Our 2015 Arizona Trip

Well we left  Washington on  January  16th headed  towards sunny  Arizona and meet up with our  friends Kelly  Brook Allen , Ron Stolp and Alan Gillman.
We left on a  wet cold morning and stopped  in Lagrande Oregon at the  Fairgrounds the  first  night.

 it was  really  cold  and sleeting when we  arrived  but we  found stalls for our mules Rita  and Maude and settled in for a  nice dinner.
     The next  morning we thought  that We'd get  up early and hit  the  road. On the  way  we  started hearing Chatter that  there  had been a wreck at  mile post  318 on the  I-84 East  bound. The  freeway  was  temporarily closed at Baker City. Luckily  we  slept in a  bit  that  morning and was a 1/2  hour  behind the wreck. We went in to the  truck stop at Baker  City and had breakfast  and tried to find out when the  Freeway  was  going to be  opened again. They said that  there was possible fatalities. And that there were 15-20 Semi trucks  tangled up and possibly 50 passenger vehicles  in the  mess. The  cause was dense freezing fog and black ice.
     The freeway was closed from 5:30 am until 10pm that  night while they worked  to oclear the  2 eastbound lanes of the  crash debris. We decided  to go back to Lagrande and spend another  night there  and let any  traffic clear  out  so we  would be  tied up in another traffic mess with people trying to get through.

                         Trucks  waiting at a  freeway  ramp in Lagrande  for the  freeway to reopen.

Our  next stop was  for lunch at  the Twin Falls Fairgrounds. We  let  the mules  out for a  romp in their arena and we  loaded up, fueled and made the long haul to Alamo Nevada.

Trailer for sale

We are  going  to be  selling  the  Circle J 4  horse Aluminum trailer  soon. I got  all of the  materials  and plan on recovering all of the  stall dividers in it and  acid washing the  entire trailer. Let  me  know  if you're  interested in this trailer  before  it  goes to Craigslist. asking 10K. It's all Alumininum and is a 2008 model.
You can email me  at  longearsb@frontier.com

A handy  tip for RVer's

     Last year  we took our travel  trailer  to a local RV repair  facility to get  the  hot  water  heater replaced. When we  went  to pick it up we noticed that  the  Propane tanks were  both missing  from the  front of the  Trailer. After  we  found  out that  they  were stolen we were  quite frustrated as we  recently  purchased  the  two new  tanks. Of course  the  RV facility  did offer  us used replacement  tanks but wouldn't  you know  that  they were  outdated and  needed to be "rectified".

    I've been looking  online  for Propane  tank locks so the  tanks on the  new  trailer would  be  harder  to steal.

    The price  of  Propane tank locks  varies  depending where you look.  After  searching on some  of the  Face Book RV tip sites that I belong to I found  an easy solution that  will hinder the thief. It's as simple  as drilling a hole  in the  lockdown screw and  the clamp that  holds  the  bottles down. then you just  install a  bicycle  lock in the  setup and  you're  ready to roll!

Living the Dream… or at least following it

      People  are  asking  me " Why  do you want  such a  big  trailer" and " I wouldn't  want to  pull that thing"  and  this  and  that… So, I thought  that  I'd  take this  post  to explain a little bit for those  that  haven't  been following  along  or  for those  that  don't  really  know  us.
      Peg and  I have  had a  "dream" to ride our  horses in so many  of  the  beautiful spots  that  this great  Country and  Canada  has  to offer for  many  years. Because  of  Work restraints  of  my  previous job and the  fact that we take  care of 14  horses on our  place made it hard for us to get away  for any length of time.
      Last year, We were able to get away from the  farm and  our  jobs  for 21 days to test the waters and  see  if the "dream" was  truly doable. We planned and  prepared  for many  months  prior  to our  departure to Arizona in March. We met  up with  fellow  Back Country  Horsemen members Kelly  Brooke Allen and  Ron Stolp of BC and  their  friend  Darrell Brown in Wickenburg out  on BLM land   where we camped and  rode  with our horses. We  had  the  time  of  our  lives.

We rode several different areas and covered many miles on horseback. We met  new  and  lasting  friends on that  trip all who share  a common interest; Camping  with their  Horses and  enjoying life!
       So, Back to the  original question, Why  such a big trailer. As you can see  from the  photo above, an 8 foot  camper  would  become  a bit  cramped living  in it  for 5-6  months  a year  with another  person. The 4  horse  trailer  however  was  perfect  for 2  horses  to an extended trip. We  used  2 stalls for storage in the  horse trailer. That  is the  reason why we  decided to go ahead  with the 4 horse trailer. In the  coming months  you'll see how we  transform this trailer into a home capable  of  living  off of the  grid and free  of things that  we've all become  so dependent  on in our  lives.
       This  isn't  for everyone we know. We've  been researching Full time  Rv living  for a few  years  now and  although  we  don't  pretend  to have all of the  answers, We are  confident  that this is something  that we  both want to do. We did  alot of shopping around  for a Living  Quarters (LQ) horse  trailer that would  be  comfortable and within our  budget and  looked at  many different  models and  manufacturers. We chose a  Lakota Charger edition. Storage in the  LQ was a paramount  concern for both of us. The  Lakota  has  lots of  cabinets and  it's  light compared to other manufacturers.
       Our  model is a 15'6" Short wall  model with a 6' slide out. The  slide makes  all of the  difference in the world  as  far as room inside. Another  feature  that we  really  liked about this  model is that it has a rear  kitchen in it. The  kitchen is equipped with a 3  burner stove with an oven, a micro wave oven and  a large  RV refrigerator.
       We had  the  Air Conditioner  removed  when we  ordered this form the factory and  had  3  Fantastic fans installed  instead. We plan to install 750 watts of Solar panels on the roof so we needed to have as much space available as we  could. The panels  when coupled  with the  upgraded  battery  bank, will produce  enough energy  to run anything  that we plan on running. We will be able to live off of the  grid  with this  trailer and  not be  dependant  on electricity.
      We understand that this  trailer  may  not  be able to go everywhere that We  would like to travel with the  horses but, It will be able to go to a lot of them. The  thing  that we  had to stay  focussed on was the  fact that we would  be  in this trailer  traveling  for a  minimum of  5-6 months  yearly.
      I hope you'll find this  blog  entertaining  and  educational and  follow us as  we  live  this  dream...

Well it's been almost a year  since  I've written anything  on this  blog and  it really  hasn't  been because I didn't  have  anything to talk about. A lot  has  happened in the  past  year.
We went on several great  horse  camping  trips and  spent  a lot of time  at  our  Cowboy  Campsite.
         I officially retired  from 30 years  at the  County Road Dept. and now  we  are  planning  on going  Full time with  our  horses on the  road. Our  plan is  to travel South in the  cold  winter  months and  come  back North  in the  Spring and  Summer  months. We decided  that it would  be much easier  if  we  did that  in a  LQ horse trailer instead  of the  camper/ Bumper pull trailer  like we  did last  year.
So, we went out  and bought a new  LQ trailer by  Lakota

I plan on sharing  the  process of we  are  doing as  far as the  planning  and  preparing  this  trailer and  what  we  need  to do to get ready  for our  life  on the road. I hope that  you'll find  it  interesting and this blog  gives you insite  of what is involved  in living  the  dream.

Boulder City Nevada- Blakes  RV Camping and Horse Motel

We stopped in at Blake's  Horse motel outside  of Kingman Nevada on the  way down . It is located behind the  Petro Truck stop in Boulder  City. They are  very  nice  people. We weren't  lanning  on staying the  night  but, wanted to get the  horses out of the  trailer and  letthem "roll" in a roundpen and relax from the drive. They charged us  $5.00 for each horse  for the 2  hours that we were  there. They have  a  nice  clean facility. While we were  there  we also took advantage of their clean showers for $5.00 each. You can also camp here overnight for $15.00 per site which includes full hookups. They also have  a laundry onsite and if you don't  feel like  cooking; you can always  walk over to the  truck stop.

These are  the  overnight stalls at  Blakes  Horse  Motel

There are many  miles of  trails  right  out  of  the  back of Blakes RV Camp and  Horse  Motel. We talked  to several people that  use it as  a  vacation campspot and like  going  there.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/blake-ranch-rv-park-kingman

A land where  everything  Bites

One  of  the  first lessons  that I learned  on our  trip to Arizon was  that everything  in the  desert  will "bite " you in one  way or another. 

        Wherever you ride  there are  Cactus with  torns take can penetrate the  toughest  boots, trees that can rip your shirtsleeves from your  arms, and limbs that can rip right  though your Wrangler jeans.

Despite  the  warm weather  of the southern Arizona  Desert riders must  wear  either  Chaps or  Chinks to protect  themselves.

I was  happy  to be able  to field  test B bar B's  Chink for this trip to Arizona and  glad that  I did. 

Their  Chink are  tough and Because of the  open back; very  comfortable as they allow more air to circulate around your  legs while protecting  the front  of your legs. They did get  pretty scratched upon this trip but, for the  most part  kept my  legs from getting scraped up.

Here  you can see that the cactus needles can easily  pentrate  boot leather. they also hurt  when they do!

some  are  up to an inch and a half long and  very tough. You need a good  set of  leg protection and  the  makers  of  B bar B chaps and  chinks  use  good  quality  leather  in their products to keep you safe. I ordered  the  XL Chinks  for this trip but could've  easily  fit into the Large  size as then tend to run big. I just  used my  leather punch and readjusted them to a custom fit. they are  really well fitting  now. just go to http://www.bbarbwholesale.com/western-cowboy-chaps-chinks-c-147.html and see what they  have to offer. I think that you'll be  pleased with what you'll find. Also, They are  nice  people to deal with.