rv life

Rambling Redwoods Campground and RV Park – Crescent City, California

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We’ve slowed down our travels a bit for a few reasons. The first is Covid-19. We wanted to protect ourselves and slow the spread, and avoiding crowded areas was our best option. The second is David’s Mobile RV Service, which has many great clients who refer other great clients, and David has built himself an active business in the Crescent City area. We still identify more as tumbleweeds than redwoods, but if we’re going to put down some tentative roots, among the redwoods is where we’d like to do it. This campground might be the best-kept secret on the Northern California coast. Nestled in the redwoods along Highway 101, you can sleep among the trees and be part of the forest, but without giving up things like cellular service and easy access to groceries. We decided to hunker down for the winter here, and moved to a long-term spot back …

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Rambling Redwoods Campground and RV Park, Crescent City, California

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We are spending the winter in the redwoods! We spent most of the summer on the coast in Crescent City, but by October, the coast gets extra windy, making the RV feel like a boat. So we moved a tiny bit inland where the wind is blocked by these magnificent trees. We love this area so much that we decided to stay through the winter. We have never experienced a Pacific Northwest winter, so that’s an adventure in itself. We were warned to expect lots of rain and to prepare for moisture control. Honestly, the rain was an understatement. We did get a dehumidifier to help with the condensation inside and it’s helped a lot. We had a white Christmas: with hail! Big huge hail that looked like snow more than a few times. We’re staying at Rambling Redwoods, which is right on US-101. It’s an appropriately named park, with …

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A generic update!

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It’s been awhile, friends. Work has been keeping us both busy, and there just hasn’t been a lot of energy leftover for blogging. Which is great in some ways— David loves his job as an RV tech! And tiring in others— I’m a tax preparer, and I haven’t had much of a break thanks to covid. Living with chronic illness and disability means I’ve got time to work or time to take care of myself, but not both. (Let this be a lesson to anyone who thinks full-time RV life means full-time vacation!) We are still in Crescent City, California. We absolutely love this area, and hope to explore more of the Pacific Northwest when we are able. We’ve decided to spend the winter here in Crescent City, and experience a PNW winter firsthand. One of the reasons we’re sticking close to our current favorite city is Covid-19. It had …

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An ant infestation with a happy ending

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A couple weeks ago, we woke up to the worst infestation of ants we’ve ever had. We’ve only had a few (and only once before in the RV) but wow, this was a doozy. We’d moved to a new park the night before, and I guess they thought we were a new food truck rolling into town. We discovered them when we opened the pantry to make breakfast the next morning. The ants were everywhere. They marched right up the rear jack beneath the pantry, and found an entry point. They were also entering through the front door, but that must’ve been very new because they hadn’t reached any food yet. They were just wandering aimlessly. The pantry in the RV is quite large, and it was full. We lost about $100 worth of food. We’d become a little lax about the types of open packages that stayed in the …

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Keeping the Spices on the Spice Rack While Driving Down the Road

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This project isn’t technically complete, but I’ve wanted to do something like this since we first moved into the rig, so I’m sharing my proof of concept. I’ll probably update this when it’s prettified. This spice rack was designed and handmade for me by David, when we first moved in together. Back then, he had converted his garage to a full wood shop and made incredible furniture and projects. This was also back when cooking was just a hobby. Since the celiac diagnosis and the discovery of food allergies and sensitivities, we have to cook EVERYTHING at home, and a well-stocked spice rack is the key to making that not suck. There was no way I was giving up my spice rack when we moved into the RV. Since it was very tall, David cut it into two pieces. It now fits perfectly in our RV kitchen: the larger portion …

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Rainy Weekend and Snacky Sunday

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It was a rainy weekend in Crescent City, so I did a few things inside the RV while David took a few urgent repair calls. There was another Siete cooking class… I missed out because I was a little too exhausted this week. But look at these adorable gifts! I did make one part of the dish made in class: chorizo refried beans. Two cans of pinto beans blended with a packet of Siete chorizo seasoning. So good with chips! There were naps. I reorganized the cooking gadgets cupboard. We’ve grown a lot since the first time we did this: we love our 3-quart Instant Pot so much that we decided to get a 6-Quart with an air fryer lid. The air fryer broke recently, and we replaced it with an Instant Pot brand air fryer lid. Our two saucepans are in the top shelf behind the blender cups and …

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Where are we now? Traveling from Arizona to California

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Our plan was to spend the winter in Arizona, then head back to Northern California after tax season ended. In Arizona, we could visit my parents and David could work on snow birds’ RVs. Plus Arizona is nice in the winter (for about 2 months, anyway). In January, after a couple months in Goodyear, AZ, we decided to move closer to Quartzite for the rest of our stay. We booked a month at a small sleepy little park where David had worked a couple jobs. But the day we arrived, a very friendly orange tabby and self-appointed welcoming committee came up to our rig and taunted our cats. Even Lillian, an endlessly laid back and friendly cat, had reached her limit, growling through the screen door at him. After the first night, the cat tried to get into our rig, which caused a scary fight between our cats, and no …

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Jen got a bike! (Updated May 2021)

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You may not believe this, but I’ve never really ridden a bike before. I had one when I was quite young, but didn’t get to ride it much before outgrowing it. Plus growing up with severe asthma meant I didn’t get to do a lot outside. David has been biking for a long time. When we moved to the Bay Area and realized driving every day is a nightmare, he got an e-bike to commute, and loved it. I never tried it out, because I’m much shorter than he is, with much lousier balance (due to a spinal cord injury). But it always looked fun! Since I didn’t really have anywhere to commute to, I stuck with my wheelchair (with a Freewheel, which I plan to post about here someday), though it’s a manual chair propelled by my own two hands. My speed was limited to how much energy I …

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