by 
Our plans for a pleasant winter in Arizona turned out to be the End of The Road for our RV Life adventure.
End of the Road
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
End of the Road
End of the Road
It was November 2021 and we were nearing the end of our fantastic fifth year of the RV Life. Spending the summer in the northeastern USA exploring the New England states exceeded all expectations. I never imagined how much natural beauty and intriguing history could be discovered in this region of the USA. Simply amazing!
As we enjoyed the cool Tennessee Autumn at Camp Doney, we took the time to address a major headache that we had been enduring for two years with the Cardinal Fifth Wheel. If you have been following our RV Life chronicles, then you might recall our infamous date of October 26, 2019.
On that day Mother Nature had her way with us and totaled our first fifth wheel trailer; the Crusader.
God, and Foremost Insurance, came through for us with a settlement that relaunched our RV Life with a new truck and trailer in just a few short weeks.
However, we soon discovered an issue with the new Cardinal.
End of the Road
The toilet system was not properly vented, which caused sewer gas to build up inside the black tank. Odor creeped into the main cabin every day, and worse than that was when we flushed it. The gas pressure caused a “bubble burp” of waste water to slosh out onto the floor and all over the toilet bowl, sometimes on us if we weren’t careful! So, it was a nasty, smelly, disgusting clean-up nearly every time we used it.
I probably spent over 100 hours of effort in those 2 years, 2019-2021, calling the Forest River warranty department, talking with RV technicians, researching online resources, and even taking the rig to the shop on two occasions seeking a fix. No one could find the problem, so the issue never went away.
Based on my own research into the history of this particular Cardinal unit, I believe I found the problem. I managed to get my hands on the dealer’s inbound processing log for the vehicle. This was a recorded list of actions taken by the dealer once the unit was received from the Forest River factory to prepare the vehicle for the sales floor.
I found out that the plumbing system was never completed at the factory, requiring the dealer to install water lines and connect them to the toilet.
This was a red flag that hinted to the source of my toilet venting problem.
I do not believe they ever vented it at all!
End of the Road
No one could verify my theory. The only way to prove it would be to completely remove the toilet system to see if the venting was there. I was not about to do this myself and void the warranty, let alone pay a dealer hundreds, if not thousands, in parts and labor costs to do it!
By the time we came to Tennessee in the fall of 2021, I had reached my limit with this toilet problem and started shopping for a new RV. Long story short, we found a dealer close by in Lebanon, Tennessee called Cedar City RV and bought a beautiful Columbus Palomino 2022 Model 379MB. Bigger, more spacious, and a working toilet, it was everything we ever wanted and more. As nice as the Cardinal was, the Columbus was even nicer, providing a big step-up in quality and finishings. What a beautiful rig!
End of the Road
After sharing another pleasant Thanksgiving holiday with our dear friends Ralph & Patricia, we pulled-out with the brand-new Columbus for the long journey to our winter spot in Arizona. Up first was a stop in Warsaw, Missouri to visit our fellow family RV enthusiasts, Baron and Amber. These two were a great help to us a few years earlier when we began the RV Life in 2017.
We parked on Baron and Amber’s property for a few days before heading onward to Kansas City for more friends and family time. We parked at the Worlds of Fun Village, a place we had experienced before. The campground was virtually empty since it was already December. We were pushing our luck with the potential for winter weather, but managed to enjoy a nice visit without any hassles.
The new trailer worked perfectly as we traveled the long road from Kansas City across the central and southwestern USA. We stopped for a night at the Pioneer RV Park near Guthrie, Oklahoma, then continued the next day to Albuquerque, New Mexico, parking at the American RV Resort for the week. We finished the 1300-mile journey to Arizona over the next weekend and settled-in for the winter at the Leaf Verde RV Community in Buckeye, AZ.
One of the first things we wanted to do in the area was visit my dad. He had just recently relocated to the area and was living in the nearby community of Sun City with a new roommate. Friends since the 1960s, my dad moved in with his old pal Bill to enjoy retirement and golf in one the most popular regions of the nation for seniors.
Of course, the old timers took me to their favorite golf course for a fun day of birdies and bourbon! Bill carries a flask to the links, rewarding players with a sip of spirits on every successful put for birdie.
Fortunately, there were far more pars and bogies so we kept a clear head! I suspect this might be his way of keeping the really good players from showing him up too badly!
You can learn more about these “secondhand lions” in my dad’s book, TOM. That was Bill’s amusing reference to themselves, based on the 2003 movie starring Robert Duvall and Michael Caine. I can see the resemblance!
End of the Road
Cheri and I had already fallen in love with the Arizona Southwest when we spent our very first RV winter at Picacho Peak. In fact, my love affair goes way back to many years earlier (see Full Circle – Arizona Highways). So, we both knew that when the time came to finish our RV Life days and settle down this would be the place. Part of our plan for the winter in Buckeye was to do some reconnaissance around the Phoenix area to get a few ideas on where we might end up.
Our initial idea was to find some land and build. We liked the idea of a “shouse” (shed+house), or something like it, where we could park the RV inside a structure that included living and storage space. We had imagined a set-up like this for years and knew the time was coming soon. When we launched in 2017 we figured seven years would probably be enough, so it made sense to start some initial planning in Year 5.
We decided to target the West and North sides of Phoenix, exploring areas like Buckeye, Whittman, and Cave Creek. We wanted to be within an hour of Sun City. After seeing a few rural properties and doing the math, we quickly learned that this approach would be a budget buster, mostly due to the cost of acreage and the expense of running infrastructure to it (water, electric, sewer). So, we switched gears to an existing home. Cheri had her eyes on a small town to the northwest of Phoenix called Wickenburg.
Conveniently located on US Highway 60, only 45 minutes from Sun City, with about 10,000 people, and nestled in the foothills of the Weaver Mountains at about 2100 feet of elevation, it seemed like the perfect spot.
It only took one drive to pique our interest, but after a second visit we knew that Wickenburg was the one.
End of the Road
We contacted an agent for a few showings, fully expecting that we were still in reconnaissance mode and only shopping for ideas. But fate seemed to have our number as we found the perfect house that checked nearly every box on our list … space to park the RV, a horizon view, far from the busy Phoenix metro, but not too far from my dad, new construction, space for a home office and guest room, and most importantly, within our budget.
Our minds swirled. We entertained the idea of ending the RV Life early, but we had just bought the brand new Columbus trailer, Year 6 was already planned, to include Washington D.C. and the Outer Banks, we still wanted to do our lost 2020 summer, and there were dozens more places still on our bucket list throughout the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest.
A strong influencer was the startling realization of some financial fears. We suspected that the outcome of the 2020 election would produce some economic turmoil, but when we were hit with the price of diesel at nearly $7.00 a gallon, we knew we were in trouble for the RV Life. Our budget could not sustain this price-point. The impact was not limited to fuel, as inflation was increasing at an alarming rate all across the nation.
Cheri and I committed the decision to God with a highly-focused prayer.
We borrowed a phrase from our Tennessee pastor, Ron Kairdolf, asking God to let us, “know in our knower”.
This is another way of asking for spiritual clarity as we wrestled with the question … “Do we continue the RV Life as planned, or is it time to come off the road?“
After sleeping on it we decided to take another look at the Wickenburg house, praying in our hearts on the drive up. We stood silently, looking out the living room window, waiting for an absolution. It came to both of us almost simultaneously with an overwhelming sense of, “this is home”. We looked at each other, knowing in our knower, and agreed.
It was mid-January, 2022, when our offer was accepted. A month later we closed, becoming official Arizona residents, and moved the RV from the Buckeye campground to the new property.
The next few weeks were a whirlwind as we drove back to Tennessee (without the trailer) to make arrangements for the transfer of our household goods from the Murfreesboro storage unit. When we arrived back in Wickenburg we stayed in the RV for several days waiting for the moving truck to arrive. By April 1st we were fully settled-in to our new Arizona home and I even started a new job, working remotely for a paper company in Memphis called Sylvamo.
So, it was the End of the Road for our full-time RV Life adventure … five years, 37 states, and over 100,000 miles of exploration. We are so glad we did it and now have a lifetime of memories to recall. As I write this article in 2025, it has been 3 years since we came off the road. We still have the RV and have taken it back out for one road trip.
We will eventually take more trips into the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest. One of our big ideas is to drive all the way to Anchorage and spend a summer exploring Alaska. We also plan to start a Snowbird-style pattern someday soon, where we will take the Columbus high into the mountains during the hot summer months. For now, life is good in Wickenburg and our house guests have the option of staying in the RV during their visit.
I have many more ideas for RV Life articles on Eye of the Beholder, so this is not the end yet!
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Back to top
