We spent 2/3 of 2023 in our home states, Utah for Mike New Mexico for me. Sometimes it’s just nice to go home.
Heber City (Mike’s home)
Most of you know we spent the summer in Heber City, Utah. We worked at Mountain Valley RV Resort, a park that many people claim is the best RV Park in the country. I don’t want to make that claim, however, I will admit it was a great park ranking in the top 10 of the parks we’ve stayed at. The people we worked with were great, the valley and weather are beautiful, and the fishing was good too.
Mike has found the fishing difficult since we’ve been in the RV because everyone keeps the best spots secret.. So it was nice to be in his home territory where he knew where to fish. We enjoyed it enough to commit to going back next year, so if anyone is coming to the Park City/Salt Lake area, please let us know and we’ll get together. We did enjoy lots of visitors last summer! (I blogged about one such visit and our visit to the Redmond Salt Mine here).
Both 2023 and 2024 we ware in Heber City for 7 months! That is as long as we have stayed anywhere! Really a bit too long for our liking (it feels good to moving more often this winter). We also enjoyed regular visits with Mike’s two sisters, Vicky and Debra, and their husbands. We look forward to that as well.
The chaos and unknown of my new career was a third incentive to return to Heber City. At least one thing is settled for now.
Side excursions for Fishing
We pulled to RV out of the site for two different side trips for fishing. One trip was the Fish Lake Area and the second trip was Flaming Gorge. The first was boondocking, the second in a park we have stayed at before. We learned a lot about the RV and of course had a fabulous time.
Fish Lake
Flaming Gorge
Starlink
Shortly after getting to Utah we got Starlink, and have been SO happy ever since. Down at Fish Lake we had no cell phone signal, but no problem, with Starlink we had phone, TV, internet… life like normal. When we bought Starlink we changed from our Verizon cell phone plans to Mint Mobile for Mike and Visible for me. The savings on the phone plus getting rid of the hotspot service, covered the cost of Starlink. SO HAPPY!
Side excursions for Phyllis
While in Heber, I had a number of excursions out of town, the train trip across Canada with my parents and sister which was epic, a mid-summer trip to Albuquerque for the USA West Square Dance Festival, and a trip in September for Tour Director class in Denver. So for me, at least, the summer was eventful.. Not to mention that I decided to dedicate myself to reading and watching as much TV as possible.
Activities in the park
At Mountain Valley RV resort there are not a lot of planned activities but the pickleball group is active, the staff is friendly, and the hot tub and pool are 50 steps from my front door! Oh and the pool table. We stayed in the adult section of the park so it was very peaceful there. We did some bike riding too, but maybe not as much as we would have liked.
Side Excursion to South Dakota
In Arizona last year we made some good friends, Vicky and Kenny, that have a beautiful property in Hill City, South Dakota. When we had to register our new RV. And of course we are resident’s of South Dakota. We decided to take the excursion to visit them at their home (in our home state) in South Dakota. This gave us the opportunity to register the RV, and ride more of the Mickelson trail (original post here). The four of us played games ate meat and had a fabulous time.
The Mickelson Trail (106 miles long) runs 1/2 mile from Vicky and Kenny House! Someday we will ride the whole thing.
Albuquerque (my Home)
We left Heber City on November 1, with plans to spend November in Albuquerque before heading to Texas for the winter. Time for me to go home! It was great to spend a month visiting my parents, and my kids, and friends in town.
On the way down we spent one night in a sister resort to Mountain Valley and got to go to Arches National Park for an afternoon. Check that off the bucket list.
Cleaning out the storage locker
We also took the opportunity to clean out our storage locker. In the RV community it is common to get a storage locker, and slowly whittle down your belongings until eventually you don’t need it anymore. I mean, why have a Vitamix if it’s in your storage locker half way across country from you. One time I was even in Albuquerque, Mike was working at the storage locker, I decided I wanted to use the Vitamix and called him to bring it home… And it was STILL too much trouble! But I digress.
We primarily had the storage locker because Mike had a Refrigerator sized gun safe, that obviously wouldn’t go in the RV, and he didn’t want to get rid of. But after 7 years of paying for the storage locker… It was time. Of course that sold quickly. And our focus on clearing out the rest was a good effort too. We are now down to a small trailer sized storage needs. We will rent a trailer when we go back through Albuquerque this spring, and will buy a permanent trailer when we get back to Utah.
And Dad’s Car
I also helped Dad sell his BMW while in Albuquerque. He was thrilled as it sold for asking price and in one day. They just had been thinking they didn’t really need two cars anymore, so as much as he loved that car (which was mine before RVing) it was time to sell.
End of an era!
Two notable events : New Orleans and Thanksgiving
The First week we were in Albuquerque I went to a conference in New Orleans for my new career field. I write about that here, and the last week we had Thanksgiving with 12 of the immediate family. We had a progressive Thanksgiving dinner. Both of my daughters have bought houses in the last few years, and many of the family had not seen the houses, so this was fun. We had dinner at Kelsey’s house, at one large table! We followed that with dessert across town at Sara’s house. Turned out great.
Sara’s husband, Jake, smoked our Turkey for dinner. This is a process called Spatchcock. I’d never heard of it but here’s an article. No question it was super good!
Inspections
We have been pleasantly surprised how many inspections we contracted in Utah. Another reason to go back. In Albuquerque, we had 2 inspections. That is greater than average, especially as we were only there one month. Unfortunately, Texas has not produced inspection seekers. Never can tell. Still enjoying that work and plan to continue inspecting.
Saturday after Thanksgiving we were on the road again. Heading for winter in Texas (Definitely NOT our home)! I guess I’ll highlight that next time.
