The Lundy 5

Allen

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:00:00 +0000

My favorite time of day. Even when he sings A Boy Named Sue. :) He still can't sing that without laughing. No idea how Johnny Cash did it!
But I love his music in the background. Jack curls up and goes to sleep too. :)

Family fun

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:00:00 +0000

We were sad to miss the FOTR rally in Florida this year, but very happy to get to spend time with 6 families in our campground in Arizona. And when a few families sadly pulled out, more pulled in! So we've had lots of time to chat, play, eat, fix things, compare notes and just enjoy each other. We also learned that when Kimberly Travaglino says "Hey, you wanna have a pizza & game night?" she has something up her sleeve! We had one heckuva game night with 4 families and both kids and adults had a ball! Balloons, bananas, toilet paper, pretzels, candy, straws, popsicle sticks, cups, dice, prizes - she had it all - and it all had a purpose - and it all was hilarious!
It's so fun to have all these families around us! Whether it's a loaf of bread, curtains, a screen door, dog walking, or a fuel filter, there's someone to help, watch, advise, or laugh at. And the kids have so many options! When they walk outside, they have a hard time choosing what to play first, where, and with whom.
We're hoping to catch some of the RVing families now in Florida when we head east, but for now, we're very grateful for the families here in the west. We're blessed to know so many fulltime families on the road!
More pics:

Breakfast with 5 RVing families

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:00:00 +0000

We had a small RVing families gathering for breakfast at the campground lodge. If you consider 5 families and 22 kids small anyway. :) The Northams and my brother Ryan were leaving, and the Garrisons and Ticknors just arrived, so it was a great time to say hi, bye, and eat up! The Travaglinos and Lundys seem to not feel like moving lately. :) We took electric griddles and the kids made pancakes, eggs, and bacon for us!
My brother got to experience a week in the life of a traveling Lundy and commented a few times on the camaraderie of RVing families. We tend to take it for granted, but it's been so great having other families close by. Borrowing eggs, extra playmates, communal meals, maintenance helpers, manual labor, adult conversation... it really is nice having neighbors!

Sedona hike, Cathedral Rock again

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Because we're ~~insane~~ ~~stupid~~ adventurous, we took Ryan to climb back up Cathedral Rock in Sedona. We really wanted him to experience a great hike and view, and I have a feeling Allen wanted to kill him just a little. Some of the Ticknor men came with us this time and again it was ~~excruciating~~ fun! We're always representing. Go Bucks!
We, fine, okay, they spent some time searching for a geocache, which we're pretty sure is gone, or invisible. I'm not sure about that, but I am pretty sure Dana wouldn't have enjoyed watching her boys searching for it on this mountain!
Rocking my camera fanny pack. Yeah, you can't really rock one of these things, they're ugly! But I sure love it for hiking. Especially when we climb and I need both hands. Avoiding death by falling trumps pretty camera bag in this case.
Cactus eating survival lesson. We also had a honeycomb lesson.
At one point, we were resting, and well, maybe feeling a little proud of our private spot, off the beaten path where few dare to climb, when we noticed a climber, above us. Way above us! Then we felt like mere hikers again. :)
More pics:

Allen's black eye

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:00:00 +0000

While chopping firewood for our New Years Eve fire, poor Allen took a chunk of wood to the eye! Very fortunately, he always wears eye protection, or this could have been worse. It swelled shut for a few days, but healed very nicely. He just wasn't very pretty for a while!! Almost back to normal, which, well, you know... :)

Grand Canyon National Park, in the winter

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:00:00 +0000

After Sunset and Wupatki, we hit the Grand Canyon, this time coming in from the east side instead of the south. We had lovely views coming in of the Little Colorado River and its smaller (but huge) canyons. Since it's off-season now, the park was much less crowded and we could drive many (not all) of the roads instead of taking the shuttles.It's an interesting national park because you're "just" looking at one thing, and the view doesn't change much for miles. Granted, that one thing is completely amazing of course, it's just so big, wide, deep, and well, grand. The kids really prefer parks where they have to explore to get to the treasures. So after a short while they get bored, which is frustrating, but understandable. It was also freezing.
We stayed for the sunset and it's neat to see the colors change over the whole canyon.
We're still anxious for when we can take a few days and hike to the bottom! That's more our style.
More pics:

Video of the sunset. It starts pretty dark in the west, but lightens up!

Grand Canyon

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:00:00 +0000

Cute family pic right?
Until you see where they climbed to take it.
This is what my people do. And taking pics of that is what I do. :)

Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:00:00 +0000

On our way to the Grand Canyon, we saw a sign for Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. We had no idea it was there, so we stopped to check it out. We wanted to show Uncle Ryan the diversity of Arizona and here we had no idea there was a volcano with great lava flows to hike in nearby!Then we learned there was another stop, Wupatki National Monument, with many Indian ruins after a beautiful drive, just a little out of our way. Yes, please!
So before our day even began, we'd already had a great one!

Jerome snow & sledding, our private winter wonderland

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:00:00 +0000

My brother Ryan came to visit us for a week! The kids wanted to sled and we wanted Ryan to experience the fun of wearing shorts, then driving up the mountain to play in snow an hour later, so we headed up to Jerome. We had to drive quite a bit higher this time to find enough snow, then we hit the jackpot! We saw a sign for Mingus Recreation Area and checked it out. Turns out there is a (closed) campground (soooo not for RVs!) and a lake, on top of the mountain! We found a great place to sled and had a ball. Then we walked to the lake and found it completely frozen over, so we had another ball!
Uncle Ryan and Matt tried some fancy moves. They didn't end well.
After ~~we'd frozen to death~~ our fun, we walked around Jerome a bit. It's a very cool town literally built into the side of the mountain (needed years ago for the copper mines). The houses are feet from the road in front and appear to be one story, but then you see the backs around a corner and they're 3-5 stories high built into the mountain. And lots of interesting little shops.
More pics:

Some videos of the sledding. Allen:

Josh missing Matt, but not Lizzy:

Josh & Matt together:

Sedona hike, Cathedral Rock

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Our Ohio kayaker friend Kathy stopped by for a few days on her way to California, so we got to show her around. (The kids were especially happy as she's one of the Dayton OAC members who spoiled them rotten, plus she has awesome dogs.) We visited Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well the first day. Then we went to Sedona for some crazy hiking/climbing up Cathedral Rock and then some crazy dirt road driving to more climbing. Maybe not the best thing for Kathy's fear of heights, but I know she enjoyed the views! Its funny, the heights don't bother me, but I wouldn't go near some of the whitewater she kayaks! :) The Northam girls went with us too and we all had a great time!
Here are a few favorites:
Panoramic with 6 pics. You just can't capture the breadth of it!
More pics:

Lizzy's 12th birthday

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Lizzy is 12! Since we were still boondocking, we drove over to the campground lodge to have a little birthday party with our friends.
The birthday girl chose a reese cup cake this year!
She wanted "grown-up-ish" gifts this year, so we got her clothes, which she loved.
We love the drive into the campground. It's so neat seeing Sedona in the background.

New Years Eve in Arizona

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:30:00 +0000

The campground had a New Years Eve party with a band and dancing. We watched for a bit, then ended up dancing the night away. Not Allen, since he was home nursing a black eye. Really, just avoiding all the questions he would have fielded! Fortunately, the party celebrated NYE eastern time, so it was over at 10pm!
Yes, that *is* Matt on the drums. He sweet talked his way into a song!
And then he used his cute super power and invited many of the ladies to dance. He charmed a lot of women tonight!
We all boogied, even Josh, who at first thought he was too cool.
Yep, Matt asked the band to autograph his head. With a sharpie.
Then we headed back home, across the street to our spot on BLM land to have a fire and fire ~~A LOT OF~~ some shots at midnight Arizona time. That's New Years Eve redneck style!

Hot air balloon

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

We woke up to see a hot air balloon landing in our front yard! Granted our front yard at the moment is huge, and public land.

Fun in the Desert

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

We invited the Travaglinos over for a day of fun in the desert. We had a blast (literally) and played on the random boat we found. The dogs even got to run and play. We grilled burgers and just enjoyed our beautiful day in the middle of nowhere, but right at home.
More pics:

Middle of the desert, Arizona

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:00:00 +0000

We moved across the street from our campground to some BLM land for a week so we can move back to the campground when Uncle Ryan comes to visit. (We have to leave after 3 weeks.) It's gorgeous here, with 360° views of snow-capped peaks, the red rocks of Sedona, and the beautiful desert all around us. After our 2 minute drive, we got all set up, leveled, slid, even took pictures - and THEN we found the perfect spot in a little alcove around the corner. So what would make us leave this spot???
This one!!!
Now we're tucked away from the "main drag" (which isn't very "main" since it's a 4WD dirt road anyway). No one for miles, great views, the dog can run, the kids can roam, and on top of that, we have 3G, 5 bars, and unlimited data so we can stay connected, if we want to.

Christmas Morning

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

On Christmas morning, the kids were so happy to find what Santa brought and open their stockings.
Then they spent the rest of the day playing with their new toys, well, when Allen wasn't.

Christmas Eve

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Christmas was a little different for us this year since we weren't in Florida near family. Fortunately we were still around many friends in the campground with the Travaglinos and McCloskeys. We had a secret Santa gift exchange with the kids which was really fun.
Then we had a great feast of a potluck dinner in the lodge!Then keeping our tradition, our kids opened their gifts from us.
Then they tried to stay up all night to catch Santa, which they never do. :)

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Merry Christmas from our family to you and yours! We hope all of you have a very joyous holiday season and a happy new year too! We also hope to see many of you somewhere down the road!
Picture taken at Montezuma Well in Camp Verde, Arizona.
Christmas Card by Elizabeth Weaver at DSP.

Devil's Bridge, Sedona Hike

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Allen arranged a hike for our 3 RVing families (including the Travaglinos and McCloskeys - they're still not blogging yet, I'm trying to use peer pressure). Since we had smaller children and a baby in a backpack, of course he picked an easier hike right? Yeah, no. It was a good one though, and had a great view from the top of Devil's Bridge, a natural arch not for those leery of heights!
And the road TO the hike was pretty crazy too.
More pics:

Montezuma Well

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

All 3 RVing families went to Montezuma Castle and Well. We'd seen the castle before, but not the well. It's a very cool place! It's a spring fed lake almost with cliff dwellings all around it. Where the water from the spring flows out, long ago Indians built it up into an irrigation ditch to water fields below. It was really interesting, and very pretty.

Javalina

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

We kept seeing something like wild boar here in the campground, and found out they were javalina. Certainly new wildlife for us!

2011 Fulltime RVing Lundy Family Video

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 23:00:00 +0000

Allen made another video of our RVing travels and adventures in 2011. We went from Florida to Maryland, took an unplanned turn (nothing is ever planned!) to Missouri, then on to California.

The fulltime RVing Lundy family in 2011:

This year we really slowed down, spending more time in each place. We still saw a LOT and enjoyed ~~every bit~~ most of it. We did get stuck mid-country for the heat wave, which is why we ended up in California to cool down. Then we enjoyed it so much, we had a hard time leaving! Four months later, we finally headed to Arizona. Will we return? Who knows?!

You can also see a video of our first 6 months on the road.

Tuzigoot, Jerome, and snow

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

We went with the McCloskeys to visit Tuzigoot, where they got their first Junior Ranger badges. We checked out the hilltop pueblo village and enjoyed the gorgeous weather, then headed up the mountain to Jerome.
We'd skipped this town last time, so it was nice to get to visit. It's a very interesting mining town built very literally into the side of a mountain. What the kids cared most about though was SNOW! We drove up to 6300ft and let the kids (including Allen of course) play. (Can you tell which kids are from California??)
This area was beautiful this summer, but it's even prettier with the snow on the mountains as a backdrop! It was great to see the snow, but even better to drive home without it!
Many more pics:

Holiday song

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:00:00 +0000

We had some holiday fun with 3 families & lots of kids. Kimberly Travaglino even wrote them a fun RVing song which they had fun with until they got shy. Watch the video!Words to the song: Setting up the satellite, Tripping circuit breakers, Low clearances, Cold showers, 5 miles a gallon, High speed blowouts, Sewer hoses that are too short, Tank sensors that always read full, Finding a place for my tree

RV GPS, great gift idea!

noreply@blogger.com (The Lundys) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

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