One Year, One location, WHAT! (A year in Heber City)

Mountain Valley RV park in Heber City, Utah, is known to be one of the best in the country. The park is beautiful, the people are great to work with, and it’s nice to have Mike’s family close by, why wouldn’t we come back here for a second summer? Of course, we didn’t really realize that we would end up staying one whole calendar year, the longest we’ve stayed any place.

We last left you in Texas, at the eclipse party one year ago, (and shamefully the last time I blogged). After our eclipse party (read about that here) we hustled up to to Central, Utah. My parents who had been at the eclipse with us, caravanned with us to Albuquerque.

Enter THE TRAILER

In Albuquerque, we picked up a U-Haul trailer and unloaded our storage locker into it, closing down the locker for good. Downsizing when you live in an RV is a permanent condition. Within a day of getting to Heber City, we bought a 6×10 cargo trailer and moved the entirety of our possessions that don’t fit into the RV into the trailer. It is a new paradigm shift.. to have everything we own with us, and causes new issues to consider such as where can we park the trailer, and how do we haul the trailer. We do not want to double tow so we are going to have to drive separately when we are taking the trailer.

Mike worked hard at getting rid of stuff to downsize even more, because the trailer is so full we can barely get in!

Decision to stay the winter

When we were unloading the storage locker, I handed Mike the skis and said, “I guess it’s time we sell these”. He said “I’m not ready for that”. After all, they were good quality skis when we bought then the last couple of years before we moved into the RV. They have had very little use, but 8 years later, how much would we get for them. However, the flip side is when will we ever use them? (I can tell you the last time we used them was the week the world shut down for Covid. We were in Mammoth when lockdowns were announced).

Anyhow, it got Mike to thinking that since we were going to Heber City for the summer, perhaps we should try out winter RVing. At Mountain Valley RV resort people do it! And if WE did it, we could ski at Park City this season. So here we sit one year later… To the day!

And the 2024/25 ski season?

We did survive the winter. While it was pretty cold and it kept us homebound in the RV, we didn’t receive the snow that Heber City usually gets. Actually I can only think of one storm that amounted to more than a foot of snow. All the other storms were rain or melted. The ski season this year was just not fun! None of the blue ski powder days you dream of. The man-made snow was either icy, or slushy. The days were grey and overcast so you couldn’t see the bumps. And the couple of decent days we did have, were terribly crowded! Ugh! I’m not usually a complainer, but all things considered… by the time the season was over, we were ready to retire our hobby. Mike has since sold the skis!!

Fun in Heber City for the year

So while we did spend a year here, we did enjoy most of the time. Even the winter was not bad as it was nice to have Mike’s sisters nearby, and Mike patched up the rift between him and his Mom. It is so great to be communicating with her again. I started a Bunco group for the girls in the park, we played that once a month. We even got in a few card games with friends during the winter. Each of us only had to work one day a week during the winter, so that left lots of time to have fun. Mike worked Friday, and I worked Sunday, but that meant each of us had a day to ourselves at home, which is nice too.

Phyllis gone in May

But I’m getting ahead of myself! Back to April. I had three tours in New Mexico right after we arrived in Heber, so it turns out I was gone the entire month of May. The company I was working for is Sun Tours in Albuquerque. It was great to base there and spend time with my kids and my parents. Read about those adventures on the other blog (here).

Phyllis not working – except she is

So because of the potential for tour directing jobs I had asked for no regular schedule at the park for the summer. Mike worked three days a week to make up for that. I said I’d fill in as needed sporadically. Well, that ended up being more than one day a week! I don’t mind, and know if I needed the time they would not have pushed back. I didn’t have any tour jobs over the summer so it all worked fine, just unexpected.

Through in the RV Inspections as we have had quite a few this year. Utah is hot I guess for Inspections. And it didn’t slow down even through the winter.

Visiting with Mike’s Sisters for a year…

Probably the best part about being in Utah for a year was socializing with Mikes 2 sisters and brother-in-laws. They were about an hour away and we tried to get together regularly either here or there, sharing a meal, watching the Superbowl, playing some pool, leaf peeping in the fall, etc.

In the winter we went to dinner in a restaurant that had Alpine Globes, private glass rooms. That was fun for something different.

We also went to the Ice Castles in Midway (3 miles from Heber), again fun for something different.

Washington Lake

We joined Debra and her husband, Joe, for a weekend getaway at Washington Lake, a trip they take every year. Washington Lake is in the Uintah mountains, a region known for a handful of small lakes amongst the beautiful pine forests.

I played a little bit with night sky photography there since it was so dark. I’d love to be better at that, but I guess I have to do it more than once a year or so to hone my skills!

… And my sister, Monica

Monica was heading out to help David, her ex-husband, settle into his new place of living in California. Flying would have been more convenient, but she thought she might want to grab a few items at his place to bring home. Therefore she might appreciate a car. She stopped in on her drive to California and again on her drive home.

She has been considering working from her little TAB trailer. So she got Starlink (Which she tried out for the first time on our Sisters-on-the-fly event in May… Read about that here). She works remote from her house. I’m encouraging her to embrace the “World is her office” philosophy.

A year for Kayaking

She brought her folding kayaks (Orus), so we had to get out and try them! We took them our on nearby Deer Creek reservoir on her way to California. Then took them out to the Uintah’s (reference Lake Washington above) on her way Home from CA. We took them out on a couple of different lakes up there. As Monica says, any day floating on the water is a good day. It was super fun.

And while in Colorado on one of my trips, my friend Amie took me out on her Kayak (regular kind). I became truly appreciative of the folding kayak variety!

I campaigned to Mike to get some Kayaks, but they are relatively expensive, so he was not jumping. But I planted a bug. And he kept watching. (I have always said he was a good shopper.) He landed on a different brand (Tucktec, but competitive with the Oru), and on sale for about half the price. We ended up buying two. Donna Brett (who had also been intrigued by the folding Kayaks when we went to the “Sisters-on-the-fly” event last May) also bought two for her and John. We haven’t taken them out yet, but … more fun to come!

Fish Lake & Flaming Gorge

We took the RV out for two other a long weekends. Once to Fish Lake Area and once to Flaming Gorge for Mike to fish some of his favorite waters. Great get-aways, both of them. Mike also went to Flaming Gorge without the RV and stayed in a cabin. Meanwhile, I was in New Mexico on tour in May.

Springdale

Robyn and Jeremy retired from full time RVing and bought a house in Springdale, UT. They sold the Prevost (bus) RV and bought a little Leisure Van so that they could still travel. I was able to stop in while on my tour in May, but then they stopped up in Heber to visit us, and we went down to Springdale to visit them for another weekend away. This time without the RV. We drove through Brianhead, Utah (a ski area I have been curious about since high school. I dated a boy (Bill Cort) that loved skiing at Brianhead!) and stopped by Cedar Breaks on the way to Springdale. Didn’t know anything about Cedar Breaks, so that was interesting. Another great weekend!

Visiting Mike’s son in Butte, Montana, and friends visiting us in Heber.

Gosh, yet another weekend trip was a trip without the RV up to Butte, MT, to visit Mike’s son, Dan, and re-meet his new wife (after meeting her 20 years ago in Albuquerque when they were dating), and two of her children. She also has a grown daughter in New Mexico with children, so when he married Sylvia that made him an instant Grandpa, and as Mike so loves to point out, me a Great-grandma!! (Him also a great-grandpa, but he doesn’t find quite so much amusement in that!)

We also had a visit from RK and Marsha, Owen this summer. Always good to see them. Did I forget anyone else??

The Holidays

In November, I attended a conference in Denver, and had an interview for a tour company also in Denver… as well as a tour out of Albuquerque. So I was also gone much of the month (I’ll be blogging about that on the other blog). And in fact I was gone over Thanksgiving. Generally, I hate to miss holidays. Mike’s sister from California was visiting and staying in Park City, so he was able to visit with her. The park decided to have a “Thanksgiving Dinner”, but since so many people live here in town or close by, they scheduled their Thanksgiving for December 5th. I was able to participate after all!

Mike’s Mom invited us all over for Christmas Day. When I received the text from his Mom, I showed it to Mike who said “Well, if she invited us, I guess we should go!”. That’s all it took to heal the 4 year rift between them.. It sure is great to be back in touch with her.. Now if that had only worked with his kids. It feels rather depressing to think we have been here the better part of 2 years and not had any contact with the 3 of them that live locally.. despite our invitations.

Mississippi River Cruise.

Last month Monica and I took our parents on a River cruise on the lower Mississippi. Worth mentioning because it will be another marker for the year events, but I’ll blog about that on the other blog…. Man, I’ve got a lot of blogging to do!

SO.. as you can see.. Lots of activity in the past year.

At that is not even to mention (seriously, not to mention) all the politics that have happened in the past 12 months.

As we left Heber City, the park threw a little good-bye party for us, which was really very touching! The manager, Cache, reiterated how much they appreciate us, and invited us back, anytime in the future. Who knows that might just happen!