Updates

Seems like time for a "facelift" of the blog.  The traveling theme does not seem to fit these days as age and COVID put a lid on our travel, at least for a while.  In the meantime we want to journal, for ourselves as much as for our friends, the growth of our newest family member Misty.  Her breeder sends us regular photo updates and this one is from yesterday.  Not much change in a couple days of course but it is a good picture to share.

Misty at almost 5 weeks, still nursing.

Misty's Mom

Misty's dad, where the Wolf Sable gene comes from.

.... and The Beginning Of A New One.

In our last post we said good-bye to our motorhome and became pretty much land locked in the Desert.  With the Covid Pandemic I suppose we would have had the same experience with or without the coach parked here since there were few places to go.

Today we started on a new adventure of a different nature.  We paid a deposit on a "Wolfe Sable" Pomeranian named "Misty".  Misty is only 4 weeks old and still nursing so we have only met her via photos and videos.  She really does not have a developed immune system yet so we must keep our distance for her safety.  If all goes well she will come home with us in mid January from the breeder who,  luckily for us, only lives a couple miles away.

It has been many years since we owned a dog and never one this small.  Misty will probably top out at around 5 pounds if she is like her dad pictured below.  Right now she really does not look much at all like what she will look like as an adult. 

Misty's dad is on the left (the smaller one).

Our kitty, Peanut, who now weighs 12.5 pounds really needs a playmate and based on her interaction with dogs that have come here to visit we are confident that she and Misty will get along great once we get thing broken in and settled.  

Here is a short video of Misty from a few days ago.  She will change rapidly over the next few weeks.

So the video did not post well in the email many of you get.  If you are viewing the post in our blog the video should work fine.  If you are not in the blog you can see the video by viewing this post at www.waltandarlyene.blogspot.com .   Otherwise here is a still of Misty at 4 weeks.  

 

End Of An Adventure.......

After something like 80K miles of travel in three different motor homes over 12 years it had to happen,  Tuesday Arlyene and I said goodbye to Norv Orbus, our beloved Tiffin Allegro Bus.  The sad truth was that we were simply no longer using it enough to justify keeping it.  My coronary bypass in July of 2019 pretty much took care of that summer.  COVID has taken care of this summer.  We started to think about downsizing to something a bit smaller that we would use less often.  Smaller does not necessarily mean cheaper in the RV world however and so downsizing was also a bit hard to justify based on cost.  

After exploring options to sell on consignment or trade in on something smaller I decided to try and sell it myself on the internet using something similar to Auto Trader, only for RV's.  I listed Norv for sale back in February.  About a month ago a couple from Ohio contacted me and that started a lot of back and forth and a video tour which culminated in them driving here in a rental car, arriving last Sunday.  Al and Ruth are already experienced RVer's with a 5th Wheel so we did not need to teach them how to be campers and Al had experience driving large trucks.  So after a full day of Norv Orbus boot camp they were ready to set out on their own after a test drive.  We did that Tuesday morning driving 15 miles south of our house on I-15 to a truck stop where we topped off the fuel and said our goodbye's.  We followed them back north on the freeway, waived one last time at Norv and watched him drive away.

I have been surprised by my reaction to our separation.  I thought saying goodbye to Denita, (our last sailboat) was difficult but did not expect that same reaction to Norv.  In some ways watching Norv drive away was just as hard.  We know we made the right decision but we feel the loss.  Norv was our full time home for seven years and cast a big shadow here at our house and that shadow is now more than half way back to Ohio.  Ruth and Al will clearly love the coach, whatever they call it, and Al will take good care of it.  That helps some.  The burden of being responsible for all that machinery and keeping it in good shape while not really using it has been lifted off my shoulders and perhaps that is what I am feeling the most.

When we closed the boating chapter of our lives we had the excitement of moving on to the RV lifestyle and that was a new adventure.  This kind of feels like the adventure is over and I don't like that feeling.  Of course, in these COVID-19 days most of the places we would want to go are closed or too risky for our age group.  These seem to be mostly stay-at-home days now and we are thankful to have a nice home to stay in.   Still, we are looking around and planning our next adventure.  We don't know what that will be or when it will be but I am sure it will be a good one when it comes.  

Norv, Al and Ruth leaving the truck stop on their new adventure.

Our last view of Norv, headed for Ohio. 
Maybe he will come back for a visit some day.

So it also seems time for a new look to the blog and a new header.  Before I do that I want to save the one that we have used for all the time we have had the motorhomes.

Don't want to forget our traveling pal Gizmo, our adventures or Norv Orbus himself.