May 1, 2015 Utah here we come!

Friday, May 1, 2015

Today is our 39th wedding anniversary and so it is not only a very special day in that respect for us but also sooo exciting as we left early this morning for a 24 day vacation! We originally planned a fly-fishing trip through New Mexico and Colorado. But then we started talking about doing something different, seeing some new states and decided rather quickly (as in not much time to plan, scheme and research it all out like we had prefer to do) to head to Utah! Today, we took off with Holly in tow at 5:30 AM

(that's Holly in my rear view mirror before sunrise!)

 We consider this her REAL "First Maiden Voyage"!!

 We headed toward our first stop, Albuquerque, New Mexico. It took us about 10 hours. We stopped at a roadside park on I-40 and just sat inside Holly and had a nice little lunch! So much better than fast food!

My sweet groom enjoyed some homemade Chicken Salad and his favorite and requested, Jalapeno Pimento Cheese. 

 Here we are parked at the I-40 roadside park!

 Not the most scenic of locations...but hey, it was better than stopping at a greasy spoon! And a clean bathroom!

Then it was back on the road again. Larry cannot get over how easy Holly pulls, which is so thrilling as that is the big reason we decided on a Casita. Our Jeep is having no problems at all towing her. We spent our first night at the Enchanted Trails RV. Not a very scenic stop to say the least but we knew this night was just a place to pull over and sleep. We did very little set up as we knew we wouldn't be here long. We went down to the "Old Town" of Albuquerque and found a place to eat supper. We had done a little a little research on Yelp and Urbanspoon while driving and decided since Old Town had lots of places to eat, we would walk around and decide what looked good.

 The Backstreet Grill did not disappoint! We started with an Avocado and Shrimp appetizer that was so fresh and yummy, then I had Blackened Tilapia Fish Tacos and Larry had Duck Tacos and we were both super pleased. Then for dessert we shared a Sweet Potato Cheesecake.

 

 Then we headed back to the Casita and called it an early evening since we were both super tired from the day and we have another long day of driving tomorrow in less familiar country. This place though nothing very plain and hardly any trees, did have the most adorable retro collection of trailer available to rent for the night. So if you have the hankering to get out of town, don't own a trailer but want that experience....here is what awaits you!

Isn't she (or he) adorable!!!

Holly's maiden voyage...though we hope the next time is further away from Abilene!

It was our first outing with Holly, we can’t say it was to anywhere terribly exciting but nonetheless is was perfect. We had decided it was smart to just go somewhere close because this trip wasn’t about the view or the fun things to check out in the surrounding area but more about just getting familiar with our little trailer. We have camped before, but never in “Holly” so we just wanted to go somewhere we wouldn’t be distracted with things to go and do but more about just staying close to camp and get to know our trailer. 

It was fun to add some of the things we had gathered up...like this adorable new quilt and pillow!

It was such a fun weekend of rest, organizing the inside of Holly and figuring out all her bells and whistles. The Abilene State Park is quite familiar to us, its where we have had 4 of our “Knight Camps”.  We went very easy on our meals this weekend since we haven’t made a decision yet on a grill, etc. We did one meal in the Crockpot (I mixed up before leaving town and froze it in a Ziploc) which proved to make for a super easy meal…just put the crock pot on the camp table outside and let it cook all day while we bummed about…then when supper rolled around…it was ready!

We made a small shopping list of things we had either forgotten or now know we need to make camping life a bit easier or more efficient. Just little things to make Holly fit us! But we have already figured out one thing…we are in love! We can hardly wait to hit the road with her trailing behind us and see the big beautiful U.S.A. We talked about trips we hope to plan soon, dreamed of places we hope to explore plus had time to sit, read and practice relaxing…something both of us desire but don’t do much of!  

The last night, we enjoyed a little walk just around the loop we were camping in and we were amazed at how beautiful the stars were and how pitch black it was! One downside of living in town, we miss the stars at night and we look forward to enjoying more evening walks like tonight's to take in the beautiful wonders God places around us daily! Then we headed back inside and played some domino's. It was so fun!!

The last morning, we woke up to rain failing on our little trailer. There really isn’t much better sleeping weather than the sound of rain and thunder…but so much better while snug as a bug in our little trailer.  It was glorious!

All in all, our first little venture away in Holly has been quite perfect.

Please excuse this next part…it will be quite boring (though I realize we only have about 4 people who are reading this!!!) but since this will serves as our travel journal, I will add a few details of what we did, our meals, etc.

Besides checking out Holly and taking walks around camp, we also walked through the Buffalo Gap Flea Market and returned to our camper empty handed!

We took a few walks and drove around camp at dusk to look at the deer. Not nearly as many as normal but then things are extremely dry here…no water in pond, etc. so most deer may have moved on to “green pastures”. 

Meals:

Breakfast: Coffee, Fruit, Apple Fritters (from home)

Lunches: Sandwiches, Chips, Fruit

Supper: Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas, Sandwiches & Soup

Snacks: Chex Turtle Mix, Muddy Buddy Chex Mix, Fruit

Movies we watched:

Australia

Open Range

 It was so fun to walk back from the bath house and see this adorable little white trailer sitting in the trees...and to know it is ours!!!!

Our first projects inside Holly!

My sweet hubby is very talented and we knew right away we would need to utilize every single inch (or centimeter) and make the very most of our space! So we looked it over and tried to fit it a few little nooks & shelves to better suit our needs. We can hardly wait to go camping but we have spent our first week as owners planning, scheming and settling into this little home away from home. 

Here are a few of our additions:

Behind our captains chairs was a "dead" space that the owners mentioned was a space they couldn't quite figure out how to utilize. So, Larry built a "trough" to hold our books, game, DVDs, cords, ipad, etc.  It runs from the bathroom wall to the tire well and sits on top of the "box" where the plumbing/electrical is housed. You more or less have to be sitting in one of the chairs to get to the trough...but its quite handy when you are in one of the chairs!
(I apologize this picture isn't great. This is before we put the chair back in).

Larry also replaced the old plug that was located in this area with USB port & plug.
This will be a handy place to charge our phones and yet they will be out of the way!

We replaced the table with a new butcher block table.

(A piece of butcher block we had left over when we built an island in our kitchen at home).

                   Before:                                                                                          After:

 
















We also replaced the cover on the sink with the same butcher block, so it can serve as our sink cover and also our cutting board.

 

Larry also built a shelf over the tire well under the kitchen sink/stove so that we could utilize that space as well, another place the past owners had expressed as a hard place to organize because of the tire well.
 

We are slowly becoming familiar with all its nooks and crannies and look forward to taking Holly on its first road trip. These are just small changes but with each one it is feeling more ours! We are looking forward to taking it for a test run soon!

Introducing our little Casita Holly

First of all, let me introduce ourselves. We are high school sweethearts who met at church. We have been blessed with a good life, a precious son and daughter who have amazing spouses and 5 of the cutest and sweetest grand kids ever. We are self employed. We live in Texas. We are in our late 50's and we have always loved camping and being outdoors, but now that we have our family raised, we are ready to see the good old USA! We share a love for God, His amazing creation, fly fishing, cooking (especially when it involves a dutch oven) and traveling together.

We have wanted a trailer of our own for a very long time. We have shared a trailer with our kids and that was great but we wanted a trailer to fix up with our own things, that would be available and ready to go on a minute's notice! So, we have looked, dreamed, searched, dreamed some more and looked some more. Then Friday, December 12th as we were headed to bed, Larry decided to look on Craig's List one more time. SCORE! A 2004 Casita Freedom Deluxe had posted hours before and it looked great from the pictures and description. We wrote an email before going to bed to see if the owner still had it. It was too late to call! The next morning (after dreaming about trailers) we had no emails back. So, we waited till a respectful hour and Larry called the owners. They were a precious couple and agreed to save it till we could come on Monday to look at it. It was in the Austin area, so Monday we drove there...trying hard not to dream about it but dreaming about it all the entire trip!

After a wonderful visit with the sellers and looking the Casita over...we paid them and did what we have dreamed about for awhile...we looked in our rear view mirrors and saw a cute little Casita following us home. Her name is Holly. We got her 10 days before Christmas and the owner's name was Hollie. Seemed perfect!

This blog will serve as our travel journal. We have a long bucket list of places we want to see. First thing, even though the trailer was clean and in great shape (it's first owners took great care of it) we wanted to make a few changes. Larry is very talented and we knew right away we would need to utilize every single inch (or centimeter) and make the very most of our space! So we looked over it and tried to fit it a few little nooks & shelves to better suit our needs. We can hardly wait to go camping but we have spent our first week as owners planning, scheming and settling into this little home away from home.