Trailer Trash!

I traded our fifth wheel for a mobile home!  With this three year gig here in Show Low, and our place in Mexico, we really don't see ourselves traveling any more. Plus, I'd come to realize (well, duh!) that winters in these White Mountains in an entry-level non-four-season fifth wheel would not be much fun. So on my rare days off, I drove all over, chasing Craigslist ads for used mobile homes. One morning, too early for my first appointment, I decided to drive through a mobile home park I had avoided before because it was perched on the side of a mountain. A man working in his yard came over when I rolled down my window. I told him I was looking to buy a mobile home, and he pointed to the one I was stopped in front of. Said these folks want to sell theirs and buy a fifth wheel. Karma! Even trade.

(Sorry for photo quality, still haven't bought a camera. Phone pix.)

This park is thick with very tall Ponderosa Pines. Next to it is National Forest, complete with elk, bears, javelinas, and mountain lions. Campfires with drinks next door nightly. And a 1966 mobile home, dark paneling, single-wide, two bedrooms, and a real bathtub. Compared to the casita AND the fifth wheel, it feels cavernous. My clinic is 1/2 mile north, and the hospital, WalMart, Home Depot, Lowes, and Big Lots are 1/2 mile south.

Ron drove up from Mexico in the truck to move the rig to the park, as the MH owners had taken an empty site across from it. They had already removed their stuff outside, so they sat in lawn chairs and waited for Ron and I to make 18 dozen trips back and forth, moving our stuff out of the fifth wheel. Took all day, amazing how much stuff was in there.

They left it furnished. Some of it will/may get replaced in time, but it's all fine for now. Here are my favorite parts:

Bathtub, shower, COPIOUS hot hot water. After the 6 gallon "navy showers" in the fifth wheel, OMG!

HUGE bedroom closet. Four sliding doors, couldn't even get the whole thing in the photo.

CRAFT room! Funky old big desk, closet, built-in dresser. I'll look for a futon to put where the glider-rocker is. For guests.

Gas grill, bolted to the deck!

Shelving in the living room for tchotchkes, huge cupboards and drawers below. I still have empty cupboards and drawers. That white leather armchair and ottoman I recently bought online from Walmart. I love them. Haven't found a better place for the litterbox yet.

This mobile home is exactly what we need, and where we need it, to see us through our last 20 years or so. After this three year gig, I only intend to leave Mexico for those couple of too-hot months every summer, and this little mountain hideaway is perfect.

More pictures.

Kitchen, big fridge. I can have ice cream, my gin, AND a bag of ice all at once in the freezer, PLUS food!
The opening over the microwave is my bar.

I'm trying to lighten up the living room, may have to delete the dark overdrapes, or whitewash the paneling or something. The older blue sofa has recliners at both ends. VERY comfy!

We did buy a few things. New TV for the wall. (Ron mounted it too high, have to recline so it doesn't hurt my neck) Printer, now that there's room for one. Leopard shower curtain. Lamp. Kitchen curtains (theirs had roosters...)

So there you have it. We are no longer RVers. (Have to change my blog header.) I did feel some remorse, sadness, whatever, after I made the deal but before I moved in, because there've been some good times in that RV. No more. I love my old mobile home!