1/10/2023- I initially wrote the following story in May 2022. It was sent to friends through email but as you’ll read, not all received it. This story will provide you with the smiles, laughs, tears and fears as we began our adventure. As of today, we are parked in an RV park in Apache Junction and planning our 2nd year as nomads. After reading, if you have suggestions on how this can be improved, please leave a comment. Please subscribe if you wish to be notified by email of future posts. I hope you enjoy the stories.
– John

This is a story of our adventures and misadventures as we plan the next chapter in our life.

Initially I was providing a rolling update through social media (Facebook and Instagram) with small stories and photos. However, many of our friends who don’t subscribe to social media wanted to follow along on our adventures. My initial efforts to provide updates was by emailing a PDF. Operator error, firewalls and various other technical difficulties prevented many from receiving our story, so it was time for me to learn to run an online blog.

I will be telling of the adventures and misadventures along with photos. This is my first go at this. Teri says it reads too much like a police report and not enough sentiment or emotion included. A lifetime of writing and reading police reports and reporting just the facts is a hard habit to break. We’ll see if old dogs can learn new tricks.

Teri and I bought the motorhome in November from a Phoenix police officer we met as we stepped off the airplane at Sky Harbor Airport from a trip to Seattle. We had been searching the RV sales lots but the used motorhomes just weren’t available. Meeting this police officer was a divine intervention. As we engaged in conversation, we commented that we would be retiring in January and were looking for a motorhome to purchase. He said he had one for sale. The rest as they say is history. It was a 2015 Fleetwood Discovery 40g, 40 ft long with 2 slideouts. After getting all the financing and paperwork done we were ready. Our first trip was with friends, Mike and Marie, and their family to Quartzite for Thanksgiving. It was a great trip and a good shakedown cruise for the motorhome. Mike and I had worked together at Chandler PD for many years and stayed close friends. Teri and I had plenty of space for living and sleeping with a the king size bed for sleeping, a super slide that had the dinette, sleeper sofa, bunk beds and bedroom. The 100 gallon water tank meant we didn’t have to worry about running out of water. The refrigerator was a residential fridge and was bigger than the one we had had in our house. The 8000 watt generator meant we’d have plenty of electrical power while camped in the desert. We arrived in Quartzite and got everything dialed in. It took a bit to learn how to level the rig with the hydraulic leveling system, but we got it done. It was frustrating being a newbie all over again. I’ve had RV’s for many years but they were always trailers. A drivable motorhome was different. I don’t like feeling that I don’t know what I’m doing. The fun part was when we decided to cook breakfast on day 2. The propane stove would not light. I looked it over and couldn’t figure it out. I called Mike over and we looked it over, pulled the top off to check the insides and couldn’t find anything unusual except there was no propane flow. I knew there was propane because the heater and the hot water heater both run off propane and both of them were working fine. Plenty of heat and plenty of hot water. We decided it must be the regulator. While we were in town, I stopped at the only RV store in town. They didn’t have a regulator and said it was discontinued. Not sure what I was going to do next, we drove back to camp. I then pulled the gas line loose from the regulator. Still no propane so therefore it wasn’t the regulator. I finally broke down on day 4 and sent a text to the previous owner. Teri had been telling me to do this for 2 days. I asked him if he had ever had a problem with the stove or if there was some hidden valve. He replied to the text that he had found the same problem. He had taken it to the dealer to discover the solution. He told me to pull the slide in about 1 inch and it should work. For whatever reason the gas line can get pinched. I pulled the slide in and the gas started to flow. Teri said, ‘See, you should have called him sooner’. The rest of the weekend went smooth.

The week before Christmas I had several solar panels and lithium ion batteries installed on the coach. This was to help us with battery power when we were boon docking (no electrical hookups). I also had an oil service and generator service completed on the motorhome as we got it ready to travel.

New Years saw us back in Quartzite for the New Years Eve gathering of the Escapees Club. This is a club of RV’ers from all over the country who meet at various points around the country at various times to hang out. This particular group was made up of mostly working couples. The group was called the Xscapers. They were definitely Gen X. The daytime was very quiet as they were all working or teaching kids or just not hanging outside of their rigs. Teri and I took up our time sightseeing around the area. We found the tomb of Hi Jolly. This was not his given name but that’s what he was called in the 1800’s. He had been hired to maintain a camel train from New Mexico to California bringing supplies for the Army. (you will learn in my October post when we were in Texas the camel train actually ran from Texas to California). The evenings were spent hanging around the 4 bonfires and meeting and greeting people. It was a fun time but not one we are inclined to do again. The age group was much younger and very different priorities. The fires were much like speed dating. Folks would walk up to a fire, spend 30 minutes talking and move on to another one. And there was no shortage of alcohol. After a day in the desert, I decided to start the generator to recharge the batteries as the skies had been cloudy so it hindered the solar charging. Imagine my surprise, confusion and frustration when the batteries wouldn’t charge. As it was the holiday weekend, the solar company was closed. I decided to wait until I got home to troubleshoot the problem and calm down before I called the company. After we got home, I started a process of identifying possible problems. The solar panels were doing their job, but we still didn’t have any power in the coach when the generator was running. I finally found a circuit breaker on the generator that was turned off. Flip the switch, and guess what!!!! everything worked. Apparently the shop that did the generator service had turned the breaker off and failed to turn it back on.

Our next trip was to Wickenburg to attend a Boot Camp presented by the Escapees RV Club. This is where newbies can learn to use their coach from seasoned RV’ers. The camp was a series of seminars from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. We really enjoyed the camp and even I learned several things after having been in an RV since 1986. We also learned the Wickenburg Gold Rush Days would be the following weekend and Teri had never been to a rodeo so we made plans to return. While we were there I took a bicycle ride to the top of Yarnell Hill to visit the Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial. It is a very humbling tribute to a brave group of young men.

The following weekend we were back in Wickenburg. It was Teri’s first rodeo, pun intended. This was a senior rodeo so all participants were 45 yrs or older. There was a roper who was 70 and a couple bull riders in their 60’s. A fun weekend. It was exciting to see all the events and the finale was a bull fight as in a rodeo bull fight, not a Mexican style. As we were packing up the motorhome to pull out of the RV park a couple walked to our space. They were waiting for us to leave. She was a retired deputy sheriff from
West Virginia. As her husband started walking over she told him he should be careful since I was probably a cop. She had seen my Thin Blue Line American flag flying high and proud. They were a very pleasant couple who had been living in their RV for a couple of years.

January 7, 2022 was my last day of work and Teri’s was January 2, 2022. We still found ourselves staying busy as we knew we would be moving into the motorhome full time. We were busy purging and cleaning out the non-essentials from the house. In March we had an estate auction. Anything that we had not put into storage or was not in the motorhome was sold. We were jobless and homeless. We felt a lot of anxiety over this decision. Lots of items we thought we needed, we got rid of. Some were sentimental but did not serve a purpose. I was really focused on whether moving into the motorhome for a full time lifestyle was the right move.

For Spring Break in March, we took my grandsons to Tombstone, Pima Air Museum and the AZ Sonoran Desert Museum. They had never been to any of these places. It was fun to watch them marvel at the sights. This was the first time I had spent any length of time with them without their parents present. We all made it though the week. Wherever we travel, I always have my bicycles and will ride and tour the area. On this trip, I found the ghost town of Fairbank, AZ.

Late March we were on the road. First stop was Laughlin, NV where we spent a couple of days sightseeing. Our next door neighbor was a retired deputy sheriff from San Bernardino County, CA. with his wife. They were there to meet up with a car club. The car was a sand dune car. The neighbor behind us was from Canada. From there we drove through Oatman, AZ on our way to Lake Havasu City. In Oatman we had to share the sidewalk with the wild burros who had established a food toll to walk down the boarded sidewalk. We drove the motorhome towing the jeep into the town.
That was a mistake. The parking areas were small and crowded. When I finally found a place to park, it was a dead end road. I had to unhook the jeep in order to complete a 3+ point turn. From there it on to Lake Havasu City for a mountain bike race. I didn’t win and I wasn’t last.

From there we spent 2 days in Flagstaff and got snowed on.

Then it was back to the valley to get ready for the summer trip. April 7 is a day we will never forget. It was day 1 of a 4 week trip. We were headed to Prescott for a weekend bike race. Then we would drop into Payson to hang with some friends who live there and some friends who were down from WA to visit. From there we were headed to south TX to surprise my granddaughter for her birthday. Then up to Santa Fe for a bicycle race then back to the valley for a month. It didn’t quite turn out the way we planned.
As we drove north on I-17, just north of New River, milepost 232.9 there
was a loud boom from the right front tire as we were rolling at 65 mph. I knew immediately it was a tire blowout. I knew not to step on the brake from the Boot Camp. I tried with all my strength to keep the coach on the pavement. I couldn’t. We veered heavily to the right out of control and I watched the ground rise up in front of us as we tried to climb an inclined berm that was about 15 ft tall. I had a feeling of dread and helplessness. The right tires got about 1/2 way up the incline and then we tipped over on to the driver side of the coach and slid to a stop. As we came to a stop my first thought was Teri. She had been sitting at the dinette. I called to her several times while I was still strapped into the driver seat. She finally answered that she was ok. That gave me a short lived sense of relief. The 1st person I remember was a lady walking back to the front of the coach. She seemed in shock as she looked through the front windshield with everything lying on its side. Then there were 2 guys who jumped down into the coach from the front door which was now facing the sky. Based on the way they were dressed and acted, I believed they might have been wildland fire fighters. I never got a chance to thank them. Next came the Daisy Mtn Fire Dept and the Highway Patrol. They cut out the windshield and took us out through the front of the coach. Teri had some facial cuts and the fire dept was concerned about a concussion. She was transported to the hospital by ambulance. I stayed on scene with Sarge waiting for my daughter, Monica, to arrive. It took her about an extra hour due to the traffic backup. I was kind of numb to the entire event. All I could think of was that this was our entire life and what are we going to do now. My emotions cycled between ‘what am I going to do now, this is everything I own’ to ‘it’s a miracle we are ok’. I went from a very methodical mindset (cop mode) to emotional tears. I waited until the motorhome was back on it’s wheels, then I had Monica drive me to the hospital. My ribs were hurting and I was starting to feel the aches coming on. The hospital staff acted as though I was severely injured. That was probably due to all the blood that had been running down my arm from where Sarge had dug his claws in. Eventually they had taken X-rays and both Teri and I were released. There were no broken bones or severe injuries. Teri had received some stitches in her face and ear due to the lacerations. By now 2 of my daughters, Monica and Nichole, were both at the hospital. They drove us to Nichole’s house where we spent the night.

On Friday, the next day, we drove to Prescott and with the help of a former Chandler PD friend and his wife, Dave and Shannon we emptied most of our belongings into a U-haul truck. We spent the night with a friend and his wife, William and Joann, who I know from racing. He’s also a retired fire fighter from San Diego. That night I posted on social media about the incident as my phone had started to blow up with messages from folks who had heard of the incident. It was time to let the world know what had happened and that we were ok. On Saturday we attended the mountain bike race in Prescott just to visit and catch up with people and let them know we were ok. We then finished unloading the motorhome and jeep. The bikes survived intact. The response to the social media posting was overwhelming. Friends from all our walks of life provided prayers and hopes for recovery as well as places to stay, a car to drive, just about anything we could need. I was emotionally overwhelmed and found myself crying reading the various offers, through social media, text messages and phone calls. You never realize how many lives you touch through your own life until something like this happens. We stayed at Kelvin’s for 6 weeks. He and I had worked together at Chandler PD. I realized that I had neglected to stay in touch over the years with the friends I had spent so many years working with. I vowed to make an effort to reconnect with friends from the past when I had the opportunity. So, as we travel we will be meeting with friends from years gone by. As we travel we enjoy stopping at historical sites and walking through museums to learn of the history of the area and marvel at the past. We also enjoy sharing our adventures.

We decided to not let this stop our plans. Only the logistics changed. We went to Bisbee with some friends, Dan and Brenda. I flew to TX to surprise my granddaughter for her birthday along with Monica. We spent the weekend there. In the meantime, Teri had found a replacement Jeep in Chicago. I reserved the Jeep over the phone as it had all the things I was looking for.

I flew home from TX then got on the plane for Chicago. I had a bit of a scare before boarding the plane. I had received an email from the dealership that said they were excited to show me all the Jeep Wranglers they had available for sale. I was frantic that the Jeep I wanted had not been secured and would not be available. I called them and they assured me that my Jeep was put away and waiting for me. I then drove the Jeep home. First I had to stop and have breakfast with a friend from Chandler PD in the Chicago area, John.

After arriving home our plan was to attend a mountain bike race in Cortez, CO. A 12 hour race. Ride as many laps as possible and the most laps wins. I had lost a lot of training time due to the crash, injured and sore ribs and knew I didn’t have the fitness to challenge for a podium spot. My goal was 4 laps (70 miles). I was only able to complete 3 before I was completely spent. We stayed at a friends house while he was vacationing in another country while we were in the area. Again, the support and offers of help were overwhelming.

We then found a motorhome in Sun City that was perfect for us after looking at several different models around the valley and in Tucson. A 2019 Fleetwood Discovery 40G LXE. The same model that we had crashed but newer. As I write this (5/25/22) we are living in the motorhome parked at an RV park in Apache Junction and getting ready for round 2 of our summer trip.

Before we left the valley, we were treated to dinner and lunch by some special friends and I was presented with a plaque honoring my years of service.

We will be on the road the 1st week of June with plans to race a 24 hour race in Gallup, NM then a 24 hour race in Bend, OR. We also have an Alaska cruise on the calendar in June. From there we will be traveling the country visiting friends, sightseeing and generally just living a retired life.

Before I finished writing this, the race in Gallup was cancelled. The Forest Service closed the forest due to high fire danger. While on a bike ride I also made the decision to withdraw from the Oregon race. My fitness is not where I want it to be. I had aspirations of winning or at least being in the top 3 for both races and my fitness is not sufficient to do that. We made the decision that we will live the next couple of months as retirees with no specific agenda. The feeling of relief was immediate with that decision.

Stay Safe