Merry Christmas! And The Whale Swam Away

Merry Christmas!!

It's been a pretty busy year for all of us but with the celebration of the Lord's birth rapidly approaching, it's time to take a deep breath and just enjoy the season.

I am going to have to regroup on my whole blog idea. In this past year we have purchased a home in Indiana and now a Park Model home in Arizona for a winter home.  We SOLD the whale.  SO, my dilemma is what to do with my travel blog called, "Tales of the Whale".  I'm open for suggestions.

This past June we decided to buy a half duplex in our hometown of Crown Point, Indiana.  We flew to Colorado to pick up our storage unit belongings and drove them back and moved in on June 6th.

 This address:

470 Cochran Dr

Crown Point, Indiana 46307

We got settled in and put the Whale into storage.  It seemed strange to do after living in a Motorhome for four years.

We worked with our son, Jeff, doing construction projects for the Churches that he works for all summer long.

We had planned a family reunion trip to the Ozarks for July.  So, we got the Whale out of storage, loaded it up and drove it to a campground near to where all the kids were staying. We enjoyed Todd's boat, the water and the time together with our children, their spouses and our eight grandkids.

Kathy, Craig, Tana, Barry, Jeff, Rachel and Todd

Todd and his daughter, Haley

 Jeff, Rachel and children Kristen, Kara and Ty

Our Daughter, Tana, husband Barry with their children 

Carter, Kyra, Collin and Cooper

 Our Grand Children

Cooper, Ty, Collin, Kyra, Kara, Carter, Kristen and Haley

  The whole gang

As fall began to approach, we started making plans to spend our fifth winter in Wellton, Arizona.  We have grown attached to other "snow birds", "winter visitors". that come each year to the Tier Drop RV Park.  We have made friends from Canada, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon, and Texas.  As we made the 2,000 mile trip down with a stop in Colorado to visit family there, we started thinking and praying about what we would do with the Whale.  It becomes too costly to drive that long of a distance back and forth and then to pay for summer storage, so we decided we would put the Motorhome up for sale or at least cover it and leave it in Arizona.

We really are amazed at the sky painting the Lord has for us in AZ.

I posted on Craigslist and in just a few days we had a couple, Donnie and Marie, come to look at it.  She wanted to take it right away, but they also had a few other RVes they wanted to look at.  We began to wonder where would we live and what would we do with all of our belongings stored in the Whale, if it were to sell.  So, we began our search for a Park Model.  They are basically a small version of a mobile home.  

We took some time to drive up to Las Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with my Mom and our daughter and her four kids also came down to spend some time with us.

We found a well cared for 1989 Fleetwood Park Model for a very good price at another Park about five miles on the other side of Wellton and we paid a guy to take it apart and reassemble it here in Tier Drop.  We had to get approval for it all, but they got right to moving it after Thanksgiving.  It was quite the process to move it in three parts.

 The first step was to take it apart.

 The main part was brought in first. This started on Nov. 30th.

 Next came the Arizona room

 The third part was the porch and awning

 We spent our first night in the Park Model on Tuesday, Nov. 5th

 The couple came back to buy the RV and so we were able to pull it next to the Park Model (home #33) and empty it out, wash it and drove it away on Wed. the 6th.  It was sad to see that home be driven off, but it's not far away, just across 11st in another Park.

This is now our morning view.

We are still working on putting things together on the inside, but here are a few pictures:

Kitchen

Bedroom




Bathroom

Most Park Models are about 400 sq ft.  We are allowed to add Arizona Rooms.  Ours adds about 156 sq ft extra.  Currently, we are using it as a second bedroom/storage room.  It's still a work in progress.  The place came furnished and then we added in everything we had in the RV, so we are stuffed with stuff.




Arizona Room

 Our address from Oct to March
28320 E. County 11st #17
Wellton, AZ   85356

It's been a whirlwind of putting things away and finding room.  33 (because it's our 33rd home), came furnished so we now have more stuff than we came down with.  There were totes full of Christmas decoration and hangers already on the roof, so we put some up.

 

We will be driving up to Mom's in Las Vegas to spend Christmas with her.  Our oldest son, Todd and his fiance, Jennifer, will be flying in along with my younger brother, Dave and Cathy from Phoenix.

We pray that you are able to enjoy the wonderful blessings of the season!

Blessings,
Craig and Kathy