When we first started full-timing, we were very concerned about insurance because we had heard that you really needed to have a special policy as full timers that would cover you in case you had an incident. Knowing this we chose Miller’s Insurance, who specialized in RV coverage, and ultimately got a policy through Allied who is owned by Nationwide Insurance. I was pretty relived that the company was one that I knew and not an off brand insurance carrier. Thankfully since we have been on the road, we have had two claims and they were both paid immediately. The first was a major one, when Lee put regular gas in our diesel tank and our engine was destroyed. That was by far the largest claim we have ever had in our lives and the insurance company paid $9K for a new engine. Then last year we had a windshield chip from Alaska and had our windshield replaced. Since we are Florida residents, windshield replacement have no deductible and that saved us around $1350.
Needless to say I have been extremely pleased with our carrier, but as our premiums keep creeping up, I was starting to get concerned. I am a loyal customer though, and since the price was going up annually in pretty small increments I thought I could live with it. But this month our premiums went up again and this time it was $70 a month, a whopping 43%. OK, that is a lot of money, and although we had offsetting savings in other categories this year, we obviously wanted to know why we were getting a 43% increase. Unfortunately that is a tough question to get an answer to. Part of it was the claims, part of it was the hurricanes in Florida, and part of it was the higher cost of vehicle repairs. Lee was pretty frustrated because he wanted a breakdown of how much of the increase was due to each factor, but if you have dealt with insurance companies you won’t be surprised that that didn’t happen.
So we did what any rational person would do and started getting quotes. Yes, I am loyal, but I am also not willing to get screwed, so we wanted to see what else was out there. That’s when the conversation became interesting. Turns out that we could get a better price on the truck (about $350 a year less), but if we split the RV and truck coverage the RV costs would go up $150 a year. OK, we thought, we will move both of our coverages to the new company, but then we learned that if we did that we could no longer get total loss replacement coverage for the RV. We bought the RV new in 2014 and our coverage has been for replacement value (around $70K). This wouldn’t cover the Mor-Ryde, solar, or any of the other upgrades we have done, but would cover the $48K we have left on our loan and then some. Unfortunately we learned that at this point the only new RV policy we could get would only cover present day actual cash value. Since that valuation is only $40K (and we might not even get that) not only would be out our RV, but also still owe money on our loan.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by all of this really, since I sort of understand why they wouldn’t want to insure us for more than the RV is worth, but I am really glad Lee delved into the fine print and found this out. At this point we had a couple of choices. We could leave well enough alone and just pay the extra premiums, at least for this year, or we can split the coverage. Since we are still to the good with how much we have paid in premiums versus how much we have received in claims I was leaning towards just leaving it alone. Lee absolutely did not want to lose the replacement value coverage and had the same concerns with a new policy on the truck. We have replacement value on our truck as well and although we have no loan with that so actual value wouldn’t be a loss, it would probably be difficult to find a replacement truck with the money they paid out.
Which takes me to why I am taking the time to write all this out. We get the question quite a bit of what we would do if we had a catastrophic incident (fire, collision, etc) and although we have thought through that scenario it is not something we dwell on. Obviously we are not completely rolling the dice here, or we would have the cheapest coverage available, and we intentionally structured our insurance plans to give us what we considered reasonable coverage. As a side note we also have $30K in personal item coverage on the RV, which should more than cover what we have in the rig. In any event we have this coverage and now three years later faced with changing our strategy we had decided to continue with it as is, knowing full well that at some point in the future the monthly premium hikes may necessitate a change.
For right now, if we had a catastrophic occurrence we would take the money and try and pay cash for a new truck and RV. I will say this time around I would be completely open to buying something used, and since this particular model isn’t that common, if we got lucky I would try and find something very similar. It is very likely that we wouldn’t have enough money to completely cover the costs and in that case we would have two choices. We could take out another loan, which I am guessing would mean we would have to stop for a while and get “regular jobs” to qualify, or I could take a loan from my 401K and we could pay ourselves back with interest. Which route we took would depend on how much money we were short, but either way it would definitely be something we could survive.
Lots of people have to leave the road for a little while, and just because you take a break it doesn’t mean you can’t jump right back in once you have more money in the bank. I think there is a tendency to believe that this journey has to have a strict beginning and end, but that simply isn’t the case. Especially at our age, since we are only 49 and 51, (just for the record, I’m the younger one. – Lee) we have lots of time ahead of us to make adjustments. I mention this because the all or nothing approach was firmly in my mind in the beginning of all this, but now I know better. Many people we know have had life events that have temporarily sent them from the road. Illness, deaths, grandchildren, finances all can play a part and taking a break is really that not big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Yes, getting started is a huge life change and for most people requires a steadfast commitment, but once you have done this for awhile and seen how many different ways there are to live the lifestyle, you can ease up on that all or nothing approach.
Do we think a catastrophic event will happen? We don’t, but we are prepared for it in our own way. Your preparations will probably be very different, and that is the way it should be. I am just sharing our thought process, in case you haven’t talked these scenarios through yet, so you can see how we are thinking about it. Plus it gave me something other than gate guarding to write about!
Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links. There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog. Search Amazon.com here
Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks You can preview the kindle version on Amazonor the Apple version onItunes. It is available inpaperback on Amazon if you prefer.
Yesterday was jammed pack full of stuff, which I suppose is a good thing because I have been running out of things to write about. The day started off well with an hour long meeting for our summer job, where I got more details about the position and some insight into my role. I am very excited about it and think it is going to be a great summer, mainly because the people are nice and for a change in one of these jobs I will get to use my brain. Let’s face it, gate guarding isn’t that mentally challenging. On the rare occasion you might get something that takes a little thought, but mostly it’s get up, walk to the truck, write down the name and license plate, go sit back down. Not tough stuff.
But that’s been ok for me, because I fill my down time with more creative pursuits and since I work nights I generally have lots of creative time. Last night however was crazy busy. The Frack phase ended and the work over phase began which meant a switch out of teams and equipment. The traffic was at least four times what I usually get and there were lots of big trucks coming in and out. The decent part was the weather has gotten warmer so I didn’t mind standing outside most of the night, but since this is our first time working between the frack and next phase I was completely unprepared for the volume.
Don’t get me wrong, I view this job as a job and make sure that I treat any downtime I have as extra, but I am also a human being and like I said I just wasn’t mentally prepared for that kind of volume. I am not sure why they decided to do the switch out at 1am. It might have been because a big storm was forecasted for the following day or maybe it was just to get it done before the weekend. I wasn’t the only person surprised by that because the switch out crew all seemed surprised they hadn’t waited until morning as well. It went fine, by the way, with people checking in and checking out, but by 3:30am when Lee woke up I was really tired. Unfortunately I was also pretty wired and had a hard time falling asleep and then woke up very early.
The best part of the day was early on I had a hawk who was flying close by. Seriously he was hanging out in the air over our rig several times and kept diving down into the field right next to our rig. Beautiful bird and even several of the workers were watching it as they checked in and said it was really cool. I was able to get some shots with the long lens, despite the overcast weather, and it really was the best part of my day.
Picture taken as it hung in the area less than 15 feet above my RV. Very cool
The biggest bummer was I didn’t get to work on my book at all. My oldest daughter has kindly taken on the role as my Alpha reader, and her writing skills plus being outside of the RV community make her a perfect choice for this. She is quick to point out when I use acronyms that make no sense to her and has given me some wonderful advice on structure. With her generously donating her time, I feel the need to get through this second edit, so have mentally committed to a chapter a night. Last night that just didn’t happen, because it is hard enough without being interrupted every five minutes. Just not a fan of the editing process as I have set this up, which means I really need to rethink that next time around. Many people edit as they go and I think I am going to have to force myself to go down that route. This definitely isn’t working as I find myself rewriting more than I am leaving alone and really slogging through it. Plus that energy doesn’t leave me much for writing the blog, although in all fairness it’s never fun writing this when not a ton of things are going in. Basically I have found I have X amount of inspiration/time to write in any given day and and I need to really think about which project to use that on. I’m still figuring it out.
Thankfully after a couple of days things really settled down and the pace has been nice and slow. We get the occasional spike when lots of equipment comes in, but no where near the traffic from the turnover day. With the slower pace I do find the days sort of blend together and I think more about the weather on a particular day than the actual day itself. I have been watching the Olympics every night and as much as I am enjoying that it is certainly not helping me with the days. Korea is a day ahead and I am constantly confused by which day I am watching lol. Still all this time to really watch the events is really a luxury and I am truly enjoying it.
“Rush Hour” at the gate
No clue what this machinery does but it looks different than anything else we have seen.
A I am writing this it occurs to me I should probably take a moment and walk you through my shift so you get a feel for how things are for me. So here is what it looks like, keeping in mind that every gate is different.
11am – 1pm – Get up. My wakeup time is kind of all over the place and Lee just makes sure I don’t sleep past 1pm. Eat some toast, drink come coffee, take a shower. During this time period I often cover for Lee so he can eat some lunch. It’s nice to have a meal uninterupted and I like to do that for him when I can.
1pm – 4pm Check texts, emails and Facebook. Run into town if I have an errand although I try not to go very often. Blog, work on my recipe book, menu plan, make phone calls., basically any task that I can’t do while being interrupted. During this time period Lee and I share the space, so I try to work around whatever he has going on. If he’s watching TV I might work on the computer for example and if it’s nice outside I will often take over for him a little early and go sit in the sun and read a book. I also eat lunch since I can eat uninterrupted.
4pm – 7pmWork the gate, which includes a mini rush around 5pm (as the new shift arrives) and another around 6pm as the day shift leaves. They must have a meeting or something because there is always a gap between when the folks come in and the other shift goes out. This is by far the busiest time of day for me, so meals with each other is pretty much out of the question. Occasionally on the weekend we will try to have steaks together, but it usually means I have to get up alot. I almost always do the dishes during this time period because that is an activity I can get interrupted while doing. And sometimes I get hungry again and might eat something, but that just depends on the day. Lee uses this time to eat his dinner and work on anything he needs that requires uninterrupted attention.
7pm – 12pm – During this time period there is enough traffic that getting into anything too serious is frustrating because of the interruptions. The Olympics has been perfect for that because I can watch and just step outside when I need to and I have also been filling this time with some crafts. I also might watch a fluffy television show (like the Bachelor) or basically any activity that I can walk away from quickly. Sometimes I will eat dinner, but other times just a snack. It really just depends on how hungry I am. Lee is worried I am not eating enough good food, and he has a point, but it seems like my body hasn’t really adjusted to the shift especially when it comes to meals. Lee typically goes to bed around 7 or 7:30 to watch something or read to fall asleep.
12am – 3am – This is my slowest time of the night and when I can work on my book. It’s great that it is so quiet, but not the optimal time for me creatively. Still I need to work with what I have and had been managing to spend an hour or so of this time writing every night. The other time is spent watching more serious TV although I need to be careful about what I watch or I find I have trouble getting to sleep.
3am – 4am – Lee gets up somewhere between 3am and 3:30am and as soon as he stirs I start the coffee. Most days he takes a shower, gets dressed, and then comes out to face the day and I try to give him as much space as possible while he wakes up. The traffic starts to pick up again after 3:30am so I handle trucks until he says he’s ready. At that point I brush my teeth and head to bed, hopefully to fall into a deep sleep. Generally I have been finding I fall asleep pretty quickly but some days it’s a little tougher.
Actually I’m kind of glad I broke all this down because I have been beating myself up a little over not being more productive. I do wish I could get more done in the 12am-3am time period, but I have always been a person who worked best first thing in the morning. Since my first thing in the morning is now noon (a very busy time at the gate) it’s not the best time to sit down and write. Anyways, that’s all I have other than to say we think we should be done here by the end of the week and I am hoping we get a little break. Even though the work isn’t usually difficult never having a full day off can wear on you a little. You start to hear bells dinging in your sleep! I’d love to have a couple of days to just chill with our friends, but we will see how it plays out.
Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links. There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog. Search Amazon.com here
Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks You can preview the kindle version on Amazonor the Apple version onItunes. It is available inpaperback on Amazon if you prefer.
As much as we like gate guarding, it isn’t much fun when the weather is bad. And we’ve had all sorts of this weather this week, with lots of rain, lots of wind, and some extremely cold nights. Thankfully, for us, there was a bit of a technical issue at the well and the traffic was lower than usual, but it’s still pretty cold, especially during shift change when I am outside in the weather trying to write on paper. If it’s not windy, we try to stay under the awning as much as possible , but when it’s raining and windy out in the elements we try to keep the paper dry as much as possible. Still it’s not New England winter, and I think of that when I start to feel a little sorry for myself. I just really prefer those nice, sunny days!
Here I am in long johns, gloves, winter coat, and ear muffs. The wind was tough this particular day.
We’ve stayed busy despite the bad weather. I have really enjoyed watching the Olympics and we are getting some great coverage especially late at night while I am working, which is cool. The only down side is it’s on regular TV so there’s no pause button and I swear I won’t have a truck for 20 minutes then right in the middle of the American ice skaters I’ll get three 🙂 I did get to watch the Canadian ice dancers long program all the way through…absolutely amazing. Lee also decided to do some work on the computer, including formatting and changing out our C drive, which is extremely time consuming. He picked a Sunday (our slowest day) and started working on the changes. I woke up a little early and things were a bit chaotic, but I appreciated that things seemed to be going well.
He was doing this and jumping up to take care of the gate.
He was using the laptop and TV as a monitor
Good chance to clean everything out and move things around
So that went better than expected until we realized we had lost a file. And that file was for my second recipe book. I work off a special program so was forced to put the file in one place on the computer and that was the drive that was formatted. I didn’t think to mention it and he didn’t recognize the file for what it was since it had a different name soooo long story short I lost about 70% of a completed book. And yes, it was my only electronic copy and yes, that was pretty stupid, and boy was I upset about it. But what are you going to do, so we started trying to figure out what we could salvage. At the end I found a PDF I had run back in November so that leaves the recipes between now and then. Two of those I found in the trash (thank heaven Jeremy’s chicken marsala recipe was still in there) and the rest I have the pictures in a backup file, but don’t have the actual recipes. I’ll need to see if I can recreate what I did, and if not, well that’s just the way it goes.
I don’t feel cavalier about it in any way, but no one was hurt and it’s just “stuff” for lack of a better word. It does represent hundreds of hours worth of work, which does sting, but hopefully I can find a way to recreate it with less effort. I had the PDF, which I may try to edit in that file, because if I use the Bookwright program it will not allow me to copy and paste so I will have to hand type every recipe back into that program. Anyway, I know people have bigger problems, but it was rough and I know Lee felt really bad, but really I should have had a backup file. That’s on me.
Update: Lee felt really bad about what happened and after we tried multiple programs to import the PDF we finally realized it would all need to be retyped. Since I am not a huge fan of the Bookwright program, I tried to create the template in Microsoft Publisher. I got pretty frustrated pretty quickly. Creating templates from scratch was never my thing, so one morning while I was asleep, Lee not only created a template for me, but he also retyped every single recipe into the new format. Wow…just wow. That was an incredibly generous thing to do and seriously made lemonade from the lemons. So now I have almost everything from before, in a format I can use easily going forward, and I am only out a couple of recipes, which I am pretty sure I can recreate. Really love that guy.
On a completely different side note, one positive thing is I finally finished listening to those training webinars and have all my Professional Development units finished. Slogging through all of those was not fun, but now that it is done I can redirect that energy into the book about us going on the road. I sent the first three edited chapters to my oldest daughter Kyrston and she really liked it, plus she gave me some valuable feedback which I can incorporate in. I just need to quit avoiding the editing and commit to doing at least one chapter a day. I also need to let go of the idea that it will be perfect, because perfection can be the enemy of achievement. It’s a story, and yes it’s a bigger one than these blog posts, but at the end of the day it’s still just a story. That’s what I need to keep in mind or it will never be good enough.
The high point of the week though was when Kelly and Bill came down to visit. Bill has been doing solar installs, but he took one of his breaks to come and see us which was very nice. Bill is working for RV Solar Solutionsnow and is an incredibly competent guy. If you have been thinking about solar and need someone you can trust to do it, I highly recommend Bill. You can see his spring/summer schedule on the RV Solar website if you are interested. They brought pie and we made pork chops, potatoes, and corn and it was wonderful seeing them. Plus traffic was pretty decent and the weather that day was a little milder so the guys hung outside and watched for trucks while I cooked.
We did all get to talk inside a little bit
Kelly cutting the chocolate pie
Which was really, really good
During dinner I was doing trucks and then dishes and she took over for me and finished them which was so, so sweet.
We really appreciated them making the 1 hour and 45 minute drive and being understanding about the truck traffic. Hopefully we will get to see them before they head to Quartszite, but if not, definitely at the reunion rally!
Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links. There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog. Search Amazon.com here
Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks You can preview the kindle version on Amazonor the Apple version onItunes. It is available inpaperback on Amazon if you prefer.
I got a very nice comment in the blog post the other day that mentioned they were worried that we might be thinking about quitting after Amazon, and I found that interesting and thought I would take a few minutes to talk about it. We do get the question somewhat frequently, especially when the blog gets a bit whiny, and the short answer to the question is “Not really”. That answer is truthful, but it also surprises me because I tend to be a person who thinks through everything. But when I start down that path, I truly can’t picture where we would be, and when my brain hits that brick wall I just stop thinking about it.
Part of the problem I think is we still don’t have a place we want to be. I’ve talked about this quite a bit here and there, but probably should lay the scenario out again. We have three kids in three states. We have Lee’s parents, my dad and brother in a fourth, and my sister and mom live in a fifth. As much as I would like to live near any of them, how would we pick one? Of course it would make the most sense to pick a part of the country we really like and live there, but there’s a couple of problems with that scenario. First we haven’t seen everyplace we want to see yet. Before becoming a full timer, I wouldn’t have thought twice about that, but now I know how varied the country really is, and if I pick a place, what if I was missing out on someplace really great I would like better? That’s new for me by the way, as I have spent a lifetime of settling for the best I could do, but I don’t feel like I need to do that now. Plus Lee has never been a person who settled easily, and he really wouldn’t want to do that now.
The second reason is the weather. We don’t need absolutely perfect weather wherever we go all the time, but we have gotten spoiled living this life. When I think about places I have loved in the winter (Apache Junction, Tampa, or San Antonio), it’s impossible for my mind not to immediately think about how hot those places are in the summer. Same thing with places up north we enjoy in the summer. We loved Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming, but how we would deal with the rain and snow? Granted, weather is less of an issue when you live in a sticks and bricks home, but it would still be a difficult thing to give up and the place would need to be pretty special.
One thing I can actually picture is having a regular job again, although the thought of getting up every morning, putting on dress clothes, and driving in rush hour traffic to work isn’t a pleasant one. The work itself is something I think about, but the other parts, the politics, long hours, and the constant pressure are things that I simply do not miss. That’s pretty weird, because I just took for granted that is how life had to be before this, but obviously I have lived another way for quite some time now.
And all of those things aside I really can’t picture stopping because of Lee. He absolutely loves this lifestyle and isn’t even close to being ready to being done. I couldn’t take this lifestyle away from him without a pretty compelling reason, and so far I haven’t run across one. He would stop for me if I absolutely hated it, there isn’t a doubt in my mind about that, but I don’t hate it, and don’t see myself feeling that way any time soon.
Because here’s the thing: it’s just my life. We have good days and bad days. We get on each others nerves and make each other happy. We are in beautiful places sometimes and other times are in not so nice places. We have bad weather, arguments about money, and the occasional health concerns. We worry about politics, our kids, our parents, and the environment as the occasion arises. Sometimes we are bored, sometimes we are ecstatic, but most of the time we are just living our lives. And on balance, for me, it is much more interesting and fulfilling than the life I used to live. I don’t know about Lee. I think he’s happier, although sometimes it is hard to tell since he generally has a low level of dissatisfaction with life in general. (I’ve been less unhappy for longer periods of time doing this than I have ever been in my life. – Lee) A lot of creative people are like that though, and I try not to take it personally. I figure if he’s not outright miserable, it’s a win.
You might be wondering what my old life was like if I find this more enjoyable, and that is a fair question. I think the best way to describe it was a big ball of stress. I wouldn’t go so far as to say my old life was killing me, but I was far enough gone that I had no idea how much stress there was until it was lifted. I feel lighter and more hopeful. I have more energy, more creativity, and am happier. These are not small things. There is absolutely nothing that I gave up in the way of material possession or financial means that comes close to these new feelings I am experiencing. Truly…nothing. Maybe that sounds unbelievable to you. I wouldn’t have believed it myself frankly. I didn’t know I was capable of being like this. But here I am, and although I will probably never be capable of the free and easy spirit that many people I admire have, this isn’t so bad, considering where I started.
And that’s why I really don’t think about stopping. Certainly if I am having a particularly bad day my mind starts to travel down that path, and then like I said, hits the brick wall of all those factors. That doesn’t mean that I live in denial that sooner or later something may drive us from the road. Situations and people change, and I am certainly open to the likely possibility that it could happen. But I also don’t feel there is any benefit to borrowing trouble, and that in and of itself shows how much I have changed. For a long time I was a person who actively thought about what could go wrong and spent a ton of time obsessing about it. Somehow, and I honestly have no idea how I got here, I have given myself permission to just exist in the moment. For the record, it’s pretty awesome.
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Previously I was pretty harsh about some of the towns in west Texas, so I wanted to take a moment and say how much we like Kenedy. It is on the main road between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, but it also is a great example of how a town with a population of around 3K can prosper from the oil business. The town has nice schools, two grocery stores, and several restaurants. Whenever I go in, there are always oil people getting food or gas and it’s obvious the town is doing well. Yes, there is a “not so nice part of town”, but the people I have met have been very friendly and there are lots of local service, clubs, etc that people can take advantage of.
This was really made clear to me when I went to get a haircut and talked at length with a young woman who grew up here. I asked her how much it has changed and she said “so much” but she seemed happy with the changes. Plus while I was there her mother came in and brought her a new Gucci bag she had purchased for her daughter online and seemed really pleased that she was able to afford such a present. She admitted it was a smaller one, since that was what she could afford, but there was pride there and her daughter was obviously thrilled with the gift. It was a sweet moment and told me a ton about how the locals were benefiting from the local economy boom, and I was really happy to see it. Here’s some pictures of the town.
Similar population to towns in West Texas but many more services
Nice high school
There are several newer hotels in town, which was surprising
And relatively new apartment complexes
Give me a McDonald’s and a Pizza Hut and I am happy
Dentist
A very nice Great Clips which I went to
Here’s the UPS store we are using
There is a not so nice part of town but most of the houses look like these
The downtown definitely needs some work, but there is some spectacular architecture on these old buildings. I hear in the grocery store they are trying to get the money together to revamp the downtown which would be pretty awesome if they can manage it
There is even a chines restaurant. It was weird a massage place was next door
It was on the expensive side but the portions were large and it was pretty decent
And my favorite thing is this large hospital with an emergency room!! It’s comforting to be so close to services just in case.
Big fan of Kenedy. I also made the drive up to see Cori and Greg to watch the Superbowl. It fell on our anniversary, but Lee was very nice and covered for me because I am a long time Patriots fan and Cori is a long time Eagles fan. The fact that we were near each other when both of our teams were in the Superbowl was too good to pass up and Lee was just fine as long as I brought him back brisket!! I also got to see Linda and Steve and Kelly and Bill who had just arrived at the campground. Good times were had by all, although I was definitely outnumbered and it was a great game. I was really happy for Cori that her team finally got their ring. Truly it was a great game and a wonderful opportunity to be with friends.
I walked into their camper to see this sign
And a little bit later to see this one. Not nice!!
In case you can’t tell this is the bathroom
No it was funny and I did enjoy the philly themed food. The hot pretzels were really good.
My favorite was this homemade ice cream flavored with Red Shasta. Yummy!
Hobie didn’t like the underdog signs at all. I think he’s a secret Patriots fan 🙂
They also had two TV’s set up. One outside and one inside which was nice and we were able to have a fire as well. Really cool way to watch the Superbowl and I loved seeing everyone. It was a long 2 hour drive home, and Lee was a trooper because he stayed up so late, but again glad I did it. He worked a 19 hour day so I could go. That’s quite an anniversary present.
Bill enjoying the outside TV
Great picture on this outside one
And the inside was great as well. I went back and forth between inside and outside and they both worked great
And Cori and I stayed friends 🙂
Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links. There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog. Search Amazon.com here
Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks You can preview the kindle version on Amazonor the Apple version onItunes. It is available inpaperback on Amazon if you prefer.
The budget shows that we were $411 short this month, but we actually broke even. One of our paychecks was short $450 due to a clerical error and that money will be coming in February. Still, it was a bit of a bummer that we spent so much, but since we discussed doing most of our annual home repairs in the next couple of months it shouldn’t be that surprising. We also made a Costco run at the very beginning of the month and those are always pretty costly. Also, we had a meeting to adjust the monthly budget amounts for each category based on the three prior year’s expenses. As I go through each category in detail I will let you know any adjustments we made.
Campground Fees – We chose to stay in a campground with our friends for a couple of days between gates. We could have stayed for free in the yard, but it was worth it to see everyone. For this year we cut this budget item in half since we spent so little on campgrounds last year. It’s still more than we usually spend, but I wanted to leave some extra in in case we get the opportunity to work less.
Groceries – We went over in groceries by $100, mostly due to a $250 Costco run at the very beginning of the month. We left the budget amount the same, despite the fact that we miss this mark more often than we make it. I recombined the food and cleaning supplies etc back into one category since we did a pretty bad job of breaking that out month by month, and overall it just didn’t seem like there was enough in the second category to make it worth the trouble.
Dining Out – We were$63to the good, because all of our dining out food was fast food during travel or long work days. I changed the label to convenience to make that category a little more clear and also upped the budget to $100 a month from $50. After three years it’s clear that this category was just too low, and since we had savings in many other places I thought it was worth making this one more realistic.
Entertainment – We bought a few books and a couple Itunes purchases. We were $71 to the good in this category.
Cell/Internet – The bill was low this month because we finally got our credit for being charged for the cell phone I already paid for back in August. I have adjusted the budget to reflect what the new bill should be going forward, and we are thrilled by the monthly savings of $128!!! Thank you AT&T for your new unlimited plan. (For those keeping score, we used to pay $ 363 for two phones, a WiFi hotspot and an iPad with 80 GB of data, and we routinely went over that limit and paid $15 per extra GB. (!!!) Now we pay $ 128 for the same devices and unlimited data. For those who are curious, we have not seen any speed throttling or network management yet, and we are now consistently using over 600 GB a month, which might give you an idea of how happy we are with the new arrangement. – Lee)
Truck Fuel – We broke even in this category which was quite a bit, mainly because we traveled from southeast of San Antonio to far west Texas and back again, and have driven back and forth to San Antonio from our current location a couple of times. I upped the budget on this category to $425 which has been our average for the last couple of years, minus the trip to Alaska.
Truck Maintenance – This category is a bit in flux. We think we have enough maintenance visits remaining on our prepaid Ford plan to last the rest of the year, but that depends on how many miles we end up driving this year. For the time being I will be putting in $50 a month.
Health Insurance – This is another exciting category as our monthly amount (with subsidy) is only $110. This is a monthly savings of $230 which is obviously significant.
Cigarettes – We buy tobacco and tubes to cover a few months at a time, so the annual amount is really what matters. We reduced the annual amount by $192 to reflect what we spent last year.
Personal Care (Haircuts etc) – This month we went over by $19 because I splurged on a pedicure. (You should see her toes! – Lee) I reduced this category by $25a month to more accurately reflect what we have been spending. Thank heavens for SuperCuts and Great Clips!
Shipping/Postage – We went over by $37 in this category because we had numerous deliveries, and the ones that came to the Kenedy each cost $5. We are shipping things to the UPS store here and there is a $5 per item fee. I also adjusted this category down $15a month to more accurately reflect what we are spending.
Gifts – I had this cool idea to start making gifts for people because I thought that might be cheaper. Turns out the raw materials aren’t cheap, even though I found most of what I needed at Super Walmart. Still I am having a lot of fun with it, so I’ll mentally use the underage in entertainment to balance this expense out a little. Plus now that I know what I am doing I can keep an eye out for cheaper raw materials as we travel.
Home Repair – Obviously we had a significant overage for the month in this category, spending $690 over budget. $260 of that was the new toilet, and the rest was the raw materials for several repairs Lee has made. As I have talked about in earlier blog posts, Lee is doing a year’s worth of maintenance while he has the opportunity, so we are still significantly under the $2400annual budget amount. And we did talk about these experiences as they occurred, so we knew this category would be steep this month.
Overall, I would have liked to have spent less money, of course, but I understand where it all went. Hopefully February will allow us to put some money away for April, since we aren’t planning on working that month at all. We also had an extra $1000 in “unexpected” revenue for some pay Lee was owed from a contract job he did last year, and selling one of our domain names that we weren’t using, which was a very nice surprise. (Out of the blue someone called and asked me if they could buy my RV repair domain, and since I’m not really using it I decided to let it go. I thought it might bring $100, but he offered $500, which even I knew was much better, and I’m not so good with the mathing. I thought about trying to get more, but he was a young guy, all excited about starting a new venture, and then I remembered that I despise greed, so I just let him have it for what he offered. I suppose I could have been a really great guy and countered with a lower number so he could have it for even less, but while I’m not greedy, I’m also not a moron. – Lee)
So from a cash flow perspective we are starting the year off just fine.
Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links. There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog. Search Amazon.com here
Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks You can preview the kindle version on Amazonor the Apple version onItunes. It is available inpaperback on Amazon if you prefer.
After using the modified Milton Signal Bell for a few weeks I decided…..it Isn’t Good Enough™. While the light inside works very well, it needs to be somewhere in your peripheral vision to see it. It’s not bright enough to overpower the lights in the rig, and it certainly isn’t bright enough to notice if you’re not in the room. And generally speaking if you’re doing anything in the rig that makes noise, you generally can’t hear the bell outside. Since the circuit is so simple, and everything works off of the simple diaphragm switch in the bell, I decided to add an additional feature, a classic mechanical two tone “Ding Dong” doorbell.
I was able to pick one up at the local Do It Best hardware store for the very reasonable price of $14.99.
A household doorbell is pretty simple and straightforward. It’s powered by regular old household 120v AC, which goes to a transformer, which knocks it down to 16v AC. The transformer is separate from the doorbell box, and usually is mounted somewhere in the house where it’s out of the way, because it’s ugly and bulky and would make the bell box that hangs on the wall bigger and heavier. Then there’s small gauge bell wire that loops to a momentary push switch (the door bell button) to close the circuit.
Here’s what it looks like:
When the switch/button is pushed, and the circuit is closed, electricity flows from the transformer to the solenoid inside the bell box which pushes out the striker/plunger to smack the first bar, and give you the “ding”. When the button is released, the electricity stops flowing, the solenoid is de-energized, and the spring on the solenoid pulls the striker/plunger back through the solenoid where it smacks the second bar, which gives you the “Dong”. In cases where you have a rear button which produces only the “Ding” or the “Dong”, that is accomplished by another striker that smacks one bar, but on the return stroke it’s blocked by a barrier so it never gets to the second bar. Imagine going through your whole life only living up to half of your potential because a tiny piece of plastic is in your way. Depressing.
And here’s how it works:
Just for fun, this is how it SHOULD work…
In my case, I don’t want to put the button out on the road because it would last for exactly one “Ding Dong” and then it would be ground into powder by the second set of wheels on a truck, and I already have a “button” in the form of the diaphragm switch on the bell. So I’m simply extending the circuit for the bell and the light and adding this one in. Which means the wire that normally runs between the solenoid, the switch, and the transformer just gets shorted to run between the transformer and the solenoid. If I were to plug the whole thing directly into an outlet wired that way, it would “Ding” and the constant flow of electricity would just hold the striker against the bar, presumably for all eternity. But since it’s plugged in to the other circuit, I’m extending that signal bell switch to do double duty.
I also put on an extra long lamp cord power line so I can put it where I want it, and because I might want to turn it off, I put in an inline rocker switch. It works like a charm, and is loud enough to be heard over the TV or running water, wherever we are in the rig. It looks a little rough because of the transformer, so I am going to find a box that I can use to hold both the transformer and the doorbell mechanism.
It was easy and fun to do, took about 45 minutes, and cost $ 27.82.
Now it’s good enough, for now.
UPDATE: The doorbell turned out to be REALLY loud inside the rig, and Trace would jump every time it would go off, so I put a little strip of Gaff tape on the tone bars so deaden it a little. Worked like a charm. And I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: If you’re using duct tape, just…stop. Get yourself some gaff tape and thank me later!
Here’s a super short clip of it functioning, with bonus Tracy directing trucks in and out in the background.
Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links. There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog. Search Amazon.com here
Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks You can preview the kindle version on Amazonor the Apple version onItunes. It is available inpaperback on Amazon if you prefer.
As I have mentioned before, different teams of subcontractors complete different phases of an oilfield project, and when those teams switch out it can be a bit chaotic. We have heard lots of people talk about the frack phase in particular but up until this point we have not experienced a full switch, having been brought in or left mid phase on both of the other gates we’ve worked. All I can say is it is crazy busy. The volume has jumped astronomically and we are both busy on our shifts. What can be particularly challenging is when big equipment is leaving and coming in at the same time, and although this was somewhat staggered we did have a couple of instances where we had big rig traffic coming in and out at the same time, which can be tricky. I kind of enjoy the challenge to be honest because I get to be bossy to my heart’s content, but if it’s busy (I had one 30 minute period where 15 trucks came in and 10 left for example) I do get a little harried.
Here’s an example of big traffic coming in and going out. These drivers are REALLY good though
Thankfully the drivers are all really good about following directions and the rule that incoming traffic always has the right of way does seem to be universally understood. Our main goal is to keep people off the road, which requires some quick thinking when there is a line of trucks. First and foremost all we do in those situations is get the plate number and if possible the company. We wave them through and write really fast so we can mainly keep traffic in continuous flow. One thing that suffers is the paperwork. I have a teeny bit of dyslexia and on occasion my numbers get jumbled, but the company man was very clear. The priority is always safety, and trucks sitting still on the main road is not safe.
The scope of these moves is hard to explain, although one anecdote may help. At 1am I talked to some guys who went to Mcdonald’s and the 40 cheeseburgers they ordered really ticked off the night crew. There are tons of people coming and going all day and night and for Lee in particular it’s been super busy. I’ll just share some more pictures with you so you can get a feel for things, but the main point is sometimes there is no downtime in this job. That’s important to know if you are thinking about trying it.
Even with the pavement we get some dust from these big guys
You can see me for scale. These things are huge
Here’s me being bossy lol. I thought I looked more intimidating than this 🙂
You can see the incoming truck for scale . This one was crazy big
Lee looking official
I have no idea what most of these things do, Lee think most of it was designed from Dr. Seuss drawings.
I will on occasion get out in the middle of the road but for obvious reasons try to keep that to a minimum. If you are wondering why I don’t have my vest on, it’s a bee magnet. We have set out bee traps but in the meantime any bright colors and they land right on you. So Deb no gate guarding for you.
The biggest bummer of the whole thing for me was they actually took the drill tower down after dark. I really wanted to see that and take some pictures, but it all happened late with just floodlights on the area, which honestly surprised me. I guess I thought they would have waited until daylight. Here’s the last picture I got of the drill towards dusk.
We did have a beautiful full moon though that was orange when it was close to the horizon but got white as it got higher in the sky. There was also a lunar eclipse but we missed it since it was cloudy in the morning.
And last pic is one of the hawks in the field. They have been around less with all the hoopla…or maybe I just don’t have time to notice them, but I got this cool picture of a red-shouldered hawk, which was a first for that bird for me.
So it was a crazy few days, but I am thankful to say that things have calmed down quite a bit. We haven’t started the frack process yet, and expect some steady traffic through that, but for now the major big equipment moves all seem to be done.
Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links. There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog. Search Amazon.com here
Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks You can preview the kindle version on Amazonor the Apple version onItunes. It is available inpaperback on Amazon if you prefer.
When I look back on all the decisions we have made as full timers, I definitely believe our decision to buy our particular RV was the best one. Fours years after our purchase we are still really happy with our choice, and I thought I would write a little bit about that for those folks who are in the planning stage, or maybe thinking about purchasing a new rig. I want to preface this post by saying that I am not promoting any particular type. The discussions about what is “best” are numerous on the internet, and I personally I think most of those dialogues miss the point. You won’t find an answer to “Class A versus fifth wheel?” in this post. (The answer is: 5th wheel. – Lee) And I won’t be delving into new versus used. (New. – Lee) My take on it is: buy what you can afford and like, and everything else is secondary. So in that spirit, here are some things I believe you should keep in mind when making your selection.
Layout, Layout, Layout
More than any other factor I believe the layout of the livable space should drive your choice. You might have the fanciest RV on the planet, or the most structurally sound, but if you can’t walk around in the interior space and feel comfortable, what’s the point? If your RV is someplace you hang out in part-time this may be less of an issue, but for those of us who live in these spaces full time, it’s a very big deal. Especially because as much as you might think you will be outside most of the time (and we definitely thought that), for most people I know that is really not the case. For one thing, no matter how much you like to chase the beautiful weather there are still cold/rainy days, and for another you still need a space to take care of life stuff, and you should think about those types of activities when looking at your floor plan. Where will I pay my bills, cook my meals, get dressed in the morning, or take a shower? (My recommendations, in that order, are: At a desk, in the kitchen, someplace we can’t see, in the bathroom. This really isn’t as complicated as she’s making it sound. – Lee) These are all activities that will happen most days (Most days? I prefer you take a shower every day, even if I don’t. Otherwise you smell funky. – Lee) and if you are fighting the space it will make them less pleasant.
Along those lines I would also think about the types of indoor activities you like to do for fun and what that looks like in the space. If you spend a ton of time on the computer, think about desk space. Like to watch TV? Where will you be sitting, and how big is the screen? Love to craft? Will you have enough space to work in? You get my point. You should also think about how much you want to entertain, or have people come and stay with you. What does the space look like with four people in it, or six or ten? Trust me it is MUCH different than with two, and you should think that through before buying, unless you aren’t planning on having many people inside, in which case don’t worry about it.
Finally, please keep in mind that as nice as our “luxury condos on wheels” are, under the wrong circumstances it can be a very small space. We are currently living in 400 square feet, and although most of the time that works just fine, there are days where we are just getting on each other’s nerves, and everything feels tight and cramped. Being able to sit outside absolutely helps in those cases and also using the bedroom as a separate place to hang out during the day. Thankfully those days aren’t the norm, but they do happen, and that was absolutely a major factor when we bought our rig.
Storage
Everything is a trade off in an RV, and as much as many of us strive for a minimalist lifestyle we all still have stuff. And you really need to think about where that stuff will go. Clothes, dry goods (including spices), pots and pans, etc are all items that have to go somewhere, and there are limits to what people are willing to go without. The same goes for the items that can fit in your basement, so try to be realistic about what you can bring with you. Cabinet space is key here, because although you can get creative with capturing unused space or adding new cabinets, to a large extent you are stuck with what you buy. Think about where specific things will go, and take that into account when making your purchase.
When it comes to this topic you also have to think about weight. Most full timers are really good at fitting a ton of stuff into a pretty small space, but almost all of us (in fifth wheels at least) struggle with being slightly overweight. Each RV has specific ratings and just because you can find the space for an item you can’t necessarily take on the additional weight. In all fairness this one is really tough during the buying process, because folks generally don’t know how much their stuff weighs. My take on this was to get as much storage space as I could without giving up the layout I wanted. Speaking of which, I wanted to specifically mention outside TVs/kitchens here. I know some people love them, which of course is fine, but many people have them in their RV and never use them. That space has to come from somewhere, and giving up that much room for features that you might rarely use is something to think about. Most RV’s are designed for the weekend user/tailgater and some really cool features have limited appeal for a full timer. Again, some folks love their outside TV’s and use them frequently, but we intentionally chose a model that didn’t have that feature because we knew we would never use it. Just something to think about.
Driveable vs Towable
I think most people make this decision first (we certainly did) and then move on from there, but in retrospect I don’t recommend that. We know people who live happily in all kinds of RV’s and many who have live in multiple kinds. There are offsetting pluses and minuses to each kind, and unless you have a very specific reason to prefer one over the other I would look at layout and storage first and then decide. During our original search I completely rejected Class A’s early on because they felt claustrophobic to me but have since been in several that I think I could definitely live in. Given our budget it is unlikely that we would have chosen something different, but I wish we had spent more time looking at them because who knows. (On the flip side, I desperately wanted a Class A when we started talking about this, but as soon as I started looking at them I completely changed my mind. I haven’t been inside one yet that I personally would be willing to live in. – Lee)
What I am cautioning against here is saying in your mind I absolutely have to have one or the other, especially if you are making that decision because you like someone else’s rig. That’s human nature of course to see something someone else has and want it, but wanting something and living with it are two different things. As much as possible, go into your choice with a blank slate, which I know can be tough, especially if you have lots of RVing experience. And I am not saying ignore what you know about yourself from previous camping, but recognize that casual use and living full time are two different things. This was the one area where I actually think our lack of knowledge was a huge benefit. But even with minimal experience, I closed my mind off to certain options early on and in retrospect that changed things.
Manufacturer
Lee might put this as the number one thing to look at, and in all fairness the two items above don’t mean anything if you don’t have a solid foundation, but I am not 100% sure a truly solid foundation exists. All RV’s have issues and few of them hold up to the amount of use full timers put them through. Whether you bought a used RV for $10K or a $250K version sooner or later you are going to have a mechanical failure. If you are a handy person, you should definitely think about whether or not you can work on your own RV and what that looks like, but if you can’t then you should think about the manufacturer. The problem is the RV industry is in constant flux and companies frequently go out of business or are bought out. We personally know someone who was having a new rig built and during the build the company was bought out and a whole new crew came in and that had an actual impact on the build of their rig, and we know another person who owned a rig and the company went out of business two years later. Our original manufacturer, Open Range is now owned by Heartland Ridge and we have seen a difference in customer service since that happened.
Even if the company stays under the same ownership they won’t necessarily be helpful after the two year manufacturer’s warranty expires. We had a suspension problem issue 10 days after ours expired and were flat out told we were out of luck. This is where an extended warranty can be very beneficial, and I highly recommend one, but then of course you are trying to find good service centers while traveling, which for us at least has been a challenge. My point here is many people seem to care about the name brand on the rig and that’s fine, but I wouldn’t give up layout or storage to get a specific manufacturer. That’s just me though, as there are folks who swear by specific brands and if that really matters to you, fair enough. Just please don’t think that will solve everything.
I would also add here to not be afraid of used. We decided pretty early that we wanted something new and if we had to do it again I am not sure I would go that route. We have met several people who bought wonderful “gently used” rigs and I think it would be fun to remodel one to my own specifications. Yes, you run the risk of buying someone else’s problems, but since we stipulated all RV’s have issues, at least you theoretically have all the money you saved to address them when they occur. (I do not agree with this. While it’s possible to go over a used rig with a fine toothed comb to suss out any potential issues, for me I would never be comfortable with something used, no matter how gently. I would always be waiting for something to go wrong. Also, other’s people cooties will be all over everything. – Lee)
Colors/Wood Tone
I know this is largely cosmetic, but it also the first thing you notice when you walk into someone else’s rig. The wood tone/colors do matter, especially in a living space. Darker tones can make the small space feel oppressive (at least to me) and lighter tones may not hold up well to extended use. To this day one of my favorite parts of my rig is the color of the wood and that more than anything else makes the space feel warm and homey.
Along these lines accent colors and wallpaper are also a factor. If you are talented you can change those things with time and money, but most of us live with what we originally purchased with perhaps some minor changes. Keeping that in mind be very careful about bold colors. Short term it might be fun, but can you live with it over the long haul? I would also add the color of the furniture to this category because in this small space the furniture really stands out. You might have a really cute couch that completely matches for example, but is it comfortable? Going back to layout, if it looks great but you never want to sit on it, at some point you will probably want to change the furniture out. When/if that happens will you be able to match the colors or will the color scheme continue to work without those accents. Again, things to think about, and although in a perfect world we would have both, I would pick function over style every time.
Bells and Whistles
The last category are all the cute little features that we all love. It’s tough because when you are looking for an RV these little touches really matter, but I would never pick a rig just for one little feature. You may love that walk-in closet, pantry, dishwasher, washer/dryer, bathtub, etc, but if the rest of the rig doesn’t work overall you aren’t likely to be happy. As exciting as the whole process is, try to think about the mundane and practical. It’s not as fun, but you will be happier for it in the long run. (My approach to things like this is ignore the “shiny”, you can appreciate it later, and besides shiny wears off eventually. Look for what sucks. If you can live with what sucks, you’ll be fine. This goes for rigs, cars, dogs, houses, spouses. It covers everything. – Lee)
So these are my thoughts on the subject. Despite everything I just said, buy what you want. It’s your life and you have the right to live it however you want. (If you screw it up and make a bad decision, we will all laugh and point. – Lee) But these are a few things to think about during the process, and if it helps in the long term it was worth taking some time to write it all up. I’ve been hesitant to even come close to this issue because folks do have pretty strong feelings about it, but new year and new rules, so I thought I would give it a shot. As always, your mileage will definitely vary, and this is all just one person’s opinion..well two people’s if Lee chimes in! (As always, I feel I have brought a certain level of somber thoughtfulness and gravitas to the discussion. – Lee)
Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links. There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog. Search Amazon.com here
Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks You can preview the kindle version on Amazonor the Apple version onItunes. It is available inpaperback on Amazon if you prefer.
I hate “click-bait” titles, but it truly was the first time I have called 911 since we have been on the road. Everyone is fine, and I am happy to report my phone sent me to the right dispatcher, but I am going to get into the details at the end of the post. In order to keep events in chronological order (which is not surprisingly important to me), first I need to catch you up on how we are settling in at our new gate. This gate is by far our favorite location. The best feature is that the ranch road in front of our rig is paved, which has made a tremendous impact on keeping the dust down, and we are less than ten minutes away from a very nice Super Wal-Mart and HEB grocery. Actually the town of Kenedy is very nice in general, and I’ll be doing a post on that in a few days. What else? Well, the people have been great, and I am really enjoying working with the folks from Encana, the oil company that is overseeing the site. One of the things I am most impressed by is how many young women they have working for them. Not surprisingly women are somewhat scarce in these jobs, which is a shame because these jobs pay well. I have met several young women working on this rig however, and am impressed by a company that would hire them, and foster an atmosphere where they seem pretty happy. You can tell quite a bit about how well things are going by the attitude of the people who you check them in, and despite the fact that there have been some issues most of the people have a smile and a positive attitude, which I certainly appreciate.
We also like the fact that it is close to our friends Cori and Greg and although I can’t just jump in the car and drive up there , I was able to make the 1-1/2 hour trip for Championship Sunday. (SPORTSBALL! -Lee) Cori and I both love football, and for the first time our teams, the Patriots and the Eagles, were both playing in championship games. Lee was kind enough to say he would cover for me while I made the trip as long as I brought back some a lot of the brisket they made for game day. Actually what he said was “Don’t bother coming home without the brisket” which I dutifully reported to Cori 🙂 She in turn loaded me up with not only brisket but leftover pork and shredded pork and he had food to last for several days. Cori is great that way.
Lee eating his brisket! He’s a little tired because he had to stay up late the night before covering for me.
Look at this pretty brisket Greg made. It tasted as good as it looked. Super moist.
I enjoyed both games but ended up leaving at half time on the Eagles game because I was a little concerned about driving back in the dark. The route is largely country roads and of course there are tons of deer in this part of Texas. Everything turned out just fine and I was even able to listen to the end of the game on AM radio. It’s been years since I listened to a game in my car, and it took some mental adjustment, but I was happy that the Eagles won because now we get to face each other in the Superbowl!!! This is the first time these teams have met in the big game since Cori and I have been friends, and how special that we can be together for that. It won’t just be us either because Kelly and Bill and Linda and Steve are driving in in time for the game so we are going to have a big party! Very exciting. (I will happily stay here and do the actual work, because I don’t care about Sportsball. I’m very excited to find out what everyone eats though. I hope it’s more brisket. Or Bill’s Legendary Wings™. That would be awesome. I would cheerfully listen to a brief recap of the game while eating some of Bill’s Legendary Wings™. – Lee)
The one downside is Lee won’t be able to come, well, he could if we asked for relief, but he’s not a huge fan of sportsball as he calls it. I think he actually likes the time he is alone in the rig so that’s probably the best anniversary present I could give him. Oh, I didn’t mention that? Yep, it’s our 29th wedding anniversary and only the 2nd time the Superbowl has fallen on that particular day. True love though is letting the people you love do what makes them happy, and Lee didn’t even blink about what day it was. I did feel guilty for a few minutes, but since this the year of getting rid of useless emotion I squelched it and we are both totally fine with how it turned out. As much as our paths cross when we travel, these special occasion opportunities are rare, and we always need to make the best of them. (For what it’s worth, while I will certainly take the credit for being an awesome husband by letting her go to watch the Sportsbowl with friends and leaving me here to fend for myself all alone and tragic on our anniversary, the truth is I am just not one of those people that gets stuck on special dates. I get that an anniversary is a big deal, but I tend to think about those milestones all the time, as opposed to just once a year. I feel the same way about birthdays and other holidays. I appreciate things when they occur to me. This has led to some hurt feelings in my life, and sometimes people don’t get it, but I celebrate people and things more frequently that way. Also, the alone time will be nice. I can and will dance around in my underwear, which would be unwelcome behavior at a Sportsbowl gathering. So now you’ve got that image in your head. You’re welcome.- Lee)
OK, back to the gate. As I said, things are going well and I was very pleased by how easily I have settled back into night shift. The weather has been really good, which helps quite a bit, and since the Frack hasn’t started yet it’s been relatively slow. We are both taking advantage of the free time to work on some projects. Lee as you have seen has been doing upgrades and writing blog posts about them, and he has also done several minor maintenance tasks like replacing the dryer vent hose on our Splendide washer and dryer. And in case you were wondering, we did take a moment and talk about how much all these repairs were costing us, but Lee had a great point about that. We have an annual maintenance budget, but he rarely has the time or energy to make these repairs when we are traveling or working full time, so although the budget might be over in the beginning of the year it should even out over the long haul. And speaking of the washer, we use ours all of the time. It takes some creativity to dry items once in awhile, but we really like it.
Because the Splendide doesn’t push air as hard as a regular dryer and there’s no lint trap, the hose gets full of lint pretty quick. They really should be replaced twice a year, but Lee is currently doing it annually.
Lee’s drying the sheets using a fan which I thought was super smart. Plus the bedroom smelled great when it was done.
(You can also see in the picture above some light coming in the windows. I had used two layers of heavy duty black lawn and leaf bags to completely cover and black out the windows so Trace can sleep during the day, but today was a pretty humid day and we both noticed it was really stuffy in there and needed some fresh air. So I took down the plastic on the smaller windows on either side of the bed and cut them to fit the glass instead of just covering the entire window and frame, so now we can open those windows when nobody is sleeping and let some air in. We’ll see tomorrow if any light leaks around the edges. And do you know what sticks really well to everything in the world and peels right off with no trouble and leaves no residue and is also black and blocks light and can be easily torn with just your fingers?Gaff tape. – Lee)
I’m spending my time with a variety of things. Every night I am spending an hour watching a presentation on a project management topic to earn professional development units for my PMI certification. I have 11 hours left of training to do before May and should have no trouble getting that done while we are here. I have also been putting all the recipes I have been collecting into my recipe template. I use a program called Bookwright for my publishing and although I have been collecting recipes and pictures all year, I haven’t had the time to get them in the program. I’ve also starting trying some new recipes. The first one was a major hit and is definitely going in the new recipe book. It was rice noodles with a peanut oil scallion sauce and pork marinated in fish sauce, onions, and pepper. Lee absolutely loved it and said I could make it any time and I was thrilled by how easy it was. Usually Asian food is a bit of a challenge but this was simple and flavorful which definitely is a win. (Normally I try to stop eating when I’m comfortably full, but this stuff was so good I ate way more of it than I should have, to the point where I was uncomfortably full, but it was worth it. I don’t know it’s called, but it should be called Tracy’s Vietnamese Pork and Noodle Crack.® – Lee)
Speaking of cooking, I have been watching some TV during the wee hours, and enjoying old episodes of Top Chef for both the inspiration and entertainment value. On the recommendation of my daughter Kyrston, I also started a new show called Travelers. The premise of the show is people from the future come into the bodies of modern day people at the moment of their death and then use those bodies to try an avert the catastrophe that almost wiped out the human race. The premise is great and the show is really, really good and I am completely absorbed by it, which is cool because it helps the 2am -4am time slot pass by quickly.
What I haven’t found the energy to do is work on my book. I completed an edit on the first three chapters at the other gate, but am having a hard time getting motivated here. Part of the problem is I seem to have less mental energy late at night and I really do need uninterrupted time to work on that so Lee needs to be asleep or out of the rig. When I am writing the blog he is pretty good at giving me space, but even if he doesn’t it generally isn’t a huge deal. Working on the book requires a higher level of focus and I am struggling with it a bit. I’m committed to finishing , so no worries there, but if you are wondering what my progress is, that’s where I am. They say writing is really rewriting, and it turns out I am not such a fan. These “stream of consciousness” blogs are largely fun to write and since Lee does the proofreading I rarely feel I need to re-read them. Before having him look at the book however I need to at least do a second pass and that is not as much fun. I find myself second-guessing myself frequently and rewriting huge sections, and I am not sure if that will create a better or worse end product. It’s important for me to figure this out, because if I want to write a fictional book in the future (a dream of mine), I need to figure out what process works for me.
We’ve also been playing around with what our newAmazon Echo Dot can do. We know there is a ton of functionality, but you have to dig a little on the internet to figure out what it can do. Luckily we bought one for each of our daughters for Christmas, so we have lots of people researching and we are trying to incorporate using her into our lives. Certainly it is an easy way to check the weather, “Alexa what is the weather forecast?” and I really like getting quick answers when cooking “Alexa how many sticks of butter are in a quarter cup?” but we wanted more. One of our struggles is always maintaining an ongoing grocery list, but Lee discovered an app called “Our Groceries” which works with Alexa. Either one of us can say “Alexa, Ask Our Groceries to add…” then the item and it goes to a categorizeable list on Lee’s phone. The coolest part is once you set a category (ie: produce, meat etc) for an item it remembers it going forward and this way when one of us goes to the grocery store the list is already groups by area of the store rather than being a hodge podge. Very cool, and highly recommend using this feature.
Couple more random things. I hope you guys don’t find these catch up posts annoying, but I take pictures as things happen and want to get them in. Since I am not writing daily about work this one is a bit of a hodge podge. When Lee cleaned out our storage unit he found this little wooden sign that we have had for around 20 years. I am not sure why we didn’t bring it, but it’s perfect for the camper, and in spite of it’s age is in great shape. He did take it apart and polyurethane all the pieces and I found a spot for it upfront on the hitch so it will get some protection from the elements.
This makes me happy. Old life and new life merge.
And the cows come around every couple of days or so. We do try to shoo them away from getting to close to the rig, but they hang out right in the road when they feel like it
And finally, onto the 911 call. Kat and Bert came down to visit us, which was incredibly sweet, since it was an hour and a half drive each way. I had gotten their permission to be my guinea pigs for a new recipe I wanted to try and we were really looking forward to seeing them. The only downside was the gate traffic, which had been slow to this point, had really ramped up, so Lee and I took turns running outside to check log in and out. We were actually in a slow period when we all heard a loud crunch through our closed double paned windows and ran outside.
A car was flipped over in a ditch and Lee, Kat, and Bert ran towards the accident. I hung back and called 911, completely unsure as to what would happen. I had heard that sometimes the calls weren’t routed properly, but the call was immediately answered by a dispatcher who said, “911 Kenedy, Texas”. Since that is the town just three miles away I confirmed that information and then struggled to tell them where we are. There is no address here, but thankfully the maps feature on my GPS had a “close to” address and I gave that to them which allowed them to find us.
While I was calling, Lee, Kat,and Bert were talking to a young woman who was bleeding from scratches on her legs and laying on the ground. She was obviously confused, kept asking people to not tell her Mom what happened, and it wasn’t clear how she got out of the car. The sunroof glass was gone and since the car rolled over at least twice she could have been thrown out, but the miracle of her being barely injured is hard to believe. Lee said there was no sign the car door was open though and his focus was on getting her to stay still and lie on the ground when several other trucks stopped to see what happened. In no time he had 5 people there, two of whom had first aid training, and Lee stepped back and let them take over. I walked up, with the 911 dispatcher on the phone, because she wanted more information on the nature of the injuries.
At this point I realized there was someone else still in the vehicle and there were several men talking to him through the car. The dispatcher had me relay to the people helping that EMT’s were on the way, and to not try to move anyone. Lee did see the young man in the passenger seat and he was curled up and unconscious for awhile. Ultimately he actually walked out of the car on his own, again a minor miracle considering the damage, and as far as we know both kids have only minor injuries. Let me show you the car so you can see what we were all dealing with.
EMT’s on scene
Thank God for airbags because that is what protected the kid on the passenger side
Photos courtesy of Kat
At this point I continued to direct traffic, making sure trucks exited away from the accident and once Lee spoke to the Sheriff the three of them came back to the RV. The Sheriff also came over to talk to us and ask who the land owner was because part of the fence was damaged. We don’t actually know the name of the landowner at this location, but I did leave a voice mail for the saleswoman for our gate guard company. I let the Sheriff know that no gate traffic in or out was happening at the time of the accident, and made that notation on our logs along with the time. The Sheriff didn’t seem concerned about that though because it was clear she had been going very fast and blew a tire when she hit the culvert. The skid marks (and grooves in the payment from her rims) told a pretty clear picture, and again everyone seemed surprised they were OK.
Update: The father of the young woman stopped by to thank Lee for what he had done and we got an update. Both of the young people were halo flown to San Antonio. The young man has a fracture in his neck, but because of where it is positioned it looks like long-term it will be ok. The young woman has bruised ribs and some blood in her lungs, but she was released from the hospital today as well. It appears she did come out of the sun roof and it is an absolute miracle that she is alright. The Dad was partially just grateful, but he was also trying to recreate the events, I am sure in case there is a lawsuit. It’s a shame that’s the world we are living in, but I get his concern. Especially because it’s not clear who was actually driving.
Didn’t take long at all for the tow vehicle to take the car away
Despite the excitement, everyone was still hungry so I went ahead and started dinner. I have tried to make chicken Marsala several times and it never turned out quite right, but when we were in Charlotte my son-in-law Jeremy made it for me and walked me through it. My instructions were pretty detailed, but it was a ton of steps, but it turned out pretty good. Not as good as his of course, but everyone seemed pretty happy and the greatest compliment was when Kat used her bread to sop up the sauce.
It didn’t look that refined but tasted yummy
Kat, Bert, and Lee. Everyone had a clean plate!!
Have I mentioned I am a bit of a whirling dervish in the kitchen? The more complicated the recipe the worse the mess, so it’s pretty easy to see how hard this one was.
Oh, and one more thing. Bert made these mini apples pies which were really yummy. Don’t take my word for it though….
Check out Lee’s first bite lol
It was absolutely wonderful seeing them, but it was a little sad because they are heading back home to come off the road for a while in April. Kat and Bert always knew they were going to try this for a year or two and then go on to their next “mini-life”. They enjoy adventures, and are looking to see what’s on the next horizon for them. I am just really happy that I got to know them and I’ll miss seeing them regularly on the road. Yes, we absolutely plan to get together in Raleigh when we head back East, but I really have loved seeing them so much over the last couple of years. They are great people and I feel really blessed to know them. Love you guys, and thank you for your friendship and the laughter.
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Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks You can preview the kindle version on Amazonor the Apple version onItunes. It is available inpaperback on Amazon if you prefer.
and thank me later!
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can do. We know there is a ton of functionality, but you have to dig a little on the internet to figure out what it can do. Luckily we bought one for each of our daughters for Christmas, so we have lots of people researching and we are trying to incorporate using her into our lives. Certainly it is an easy way to check the weather, “Alexa what is the weather forecast?” and I really like getting quick answers when cooking “Alexa how many sticks of butter are in a quarter cup?” but we wanted more. One of our struggles is always maintaining an ongoing grocery list, but Lee discovered an app called “Our Groceries” which works with Alexa. Either one of us can say “Alexa, Ask Our Groceries to add…” then the item and it goes to a categorizeable list on Lee’s phone. The coolest part is once you set a category (ie: produce, meat etc) for an item it remembers it going forward and this way when one of us goes to the grocery store the list is already groups by area of the store rather than being a hodge podge. Very cool, and highly recommend using this feature.
Camper Chronicles 