The Switcharoo

I started this post early this year 2024 with ambivalence if I would ever finish or publish it.  I am going back and editing now that we are in the National election cycle and I'd rather do anything than hear more of the politics.  We are really tired of all of it.  I have been thinking about what to do with this blog for awhile, but there is more to the Switcharoo than just the blog.  We started this Switcharoo more than 12 months ago with our big truck and trailer.  Now we are thinking about a new chapter for our blog.  We think the Pullinchocks Blog has run its' course over the previous 10 years of fulltime RV living.  Now that we have a sticks and bricks house again and a smaller truck and camper, we think a new and different blog is in order.  That will be The Eagle View Blog and will be our next blog post, as this post will be the last Pullinchocks posting.

We started the Switcharoo project in September 2023, and just over 12 months later, voila!  It is complete. We had no idea how difficult this would be.   Even knowing, we would probably do the same thing all over again.  We went from Big Truck and Big Trailer, to little truck and little trailer.

BEFORE: 2018 Ram 5500 & 2013 New Horizons 37 ft, 3-slide 5th Wheel Trailer

AFTER: 2024 Ram 3500 & 2024 Outdoors RV 20ft bumper pull trailer

Winter 2023-2024 - We made a drive visit to stay with Shilo for a couple of weeks.  It was a wonderful visit.  Shilo is looking excellent and living her best life!  We enjoyed desert weather while there, and returned to Idaho before the snow had really started.  Two days after our return the snow came!  

Having fun with Shilo at Christmastime 2023

Grocery shopping in Sun City, AZ

 Shoveling snow in January 2024 upon return to Swan Valley.

That winter we wanted to get some cross-country skis, but couldn't find any used skis that fit us so we picked up some snow shoes at the local "Play It Again" used sporting goods shop. We got in a few hikes and even just walked around our yards with our great neighbors Rick, Patty & Denali the sled dog.  We are standing on just about 2 ft of snow in the picture below.  The snow shoes work great at keeping you up on top of the snow.

Below is a short video of snow shoes in action: 

https://youtube.com/shorts/g6SxVaNZDmE?si=fLINyEy7RotfR918

We spent quite a bit of time last winter and this spring outfitting the house with furniture and a few pictures for the walls, so it actually looks like someone lives there... at least part time!  Below is a project we tried.  We wanted a large picture of some Idaho mountains with a horse or horses.  We thought we could use pictures that we took with our best camera, but it turns out the resolution was not high enough to enlarge up to a 30"x40" picture format.  We found a picture from an online picture house that had the appropriate resolution, and for $25 we owned rights to the high res photo.  A canvas printing company printed and shipped the finished canvas. 

While shopping for this project,we found an art house that had a photo that we preferred and they said they could send us a finished canvas for $1500!  That was a hard NO from us.  We built a frame for our canvas out of scrap 2x4s and the finished product is shown below.  The total cost for photo and finished canvas below was under $100. 

Last winter, we watched Mule Deer herds forage for food around the house.  This buck was looking around on our porch and was captured by our video security.

We watched herds of Elk descend from Mt Baldy most of the winter.  We counted around 150 Elk and 15 Bulls at the peak of our observations.

 

Elk Cows.

We spotted a Badger digging in the pasture across the street for a couple days this spring.

We finally got back on the road in May of this year 2024.  We traveled to Oregon for a warranty repairs on our new camper.  We had to surrender the camper for a day, so we rigged up Jeremiah the Ram 3500 with a sleeping quarter in the back.  It was cold at night, even though we had an air mattress and 30F sleeping bags.  There's our camp set up below.  Not much to it, just a truck and what it could carry.

Our view from the truck cap, and our view from the campsite below that.  The site was up on the hill outside town over looking LaGrande, OR, where the Outdoors RVs are manufactured in what used to be the old Fleetwood RV factory.

We had planned to just travel the state (Idaho) fishing this spring-summer-fall 2024 in our new little camper, but then we completely changed plans and decided it would be best to postpone fishing this year.  When we returned from Oregon, we decided that it was time to go visit Steve's family and mom on the east coast and upon return we stayed in our Idaho home for about a week then set off for the east coast to family and and friends like family.

Our first stop was with our dear friends Jack & Sharon in Huron, SD.  We camped right in their driveway, but the incoming weather sent us off the next day, but we stopped to see some world marvels as we drove on...  The mechanical deer and the world's largest pheasant

Next stop Lexington, KY to see mom & family.  We camped right in Baylor's driveway, he asked his parents Derrick and Jennifer if that was OK.  Fun and games at Baylor's house below. 

We got to visit with mama Kitty at her care facility.  We sang along with a karaoke singer below, mom really enjoyed that.

I had baked mom some pizzelles, just like she used to do for me.  We looked at snapshots, ate pizzelles and had a wonderful visit.

On to Vilas, NC to visit Jim & Michelle.  We landed right at KY Derby time and were able to celebrate Derby with them, a long tradition with Gari & Michelle.  It was a fine visit.  We got to see Michelle's dad, Ed & Sandy too when they drove up for the day!  We camped in Michelle's driveway too.  In fact, for the next leg of our trip to visit Cousins in Elizabeth City, NC we left our camper right there with Jim & Michelle.

We rode in just the truck, just like the Oregon trip, to Danny & Wanda's house.  They surprised us with an awesome dinner out at the Coinjock Marina Restaurant right on the inter-coastal waterway.  The surprise guests were our other Cousins Joyce & Rob.  It was a short visit, but a wonderful one.  Cousin Wanda, if you send the picture from the Coinjock Marina dinner, we will post it here.  We didn't get many pictures, but we did get one of Danny working haha!

Cousin Wanda saves the final Pullinchocks blog post with a timeless photo of the Cousins enjoying a fabulous seafood supper at the famous Coinjock Marina & Restaurant compliments of Danny & Wanda. Thank you Danny & Wanda 💖

We departed Elizabeth City, NC, headed back to pick up the trailer and drove onto Waller, TX to visit with Beth and Chris on their horse ranch.  As usual we camped right in the driveway and had a great visit.  Beth has done some downsizing too, her new horses are little ones!

We just got home from Waller, TX and it was time to take off again for the west coast and Gari's family and dad.  We had plans to travel there via northern Idaho and stop for a great visit with friends like family, John & Susan.

Of course we camped right in John & Susan's driveway, and being fulltime RVers themselves, we had a great spot and hook up!

We did lots of eating, drinking & being merry with so many activities that is a blog post in and of itself! As an example, Gari feeds Flower the Elk cow an apple at the 50th Annual Fred's Elk Farm Reunion!

We sadly departed N. Idaho and went on to our final destination in Yakima, WA to see Gari's dad & family.  We ended up staying longer than expected as we found Jerry's health failing badly.  We had many hours of wonderful visiting and sadly, Jerry passed away while we were there.  We first parked at sister Sandi & Sam's ranch.

When we arrived we found Jerry in the ICU.  Below he was coming around and about to be discharged from the hospital a week later... Jerry made it back to his "home" at his care facility but his body didn't last and he committed his spirit to our Lord Jesus Christ just days before his 89th birthday.

Jerry was buried next to wife Carol with full military honors.  It was a beautiful ceremony.  Below all personnel move toward their positions.

Sam & Gari at a stop at the family campsite up in the mountains outside of Yakima.

We got to work on some projects with Sam & Sandy; this one below was extending electric power to an outbuilding.  It ended up involving the well and we also got to do some plumbing in there too!  Sam is getting ready to cut something with that reciprocating saw!

For a few days, we moved over to our Cousins Don & Jan's home site.  Just like everywhere else we  go, we set up camp in their driveway.  We got to spend a few days with Jan & Don.  We enjoyed an excellent visit and even got to work on some projects around the estate.

Jan & Don 💖

We have been back home for about 4 weeks now.  It has been one event filled year for us!  Since returning we have been able to fit in a little fishing, hiking and buggy riding.  It was a wonderful season of visiting and it is also very good to be back home.