Sunday, January 5, 2014

Scottsdale & Fountain Hills

Today is our last night here in McDowell Mountain.
I was only able to get 4 nights here - I need to reserve earlier to
get such a prime spot for longer.

Yesterday we had to run some errands down in the Phoenix Metro.
We hit Camping World, Trader Joes, Home Depot, and
Sur La Table to name a few.

I shot this picture with the iPhone while driving just to give you
an idea as to what the area looks like.


That picture was taken on E Mountain View Drive in Scottsdale 
which is a beautiful town with just about every type of shopping imaginable.
Its hard to believe that you are in the middle of the Sonoran Desert with
all the wonderful greenery.

Last night and this morning I did some minor modifications to the Monty.
I added some 12v LED Rope light under the kitchen & bathroom counters
and mounted a separate on/off switch for each.
It was a modification that our friends Jim & Vickie had made in their
Monty and I really felt it added to the livability of the RV.



The energy efficient LEDs cast a nice warm glow at night and use only
about 1 amp of power.  Power consumption is always important to us since
we spend a lot of time running off the batteries and solar.

In the bathroom I mounted a switch right by the door from the bedroom.
That way if one of us makes a late night run to the head the light switch is
conveniently placed and the gentle light is enough to see what you are doing
yet not so bright to wake anyone up.


The Stainless Steel light switches that I used:

Note - my switch is level - the factory outlet is crooked.
One more example of the shoddy workmanship in the Montana.
In my mind it all about the details...


Today we headed into the town of Fountain Hills - just 10 minutes away - to
take the Doodles for a walk around the famous fountain.


Fountain Hills is a great town. 
It is just outside of the Phoenix Metro in the extreme NE corner yet seems
a world away from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

The fountain park is a great place to stretch the legs and wear the dogs out
and it seems that much of the town comes out on Sunday to do the same.


The fountain goes off every hour on the hour


It shoots over 100' into the air.
At one time it was the highest fountain in the world.


We can see the fountain out the back window of the Monty.
It is like our silent companion when we visit this town.

Now we are back home and the Doodles are passed out on their beds….  nice!

Here is a final view of our backyard. 
The Gentle lighting brings out the subtle colors and textures of
the Sonoran Desert plant life.


Such a beautiful place...
I really need to schedule better so that we can spend enough time here
to take advantage of all that this park has to offer.

Tomorrow (Monday) we move about 50 miles to the extreme NW Corner of
the Phoenix Metro to Lake Pleasant Regional Park.
You might remember that we were there this past November when we
bought the Dog House.
We have one of the best spots in Lake Pleasant this time and we will be
there from Monday thru Friday.
Saturday we will move to Quartzsite for the big snowbird nesting
in the desert.

A big thanks to all of you who leave comments or reply to the
email delivery of the blog.

We love to hear from you and it's great to know that you are enjoying following
the travels.

See you down the road.


7 comments:

  1. Nice job on the LEDs. Looking forward to seeing you at Q.
    Safe travels.
    John

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  2. Oh man, Greg!!!! I WANT that mood lighting too! So much of the factory lighting is not mood lighting - in fact, I really dislike most the the lighting they have installed! Oh well. I'm starting to pack! yeaaaaaa! Look out, I'm packing more arty farty stuff for us girls! Here we come! See you soon. Kristi

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  3. You are really sprucing up the Monty! Looks great. Looking forward to "our" next adventure! (I feel like I'm seeing it all too)

    Amber

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  4. Love the lighting! And the views! Wow! Love the desert. I hope the nice weather holds because I am in desperate need of warm, sunshine. See you soon in Q.

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  5. Nice install on the lights. We use ours all the time. If you remove the outlet cover and loosen the screws, you should be able to straighten the outlet. Great pictures.

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  6. Showed the photos to Eric...mood lighting on Cutter Loose would be great!
    Watch out though, too romantic on the Monty and before you know it, in 9 months, their could be another Doodle on the way!

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  7. The IPY factory wanted $2,500 for mood lighting ibstall. Looks like you need to go into business. Nice work.
    Ps. Every selfue you guys look younger. What is the story?
    Hay-Ray

    ReplyDelete

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