Winter Vanlife Big Changes Before Snow Season (reuniting with our tiny home)

Good morning. Gotta get those pants. Well, we got in late last night. Didn't really have a chance to move into desert snow yet. We just kind of came in, got a few things settled and went right to bed. It's a beautiful day here. There's some great bike trails. So I think that's a great way to kick off the morning. Tana's still sleeping. So I want to get a few things ready and then we'll get her some coffee. Now, one thing I realized I forgot to bring and left in storage are actually the chargers for the electric bikes. But fortunately, I just checked the power. We have full charge right now. So at least we can get a nice bike ride in. Have to get those when we get back to the storage area. Hey, you're sleepy. Morning, babe. How you doing? It's a little dark still. I made you some coffee to go on it. I think you may want to sleep a little bit. I'll keep it on the warmer. Good morning. Oh my goodness gracious. I had so much trouble getting up this morning. I, first of all, I had trouble falling asleep last night. I have to really clean this RV inside. I think two months. I was collecting two months of dust. And as I slept on the pillow, I felt like I was just breathing in like a lot of dust. But I still, I still want to hug you because it's so nice to be back and I'm on wheels. Oh, now it's time for me to have this morning coffee. Can I just tell y'all how amazing my husband is? I don't know. I just, I really love doing this with him and waking up, having coffee, you know, seeing how excited he is to get the day started. He's already mapped out. I think some bike paths and trails that we're going to be checking out. And I think there's some cool hiking trails. We actually learned from some of the locals and folks that work here that we're looking to check out as well. I think that's how we'll kick off the day. It's just really embrace some of the fresh air being up this high in elevation. I love being up here with this elevation. I just feel like the air is so fresh. Oh yes. And then I have to address this mess inside the camper van. It is time for a little bit of a change. I've actually ordered quite a few things that should be arriving soon to this campground that we're going to make some changes in here, which should be nice. You know, I think getting him back, I just feel like we need a little fresh change in here. So I'm already working on a couple of ideas. I've ordered some things, so we'll see how that goes. But right now I'm going to finish this coffee because I know Dave is ready for that bike ride. Oh, and before I head off on this bike ride, I just want to say thank you all so much for the tremendous support you've shown Dave and myself throughout this process of getting the rig back. It has not been an easy process, but also on our healthier life journey, you guys have been right there in the comments with us, which really, truly helps to motivate us in staying and getting back to a healthier life. So thank you all so much for that. Bike ride. All right, babe, ready to rock? I am. It's been such a long time since we've been on these bikes and I've been dying to see and try out some of these trails here. We didn't have our bikes to do it. Now we do. I'm ready to rock. Woo! Let's do it. I'm on a high. Riding down the highway. Feeling things my way. Oh yeah. Look at Dave. Go, Dave, go. Oh, here we go. Oh, geez. Oh, I better hold on to, whoa. I'm not going to do this holding this camera. A lot of rocky terrain. Oh, you have to really focus. Oh my goodness. This is so much fun. It's so beautiful out here. Up here comes a twister. All right, nice job. You got this. Nice job, baby. All right. You're cruising. Now one thing for sure, we are really starting to feel the altitude. It's like- Yeah, dude, on electric bikes. I know, exactly. It is amazing, we're on electric bikes, but you feel the altitude. We started to go uphill a little bit. We aren't this out of shape. That's not it. It's the altitude. Okay, I know why this is winded. Because these trails, this is a UTV trail. So you have to not immensely focus on a bike. But we have a small electric bike, so we have to focus on these trails, which takes a lot of energy and effort. So it's definitely exhausting. Woo, we did it. Great job, Dave. High five. Well, you know, we still have, we're a quarter, three quarters of the way there. We still have to get back to camp. Yeah, but it's all paved. Well, mostly, mostly paved. Mostly paved from this point on. Can we get a thumbs up for Tanya? Hey, thank you. Great job. Can we get a double thumbs up for Dave? Because that's the man with the plan. Give me a kiss later. Yes. That was great biking. Now, hiking. Welcome to Moki Caves. The entrance to the sand caves. It's about a half mile down from the Moki Cave Museum that we saw top a little while ago. But it's really neat over here. And it's actually by a best friend's animal rescue shelter where you can volunteer. And they're hoping that you volunteer enough that you might even adopt a friendly four-legged friend. So. I think they allow RV camping at the spot, right? Yeah. Right, and so some of the RVers will actually help out, I believe. Maybe volunteer or something. Which is pretty nice. And I think it's smart because they'll probably get some of those RVers to take some of those pets. That's the hope, right? Exactly. That would be nice. Okay, so are you telling me we have to go, we have to scale this wall to get there? We're gonna scale the wall. Oh my God, we have to scale the wall. Just change the angle of the camera. Okay. And now we're gonna make it. Oh, he's gotta climb. Gotta climb. Oh my, ah, geez. All right. Oh, he's doing it. I'm doing it. He's doing it. There it is. Oh, he's scaling. Oh my gosh. There's a, watch out for the, there's grands of sand. Yeah. You gotta be careful with that. Okay. Oh, you got it, baby. You got it. Wow. That is so cool. This is so cool. I'm gonna circle around you, show you everything. Oh, look at that. That's amazing. Look at that shot. Holy cow. Gosh, this is so beautiful. This is an amazing hidden gem, right? Totally unexpected. And some locals said, hey, you gotta check this place out. Yeah. And it's so cool. Thank you guys. They were so great in this recommendation. I mean, it's part of Kanab, which is kind of cool. It's just a really little bit off the beaten, not even off the beaten path, off the road, just slightly. Yeah, right off 89. Easy trail. And I love it so much. Like you come up here, I didn't expect this, but it almost reminds you of like, if you're like deep sea diving and you're going through like these water tunnels or all these caves underneath the water, this kind of reminds me of what probably was once under the ocean. Right? And the sand is like incredible. Yes. Fine sand. Incredibly fine. I thought you were about to lift it. I was just nosing up on my face. Yeah, I was like, sand in my face. But it's cool. So we should probably explore some of this because the sun is probably gonna set and it might not be a wise idea to be in the caves at night. So of course, while still in Kanab, we had to eat. It's sort of a vegan, vegetarian, but there's meat options as well here. And I'm really excited to try what's on the menu. Now, I know we already ordered our food dishes. This is not a food review video, but oh, tropical piggy and pistachio chicken. How's your soup? Damn good. You're in heaven, huh? It's really good. Oh my gosh. It smells so good. Look at that chicken breast. I loved it. Pico de gallo layer on top. I'm sure it's gonna be sweet, savory. I think you're gonna like this one a lot better than what you got. I am struggling to get the first bite. Oh my God. I feel it's like the perfect meal for the adventures that we had today. I just think it just brings everything together and it's so hearty and delicious. I'm on, you feeling Irish? Yeah, they call this dish tropical piggy. Is it look tropical piggy to you? Smells tropical piggy. Basically Jamaican pork. You're gonna love it. Pork is incredibly tender. There's a really nice spice to it too. And I don't think it's gonna be too hot for you because I said that before, but it's good. And you know, the jerk sauce really jumps out at you as well. We have definitely enjoyed our time here in Utah. The fresh air, that mountain air, the biking, the hiking. Getting off my feet for a second. I have to say this. I know we've been away from Desert Snow two months now. Finally getting him back and he is dirty. He needs a lot of cleaning and I've been procrastinating out of bed for sure, but it's about time I get busy getting things organized in here. And I'm gonna make a few big changes right now. Starting with this. It is finally time for us to change these mattresses. ♪♪♪ Thanks Brooklyn Bedding for sponsoring this portion of today's video. RVmattress.com is a Brooklyn Bedding brand known for its top of the line quality and comfort. Plus they have a factory in Arizona and ships conveniently to you for free anywhere in the US. They have quite a bit to choose from on their website, offering different firmness options, height and dimensions. We ordered two DreamFoam essential mattresses. Yes, DreamFoam y'all. And a 32 by 74 with a six inch height. When searching for a new camper van mattress, we personally felt it had to be comfortable, durable. Certainly helps us get a good night's sleep because y'all know a good night's sleep leads to a long, healthy marriage. And of course a little tongue is good cooking. What we like most about our mattresses is the comfort level and quality compared to our factory mattresses. Now our factory mattresses were comfortable, but these mattresses are comfortable. And because we do a lot of camping in the heat and the cold, it's really nice to have mattresses that are temperature controlled. Not too hot, not too cold while camping. Plus they're affordable and high quality, a winning combination. With your RV mattress by Brooklyn Bedding, you get 120 sleep night trial plus a 10 year warranty. You can't beat that. And they deliver your mattress right to your doorstep for free within US. I know I keep saying this, but we really do enjoy our mattresses and we think you will too. If you're looking for a new bed, go to rvmattress.com. You can click the link below or go to rvmattress.com forward slash turnitupworld for 25% off your mattress. Using the code turnitupworld to help support our channel. So now that I made a good start on the bedroom area, I think it's time we attack this. Oh my goodness. That looks like it's gonna be all day. I better get started. Whew, okay, I am tired and exhausted. You know, it takes a lot of work for this hippie girl to move around these tight quarters. I will save the rest of this for another day. I'm starving. I know Dave is starving. And there's a little restaurant we wanted to try here on the campground. I think we're gonna treat ourselves to a nice little dinner starting right now. We'll see you at dinner. So a little hop, skip and a jump. Dave's already inside. But here at Pinewood, the resort, there's a restaurant inside. Now the owner, who we're gonna meet in just a second, he had a former restaurant, shut it down, opened up this resort, and he's also the chef here. So folks have already said this place has some dynamite food. So we get to experience some of his chef cooking. And this resort actually, believe it or not, is open all year round, even in the winter. And I think that's true with the restaurants. It's gonna have the same schedule of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, but we'll find out more when we get inside. But oh, I am so starving. Dave's already inside. Oh, look how cute this, look, how cute this is. Oh my God. Hi, Dave. Oh man, I'm excited. I know. And I'm really curious about Lee's cooking. I was just telling them. I was like, you know, this is kind of like, we get to experience the owner and the chef. Oh no, it's like the man of mini jobs. Yeah, and I gotta say the menu, I took a peek at the menu. It looks, I love it, because it looks very straightforward, not too fancy. Just, you know, it's kind of the stuff we like, I think. I see that blackened salmon. Yeah, and I see that rib eye. I knew you were looking at that. It's gonna be a good night. And if you are coming for dinner, you should also know they have a really nice bar here. A new bar, they just got their liquor license. So if you want to have a drink, come by the bar. I think that's pretty nice. So before dinner, it's obviously a nice perk to get back into the kitchen. So we get a little invitation to check out Lee in action. So let's check it out. Hi, you should have shaved that for me. Yeah, I shaved that, yeah. How's it going? Looking good. Say hello. Hello. All right. So, hi, chef. David. How are you? So this is Lee. He's the owner of Pinewood Resorts and Grill here. And he's also the chef. And I kind of briefed you. So you can probably tell a little bit more about his passion and how he started this, just to bring more awareness to this bar, because it's an absolutely stunning place. So he's already hard at work. Here it is. So tell us, inspiration behind this, inspiration behind your menu. Honestly, this is 35 years, probably, of all my classics, all my favorites. And that's why we felt confident coming in here and doing this project, because they're just yummy dishes, but they're comfort food, just maybe a little elevated, hopefully. And now we're trying to start nightly dinner specials. And right now we're four, Thursday through Sunday. Correction, I thought it was three. Now it's four. That might get us in a lot of trouble. And hopefully we get into breakfast and lunch soon. That's what we're shooting for. If you guys want to come up, we'll dig you out and make a place for you. I love it. I cannot tell you, I've seen someone out here morning, one o'clock in the morning, I think it was, or 12 o'clock or whatever it was, working, getting up, working. And now he's in the kitchen working, so. I was trying to be quiet, I'm sorry. You mentioned some of your favorites. What are some of your favorites? Definitely the chicken corn and blue. Our chicken parmesan is a very popular dish here. I'm a very big Alfredo guy. I have Alfredos everywhere I travel. This is just one of my favorites. And yeah, just one of those wholesome, great classics. But you can never pass up a good ribeye, too. Well, that's what Dave said, so I think that's probably what he's going for, but thank you so much for doing this. I will tell you this, I spent three days sacrificing eating ribeye steak three nights in a row trying to make sure we had the right grub, and I think we got it. Awesome. Okay, babe, no surprise, right? I gotta go for the ribeye. I know, you're going for the ribeye. And just so you guys know, I'm gonna read it from the menu. It's the charred broiled ribeye, slow-cooked with our own house rub. And according to Lee, they tested a bunch of different rubs, have the perfect one now. Served with seasonal veggies and house-made whipped potatoes. You get the house cut, which is 12 ounces for 32, or a mountain cut, 16 ounces for 42. I'm just going for the house cut, that's fine for me. I don't know, there's just something about the decor in here. I come in, I feel it's super inviting. Inviting enough for me to wanna order the salmon. So I'm going for the blackened salmon, and I'm gonna read it from the menu for you guys, because, you know, might as well get the full scope of this. But it's actually, you can have it charred, grilled, or blackened. Pan-roasted, house-seasoned, served with seasonal vegetables, and a house-made whipped potatoes. But I'm swapping out the potatoes, because as you heard from Lee, the alfredo is the die for, so I don't know how he's gonna mix it up, match it up, but I'm gonna have a little bit of alfredo in there, just to enhance the experience. And that right there, y'all, is 22 bucks, so. Babe, this looks really good. It looks amazing. And we know it's homemade, which is awesome. And I gotta do some of the crackers, just gotta do it. I'm ready, here we go. That's good, babe. Well done, that's good. Oh. All right, everybody. What have we got here? Just a little sampling of what we do. This is our chicken cordon bleu, with our fresh Mornay sauce. And this is our chicken parmesan. I just made little mini portions for you. Oh, perfect. House-made garlic bread. Oh, thank you. So much. Ooh, babe, we're in a world of, I'll be ready for hibernation after this. But these are just samples of his dishes, like he was saying. So the chicken cordon bleu, which he mentioned earlier, is one of his staples and favorites, so I'm looking forward to that. Of course, the house-made garlic bread. I'm about to dive into this. Ooh, you can just, that crunchy skin on the top. Ooh. Oh my goodness. I have to say, I really love, I love salmon. I love how he prepared this, that crunchy top layer, that blackened flavor. And I love when salmon doesn't taste super fishy. That's just me. But it is dynamite. The little lemon on there, the roasted veggies. This smells so good, babe. It smells so good. Can you smell it over there? I can. I'm diving in here. And I asked for a medium, and I gotta tell you, I nailed it. All right, looks perfect, yeah. What's perfect medium? Is it taste medium? I'm gonna find out. Just taste it. That's a great rub. That is a great rub. That's good. So we have to mention, so Lee actually brought out another dish for us. He just couldn't leave us without trying all of his lovely dishes. And he brought out a pork chop that has like an apple on top with a whiskey base. It's just supposed to be dynamite. So we're gonna sample. The good thing is now, we don't have to go grocery shopping. We have a week's worth of groceries. We might be staying here a little longer. Now we can last. Thanks, Lee. Oh, okay. He was smiling at me. Truth be told, Dave, I am like 80% full. So this dessert is probably just gonna have a bite or two. What do you think? I agree. Bite or two. Bite a few, then take it home for later. I feel bad. I'm just gonna dig into his eye. I'm just gonna take a right big bite out of that eye. Go for the eye. Oh, but it's a blueberry crumble cheesecake. And I'm just gonna do one good size, and that's it. That is dynamite. You know, I know you're not fully into cheesecake, but I think you would absolutely enjoy this. It's got a cold feeling, almost like ice cream. The crunchiness from the crumble and the blueberries tastes fresh. I know he's only got one eye, but Dave, I think you should take the other one. So good. I'm gonna eat the eye. Time for you to eat that. I knew it. Feel the heat in here, babe. Ooh, this looks nice. Ooh, look at that. Come on, open up, baby. Come in, ooh. Nice and warm in here. Oh my gosh. Oh, it looks amazing. It looks so clean, too. Oh my goodness. All right, perfect timing as we're about to get into the hot tub. And I don't know if it's true or not true, but there's a lot of lightning and thunder happening outside, right. Oh my gosh. Did you hear that? Yes. And I don't know. I am a hot to trot lady and my hubby's pretty hot, too. And I know we're gonna be in some water. So is that a conductor? Is that, should we just wait? I think I might just hold my horses for a few seconds before getting in because that is not my cup of tea. Oh my God. So you ready, babe? I'm ready. Ready. I'm gonna put on. Cue the sexy music. Cue that, oh, oh, oh, oh, where's it going? Oh, nice. Come on in. What a warm. Okay, now we have to go back outside into the cold to get back to our camper van. So we were warm for 30 minutes and now we're gonna freeze. What do you think about that? I think we're gonna be just fine. I know, because you got the perfect plan for it, like always. Think about it. Thank you very much. You're welcome. I am gonna wait for you. We're gonna toast together. Oh my goodness. Okay, I want to come close to you, snuggle up. I cannot believe this trip. It's been absolutely amazing. And I am so, so excited for all the adventures we have coming. And having desert snow back. I know, it feels good to be back on the road. Yeah, first fireplace. We're fireplace. That's right, we're chugging it up. First fire pit back in desert snow. Cheers, love you.