What happens in Vegas...

Hey everyone!

It's been 5 months since we arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada, for our first season as snowbirds.

Well, a few things have happened. We made some great new friends. I have possible gallery representation for my artwork in Las Vegas, and we added a new member to the family. His name is Elvis and he is a Chipin (chiwawa mixed with miniature pinscher). More about these topics coming soon.

We LOVE it here.

Not just for the warmer weather (actually, this year, December and January were colder than usual, as per some of the locals) but we found that there is so much more to Vegas than the Strip and Fremont Street, and all the craziness of 24 hour entertainment. Off course you have to experience all that when you are a tourist but as snowbirds, we learned that we have to live as the locals as much as possible.

Contrary to what many people think, Las Vegas is one of the most affordable cities to live in, again, if you do it as a local. We eat mostly at home (the RV) but we also eat out a few times a month. After a while, you will find the best quality food for the best prices, especially if you make friends with some of the locals. In future posts we will explain our process and talk about some of the places we frequent and ways to get around.

I will talk now about the RV park we picked for this season. It is called King's Row RV and Trailer park and it is located on Boulder Highway, about 15 minutes by car from the Strip and 15 minutes from Fremont Street. South East of downtown. Because we do not have a car right now, we use the bus system, which is very easy and runs 24 hours, and takes about 10 minutes longer. Next season we might go try another park for a couple of months but this will be our base camp. We are contemplating driving down to either Arizona or Mexico for the two colder months here. The prices are very comparable but we have to account for the extra gas. We will see.

King's Row is a bit old but it is a mark on the history of Las Vegas, it has been open for over 50 years. The management and staff are excellent and very friendly and the customer service is great. The park is very large, with nice big spaces and includes all the amenities we need.

I will leave you with some photos of the RV park

Our Majestic 

Beautiful sunny day

There are street names in this RV park

We can see the Stratosphere from our RV park

This RV park has many different types of trees

82 Year Old, still active, Rock Climber - What an inspiration!

One of the joys of RVing full time, is the people you meet and new friends you make.

Charlie, is my first friend in Las Vegas. We connected through a mutual appreciation for the arts, and he is very found of my art. We have been good friends for about two months now.

A few weeks ago, Charlie introduced me to another friend of his, Gene. He also lives full time in a class A motorhome, and we are actually neighbours in this RV park, in Las Vegas. Gene is 82 years old and still climbs rocks. That fact alone is amazing, but when you take into account that he started when he was in his early 70's, it is even more inspiring.

I was invited to go out hiking yesterday, with both of my new friends, and see Gene climb one of the routes he created at Red Rock Canyon, in Nevada. Yes, he was one of the creators of the climbing routes that other climbers are using now, and he is published in the tour guides for Red Rock Conservation Area. The Canyon is about 30 minutes west of Las Vegas and a beautiful place to visit and spend a day.

Link to the Red Rock Canyon Climbing Guide

The last time I hiked was in 2008 when visiting Zion National Park, in Utah, with a friend of mine from Edmonton. Yesterday's hiking path was of moderate difficulty on the way down to the canyon. On the way up, was a different story. I ran out of breath a couple of times and had to stop for a minute or two. While Gene was climbing, other people arrived to attempt to climb some of the other routes, including a guide/instructor with a beginner lady climber and her son, as students. Charlie decided to try to climb the same route. He did a great job, for a beginner, but gave up at a quarter of the way up, when the nerves set in. I felt tempted to try it as well but I did not feel confident enough.

I took pictures of Gene and the other people climbing, and then took advantage of the down time, while the climbing was going on, to wander around close by and take pictures of the slots in the canyon, and interesting rock formations and textures.

Spending the day in nature, in the wild, was so refreshing and peaceful, and the whole experience was inspiring and reinvigorating. I can not wait to do it again.

Gene Belaying for Charlie 

Gene on his way to the top

Gene at the top of the route

Gene on his way down

Detail of climbing shoes

One of the girl climbers leaping

Very agile climbers

Christmas at Sam's Town, Las Vegas

Recorded at Sam's Town Casino in Las Vegas.

The point of view is not ideal, there were too many people in the middle. But I think it showcases the atmosphere and the light and water show.

This was recorded using a Canon PowerShot SX710 HS Digital Camera, and edited in iMovie 2016.

Thanks for watching!

15 States and (4 Provinces x 2) in two months - Part 3

Hey everyone! 

After some time with very limited internet service, here is Part 3 of 15 States and (4 Provinces x2) in two months. We are still trying to figure out an affordable way to have better internet here in Las Vegas and have looked at a couple solutions involving cell phone data. More on that when we decide on a system. Also, stay tuned for an upcoming post on "what happened to the RV in the middle of nowhere in Utah". 

Now, on to Part 3 - San Antonio, Texas. Our second favourite city in the USA, after Las Vegas. On our arrival, we kew that we wanted to spend at least one week there, from the great reviews we had read while doing research. As KOA members, and because we were not towing a car, we researched a KOA RV park not far from downtown. We found one. The San Antonio/Alamo KOA, about a 20 minute bus ride from their front gate to downtown (about 10 minutes by car) nestled in a forest like, 40 acre area, with beautiful pecan trees and a pleasant set up. Our site was just a few steps from a nice, fresh creek and a 20 mile bicycle path, where we walked our dogs. Turns out that this KOA had won the RV park of the year for 2015, and we could see why.

Because we did not have a toed vehicle, we used public transportation, which in San Antonio has free wi-fi on board, a definite bonus. Lisa and I were the only non-coloured people on board every time but we felt always safe and at ease. Besides, most everyone had their eyes glued to their phones.

When in downtown, you first should wander the River Walk to the beat of flamenco music, before you seat at one of the numerous restaurants and bars on both sides of the river and sample some authentic Texan food. We did not try it, but apparently chilli is San Antonio’s signature dish and we could sure smell it. Mariachi groups go from patio to patio at the restaurants and bars looking for a lady or ladies to serenade. You will get pressed into having your significant other serenaded, wether you want it or not, they are very persuasive. Well, in all, it cost me only 5 bucks to have Lisa serenaded. Actually, it was fun and everybody around were singing and clapping too.

Along the River Walk there are also souvenir shops, hotels and shopping malls, as well as on the streets around it. As a side note, while walking downtown, we saw an Information booth on the corner of a street and we decided to check it out, since we were looking for other attractions in the city. Little did we know that those are actually occupied by timeshare companies and they are very good at “fishing” people to attend their 3 hour presentations. Of course we did not buy anything at the end but we made it out with a 100.00 american express card, with which we bought supplies for the RV.

There is so much to see and do in San Antonio. Visiting the amazing 18th century missions and buildings in downtown makes for an enriching experience and a visit to the Alamo is an absolute must. 

After one week of great experiences, food and drinks, we left San Antonio with a desire to return in the near future and we would recommend that you stay longer than one or two days, to see all this city has to offer. We were told by some locals that the best time to visit is during the “Fiesta” early event. 10 days of arts, food and culture festivities starting April 10th. We sure hope to be able to attend some day.

Then, it was off to New Orleans, in Louisiana. We loved it there as well. Our plan was to stay a couple of days but we ended up staying for one full week. Find out about it in Part 4.

You can read about Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Stay tuned...

15 States and (4 Provinces x 2) in two months - Part 2

As a memory refresher from part 1 of this adventure, here is a map of our first trip around North America. We left from Woodstock, Ontario and went around the whole itinerary illustrated on the map, and again, all the way back to Edmonton, Alberta, where we arrived before the end of June.

We put over 15,000 KM in the motorhome and, of course, 3 maintenance service appointments. First one was in Edmonton, one in El Paso, Texas and the other in Woodstock, Ontario.

So, after one month stay in Nevada as I explained on part 1, we prepared the RV for another long stretch of travel and started our journey down to Orlando, Florida, driving south east on Interstate 93 and then Interstate 10, in Arizona. We loved the drive through the desert and seeing the stunning scenery, which some times resembled a different planet surface, full of huge red boulders on top of each other.

We camped in Burros State Park, in a campground with the same name. There are no amenities, besides a couple washroom stalls, so we had to dry camp (boondock) and, because it is so quite and serene there, we only used our generator when absolutely necessary. 

On the second day of travel, our destination was Las Cruces, New Mexico so we just drove by Phoenix, Arizona but, I have to mention a freak incident that happened there. Because we were not going to stop, I asked Lisa if she would go to the fridge and grab me some water, after all, we had been driving through the desert and the wind had picked up a bit, so the air was a bit dusty. And we have a motorhome, so we have access to the kitchen while driving.

Anyway, we reached a point in the city that had lots of traffic lights and I was driving not more than 30 miles per hour, so Lisa thought it would be a good opportunity to go get the water. She walked to the fridge in the middle of the RV, took out the water pitcher and poured some water in a plastic bottle. When she was going to put the water pitcher back in the fridge, I had to brake a little harder because some guy cut me off just before the traffic light, and stopped in front of me.  I heard a snap and a scream coming from the back, and then loud and fast stomping on the floor, coming towards me.

You probably guessed what happened. Lisa was grabbing the fridge handle, which she still had in her hand when she fell on the couch just behind me. I must admit I was upset for a bit at the time but after a while, it was actually pretty funny and, above all, she was okay. By the way, she was also still holding the pitcher up and did not spill one drop.

Too bad I don’t have a picture of that moment, lol.

We continued our drive east and this time we decided to stop in Tucson for something to eat and then drove around downtown for a bit before leaving the city.

Then we reached New Mexico. The drive through that part of the state took us about an hour and is mostly flat what causes the wind to be really strong and creates wind funnels, one of which, almost threw us off the highway, with a side swipe. We were tired when we arrived in Las Cruces and looked for the closest campground to the Ford service station we had the appointment with the next day. The campground was a KOA and looked really nice, located on top of a hill with beautiful views.

Turns out that the Las Cruces Ford could not take us because they had no service bay big enough to accommodate our RV, and advised us to book an appointment in El Paso, Texas, just a short hour or so away. So we did that and we have to give a shout out to the El Paso Ford dealership for the excellent and prompt service we received.

That night we stayed at the Road Runner RV park but once we settled in for the night, we noticed that the atmosphere in the park was somewhat eerie and the people in there were not very friendly and mostly construction workers. Lisa was one of the only two women in the whole park. We were offered a day trip to Mexico, just across the river, by a friend of the manager of the park but, we politely refused due to the area where he wanted us to go to, is on the list of cities with very high crime rate.

We actually loved El Paso, just from what we saw in the one day that we spent there. But my photographic equipment stayed locked in the RV while it was in for service. I can not believe I forgot to grab a camera. By the time we picked up the RV, we had to get back on the highway and find another RV park for the night. We hope that we can make it back there some day in the near future.

El Paso is a big city with lots of newer areas and wonderful roads. Interesting fact: when driving along highway I10, one can see Mexico on the other side of the river, with their old houses, old cars and buses, riding on dirt roads. You can tell that the standard of living is a lot lower than on the American side.

Texas is a very wide state, almost 1000 miles on the south end, and we had a lot of driving to do, still. The next morning came along and we took off early on our way to Fort Stockton, Texas, where we stayed for one night at another small KOA. We left the next day to drive the 300 or so miles to San Antonio, a place that we really wanted to visit. We loved it so much that we ended up staying for one week.

That story is coming in Part 3… Stay tuned!

15 States and (4 Provinces x 2) in two months - Part 1

We started our full time RV journey right in the middle of Winter 2015/2016, when we moved into our (new to us) Majestic Ford E450 motorhome. It was February 1st  of 2016. Lisa's stepfather was very kind to let us park the RV in his driveway, while we lived in it, until our departure to Edmonton in the first week of March. Finding a spot in a campground at that time of the year would be a very hard task. That was a very interesting test of our ability to adapt to a very small space in a very short time, and to the harsh winter conditions that we were having in Ontario.
Since we were already off season, we were going to spend the month of March in Edmonton and then in April drive south to Nevada for a couple of months to get a taste of what snowbirding will be in the next season, which starts in October.
Turns out that there was a huge snow storm coming from the Michigan area and we decided to leave 5 days earlier, at the end of February. The drive through Ontario was very pleasant and although it was winter, the scenery was very beautiful.

The storm finally caught on to us in Saskatchewan with a dump of snow, needless to say that we had to wait out the storm and continued our journey into Alberta the next day when the roads were getting better.

In Edmonton, my son Paulo and his in-laws were exceptional in the way they received us and we accepted their offer to spend one month in their driveway. This gave us an opportunity to interact with our grandchildren and spend a marvellous time with them. When April came, it was time to leave and start our southwestern adventure.

Beautiful Spring weather made for a very relaxed and wonderful drive through Montana, Idaho and Utah and when we arrived to Nevada it was nice and hot. Throughout the trip we did not stay at any campground. There were several boondocking locations, truck stops, gas stations and even Walmarts, in most cities and towns in every one of those states. To make sure we did not run into any trouble, we asked the managers if we could stay the night. Unlike our drive though Canada, where we were told in a few locations that we could not stay the night, no one ever said no in the USA. Shout out only to the Wawa motel in Ontario for letting us stay in their parking lot and, although we offered to pay, they did not charge us anything.

Anyway, we arrived in Las Vegas and went to check out the campground at the Circus Circus Hotel. If you want the ultimate in urban camping, this is it. You are right on the Strip, the facilities are excellent and the price is very reasonable. We ended up spending six days there and we found out that it is a KOA campground, so we got our 10% discount.
A couple of other RV'ers had mentioned in their vlogs that the town of Laughlin is a great place to camp in Nevada, so we wanted to go and check it out. The town is very small, with a population of less than 8 thousand, but very nice and it is nestled down in a wonderful valley with the Colorado river separating it from Bullhead City, Arizona.

We stayed at the Riverside Casino Campground and spent one week there. Laughlin, although very small, it is home to 10 casinos and tons of entertainment, we had a lot of fun there but it was starting to get really hot and we decided to head back to Las Vegas where we spent two more weeks, staying at two different campgrounds, the first was Road Runner and the second was King's Row, both at Bolder Highway. These two campgrounds are very affordable and are in our list for future long term stays when we are in Las Vegas.

When May arrived, we decided we would get back to Canada and to Ontario to finish downsizing our possessions we had left at Lisa's parents. Since we had about one month to make it back, and we had promised my family in Florida, we figured that we would miss out if we did not do the drive to Orlando, Florida. So, we left Las Vegas on our way to the next state to the east, Arizona...
Stay tuned for part 2 of our journey through the south of the United States coming up soon!

Why the RV life

Lisa has an extensive background of traveling, camping and RVing, she has done it for many years before we met and had traveled to most of the fifty states in the USA, on the back of a bike and truck campers.

I, on the other hand, had never been in an RV and only camped a few times in my life (I can count them on my fingers), in Portugal and in Canada but I always enjoyed driving long distances and actually did it for work for a few years as a computer technician.

We went on several road trips down to the Southwest of the United States and across Canada to Ontario from the beginning of our relationship, we had the travel bug in us and slept in the back of the van in many of those trips to keep it under the budget. Then one day in 2012 we thought it would be nice to have an RV, even if it was a very small one, it would probably be a lot better and more comfortable than sleeping in the back of a van, so we began researching online.

During that time I came across full-time RV living and brought it up with Lisa. We found that we  both had similar interests in that lifestyle. The fact that we did not own a house and the possibility of becoming snowbirds was really appealing. We spent the next two years doing online research, and the weekends or days off going to RV dealerships around southern Ontario. We could not afford anything new on the market but we were looking at them as well to see what options were available for layouts, compared to the older units. We found that there is an insane variety of brands and models, used and new, but our budget only allowed us two options. It was either a very small 16 foot to be pulled by our Kia Sedona van or a class C motorhome with the possibility of towing a small vehicle. We opted for the class C 30 foot motorhome for the space and comfort.

Our friends and family had two types of reaction when we told them  that we were selling everything (which was not much) and living in the RV we had just purchased. Some thought we were crazy while others thought we were brave and cool and wished they could do the same.

Our first long trip, over 18.000 KMs in two and a half months, took us from Ontario to Alberta, down to Nevada, all the way to Florida, back to Ontario and finally back to Alberta, where we are settled now. At the time of writing this post we still don't have a tow car but Lisa drove the van we own, while I drove the motorhome, all the way across from Woodstock to Edmonton. The van is too heavy for our class C to tow so we are still looking into a replacement.

I will update when we have news on that.