A descriptive look at traveling and full-timing with our second RV, a fifth wheel toyhauler.
Laura and Sasha started this adventure in April of 2005
for a two week vacation in a truck camper.
Year 2010: At Lake Mead National Recreation Area & Canyonlands NP!
Year 2010 was a great year for us, as we volunteered and worked in two really nice parks, plus got to see family and friends that we had not seen in a while. Plus we made new friends and got to see some amazing places.
The website did not fair too well, however, as I struggled to get the massive amounts of pictures up. Plus I was learning a new software program (Dreamweaver) which takes a while to learn. While it has some great features, there are still some things that I do not like about it, including the navigation bar. I still have to go in and change every page, which stinks for me, as there are beginning to be lots of pages. And I still have not fixed the old ones.
But 2011 should be a good year. I have been asked back to Canyonlands NP for the next season, and we have come back to Lake Mead National Recreation Area for winter 2010-2011. So we can start the year off well.
There are quite a few changes to the website, including new links and navigation buttons. The writings of the home page are on this page. The expenses for 2010 will be up on January 1, 2011, (I hope) and you can see how it has changed a little from 2009.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Months are now a little different, where I have expenses up first (as it seems lots of people go there so might as well put it up top!) and then have the pictures and what we did on another page. Really cool pictures with their information is on separate pages now (you just have to click the link near the picture to get more info about what you are seeing, don't worry worse comes to worse, you can alway click the home button to get back to the main page.) So in order to get to the page you want, you can go to the left and click or you can do it here:
| Expenses | Picture Pages |
|---|---|
| January | January |
| February | February |
| March | March |
| April | April |
| May | May |
| June | June |
| July | July |
| August | August |
| August Part 2 | |
| August Part 3 | |
| August Part 3a | |
| September | September |
| October | October |
| November | November |
| December | December |
December 16th, making some major additions to the website, putting in more pictures. So please click in August. Actually we have three pages so: Main August page, Second August page, third page (Robertson's Pasture Trail) page. Enjoy! We are right now at a Rest Stop in Texas, only 120 miles away from El Paso, TX where we need to be tomorrow, so just enjoying the warmer weather and being in the camper, uploading pictures!
I also put some new pictures up of our site at Canyonlands National Park. These pictures are first, then the pictures of some of Sasha's rides. These pictures are on March 2010 Sasha's Rides.
December 13 - made some more changes, including making it easier to go to other pages. I found I could not go to some pages properly, so I made those changes. I will list the pages once I have uploaded them. But while you are waiting, I have added more pictures to the March page.
December 11th, In Livingston, enjoying being stopped right now. We will head over to the post office and then take a nice walk around the Escapees area. November's expenses are up, when I get back from the walk, I will explain all. November's expenses and explanations are done, check them out.
December 10th, We are headed to Livingston, TX for the weekend. Nice weather and hopefully will see some family. October expenses are fully explained, we had a lot of them that month, with a tire blow out and new tires bought, all explained on that page. We will be seeing some family on Sunday and we will be staying in Livingston until Monday when we have to then go across the state to get to a class for me in El Paso. Stay tuned!
December 7th, we are headed out of Williamsburg, had a fabulous visit with family and friends and are now headed back west. First south to Jacksonville, FL and then west to El Paso, TX and Boulder City, NV. We will be spending the winter in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, like we did last winter, and I have been rehired back to Canyonlands National Park for next summer season! Life is good, even if the weather is not so good - quite cold for us - 35 degrees F for a daytime high!
Anyway, please check out the expenses that I have put up for September, October, and November. September's expenses are fully explained. October's expenses are fully explained and we are very close to where we are going to stay tonight (December 8th) so I want to make sure I am focused on that with Sasha.
November 6th: Made changes to September expenses to include explanations, and October expenses are now up.
November 2: made some more changes so August and September expenses are up! Also, I put a new search bar for those that want to search for things for the lovely holiday season.
..
..
October 10th - In Corolla, NC. We saw Todd and Kimmy, in Corolla - he made us an excellent Thai lunch with a soup, and two different entrees, both excellent. They grow their own Thai Basil and have many different types of peppers. Sasha was in heaven, and me, with a glass of milk, did not do too bad! Excellent company for the short time we had, and excellent food.
October 6th - My birthday. We managed to get to Williamsburg for my birthday. Had a relaxing time with my folks and a very nice dinner. We will be headed down to Corolla for the weekend and to see Todd and Kimmy in Corolla, NC. Should be a beautiful weekend.
October 2nd, we have been on the road since September 28th, having left Canyonlands NP. Found out that we will be at Lake Mead National Recreation Area this coming winter. Yea! Check out August's and September's Expenses for those months and we will have some cool pictures up as well.
August 1st - man it is taking a while to get everything up, but I should have the links to the left done - meaning that if you click on Long Trip 2006, it will take you to our previous website with the link to that trip...That is my hope anyway....
One of the major problems I have with this last update of our website is that the oldest website I had (of 2005) used a template inside of the hosting site: 1and1.com - a great hosting site, but as we get more and more indepth in creation, I changed the design and got other templates. So the Mighty Hike that we did back in 2005 does not show up on the old template, because it was never put in...
Also, I have found my 2005 trip, and the links work fine, however, you will get to a point where it will get to a new template, and you can not go forward. Just click the back button and you will get to where you need to go.
Like I stated before, this is actually the third template that I have using either Frontpage or Dreamweaver, but then I also used a template inside of 1and1.com and also blogger. Hopefully it will all work.
So let's just say I appreciate the patience that everyone is giving me to get this website done properly...I promise it will be spectacular when finished.
August 26 - Lots of pictures up on August 2010 and August 2010 Part 2.
August 20 - Just finished the July Expenses page.
August 15 - we have two new videos, I will try to upload them ASAP, there are on YouTube as well but let us know if you can not see them. Ophir Pass and Trip to Ouray and Telluride videos are now on the August 2010 page.
Well, I have made the switch, moving from FrontPage 2003 to Dreamweaver. This look and format is what we will have now for the website. I am slowly...very slowly, moving all of the webpages from Frontpage to Dreamweaver. It will take some time, but in the end, I hope we have a much better, cleaner looking website. Thank you for your patience in this, and new pages will be coming up soon.
I also have to learn OpenOffice for the Excel spreadsheets that I have been using, as well as Apple's email and address books, and the Safari web browser, all new and interesting. Plus working of course and getting all of our pictures into a semblance of a format...always a little daunting as we take so many pictures. But Sasha will be taking over the realm of the picture formating, so as he learns a new program (Apeture) I hope to get some really great pictures posted soon. If you go to July's Picture page, you can see the new format I am trying out. The old style will be before July, new style after July 2010.
As you can see, we have a new look to the website; I am trying to update while learning a new program. While Dreamweaver is easier to use in some ways, it is also harder in others. But I am trying and hope to have this up to speed in the next couple of weeks. Right now it is being uploaded as part of the www.Laura-n-Sasha.com/blog but the old pages are up as well.
I have been working on a new design, plus working as a Park Ranger at Canyonlands, so the website has not been updated in a while. Learning Dreamweaver on the side, plus how to use a Mac laptop makes Laura very late on the current website...I hope to have some of it up soon. Thanks for your patience.
I have updated for today, March 21st, there are pictures on January, February and March. Check them out!
To our Parents, family and friends - we are fine, doing well, but still without internet at our site. We do occasionally go to a house for their internet, but no cell service. We are hoping for this week March 22nd that Frontier will come out and we will finally have DSL, keep your fingers crossed!
Uploaded January and February expenses.
We are going to be going into an area of no internet and cell phone, starting today, March 13th. I will try to upload at least once more before we get to Canyonlands But then updates will be spotty...or business as usual!
We were in Cottonwood Cove, Lake Mead for Three Days! Some nice pictures are on the way in the March 2010 page. Found out that my Background Check went through, took 9 days to get it done this time, not too bad! So we are headed to Canyonlands National Park. Finally finished off the 2009 Yearly Expenses, they are now up. Obviously, there are some high expenses at the end of the year, I made a couple of new categories for this year, including some One-Time Expenses (like buying a new rig!) And also show you the previous' years' expenses.
Staying at Suncoast Casino in Las Vegas, in their parking lot. It is supposed to rain on Saturday and Sunday, so we are sticking around. Sasha was able to complete the taxes, and thankfully, we will be getting some refunds. Putting in the Solar helped us out tremendously, we went from owing taxes to getting a refund. Yea!
We have left Lake Mead NRA, but are still in Las Vegas Area. We got our axles on the RV switched so that when we go over bumps, we do not hit the bottom back. We also decided that since the weekend (March 6 & 7) was going to be rainy, we should just stay put someplace warm and paved lot. So we are at Suncoast Casino and Hotel, in Summerlin, NV (a suburb of Las Vegas.) We are doing our taxes here, figured it is good to get that over with. Sasha is doing them via e-file, so far so good. No major yelling and no computers crashing. We might even get some money back.
Yes, I know that it is March! Took a while to get the website up to speed. So a little disclaimer for you all, I do not do the website on a regular basis - I really do try, but so many things get in the way.
Like finding out that we will be going to Canyonlands National Park this summer - had to get the paperwork done, fingerprinting, giving the names of people the investigators can contact to make sure I am a reliable person, all the paperwork...etc, etc. Just because I had one done last year does not mean I am a reliable and credit-worthy person it seems, I have to go through it all again. BUT, supposedly, this will be good for 5 years! So, NEXT year, I won't have to go through this all again. And won't that be a relief?
What this means for us is that we are in a holding pattern until the paperwork comes through. So what we decided to do is this: I will work one more day at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, then we will pack up on Thursday, and head over to Auto Safety House to get the axles on the camper switched (that will be on Friday March 5th) and then we will head down to Death Valley. We figure if we are there for a little bit, we could mosey on up to Utah, taking our sweet time and be close for when the call or email comes in to go to work. Sounds like a plan, right?
So I have the expenses up for January and February, plus the Expenses for the Year of 2009 is now up. Granted, we bought an RV and the necessary things for it and so the expenses of normal living is in the top portion of the spreadsheet, then the extras are in the lower portion. If it is too confusing, let me know and switch it around better.
We are now in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. We have been here since January 5th. I have been so busy applying for jobs and working/volunteering at the visitor center, I have not gotten onto the website to update. But I will soon, as I want to let you all know about the expenses for 2009, and all. It will happen soon, just taking a little while. Also, even though I am volunteering, I will be doing a program, so I am having to write that up at home, because when I am at the visitor center, I do not have the time to do it then. Anyway, we are good and healthy and life is great, just a little busy. Please check back, I will get a few more things up here, including some fabulous pictures. Thanks!
Happy New Year Everyone! We are now in Arizona for the New Year, and will be heading to Nevada shortly. It is a bit windy here, but the sun is shining, and the weather is a balmy ~ 70 degrees!