generation relatives, so we decided to ask the nieces and nephews if they would like to have any of our personal items. When the family had made their choices, we were blessed with a fairly empty home; most major items of furniture had found a new home as well as many smaller, everyday items. We developed a loading plan for the cargo trailer, packed boxes of the treasures we decided to keep, and stuffed the garage with items for disposal. For three days, we opened the garage doors for a big sale and when the dust settled, I had only a few items to take to the DAV thrift shop. It all happened to quickly and easily that our heads are spinning. We had thought about this for so long that all the steps just seemed to fall into place.
On June 22nd, we closed on the house and gave possession on June 25th. I will admit to exhaustion at the end, and lingering dreams about packing and sorting. In the end, we have our treasures in the cargo trailer in a climate controlled warehouse, and are happily snuggled into our RV home.
Oh yes, did I mention I had my gall bladder removed this past Friday? What an amazing experience that was. Betty drove me to the hospital at 6AM and laparoscopic surgery was at 7:30. By 8:30, the surgeon was visiting with Betty about the procedure, and by 9AM I was awake in recovery. At 9:45, the recovery nurse asked Betty to bring the car to the front door and I checked out at 10:15. By 11:00AM I was relaxing in my lounge chair under the awning at the RV park talking to family and friends on the phone. One percocet every 4 hours for the rest of Friday and Saturday minimized the discomfort. I took the gauze off on Monday, exposing the 4 tiny suture-tape covered holes through which the instruments and camera had been inserted It is now Tuesday evening, and I have had one pain pill in 48 hours. The suture tape will come off in a few days by itself as I shower. As long as no complications occur, I don’t even have a follow-up appointment. How amazing is this???
Becoming full-time RVers is a milestone that I would rank right up there with getting married or moving across the country to start a new job. It is a life-altering experience. We are so looking forward to this adventure: to visiting those “100 places to see in America before we die,” to visiting friends and family in every nook and cranny, and to savor the sites and sounds of our great country. Watch out…your neighborhood just could be invaded by the wandering Keller’s.
Love and hugs to you all.
This was our first Resort for RVs. It is a large complex of 1,576 RV sites, many of which have been leased on a yearly basis to Snow Birds who fell in love with Tucson’s winter sun. So what is the attraction of a large
RV resort? They are all-inclusive communities with high quality entertainment in the evenings (Branson style as well as local and regional), dances of all kinds, theater, jazz, sporting activities (a bicycle club, 3 swimming pools including a lap and an exercise pool, a large hot tub, multiple tennis courts, volley ball, the new rage of “pickleball,” bocce ball, golf, shuffle board, billiards), game rooms for cards and board games, and our new favorite of Jokers and Pegs, exercise classes from stretching to aerobic, craft shops and classes (lapidary, silver, stained glass, beading, woodworking, ceramics, machine embroidery, fly tying, oil painting and watercolors, quilting, wood carving) and so much more. Planned activities are only available during the winter season, but the fixed amenities are operational year around. Many people have made Voyagers their permanent home and have moved into this or one of the other Voyager neighborhoods of modular or stick-built homes. RV resorts are available across the Sun Belt and this coming winter we have reservations to stay in Alamo, TX at one of the Rio Grande Valley Resorts (McAllen to Harlingen).Our retirement plans have always included RV travel, so we decided to go one step further. We did not want to have the responsibility or expense of the fixed home while pursuing our retirement goal, so just before leaving Mexico we contacted our friend and local realtor, Vanecea, to talk about listing our townhouse for sale. The Denver market is not a good one, but we felt we had a good location in the Villas, an age restricted community. Our townhouse was built in the late 60’s, so before moving in two years ago we laid oak floors throughout, completely redid the kitchen with new cabinets, flooring, counters and stainless steel Kitchenaid appliances, paneled over the old rough cedar beams, remodeled both bathrooms and installed a Jacuzzi tub in one. Basically, I guess we gutted and refinished the house, which means we spent too much money. With the support and skill of Vanecea, who sells the lion’s share of the property in our community, we added our construction costs to the price we paid two years ago and hoped to find some interest. No property has every been listed for this much per square foot in the neighborhood, but three weeks later, she had two offers for us at the same time. One offer was over asking price so we said “YES!!”
From that point on, our lives were different. Our plans to linger in Arizona with friends changed to a focus of moving out of the townhouse. What personal belongings will we save? What will we store? What will we do with the rest? Where will we live? We still had the usual milestones of inspections, title search, question and response deadlines, but the buyer was paying cash and really wanted to move in right away. How could we make all of our decisions by the contract time? Sister-in-Law Rose Anne said it best: we will have to make a decision on what to keep and what to discard, right down to the last paper clip. Oh boy was she RIGHT! (I shredded old files for a week).
We shortened the time we had planned to visit Arizona friends in order to focus on the task at hand. We still had two Excel Club meetings to attend, one in Las Cruces, and one in Colorado City before arriving back in Lakewood. This timing fit in well with the real estate process, so we began our planning.
We had a short stay at the Val Vista RV Resort in Mesa, and Cochise Terrace RV Resort in Benson with a little site seeing in Sierra Vista and Tombstone.Our next stop was Las Cruces, NM for the New Mexico Excel Club gathering at the Hacienda RV Resort. This is a big club due to the hard work of the BEST EXCEL DEALER in the country, our dealer from Moriarty NM. 80 rigs showed up and as we drove into the park to register, we were met by Good Year Tire representatives with a set of wheel scales. Every rig and tow truck was weighed at each wheel to determine load balance and to see if we were overweight on axles or tires. I was stunned! We were not yet full-timers, and our rig was overweight! Well, we got out the Weight Watchers scale and began to scrutinize our load. I had 13 pounds of magazines that I was saving because I had the physical space. Within a half an hour, Betty and I had disposed of 60 pounds of “fluff” we were keeping just because we could. The next day we attended a seminar put on by Good Year’s regional manager to help us determine how to be weight compliant. What a GOOD program this was, necessary for safety as well as comfort. Now, we not only had to downsize our townhouse, but trim down the weight of the RV!
At Colorado City, the Colorado Excel Club had its largest turnout of 31 rigs. We saw old friends and got to know others. We feel so blessed to have the friendship and camaraderie with others who enjoy the same pursuit as we do, and in the same brand of rig. They guys try to solve each others rig challenges during the day, and we eat and play games in the evening.Our last stop before Lakewood was in Colorado Springs. Thanks to a tip from Excel friends Vaughn and Joanne, we stayed at the Pikes Peak RV Park in Manitou Springs for a few days while we visited niece Kate, husband Scott, and children Sean, Timmy and Lizzy.
The Pikes Peak RV Park is an older park, immaculately cared for, right on the river and shaded by huge trees. Because it is an older park the spaces are tightly nestled among the big trees and it was a learning experience to maneuver our rig into our cozy spot by the river. This is definitely a repeat.
For the next seven weeks, Betty and I worked to trim down our material possessions. I purchased a cargo trailer on eBay in which we will store the items we decided to keep. We took a week out of packing and sorting so that I could go to the Goshen Indiana factory to pick up the trailer. We stopped off in Lincoln, NE to see Betty’s aunt, uncle and cousins; went to Sioux Falls, SD to register to vote (yes, South Dakota is our legal domicile), then back to Lakewood to pack. Upon arrival back in Colorado, we decided the best thing to do was move out of the townhouse immediately, so we located our RV in a nice mobile home / RV park in southwest Denver and began living full time in the trailer.
In our younger lives, we were given lots of items for our new household by older generation relatives, so we decided to ask the nieces and nephews if they would like to have any of our personal items. When the family had made their choices, we were blessed with a fairly empty home; most major items of furniture had found a new home as well as many smaller, everyday items. We developed a loading plan for the cargo trailer, packed boxes of the treasures we decided to keep, and stuffed the garage with items for disposal. For three days, we opened the garage doors for a big sale and when the dust settled, I had only a few items to take to the DAV thrift shop. It all happened to quickly and easily that our heads are spinning. We had thought about this for so long that all the steps just seemed to fall into place.
On June 22nd, we closed on the house and gave possession on June 25th. I will admit to exhaustion at the end, and lingering dreams about packing and sorting. In the end, we have our treasures in the cargo trailer in a climate controlled warehouse, and are happily snuggled into our RV home.
Oh yes, did I mention I had my gall bladder removed this past Friday? What an amazing experience that was. Betty drove me to the hospital at 6AM and laparoscopic surgery was at 7:30. By 8:30, the surgeon was visiting with Betty about the procedure, and by 9AM I was awake in recovery. At 9:45, the recovery nurse asked Betty to bring the car to the front door and I checked out at 10:15. By 11:00AM I was relaxing in my lounge chair under the awning at the RV park talking to family and friends on the phone. One percocet every 4 hours for the rest of Friday and Saturday minimized the discomfort. I took the gauze off on Monday, exposing the 4 tiny suture-tape covered holes through which the instruments and camera had been inserted It is now Tuesday evening, and I have had one pain pill in 48 hours. The suture tape will come off in a few days by itself as I shower. As long as no complications occur, I don’t even have a follow-up appointment. How amazing is this???
Becoming full-time RVers is a milestone that I would rank right up there with getting married or moving across the country to start a new job. It is a life-altering experience. We are so looking forward to this adventure: to visiting those “100 places to see in America before we die,” to visiting friends and family in every nook and cranny, and to savor the sites and sounds of our great country. Watch out…your neighborhood just could be invaded by the wandering Keller’s.
Love and hugs to you all.
posted by TalktoBandG @ 6:02 PM
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