RV Trip 2020

Day 1 - October 16, 2020 - We left Denver Friday afternoon and headed out on our RV adventure, first day we drove 240 miles to Clifton, CO. We arrived and began unpacking everything we brought and realized we should have laid out everything for the trip, and then put half of it in boxes and left it home, we took way too much stuff, even though our trip is 70+ days long! Spent our first night Boondocking at Colorado Hemp Farm (www.coloradohempsolutions.com). We found this cool spot as part of the Harvest Host (@harvesthosts) community, and Ryan was a great host with 5 other RV families on Friday night at the farm. The first night was colder than expected and we realized we should have turned the furnace on! Good thing we were all snuggling in the bed including the 2 dogs!

Day 2 - October 17, 2020 - Woke up to a crisp 35 degrees and if you recall from the last post, we never ran the furnace, so it was pretty chilly wake-up this morning. Left Clifton, CO and headed to Blanding, UT via the Scenic route 50 and 191. Took advantage of our Good Sam (@goodsamfamily) discount at Pilot J for gas, good thing, with an 80 gallon tank! After a 5 hour drive through the red rocks, colorful fall tree's and picturesque arches, we found ourselves at Blue Mountain RV park @goodsam discounted park, also a DARK park, meaning no lights, after dark, to allow you to enjoy the beautiful sky and stars! Made our first meal in the RV tonight, took showers, and finally starting a routine! Lets see what tomorrow brings!

Day 3 - Drove from Blanding, UT towards our next destination Torrey, UT via the scenic RT 95. Passed Fry Canyon, (which Brad loved) through Glen Canyon National recreation area, the entrance to Lake Powell, and arrived at Capital Reef National Park to spend a gorgeous 75 degree afternoon, not too bad for mid-October! Spent the afternoon exploring the park in the RV, Brad drove the RV down the twisting and turning roads like he was driving his jeep, definitely scared a few drivers coming at us! I now know that if he ever wants to retire from IT, he could be a Bus driver for fun! After spending the afternoon at Capital Reef, we went on to our next RV park, Wonderland RV park, in Torrey, UT another Goodsam park, (@goodsamfamily). We have a beautiful shady spot in the back corner, with lots of grass, which the dogs are loving, we back up to a farm with horses, cows, ducks, and goats. The wifi is terrible, cell service is good, and our neighbors are nice and friendly couple from Utah.

Day 4 - Woke up to a very quiet RV park, let the dogs out only to have the neighbors pop out of their RV, to let us know they hit two deer with their VW Antique BUG last night (which they just got out of the shop for an engine fire), maybe they should leave that car at home! Now its all banged up and a broken windshield, when we saw it yesterday, it was in pristine condition! Brad and I took the dogs for a walk and spent the day working enjoying the change of scenery. We just had a visit from one of the local horses at the farm, and fed him some carrots, the funny thing is Brady wasn't happy with his visit and was letting him know by barking and growling at him.. the horse was unphased by the small 14lb guy, and kept eating the carrots without a care in the world!

Day 5 - Sandi's day started around 5:30am for her early morning east coast calls, it was still dark out, and the RV park was silent. Not an interesting creature was stirring, not even a mouse! Brad started his day around 7 with his daily RV chores, before starting his work day. He noted he feels like he's working on a farm with his dedicated chores each morning before he can start his real work day! We had a productive second day in Torrey working from the RV. Many RV'ers started to leave today and the park is about half full, so its a little quieter here, very peaceful actually. Just working away in the middle of nature. We had our first "RV" flash of the movie "RV" with Robin Williams late on day 5, Brad went to empty the Black Tank ( you can guess which one that is ) and he discovered we had a Clog! Flash forward to Robin William's at the dump site, is all I could picture, luckily Brad is very handy and was able to save us from any RV emergencies or embarrassment at the RV park. (Now you have to rent the movie to picture the scene I was imaging!) One emergency is enough for the night, time to settle in, and see what tomorrow brings!

Day 6 - October 21, 2020 - We decided last night we were going to ride to Capitol Reef in the AM, so we woke up early, settled the dogs, and headed out towards Capitol Reef for our 23 mile roundtrip, 2000FT elevation gain bike ride in 44° weather . Nothing like waking me up with this ride! When we arrived at Capitol Reef we were greeted by a family of Deer (one Buck and half dozen Doe) grazing in the early morning grass. Brad commented "Lucky guy". We arrived at the Gifford homestead inside Capitol Reef NP, just as the morning delivery of fresh cinnamon rolls and fresh pies were delivered *8am) Highly recommended stop on your next visit to Capitol Reef NP! We learned they sell out daily and usually by 10am. After our ride back to the RV camp we spent the day working, many more folks left the RV park today and very few families left. We met a family from Melbourne, FL in the dog park in the RV park, unfortunately they didn't know you Kristina! After work we spent the day re-routing our trip as a cold front is coming in next week to Utah, but Bryce (9100+ ft above sea level) where we are supposed to spend next week, isn't supposed to get above freezing all week, and it would be challenging to keep the RV tanks from freezing. So we are spending a few extra days in Escalante, UT and then heading to Cedar city, before trekking to Zion NP. For some reason, I'm sure we'll see snow before we leave Utah!

Day 7 - October 22, 2020 - One week in and moving fast. Woke up to gale force winds that lasted all day, but still a beautiful, sunny day in the Utah country side. Tomorrow is moving day (heading to Escalante) so, spent the day packing things up and getting ready to move. We made our first trip to the RV laundry mat - can't say we've had to do that for a long time. Feels like we are back in college, especially now that we are washing dishes by hand again -- definitely didn't miss that. For whatever reason, Thursday appears to be wash day at the park - lots of people doing laundry today. The dogs are starting to get their groove on too, as you can see from some of the photo's. We think they are starting to settle in and are enjoying their new life on the road. One curious thing to mention since we've been at this park is the multiple bird strikes on the RV. Feels like we are in a bloody Hitchcock movie - crazy birds. Good news is no casualties, at least that we've seen. All in all, a very successful week working on the road and enjoying the new life style. We're looking forward to the weekend and enjoying the multiple hikes we have planned. Need to get that in before the snow -- yes, looks like Sandi jinxed us -- snow is in the forecast for Monday. Good thing we brought warm clothes and extra blankets.

Day 8 - October 23, 2020 - After a full day of work and packing up the "Home on Wheels", we headed out on Scenic Byway 12 toward Escalante, UT. Part of the trip we had been looking forward to for a few months. Scenic Byway 12 (www.scenicbyway12.com) has tons of stops along the 124 miles of the trip. We only did about half of Scenic Byway 12 to get to our stop at Escalante, but stopped numerous times along the way to visit overlooks, a museum, at the museum we enjoyed some tacos from the local mountain food truck, and an architectural dig. We did a final hike at the Escalante River Trailhead which consisted of numerous river crossings were we needed to remove our hiking boots and Maddie and Brady needed to be carried across since they couldn't touch. Finally arriving at the end of the day, just before dark at our RV Park, Escalante RV and Cabins, we have great Wi-Fi and cell service which will be a plus for working early next week! To finish the night, the doggies got their first bath in the RV, since they were covered in sand and dust from their 4 mile hike. The night ended beautifully with a sky full of stars!

Day 9 - October 24, 2020 - Woke up early to get the RV packed up, as we headed to Bryce Canyon National Park today. We dropped the dogs off at their first daycare so they could enjoy the day playing, while we enjoyed the day biking and hiking. We drove from Escalante to Bryce via Scenic Byway 12, and arrived at Bryce NP early morning. We parked the RV, and biked around the park, which was great, Bryce has terrific bike paths, not to be missed to get to all the major hiking sights! Brad says "Two thumbs up for Bryce Canyon Bike Trails" We spent the day hiking in the Hoodoos. (The hoodoos we are talking about are tall skinny shafts of rock that protrude from the bottom of arid basins. Hoodoos are most commonly found in the High Plateaus region of the Colorado Plateau and in the Badlands regions of the Northern Great Plains. While hoodoos are scattered throughout these areas, nowhere in the world are they as abundant as in the northern section of Bryce Canyon National Park. credit: https://www.myutahparks.com/things-to-do/bryce-canyon-hoodoos) It was an awesome hike, quite a lot of work to start at the summit of sunrise point hike through the bottom of the canyon and back up to the summit on the other side to sunset point! We felt like we got a week worth of exercise in a half day hiking today! On top of that we biked through the park! It was incredible! So no complaints! After a stop at Ruby's general store (right outside of Bryce national park), we headed back to Escalante, picked up the doggies, from Linda and Paul, who were fabulous and the dogs were very happy at Escalante Doggie Daycare. Headed back to setup RV again! Finally settled at the end of the day, and Tequila Soda never tasted so good! PS, note on the RV check-in says to expect freezing weather!

Day 10 - October 25, 2020 - We woke up early to coffee, bacon and pancakes, only to learn that the weather was turning for the worse in Escalante, so our plans for the day needed to be changed instantly. Rather than spend the day hiking in the Petrified forest with the dogs, we had to pack up the RV, and fly south for warmer weather. Now I know how the snowbirds feel! I guess that's why we have " a house on wheels" to make instant changes and move away from bad weather. We quickly packed up, and called for an RV spot in St. George, where it will be about 25 degrees warmer than Escalante. We drove the rest of Scenic Byway 12 ( www.scenicbyway12.com) and were able to enjoy to the rest of the sights including the Red Canyons and Red arches over the Byway! We connected to Scenic Byway 89 which would take us to either Grand Canyon or Zion NP, we followed it towards Zion, connecting to Route 9 through southern Zion NP and the Zion Tunnel. It was a great initial view of Zion today. Today was just a drive by, as we will be back in Zion next weekend for a two week stay for extended hiking and biking. We continued our journey to St. George Utah, our home for the night. Our RV park is a mix of permanent residents and short term folks, like ourselves. It's a very old, small park with very tight spaces! Upon arriving at the park, we discovered it was our RV neighbors first time driving and parking his RV ever today, and you could tell. Brad was outside giving him directions on turning his wheel and how to park his RV. Good thing we are only here for two nights and we'll be departing before them. All-in-all, another great travel day, with great sights and great experiences. Weather update -- it's now snowing in Escalante.

Day 11 - October 26, 2020 - A chilly morning wake-up this morning in St. George, but luckily nice and toasty in the RV with the furnace on! Brad and I had busy work days today, we had great internet and cell service at the RV park in St. George, so that really helped us. The weather is going to start warming up tomorrow through the end of the week, so we are heading to Cedar City tomorrow and then back to Zion over the weekend. Brad took the opportunity this evening when the weather was a little warmer to grill some grass fed steaks we locally procured while in Escalante, and they were great! Pretty quiet day for us in the RV park today, tomorrow will bring more excitement with another move underway.

Day 12 - October 27, 2020 - Woke up ready to hit the road, although the weather was starting to warm up in St. George, I think it was almost 70 degrees when we left, not too bad since its says it 10 degrees in Lone Tree today! Brrrrr.... We spent the morning in St. George working before hitting the road to fill up on some much needed supplies before our short jaunt to Cedar city, just over an hour north of our current location. We hit all the hot spots, 2-walmarts, costco gas, bed bath and beyond, and home depot. We filled up on all the necessary missing RV supplies and food for the next few weeks. headed towards Cedar City with some beautiful views of the mountains, drove through the little town and out towards our camp. No AT&T cell service to be found, wifi is so-so, no over air TV, so cant see even see the news, luckily Brad hooked up the wifi booster and its seems to helping. Good place to come fall off the earth for a week, not great if you need to work!

Day 13 - October 28, 2020 - Woke up to early morning calls, was dreading having to get on Zoom calls today, due to the limited bandwidth in this camp, luckily both we both managed to get calls over wi-fi and attend all our zoom calls with no issues! We are still at 100% work capacity and not missing a beat when it comes to work, which is great! we are very remote, its quiet and not a lot of people around at all. If I didn't tell you where we were, you'd probably never find us! We are having a visitor tonight, Mark, Brad's friend from Denver is driving his RV to Vegas and planned to meet us this evening, so we will be having dinner with him. First outside folks we've seen since the trip started. Its the coldest we've been all trip, dipping down into the high teens / low twenties at night. Furnace is working great and keeping us toasty. Brady and Maddie enjoy it much better when we park for 4-5 days and stay put, like a NYC apartment.. one nice big cozy family. Neither of the dogs are fond of the RV's bounciness. Maddie has a side window in the front seat passenger side that she looks out of most of the time, like a little Yenta, spying on the neighbor's checking out what's going on in the neighborhood. That keeps her occupied most days! Brady sits on the dashboard in the sun and watches Brad work... making themselves pretty comfortable and at home. They do love walking the trails and getting dirty, I think that's their favorite part of the trip. Neither loving the showers they get after their treks from all the red and brown dirt ...

Day 14 & 15 - October 29-30, 2020 - We had a busy two days of work over LOUSY internet and no cell service at our RV Camp, Cedar Canyon Retreat.. While we loved the location, it made working difficult. We both managed to get through both days of work without missing a call, but constant disconnections to the internet made for a trying few days! We would revisit the RV camp again, but only when were ok being off grid. We had a visitor from Denver, Mark "Rudy" who we knew we were meeting on the road. So we enjoyed some hiking and dinner together for a few nights. Shared some great meals together before Mark left for the rest of his trip to Vegas, and we stayed for a an additional night before heading out in the morning...

Day 16 - October 31, 2020 - Happy Halloween... Up early to start the weekend, its "Moving Day" .. Brad's farm chores started early this am! Dumped the tanks and Packed up the House on wheels and headed to town to do some much needed 5 loads of laundry.. Saw some "locals" at the laundromat in Cedar City, UT then to Walmart for our shop before heading out, and even more local color at Walmart.. Time to head out of town, a short 45 minute trip to our next camp site at Zion River RV park.. its a beautiful RV park, about 6 miles from Zion. We arrived safe and sound and settled in for the beginning of our two weeks trip to Zion NP at different locations... We closed the day down with a great dog walk, a dip in the hot tub, watched the sun go down with a few cocktails and some Sirius radio!

Day 17 - November 1, 2020 - A beautiful sunny day welcomed us in Virgin, Utah today! We decided to spend the day relaxing at the RV park, taking walks, enjoying the pool and hot tub, and adoring the night sky full of stars with our first camp fire of the trip with toasted marshmallows and cocktails! It was a great day, we watched more than half the RV park depart, and about half of those slots filled up with new RV'ers, its at about 75% capacity right now. We have some new sites to enjoy, a School Bus RV and one decorated like a house, now inhabit our RV park! We also spent part of the day planning our hiking for next weekend in Zion NP, the big plan is to hike "the Narrows" on Saturday which is a full day ~11 miles roundtrip and 8-9 hrs of hiking. As we look up at the night full of stars, we are reminded how lucky we are to enjoy all these beautiful places together during this time!

Day 18 - November 2, 2020 - One more day until the election and it can't come soon enough! Suddenly today the RV park is filled with campaign flags attached to all the different RV's! We're hoping we are off the grid enough, to be out of the craziness from the election day mayhem! We've both had a busy Monday at work, the internet is great at Zion RV Resort, making working here very easy. Its no wonder we've met a few families that are "snowbirding here" staying for 3-5 months! While its still extremely warm here, we have a storm rolling in, big time! Huge lightening strikes are happening all around us, the sky is dark, and the wind is whipping! The first day we've had any rain during the trip, and its much needed in Utah, with them being under a level 5 fire alert, its been so dry for so long!

Day 19 - November 3, 2020 - Election day - We spent the day working in the beautiful country side of Utah, in Virgin, UT. Just 12 miles from the entrance of @zionnationalpark. It was a warm and sunny 82 degrees today. Enjoyed a dip in the pool and hot tub, before heading back to our RV to enjoy dinner and watch the days events unfold. Brad opened a few bottles of red wine to enjoy the non-stop press coverage of the election as we learned that today is an Historic day for our country, no matter which party you side with, history was made today with 150M+ people that voted in the Biden-Trump Election of 2020. As we watched for hours as states were leaning, or projected to go one way or another and then turn another color, we head to bed with the rest of the US, with no clue who we will wake up to as our new president.

Day 20 - November 4, 2020 - Day after election - we wake up this morning to still no decision in our election. We are learning early in the AM, it could be days before we know the results of the election due to the counting rules and regulations of some states mail in votes. Our great state of Colorado was called very early in the night last night, we have 98% mail in votes and they begin counting as they arrive. I'm sure most of the counts were done in Colorado long before yesterday to get the results that quickly in the board. I discuss with Brad that there must be a better way to vote in the US in 2020 with all our computer and security technology.. we can only hope that one day it will become more instantaneous! It's another beautiful 82 degree day here in Virgin, UT but the weatherman is threatening a cold front for the weekend.. a potential 40 degree temperature drop and snow in the forecast. We may have to rethink our hiking plans for this weekend to a shorter hike, we were going to do a 9 hour hike on Saturday. That may have to wait until next weekend! Excited to get back into Zion NP tomorrow Friday afternoon, we have our shuttle tickets, and are ready to go for the weekend! Day 21 - November 5, 2020- “Moving Day”. It’s another moving day for the house on wheels... the day started early and was extremely busy with both of working and doing zoom calls all morning... right about lunch time we packed up and headed 15 miles to our next designation, Zion Canyon Campground... right outside of @ZionNP. It’s another gorgeous weather day we’re having today in the 80’s sunny and beautiful. Did the necessary chores before pulling out of the RV park, did a quick stop at the grocery store, enjoyed the beautiful ride towards Zion and unpacked at the next camp! We are camped for the next 6 days on the banks of the Virgin River, surrounded by the glorious mountains of ZionNP. We finished work, and headed out for our first bike ride in the park, we were greeted by no less than a dozen deer feasting on their dinner after the park closed..it was getting to be dusk and finished our ride, heading back to make dinner and settle in for the night. Another successful day of the trip completed..

Day 22 - November 6, 2020- we woke up to a beautiful sunny day shining gorgeously down on the canyon tops of @ZionNPS! It’s going to be a glorious day for us today..... we finished a day of work in the new RV park and the WiFi is to be desired here. While the location is amazing for Zion, not great for WiFi and cell service... after work we headed into the park to do the much anticipated “angels landing” trail. Is a 1500 ft elevation gain trail to the top observation site within ZionNP. It’s as high as it it the altitude is actually less than our house in lone tree! It’s around 5790ft ... for more info: (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_Landing) and we live at 5820... soon to be living at 6330ft above sea level! Gorgeous views and a rope chain to get to the top ... Single file... think of any Everest movie you’ve seen where they are moving in a single file line... that’s how it was to get to the top of Angels Landing... except you also had folks coming down from the top at the same time on the same rope... no wonder 10 people died since 2004!!! Ugh! As part of the angels landing trail is a section called Walter’s wiggle... 21 switchbacks going straight up ! ...(The base of Walter's Wiggles is about 1.8 miles into the hike and the elevation is about 5100 feet, or a gain of 810 feet.) picture : https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/6792-walter-s-wiggles.html. Here is the 5 sections of the angels landing trail to get to the top: https://www.zionponderosa.com/blog/2017/08/get-to-know-the-5-sections-of-angels-landing/ . Another awesome day on the road working and exploring. Now if we could just get a decision in the presidential race! Tomorrow is a big huge hike for us... we’re hiking the narrows ... after the first mile the rest of the hike is in the river!

Day 23 - November 7, 2020 - Alarm went off at 6:00 to start our high day today! Excited to hike The Narrows today. We’ve been planning this hike for months. We ride our bikes 7 miles into the park to enjoy the beautiful morning we have it’s a nice 63 degrees to start the day.. we catch the shuttle ans head to the temple of sinawa stop, last stop on the shuttle line. We get off and see a wedding in process.... it’s a gorgeous setting for a wedding at the end of the canyon... we head toward the river walk, which is a paved trail for the mile down to the Virgin river.. this is the start of the narrows trail. After the first mike its time to take a plung, and get into the 50 degree river... we start hiking up the river navigating the slippery river rocks... trying not to fall in, twist an ankle, or worse break something! We hike In the water, sometimes waist deep!!! The weather starts rolling in and it’s getting colder and beginning to rain, we continue to trek on... after about 2.5 miles in the river we turn back.. the weathers supposed to get really bad today and we don’t want to be 4 miles from our river starting point when that bad weather shows up... as we turn around, Sandi’s foot gets wedged between two rocks and she plops forward into the water ... so much for staying dry on top! She luckily saves herself and only gets her sweatshirt and long t-shirt bottom wet... so the fact that’s it’s raining, only helps her get wet faster. We trek back through the river and down the river trail, to excitedly get to the shuttle stop. They have restrooms there, we can put on dry socks and clothes before heading back towards the RV park. We make it back to our bikes with our warm dry clothes on, get on our bikes for the 7 mile trek back to the RV Park, and it begins to pour and hail on us. We are super excited to get to the RV park and take a double shower in the camp showers with extremely hot water! We both warm up, pick up the dogs from doggie daycare, give the puppies a bath and we all settle in for the night of freezing cold pouring rain! Looking forward to the sun coming out tomorrow !

Day 24 - November 8, 2020 - Was a very cold night last night, snowed on and off all night waking up to a windy and chilly morning. No hiking in this weather today, so we made a nice Sunday breakfast in the RV, and headed to do some laundry. There was a break in the weather after finishing the laundry, so we headed into the ZionNP or another bike ride, we explored the campsite, and came across a family of deer exploring an unsuspecting families camp site, raiding their food supply, eating away like they were at a Sunday Buffet. It was a crazy site, they just left all this food on the picnic tables in bags next toe their tents, im sure they THOUGHT it was secure in the dry bags they had left it in, but man will they be surprised when they are looking for their snacks later, blaming each other for eating them, only to figure out it wasn't each other, it was the deer. We start riding the trails in Zion again, and about an hour into the ride, we start to feel pellets of hail again! you'd think we'd learn after Saturday's ride. NOPE.. we quickly turn around, and head back to camp, loading the bikes on the RV and covering them, in the hail I might add. As it doesn't look like this weather is clearing anytime soon. We wait a few hours and head out for a walk through town, exploring the little shops, enjoying the crisp cold air and snow that is falling. We had decided while we were warming up early that we needed to change course and head our of Zion, all week, its not supposed to get much above freezing and we'll be fighting freezing RV tanks all week. So we're heading to Vegas tomorrow, to beat the freeze! Zion has been a blast and we're cutting our trip a week short here, we'll be back there are some hikes we didn't do that we'd love to do, so its still on the bucket list of return trips and places we love to visit!

Day 25 - November 9, 2020 - Sandi had early work calls this morning east coast time, so she was prowling around the RV in the weee hours if the morning for her calls. It was still pitch dark outside and snowed again off and all night. Brad had a busy and early work morning as well. Then moving day started again, packing the RV, getting all the chores done and securing everything for the trip to Vegas. We were on the road in the afternoon with a stop for lunch and another for some work calls. We landed in Vegas by 3:30 PT, Brad finished his work day, set-up camp and still had some daylight to enjoy before the sunset on the day. Vegas will be 20-30 degrees warmer this week than Zion and our cell service is much better making working much easier for both of us.

Day 26 - November 10, 2020 - Woke up to a bright sunny Las Vegas morning! For an RV park with 700 RV spaces, this place is pretty quiet! We have great cell service, THANK YOU 5G! Getting to experience that really quick service, and quite enjoying it! Spending the days in the RV working, and catching up from our limited cell service. Enjoyed our second dinner out of the RV this evening, in the RV park restaurant, which was actually quite good ( Taco Tuesday !!) and the few folks in the place were all following Nevada Governor's directions wearing there masks and far away from each other!

Day 27 - November 11, 2020 - As we go farther West, the earlier Sandi has to get up to meet her East coast calls, today she greeted the rooster on his way to waking up the town, with a 4:30am wake-up call. No wonder she can't make it past 9pm at night! At that time of the morning the RV park and Vegas are dark except for the lights on the hotels, the sky is full of stars, and the planes haven't yet started flying in and out of McCarren yet. Its a quiet and peaceful time in Vegas. Except for the few drunk gamblers and crazy youngin's forgetting which hotel they are in, looking for their room on the strip, which luckily we are far away from so we don't have to deal with those shenanigan's! Brad's been extremely busy this week, he's getting ready for a big virtual show, Super Computing, at work where his company is announcing a bunch of new solutions. He's been slammed with press releases, vendors, partners, and internal meetings.

Day 28 - November 12, 2020 - Another busy work day, except even earlier for Sandi, a cool 4:15am wake up today! Brad was busy by 6:00am, maybe we'll both be passed out before 10! Woot Woot! Vegas Baby! Look at us party animals! Haven't event put a penny in a slot machine! HAHAHAHA! Each day the weather is getting nicer, and warmer, today was low-60's and tomorrow is supposed to hit high-60's, I think its going to be a great day to get some Sun by the pool with my PC. We decided to venture out and check out Vegas for a nice dinner on the town. Enjoyed a fabulous sushi dinner at Sushi Samba in the Palazzo. I don't think we needed that 2nd bottle of Demon Slayer (Junmai Daiginjo saki), but boy was it delicious. We will be heading further west this weekend for some more fun and adventures in California! So Stay tuned!

Day 29 - November 13, 2020 - Working from Las Vegas, last time we did this was back when both attended conferences prior to COVID, for Sandi 2019 (AWS) and Brad 2019 (CES), seems like a lifetime ago, since we are both used to being there multiple times a year for shows! Other than the RV park being crowded with RV's there is not many people in Vegas, the streets are empty, even the RV park is scarce of people! Makes it really easy to get our work done, its a beautiful day here in Vegas, 73 today sunny day! It continues to warm up, we're up at 4am tomorrow to head to Paso Robles, CA, about a 6hr drive. so to bed early for the drive to CA!

Day 30 - November 14, 2020 - Up before the roosters again, pitch black, only the lights of Vegas to show us the way out of the city! It's so dark, we can't even get a picture of the "Welcome to California" sign! We have a great sunrise coming up behind us, as we drive towards the west. The highway is not busy at this time of the morning yet, last time we did this drive we were in back to back traffic all through the desert and it was over 100 degree, this time its not even 60 yet! We are arrive in Paso in time to get a rental car for the week to enjoy the sights. Enjoyed lunch downtown, and headed to the RV park to settle in. We head out to Tin City (@tincity) to walk around and enjoy the sights. Do a little cider, olive oil, and wine tasting to finish the day! .. and don't forget the delicious ice cream at the local creamery.

Day 31 - November 15, 2020 - Happy Gorgeous Sunday in Paso! Lazy morning, after the extremely busy day we had yesterday. We headed out to Denner Vineyards (@dennervineyards) to do some wine tasting in their amazing vineyard! Then a stop by Seashell downtown, followed by some BBQ @ Jeffrey's and a final stop at Sculpterra (@sculpterra @Heroes) amazing grounds, art, wine, and story! Need to go back and enjoy the grounds more @Sculpterra!

Day 32- November 16, 2020 - Another week, another beautiful setting for work! this week, we're working amongst the purple and gold vineyards of Paso! Mondays are always busy days for both Brad and I and this Monday didn't disappoint. Back-to-back zoom and conference calls all day! We ended our day at Justin Vineyard (@Justinvineyard) for a sunset wine tasting. We had an outrageously gorgeous view of their vines and Inn at sunset while enjoying their wine/chocolate pairing! YUM! If anybody is interested, we can stay at their 29,000 sq. ft. chateau, that sleeps 10 for a mere $12,000 a night. Who's in?? Sous Chef & house keeper included.

Day 33 - November 17,2020 - Happy early morning, being on the west coast and working for an east coast company is definitely harder some days, and today when Sandi's alarm went off at 4am, today was one of those days! Global calls starting in the wee hours of the morning of the west coast is tough when its pitch black outside. Although we had a good laugh this morning when Brad almost flashed my entire leadership team including CEO and CRO at 5am on zoom as he walked by! HAHAHA Luckily I have quick fingers and already had some coffee, and was able to shut off my camera, before anything more than his back was shown! There was a few funny comments by my CRO though! ;) Talking about Brad, if you look at our photos, and the first photo we took, and the last photo we took, he appears to be hibernating for the winter in the RV, by growing all that facial hair or maybe he's getting ready to play "Santa" at the mall when we get back to Colorado... Maybe someone can find out for me?? It's no wonder he doesn't have his zoom camera on that often at work ;) So back to today... We had a busy day at work, then headed to Cass Winery to enjoy a late lunch and glass of wine, followed by another stop at Sculpterra (@Scuplterra) to finish enjoying the gardens and the view. We returned to the RV park to an incredible sunset this evening, bright orange and yellow sky! We finished the evening with a fabulous meal of home made spaghetti and meatballs, Sandi's specialty and of course, a bottle of wine. .. and watched a few episodes of "The Crown".

Day 34 - November 18, 2020 - Holy Grape Vine!!! I'm not sure if I need to thank or curse my buddy Martin for sharing his to do list in Paso! My wallet is already $1,000 lighter and we're only half way through the list -- I guess we are suckers for good wine - Denner, Justin, Sculptera, Cass, Powell Mtn, Sea Shell Cellars. Three wine clubs later and countless bottles down, we still have another 36 hours in this place. Yes, you can say we are enjoying our travels across the southwest. Covid is definitely having it's impacts - new mandate today (as I'm sure you seeing as well), masks required at all times and only outdoor seating/eating/drinking. Also, clarifying an earlier statement - Santa is coming to a town near you, ho ho ho. We'll see how long the beard lasts. We enjoyed a nice lunch in town and another winery after work, and yes, a couple more bottles of wine. Good thing there is lot's of storage in this beast (RV). Now back in the RV, looking after a sick puppy and settling in for the night. On the menu -- left overs and a bottle of wine. Cheers!! .. and thank you Martin, your list is spot on!! and to all our readers, be safe out there!

Day 35 - November 19, 2020 - We spent the afternoon enjoying the views from Daou vineyards today, watching the sunset. It was an amazing but chilly view! You could see the Paso valley for miles around, including surrounding vineyards and other wonderful farms, the colors just jumped off the hills around us! Brad's wallet continues to get lighter, and he thanks Martin each time he buys a wine! This was the priciest winery we went to on the entire trip; the views and the wines were fabulous! We are now proud members of the Wine Society! Posh Posh! .. and for those counting, that makes a total of four new wine clubs for the week.

Day 36 - November 20, 2020 - Time to pack up the house and move to the Beach, we're headed out of Paso after work and towards the coast with a stop in Solvang, CA. Solvang is the Danish capital of the US (maybe self-proclaimed, I'm not sure), but a cute town we both enjoy and visited around this time last year. We stopped for lunch and a little holiday browsing in town. Then headed through the hills towards the coast to Santa Barbara, and then towards our final destination in Malibu. As we drove along the coast this evening we had a gorgeous sunset along the Pacific Ocean. Ravishing Oranges and Yellows lit the sky! We saw hundreds of RV's parked along Coast Highway (route 1) and near the beach and wondered why we're going to an RV park when we could park next to the ocean. We later learned those were the homeless of CA, living in their RV's and camper vans with no electricity, and no hook-ups! As we pull into the Malibu RV Park, we take a BIG deep breath and are thankful we had a reservation, which included all the comforts (and hook ups) an RV park offers. We quickly discover our parking spot is on a cliff (second level) and has a beautiful ocean view. It is also a very, very, very tight RV spot, that needs to be navigated in total darkness. But Brad maneuvered the 31' RV like a compact car, right into place... Glad it wasn't me! Note to self -- don't arrive at an RV park after dark, especially RV parks with cliff side parking.

Day 37 - November 21, 2020 - Woke up to a great big beautiful sunrise and a gorgeous day in Malibu. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast outside made by Brad, while enjoying the sounds of the waves hitting the beach. Watching the kayakers and paddle boarders enjoy the calm ocean and gliding through the glass-like water made us wish we brought our paddle boards with us (next time). We decided to take an 11-mile bike ride down the coast highway with the doggies in their backpacks and enjoyed the dreamy California day outdoors, it's about 78 today. After our ride we stopped at a local seafood place and picked up lunch and enjoyed steamed shrimp, clam chowder, brad had a fish taco and mahi-mahi... it was fabulous and the line for this place was long! We waited over an hour to order and get our food to go! Spent the rest of the day enjoying the view of the ocean, rocking the RV and another gorgeous California sunset!

Day 38 - November 22, 2020 - We headed south towards Orange County, California today for the week of Thanksgiving to spend time with the family. We drove along the California coast enjoyed all the beach activity sights, enjoyed the Santa Monica Pier, drove by Disneyland, and Downtown LA. We'll actually drive from Disneyland to Disneyworld by the time the trip is over! OMG! We arrived in Laguna Nigel our destination for the week. We cleaned out the RV, gave the puppies some much-needed baths from their visit at the beach, and finally took time to relax with Brad's family. Nana, George and Mary all had dinner with us and we enjoyed an entertaining evening, drinking wine and discussing this crazy year. We haven't seen them since last thanksgiving, so it was great to reconnect. We also uncorked a few new bottles of wine, as you would expect. We'll see more of the family this upcoming week, taking all necessary Covid precautions. We are looking forward to seeing everyone else... even for a short period. Please be safe this holiday week.

Day 39 - November 23, 2020 - Monday morning and back to work, as I'm sure everyone will agree, we're happy it's a short week. Also, thank God for a stable internet connection. Those little things we take for granted. The puppies are also enjoying life out of the RV -- thanks Nana. Both of us spent most of the day working, putting out fires and collecting food stamps -- just kidding, checking to see if you're still reading this -- lol. Brother Jeff joined us for dinner and we quickly caught up on all the latest news. Fryer Basketball Academy (www.fryerbasketballacademy.com) is back in action for now, with over 9 teams for the current season. We hope and pray the season goes well and all the players and coaches stay safe. Nana and Sandi put up with the brothers humor -- we know they were laughing on the inside - haha. We're finishing the day with some warm showers and relaxing on a very comfy sofa -- again the little things we take for granted. Peace and Love to all!

Day 40 - November 24, 2020 - Happy Taco Tuesday, nothing like trying to cram 5 days works days into 3. Woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, and pancakes, bacon, coffee and OJ - thanks Nana. As is happening everywhere, COVID restrictions are going deeper, 10pm curfew, no indoor dining, limited gatherings, masks everywhere -- definitely time to be careful, which is very challenging during these holiday times. Taking heed of the new restrictions, in the late afternoon, we head towards Brad's dads house. On the way, we notice how many outdoor lights are already up, California is getting into the spirit if Christmas big time! We spend a few hours with Steve and Janet, enjoying the outdoors and socially distancing and wearing our masks. We caught up on all the latest new with their side of the family including all of their latest football rival news! Sorry about those Trojans -- Buff's WIN! - haha. On the way home, we stop by Gina's Pizza (https://ginaspizza.com/our-story/) for some primo - cauliflower crust pizza's. Gina's won out over taco's (lol). Gina's has been serving pizza in CdM for over 40 years. Delicious!!! Perfect way to close the day -- and with a bottle of wine, of course.

Day 41 - November 25, 2020 - Last day before the long weekend, so its been a busy day today. We finish work a little early and head to one of our favorite places to visit every holiday season in California, Rogers Garden, www.rogersgardens.com. They are an outdoor garden and decor center, that does it right for the holidays; typically they have at least 10-15 trees all decked out with ornaments in different themes. This year they had about half the trees up and decorated for social distancing, and only allowed 10 people in store at one time. We patiently waited in line to get inside and see the decor and get into the holiday spirit! Finally closing down for the evening we headed to Jon (friend of Brad's from HS) and Janine's for a quick visit . They have a son going to CU Boulder and missed them during their visit to CO this last summer, so this visit gave us the opportunity to catch up. We run from their house to a quick peak to see Brad's brother George play outside, stop by for about 30 minutes, its pretty early around 6 so not many people here. There is a California wide curfew in place due to Covid @ 10pm, we wanted to go early and see him to avoid any possible crowds. We socially distance and constantly wear our masks, but you can't control others. After the quick visit at George's outdoor show, we run to the outdoor mall, to finish some shopping, and get there and their is only 6 cars in the parking lot, crazy for the day before thanksgiving.. we walk around and realize the mall is closed! No wonder there is only 6 cars in the lot! Heading back to Nan's for the night! But not before stopping at In-N-Out (https://www.in-n-out.com/) for some long sought after double double's -- actually upgraded to the 3x3, protein style. The wait was only 30 minutes, vs the 14 hour wait for the location that just opened in Denver. Absolutely Delicious!!! - Everytime.

Day 42 - November 26, 2020 - Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Waking up to enjoy the bright blue sunny California sky, its going to be about 70 today. Enjoy a relaxing morning, watched the Macy's day parade (so weird - with no one watching and waving from the sidewalks) and enjoy the breakfast frittata that Mary/George brought over. Jeff and Brad help Nan in the kitchen with prepping thanksgiving dinner, and were eating a great meal by 2:30 split between 2 tables, one inside and one outside to help with social distancing. Brad and I start to get organized for the start of our trip across the country tomorrow. We head out the RV, to start bringing out some of our stuff from Nan's house and Brad realizes our battery in the RV is almost dead! OMG! try and start the RV! get that thing going! we need to charge the battery asap! we can't have two dead batteries that will be the worst thing ever ! let me explain, the house battery runs the fridge and lights, etc in the back of the RV, the main battery is for running the car. When the house battery drains it starts to drain the main battery. We kept all our food in the RV and the house battery was draining the main battery. They both charge by running the RV or the generator! Luckily like always, Brad saved the day, ran the RV for a while and charged them back ! Whew, that was a close one! Needless to say, no one slept worried about the battery all night.

Day 43 - November 27, 2020 - Early Morning for us, this is the day we are starting the trip across the country to Florida from California, total 36 hours drive time. We depart around 7:30am and head out on the road in California. We drive across the southern route RT 10, and drive all through CA and halfway through NM and end up Boon Docking (which means - no hooks ups) in Deming, NM at a Walmart, which was our planned stop. As we drive towards Deming, we are discussing, about why are we taking the RV all the way to Florida, we aren't going to use it Florida, as we will be staying with Sandi's family. So we call, an audible and change plans, EXIT LEFT (literally, lol). We decide in the morning we are going to head north to Denver to return the RV, rather than continue on to Florida. We call our (extremely gracious) friends, Pharr and Mary to confirm a landing zone and settle in at the Walmart for the evening, along with many other RV'ers, and lots of truckers. Its actually crazy how many RVs and Trucks are in this parking lot to sleep for the night! We close all the shades and head to sleep for our road trip in the AM..

Day 44 - November 28, 2020 - We're up at 6am, and heading North on I-25, spending the day travelling north through New Mexico. Had we made this decision to head back to Denver to drop off the RV in California, we wouldn't have to taken the extreme southern route to get there, we are definitely taking the long way! New Mexico is completely shut down, only drive through, a little hard to drive through in an RV! So we try to order from an App, at 9am they tell us they only have lunch! WHAT???? no thank you! we keep driving... We only stop for gas and potty stops for the puppies. We arrive in Colorado Springs around 5pm and we're both starving, we've only had some snacks all day. We stop for some dinner and finish the last hour of our drive. We arrive at Mary and Pharr's house with a great feeling of relief! While we both really enjoy the RV, it was really hard to drive for long distances... it swayed a lot and bounced with every hole or rough patch in the road. We started to unpack the RV and spent about 2 hours in there and only got about half way through unpacking it. Filled up Sandi's car, and are ready to head to storage to drop it all off at our storage facility in the am.

Day 45- November 29, 2020 - another early morning for the travelers, we unpack all our bags and pack the clothes we want to take to Florida, and pack the rest to take to our storage facility until we're back. We head out to the storage facility, arriving there first thing in the am, and the door won't open! UGH! Not a great start to the day! so a call to the facility manager and we head to our new house for a visit. As we drive to the new house we stop and sign up for COVID tests, since being on the road we want to ensure we weren't exposed. Head to the house while we wait our turn. Our house is coming along, it's looking fabulous! All the cabinets are in, the tile floors are in, the bathroom tile walls are in, the fireplace wall is tiled, and trim is painted white and walls are painted light grey. The outside is is completely sided, all the brickwork is up, the railings were being installed on our decks. We have a closing date of January 20th and have already locked in our rate. so we are close now! We get our text for our COVID Test, we are up next, so we head back to get our swabs, we don't have any symptoms, but want to make sure we aren't spreaders. We get our swabs at the same time get notified that the door for our storage unit is fixed. Heading back to the storage unit, unpack the car, and head back to our friends house. Finish unpacking the RV, and Brad's excited to sit on a normal sofa and enjoy a Sunday afternoon of football. The COVID test results come back -- all negative. Life is Good.

Day 46 - November 30, 2020 - After a sleepless night with freezing temperatures, and a run to the RV at 3am to charge the batteries and warm the black and grey tanks, we awake to a frosty but sunny morning (temperatures dipped into the low 20's over night). And yes, there is still snow on the ground on Colorado from the last snow storm. Man we miss the RV park hook ups. After a final cleansing of the RV, it was time to say goodbye to our home for the last 46 days. It's been a very fun and memorable trip which we enjoyed thoroughly. We are also glad we were able to share some of our adventures with you. We thank you for all the warm wishes and support along the way. With the return of the RV, it is also time to suspend 'Our Tales From The Trail'. Unfortunately, the increasing COVID cases and nationwide restrictions have official cut short our travels. We all need to be safe and do our best to slow the spread of the virus. But have no fear, we got a credit from the RV rental company for the early return, and are already planning are next trip for the summer of 2021 -- in the Black Hills of SD and Yellowstone. Until then, be safe and have a wonderful holiday season. From our family to yours, God Bless, Peace, Love and Joy!!

• Brad and Sandi