October 1, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at the Beet Harvest – Day 1

Friday, September 30, 2016

We were given our assignments first thing in the morning and were on Piler #2 with Marie, Marvin, and Robert. Lee was assigned to be the operator and the rest of us were helpers. Since the area around our piler (Piler #2) was still a muddy mess, they put us on Piler #3 with a very experienced team who had done the harvest several years in a row. They were super helpful and around 11 the foreman was comfortable enough with us that we were able to open one of the two lanes of our piler. The whole team seriously did great. We communicated well, helped each other, and were really having a good time. The weather was also great, in the 60’s, and overcast with the occasional sun breaks. We even had a rainbow or two. The work is also not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. There are places and times between trucks to sit down, and you are encouraged to do so during any down time, or when a big truck is dumping its beets, or if there’s a large enough gap between trucks. Our vehicle was close by so we could get water and snacks whenever we needed to, and the port-a-john was very close and at least for now extremely clean. Yes, the work is dirty, but it’s clean farm dirt, and their processes were excellent. As someone who studies processes and efficiency professionally, I do not say that lightly.

Lee, me, Marvin, and Marie first thing in the morning Day 1

Robert and Marie – Day 1

Our piler #2

This is a piler

Around hour 9 though (3pm) we all started to get a little tired and by hour 10 it was getting a little tough. Marie had a step counter watch and by 3pm she wa at 8,000 which was pretty good. She said most days she had to got to some effort to get to 6,000. Around 4:30pm, I went to take a beet sample, and picked up the sack wrong and felt a sharp pain in my left shoulder muscle. I let my team know and they were great. I wanted to finish the day so I just asked the others to take the sample and focused on tasks I could do mostly one-handed. I told Bill my foreman (who is absolutely awesome by the way) about it right away and he said I could stop and fill out an incident report, but I really wanted to wait. It actually started to feel a little better, but at 6pm when we were relieved I went and filled one out. All I can say was it was 100 times better than I thought it would be. Yes the weather was great, and yes, it was day 1, but I kind of liked it. I will say though that I am not a huge fan of wearing a hard hat 🙂 – Trace

We all enjoyed the rainbow

Trace wanted me to explain how I got to be an operator. It’s not really that complicated, first they ask everyone if they’ve ever had any experience doing it, and then they ask if anyone would like to be considered for training if an opportunity comes up. I had been up in the cockpit of one of the pilers when we did our orientation, and it looked less complicated than a 10 input video switcher, so I figured I could learn it pretty quick. Besides, it’s beets, not rocket surgery. So when they asked for volunteers to be trained I raised my hand, assuming that after a few days they would put me next to an operator to observe and get trained. The next day we came in and they had posted the list of crews, and it was me as the operator, and Trace and three other new people as ground crew. But the guy that taught me did a great job, and it’s really not that different from directing live television, but with more dirt and less bitching from audio engineers.

The pay is $1 more per hour, which is not a ton, but it adds up, especially when 4 hours of each 12 hour day is OT, and all 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday are OT. Plus there’s a 5% bonus at the end of the harvest, so that’s also pretty cool. I’ve worked less for more money, and harder for less money, but it’s still a blast. Today one side (lane) of our piler was not used because it was too muddy, so I’ll be very curious to see what it’s like operating both sides instead of just one. I really think it will be a little easier, because once you get into a rhythm it’s easier for me to stay focused non-stop and go back and forth between the two lanes than constantly be stopping and resting every five minutes. Sort of how like driving interstate is less tiring than stop and go city traffic. We’ll see. I identified some likely places to mount a Go Pro and I’m figuring out when and where I can grab footage here and there over the next few days so I can put together a short video that shows the entire process of bringing a truck through. Because that’s what we do. Over and over and over and over. 800 trucks in each 12 hour shift, on 6 pilers. I have to say it was really a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to doing it again tomorrow. Sorry this little blurb wasn’t all that funny, but I’m really tired, and really hungry, and besides, beets aren’t all that funny either. Beets are serious bidnizz, ya’ll. – Lee

In the meantime here’s some pictures of the process – Trace

Truck drives up

Beets come out of the truck into a hopper

These are the beets

Marvin directs the drivers to pour their beets into the hoppers.

When there is an issue we can get s spill. Thankfully that doesn't happen often becaus we have to pick up the beets by hand and some are the size of a football

When there is an issue we can get s spill. Thankfully that doesn’t happen often because we have to pick up the beets by hand and some are the size of a football and pretty heavy

If it’s a bad spill we call over a bobcat to clean them up. We only had to do this a couple of times and usually it was something wrong with the truck that caused it

The beets go from the hopper to the conveyor belt

Where the dirt comes out and goes into the empty truck

The dirt comes out the side and goes into the empty truck which we help back into place

Out the boom which rotates slowly left to right then back

The beets (sans dirt) go out the boom and onto the pile. The boom rotates slowly left to right then back

Our pile was super pretty! As helpers we raise the boom periodically to get the top as even as we can

Lee operates the boom and the hoppers that the trucks put them in

Lee’s controls. He can’t see the entire pile so we are his eyes on the ground.

Our pile was almost 18 feet tall by the end of the day!! When it gets that high we move the piler backwards a few feet, but we haven’t done that yet

So all in all good day with a great team. It’s Day 1 but feeling good so far.

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September 29, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at the Beet Harvest – Soft Open

Monday, September 26, 2016

After a terrific day in the National Park on Sunday, we woke up and got ready for our on site orientation. This time we called the number and it affirmed our orientation did start today. We arrived early and people were milling about so we just sort of followed the crowd. We filled out our time card and clocked in. Next we got our PPE equipment (personal safety equipment). They issued us two pairs of gloves (light pair and bright orange heavier pair), a hard hat, ear plugs, safety glasses (either clear or light shaded ), and a bright orange vest. We also signed for our personal lock and key. The lock is a pretty heavy-duty one and is used for all “lock out” procedures. It’s actually a really good system. If the piler needs moved or worked on then every person on the crew locks the electrical box. One by one the locks are removed and after every single person involved is aware of the machine’s power status can it be turned back on. Brilliant really, and a great example of “poke-oke” or idiot proofing a process. Seriously this machinery is no joke and this would stop someone from turning it on while other people are in harm’s way.

Then several foremen and the agriculturist at Sugar Valley spoke to us a group. They were a group of smart 20 somethings who seemed to have their act together. They explained that because the fields had receive 2-1/2 inches of rain in the last few days they would need to perform what they called a “soft opening.” We would get paid 4 hours for orientation (it lasted less than an hour), we could paint tomorrow for pay if we wanted to but it was optional, and then Thursday they thought the ground would be dry enough to start working. Once we started working and they could assess, people would find out what their jobs would be. Everything went really well during the entire meeting, my only disappointment was we still did not know what shift we were going to be on. Once again we were asked to fill out a sheet with our preference and were told we should find out Thursday. Again, switching your sleep patterns is a big deal and the more time for people to do that the better, but they seemed to be keeping their options open. One thing I did hear from the crowd (not the bosses) was that if you had a dog you were supposed to get day shift. Part of the deal here is people get their dogs walked at least once a day by the camphost and apparently this year 23 couples have dogs. If it is true dog owners get day shift, that could put us at a serious disadvantage. But again all speculation.

I was pleased to see that there was a break room facility and it had free water and coffee. There was also a refrigerator and two microwaves and several porta-johns at the location. They said we would be able to park down near our pilers once worked started, and we would get one 1/2 hour and two 15 minute paid breaks in a 12 hour period. Unfortunately the break room is located pretty far from the pilers, but the foremen said they would give folks rides back and forth. About half of the group was new to the beet harvest and it was a mix of both young and old. Most importantly everyone seemed very friendly and the folks who had done it before were very encouraging. It is a very interesting group of many different types of people, and to illustrate that let me tell you about two couples we spent some time talking to today.

One couple Judy and Jim (68 and 71) are retired and this is their first time here. What was interesting about them though is they aren’t full timers. They own a lake house in Pennsylvania and spend the summers golfing, but snowbird to Arizona in the winter. Jim wanted to try work kamping, mainly because they like to keep busy, and talked Judy into the Beet Harvest. I was totally blown away by this. There are so many things you could do to keep busy in retirement and this seems an extreme choice. But they are looking forward to the challenge and both seemed really excited to be there. I thought they were both great, but I told them I think they are a little nuts 🙂

Another couple we met was Jen and Kyle. They are 26 and 29 and recently became full-time RVers. They were living in Georgia and she was teaching and he was working, but when they decided to start a family they realized they didn’t want to raise kids there. But neither was sure where they wanted to, so the sold all their stuff, are renting their house out, and went on the road to travel and see the country before deciding where to settle and start a family. Very interesting approach and smart in my opinion. They have both spent a lot of time researching areas, but they understand actually living in a place is very different. They have put themselves in a place where they think they can live on $15K -$20K a year and are working the beet harvest for an infusion of cash. Plus everywhere they go and work they are simultaneously checking out the area. Kyle wants a job “working with his hands” and the opportunities for him in both opportunity and pay vary significantly in different parts of the country. They are particularly interested in exploring the middle of the country and plan on making a route through that area next.

Two completely different scenarios, but both couples were smart, funny, and wondering as I was exactly what we have gotten ourselves into. Everyone did seem relieved though after orientation, because they made it clear it wasn’t going to be nonstop hard labor. We are going to paint tomorrow, so maybe we will meet some more folks. – Tracy

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

We showed up bright and early for painting on Tuesday, but so many people showed up they split us into two groups. The returning folks painted and us newbies got a tour of the pilers and learned about their operation. Bill trained our group and did a terrific job. Things made a lot more sense when we were standing next to the machine and we got to ask a lot of questions. We also saw firsthand why were weren’t working. Everyone had at least 4 inches of mud on their boots in no time and although it was fine were walking around and learning, I wouldn’t want to be slogging through it on twelve-hour shifts. Plus our trucks and cars almost got stuck driving back there. No way the dump trucks could make it.

We learned for a couple of hours , but they paid us for 4. We were also told we would be paid 4 hours “stay pay” for Wednesday and Thursday (don’t have to work but get paid anyways) and would probably have a 4 hour shift on Friday with actual beets. We also learned we would be on days which made me feel much better. The young kids that were working were all taking the night shift. They wanted to work nights and we wanted days, so that worked out great. I talked to a couple of them and most knew each other from the railroads. Apparently many of them travel on rail cars (think riding the rails in the 1930’s and run into each other frequently in their vagabond lifestyle. The money they earn at the beet harvest will last them several months and they spend the rest of the year traveling and working only when they have to. It’s interesting that I had no idea this was happening. The kids are all intelligent and friendly, but definitely living a counter-culture lifestyle. I never would have been able to color that far outside the lines at their age. One of the guys has two kids though so he is taking a more traditional track now. He lives and works in Detroit most of the year, but still comes to the beet harvest to catch up with his friends. Some of these guys have been doing this for 10 years and seem perfectly content. – Tracy

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Last night Jen and Kyle came by and we invited them into our rig. We talked for several hours and discovered we had a bunch in common, age difference aside. That’s one of the coolest things about the lifestyle, in my opinion. Full timers are brought together by this shared experience and often that transcends other factors like age, religion, and politics. As Lee often says, no matter what we all have to dump our poop and that brings people together! The next day we spent some time talking to our kids and then went over and visited Jen and Kyles rig. They bought a 24 ft used travel trailer and have done an amazing job with it. Not only did they remodel it using inexpensive materials, but they have also taken advantage of every inch of space. We got some ideas from them, the marine fans over the bed were brilliant for example, and again had a wonderful time getting to know each other. With some couples you just click, and that’s how it was with them. The conversation just flowed. We are the first full timers they have really gotten to spend time with and they are the first really young couple we have spent any time with.

The rest of the day was spent watching TV and trying new recipes. The latter has been a mixed bag. Lee and I finally landed on a great beef stew recipe, but the other recipes not so great. I made chicken and mushroom stew (mediocre), homemade mac and cheese (inedible) and macaroni salad (not bad but needs tweaking). My criteria for this recipes has always been pretty high. Mostly they need to have minimal commonly found ingredients, be relatively simple to make with RV appliances, and taste very good. Not that easy. After much trial and error I have enlisted my new son-in-law to be Jeremy to help. Jeremy is a great cook, so I gave him my criteria and we will see what he can come up with. I did feel better, when he said he would need to think about it because of the strict criteria. It’s not just me being too picky then. – Tracy

Thursday, September 28, 2016

I woke up at 4am this morning and stayed up because I think I am close to adjusting to my new shift time. Even though it’s more waiting, I don’t mind so much now that we are getting paid. We are making $106 gross a day for staying here and since we aren’t spending money and have a free campsite, that’s ok for now. We are definitely working 4 hours Friday and then our first 12 hour shift on Saturday, but according to the rain forecast then it is supposed to rain again for 4 days. Not sure how that will play out. I imagine that we will work in the rain until the field gets so muddy we can’t but the weather is playing a much bigger factor than I thought it would. I will say again the campground isn’t the greatest. We have never been able to get the wifi to work, although others have had some success, and there really isn’t anything to do in the immediate area. Well there are a bunch of little casinos. but in the interest of budget we haven’t been in one and don’t plan on it.

Jen and Kyle also treated us to Pizza Hut lunch buffet today. There was a time not that long ago when I would never have let someone younger than me pay for my lunch, but those days are gone lol. I did double-check that their budget could handle it, but I would have done that with anyone. And since I really love Pizza Hut and our food budget is already over for the month, I gladly accepted.

We had a great lunch and as we were walking back to our RV’s someone walked up and told us tomorrow was going to be a full day and 6am start. We understand that things change and very quickly, but this particular start time has changed three different times in two days. Still they did a good job of getting the word out and we are as ready as we will ever be. With the rain forecasted for early next week I am sure they are trying to get in as much harvest as they can. Since we aren’t actually going to do a soft open now, I will end this post here. The next batch will be actual beet harvest reports finally, which I am sure is what everyone is waiting to hear about 🙂 I’m a little nervous but no where near as much as I was early on. Will see how it goes!
– Tracy

September 28, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

Reader Questions: Julie

The response to opening things up for reader questions has been great, and I am really enjoying this. I will say in this particular case I am not sure we are the best people to ask. We have boondocked for extended periods in Glacier, City of Rocks, and Quartzsite but by no means are we “hard core” boondockers. So please keep this in mind as you read our answers. And thanks Julie for taking the time to ask!

First, let me say how I love this idea of answering questions!!!! Mark had great questions as did the previous submitter. Your information is soo helpful and helps all of us who follow behind you consider things we may have overlooked. I really appreciate that and thanks for giving me something constructive to do on a very rainy day in the middle of Montana! – Trace

So my questions revolve around boondocking…

When you are considering boondocking, what resources do you use to locate a spot and how hard is it finding a spot with an rv of your size? I think yours is in the 40 ft (ish) range. Do you find having a rig of this size limits your ability to find remote locations? We don’t specifically start out looking for a spot where we can boondock. As a matter of fact, all things being equal I would always take having services over not having any. That’s not everyone though. There are many people who are “hard-core” boondockers who would almost always make that their first choice. We use Ultimate Public Campground when looking for campsites, and many of the choices listed have limited or no services. Other resources I have heard about, but personally never use are www.freecampsites.net and www.boondockerswelcome.com. I also highly recommend looking at Technomadia’s website as they boondock frequently and have some great resources

To answer the other part of your question though,in general the size of our rig is less of an issue out west than in the east, but it really varies from place to place. Our friends Deb and Steve boondock frequently in a 40 foot rig and they are always finding great spots they can squeeze into. Squeeze is the operative word though, as Steve is pretty good at maneuvering into tight spaces. Google maps is definitely your friend in these cases because the descriptions around size requirements are not always accurate. We tend to be extremely conservative, but that’s just us. – Tracy

With your current set up, how many days can you go before you need to dump tanks or gain full hook-ups? The short answer is about three days. When we’re on full hookups we only dump the tanks when they’re full. For the gray tank, that’s about every three days, that’s with zero conservation. (The black tank is a non-issue, we’ve gone 15 days without having to empty that.)

That’s our non-boondocking tank usage. Here’s the long answer: If you’re asking how long we can go before we have to dump any tanks, the answer is about six days, with what I would call moderate conservation, which is navy showers, which just means only using the water to get wet and rinse off. It also means not running the water while brushing our teeth, and minimizing any dish washing. I know it’s possible to go further, and there are LOTS of ways people avoid putting water in their gray tank. We just don’t do those things. Our rig has an 85 gallon fresh water tank, a 57 gallon gray water tank, and a 41 gallon black water tank. We also have a 45 gallon portable freshwater tank so we can drive to a water source to get fresh water without having to hitch up. And we have a 40 gallon portable waste tank so we can empty our gray and/or blank tank without having to hitch up. So while we can go about six days without needing to dump, we never do, because we can dump the tanks using the portable as often as we want. I would rather make a trip to the dump station every other day with the portable tanks than bother with all the aggressive conservation. Technically we could boondock indefinitely, because we have a generator, ample solar and battery, portable tanks, and four propane tanks that we can remove and take to get refilled. – Lee

Do you have solar or are you considering solar in the future? What are some of the key considerations there? We do have solar and it was installed by our friend Greg who owns RV Solar Solutions. We have 4 panels and 4 batteries because that is what we could afford. If money was no object I would have gone with 6 and 6, but we did put in a system that we can expand over time. The specific system you would buy depends completely on what you can afford and what you are trying to accomplish. A good tech will work with you to understand your needs prior to ever designing a system. That being said, here’s why we bought solar. Our friend Deb went to a place called City of Rocks and posted some amazing pictures. While we were waiting to sell our house, that image of her rig in that amazing place stuck with me as a representative image of what the lifestyle could be. We didn’t buy a system right away though. Both of us felt we just didn’t know enough about how we would travel to make that large of an investment and it was about 6 months before we felt we knew enough to take the plunge. I don’t regret taking that time at all, because it helped us understand what solar would and would not do for us. – Tracy

It’s also worth mentioning that we have a 5500 watt propane generator, which we had installed when we ordered the rig. The generator is like a drunk uncle,for me. I really love it, and I really hate it. I love it when we are traveling and we can flip it on to use the microwave to heat up some food. I love it because as long as we have propane, we have power. This came up when we were boondocking for a few weeks near Glacier and it was cloudy and rainy the entire time and the solar just wasn’t doing us any good. But I hate it because it gobbles propane like crazy, so the whole time it’s running, I am thinking, “Awwww, geeeez, I’m gonna have to take the propane tanks to get filled sooner.” (I hate getting the propane tanks filled.) And I hate it because it’s noisy. And I hate it because it’s heavy. And I hate it because it cost a damn fortune. Part of me wants to be able to just park in the middle of nowhere and live like a caveman, and part of me wants to know where the nearest Ritz Carlton is. – Lee

Hindsight 20-20, what would advise to us newbies to consider who really want to boondock quite a bit?

From my perspective, decide what you care about, and then don’t compromise. If you really want to boondock a lot, make sure you’re equipped for how you will want to live. If you’re going to want to use power, then absolutely take the time to do a power survey, so you can get the right solar setup. We cannot recommend RV Solar Solutions highly enough. If you don’t want to have to hitch up to get water or dump tanks, then get a portable fresh water tank and a spare water pump for transferring the water from that to the rig, and a portable waste water tank, and possibly a macerator pump. The thing to keep in mind about those portable waste tanks is that while they are designed to be pulled behind like a little trailer, that’s not always practical. If your boondocking spot is 20 miles from the nearest dump station, then you won’t be able to pull it that distance. They’re designed to be pulled at about 5mph. I never want to pull mine, and once you fill them they’re too heavy to lift, so it lives in the bed of the pickup, between the gate and the hitch. Then I use a macerator pump to pump the waste into it, and then I use gravity to dump it at the dump station. It’s light enough that any time I want or need the bed space in my truck I can just take it out and roll it under the rig. – Lee

I would recommend checking out an RV-Dreams Boondocking Rally if you would like some practical experience surrounded by a fun group of people. It’s a great way to get your feet wet in a safe and supportive environment. Unfortunately we were not able to attend, but many of our friends did and I think it really helped them ease into it. We on the other hand jumped into the deep end of the pool and consequently there was a lot of flailing.

I knew intellectually there would be compromises, but I definitely wasn’t prepared emotionally for how they would make me feel. Many people absolutely adore the challenge, but I was way outside my comfort zone. Plus, I made the HUGE mistake of viewing it as a competition. I thought in the beginning that there was one right way to boondock and anything else was a failure. Seriously, I put a ton of pressure on myself to “succeed” and it ultimately made me miserable and resentful about the whole thing. Thankfully a couple of things helped me stop doing that. First, when we were in Quartzsite we saw an amazing amount of variation in how people boondock. Secondly, I realized it never was an apples to apples comparison. All tank sizes, solar systems, and/or generator setups are different. More importantly people are different.

Let me give you an example. We shower every day. It may be a 3 minute shower, but we are both taking one, and this is pretty unusual when boondocking. Most people I know are fine with showering every other day, but we aren’t and it’s important to us. That one choice impacts how how much propane we use and how frequently we empty the grey tanks. If I compare myself to someone who showers less frequently, (normalizing for various tanks sizes) I will always “lose” (where losing is defined by emptying a tank). That may sound crazy, but people spend a whole lot of time talking about that kind of stuff when boondocking and it was hard for me not to feel like I was failing when my experience didn’t match theirs. What put me over the edge was when we had a discussion once about turning on the heat. It gets cold in the desert at night and we were burning through propane using our furnace. Other people were saying they “never turned on their heat” and I started feeling like a failure. After some investigation though it turned out that they did have a heat source, (a propane space heater) which for a variety of reasons we didn’t want to use. Based on all of this, my number one piece of advice is don’t compare yourself to anyone. Gather information and tweak based upon what you learn, but at the end of the day do what is comfortable and works for you.

My second piece of advice is the understand that boondocking in remote areas is often amazingly beautiful, but in many cases you also have limited wifi/cell connectivity. We have often rejected a site, not because of the lack of services but because there is no internet or phone. I have three grown children and am still not comfortable with being unreachable for days at a time. I’m not alone in that by any means, and really try to minimize the amount of consecutive days people can’t reach me in case there is an emergency. Full timers who have elderly parents often have the same issue and for many of us it is a major factor in where we choose to camp. To be clear you can boondock extensively and still have internet/cell, but those really remote, beautiful places generally don’t have it.

In a nutshell some folks boondock to keeps costs down and/or for the challenge and others like myself do it to be someplace they couldn’t otherwise be. It’s like scuba diving. Some people love diving in and of itself. I just did it to see the pretty fish! – Tracy

We have been following your blog for quite some time and LOOOVVVEEEE your honest accounts of life on the road. Keep up the great work! Thank you , much appreciated!!

Hope to be out the door and on the road the summer of 2018! Hope to see you out there!

Again, really am having fun doing this and appreciate the opportunity to answer reader questions. If you have any you would like answered please send an email to camperchronicles -at- gmail.com and I promise either Lee or I will email you back or make a blog post out of it.

September 26, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at Theodore Roosevelt National Park

I was excited about seeing Theodore Roosevelt National Park for a couple of reasons. First and foremost on the 100th anniversary of our national parks system, visiting the park honoring him seemed particularly appropriate. He is credited with creating our parks system and he himself directly credited his time as a rancher in the Badlands with building his character and making him president. Secondly, last year as we traveled towards Glacier we passed this park and noticed it because of the stark difference in the terrain. We were traveling through ranching country and then wham out of nowhere this beautiful rocky canyon area appeared. Since we were towing and on a schedule to meet people, we didn’t stop, but I made a mental note to come back and see it. I didn’t know the park was only an hour away from the beet harvest, but was excited when I found out. Plus we were lucky that we had a sunny, non-work day (a rare occurrence) and immediately decided to take advantage of it.

The park is divided in three sections and surrounds the area where Teddy had his cattle ranch. We were closest to the North Unit so decided to stop there first and I am so glad we did. The South Unit is the more commercialized of the two and I am sure many people only see that and don’t make the additional hour trip north to see the smaller north section, but we found the north to be absolutely beautiful. It also answered the lingering question in my mind if all nature would pale in comparison to what we had seen in Alaska. Thankfully this was not the case, as the beauty of the Badlands is so very different than Alaska that it drew no comparison.

Our American the Beautiful pass expired in August and when we saw that the park pass was $20 (for 7 days) we immediately renewed. Not only did we save money with the pass last year, but I am proud to support our National Parks and didn’t mind spending the $80. It was easy to renew. We simply pulled up to the gate, handed them our old one, and in no time received a new card. The North Unit has a 14 mile “out and back” scenic drive. Scenic drives are our favorite thing and since it was incredibly windy I was happy to have the truck with us. Pretty quickly the scenery was spectacular as we drove along the canyons bottom and then up to the top edge. It reminded me quite a bit of Palo Duro (the Little Grand Canyon in Texas), but I found it more beautiful than even that.

The layers of rock were really spectacular

The road was in really good condition, probably because this section gets less travelers

As we often do we stopped early on and checked out the Juniper campground. It was really nice and clean and had great views and even had a dump station. Most of the sites were pretty small, as is often the case with older public campgrounds, but there were some that could fit a bigger rig and it also had a great picnic area that we stopped at for our packed lunch.

Where we ate lunch

As we drove along we saw several groups of bison, and we were careful on the windy road, but then we stopped at River Bend Overlook and the views just took my breath away. We got out and walked around and the views were stunning, and varied in 360 degrees. Truly an amazing spot and don’t be afraid to walk a bit here. You simply can’t take a bad picture.

This park was founded during the depression by the civilian corp and this shelter, the road. and the campground are examples of their excellent work. The badlands was hit hard during the depression and many farmers sold their lands to the government and then went to work improving them. They were grateful for the jobs and we get the benefit today.

I just couldn’t stop taking picture

Lee found a great view

And another

Loved, loved the grasses

After we spent some time at the overlook we continued the drive and met our first buffalo on the road. They couldn’t have cared less about our truck, and at one point a HUGE bull walked out in front of the truck. He was not moving and after we waited awhile, Lee gently edged around him. Gotta say it was kind of scary though because we was really close and big.

When we reached the end we stopped and saw some nice views and noticed a ranger filling buckets with dirt at the edge of a field. We weren’t sure what he was doing, but I took a picture and later when I read it, I thought it was the absolute coolest thing. He was creating a prairie trail, because it had been so wet.

Views from the end of the road

There was also this great sign. What’s not to love about this guy?

It was only 1:45 when we were done so we decided to make the hour plus drive down to the South Unit. I have to say that of the two I really liked the North Unit better and would definitely recommend it if you can only do one. But the South Unit did have more animals and a nice visitors center than included the original cabin Roosevelt had lived in.

Visitors Center

Two of TEddy’s rifles

The saddle and horse tack was used by him

The saddle and horse tack were used by him

The cabin

His actual writing desk

This park was a 36 mile loop which had four separate prairie dog towns. These areas were huge and the prairies dogs were very close by so we spent lots of time taking there pictures.

Lee’s pic

Lee’s pic

This one was mine 🙂

We also saw Mule Deer

More bison

And wild horses

A first for me and we both really enjoyed that

The wildlife was great, but the views just weren’t as spectacular and the campground would be pretty hard to get a big rig in. Like I said it wasn’t bad, but I definitely recommend the North Unit.

Lee really liked these rock formations

He got several neat pictures of them

It was a 2 hour drive back to the campground from the south unit, but so worth it. We really needed the nature time and I am so glad we got to experience the park. Absolutely worth the trip.

September 25, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at the Beet Harvest -Waiting

Thursday, September 22, 2016

We were scheduled for an orientation at the piler site at 9am on Thursday and we were both eager to get more information on what we were going to be doing, and possibly more importantly, when we would be doing it. The shifts are 6-6, and we knew as new people there was a good chance we would be on the night shift. We did get to put our preference for days on our paperwork during our meeting Tuesday so we were holding out some hope for day shift, but also wanted the time to adjust to nights before actually starting work.

So we got up, got dressed, and sat and waited until 8:20am when we wanted to leave. We were told the job site was around 20 minutes away across the MT-ND border, but we wanted extra time just in case. It ended up taking us about 30 minutes and we really weren’t sure we were at the right job site because no one was there, and there was no signage. We decided to call the phone number we were given, and yes, there was a message saying it was too wet to have the training and it was moved to Monday. Now just to be clear, we were specifically told we needed to call the hotline number every day to see if the job site was open, and shame on us for not doing that. It just never occurred to either of us that that would apply to training. (As a side note, I found a voice mail on my phone from our coordinators Steve and Karen stating orientation would be moved. It was nice that they called, I just totally missed it.)

It makes sense though. The piler site we will be working, Sugar Valley, is just a huge field and has 6 pilers on it, and a couple of very small check-in buildings. Otherwise it was a large field of dirt, well mud because of the rain. We also felt OK about our trial run driving there. It’s mostly 2 lane county road, with a speed limit of 65, but at the very end, right before the piler site is a little town with quite a few traffic lights and a speed limit of 25. That adds almost ten minutes to the drive. But, we got a feel about how long it would take to get out the door and to the job site, but needless to say we were not thrilled about waiting another 4 days to find out what our jobs would be, and what shift we would be working. We also would lose any opportunity to adjust our sleep patterns ahead of time if we were on nights. It also occurred to us that this was what we had read folks complaining about. Once we officially start we will be compensated 4 hours per day straight time when called off, but the time lost prior to the job start was on us. Mostly I am fine with it, but I did leave Alaska a little early to get here on time and theoretically I could have stayed there and made money these days I am waiting. Again, I’m not completely upset about it because at least we have a free place to stay, but the time lost should definitely be taken into consideration. We will see how that plays out over time.

I decided to take the time and run a couple of errands. I got a really great haircut and eyebrow wax at Planet Hair and Salon on Main St and then went to the Good Cents consignment store and got 4 flannel shirts. They didn’t have a great selection in clothes in my size, but they did have some boots there. (Everything we’ve heard is that our clothes will get completely destroyed working at the piler site, so we’re trying to pick up a little here and there that we can just throw out when we’re done.) Not that I needed them, but thought it was worth mentioning and the people in both the hair salon and consignment shop were super nice. I was worried folks would have an edge because we were just there for the harvest, but even when they found out they were super nice. Carol, who cut my hair, said her husband usually worked in the oil fields but he loved taking a break from that and driving for the beet harvest. It was a good break from what he normally did. I also hit the motherlode in used cookbooks at the consignment shop and went a little crazy. I have been seeing the same stuff over and over, but this store had two shelves full of titles I had never seen, and many of my favorites which are locally produced fundraiser cookbooks. I was super excited and the ladies that worked there got a kick out of it. The rest of the day we just watched TV and did other domestic stuff. -Tracy

Friday, September 23, 2016

Justin and Trisha stopped by last night and invited us to a group potluck here at the campground. They are a very nice couple in their 30’s and this is their third year doing the beet harvest. We particularly wanted to meet them because they worked at Amazon with our friends Bill and Kelly and actually worked at the same campground in Alaska as B/K last year. Sometimes it’s a small community. Trisha said they keep coming back to the beet harvest because “they love it” which was really good to hear and this year they are working nights for the first time because Justin was selected to be a foreman. Unfortunately they are at a different job site than us, but it was nice getting to meet them. I guess you really bond with the small group that works your shift and specific piler and I am really looking forward to that. I asked for any advice and was told wear layers (Trisha said on some days she went from warm coat to T-Shirt in the course of a day) and they also talked about how they took a crockpot to the their piler and the group had hot food throughout the day. I also heard at the hair dresser yesterday that day shift in Sugar Valley has a food truck with a different home cooked meal every day and for $10 you can get a complete meal that’s really good. Not that we would want to spend that money everyday, but it’s nice to know there are options. Twelve hours is a long time and a little hot food would probably go a long way. They stated their first year they waited 5 days and then worked 21 days straight and last year they got called off almost every third day for rain. Since the fields are a muddy mess when it rains, Trisha said we wouldn’t want to work in it anyways.

My body seems to be settling back into eastern time. I woke up yesterday at 3am MT and this morning at 4am MT. That bodes well if we get on days, but is going to be a complete pain to adjust if we get on nights. It’s also been raining on and off for the last couple of days and we are starting to get a little pool in the campground in front of our rig. So far it is sloped below us, but we are keeping an eye on it. Since Lee can’t work on the RV outside, he’s getting a little stir crazy, but today he’s got some errands to run that will take him out of the rig. As I have mentioned before it’s a small space when you are “cooped up” together and that, coupled with some low level anxiety about what the job will be like, is making us extra cautious to be nice to each other. Today I am going to work some more on Photoshop training so I can make some more progress on my recipe book. Oh and on a side note, we received our first package from the post office and they wouldn’t drop it off at the campground. We got a slip in our box and had to go to the post office and pick the package up. I went and talked to Kim the campground manager about it and she said she would come down in the evening if we got a slip and we could sign it and she would pick up the package for us which was really nice. Oh and the high school football stadium was close by and the place was rocking on Friday night. We could hear the band playing Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” from our site which was kind of fun. If it wasn’t raining I might have gone to see the game, but not worth getting wet for. -Tracy

Saturday, September 24, 2016

This is a lot of time to kill and with the constant rain not much to do. Our spot has pretty poor drainage and we are practically surrounded by water at this point. I need to use my new boots to take the trash out (they work great), but other than that we are just staying inside. This is the most unusual gathering of RVers I have ever experienced. Get a bunch of full timers together and it usually is very social, but as far as I can tell not here. There are no campfire rings, for one thing, and certainly the rain isn’t helping, but the vibe is really that of a work camp versus a campground. From what I can gather you really only see the people you work directly with once this gets started, so folks don’t take the time to get too friendly. It’s very different than Amazon for example, where people in the campground really bonded together. That’s not a bad thing in our case, because honestly I am not feeling very social. Normally, I would be running around gathering information but in this case I really don’t want to know. Without knowing my shift and specific job all I can learn is how to withstand the elements, and I don’t really think anyone can teach me that. I’m either going to be able to handle it or I wont. On the plus side it is not nearly as cold as I thought it would be. When the wind isn’t blowing it’s actually very pleasant and I think I could stand outside in this. The problem of course is it won’t always be like that and add in the extra factors of 12 hours on your feet (which I haven’t done since I was in my early 20’s) and possibly night shift (which I haven’t worked since I was 30) and it’s all a little nerve wracking. So thinking about all that doesn’t make the waiting easier, and mainly we are just trying to push it aside and get through the day without running out and spending a lot of money. For those who have had children it’s not unlike the ninth month of your first pregnancy. You know labor is coming, and you know it’s not going to be pretty, but you are committed so you are just waiting it out.

We have passed the time by errands, computer stuff, and binge watching Walking Dead from episode one. One good thing about Walking Dead is it helps put things in perspective. Feeling a little sorry for yourself, watch a show about the zombie apocalypse to realize it could always be worse. Plus I can half pay attention and go through my new recipe books at the same time. I am also excited about the potluck, not only to meet some people, but also to try out new recipes for the Potluck section of the cookbook I am working on. One of the things that is slowing me down a little is the need to buy the ingredients for some of these recipes. I can absorb them into the regular budget if I try a few a week, but every meal can’t be something new. Well, it could be, as wonderful as Lee is about being my taste tester, but sometimes you just want to eat something tried and true. Anyways, the potluck gives me an excuse to both try new things and cook in scale. Potluck recipes need to readily scale up or down and with a smaller oven and limited pans that’s not always possible in an RV. Anyways, it’s harder to fill the time than I thought it would be, mainly because of the rain and desire to not spend money. We could shop or eat out of course, but sitting here not making money and then on top of that spending additional money seems like a losing proposition. Our default free things to do just aren’t available because of the conditions and location. As Lee would say we are doing a whole lot of nothing, which isn’t our favorite thing under the best of circumstances.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

It rained from 8am – 2am yesterday. And not just rain, but lots of wind, so we couldn’t even keep the awning out. As smokers we do have to go outside occasionally, and it was wholly unpleasant. I did try a couple of new recipes, but neither really made the cut and the whole day just dragged on. This morning though the skies were completely clear and for the first time in days we could see the sun. The wind was blowing and cold, but the forecast called for 65 degrees. So instead of going to the potluck we are getting out and visiting the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I really want to attend the potluck and meet some other people, but we just can’t pass up the opportunity to get out of here for awhile.

That decision for me is very different than one I would have made in the past, but in my current state of mind it it was an easy decision. The forecast calls for at least 10 days of clear weather, so once we start working we won’t be stopping anytime soon. Nature helps ground me and reminds me of why we are doing this, so an infusion of that prior to starting something very hard is always a good thing.

We know we may not start tomorrow. It is unclear if the field will be dry enough and for some reason lyrics from a Garth Brooks song “American Honky Tonk Bar Association” keep going through my head. “If your paycheck depends on the weather or the clock.” the song says, and although I have certainly punched a clock in my life I have never had a job where my paycheck depended on the weather. It truly is a whole different mindset and one we are getting a little taste of. The stakes are much higher for the farmers of course. The beet harvest is a $5 Billion (yes billion with a B) industry and what most of these farmers live on for the whole year. So as hard as this is for us, they have much more at stake. Of course they also have much more experience dealing with the variability of Mother Nature than we do. Objectively, it’s interesting. Subjectively, it’s pretty darn annoying.

September 23, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

Reader Questions: Mark from Missouri

Our onsite training at the piler location was rained out Thursday (more on that later) so I thought I would post another reader question. Mark has been reading for a really long time and I have always enjoyed his comments because they are very thoughtful and supportive. So I wasn’t surprised that he took me up on my offer and immediately sent a list of questions. He said I didn’t need to answer them all, but he should know me better than that by now. Mark’s questions are in blue and italicized. As always please keep in mind these answers are simply from our experience and there are as many ways to full time as there are people doing it.

1. Financially, have you given much thought to what you might do when it’s time to replace your current trailer/truck should you decide to stay on the road and require a replacement? We have thought about it since the beginning and it was part of the reason we went to such trouble to select a long-term RV in the beginning. Barring serious structural issues we plan on staying in this same rig for at least 10 years. In order to make that work we know we will need to eventually replace the carpet, furniture, fridge, flooring, and invest in a Mor-Ryde suspension system. We also might need a new paint job. Since our friends Howard and Linda have done just that and their rig looks amazing, I feel very confident that it can also work for us. Since all of those costs are still less than a new rig, and more importantly they can be done in a staggered fashion to reduce the financial impact on any given year, I think that will work for us. If we did not like our floor plan so much though that wouldn’t be an option for us and frankly I am not sure how we would handle it. I would also comment that I don’t think this concern should ever be a barrier for anyone. Who knows if we will even be on the road in 10 years. (Who knows if we will even be alive in 10 years? Life is short. Eat the pie. Rob a bank and buy a new rig with that money*- Lee)

2. We are not considering anything larger than a one ton dually truck. We are looking at fifth wheel trailers in the 16,000 to 19,500-pound gross weight range. Do you have an opinion regarding what it would be like towing a heavier trailer than what you have now? Our trailer is 18.5K loaded. We intentionally bought significantly more truck than we needed in order to maximize the longevity of the vehicle and to allow us to tow a larger vehicle later if we wanted to. (We have an F350). If we had a heavier trailer with the same truck it would east more fuel, take longer to stop and struggle to go up hills, and put more wear and tear on the truck. We think the tow rating of your truck should be at 15% – 20% higher than the loaded weight of the trailer. For example our truck is capable of pulling 24,000 pounds. We also have a hitch rated to 22,000 pounds. Again, better safe than sorry. What this means in a real life scenario is we can accelerate going up a 6% grade. – Lee

3. Many of your RV Dream classmates don’t travel in what some consider to be the preferred full time fifth wheel setups. This would include H rated tires, 8,000 pound axles, independent suspension systems, disc brakes and all the other bells and whistles. Is all this really necessary, other than maybe upgraded tires, if one sticks to the 16,000 weight range and has adequate storage capacity? I don’t think any of it is necessary, we have seen people full-timing in wooden boxes on dirt bike wheels. We do not have any of the things you mentioned, and we are doing just fine. Having said that, we ARE going to be getting into a fight soon on getting a Mor-Ryde independent suspension sooner rather than later. There is a difference between what we thought we would need and what we actually needed. My recommendation is to start off with a few things , but hold onto your money and buy what you actually need once you are on the road and have some experience. What I personally would recommend as absolute “must haves” for every RVer are the following: voltage regulator, surge protector, water pressure regulator, quality water hose, quality sewer hose, 50/30/20 amp adaptors. Everything else is a lifestyle choice. (a sense of humor and patient spouse are also highly recommended) – Lee

4. Your front living room trailer is awesome with the back storage area. We are considering a trailer with a similar outside storage area, but with an extra set of steps up to the rear den. We have no issues with stairs today. Do you think the extra set of steps would be an issue in terms of daily living? That’s a great question. I did vaguely consider it would be an issue walking up and down those stairs all the time, but I don’t even notice. I did grow up in a split level home though that had those short flight of stairs everywhere so maybe I am just used to it. Honestly I don’t even notice. (When I am old enough for it be a problem my expectation is that Tracy will carry me up and down the stairs, or I will get the world’s shortest stair lift. – Lee)

5. We started off thinking of traveling with a separate washer and dryer, then none at all. We are now considering a combo unit. What is your opinion of the combo units or what have you been learning about the topic from other full timers? Kind of on the same subject is residential refrigerators. Many of us future timers are surely still trying to decide if that’s the way to go when we first start off, not knowing what will become our preferred places to stay. We love our washer/dryer and use it all the time. (Curious use of the plural inclusive there. – Lee)
It’s cheaper and minimizes how often we need to spend in laundrymats, which are not our favorite places. Lots and lots of people don’t like them though, and would rather have the additional storage space. I think it’s easier to remove them if you don’t like them than add one later. The combo units are fine, but the loads have to be much smaller and we only dry things until they are damp and then air dry them by laying them on the bed. If I had the space I would love to have one of each. The residential fridge conversation is similar. We have propane and don’t regret it. I wish it was a larger one (mainly for freezer space), and some of the newer ones are much nicer. I definitely have fridge envy when I am with our friends who have them, but in order to do the amount of boondocking we want to we would need a 6 solar panel setup to make that work. For me it’s great to not have to worry about the power and just flip over to propane. For many, many people though it’s totally worth it and if you are going to be on hookups most of the time it might make sense for you. Personally I would start with propane and then later if you want you can change to electric, but truly with both the washer/dryer and fridge it’s 100% personal preference. I’ve have seen it done very successfully both ways.

6. On the emotional side of things. For those of us who tend to be control freaks, over-planners and generally have issues with things not going as planned. How do you suggest we start retraining to live with what comes along with the uncertainty of full time life on the road? This question made me laugh as I thought I don’t think I am the right person to ask that of since I am totally the same way. Then I thought, well, who better? First of all, I think this lifestyle is a great way to stretch yourself if you are that personality type. If you can’t let go of some of those personality traits you ~~are going to be~~ might be pretty miserable, so it pretty much forces you to loosen up a little, but in a good way. The question though, is how to prepare in advance, and I think that’s a great one. First off, try to let go of having everything figured out in advance. I know, easier said than done, but I consciously went from a 5 year plan to a 2 year plan prior to going on the road. Then a 6 month plan and now I am planned out about 3 months at a time. I still plan, but in the shorter term, which for me has been helpful. Oddly, I think the biggest thing that has helped me to be able to let go of uber control is mechanical issues. They happen more frequently than we would like, come out of nowhere, and require a major re-evalution of the plan when they occur. Getting through those incidents without totally freaking out has helped me grow as a person and mellowed me out quite a bit. I honestly don’t know if I could have changed that about myself in advance of actually being in those situations. I doubt it. Sorry I can’t help you with that one, but I do admire you for trying.

Thanks to Mark for sending in the questions. Lee and I really enjoyed answering them. If you have some questions you would like answered please feel free to email me at camperchronicles-at-gmail.com and I promise to respond via email or in a blog post as soon as time allows.

(*-Seriously, don’t rob a bank. I was kidding about that.-Lee)

September 21, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Working the Beet Harvest – Orientation

Monday, September 19,2016

By design we arrived at the Bagnell RV Park very early, because we wanted to be able to change our spot if it was a first come, first serve situation. We lost an hour to time zone crossing the border and now we’re settled into Mountain Time for the duration. The campground is pretty small and being an “in town” RV park, it’s hemmed in on all sides by roads and businesses. Our site did have 50 amp (a big concern for us while the furnace is broken) and also backs up to a road. It definitely has a trailer park feel with many permanent units people are living in and a general rundown appearance. Honestly it didn’t bother me because I had pretty low expectations, but the folks a couple of spots down in a very high end Class A seemed a little agitated. We are supposed to have cable (currently not working although I was told a repair man would be coming today and he showed up less than an hour later and now we have 50 channels), supposed to have WiFi (we can’t get it to connect, but that may be on our end), and we have a lovely view of the giant trash cans across from us. Seriously though, we are here to work and sleep, so the only things that concerned me were a neighbor with a permanent structure and a barking dog, and the road noise. There are rumble strips on the road very near us and since people refuse to slow down that noise will probably be a permanent fixture and anything that interferes with sleep will probably be a big deal. On the plus side, there is both a McDonald’s and a Pizza Hut within walking distance, and there is a very nice full size grocery store in town. We also have 4 bars of ATT 4G. The camp host (associated with the beet harvest operation) was very nice and was slightly apologetic, but again, we weren’t expecting much, so I went out of my way to thank her for her help. It’s not her fault. We were thrilled the RV park has mailboxes and accepts packages, so with a $25 refundable deposit we got a box and a key. Folks have been wanting to send us stuff for a while, and I have a couple birthday presents coming my way! Our information packet says we have a paperwork meeting at a nearby hotel tomorrow at 1pm. So that’s what we will do, and get some information about what shift we will be working, and what our jobs will be. Our next door neighbor Juan is really nice and he has done the beet harvest four previous seasons, so that is encouraging. He says we will have fun. I hope so. – Tracy

Lots of beet fields

The campground

Our front view

Our back view. Despite the rumble strips cars go flying down this road right outside our windows

After getting set up we took a little tour of the town to try and acclimate ourselves. It didn’t take long. It’s a typical small town farming community, and it’s also the county seat, so it did have a Main street and a couple of other business areas. We stopped in a store called Shopko Hometown (which is like a mini Kmart) and found my Corelle dishes pattern on sale for 40% off!!! We originally only bought 6 of everything and occasionally when we have larger dinners I don’t have enough plates. Plus, they had a serving platter in the pattern which I had never seen. Score!! We also decided to go ahead and buy a new Igloo ice machine. Ours has not been working well for awhile (we have owned it three years) and they had one on clearance for $139 which was actually cheaper than what we had seen online. We found the bank, grocery store, a Mexican restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, hardware store, car parts store, and they even have a local Ford dealership which is great, because we need another oil change. We went into the car parts store and bought some cheap seat covers for $24.99. Everyone says you get very dirty doing this job, so no point in messing up our upholstery. We also stopped at M3 Meats. We love local butchers, but this was more of a processing center and they don’t have a storefront. The clerk came from Alaska though, and when she found out we had just come from there she went in and checked their freezer. We bought some great looking local Montana ribeye for $12.99 a pound. Can’t wait to try it out. Just to be clear, this isn’t really a butcher shop, but they do sell meat if they have it, and are planning to expand and add a small storefront in the next couple of months. I really liked the whole vibe of the town. Everyone we met was very friendly and it had the small town feel of where I grew up. – Tracy

The residential streets are nice

Our temporary seat covers

Picked up 4 of these beauties. Hope they taste as good as they look

The nice strip mall in town. The main street is a little rundown

My new ice machine

And the serving platter I have been looking for forever!!

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Well the first night sleeping with the road noise was ok. With fans on, I only heard a truck once, but again this was at night the road was much busier during the day. This probably wasn’t an issue for most folks because their bedrooms are in the front, but ours is in the back so keeping an eye on it. It may turn out to be a complete non-issue because we will be so tired, and otherwise I like our site because it is wide, so for right now we are going to stay where we are. Will see what happens.

Our orientation was at 1pm at the hotel next door. They had rented two small rooms and one had chairs and a TV and the other a couple of desks. The room was full with 17 people and they walked us through filling out the paperwork. It was pretty extensive and afterwards we went into the other room 4 at a time and presentation our ID’s for more paperwork. Then we watched a training video and walked through a short quiz. We were told we would be paid at the end of the harvest for a two hour orientation but it ended up taking 3 hours. Not sure if the pay will be adjusted or not. We also found out that the lowest level helper this year would be making a base rate of $13.35 (32 cents more than last year) and for other jobs the base rate was $14.27 or higher. Unfortunately we were still not told what our jobs or shift would be, but we were told that our site would be Sugar Valley. We were allowed to request day or night shift and we were told our foreman would take our preference and our job preference into account. Whether or not that is the case, we will see. I know the folks who come back for a second year all get to pick their jobs, shifts, and locations and I would imagine we will all take what is left.

What surprised me the most was the age range of the people in the room. Over half were in their 20’s or early 30’s and the oldest of the rest of us was what looked to be a pretty healthy 70. The kids were fun. Some had RV’s but most lived in worker housing (bunk style trailers) provided by the harvest. Most of the people here knew someone well who had done this before, so we heard some secondhand information, but until it’s all official I am not sure I trust it. We did find out that our trucks would be parked close to the sites and we could bring food, extra clothing, etc and it would be accessible to us during the shift. Overall for me it was fine. It did run a little long, but it was a large group and I actually thought the safety video was pretty good, from a content standpoint at least. Looking forward to getting to the training on Thursday and seeing how that goes. Oh and I know I am saying we will see how it goes lot, but honestly there isn’t much point in speculating. In my mind at least we have done as much as we can to prepare getting all worked up isn’t going to help. – Tracy

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

We had nothing scheduled for today and briefly talked about visiting the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which is an hour away, but it was both cold and rainy. Instead we both worked on housekeeping items that had built up. I did spend several hours on learning Adobe photo shop for my recipe book and Lee spent some time on the phone with the nonprofit he used to work for, helping them with their annual report. We didn’t mind the extra downtime at all, but I can see why some folks might be annoyed with the downtime. Since we have a free place to stay and things to get done, it is fine by us. It actually have been hard to come straight from Alaska and jump right in, so we are grateful for at least the first couple of days. Tomorrow we have training at 9am and hopefully will find out our shift.

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September 20, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Answering a Reader Question

I’ve been very concerned about whether I would have interesting things to write about during the next few months, and after talking to Lee he had the suggestion that I could let people ask questions. After mulling it over, I though this was a good idea, and my original plan was to to open things up while we were selling Christmas trees. But I just received an incredibly thoughtful set of questions from one of our readers via email and thought they deserved a long response. So I am going to start this now, with Darryl’s questions. Going forward if you have anything you would like me to talk about, please feel free to email me at camperchronicles – at – gmail.com. I promise to either answer you in email or via a post like this one. (Darryl’s comments are in blue italics and my responses are in black.) Thanks Darryl for taking the time to write this and also for reading!

Sometimes on the reading side of the computer (reading a blog) it is hard to see how you two can make that much money from May to September. This is referring to the money we were paid for working at our gig over the summer in Alaska. That’s a totally fair question and it was somewhat unusual how that all happened, so let me break it down for you. Originally I did the math and knew we would need to make, at minimum, $10 an hour and 40 hours a week for both of us. I looked for jobs that met that criteria, and there are a lot less of them than you would think. Most camp host jobs are designed for folks with some income coming in from other sources, such as retirement, or investment income, and they also usually don’t want to work 40 hours a week. I see that changing as the full timer demographic gets younger, but for right now it’s not the norm. At $10 an hour (and being careful on our costs) we could break even, but we still needed to make money to cover the trip in and out, so my original plan was to work a second job part-time to help defer those costs. When we arrived at the job, I found out that the RV park owners wanted me to work 11-8, but I was very concerned I wouldn’t be able to get a second job with those hours, which I had talked about during the interview process. Simultaneously, Lee had jumped enthusiastically into the job and did some high value activities like wiring their workshop for outlets and the owners realized that he had a very valuable skill set. They came to us in the first week and gave us each a raise (me to $12 and hour and Lee to $15) which enabled me to not have to work the second job. In retrospect it was very smart on their part. There is a shortage of labor in Glennallen during the summer months, and that raise more than assured our focus remained on them. Do I feel lucky it all worked out that way? To some extent, yes, but I also believe that choosing a less exotic location and being careful about who we worked for was a big factor in how things turned out. In general, the more desirable the location and the more flexibility in hours, the less money you will make. It’s a pretty basic supply and demand situation. Most people weight their job choice by choosing flexibility and/or location over money, but we had to choose money first, then location, and flexibility last. It worked out very well, and I really feel like they got their money’s worth. I hope they felt that way as well.

Not that I doubt you because you do a GREAT job explaining, but for those looking forward to that day (full-timing) it is hard to get out of the normal WORK lifestyle of looking at things. I totally understand that and it took over a year for me to change the way I looked at things. Lee is actually the one who finally changed this for me and once it clicked in my head it made things easier. In a “normal” work life where you have money consistently coming in, people tend to look at things monthly. How much will I make a month? How much do I spend a month? That didn’t work so well with this lifestyle for us because the revenue and costs were so variable month-to-month. Instead we started to look at things quarterly, or even semi-annual, as a bucket of money like a bucket of water. We have a bucket of money to start with and every month money goes in and money comes out. We keep an eye on it monthly because we understand that a slow leak would eventually cause a problem, and we have a low end threshold where we know we would have to stay in one place and fill the bucket back up, but it helps to give it more time (quarterly or every six months) to even out. Why this is helpful is it allows us to have a leaky month or even several while putting it in the context of the overall state of the bucket over a longer period of time. And it helps me not sweat the individual purchases nearly as much. I’m not saying everyone should do this, just that it works for us and keep in mind that is our mindset as I answer the questions below.

1. If you could one day write about how much a person should “HAVE” on hand if they were going to choose to live full time and “WORK”. Is there a LOT of work out there so it would be easy to make it if the effort was put in to finding work? That’s a great question and I hate to say this, but this answer totally depends on the people and how much risk they can handle. If you are a person who takes chances easily and lands on your feet no matter what happens, you don’t need much money, but if you are more like me then you really need to think about where your comfort zone is. Another big factor is how easily you could reenter the workforce. If you believe you can always “make more money, it’s easier to take a risk. The more comfortable we got with the RVing lifestyle and proving to myself (Lee believed it all along) that we actually could make money on the road and keep our costs down helped as well.

2. Is $250,000-$300,00 enough while everything is “paid off” and they will be “paying for insurance on two people.” Again it depends. If you plan on supplementing by working/volunteering, I would say it’s more than enough, but only you can decide that. Our first year I grossed over $100K taking my corporate job on the road, and we spent almost all of that. In retrospect it was a ton of money, but there is a learning curve to this lifestyle, and more importantly we could spend the money, because we had it. The old adage “You spend what you make” really applies to this lifestyle. I can’t speak to how much money you can make annually off investments from that kind of cash though, because that simply isn’t our situation. Two things I want to add. Being debt free in year 2 has made a world of difference. We would be in a much different situation if we still had a $1K a monthly truck payment to pay. Second, I refuse to allow insurance to be the only factor that keeps me off the road. In all fairness I can say that because we are healthy, but if health insurance is the only factor and you are in good health, I would take the plunge. I had reasonably priced corporate life insurance for the first 15 months and the rest of this year we have a “catastrophic” plan and money put aside to pay the tax penalty. Next year we plan on going on an Affordable Care Plan (assuming they still exist) and we have $10K in an HSA account to cover normal medical expenses. My personal viewpoint is I refuse to be held hostage by healthcare and I feel pretty strongly about that, but again I can afford to because I am in good health. It’s not that I don’t worry about it, I just don’t let it rule my decision making. Time will tell if this is a good call.

3. I read Linda and Howard and see his numbers but now that you are getting a BETTER FEEL for the full-time lifestyle how do you look at the dollar amounts today verses before you started. Today you may see a person needs more or not as much? Another great question. I absolutely recognize there is a learning curve, but I am also totally convinced people can live on much less than they think they can. The absolute best piece of information I received on this was from our friends Bill and Nancy who have been full timing for over 10 years. Bill said our costs would go down year over year as we learned about the lifestyle and he was totally right. I totally believe we can live on less . I am still not 100% sure we want to live on less. What that life looks like is something we are exploring as we speak. We will see how it turns out, but it absolutely can be done. I will say I don’t think you can decide those things prior to going on the road. You need to experience the trade-offs first hand to truly decide and your views could and probably will change over time.

4.I liked it that you told us at the first of the year I believe it was you guys put $35,000 or $40,000 in a saving and work from that. That is different then what I read on others (who reveal that information) and see that as a good idea. $30K of working capital was my personal minimum when we started. When we broke that threshold it changed to $10K in an emergency fund, with $10K in working capital that goes up and down. It will probably change again. That’s not the whole story, though. I have $150K in a 401K “lock box” to use for an exit if absolutely necessary. I also have very supportive parents and in-laws that I know I could stay with temporarily if it all went to hell and we needed to completely reset our life. I also know I have many earning years ahead of me and if necessary could reenter the workforce in some capacity. Those three things are my emotional “safety net” and allow me to take more risks than I normally would. If you are a risk averse person I would encourage you to think through what you would do if everything went horribly wrong. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but knowing you wouldn’t end up on the street can be comforting, at least for me. I did have to take my pride and ego out of it though and that was pretty tough. But when I realized that that and the fear of failure were the only things standing in my way, it made the choice easier.

5. Do you feel that is the way you two will operate forward or change it up so that everything is on a debit card and work from the debit card? We are pretty fond of our AmEx card for the points, although we may change from Gold to Blue next year. Most people I know charge and then pay off monthly to get the discounts on fuel and grocery purchases. Bill and Kelly have a variety of cards and change which ones they use based on what they are buying, and what benefits they get. The key here is the discipline to pay them off monthly so you don’t incur debt. AmEx requires that so it helps us to stay on the straight and narrow.

6. Anything you can provide helps and one day it would be good to cross paths. The reason I ask all this is because working on the road and living on the road is soooo new to you two that I would like to capture the freshness of it before working and living on the road becomes a everyday routine. Thanks Thank you Darryl! I really enjoyed this and hope it helped. I would love to meet some day! Good luck to you.

Hope everyone else enjoyed this as well, and again, if anyone has a question they would like answered, please feel free to email us at camperchronicles -at- gmail.com. I promise either Lee or I will answer via email or in a blog post as time allows.

September 18, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

Back in the USA and Summing up the Summer Costs

After driving through more farm land we stopped at one more RV Park near Saskatoon called Campland RV Resort. It was a very big park, and looked brand spanking new, with level, uniform sites and very nice owners. But once again the WiFi didn’t work at the sites, and I think both of us had had enough. We got up early and drove 300 miles so that we could make it back to the US the next afternoon. Once again I drove through customs, and again, it was a pretty pleasant experience. I really have to recommend the wives drive through customs, because the agents seem friendlier when a woman is behind the wheel. We crossed at Regway and there wasn’t another car in sight, and the questions were simple. The only thing that kind of threw me was whether I had any garden vegetables from Canada. I said No and no to buying alcohol in Canada, no to weapons, and off we went. I told them I was glad to be back in the land of the internet and they laughed. We even got a welcome home from them which was nice. After about 20 minutes we got internet signal and once we switched drivers I starting texting and calling people. My phone was “blowing up” as the kids say, and I was loving it.

There aren’t many places to stay this far north in Montana and many of those are campgrounds that cater to the Bakken oil field workers. Since that business is a little off, some did have openings for a couple of nights and we ended up going to Williston, ND and staying at Fox Run RV Park. As a side note, these parks don’t show up in the standard Good Sam, All Stays and other campground finder apps, but Lee had done some research and found four of them in this area. Originally we wanted to get to the campground in Sidney early, but were told by the coordinators we couldn’t come in early even if we paid for the extra night ourselves, so Lee emailed 4 campgrounds and heard back from two of them. Coordinating this with scant wifi was tough, but Fox Run seemed to understand and welcomed us in. I didn’t know what to expect, but it’s actually pretty nice. The campground itself is a huge gravel field on top of a very high gill, and near the highway, but they have a huge common area in the main building including two large screen TV’s surrounded by lots of comfy couches, a couple of take-a-book-leave-a-book libraries , and the nicest laundry room I have ever seen in a campground. Plus, all the sites have heated water spigots and it’s clear these “camps”, for lack of a better word, are designed for folks to live here year round. My only complaint is the Wifi at the sites didn’t work at all, but since we were in the land of the 4 bars we were fine using our own data, since we haven’t used any at all this month.

OK, so I know I am making a huge deal about internet/cell phone/text and you are probably thinking what’s the big deal, it was only 8 days, but it really was a big deal. My oldest daughter got engaged while we were in Alaska and is making wedding plans, and was looking for some advice. And you never really appreciate how much you whip out your phone to look something up until you can’t do it. On top of that, everything is fine if you stick with the travel plan you made, but try to deviate from that at all and it’s tough to make good decisions with limited information resources. So simply put, I like Canada, the people are nice, and it’s mostly beautiful, but I am not a fan of the lack of internet. Or more specifically, affordable cell based internet. Not that I won’t go back, I really want to spend more time in the Canadian Rockies, but I would be very hesitant to go without some sort of affordable phone/internet solution.

Plus, it’s not cheap. I kept track of our gas/campground costs for the Canadian portion of the trip specifically, and wanted to share them. Please keep in mind all costs are adjusted to American dollars at a 1.2 exchange rate, which was essentially a 20% discount on anything we bought. The current exchange rate might be different, but this is what it was when we bought Canadian dollars for the trip back in May. All campgrounds are Good Sam parks, and all diesel was purchased when we were at half a tank, regardless of cost, not that there was much variation in price on the Alaskan Highway. Once we hit Dawson’s Creek we used Pilot exclusively because we get an additional 2 cents off per liter. We also started with a full tank from Tok and ended with 1/4 tank once we crossed the border. Could you save money by boondocking or staying at Provincial Parks that have no services? Yes. Could you save gas money by having an extra tank and buying more in the big cities? I guess, but really I think this is a fair summation for most people who aren’t willing to go to extraordinary lengths. Just so you know, we drove 250-300 miles per day and were on the road 6-7 hours per day, which was a nice pace, although cumulatively was a little tough by the end of the eighth day. I think these numbers are average enough for most people to use as a starting point for the “How much will it cost to get to Alaska?” conversation, just make sure you adjust costs up or down based on the current exchange rate.

The big news from this data is it cost $110.34 per day for gas in Canada. I knew it cost a lot, but since you are often stopping twice in one day for gas it doesn’t seem that bad at the time. We were mostly getting 8-10 mpg and were driving below the speed limit in all cases. Gas is just expensive in Canada, and it’s a long haul from Alaska to the US. The good news for us is that we got paid a couple more times in September and that will help defer the cost.

So how did we do overall financially this summer? Well, unfortunately I didn’t do nearly as good a job segregating costs in the beginning as I did in the end. Plus we had income from some work in May, work through the summer, and a generous gift check my grandfather sent me, which I am including since I splurged on some entertainment items with it that I wouldn’t have spent money on otherwise. I also included all our major monthly expenses for both May and September, to be fair. So these figures are rough, but sufficient for me personally to have an idea about how we did, which really is what this is all about. (Sorry Bill, I promise to do better next time!). Originally, I thought the Alaska summer could cost as much as $5K and had the money set aside to cover it if necessary. That’s a big reason we signed up for the beet harvest, to defray those hypothetical extra costs, and dig us out of any hole we had put ourselves into. It turned out that we did much better than that, and for the May to mid-September time frame also better than I originally thought we would. In a five month period we spent roughly $21,000 and made roughly $18,000. So we only spent around $3K for our entire summer in Alaska and that was mostly due to the costs incurred (and lost revenue) while traveling to and from the state. Considering all the bucket list items we checked I would say that was a huge bargain. but I am really, really glad that we worked this summer and very grateful to Marc for compensating us so fairly. On a side note, if you are interested in the budget of someone who traveled Alaska without working this summer, I recommend checking out Jim and Barb’s Alaska Adventure Recap.

So the beet harvest will put us back on solid ground and selling Christmas trees will put us back in the plus column. We haven’t wiped out our savings cushion yet, and since we have been doing this for almost two years now I am pretty proud of that. Oh, and about the beet harvest. Working this job is a pretty big deal for both of us as we have never done anything like this before. I know lots of people consider doing the harvest, so we are going to change-up what the blog looks like for the next several weeks. We are going to write posts in a “daily diary” format and then post them when there is enough content to be worth the read. This could be daily, weekly, or something in between. I just don’t know. I am committed to writing something everyday in this format and have asked Lee to do it as well. I think having a second perspective will be extremely valuable and he has promised to try. That being said, I am not going to force it. I am sure we will be both be extremely tired and stretched physically and emotionally and the last thing I want is to argue about this blog on top of all that. But I have explained how important this is to me and he gets that. So the new format will start on Monday. Today I am soaking up the internet, watching some football on TV, giving the house a good deep clean, and hopefully getting a haircut. I am thrilled to just be sitting for a day, it really feels luxurious and is well needed before we start the next week.

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September 17, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in a Canadian Mega Mall

Despite the wonderful things we have been seeing these are long days, and on the fifth day we both got a little testy. The weather has thankfully been beautiful, and the construction crews are taking advantage of it. Also, I had to increase the mileage to get us to the beet harvest in time. It also doesn’t help that we have lost an hour each day the last two days to time zone changes. You start early and then get in later local time and then trying to go to bed early is tough because of the time difference. We had no animal sightings on the fifth day (other than a juvenile coyote I couldn’t get a picture of ) to distract us and it took us all day to go just under 300 miles. Plus we are spending money like crazy. You know that mentally it is going to happen but spending an average of $100 a day in gas and $32 a night in campground fees (adjusted for a 1.2 exchange rate in our favor) is not fun. Certainly we could have reduced or even eliminated campground fees by boondocking, but our “reward” at the end of the long day is a campground with services and some level of wifi. The campgrounds are all Good Sam and have been decent, but there is little that can be done to mitigate the fuel costs, and I am getting a little tired of seeing “No Sniveling” signs on gas pumps. Seriously, I have seen that more than once. Paying the money when you’re heading towards something amazing didn’t sting nearly as much as paying it just to get out.

Still, we are doing much better coming out than we did going in. We have only gotten in one argument in 5 days, and I really think my driving more has helped. And the good news is I drove my first 8% downgrade with curves. The first one we came to I pulled over and let Lee drive, but the second I decided to try. Before I explain how, please understand I am not a professional driver and in no way qualified to explain to anyone how to do this. Every hill is different, they can be extremely dangerous, and I had the benefit of someone super experienced sitting next to me. All that being said, I have been learning, so on this hill I let the cars directly behind me pass, started out at 45 mph, put my flashers on, locked the manual gear setting into 3rd (so it couldn’t climb higher) and coasted down. The truck kicked into 2nd pretty quickly and the RPM’s stayed at 2000 the entire time. It worked perfectly and I went down the 1 mile “s curve” grade without ever touching the brakes once!! I felt great about it. The temptation to speed up was certainly there because I was going about 35 mph, but I resisted. As my driving instructor said, “Don’t let people drive you from behind”. Everyone is more maneuverable than you are in this situation, and since they aren’t going to pay the bill if you blow up your engine or brakes, go at your own pace. Plus you never know what might happen. Our friend Kyle was just traveling through the Tetons and was going down a hill and his rotor flew off and the brakes almost caught on fire. When he stopped the vehicle all his brakes were smoking and he was incredibly lucky. You never know when you might have a mechanical failure, animal in the road, or any other circumstance so on the steep downgrades my advice is slow down. Ever see an oil tanker going down one of those really steep hills? That’s the same speed I drive, because I don’t want to lose my home anymore than that driver wants to become a fireball.

Then I had to go up a 10% grade and the road was really torn up by construction. This went ok though, and again I was happy to see they were widening it because this was the nastiest part of the road in my opinion coming the other way. It was the second of the 10% grades going north to Alaska and hopefully they will be able to make both of those grades safer. Soon after we hit Dawson Creek and our first Flying J. It was the first fuel we had seen under $1 Canadian and we got an additional 2 cents per litre discount. Plus, hooray truck stops! Afterwards our GPS took us off the main route and onto HWY 59 which runs parallel to HWY 43. We went with the GPS and got to see lots of farm country including the really cute small town of Valhalla. This tiny town is a Norwegian community and we saw Fjord Horses for sale (sort of smaller draft horses), a Norwegian Gift Shop, and the school swing set shaped like a viking warship. There was also a big sign saying it was the home of an Olympian, which I thought was great. No place for our big rig to stop unfortunately, but I did stop traffic long enough to snap a couple of pics.

Valhalla Centre

This is the view we saw for two days 🙂

Country Roads RV PArk

The road from that point was farms and more farms. Lots of hay fields and wheat fields with the occasional herd of cattle or even bison thrown in. We both appreciated the simpler drive and felt pretty good when we got to Country Roads RV Park. I really liked this RV Park. They had a cornfield maze, trampoline for kids, and a nice store with ice cream and pie. The sites were long but a tad narrow, but I really liked that they had either free wifi or pay wifi where you could get high-speed internet for $5. I wish everyone did this, because those of us who wanted to could pay, which we did. I think at this point we mainly needed a break from each other. 5 long days in the car with not much of a break is tough. So with fast internet Lee could do his thing and I could do mine and we could both kind of chill a bit.

Bouncy trampoline

Cool store

With a big moose mountie

And a fun inside tire swing. The owner suggested I try it so hey why not?

Homemade Saskatoon pie.

Speaking of pie, Lee said the best apple pie he has ever had in his life (not hyperbole according to him) is the apple pie he got at the Canadian Best store. They put oatmeal and cinnamon in the topping and he said it was fantastic! The roads continued to be pretty flat with periodic construction the next day and we made pretty good time. We pulled into Glowing Embers Campground for the night and I really didn’t like it at all. First off it was $47.25 a night Canadian and then the wifi did not work at all at the sights. They do have an RV bay on site and rent RV’s so I understand why people may stay here, but don’t charge me premium prices unless you have premium services. It was also right next to an industrial park and extremely difficult to get in and out of. The good news was we were only 10 minutes away from the West Edmonton Mall so we unhitched and off we went. Keep in mind we hadn’t been in any kind of mall for over 4 months and this mall was for my money bigger and better than the Mall of America. It had loads of stores, a water park, IMAX theater, mini golf, and ice rink, and tons of restaurants inside.

Stores ranged from Tiffany

and Rolex

On the top floor

To Tattoo Parlors and

a hemp store in the bottom corners

Plus stores we had never heard of like Chapters which is like Barnes and Noble

Lee loved this one

All guy stuff. Our friend Steve McCormick would have loved that place

I was thrilled to find a lush so I could get some more moisturizer.

Ice rink

Putt Putt

Pirate Cove

With a penguin show

Galaxyland

With roller coaster

and the absolute best

Huge wave pool

I was crazy impressed. There was more than one food court and an area with dine in restaurants including a Sherlock Homes tavern and a dueling piano bar.

The crepe store was cool, never seen one of these before

I enjoyed soaking up civilization and seeing all the cool stuff, but when we were done, we were done. So we went to this nice Vietnamese restaurant and a wonderful thing happened. I love Vietnamese egg rolls and fish sauce, but as many times as I have tried to make it at home it never tastes right. Fish Sauce for the Vietnamese is as common a condiment as ketchup is to us, and everyone makes it in their homes a little different. I have asked at restaurants (English is a huge barrier here), I have looked at recipes online and even watched videos and they were all very, very different. I even experimented and couldn’t get it right. The manager of this restaurant spoke very good English and was super nice. First she gave me a big cupful to take home for free, then she told me it would last 2 weeks in the fridge, but most importantly she walked me through how she makes it. It’s tough because they don’t really measure but she gave me comparative quantities that I can scale up or down. Amazing!! This is the closest I have come to what I used to love in Massachusetts and I can’t wait to give it a try.

If you are curious how she told me to make it is

1 cup boiling water (taken off burner)
½ cup sugar
¼ fish sauce (she said the brand didn’t really matter)
A few drops of white vinegar. The vinegar is what you really play with because some people like ti sweeter and others more sour.

You also put in some shredded carrots and I have even seen shredded radish. I will let you know how it turns out when we get settled at the beet harvest. Seriously this made my day. I have been trying for 2 years to make this sauce with no success, so wish me luck !

Oh and after searching the mall for reasonably priced long johns we stopped at one more Walmart (we have looked in at least 5 Walmarts in Alaska and Canada) and we found $9.99 long johns in our sizes. Thank heavens, I was getting a little worried about that. So even though the campground wasn’t the best it was a good stop and the mall was really cool if you are ever passing this way.

Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Author: Lee and Tracy