The journey begins...

We have an RV!  

It has been a whirlwind week, first traveling 10 hours to find this beauty, then arranging the sale with the seller, getting it home, outfitting it, moving into it, and getting to our first destination.  We have spent two nights here and so far, so good! Moving into the "apartment" in my parents' house after we sold our house was a great transition step for us, so now that we are in the RV, we feel like we have plenty of room.  There is still a lot that we could do to make things more accessible, but even with all of our belongings in the RV, we have extra storage, so there isn't a real urgency to do too much right away.  

We ended up choosing a 36 ft. Arctic Fox fifth wheel.  It is in excellent condition and came with a generator and a washer and dryer (HUGE bonus in my book!)  The previous owners worked at the manufacturing facility and had it custom built with storage and comfort in mind, and I am so thankful for that!  As I said, we have plenty of space for all of our things.  Here are a few photos to give you an idea of what kind of space we have. 

Taking photos in an RV without a wide angle lens is a challenge!  Here is our bed, with everyone's pillows piled on.

The bathroom is more spacious than some that we saw.

Kitchen area and down the hallway.

First morning in the RV!  We are just beginning to get a feel for what is necessary (easy fold step stool) and what is not (couch pillows that are in our way.)  I'm sure the learning is just beginning!

First morning.  I was figuring out where I wanted to put everything, so the kids were relaxing.

For the few days that we have been here, we have kept busy with organizing, unpacking, and researching solutions for the hundred different things that have popped up throughout the days. There is still so much to know, and a lot of this will probably be trial-and-error learning.  But we made sure to do our homework on the big stuff: tanks, electricity, heat, water, leveling, etc.  One area that we need a lot of help in is backing into tight spots and communication during those times.  We were unprepared and I ended up running back and forth from the driver's side of the truck to the back of the RV until we got it in place! Definitely newbs at this!  We are planning on going to an RV boot camp later this year, primarily to meet people and make opportunity for the gospel, but I was telling Jeff that it will also be awesome for me to get some instruction in the mechanics of towing and backing in, because I feel lost. I don't want to be a tag along in this area. I want to be capable and helpful to Jeff, so I really am going to apply myself to learning.  I've just been so busy learning about the inside stuff that I haven't gotten around to learning the outside stuff! But I'll get there with time, I hope. 

This week, we are looking forward to meeting the people here and hopefully doing some hiking and exploring. Last night after dinner, we walked to an amazing viewpoint here in the canyon.  It was breathtaking and also frightening because the deck goes out onto a cliff.  We plan to walk back and I will take my camera.  The park we are staying in is set around a golf course and has enormous canyon walls all around us.  I want to do a post for each place we stay, to remind us of the particulars, but will wait until we leave, for safety.  :)

Up next on our agenda is getting back to school after 3 1/2 months of summer vacation!  The kids are excited to get back into a routine, and I can't wait.  :)