Weekend in Southern AZ - The Silver Nugget

The silver nugget. I can't do any better than that.

Weekend in Southern AZ - Breakfast in Nogales

Nogales - First Border Tavern (background) for a good stiff breakfast, then Denny's for lunch.

Day 7 - On our way to Southern Arizona

A deadly rest stop somewhere between Tucson and Nogales AZ. What ever you do, DO NOT go and crap out in the weeds!

Weekend in Southern Arizona

So since our new motorhome is being prepared for delivery and won't be ready until Tuesday or Wednesday, we figured we go to southern Arizona, as recommended by our friends Bryan and Tara who live in Phoenix.

2005 Fleetwood Terra

A model similar to our new motorhome we just bought. It will take several days to get ready since it was traded in as a used model, so we're gonna go goof of for a few days. Beaudry RV the dealership is even paying for a local hotel until our motor home is ready!

Day 6 - No Trailer - New Motorhome

So today we spent shopping for a new motorhome and found something that was only used 4800 miles. It's a used model originally sold from Buda Texas.

Trailer Day!

So we show up @ the RV dealer to take delivery of the trailer we bought. We got a late start and had to spend the night in the new trailer. It rained in Tucson, and rained almost as much in the trailer.

Soooo..we upgraded and bought a 31 foot motor home instead.

Go figure.

Day 5 - The Closest Starbucks in Tucson

The morning beverage of choice.

Sunset Crater National Park

Page AZ to Phoenix AZ Mrs Dirtbagger enjoying a lunch treat with Sunset Crater Volcano in the background,.

Outside Page AZ

Mr Dirtbagger outside Page, AZ neither selling or advertising anything.

Outside Page AZ

Mrs Dirtbagger along the highway just outside Page AZ

No, I don't want to get in the truck

Somebody doesn't want to get in the truck after riding from Odgen all the way to Page AZ.

Day 4 - The Ultimate RV!

A SUPER RV parked in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Page, AZ. The company sponsor is called Petite Patapon and they are a children's clothing company.

Day 3 - Ogden to Page

After the trip to the Patagonia outlet, we drove most of the day to Page AZ. No photos during this day.

Ogden Utah

Centenial Trail into the Wasatch mountains, Utah

Ogden Utah

Pretty Kur Dog aka Missy in Ogden, Utah

Day 2 - Ontario Oregon to Ogden Utah

Mrs. Dirtbagger in the world famous city of Ogden, UT. Kuri is in the back ground looking for a place to uh....potty?

Day 1 - Seattle to Ontario OR

Mrs Dirtbagger @ Pendleton Woolen Mills in where else, Pendleton, OR.

Trip to Tucson - Departing

Ready for the road trip to Tucson, AZ. We are happy because we have no idea what is in store for us of being on the road 3 weeks.

Departure Day is Near

So tomorrow we leave for the big road trip to go get the trailer. The back of the truck is full of crap, and my bag has the essentials, laptop, GPS, and cell phone. Plan is looking like this:

Blast Down South
2/14/05 - Ontario OR (Not staying long, nothing here)
2/15/05 - Ogden UT (Uh...No Comment)

Arizona Time
2/16/05 - Page AZ (Check out North Rim in the winter)
2/17/05 - Phoenix AZ (See friends Bryan and Tara)
2/19/05 - Tucson AZ (Stay in Tucson RV park with new trailer)
2/22/05 - Kingman AZ (Boondocking in the desert?)

Californication
2/23/05 - Joshua Tree National Park CA (Winter rock climbing?)
2/26/05 - Santa Monica (Gotta love the pier)
2/27/05 - Cambria CA (Artsy-Fartsy community)
2/28/05 - Half Moon Bay CA (Nice Beach)
3/01/05 - San Fran (See Friends Jim and Yvette, Duke and Lena)
3/02/05 - Point Arena CA (Never been there)
3/03/05 - Eureka CA (Not Yreka)

Ye-Wife-Or-Ye-Gun
3/04/05 - Grants Pass OR (Cool School)
3/05/05 - Tigard OR (ehh, who cares where?)

WAWA
3/06/05 - Kennewick WA (where they found kennewick man)
3/07/05 - Nine Mile Falls WA (Ma's House)
3/08/05 - Sammamish WA (Home again, home again, jiggity jig)

Bon Voyage Dinner

Mrs Dirtbagger and I hosted a little bon voyage dinner last night as a precursor to our big departure. Some of my very best friends were able to attend including Matt and Stephanie, Brian and Gloria, Tim, Peter, Michelle. It was fun. Fabien, however is still stuck in France. Poor Bastard!

Tomorrow we spend the day loading the truck and getting ready to hit the road on Sunday.

Days 5, 6 and 7 - A Road Trip Across the State

So for Saturday we decide to haul a load of crap across the state and store in the new house. Here is Mrs. Dirtbagger and the Chessa-dork getting ready for the road trip. Notice the bitchin fog lights and awesome ARB bumper on the front end of my truck!

4th day of retirement

Today's events:

• Get up @ 8:30 am, again!
• Feed Dog
• Eat breakfast, home-made museli
• Ordered extended RV mirrors for truck Good.
• Accidentally deleted all 5 GB (more than 100 CD's) of music from my IPOD. 5X Bad.
• Made appointment w/ Andrea @ Slave to the Needle
• Go get new adapters for IGo 7500 universal power supply adapter for Sony Camera, Motorola Phone, Apple IPOD. I've now eliminated 3 power adapters for road travel. 2x Good.
• Went to Patagonia store with Mrs Dirtbagger. Good.

3rd day of retirement

Order of business today:

• Get up @ 8:30 am!
• Feed dog
• Eat home-made museli breakfast and drink sencha green tea
• Go to doctor's appointment
• Pick up truck load of new furniture for new house
• Washed Truck
• Take dog for a walk
• Go for a road bike ride
• Eat dinner
• Watch DVD and post DVD review
• Read
• Sleep

See how much damned stuff you get done, when you don't have a job? Awesome, huh?

2nd day of retirement

Sun was shining. Bird were singing. Huh? It's February in the Pacific Northwest! We don't see the sun until AT LEAST APRIL!

Oh well, I don't have to work. What a wonderful day. Mrs Dirtbagger went for a jog, I went for a 2 hour mountain bike ride, in a short sleeve! Awesome!

Took the dog for a walk @ Marymoor. Gonna miss that place.

1st day of retirement

Okay, it was our first day of retirement, and we slept in, since obviously we didn't need to get up early to beat the traffic. I went for a 2.5 hour bike ride, Mrs. Dirtbagger went for a jog. We took the dog for a walk.

New IGo power adapter showed up from www.buy.com. Got it for 60 bucks below regular retail. Go www.cnet.com, the list all the suppliers so you can pick the lowest price with best reputation.

Hell, I'm already relaxed and this is the first day.

Our Last Day of Employment

OK, so it was kinda surreal today. Today was the last day of our employment. So tomorrow we get up, for...uh nothing.

• Mrs. Dirtbagger: "I'm free, I'm free. I've free to be me!"
• Mr. Dirtbagger: "Wow. I don't have a job. Wacky man, wacky."

Wow, I'm already bored. Maybe I'll go find a job.

New Super Fly Ultra Cool Sony Vaio Laptop

Here is a pic of the new super fly ultra cool laptop I purchased for the road trip. True, I took 20 hours to decide which model, but I'm really happy with it, and the price I paid.

Fog Today

I was so excited this morning. Today we had fog. So I drove down the road with my new fog lamps on. I'm such a redneck. Anyhow, we've tons of places to visit lined up. Here is how it's looking:

• Feb - Trip to Tucson, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree National Park and back via the 101 on the California Coast.
• March - Trip to Oregon Coast with my Sis
• April - Trip to Bend, Oregon to climb @ Smith Rock state park with Brian and Gloria
• May or June - Visit Mrs Dirtbagger's sister "Louie" at da Joursey shour
• July - Trip to Alaska
• August - TBD

My Own Private Idaho

So I have to purchase a new personal computer. If we're gonna keep some sort of log of our travels, and keep a buh-zillion pictures, gotta have a lame excuse to buy a new PC. Isn't THAT exciting? Well actually it is. Here visibility to my personal hell aka my own private Idaho.

Spend oh, 10 hours determining who are the major players in the laptop market. Spend another 10+ hours figuring out which retailer has what PC at what price. Who will sell the EXACT same PC with the EXACT same configuration, for the lowest cost? www.newegg.com.

So the dilema? I bitch about spending money. I just bought a 1500 dollar laptop. I complain that I don't have time. I just spent 20 hours picking out a PC. The new PC better be cool or I'm throwing it into the lake, or even better, burn a hole in it with my new fog lamps.

Hello Camping World, Goodbye 450 bucks!

The aroma of Tacoma drew us in. Yep, that is right. Mrs DirtBagger and I in our preparation efforts spent nearly 500 dollars on random crap for our new trailer. What might you ask? Things like plastic wheel chocks and 4.99 each (gotta have 4 of them bastards) and a Woodalls camping guide at 12 bucks, a BBQ'er @ 100 dollars, special toilet chemicals, special toilet paper, special this, special that. Christ. Seems like in our feeble attempt to downsize and simplify our lives, we've just added another mechanism of complication.

Oh well, it's not the destination, but the journey, and we'll have tons of crap to leave as breadcrumbs for the return trip home. Breadcrumbs....Didn't Hanzel and Gretel get eaten by the witch?

Two Aces Make a Pair of Lights

OK, so I decided to spend my Saturday putting the new PIAA foglamps installed in my truck. These are not some cheesy Shucks Auto Supply pieces o' crap. These babies are high intensity, halogen retina burners! All the kids have them, and I gotta have mine too!

Beauty was, it only took two trips to my local Ace Hardware store. Once to get the parts, and trip two was to replace all the fuses I blew installing parts from the first trip. The rules of home improvement also apply to cars too.

So here is a photo of the finished product, my awesome ARB Sahara bar and PIAA fog lamps. Now, all I have to do is sit patiently in the cab of my truck and wait for some fog.....

Bitchin' Hitchin'

My local UHaul installed my brake controller, and heavy duty class III hitch with the weight distribution components yesterday. How Bitchin' I'm ready for some super duty hitchin!

Map? Map? I don't need no stinking map!

Today we dropped off the truck @ a local Uhaul dealer to have the class III receiver, weight distribution hitch, and electronic brake controller installed. It was done in less than 3 hours. Looks like the only thing I need to do is have the oil transmission cooler installed. Can't imagine blasting down the freeway to have my tranny overheat and blow tranny fluid all over I5. What a site that would be. We're about 3+ weeks away from trailer pickup.

Our route to Tucson and back via the land of fruits and nuts (California) is over 4300 miles long. Hope I have damned good map.

Par-TAY!

Looks like folks have organized a little get together for me @ work. Should be fun. Get to hang out and look @ the expressions on people's faces as I tell everyone why I'm quitting work and have decided to travel travel around in the US of A. Some call it a walkabout. I call it bliss.

Quartzite AZ, here we come!

SMOG LOG HOG BLOG

Fabien has a BLOG - http://neibaf.blogspot.com
Michelle has a BLOG - http://maislen.blogspot.com

Man, I'm really behind on this thing. Here are two of my best friends pouring out their deepest feelings in their weblogs, and Mrs. Dirtbagger and I are detailing modifications to my truck to pull our trailer. God, I am so shallow. Oh well slow and shallow like a pond always returns to it's calm state more quickly than the ocean. Am I serious?

Time to go. Gotta go get a botox injection in my butt.

I have noticed, that you're unemployed...

Today I gave notice I was leaving my job. After 16 years of working, and 10 of those years for the same company. We've decided it's time to go do something new and live a little. Life is too short to save up for "someday." What if someday never comes? For some it never does...

I'm just waiting for my prince charming...

Home sweet home?

Today we made a downpayment on the travel trailer we're gonna buy. Now we need to quit our jobs and road trip to Tucson AZ to go and get it.

Clearly our first quality step to some good white trash living!

The Setup

Our History: After countless years in the corporate world, it's time to say the hell with it. It's a new year, and time to do some new things, so we are quitting our high paying, high tech, high stress jobs on January 31st, 2005.

Our Title: It's a combination of a midlife crisis and living cheaply. Yea, we're over 30, and dirt bagging is a term borrowed from the rock and mountain climbing hippies. Work a job, save up enough money and go live off that money in a low or no cost, minimalistic style. This life is generally frowned upon in today's materialistic society. It should be fun. I mean who doesn't enjoy a road trip? It's a total piece of americana.

Our Plan: Buy a good cheap travel trailer, and travel throughout the western United States going on 2-3 week road trips, come home for a while and then take off again. Yep, this is good white trash living @ it's finest.

Our Crew: Mr Dirtbagger, Mrs Dirtbagger, our Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Kuri, aka KurDog, aka Missy, aka Brown Dog, aka Fish Sauce, aka Woo McGoo AND a fat black cat named Spookamo, aka Dorkmier, aka Dorkmeer, aka Hootie, aka Hootie Dootie, aka Jabba the Butt, aka Sphincter Boy, aka Buttmier.

Xmas post

This is Kuri and I @ my mom's house in December.

Family Fun

Here is Eilie, Nathan and Mr Dirtbagger during Christmas. They are such good kids and so fun to be around.

Mrs and Mr Dirtbagger during the Holidays

So here we are @ the holidays, ready to take on the world, as a couple of unemployed fools...

What? It has no wheels!

Front view of new house on the other side of the state. Unlike my "other" house that has wheels this one won't move around. Nieces call this one casa grande!

Message to Family

So guess what's new? Everything?

In light of recent developments and due to an urge to try somethingnew....we have decided to retire. Yes, that is correct, Brad can't bethe only one to attempt this! We are officially quitting our jobs, selling everything, downsizing and moving to a new location in Washington. See new house photos attached.

What you say? And When? Well, officially end of January we will beamong the unemployed. We are buying a new travel trailer and will betooling around the North American continent visiting parks and such. When we get bored we might start a business of our own. I think it's called dirt-baggin', but whatever it is, we're doin' it.

Our furry children will not be requiring a college education (Kuri is a bright girl but home-schooled, Spookamo is a 'tard and ain't got no schoolin', but we love him). So we have no obligations and have decided on a new life style far from the elegant ivory towers, internationaltravel in business class seats, 5-star lunchrooms, corporate phones/cars/pagers and let us not forget the back stabbing, gossip mongering, brown nosers, clueless managers, 60 hour work weeks, endless meetings and thousands of emails.

We are joining the ranks of the "We live on a fixed income, subscribe to AARP and Trailer Life Magazine" retired. No more fancy Christmas gifts or Birthday gifts from us so please reset your expectations. When we visit we will not be arriving in an airplane, instead look for us to pull up in your driveway in our trailer - hope you have hook-ups, especially the sewer! Yes it's shocking and daring but we have been fortunate to have just enough investments to get by, supportive friends and family and a new outlook on life in general. We are going for the gusto!

Mrs.Dirtbagger in Hong Kong

Mrs Dirtbagger looking hip to be dirtbaggin somewhere in Hong Kong on her last business trip. What a cool chick. She is gonna be my travel partner for the next 24 months. Hope she doesn't divorce me as a result. If she does, she gets custody of the cat.