What's New 2004
November 17, 2004
We arrived in Yuma nearly three weeks ago and a lot has happened in that time. We both recently got jobs and we also purchased a bare RV lot that we are developing. We’re really coming to like this place.
I’ll be the first to admit that when we first set foot in Yuma several years ago I wondered why anyone in their right mind would want to live in this God-forsaken dusty hole, let alone buy property here. Then last year we ended up enjoying it quite a lot more than we thought and recognized that as America’s fastest growing town under 100,000 population that there was the possibility to make good money off real estate investment here. This brings us to this year and our lot purchase.
I think I have neglected to tell you how I feel when I’m in the desert. Somehow, the relaxation just seems to ooze into my pores. We like how we feel here and it seems like there’s even a special quality to the light. I wallow in the wide open vistas and the closeness of the barren, rocky mountains just to our east. I just can’t put my finger on it, but I am truly thrilled here every morning when I wake to see the mountains just coming out of the darkness, smell the freshness and catch the sun’s first blaze across the sky turning it rose, pink, then purple.
We’re in a very quiet section and so close to the open desert; it is totally tranquil for a subdivision. I really enjoy our neighbors, who have been so kind to us, and every morning on my walk it seems this whole section of snowbirds is out biking or walking and everyone is SO nice it’s possible to stop and strike up a conversation anytime you wish. I have never seen so many people into exercise in my entire life!
Then, in the evenings if you go walking, everyone is out on their patios or under their awnings enjoying cocktails and fires in their portable outdoor ceramic fireplaces with friends and neighbors; you hear laughter carry throughout the neighborhood—it looks like one big party around here all the time. It’s almost like living at a resort. I can even see the golf course and people playing from my open doorway and it is beautifully done with desert plants and lush green lawn. I’m surrounded by my very favorite style of architecture, the Sante Fe style, stucco with red tile roofs and colorful bougainvillea and hibiscus and palms—all sorts of palms—date palms, fan palms, you name it. The very air sings with their song when the wind blows. Everyone has bird feeders out and they attract scores of hummingbirds and song birds, including doves. We even occasionally spot the elusive and wily roadrunner.
There’s a commonality here with all of us being RVers—I suspect that’s where the friendliness springs from. It feels nice to be in a community of RVers but not shoved into a small RV park space and to have the freedom to do with your property what you want. Yes, down to the bottom of my soul I am a fulltime RVer. But there is just something about owning a hunk of Mother Earth that means a lot to Marc and I. Be sure and check out our fulltime journal to see the progress we make on this place. It probably won’t get done in one season but is giving us a tremendous sense of pride that we are building it together, by ourselves, and that it will be here in the warm Arizona winter sun for us and our friends and family to enjoy for many years. Yeah, I forgot to add that too. We’ve already decided we no longer want to develop this place to sell it—we want to own it.
September 15, 2004
We’re currently traveling throughout the west; hit the button for our fulltime travel journal and you will find the areas we’ve been touring. Since Montana has turned cold, we will be headed south soon!
July 14, 2004
Many of you who follow our website have probably been pretty bored these past few months hearing of us talking of doing nothing beyond selling our possessions and working on our rig. Well, good news—the Duske's are about to hit the road for some serious traveling and you’re invited to come along.
We are leaving tomorrow for Coos Bay, OR for a two week stay. Our mission is to dig as many clams as possible for restocking our freezer. Unfortunately, we won’t have a boat along, so we’re not sure how successful we will be at crabbing just off the pier, but we also hope to at least snag enough of those for some serious gorging as they come fresh from the sea.
On July 29th we’ll return to Bend for approximately 5-7 days and make final preparations to leave. Due to August temperatures, we’re putting off visiting southern Utah for at least a month or two and instead will head north, starting with touring the underground city and Pendleton Woolen Mills in Pendleton, OR. From there, we’ll pass through Walla Walla, WA and on to the Lewiston, ID area. We’re looking forward to traveling Hwy. 12 through the Idaho mountain canyons as it heads towards Missoula, MT.
After we’re finished with Missoula, we will next head for Flathead Lake country and Glacier National Park. Our new Saturn should come in handy for exploring the many small towns--Big Fork, Whitefish, and West Glacier that we want to see. I would expect us to stay at least a week or two in this area. Once we’ve finished touring there, we’ll backtrack the opposite side of Flathead Lake to Missoula and points south, departing from the freeway for the loop highway that travels through historic Phillipsburg and Anaconda, MT. After more southerly travel, our destination goal will be my aunt & uncle’s cabin in Argenta, which is just outside of Dillon. Even though we’ve been there a couple of times, we’ve never fully explored all this beautiful country has to offer so we’ll plan on being here an extended time period. You’ll want to definitely watch for our posting on the old ghost town of Bannack, which is a Montana state park and breathtakingly preserved.
Since our next goal is to tour Zion and Bryce in Utah, we’ll beat feet through Idaho and much of Utah as quickly as possible via I15. Rarely do we travel freeways unless we’re anxious to get to somewhere else. Seeing other areas of southern Utah will be dependent upon how much more time we can afford at that point. It’s our intention to return to Yuma for the winter work season and it will most likely be mid October by the time we’re in Bryce.
Now that we have satellite Internet, it should be easier for us to post frequently to our fulltime journal, so be sure and check on us and you too, can go along on the ride! (For those of you on our email list of when we do an update, we probably will not be doing email notification of every update since there should be a posting at least weekly.)
June 29, 2004, Reflections on our first year of fulltiming
I had planned to write a little about our one year anniversary of fulltiming but I see I’ve missed the date by three days. Oh well, it’s close enough to do a quick look back.
We’re still in Bend and still working on the rig and getting more items sold. The time is going quickly and we’ve already made plans to head for the coast to do some crabbing and clamming starting the 15th of July. We know we will spend at least two weeks there but if things go well we might extend and stay a month. Our freezer is just about devoid of clams and that just won’t do!
I guess people figure that we have fulltimed long enough now that they ask if we’re getting tired of it or if it’s everything we thought it would be. My answer is that I’m finally living the life I was born to live. The fact that it took me probably three quarters of the way through isn’t important, as long as God grants me enough time to experience some of the things I yet want to do and go some of the places I still long to see. It might take a gypsy spirit to find inspiration in some of these wishes, but for what it’s worth, here’s some of my “list”.
I want to ride a twisty, narrow country lane in Vermont on my motorcycle in the blazing fall colors and stop for some fresh apple cider. I want to sit on Maine’s rocky coastline eating a huge, messy lobster with a whole bottle of cold Chardonnay by my side. I want to walk the streets of Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina in the sweaty humidity and gawk at the marvelous old architecture. I want to drive Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park in a convertible. I want to sink my toes in the warm soft sand of the Florida Keys, having just come dripping from ocean snorkeling. I want to drink cold beer with the locals in some funky, rinky dink dive in Key West (aka the Conch Republic). I want to return to the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and boondock for two weeks and ride every trail and dirt road I can find. I want to marvel at the Smithsonian and the mysteries it contains. I want to visit and walk some of this country’s most enduring battlefields—Antietam, Gettysburg, Appomattox, and Valley Forge, and give thanks that I was born in America. I want to find some Colorado mountain lake where our rig fits, the fish are biting, we can camp for a week, and we’re the only ones in sight. I want to use the canoe trails in the gothic swamps of the Roanoke River of North Carolina and spend the night on a platform in a tent amidst the total dark and nature’s beasts. I want to do like my buddy John and eat crawdads in Lafayette, Louisiana (with a bib around my neck) until my stomach nearly bursts. I want to wander a southern plantation’s winding drive, watching the wind blow the gossamer Spanish Moss, imagining I’m a southern belle and Rhett Butler is about to ride up. I want to eat at Emeril’s in New Orleans. I want to see the Texas bluebonnets in spring, waving like children as they march up hill after hill. I want to crawl around Chaco Canyon in the arid southwest, on a crystal clear day. I want to sit around a large campfire in the desert with a group of strangers and wake up the next day and find some are new friends. I want to go back to the San Juan Islands and learn how to catch huge shrimp. I want to return to Utah and immerse myself in the energy of all those red rocks. I want to lie in bed beside Marc as we listen to pounding surf or pounding rain falling on our roof three feet above our heads….
Is there any doubt we love this life? One by one, our dreams become our reality.
May 28, 2004
We’re making progress on disposal of our possessions, but it is a slow process. If we had this to do over again, I would seriously consider an auction rather than piecemeal selling of items through sales, newspaper ads, and EBay. EBay does work well for selected items, bringing much more than a garage sale. I had one item, a new Mikasa vase in the box, which didn’t sell at our garage sale for $3. After listing it on EBay, I had five buyers fighting to purchase it and it finally sold for $44! By the way, if anyone knows of anyone looking for a great RV, we are trying to sell our Dodge one ton dually with the Lance camper. Email us for details.
We’re still undetermined as to how long we will spend in Bend. It is wonderful spending time with our family and living rent free on my parents’ property also has its advantages, so we don’t exactly feel pressured to move on. We’ve thought about returning to work but are also investigating other ways we might make a living through some prudent investments. Since we enjoy the freedom this lifestyle affords when we are free to move around at our own whims, we are leaning toward the latter if we are cleaver enough to make it work!
Marc has also been working hard at doing some remodeling to our Travel Supreme. He’s midway in the process of adding shelving, drawers, and pantry to the back room that is now his office. He built me a built-in spice rack which now uses about half the space it previously did. In addition to that, we ordered and installed a wonderful new stove to take the place of the ridiculous RV ones they make. My new stove is a commercial level gas range with full two rack oven, separate drawer broiler, and four burner (lifetime guarantee) sealed cook top. I’m in heaven!
As if that wasn’t enough spending going on, we also purchased a 2003 Saturn which we intend to tow behind the Travel Supreme. Harry—this had better work! We have several fulltime friends doing this, so Marc figured with the ever increasing price of fuel, he’d join the crowd and get a vehicle capable of 30+ mpg. He has added the Blue Ox tow bar base to the Saturn but still needs to do a drop hitch from the Travel Supreme’s back bumper fit to size before we can actually tow.
As I write this we are taking a short vacation break in northern California’s Great Basin (nearly to Nevada) in a town called Eagleville. Friends are joining us for a week of camaraderie and dirt bike riding tomorrow. We’re boondocked on an old abandoned airport runway so have all the comforts of a paved RV spot totally off to ourselves, free of charge. You’ll find more details of this trip in the Journal soon.
April 14, 2004
Our return from Yuma was mostly uneventful with the exception of a lot of tire problems on the way back. The trailer tires are old enough to need replacement so Marc ended up changing one of those before we passed through Las Vegas and later that day outside of Austin, NV I had a blowout on the work trailer I was towing. Fortunately, a nice boondock spot was readily available so we just decided to make camp a little earlier than we would have liked.
Things around here have been extremely hectic since returning. It’s been a massive job to sort, dispose of, and pack possessions that have been accumulated over such a long time. Things are progressing well on the house sale and the buyer wants to close as quickly as possible, so we’re trying to be out by the end of the month.
We’re moving things over to my folk’s property, where we have set up our 40 foot sea container as our permanent storage. By the end of the month we’ll also be parking the rig there and will most likely be there for much of the summer while we deal with selling many items on EBay and tackle some major remodeling of our Travel Supreme. After six years on the road, it needs some TLC and I desire different flooring and window furnishings. In addition, a remodel of the back bedroom into an office is paramount. We will be chronicling all this in our Journal.
March 13, 2004
We’ll be leaving Yuma a little more quickly than originally planned, as we are in negotiations for a deal on our house already! Several weeks ago I had told a realtor friend that we would be putting the house on the market soon and he said he had a buyer looking for that type of property. Well, he really did, and just like that, we received an offer yesterday. We didn’t even get the chance to put out a For Sale sign!
We’ve decided to leave on Tuesday the 20th for Bend, whether this transaction comes together or not. There is much to do to sort and dispose of all of our possessions and we are anxious to see family. I may chronicle some of what goes on in this step to full timing for those who might be looking for advice, but for the most part our web pages will probably be strangely silent until summer, when we hope to start traveling again.
For now, goodbye Arizona, we’ll sure miss your beautiful sunsets.
