Goodbye Ro-Vers Roost, April 6, 2016

Spring is here at the desert, and the park is beginning to empty out.  I was hoping I would be around long enough to see the Saguaro bloom and sure enough I got my wish. This one is just across from our lot and was just beginning to bloom.

Joel has been working on arranging the bed of the truck (aka "the garage") for the past two weeks in preparation for summer travels in the new trailer.  I have been cleaning out the Beaver  and sorting out what we really needed for the next six months before putting the Beaver in storage.

The Beaver Den:

 Down sizing can be a challenge but it also has been cathartic in determining what we really need.  However, I think it has been more of a challenge for Joel(aka the "tool Man") determining  which tools he really needs to take.  I've had a hard time convincing him that he most likely will not have to rebuild anything while on the road, which was not uncommon in the Beaver. The "garage" is getting full.

Getting ready. The Beaver and the Airstream side by side.  Tara is not sure what is going on.

Reservations were made at the Thousand Trails in Cottonwood for Thursday April 7, so we had a goal to meet. The weather turned hot reaching the high 90's during the day, which was incentive to meet our goal.  I don't do well in extreme heat.  We put the Beaver in storage on Monday and moved into the trailer with the idea that we could retrieve any forgotten items from the Beaver before we left on Thursday.   We also had to reconnect our data and iPads with Verizon which turned out to be a fiasco which I will explain later in the blog.  Joel fit everything in the "garage" and I was able to load up the trailer with everything (and then some) I think we will need for our travels until next November when we return to the park.

Everything is buttoned up and we are ready to roll!

By Tuesday, it looked like we would meet our goal of leaving by Thursday.  In fact, we were running a little head of schedule and were able to button up the shop/storage shed on the lot and head out by Wednesday afternoon. We did determine we needed to stop at the Beaver Den for a few forgotten items and make sure Joel had turned off the propane.  Joel wanted to take the scenic drive up 87 through Payson, which is hilly and curvy.   The drive was indeed scenic and we stopped  overnight at the Casino in Payson.  Joel was loving the drive.  No fighting long grades at 25 MPH and worrying about overheating.

So let me explain the saga of our Verizon fiasco. (You can skip this paragraph if you don't want to read my rant. )  Back in January Joel suspended the Jet Pack, two iPads and reduced our data to 6 Gigs and subscribed to unlimited data through Airbeam at the skp park, netting a substantial monthly savings.  Verizon allowed for a 90 day suspension.  On April 6 the suspension time was up and we wanted to update our plan during our travels so we went to  the Verizon store on Monday and explained we were only going to reconnect only one iPad and increase the data plan back up to 20 Gig. Our phones work very well as a hotspot so there is no reason to pay an additional monthly fee for the Jet Pack.  The rep said there was a promotion going on and  if we reconnected both iPads we could get 4 bonus gigs free for life, and everything would start at the beginning of our new cycle on the 6th.  Cool. Well, later that day we got an email from Verizon confirming the new plan, but the new plan  was nothing like we discussed.  No bonus points and no discounts.  Joel called Verizon and was told he had to go back to the store and talk with the manager and that CS couldn't do anything.  OK.  Back to the Verizon store on Tuesday, the 6th and talked with a very rude manager who said there was so such promotion and there was nothing he could do and we had received misinformation from the Rep. Joel check the data plan later that day  and found we were given one bonus gig.  Huh?  Well, this didn't set right with Joel and he decided to call CS one more time once we got to Cottonwood and we would start considering other carriers.  For once we got through to Verizon CS fairly quickly and explained our dissatisfaction and was put on hold for the rep to check with management. Much to our surprise the rep was able to confirm the original agreement and activated everything as originally discussed. I guess when you keep at it and keep talking with different Verizon Reps,  things will eventually get corrected. Hopefully, the  new billing  will be correct. End of rant.

Goodbye to Ro-Vers Roost for the season:



We arrived at Thousand Trails to cooler temps and rain on April 7.  We will be here for  a few days before heading towards Flagstaff, pending how the jello shakes out.