In my present campground

I’m going to jump in with this post , even though it is chronologically out of order, ( I mean really who cares 😅) because it is short and interesting by itself!

Often there will be these big, and I mean big rigs, in the campgrounds. They don’t have the regular motorhome look, they have the semi truck in the front. They are impressive. Well there is one in the campground here at Homolovi State Park near Winslow ,Arizona. 🎶

I had to change my site yesterday and I ended up right across from it. The guy happened to be outside dusting off the rig, and I casually walked over and began a conversation. ( 😊) I had seen it for the last 4 days here and never saw anyone around. Because it had such a big trailer behind it, I wondered if it was like a racing team between races. Just trying to get away from it all for a while.

well, long story short, he invited me to take a tour inside and ask his wife to show me around. His name is Craig and her name is Kelly. I had seen her biking along the road to the visitor center and back repeatedly so I mentioned that to her. I thought she was really impressive!

As you can see, the rig itself is huge. Then they have the large trailer which they carry their vehicle in. I think they said it’s a Jeep. Definitely oversized, but he said he did not want an open car carrier. There was no doubt they have the funds to get what they want.

The Inside !!

the very first thing that impressed me, polished floor. That is granite! 😯 Do you know how heavy that would be? And I believe the countertops were also granite. But with a rig like that it doesn’t really matter. Oh, and the floors were heated from underneath. 👍 The woodwork was fantastic. I don’t know how many coats of lacquer it would have had on it but it reminded me of photos of high-end yachts. The same wood was throughout the entire inside. Kelly said she had more storage space than she would ever use. You don’t hear that very often! I didn’t ask to take any photos until we finished the tour as I do not want to overstep my bounds. She had no problem with that. This is the second big rig I have been in, and the other couple didn’t care if I took pictures either. Interesting. 🤔

I thought the shower was really cool, with that curved door. That gave you lots of room. And then the actual toilet was in a different spot right across from it.

There was a double set of cabinets just to the left of the toilet facility. She said they were told they could put a washer and dryer on board. She had no interest in doing that. And it certainly isn’t practical most of the time, especially in the Southwest.

This may give you a better idea of the quality of the cabinetry in there. I had to laugh and I expressed my surprise at how high the bed was! I am not kidding it was 3 ft up? She said she uses a step stool to get up and I think I would too!! 😅 Apparently that’s where their water heater is, under the bed. Not more storage!

Then we sat at the table and talked awhile. Because they have such a large rig, especially with the trailer, it is hard to find places to camp. They were interested in Lake pleasant, which I have been in so many times, and I could definitely tell them they would not be able to fit in there. But there what’s a place allowed to drop their trailer at the campground and then Park. They also were aware of the dry camping that was in the area and I also had checked both of those places out so I was able to help them out there as well. Apparently this is only their second week of doing this!

Their backstory is they had lived and worked in Washington state. For 15 years they would vacation in Mexico by the Gulf near Baja de Campeche. ( I looked up the area afterwards from what I remembered her saying.) Their friends ended up buying a home there and after they had looked at the area where their friend was, even though they said they would not, they ended up eventually buying a home there as well. And just absolutely love it! Retired but seem to be working intermittently online.

they obviously had a well paid line of work. Previously they lived on a boat. This boat was 50 ft long. When I asked whether it had both above board and underboard lodging, she admitted that it had numerous above board levels as it actually was a yacht. 😯 Very cool! That’s what they lived off of for those 15 years, and were off the coast of Washington and around San Juan islands and cruising Puget Sound.

They lived inland for a year recently. But a boat like that starts to deteriorate if it does not have maintenance and used regularly. So after a year they went back on the boat and then decided to change gears. They sold the boat and bought this rig. This sounds like it’s their second trip as they’ve only been out a couple weeks. For their first short trip, Craig said they thought they could get around with their bikes to see what they wanted, as they are electric . But you really couldn’t so when they had to get another vehicle, he opted for the large trailer to carry it in. What was strange, is for that the length of time they were here, they never took out the Jeep.

I shared with her that I was going to be taking in the meteor crater and she said she had told Craig she would like to see it. I invited her along which I rarely do with anybody. At first he accepted but then we were when we went outside and the wind picked up, she decided she could not. She shared that she had an ulcer on her eye that had healed but winds can bring it back as an infection. That’s probably why they haven’t been out with the Jeep as it has been windy all the time. Day before yesterday the winds were sold high that it was noisy and vibrating in the RV all day. The ranger shared with me that the highest wind gusts for 67 mph! 😯 I just went into Winslow to do my grocery shopping. You get used to the wind ,as it doesn’t gust that high steadily, but I had to be really careful with my RV doors and truck doors. I did not use my right hand at all as I did not want to have my wrist damaged when the wind whipped it out of my hand !! 😱

I would like to have talked with Kelly more on what it was like living full-time on her yacht/boat. She is interesting, she’s about five too and has her hair blonde and red streaked, not quite what you’d expect. 😃 She does the planning at where they go and looks up if they’ll fit etc. He definitely is the mechanic and brains behind the big rig. He was polishing it and opened up the hood so I went back over there. I got more of the statistics and mechanical info.

The Stats !

For a little bit of comparison from what I know, my f250 Diesel is a 6.4 liter engine. I looked it up and I would have 350 horsepower at 3000 RPMs and 650# of torque at 2000 RPMs.

This rig has a 15 liter Cummings ISX. It has 600 horsepower and 1800 ft lb of torque! It’s total weight is 56,000 pounds with 46,000 pounds being the cab / engine. It carries 300 gallons of fuel and gets an estimated eight miles per gallon. I don’t think those mountains give him any trouble at all!

that’s a long way up to get into that rig. Look at all those steps!

they pulled out today. Heading toward that boondocking spot outside of Phoenix. I wave goodbye to them and wish them luck. It’s a beautiful rig but they really have limited their choices of where to go when. I wonder how much that rig will sink in to those boondocking areas. I don’t know if they’ll even be able to do that. Sometimes bigger is not always better.