Making The Motorhome Our Home

Just like moving into a house, we’ve begun the process of settling in to our new home.  Throw rugs, drawer organizers, a shoe rack, sheets for the sofa bed, and food to start stocking the refrigerator and pantry – are some of the things we needed to purchase to make this RV a functioning home.  We have been very pleasantly surprised that Tiffin (the manufacturer) thought of most of what is needed and included it, saving us time and money.

I have cooked a lot and really enjoying it.  I have quickly adjusted to a small sink, limited counter space, a small oven, and no dishwasher.  The plus side is that we have a great microwave, a residential refrigerator, plenty of hot water, and so far I love the oven and can’t wait to do some baking – bread and biscotti for starters.  The weather has been too cool to sit outside at our picnic table but our dining table and chairs are perfect for us.

We worked really hard the last few months paring down our possessions.  It was a great deal of work!  But we have been pretty successful at getting down to what we actually needed in the motor home.  Since we traveled to pick up the RV in our new Honda CRV, on this first trip we only took the bare necessities – just what would fit in the car.  The rest is still in Jake and Julie’s garage which we are planning to pick up when we get up to Portland again.  Even though about half of our stuff is not here with us, we are getting along just fine.  It is making us wonder if we can pare down even more.

So the last few days have been spent nesting.  Today we took a break and went into Downtown Las Vegas.  We decided to go to the Fremont Street Experience.

Our plan was to eat lunch at a buffet so we left after breakfast to check out a few things before lunch.  That might have been a mistake.  The Experience, which is a pedestrian shopping and casino area, was really quiet that time of day.  We pretty much saw everything before lunch.  We walked up and down the street, as well as other areas of Downtown, for a few hours.  We had a great buffet lunch at the Paradise Restaurant at the Fremont Casino.  We first stopped at the Customer Service desk to get players’ cards (free) which gave us each a dollar off an already reasonable price for a huge buffet.  The food was great and we took our time enjoying it and the nice soft booth we were sitting in.  But eventually we had to get up and walk again.

We wandered down to Fremont Street East and found a really nice play area for children that had benches, chairs and a swing.  We spent some relaxation time there, getting away from the noise and commotion for a little while and resting our feet.  We would have liked to see the huge light show and the busier night scene but our stamina was used up and we were home before the lights went on.  I guess I should add that if we enjoyed gambling we would have been able to fill our time with that activity.  We also are trying out our new budget which can’t include things like souvenir shopping or too many admission fees.  We walked up to The Mob Museum (The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement) but the $18 ticket price seemed too steep. It was, however, a really cool building which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

All and all, it was a fun day, just probably not a typical tourist day in Las Vegas since we didn’t spend any money gambling.  Our fun day cost us $25 for brunch and tip, $12 to park and $1.07 for a Las Vegas magnet to add to our collection of magnets from places we have visited.  We also had a lot of good exercise in the fresh air which we haven’t had for months!

We love our quiet nights in our cozy home and if we want to see casino lights we just have to lift our shade to see a nearby casino where the lights dance and change colors all night.  We may visit another casino near our RV resort – Boulder Station – where Betty in the laundry recommended The Feast as a good buffet, but right now we are still stuffed from lunch so we may want to wait a few days!