*After We Packed Our Bags (A Step Back in Time)

Friday, February 13, 2026

So know that the New, to us, Home on Wheels announcement is out of the way I am going to catch up. Starting with what happened after we "Packed Our Bags"...lol

We were up early, on December 23rd, finished packing, said goodbye to the Stinger "B" and the Jeep With No Name, got the luggage and ourselves into Melissa and Lyle's Jeep, and headed to the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. After a pleasant ride chatting with friends they dropped us off under the Delta Airline Sign and we headed in to get our boarding passes. After passing through security we stopped for lunch before heading to our gate to wait to be called for boarding. We eventually landed at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport where our son picked us up and we rode to his home which was the best part of the day. A long but successful day.

We have landed.

♥️The reason we made the trip!♥️ 
This picture was taken at a lunch where we exchanged our 
Secret Santa Gifts on December 31, 2025.
The inserted little guy on the lower right is our youngest
grandchild who did not join us.

 

St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church

Christmas Eve Mass
Again our youngest grandchild was not with us.

We spent two weeks back in Michigan. The first week with our son and his family and the second week with our daughter and her family. The fact that they only live about two miles apart makes it nice. Below are pictures of our time visiting with all of them.

Christmas Morning with our Son and his family.

The sunset on Christmas Day
Plus, pictures on various days.

During our time there our oldest grandson had two wrestling tournaments. As a freshman he is wrestling with the Varsity Team. We are very proud of him.

We both saw him win this match.

Tom took these at the second tournament.

Our daughter bought us tickets for a Trolley Ride to see Christmas Lights in Detroit on December 28th. We made three stops and in between we played some trivia, none of which we won...lol They allow adult beverages on the trolley and we may have had some hot coffees with a little RumChata slipped in to keep from getting a chill...😉 It was a rainy cool evening but we still thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Our first stop was on Woodward  and we walked
over to take a selfie with the "Spirit of Detroit" 
behind us.

We were given time to walk down to the tree but the rain was coming down steady so we opted to zoom in for a picture and turn back at the corner of Congress and Woodward. Our goal to get out of the rain and into the warmth of the trolley.

The Detroit Christmas Tree at Campus Martius Park.
The lights through the rain drops on the window as we rode by.

This was a small plaza filled with lighted Christmas objects.
We have no idea where we were and as we walked around with
the other passengers no one else knew either.
For what ever reason none of us asked.

Our third stop was the Detroit Zoo and luckily by then, even though it was damp and you could see fog in the air, the rain had stopped. It was a lovely walk through the zoo to see all the lights. No live animals this evening on our walk through but the lights put on a beautiful show. Below is a small sampling of what is there.

The bottom center picture is the exit out of the zoo.
The top middle was the wishing tree, as I recall, that we stopped
and chatted with. I wished for snow. Yes, I really did! 

Side Notes: they gave us glasses that when you looked through made lights turn in to Christmas Packages. Secondly, the really nice thing about this ride of lights was when we stopped we were given the amount of time we had to return to the trolley but we were on our own at our own pace.

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No snow and then on December 29th there it was

Picking up our Daughter's oldest at the Airport.

Pictures from our Christmas Lunch

where we exchanged our Secret Santa gifts.

It was wonderful to be able to spend the Christmas Holidays with our family. When we look back at this time it will be with love and smiles. Last year we drove home and we are glad we opted to fly this year. It made for a less stressful and less tiring trip. I love our lifestyle but the one thing I really missed was spending Christmas with family. So we are hoping it will turn out to be a yearly trip for us.

Even though it is now February we hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Christmas and the New Year is already filled with wonderful memories.

If you have enjoyed the pictures I have put out there 

or the words I have added that makes me smile. 

If you have time to leave a comment they are always special to read. 

No matter what I am glad you stopped by!

A Bittersweet Goodbye!

Monday, February 9, 2026

On Friday, January 23, 2026, we got up and readied the Stinter "B" for the last ride Tom would take in her by the end of the day she would no longer be ours. As of that date we became the new owners of a 2014 Tiffin Phaeton. 

Our New Home

A couple of inside pictures.

Kim took one last picture of us next to the Stinger "B" before Tom got in and drove out of our spot at Roadrunner BLM after our last time boondocking in her.

I have taken pictures of us leaving this area several times over 
the years but this one was both exciting and sad at the same time.

We signed the papers and took delivery of our new home later that day. Yes, we had a very nice walk through.

Our well loved Stinger "B" nose to nose with her replacement.

Within minutes of taking this picture Tom had to move both motorhomes to a different spot in the parking area. Then the fun began. We spent a few hours doing some cleaning, yes they cleaned it but I still needed to wipe down the closet and drawers before starting to move things over.  Saturday brought friends: Melissa and Lyle, Kim and Ken, plus Joan and Dave to help with the move. I am not sure how we would have ever gotten all of it done without their help. Tom and I continued the fun through Sunday. Monday we said a last goodbye to the Stinger "B" and Tom moved our new home to Park Place RV. 

Tom's last picture

and the picture I took just before getting in the
Jeep and backing away.

We are parked at our site at Park Place and now the fun begins
as I/we try to find a place for all of our stuff. 

So the question is was this in our plans for this year? The answer would be NO! We had been seriously talking about the possibility of downsizing over the last few months, at some point, possibly next year. So after walking through the big tent on opening day, January 17th, we decided to take a walk over and look at some RV's. They had several Super C's and a few smaller Class A's which is what we had been talking about. We thought lets just look and see what is available, as far as floor plans, so we would have better idea of what is out there as we planned for the future. As we all know it is one thing to look at pictures and another to actually walk through and get a feel for the space. As we walked into the area a very nice young man came up and asked what he could do to help us and we explained all of this to him emphasizing we are just looking. So after spending some time looking at several different rigs we ended up back in a Super C we both really liked. So, of course, he said why don't we see what kind of a deal I can get you on this rig and your trade in. We again emphasized we were just looking but agreed to let him go ahead. The thought being lets see what our money will buy.

We were sitting in this Super C.

The young man was going back and forth "negotiating" while we sat there. The longer we sat and looked around the more we knew this was not the rig for us. If we did not fulltime, it might have been, but once we picked up the bed and found out there was no storage under it we definitely knew it was a NO.

Just after we had come to that conclusion he came back with an older salesman and the first thing he said was, as fulltimers this is not your rig and we replied we had just came to the same conclusion. Then he said we have a really nice rig we just took in a trade for a little less money can I show it to you. We said sure and the rest is history. So instead of downsizing we went from 40 foot with two slides Class A Diesel Pusher to a 40.5 foot with four slides Class A Diesel Pusher.

Back in 2016 when we headed out we knew we were looking to trade in the 5th wheel we owned for a motorhome so before we left home, we owned a home back then, we took a lot of stuff out and left said stuff behind knowing we would need to transfer from one rig to another. This time we made no such preparation because we had no intention of moving out of our rig. Plus, for the six years we have been living in the Stinger "B" fulltime and we have accumulated stuff. The other part of the fun is our old motorhome had more storage then the new one. (I guess you could say technically we did downsize.) So we have begun purging and it will continue but until we get back to the UP and our storage unit we will be living with some boxes hanging out on the floor.

So after nine years we said goodbye to the Stinger "B" and hello to a new home. As exciting as it is to be able to make this move we will miss the old girl. She took us on many adventures over these last nine years. Some we would prefer to forget, some detours that we are glad we took, and more than once we were both encouraging her to make it up the "hill". All in all we only leave her behind and take all the good memories with us.  

Picking up the Stinger "B" January 2017

 If you have enjoyed the pictures I have put out there 
or the words I have added that makes me smile. 
If you have time to leave a comment they are always special to read. 
No matter what I am glad you stopped by!

Packing our Bags

 Monday, December 22, 2025

Today was a day of packing to make a trip back to Michigan to spend the Christmas Holidays with our children and grandchildren. Last year we drove and it was a long month especially since almost half of it was spent traveling to and from. So we talked about it, a lot, as we drove back to Arizona and decided, going forward, we would be making the trip every year but we would be flying. 

We moved the Stinger "B" to this spot because our friends, Melissa and Lyle, have very generously offered to look after her along with the Jeep while we are back with our family. If that was not enough they offered to bring us to the airport tomorrow and, yes, they have promised to pick us up. We cannot begin to express how grateful we are that they are doing this for us. They will be spending more time driving to and from the airport each time than the length of either of our flights. 

Sometimes people come into your life and a friendship you never expected just happens. There is no explaining it. One minute you are strangers and the next minute you realize you have met and come to know two very special people that you are lucky enough to call friends. After a while you cannot imagine not knowing them. Nor can you imagine not  having them in your life. 

Then if they were not doing enough for us tonight they fed us dinner. Lyle grilled hamburgers and they were delicious. Thank you for dinner. What would really be nice is if I could now insert a picture of our friends or the lovely dinner or even just the campfire that was going and keeping us warm while we ate. But no there is not one picture. I did not think of it until we were back home. I am now thinking maybe in the future before we go to something we would like a picture of I should set an alarm on my phone and name the alarm, "take a picture". 

For the first time in a while the sky was cloud covered and not a touch of pink or golden orange could be seen in the sky as the sun set on our day.

Sunset tonight was behind the clouds.

The last of today's light before darkness descended.

It was a busy day getting ready to leave. Then it was nice to relax and visit with friends over a good meal with a campfire keeping us warm.

If you have enjoyed the pictures I have put out there 

or the words I have added that makes me smile. 

If you have time to leave a comment they are always special to read. 

No matter what I am glad you stopped by!

Same Sun from a New Viewing Area

Sunday, December 21, 2025

We were up and out the door this morning before the sun made an appearance. The reason was to attend Mass at Sacred Heart in Parker and it is at 8:00AM. It was, as Tom recalls, 50 degrees when we stepped out this morning. It seems very strange to think of today as the first day of Winter. For many years the first day of Winter, to us, meant cold temperatures, 50 does not count we would have called that a heat wave, and snow on the ground. Actually, this time of the year, back in the day, we would have called 40 degrees a heat wave...lol

In the early dawn the sky was a golden orange.

Friday, December 19, 2025

This was our last day in the park so we did spend it packing up. We are excited to be moving on and at the same time a little sad to be leaving. We are happy Nancy made it before we left and sad we would not be parked with her in between Patsy and Bill and us a little longer. Just the same it made for a nice last Happy Hour here to have her join us. 

Credit goes to Tom for both of tonight's pictures.

Happy Hour
Bill, Patsy, and Nancy

Tonight's afterglow was a beautiful golden orange.

Saturday, December 20, 2025

We started the day enjoying our coffee before the sun came up this morning. After spending a month parked in one place, even though we started packing up yesterday, we knew it would take a while before Tom would be starting the Stinger "B's" engine and pulling her out of our site. Check out is 11o'clock here and we were a few minutes late doing so. Today's drive would only be around 20 miles so the Jeep "With No Name" would not be towed behind. Tom left ahead of me, he had two stops to make. One to top off the diesel and the second to top off the propane. I had three stops. One at the office to settle up our electric bill and say a see you next year to Patsy and Bill, the second one was Dollar General and finally the bank for some cash. The plan was to meet out at Plomosa Road to have lunch before continuing on our journey. Today Tom got there first and was waiting for me. That never happens I am always the one waiting but today he said at both his stops there was no line and he was in and out in record time.

Following the Stinger "B" and Tom

as they make their way towards and through
 the Plomosa Mountains.

We found our turn off  of Plomosa and in no time Lyle was directing Tom into a lovely spot where we will enjoy the views and the company. The Stinger "B" and  the Jeep with "No Name" will be here longer then Tom and I but we will enjoy every day we are here. While the guys were doing that Melissa and I mostly just sat and chatted. The guys soon joined us and we decided it was time for Happy Hour. 

Tonight's Sunset

Pink Sky towards the East

Lovely Orange Glow in the West

We have had several nights in a row with the sky filled with a beautiful afterglows!

It is always bittersweet leaving a place we have enjoyed staying. Plus this time we were also saying see you next year to Patsy and Bill. I will repeat myself and say we were a little surprised as to just how much we enjoyed our stay at Park Place RV. We knew it was a nice park but we are boondockers and love being out in the desert. The thing was we wanted to be in a park to get ready for our trip back to Michigan and this ended up being the perfect place to do so. Tom and I agree we will spend more time there in the future.

Sunday, December 21, 2025 continued:

As we road along on our way to Parker the sky was a beautiful

combination of golden orange, rosy pink, and blue.

It almost looked like a smoke signal coming up over the mountain.

We turned west and the sun popped up behind us.
Yes, this picture I took through a dirty window
is the sunrise reflected on a dirty mirror.

Then we could see the sunlight touching Parker, Arizona

Tom took a walk around the area and these are the pictures he took.
Yes, that is the Stinger "B" looking all happy in its spot.
He left the two painted rocks in place.

The sun setting on a good day.

Top picture looking towards the East.
The bottom picture I just liked how the last of the light was 
touching the Saguaro in the distance.

There were lovely rosy pink clouds in the sky this evening.

The last sliver of orange glow before the blackness 
of the night engulfed us.

As I write this we are tucked in out off of Plomosa Road across from our friends, Mellissa and Lyle, who are generously sharing this beautiful spot they have found out here. Tom and I love boondocking and there is a peace about being here.

If you have enjoyed the pictures I have put out there 

or the words I have added that makes me smile. 

If you have time to leave a comment they are always special to read. 

No matter what I am glad you stopped by!