Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Author: Liesbet (page 35 of 69)

Completed House Sits – Albuquerque, NM (April 6th – May 10th, 2019)

May 14, 2019 / / 59 Comments

After Mark and I finished our six-week house sit with Gunner and Beckwourth in Albuquerque last spring (you can read that post here), we never thought we’d be back. While spring isn’t great in New Mexico, circumstances did lure us in for another five weeks. As a repeat sit, the introduction to the tasks was brief and straightforward; the biggest difference a third adult Labrador, named Fitzpatrick. 

Sometimes, it would be nice to have three hands!
Fitz loves his toys!

The Dogs

Three big dogs are a handful. We easily spent three hours a day taking care of their basic needs – peeing, pooping, feeding, walking. This doesn’t include brushing, bathing, clipping nails, cleaning ears, or cuddling.

Dog walk in the neighborhood
Walk on the mesa with Fitz and Beck
Walking the yellow labs after a storm.
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Where Utah and Arizona Meet

May 8, 2019 / / 52 Comments

As Mark and I wrap up our five-week house sit in Albuquerque, New Mexico, it is more than time for me to wrap up my blog posts about our explorations in Zesty before that.

Driving through inspiring landscapes

What follows is a series of snapshots of fascinating areas, which didn’t make it in previous posts. Northern Arizona and Southern Utah—it was often not clear in which state we were hiking, camping, or sightseeing—have so much to offer in terms of natural beauty (and an animal sanctuary) that we are returning soon.

Horseshoe Bend
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Monthly Expenses – April 2019

May 5, 2019 / / 18 Comments

Expenses - image

Every month, I post a report of our expenses to show that it is possible to live a comfortable, exciting, and adventurous life without breaking the bank. The less money you spend, the less you need to make. 🙂 Since July 2018, Mark and I have been combining van life in our Zesty and house and pet sitting, which we did full-time before that. The best of both worlds! 

This report includes ALL of our expenses, in US$, for the two of us. Under groceries we incorporate all the food, produce, and non-alcoholic drinks predominantly bought in supermarkets. Toiletries belong in that category as well. Dining out means eating at a restaurant/event or purchasing take-out food. The health category covers non-prescription medicines and Mark's vitamins and supplements; medical contains prescription drugs and doctor's visits. Because of our income level, Mark and I are eligible for free health care within the state of Massachusetts. For check-ups, we both return to the East Coast.

Lake Powell near Page, AZ

In April, Mark and I lived and traveled in Zesty for the first week. The rest of the month, we house and pet sat in Albuquerque, New Mexico. No crazy expenses this past month. We went out for lunch in Navajo Nation to try Native American food.

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IWSG Writing Update May 2019 – Final Edits

May 1, 2019 / / 65 Comments

Every first Wednesday of the month, the IWSG (Insecure Writer’s Support Group) engages writers to share their fears, thoughts, progress, struggles, excitement, encouragement, or anything really, about their writing.

This amazing, supportive group of writers was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Today, the co-hosts are Lee Lowery, Juneta Key, Yvonne Ventresca, and T. Powell Coltrin. Feel free to swing by their sites and see what they’re up to.

Revising and editing

I planned to title this blog “deep revision,” until I looked up what revising actually means and how it’s different from editing. Revising is about the content while editing is about sentence-level issues and typos. Basically, a deep revision would mean butchering your manuscript and rewriting parts of it. That might happen in the future if I were to find an agent/publisher, but it’s not exactly what I have been doing lately. I’ve been busy “editing.” Lots of it! Good thing I enjoy that part as much as the writing itself.

Surrounded by three labs in the office

Book progress

When I sent my manuscript to beta readers last summer, my biggest request was how to cut the prose: “Which parts could be cut? What’s boring or doesn’t add to the overall story?”

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Kicked out of Monument Valley – Bikers Beware

April 28, 2019 / / 55 Comments

Ever since seeing photos of Monument Valley (was it on a calendar, a poster, in a guide book?) years ago, I’ve wanted to visit this Tribal Park in Navajo Nation. So, when Mark and I left Southwestern Utah to drive to a house sit in Albuquerque, New Mexico, we decided to make the detour and explore this park on the Utah-Arizona border. We read that the 17-mile loop drive is in horrible condition and that biking is the best way to see and experience the sites. Perfect! We’d taken Zesty on enough rocky roads lately.

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Catching “The Wave” Means Winning the Lottery

April 24, 2019 / / 53 Comments

“Will you try to go to The Wave when you’re there,” fellow travelers kept asking us as they learned about our plans to visit the Lake Powel area in Northern Arizona. Mark and I had never heard about it, so said, “Maybe.” We rarely plan and certainly not weeks ahead of time. We knew the surroundings of the lake were pretty from Ingrid’s blog and that was it.

When a “Good luck!” followed, we wondered why luck is involved to hike to a sandstone formation. Apparently, there is a lottery involved. “Over 100 people a day apply,” a new friend told us. Hard to believe and it was still too cold to head north, so we kept The Wave in the back of our mind. As more and more people either raved about this destination or wished they could have hiked there, it was time for a quick Google search.

The Wave
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Sedona Surprises

April 17, 2019 / / 56 Comments

Sedona, Arizona is one of those places we had heard a lot of praise for but knew nothing about. Our Lonely Planet USA – a big book about a big country – mentions that Sedona is “nestled amid striking red sandstone formations,” is “the center of ‘vortexes’,” and “offers outstanding hiking.” Partial to hiking in beautiful scenery, we decided to make the detour. This also allowed us to check off a few things on our to-do list in Prescott, make a pit stop in the old mining town of Jerome, and climb up to Flagstaff in order to pick up our initial route. I’ve reported on these destinations here.

View from the Templeton Trail

(As always, click on the photos for enlarged versions or click/hover to read the captions.)

Camping

We’d read on iOverlander about a plethora of boondocking sites in Cococino National Forest, about eight miles NW of Sedona. We started on the bumpy dirt road from the west. Much to our surprise, it was extremely busy with campers. Five miles in, we finally scored the most incredible site and we discovered that there was a quicker way out. We spent three free nights here to explore this side of the city.

Our campsite in Cococino NF
View from our site in Cococino NF
Like Albuquerque, Sedona is popular with hot air balloons
This balloon landed on the dirt road next to our camping area.
So much to see and do in Sedona!

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Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona

April 13, 2019 / / 44 Comments

No matter how you look at it, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is out of the way. Bordering Mexico, it’s a detour from the most southern highway (I-8 hitting I-10), which is why we never paid a visit before. Plus, there is no cell service in the park. Being so close to Mexico on the other hand, encouraged us to jump across for Mark’s birthday weekend early March.

But before that, we found a quiet, beautiful, and free campsite north of the park boundary – with cell service – and spent a few days exploring this desert park. Our annual National Park pass covered the $25 entrance fee.

Roomy and level campsite
Imagine this river bed – a wash – actually filled with roaring water…
Someone had left a decent amount of firewood. Easy enough to make a campfire and warm up!

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Arizona Adventure at a Glance

April 10, 2019 / / 44 Comments

Disclaimer: This post contains a lot of photographs!

Mark and I left San Diego – and our last (short) house sit – on February 1st. It’s been quite the 9-week adventure! The first month, we focused on work and staying warm in Southern California. Both with mixed results. Early March, we dipped into Mexico for a few days, after biking and hiking in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (Southern Arizona), which I hope to post a photo gallery of this Saturday.

Organ pipe and saguaro cacti

By then, our list of chores had grown out of proportion. We chose Phoenix as the city to take care of laundry, a van problem, shopping, collecting packages, and catching up on internet chores. Our attractive boondocking spot on BLM land north of Phoenix offered views and hiking trails. (To enlarge photos and read captions, click on the images – or hover over them.)

Not a bad place to camp
Spring in the desert
Hiking on BLM land near Phoenix
Three different cacti in one photo: a barrel cactus, a teddy bear cholla cactus, and a saguaro.
We couldn’t read the trail marker…

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Monthly Expenses – March 2019

April 7, 2019 / / 46 Comments

Expenses - image

Every month, I post a report of our expenses to show that it is possible to live a comfortable, exciting, and adventurous life without breaking the bank. The less money you spend, the less you need to make. 🙂 Since July 2018, Mark and I have been combining van life in our Zesty and house and pet sitting, which we did full-time before that. The best of both worlds! 

This report includes ALL of our expenses, in US$, for the two of us. Under groceries we incorporate all the food, produce, and non-alcoholic drinks predominantly bought in supermarkets. Toiletries belong in that category as well. Dining out means eating at a restaurant/event or purchasing take-out food. The health category covers non-prescription medicines and Mark's vitamins and supplements; medical contains prescription drugs and doctor's visits. Because of our income level, Mark and I are eligible for free health care within the state of Massachusetts. For check-ups, we both return to the East Coast.

In March, our van was our home as we traveled the length of Arizona and dipped into Southern Utah. That explains the higher than usual diesel cost for the month. Our back suspension had a crack in it and needed a new bracket. After bargaining down with an Eastern European mechanic in Phoenix, starting at $450 (!!), he quoted us $300 for the job. He definitely tried to take advantage of us. Maybe because we have a "fancy" camper? Maybe because of our Massachusetts license plate? Mark did some research online, ordered the parts himself, and did the work within half an hour for $50!

Our trip on the water revealed a few of Lake Havasu’s replica lighthouses

Leaving the little channel by casino ferry

Havasu Landing on the other side of Lake Havasu is situated in California

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