Crossing Paths

In December 2008, we sold one of our RV's to Kevin and Annmarie Gianni...they flew into Bozeman and we hung out for the day, teaching them a little about life on the road before they set out on their own nationwide tour.

Today, our paths crossed again...this time in Phoenix, AZ. It was so fun to reconnect, hear their stories from these past 15 months and to see our old RV again!

Kevin and Annmarie host The Renegade Health Show...which focuses mostly on natural living and raw foods, along with a few other fun things. The show is GREAT, and if you are interested in healthy living at all, you need to be watching their show. Matt and I love it. I also love Kevin's book, High Raw. If you've ever been curious about raw foods, but didn't know where to start, check it out. There is a free eBook version here.

Annmarie also just launched a new skin care line and she gave me some samples to try out. I am pretty skeptical when it comes to using "products"...but OH. MY. WORD. I am loving it. Such yummy stuff. Totally organic and natural. So natural that she said I could eat it if I so desired :) I'll be posting more about them on Walk Slowly soon...

It was strange to see our old RV with their stuff in it! :) Shout out to Johnny 5, the kitty cat. They are creating an indoor container garden in the living room area...can't wait to see it all "grown up". We get questions about how to do a garden on the road a lot, so here is one option.

I made a video with them as well...they shared with me their very favorite places in the U.S...along with tips for those who have dreams of a traveling lifestyle. Check it out!

Sunshine Returns

We've spent plenty of time in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area in the past 6 years...the headquarters for Cold Stone Creamery is there, and Sara and her family work with CSC. But we always love to go there regardless! The weather is GORGEOUS most every day, and there is plenty to do.

This time around, we were going to spend time with our extended family and also new friends that we had met in Portland...Jessamyn and her sweet family.

First, we had to find a place to camp. And in Phoenix, being that it's a retirement community, 90% of the parks are 55 and older parks. If you do find a camp that will take families, a lot of time they aren't the kind of places we want to hang out at if you know what I mean. There were also several horse, dog, and who knows what kind of shows in town...and most of the RV parks were full. We finally found a park, The Deserts Edge RV Village, and it turned out to be a fantastic place!

We were able to snag a sweet spot directly connected to the playground, so it became our own little "super site". And bonus...there was even an orange and a grapefruit trees AT our campsite! How fun is that? Bella was going nuts climbing the trees and picking them. There were several other families living in the park, including a family from Canada who were traveling for a year. The pool and hot tub were AWESOME and the laundry facilities were great too. And best of all, the owners ROCKED. Great customer service, friendly, and efficient.

Matt's extended family came to visit us on a nice sunny afternoon and we had a great time chatting about life, kiddos, and our family reunion coming up this summer. Woo! This is the parents and sister of Jessica, who we visited in Sandpoint, Idaho.

We also spent quite a bit of time with Jessmyn, Josh, Asher, and Journey. The kids played and played, the girls talked, and the daddies enjoyed hanging out too.


We shared a yummy meal with them...homemade salsa, and the best fajitas ever.

On another day, Jessamyn came up with the kids to swim at the park and see the RV.

Jessamyn is a fellow photographer...it's always fun to connect with someone who gets my obsession!

Jessamyn has become a dear friend to me in such a short time. Another blog friend turned "real life" friend :) We corresponded back in 2008 via email, and to meet her now...it's all just so much fun. This is one of the many reasons why we love traveling. The people we meet are forever etched into our hearts.

Photos from Phoenix here.
Photos are available for comment on Flickr.

Desert Boondocking

Last summer, we learned about an "event" in the desert that brings tens of thousands of RV'ers each year...the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation, and RV Show. Basically, it's a BUNCH of retired RV'ers boondocking and selling stuff. For several months. In the desert. I think I saw only a handful of people our same age, but it was still fun!

We didn't care about the show as much as we did just hanging out with our friends Kevin and Angie. Kev and Ang have been on the road full time for several years and we met them through mutual friends and their website, NuRVers. NuRVers is a group of younger RV'ers who are working full time on the road or taking a sabbatical from their "normal" life. We have connected with them several times around the country and we love hanging out with them. They are the most laid back, sweet couple...and Bella ADORES them.

We enjoyed sharing many meals and campfires and just sharing life in general. It's so much fun to park your house right next to your friend's house. Instant community.

The allure of Quartzsite for us was also the CHEAP camping. It's $40 to camp for 2 weeks on BLM land. After you pay, you just go pick a spot anywhere in the great wide open. They do provide a way to fill up your tanks and dump, but this is hard core boondocking (for those of you who don't know, boondocking is camping without hook ups). Many of the rigs there have a nice solar set up. We got by with just running the generator a couple times a day to charge up our batteries and then being very conservative on running lights/water.

One of the other fun things about Quartzsite is the rallies. Many different groups get together because it's such a large open space. For example, we were able to go over to the Alpine rally and meet a bunch of other Alpine Coach owners. They had over 100 coaches there! Same goes for pretty much any brand of RV's...Wanderlodge, Monoco, Airstreams, Prevosts...they all had rallies too.

We wandered around the flea market on several different occasions and had fun checking out all of the goods people were selling. I was super surprised (and pleased) to find a gourmet veggie burger stand...amidst all the BBQ. :) After that, we took our super healthy selves down to the hot chocolate chip cookie stand. Yum. After we had those cookies the first time, they became a hard sought after commodity. Even though we tried 3 times to catch them open again, they were always closed.

Aunt Edmoe's Chocolate Chip Cookie stand...where did you go!?

Kev found a sweet bike that he liked.

The guys liked looking at spare parts.

Bella baked Angie some muffins.

Kev and Angie cooked us some falafels.

Angie and Bella had fun painting rocks.

Remember our friend Monica from our Portland and Eugene stops? She was back on the road with her kids coming from Texas and she was headed through Quartzsite. So of course, we said "Stay with us!".

They stopped and we had a fun slumber party. We love having friends over...these are memories we will cherish forever.

We followed them to Blythe for a goodbye coffee and sent them on their way...back to Oregon.

Not too long after that, we said goodbye to Kevin and Angie and headed to Phoenix. We were sad to leave them, but we will be reunited in Texas. For now...the road calls!

Photos from Quartzsite here.
Photos are available for comment on Flickr.