Fun For Sale

This 36' Sandpiper 315BHT has served us well for our year-long cross-country trip. We're ready to downsize and so it's time to look for someone to enjoy it as much as we have. If you are interested, please contact me at thepierrefamily@gmail.com. Renee

Asking price: $22,000 OBO (can also combine with 2005 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD crew cab including hitch if interested... $45,000 combined)


2006 FOREST RIVER SANDPIPER 315BHT
WTS: GVW 14,000#
EMPTY 10,390#

FEATURES:
Fiberglass exterior, Fiberglass end caps
Rubber roof (recently resealed)
3 slide-outs
front master bedroom
rear bunkhouse (desk removed for extra storage)
17 ft awning
50 amp service
15k ducted A/C
Furnace
10 gal DSI gas/electric water heater
(4) holding tanks
Enclosed underbelly (stays heated)
43 gal fresh water capacity
(2) axles
Spare tire
Front electric jacks
Tinted windows
Auxiliary shower
Park cable/phone connections
Exterior security lights
Handicap assist bar
Monitor panel
3 burner stove w/oven
Vent-a-hood
Microwave
Refrigerator
Sink covers/cutting boards
Day/night shades
Ceiling fan
Booth
Kitchen skylight
Linoleum kitchen floor
Sleeper sofa
AM/FM/CD/surround sound stereo
Private potty room
Ceiling vent fan
Shower w/skylight
Mirrored medicine cabinet
Closet w/mirrored sliding wardrobe doors
Bunkroom with full lower bunk and twin upper bunk
Bunkroom fold-away table
Smoke detector
LP gas detector
Pass thru belly storage.

FLOOR PLAN: Front queen, Center bathroom, Center kitchen, Center living, Rear bunks (2).

COLORS: Mauve/tan

Too much time on our hands...

So we've had a slightly less stressful week... with it being a short week at school for the girls (yippee), a less-than-full work week for me (boo-hoo...less work = less money), and science fair season is just around the corner (yikes!)

Soooooo, with so much time on our hands, we just had to play with the camera! Enjoy the pics.

Here's hoping you find stress-free days in your life too!

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving 2007
This was the beautiful scene of last year's magical Thanksgiving in Sacramento with my sister Kristen, her fiance Vaughn, and their friends. It was a Thanksgiving to remember. And this year we're grateful to be home with family and friends once again...this time to have Turkey Dinner with Michelle and Rob and their adorable kids...Jordan and Jonah at Rob's parents' house. It will be a day of playing with little ones, chatting with bigger ones, and filling our bellies with delicious food.

Rockclimbers Beware!

On Friday, Aisha had her first outing with the Rock Climbing Club at high school. She headed up to a placed called Carabiner's and was certified to belay. She didn't get much climbing in, but she is very proud of her accomplishment. She says she owes it all to her favorite aunt and uncle in Sacramento...Kristen and Vaughn...who taught her everything she knows!

Jordan's 2nd Birthday

Jordan prepares to blow out her candles!

Jordan wearing her new slippers from Auntie Kristen

Aisha multi-tasking...
talking to Auntie Kristen and holding "the little man" on her lap
as he looks up adoringly at her.

Yes folks, I know... the stupid camera was set with the date of 4/6/2005. I finally figured out how to get it off the pictures and so now it won't happen anymore in the future. What a pain in the kiester! We had a great dinner at Michelle's house and got to play with the kids...well, Jonah more than Jordan because Jordan was so busy with food and cake and presents. Jonah just sits and smiles...all the time. They are both waaaaaayyyy too adorable!

Happy Birthday Ulana!

We celebrated Ulana's birthday yesterday. Ulana and my dad were married about 25 years ago. She's been in my life since I was in high school. We all feel blessed that she has come into our lives. Dad, of course, is especially glad, but we're glad she's put up with him all these years so we get to hang out with her too :-) She's strong, generous to a fault, a level-headed dreamer (the opposite of dad and me), patient, tolerant, and incredibly thoughtful.

While the girls and I were on our trip this year, she and dad have been our constant. They have been the ones asking, "Where are you now?" and "How are you doing?" They gifted us with a national parks pass and a reciprocal zoo pass. They were part of the reason we headed home a month sooner than expected. We were all a bit homesick and missed Papa and Ulana.

We have been staying in our camper at Papa and Ulana's house for the past month or so. It has been an absolute joy. We get to have dinners together, laugh a lot, and share our lives with one another.

Yesterday, we took Ulana and Papa for a picnic to celebrate Ulana's birthday. We wanted to give her an afternoon of beauty and rest. We took them to Colt State Park in Bristol (beauty in nature) in the late afternoon. We had deli sandwiches, watched the people go by, and watched the sun begin to set. (restful) It was a beautiful afternoon.

The girls and I each made her a gift (we've been very crafty this past year-me with jewelry and Aisha with Shrinky-dinks; soleil is the consummate design and sticker girl). We told her how we each chose the gift we made for her. We're pretty sure no one else gave her the same gifts we did (as they were all one of a kind) and we think she liked them very much.

Happy Birthday Ulana!

There's No Place Like Home

Colt State Park

Bristol, RI

So we spent 10 months, drove 18,000 miles or so, met amazing people and saw some beautiful places in this country. But now that we're home, I feel like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz... "There's no place like home. [click heels together] There's no place like home." Rhode Island is not a perfect place, but it's pretty darn close. For The Pierre Girls, the ocean is pretty near and dear to our hearts and we missed it a lot during our trip.

Within a 20-25 minute ride to anywhere in RI, we have:

Kayaking places

Beautiful beaches; Narragansett is our favorite

A Renaissance City; Providence

Historical villages; too numerous to name, but our favorite is Wickford

Hiking places; favorite is Acadia

Rockclimbing places; Purgatory Chasm in nearby MA

Beautiful places for awesome sunrises and sunsets; Beavertail in Jamestown is our favorite

Lots of open spaces; Goddard Park, Colt State Park to name two

Bike paths; north, south, east and west

Great libraries; borrow from one, return to another, yippee!

Tons of museums; with free passes from the library

And the list goes on and on...

It's good to be home.

Stranger Than Fiction

What a great movie!

It may be a 2006 movie, but we're DVD fans and rarely hit the theater for new movies. After traveling and trying to find Red Box locations in our travels, it was nice to have a movie come to us...well, come to Papa and Ulana's cable box!

So Aisha recognized Emma Thompson's voice from Harry Potter and we both love Will Ferrell. It was a different Will Ferrell than we were used to though. They play the two main characters.

We just loved it. We were really hooked on the story... trying to think ahead as to what might happen next. We were glad the ending turned out to be "less than literary genius" for the author character in the movie. The romantic in me was thrilled with the ending despite the turn of events.

Perfect Spring Day

I've decided my favorite temperature is 76. Not too hot. Not too cold. It's the temperature where you don't need a heater or an air conditioner in the truck. It's the temperature where if you have lots of sun you can leave the windows open in the truck and you're still not cold. Today was 76 degrees.

I dragged the girls out for some exercise... biking on one of RI's many bike paths. Today we did about four miles round trip. Soleil started whining as soon as she saw an ice cream store and said she was thirsty. I told her that she had to wait till we got back to the truck (where the water bottle was left behind). It was a miserable ride back, but her spirits picked up when I told her there was an ice cream stand right near where we were parked. We all enjoyed treats and Soleil enjoyed a ride on the pony express!

Happy Family Day

Today was the be-all, end-all, party of all parties. My sister and her husband hosted families and friends for their newest child's (Jonah) baptism. After the ceremony at the church (which I did a fine job of videotaping I might say), we headed over to Michelle's amazing home and had food, food, and more food. And then we ate cake! The girls got to see family and friends we had not seen in a year and it was a beautiful day full of sunshine and blue sky. We could not have asked for anything more. Well, perhaps to have had all the food be zero calories! Thanks Mich for an awesome day. Send us some photos to put on the blog!

Can you say BIG mistake?

Due to the price in diesel and our very-budgeted funds, we always try to combine driving trips so as to conserve. We've done this for most of our trip. We drive to the place we are going to visit with the camper in tow, unhitch, and then check out places to see that are close to where we are staying. We've continued this practice since being back in RI. I have always pumped my own diesel... except in Oregon where they are all full-serve stations by law.

We recently stopped in East Greenwich and only got $25 of diesel on May 3rd. This station in East Greenwich which prides itself on having "full-serve service at self-service prices." We only used the truck twice since getting that diesel and had trouble with the truck starting at times. It didn't concern me too much because I had an appointment with the mechanic on Thursday May 8th for an oil change and check-up.

On Thursday, the mechanic called to say the truck wouldn't start and wondered if it was due to an alarm or something. I said no, but told him that I had had trouble with it too.

Later on he called to ask me when was the last time I put fuel in the truck. I told him about stopping at the full-serve fuel station in East Greenwich. As I thought about it, I recalled that I had not "seen" the attendant putting in the fuel. That's when we both realized why the truck wasn't starting. I took a moment to look through my wallet for my receipt which confirmed our suspicion. The attendant had pumped REGULAR.... gas.

We don't know exactly how much damage has been done, but it is going to be a costly and time-consuming process to remedy this.

I went and spoke with the owner of the gas station.
It turns out that I am not the first person this has happened to.
He wanted to know if it was going to cost less than his deductible of $500.
I told him he should call his insurance company because yes, it is going to cost more than that.
If the draining of the gas doesn't remedy the situation, we may need a new fuel pump and a new fuel sensor. The parts alone could cost over $3000 not to mention untold hours of labor.

So the truck is at the mechanic's being drained of all the horrible gasoline that has pumped through it's veins and the owner is calling his insurance company to deal with the bill.

My usually very optimistic attitude is a shaken today.
I love that truck.
That truck pulls our home.
I am hopeful that permanent damage has not been done.
I am worried that permanent damage has been done.

We will see...

Rain, Rain Go Away

We arrived to Ginny-B campground in Foster, thrilled to be back home. It was a rainy day, but that did not dampen our spirits! We found our spot, set up the fifth-wheel, hooked up the electricity and tested our internet connection. Uh-oh! No internet. No cell phone. I stood there just completely bewildered! What about work? What about connecting with friends? What were we going to do?

Well, my priority was finding us a new campground and the girls' priority was going to see their Papa. So, we combined these two priorities and we went to Papa's house for hugs and kisses and to use our cell phone to call campgrounds. After much searching, a suitable site did not present itself. Papa invited us to stay in their very long, very wide driveway in Johnston until we figured out what we were going to do.

Happy to be back in RI and thrilled to be staying so close to Papa, the girls and I went back to Ginny-B to close up the fifth-wheel and bring it to Papa's.

Remember how the rain had not dampened our spirits? Well, it did, however, dampen the ground underneath the tires of my truck. We were stuck! We contacted the owner and she was able to get the campground tractor to come and pull us out. The truck was hitched to the fifth-wheel and the tractor was attached to the truck. One, two, three and we were out. We thanked Ginny for her hospitality and her assistance and we headed off to our new, less muddy spot in Johnston.

Leaving 3 Dreamers RV Park in Salome, AZ

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

We spent the month of March living as "snowbirds." You know, the ones who flee the cold to be in the warmer climante. We met lots of retirees from Washington State, Oregon, Colorado, and Idaho.

Some of our highlights were:

• Making great friends.


• Taking our jewelry-making to another level.


• Relaxing in the sun.


• Exploring the desert learning about cacti, rattlesnakes and intaglios.


• Taking a day trip to the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City.


• Checking out the Desert Caballeros Western Museum.


• Doing an Easter Egg Hunt in the desert.


• Living simply.


• Enjoying a slower pace.