Doggy Video :)

After yesterdays post about the animal cruelty I thought I'd share a lighter note today by finally uploading a video of our dogs. I promised family a while ago that I'd post this video of the dogs eating corn on the cob. We had a few BBQs this Summer and I LOVE LOVE LOVE BBQ corn on the cob!!! As do the dogs apparently! They were sniffing around mine one day so I figured next time I'd cut one in half and we'd cook them their own to eat. Hope you enjoy it!

I thought we'd recorded the main eating with Sky but it seems there was a technical hitch as the camera didn't record :( I think you get the idea though = DOG LOVE CORN ON THE COB!!!

Also uploaded a video I did during another of our BBQs over the Summer. We've had some work done on the back garden so apologies for the messy garden. Cute doggy alert too!

Hopefully uploading more vid's and vlogs soon! Charging the camcorder as I type :) I need to find some vid editing software too! Any recommendations?

Di

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Dirtbiking in the desert - mini break

As a couple Bob and I have a lot of hobbies, I love fitness and exercise but also enjoy crafts like scrapbooking and cardmaking and Bob is more technically minded with electronics and his video game & pinball restoration but one hobby we love doing as a couple is dirtbiking! Bob has been riding bikes for quite some time now, and I am a recent convert to the dirt only been riding for 3 1/2 years. I got my first bike in December 1996 and have been hooked since. I still scare myself silly on occasion but I think that’s a good thing right?

Anyway we decided a few weeks ago that we needed a dirtbike break and so scheduled some time off work, loaded up the RV, rented a trailer and headed out Wednesday to the desert. We planned on going to Adelanto, specifically El Mirage the dry lake bed with some sand/dirt desert trails. We’d been there in November over thanksgiving with friends and loved it :) We packed up everything including the dogs and headed out mid afternoon.

The dogs travel pretty well in the RV, and slept most of the way there. It takes around 2 1/2 hours so it’s lucky for them that they can sleep. I took them out for a 20 minute walk before we headed off though so I am sure that helped! When we arrived at El Mirage, we got our weeks pass and headed to our usual camping spot on the lake bed. That’s when we really noticed the wind! Wow it was sure windy! No pics the first day cos we basically stayed in the RV!!! I walked the dogs reluctantly and about got blown away, gusts of 50+ mph!!! When it’s just desert with nothing to really break it up that wind got FIERCE! We didn’t even have the slide-out out on the RV cos the wind was so bad!

The second day was better! By lunch the wind had dropped considerably and we decided to try the bikes out. After a little run around on the flat lake bed we decided to hit the trails! Most of the trails around here are naturally sandy as it’s desert. Did I mention I hate riding in the sand? I have found that if you stand up though it’s much better! You still slip around and fish tail out, but it doesn’t feel as bad as sitting. We headed out eastwards towards the Shadow mountains. So beautiful!

When we got to the end of the trail we were on, I had a problem turning the bike around. I slip on sand, lost my footing and dropped the bike. Being as I workout with weights I can lift the bike now (220lbs!) but I had a problem getting it into neutral to move it so Bob came to help me that’s when he noticed that he’d lost the end of his exhaust! Somewhere along the trail his tail end of his exhaust and the spark arrestor had fallen off!!! We double backed along the trail we’d traveled on and luckily found the exhaust parts, but not the screws that held it in place!

The brush around here is so dry, it’s desert afterall, and there are strict laws for riding which includes mandatory spark arrestors to reduce the risk of fires. No spark arrestor = no ride. So Bobs ride for the week was over. We decided to call it a day but knew we’d have to cut our trip short, I don’t ride that well yet so going on trails alone is NOT an option, plus the whole reason for the trip was to ride together, ah well! We decided to stay the night so we decided to break out the beer and relax

then we fired up the BBQ

The dogs were enjoying themselves anyway

We’d decided to sit around the “wrong” side of the RV, as it wasn’t so windy this side. The wind had dropped considerably but we still had gusts.

The sunset was beautiful!

Friday morning I was up early as usual and took the dogs for their morning walk. When we’re out in the desert I set my iPhone timer for 10-15 mins then when it goes off we turn around and head back to the RV. Gives them a good walk and I really enjoy the scenery

When I got back to the RV, we had breakfast then I got geared up and headed out for a ride on the lake bed. I wouldn’t go on a trail on my own, but riding around on the lake bed is pretty safe. I got some riding experience in, practicing turns, stopping and pulling off etc. Still not as quick on the gears as I’d like but the more we ride the more comfortable I feel :)

Whilst I was out riding, Bob packed up mos the RV things. I came back, changed then walked the dogs and we packed up and headed home! Just the two rides I’d done had an impact and my shoulders were pretty sore all day Friday and into Saturday. Other than Riding and walking the dogs I didn’t workout. Definitely a change of pace. Looking forward to the next trip!

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Manufacturer Monday - A-Z

I decided to delve right into my stash for this months Manufacturer Monday choice, after deciding that I should be using up all my OLD OLD OLD stash I decided that for January I wanted something that could be used for winter, spring, summer or fall and the papers I decided on were these from A-Z. As the website on the papers is no longer valid I am assuming that they are no longer Manufacturing paper, but if you're like me that doesn't stop you hoarding them in your stash, lol. As I recall I got these from a monthly Scrapbook kit by Scrapologie back in 2006, yikes! I have this problem you see with nice paper designs. I like them so much I never use them... It's a sickness, I can't be the only suffering from this malady either I'm sure. Probably worldwide with scrapbookers!

Anyway I decided that as these papers were almost 4 years old and it was time to put them to work! I had a folder I'd put all our RV camp ground information in so far, and loose leaves for future trips. Hopefully this will be a 'go-to' folder for all our future vacation planning. What better title for this than "Chillin"? Really it made itself...

The whole thing is just a folder with clear sleeves so I just inserted the sheets into the front, back and spine. Love these types of folders, really handy for scrapbooking, and for using as albums. Cheap too! So far there are only two trip information sheets in here but I added lots of loose sheets so I have plenty of room to add more information sheets on camp grounds.

The whole point of Manufacturer Monday is for me to dig into my stash and bring out paper lines I have hoarded over the past 7 years and actually MAKE SOMETHING each Monday throughout the month with those papers. Feel free to join in with either A-Z or something really old from your own stash.

More A-Z next week

Di

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RV: El Mirage

Since we got the RV back in October we had decided to keep it a secret, only telling immediate family. This was so we could surprise friends at the Thanksgiving dirtbiking meet up :) It was tough keeping it a secret and not posting anything on my blog or on facebook, but we figured it would be worth it in the end.

Anyway we also needed a lot of other things for the trip and so set about with planning for the Thanksgiving vacation. Other than regular RV vacation stuff we needed to hire a trailer for the bikes and all the gubbins that goes with it (tow hitch etc). Eventually we plan on purchasing a trailer of our own, but again we're in no rush for now a rental is just fine. We eventually got everything packed, stored and hitched up, loaded up the bikes, locked up the house and headed off to the desert. We left around 7.30 pm and hit a ton of Holiday traffic on the 405 and the 5 freeways. That part alone took us about an hour, during this time we realized that we'd forgotten the laptop back at home. :( After a little GPS detour in Palmdale we arrived at El Mirage at 11pm (it's 100 miles away from Simi). The another 15 minutes to get a camping pass and then the drive onto the lakebed to the camping spot and we were set. We did the jacks and slide and waited for our friends Janry, Meilani & William. A quick hug from them as we'd all safely arrived then off to bed for us.

Our friends had camped here for Thanksgiving before and told us it was cold at night, and we believed them but didn't really get just how cold till we were there ourselves! Wow! Freezing temperatures overnight!!! Thankfully Bob had the foresight to order a great double sleeping bag for very cold temps and we snuggled into that with the comforter ontop. The dogs had their dog beds and a sleeping bag on top of them, but man it sure was cold at night!!!

Cold foggy morning at El Mirage

Thursday was obviously Thanksgiving :) After walking the dogs I got back and started breakfast, only to find we had forgotten the Tea Bags. Yikes! Freezing cold and no morning cuppa! Ah well. Bob set about fixing his bike and I had a quick ride round on the dry lakebed. In the afternoon we went for a ride with Janry. As it turned out I also had some bike problems, seems my clutch was slipping and my gears were shifting when I didn't want them to causing me issues. Grrrr. Anyway we got back to the RV and I grabbed a shower and started dinner.

It was my first time cooking properly in the galley kitchen in the RV. We have 3 burner stove, oven and a convection oven/microwave. Turns out the bottom shelf in the oven is HOT right directly above the burner and probably not a shelf at all as it burns stuff. Thankfully just one side of the tofurkey burnt and the rest of the dinner cooked just lovely :)

Tofurkey Roast, mashed & roast potatoes, yorkshires, veggies and gravy.

We ate this with some delicious Frey white wine, mint sauce and red cabbage, Traditional English fare! Mmmm, Which was well received by both the cook and the RV driver :)

There were some teething troubles in cooking in the RV, like the tin opener not working (thank heavens for neighbors!), not having a long carving knife and basically having to make do with what we had on hand, but it all worked out fine :)

In the evening after sunset we sat around the campfire chatting, drinking and generally just enjoying the company of friends. Till it got too cold when we came in and watched some TV, lol.

Janry & Meilani's Rig, Sunset at El Mirage

The sunsets and really all the scenery is really beautiful here, you can see for miles on a clear day. It was very cold though. On the Friday we knew more campers were coming so Bob took the opportunity to take lots of pics of the beautiful sunset in the cold desert.

Sunset at El Mirage, Adelanto, CA

Friday, stuffed from dinner we waited for the other campers/riders to make an appearance. Including our friends who didn't know about the RV. They were pretty shocked, especially as it's a HUGE sucker! In the end there were 3 RV's and a trailer, and about 12 bikes! Bob fixed his bike Friday and we went out for a ride in the afternoon. Later we chilled in the RV watching movies and having dinner.

Me and the dogs in the RV just relaxing

Again another campfire was made after sunset and everyone grabbed some alcohol (if they hadn't already) and we talked and drank and had a great time. Obviously there were more people, which meant more conversation and more alcohol, so we stayed out later Friday, despite the temperature, but we also had a bigger fire :)

Orn & Gwen @ El Mirage

Saturday the weather was horrible with some showers and VERY cold temperatures in the day. We'd already decided to leave on Saturday and beat the holiday traffic returning home, and in the end we decided to pack up after lunch and head home. All that didn't take as long as we though and we were on the road by 2pm. Honestly the bigger pain was the unloading of the RV when we got home, returning the trailer and all that. Total pain in the butt but it has to be done. Then I had mountains of laundry to do as all the clothes we'd worn smelled of smoke from the campfire, dirtbike gear to wash and towels etc...

The one lesson I learned from all this is that Sky is NOT allowed to drink when she gets home/to location as each time she drinks and pukes, so not fun! We learned a lot this trip boondocking in the desert. Long list of things to get for next time, including tea bags (though thanks to Eliza we had tea for Friday/Saturday yay!) lol. We're now buying upgrades to the RV and making plans for our next trip! Maybe somewhere a bit warmer though ;)

Di

ps I did take a little video footage which I hope to upload soon!

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RV: OakPark

Thanks for all the congrats about us getting an RV. Nope it's nothing like a caravan in Skegness! lol memories! Though we remember Skegness most fondly camping in a tent at the Water Leisure park, ah those were the days!!! Getting an RV is something we've been considering pretty much all year but we wanted to make sure we were getting the right one for us which meant a lot of research, lots of looking at RVs for sales, checking out floor plans etc, finding something that was within our budget but also in good condition. Thankfully we weren't in a rush and had time to wait for the right one to come along, and it did.


After getting the RV, we stored it on the driveway and set about filling it with dog stuff, essential tools and kitchen items etc. Everything we'd read online said to either go somewhere close for your first trip or camp in your driveway, as our driveway is sloped and we can't use the slide out we opted to go to a local park closeby. OakPark is in the same city but at the far west end of Simi Valley, and had some utility hook ups etc so it was perfect for our first trail run. As we weren't 100% sure where we were going we did a scout out in the car the day before, we were checking for RV storage in the same area anyway so we figured we'd check out the two county RV parks in our area. Both parks are basically just parklands, with asphalt parking and water/electricity hook ups. The park on Tapo Canyon was full, all 17 spots taken so we headed over to Oakpark and only a few of the spots there that were taken and looked pretty quiet and perfect for us noobs, lol. So we went home, loaded up the RV and set off the next day in the RV. After arriving at the campground, we parked up and put the leveling jacks down, then realized the spot we'd chosen wasn't great as it was next to a tree and we couldn't use the slide out! Doh! Anyway we moved one spot up and all was fixed :) Jacks went down and slide out was released and we set about paying for the night by dropping a check in an envelope into the little mailbox. Then it was back to the RV for some dinner and a beer (or two).


As we'd pretty much just done this on the fly we didn't have much food options other than burgers, so I cooked a couple of burgers, threw them in buns and with some cheese slices and condiments we called it done. We watched some tv, walked the dogs at night around the campground and then headed to bed. Wow the beds are small compared to our bed at home (Cal King). Bobs feet hang off the edge but all beds seem a standard length in RV's (small). The night went well, apart from the fact we didn't realize we were so close to the train tracks! Things you learn ;)


The dogs were REALLY excited to be somewhere new, but were really well behaved in the RV, no accidents :) Sky wasn't really that interested in food whilst away and we kinda had a space issue in the bedroom with dog beds, but it all worked out in the end. More than anything the main problem with the dogs was transportation. On the way we had them inside the kennel inside the RV, but for the way back we chose to strap them into their seat belts on the sofa, that worked better. In the morning we woke, walked the dogs,had breakfast then packed up and came home where we reveled in our first nights success in the RV world :)

More on the Hickman RV adventures soon!

Di

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Our latest purchase

Many of our close friends and family will know that for a while now we've been considering buying an RV. Mostly for when we go dirtbiking but hoping also that we would get out and about on vacation a bit more being able to take the dogs with us without hotel restrictions. After many months of research, checking out retailer websites and doing lots of walkthroughs, we knew what we were looking for in an RV and what we did and did not want in our RV. So then the search began for real, for a class A motorhome with a floorplan we liked and that had the conveniences we preferred. After viewing a couple of disappointing units we finally came across a Fleetwood Southwind in Thousand Oaks, reasonably priced, and it had all the things we were looking for so off we went to check it out.

We weren't interested in going into debt for this venture and opted instead for an older cheaper model and this was a 1999 but in really good condition! We liked it, took it for a test drive, played with all the features and decided to go ahead and purchase it! It's a little longer than what we had in mind, but it does fit on the driveway as you can see.

Of course, after filling it with supplies we had on hand (and making a list of things to buy) we had to check and make sure the VIPs liked the new mobile living quarters! Here is River inside the RV waiting for me to come back while I went to grab the camera!

As I said it's a long one! 35ft to be precise but it has a lot of living space which is what we wanted. The decor is kinda neutral which is more our style compared to some of the motorhomes we'd seen recently! Here you can see Bob in the lounging area checking out the internet reception on his mac! We were only on the driveway so we were using the wireless internet from the house :)

The RV has a 3 seater couch which jackknifes into a bed. Not sure we'll use it but it's handy as a couch when you have two spotty dogs who insist on lounging on or near you!

This is the dinette opposite the kitchen area. This so reminds me of camping in caravans back in England! Something about dinettes take me right back to caravan holidays at Skegness! This also transforms into a bed. Oh and this section (dinette and sofa) slides out about 3ft when static to increase the living area walkway. Really make a HUGE difference when it's out!

Here you can see the kitchen on the left and the dinette on the right. Down the little hallway with the two sniffy monsters there is the bedroom. On the left is a fridge/freezer then a huge closet, on the right is the bathroom.

The kitchen is great! Lots of cupboards, oven, hob and microwave! Also there is a big fridge freezer like I mentioned. The countertops are corian. Honestly it's better than the kitchen we have in the house!

As you can see here is the huge closet space. We have lots of room for all the biking gear, extra blankets and clothes too! Not sure we need all this storage but hey it's better to have more storage than not enough right?

The bedroom area is pretty small, just a walkaround bed and some storage, but it serves it's purpose. There is more storage under the bed too, room for extra pillows, another comforter or blankets. Or for dog beds ;)

The bathroom is pretty standard. One of the things we looked for was a contained bathroom, not one had a shower in the bedroom. We wanted the sink, toilet and shower all in the same bathroom. Pretty standard RV bathroom really.

We have been out for our first test camping trip and I will post details of that soon so stay tuned! Posting this now because we are out and about this week dirtbiking and dry camping int he RV at El Mirage (fingers crossed) with other RVing and dirtbiking friends. Hopefully we're having a whale of a time in the desert on the dirtbikes, but with some home comforts of the RV! Prepping for this trip was a bit of an ordeal with the bike trailer etc but I think we're gonna get better at that as we get more experience.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Enjoy the weekend! I'll be back next week with more scrapbooking projects, sketches and RV tales from Oak Park and our thanksgiving biking bonanza at El Mirage :)

Di

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