Lakeside

by

February Budget – Lowest Costs to Date

We had a fantastic month in February and achieved our lowest monthly costs in the year years we have been traveling.  All events conspired to keep our costs low, and it was nice to have the “perfect storm” work in our favor for once.  We only spent $1987 this month, and made $5350 resulting in a net cash flow of $3363.  This is very exciting because it should cover most of our costs in the month of April when we explore Utah. Details are listed below.

 

Groceries – We were under by $95 this month because we were both trying to cook the food we have in the RV.  It was also a short month, which of course helps with the food costs.

Dining Out – I am particularly proud of this category because we only spent $55. Usually when our grocery budget goes down our eating out costs go up, but this month we really kept an eye on that.  One of the things that helped is we both cooked several meals from my recipe book.  I’ve been so busy trying new recipes it’s been a while since we gave the tried and true a try and I was very pleased by how that impacted not only how well we ate but also our budget. Yes, this is a shameless plug for my recipe book, but it is also absolutely true 🙂

Entertainment – We went over by $38 in this category because Lee bought a couple of video games, and I spent some money on craft supplies.  Entertainment looks different when you are sitting still and we needed a couple of things to help with the downtime.

Cell/Internet – One reason our monthly costs are the lowest ever is because our base costs have gone down.  As I have mentioned before we are saving $100 a month with the AT&T unlimited plan and are very happy with it.

Memberships – For the time being I have decided to forgo our memberships for both Workamper News and Escapees.  We have been very happy with those memberships in the past, but since we have our year planned out from a work standpoint and aren’t planning on attending any Escapee events, for the time being I have decided to forgo them.  I highly recommend both of those memberships though, especially if you are just starting out, but at this time I am holding onto that $80.

Truck Fuel – Huge savings in this category because we just didn’t go anywhere.  One of the benefits of constantly feeling like you are going to get pulled from a job is you don’t stray too far from home.

Truck Insurance – Our truck insurance has gone up $70 a month, but after receiving some quotes we ultimately decided to stick with what we have for now. This may change, but we didn’t see any plans that we liked much better and are hoping next year the 2015 claim will “roll off” and the rates won’t continue to rise.

Health Insurance – Another big reason our base costs are down this year was the $200 a month savings in health insurance.  We have no idea why the costs are so much less, but are happy that things worked in our favor.  I am a little concerned about getting hit with some taxes at the end of the year, but we started this journey with $5K in an account for taxes and still have $1500 left so to some extent we are covered.

Home Repairs –  Lee has completed the bulk of the home repairs last month so we are under by $150 this month. We have one more major repair we are looking at completing before we leave the area, but if that happens it won’t be until March.

Overall I am extremely happy happy with the month and Lee is beyond pleased.  This is exactly why we are such huge fans of gate guarding and why for us it makes so much financial sense.  And it’s not like we feel we suffered this month.  We had food, were entertained, and I have gotten a ton of writing done. By all measures it was a very successful month for us and although we wish we could have seen our friends a little more and done a little exploring, that is the price we pay for some financial stability.

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

by

Finishing Up?? Not So Much

We are both ready to take a break because the constant cold and drizzle is wearing us down.  Plus traffic has been pretty busy, but finally they took the big coil out yesterday.  One nice thing that happened was that crew had a big meal and they stopped at the gate and shared some steaks with us.  The cooker they pulled on a trailer was pretty neat and they had ribeyes that were braised in hickory flavored juice in big pans and I just grabbed a couple right out of there.  Lee was pretty happy because hey free steak and it was a nice thought that they shared with us.

Really cool trailer with grill and kitchen

The next day they started the workover portion and then after that the cleanup.  We heard that might take 3-4 days, but everyone we ask seems to have a different guess on that.   It seemed like lots was happening from the volume of traffic the gate was getting, but when my generator ran out of gas at 1am and I flagged down someone to get me some more gas, I learned that wasn’t the case.  The way I understand it the well has to be stable before they finish it and this one is still bleeding off lots of natural gas.  That makes sense, but then I learned that they weren’t sure when it would be ready. Once the well is stable they need two 12 hour days to complete the job but the big question is when it will be stable.  I still really don’t get it to be honest.  Sometimes I feel like everyone is speaking a foreign language and since we can’t see anything from this far away it’s hard for me to understand what is happening.  but we are getting paid and I had a pretty slow night, so that’s something.

One thing we did see for a couple days was a big ball of flame.  That was a bit of surprise when I walked out one night, but I later learned this was the natural gas burning off.

What I could see at night

The cows didn’t seem to care

Closeup with telephoto lens

The next couple of days and nights were relatively slow as well as we watched the workover phase get completed.  Since this was a completely different group of people, we weren’t really sure who was in charge, but Saturday morning one of the company men said they were close to being done.  Lee was told we would be done at noon that day, but then no one came and told us to leave.  We let our sales manager know that the phase was complete, but she asked if the gate was closed which we did not know.  Around 6pm our supervisor called us and asked if we had been released but again we said no.  There was no one back at the well and the gate to it was locked shut, but as far as we knew we were on duty.  I only had a few production trucks going to other wells, but went ahead and stayed awake.  I wasn’t sure what the traffic would be like and ultimately I thought it best not to mess with my sleep schedule.

Under normal circumstances we would have been totally fine for that, because getting paid for these slow days is awesome, but we have friends in San Antonio that we really wanted to see and were hoping we would have a few days to spend with them.  We decided to go ahead and prep the rig for moving, in case we were released suddenly and then I had an extremely slow night, which was pretty great, because it allowed me to get a lot of writing done.  I’ve been making some serious progress with the editing and seem to have found a rhythm, but I have also decided I need to write a little bit further before I end.  I never expected this book would cover our entire full-timing journey and I think a nice place to stop is right before we went to Alaska and started work kamping.  There’s some symmetry to that since we started with an RV-Dreams rally and it will end with another one, but that does mean I had to add some additional chapters.

After doing some research I learned that most novels are between 60K – 80K words.  I am at 45K currently, but by adding the additional few months should get there.  This book was always about filling the gaps in the blog, especially things that happened in the beginning, but I also want it to be a standalone work so that someone who never read the blog would understand our journey.  That’s a delicate balance since  I don’t want to be too repetitive for those of you who have read the blog from the beginning, but hopefully there will be enough original material (and the perspective from someone who has been on the road three years) that it will still be interesting.  As I mentioned before I am relying very heavily on my oldest daughter to give me feedback on content and flow.  She obviously knows the story and has been reading since the beginning and if she doesn’t find it confusing or boring, hopefully no one else will!

After workover was complete they started another phase and they were trying to “get the oil to flow.”  Once again this was a completely different group of people, and Lee was pretty busy all day. This crew ended up working past 9pm, which we were told is unusual,  because it rained (and hailed) on and off throughout the day and they were “fighting with the mud.”  Again we weren’t sure what the status was and the people we asked weren’t sure either.  Lee had the bulk of the traffic and since it was raining so hard he pulled the truck up and worked out of there for awhile. I got lucky and it stopped raining by the time I took over at 4pm.

Lee working out out of the truck.  You can kind of see how hard it was raining in the picture.

I was able to talk to the last company man before he left the site and he said the oil would start flowing tomorrow or the next day.  Then he said we would probably be here a few days after that which again confused me. The last gate we were released before any of these stages started, but we do know every landowner contract is different.  At this point, we are just riding this out, enjoying the slower volume days, and hoping we get done so we can see our friends before they all leave on March 1st and head to Arizona.  We would have people come down so we could make sure we saw them, but not knowing day to day when we will released that doesn’t make much sense.  So we are just going to ride it out and hope for the best and hey at least we are making money instead of spending it at a campground.

After a couple more days of talking to people who all seemed surprised we were still there, and hearing that the oil was flowing we finally got a text from our sales manager.  The construction company had decided to keep us because they were doing some work on another well and we were getting extended.  Even though it was shame we didn’t get to see everyone, it probably is for the best because we are hoping this extension will carry us close to the time we need to leave for the reunion rally.  We were a little concerned that it would be hard to get another gate with such a close end date so it really is a good thing we were asked to stay. The company man really likes us and mentioned briefly a couple of weeks ago that he might have some more work here.  I am guessing they decided to keep us over instead of having us leave and then getting another crew which is cool because we get paid for some relatively slow days.  I’m just glad we know now, so we can have our mail sent, which I have been holding off.  I want to get our taxes done before we head farther west so I don’t need to worry about that when we are enjoying our off time.

One more thing happened that was kind of interesting.  We got a call from our supervisor asking if we wanted to move to a $250 a day gate.  This gate is a busy one and has it’s own shack, and although the money was tempting the shack was not.  Many long-term/permanent gates have a small building that you work out of.  Sometimes you are allowed to keep your RV on the premises but other times you have to stay in a campground and pay for that cost out of the money you make.  Some people like those gates and they almost always pay at a premium, but we have discussed it and for us, that is not what we are looking for.  We like working out of our RV because it gives us easy access to all of our things.  Yes, we could still pop over when we needed to if the RV was on site, but we wouldn’t have ready access to our computer, TV etc. Theoretically we could use the laptop and another benefit would be during the time we were both awake one of us would be working in a separate space, but for us we would be giving up too much and at this point at least the extra money wouldn’t be worth it.  Again, personal preference.

The good thing was when Lee politely declined there truly was no issue.  As independent contractors we are allowed to take or reject jobs as we see fit and I will say every company we had dealt with has maintained that rule strictly.  They go to great pains to make it clear that there will be no penalty for refusing the work, which is a very good thing and appropriate with our 1099 status.  Plus as I have said before we really like this gate.  The paved area in front of rig has cut down on the dust tremendously and the easy access to town and strong internet is a terrific bonus.

 

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

by

Dealing With RV and Truck Insurance

When we first started full-timing, we were very concerned about insurance because we had heard that you really needed to have a special policy as full timers that would cover you in case you had an incident.  Knowing this we chose Miller’s Insurance, who specialized in RV coverage, and ultimately got a policy through Allied who is owned by Nationwide Insurance.  I was pretty relived that the company was one that I knew and not an off brand insurance carrier. Thankfully since we have been on the road, we have had two claims and they were both paid immediately.  The first was a major one, when Lee put regular gas in our diesel tank and our engine was destroyed.  That was by far the largest claim we have ever had in our lives and the insurance company paid $9K for a new engine.  Then last year we had a windshield chip from Alaska and had our windshield replaced.  Since we are Florida residents, windshield replacement have no deductible and that saved us around $1350.

Needless to say I have been extremely pleased with our carrier, but as our premiums keep creeping up, I was starting to get concerned.  I am a loyal customer though, and since the price was going up annually in pretty small increments I thought I could live with it.  But this month our premiums went up again and this time it was $70 a month, a whopping 43%.  OK, that is a lot of money, and although we had offsetting savings in other categories this year, we obviously wanted to know why we were getting a 43% increase.  Unfortunately that is a tough question to get an answer to.  Part of it was the claims, part of it was the hurricanes in Florida, and part of it was the higher cost of vehicle repairs.  Lee was pretty frustrated because he wanted a breakdown of how much of the increase was due to each factor, but if you have dealt with insurance companies you won’t be surprised that that didn’t happen.

So we did what any rational person would do and started getting quotes.  Yes, I am loyal, but I am also not willing to get screwed, so we wanted to see what else was out there.  That’s when the conversation became interesting. Turns out that we could get a better price on the truck (about $350 a year less), but if we split the RV and truck coverage the RV costs would go up $150 a year.  OK, we thought, we will move both of our coverages to the new company, but then we learned that if we did that we could no longer get total loss replacement coverage for the RV.  We bought the RV new in 2014 and our coverage has been for replacement value (around $70K).  This wouldn’t cover the Mor-Ryde, solar, or any of the other upgrades we have done, but would cover the $48K we have left on our loan and then some.  Unfortunately we learned that at this point the only new RV policy we could get would only cover present day actual cash value. Since that valuation is only $40K (and we might not even get that) not only would be out our RV, but also still owe money on our loan.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by all of this really, since I sort of understand why they wouldn’t want to insure us for more than the RV is worth, but I am really glad Lee delved into the fine print and found this out.  At this point we had a couple of choices.  We could leave well enough alone and just pay the extra premiums, at least for this year, or we can split the coverage.  Since we are still to the good with how much we have paid in premiums versus how much we have received in claims I was leaning towards just leaving it alone.  Lee absolutely did not want to lose the replacement value coverage and had the same concerns with a new policy on the truck.  We have replacement value on our truck as well and although we have no loan with that so actual value wouldn’t be a loss, it would probably be difficult to find a replacement truck with the money they paid out.

Which takes me to why I am taking the time to write all this out.  We get the question quite a bit of what we would do if we had a catastrophic incident (fire, collision, etc) and although we have thought through that scenario it is not something we dwell on.  Obviously we are not completely rolling the dice here, or we would have the cheapest coverage available, and we intentionally structured our insurance plans to give us what we considered reasonable coverage.  As a side note we also have $30K in personal item coverage on the RV, which should more than cover what we have in the rig.  In any event we have this coverage and now three years later faced with changing our strategy we had decided to continue with it as is, knowing full well that at some point in the future the monthly premium hikes may necessitate a change.

For right now, if we had a catastrophic occurrence we would take the money and try and pay cash for a new truck and RV. I will say this time around I would be completely open to buying something used, and since this particular model isn’t that common, if we got lucky I would try and find something very similar.  It is very likely that we wouldn’t have enough money to completely cover the costs and in that case we would have two choices.  We could take out another loan, which I am guessing would mean we would have to stop for a while and get “regular jobs” to qualify, or I could take a loan from my 401K and we could pay ourselves back with interest. Which route we took would depend on how much money we were short, but either way it would definitely be something we could survive.

Lots of people have to leave the road for a little while, and just because you take a break it doesn’t mean you can’t jump right back in once you have more money in the bank. I think there is a tendency to believe that this journey has to have a strict beginning and end, but that simply isn’t the case.  Especially at our age, since we are only 49 and 51, (just for the record, I’m the younger one. – Lee) we have lots of time ahead of us to make adjustments.  I mention this because the all or nothing approach was firmly in my mind in the beginning of all this, but now I know better. Many people we know have had life events that have temporarily sent them from the road.  Illness, deaths, grandchildren, finances all can play a part and taking a break is really that not big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.  Yes, getting started is a huge life change and for most people requires a steadfast commitment, but once you have done this for awhile and seen how many different ways there are to live the lifestyle, you can ease up on that all or nothing approach.

Do we think a catastrophic event will happen?  We don’t, but we are prepared for it in our own way.  Your preparations will probably be very different, and that is the way it should be.  I am just sharing our thought process, in case you haven’t talked these scenarios through yet, so you can see how we are thinking about it. Plus it gave me something other than gate guarding to write about!

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

by

Warmer Weather; Busy Gate

Yesterday was jammed pack full of stuff, which I suppose is a good thing because I have been running out of things to write about.  The day started off well with an hour long meeting for our summer job, where I got more details about the position and some insight into my role.  I am very excited about it and think it is going to be a great summer, mainly because the people are nice and for a change in one of these jobs I will get to use my brain.  Let’s face it, gate guarding isn’t that mentally challenging.  On the rare occasion you might get something that takes a little thought, but mostly it’s get up, walk to the truck, write down the name and license plate, go sit back down.  Not tough stuff.

But that’s been ok for me, because I fill my down time with more creative pursuits and since I work nights I generally have lots of creative time.  Last night however was crazy busy.  The Frack phase ended and the work over phase began which meant a switch out of teams and equipment.  The traffic was at least four times what I usually get and there were lots of big trucks coming in and out.  The decent part was the weather has gotten warmer so I didn’t mind standing outside most of the night, but since this is our first time working between the frack and next phase I was completely unprepared for the volume.

Don’t get me wrong, I view this job as a job and make sure that I treat any downtime I have as extra, but I am also a human being and like I said I just wasn’t mentally prepared for that kind of volume.  I am not sure why they decided to do the switch out at 1am.  It might have been because a big storm was forecasted for the following day or maybe it was just to get it done before the weekend.  I wasn’t the only person surprised by that because the switch out crew all seemed surprised they hadn’t waited until morning as well.  It went fine, by the way, with people checking in and checking out, but by 3:30am when Lee woke up I was really tired.  Unfortunately I was also pretty wired and had a hard time falling asleep and then woke up very early.

The best part of the day was early on I had a hawk who was flying close by.  Seriously he was hanging out in the air over our rig several times and kept diving down into the field right next to our rig.   Beautiful bird and even several of the workers were watching it as they checked in and said it was really cool. I was able to get some shots with the long lens, despite the overcast weather, and it really was the best part of my day.

Picture taken as it hung in the area less than 15 feet above my RV. Very cool

The biggest bummer was I didn’t get to work on my book at all. My oldest daughter has kindly taken on the role as my Alpha reader, and her writing skills plus being outside of the RV community make her a perfect choice for this.  She is quick to point out when I use acronyms that make no sense to her and has given me some wonderful advice on structure.  With her generously donating her time, I feel the need to get through this second edit, so have mentally committed to a chapter a night.  Last night that just didn’t happen, because it is hard enough without being interrupted every five minutes. Just not a fan of the editing process as I have set this up, which means I really need to rethink that next time around.  Many people edit as they go and I think I am going to have to force myself to go down that route.  This definitely isn’t working as I find myself rewriting more than I am leaving alone and really slogging through it. Plus that energy doesn’t leave me much for writing the blog, although in all fairness it’s never fun writing this when not a ton of things are going in.  Basically I have found I have X amount of inspiration/time to write in any given day and  and I need to really think about which project to use that on. I’m still figuring it out.

Thankfully after a couple of days things really settled down and the pace has been nice and slow.  We get the occasional spike when lots of equipment comes in, but no where near the traffic from the turnover day.  With the slower pace I do find the days sort of blend together and I think more about the weather on a particular day than the actual day itself.  I have been watching the Olympics every night and as much as I am enjoying that it is certainly not helping me with the days.  Korea is a day ahead and I am constantly confused by which day I am watching lol.  Still all this time to really watch the events is really a luxury and I am truly enjoying it.

“Rush Hour” at the gate

No clue what this machinery does but it looks different than anything else we have seen.

A I am writing this it occurs to me I should probably take a moment and walk you through my shift so you get a feel for how things are for me. So here is what it looks like, keeping in mind that every gate is different.

  • 11am – 1pm – Get up.  My wakeup time is kind of all over the place and Lee just makes sure I don’t sleep past 1pm. Eat some toast, drink come coffee, take a shower.  During this time period I often cover for Lee so he can eat some lunch.  It’s nice to have a meal uninterupted and I like to do that for him when I can.
  • 1pm – 4pm  Check texts, emails and Facebook.  Run into town if I have an errand although I try not to go very often.  Blog, work on my recipe book, menu plan, make phone calls., basically any task that I can’t do while being interrupted.  During this time period Lee and I share the space, so I try to work around whatever he has going on.  If he’s watching TV I might work on the computer for example and if it’s nice outside I will often take over for him a little early and go sit in the sun and read a book.  I also eat lunch since I can eat uninterrupted.
  • 4pm – 7pm Work the gate, which includes a mini rush around 5pm (as the new shift arrives) and another around 6pm as the day shift leaves.  They must have a meeting or something because there is always a gap between when the folks come in and the other shift goes out.  This is by far the busiest time of day for me, so meals with each other is pretty much out of the question.  Occasionally on the weekend we will try to have steaks together, but it usually means I have to get up alot. I almost always do the dishes during this time period because that is an activity I can get interrupted while doing.  And sometimes I get hungry again and might eat something, but that just depends on the day.  Lee uses this time to eat his dinner and work on anything he needs that requires uninterrupted attention.
  • 7pm – 12pm – During this time period there is enough traffic that getting into anything too serious is frustrating because of the interruptions.  The Olympics has been perfect for that because I can watch and just step outside when I need to and I have also been filling this time with some crafts.  I also might watch a fluffy television show (like the Bachelor) or basically any activity that I can walk away from quickly.  Sometimes I will eat dinner, but other times just a snack.  It really just depends on how hungry I am.  Lee is worried I am not eating enough good food, and he has a point, but it seems like my body hasn’t really adjusted to the shift especially when it comes to meals. Lee typically goes to bed around 7 or 7:30 to watch something or read to fall asleep.
  • 12am – 3am – This is my slowest time of the night and when I can work on my book.  It’s great that it is so quiet, but not the optimal time for me creatively. Still I need to work with what I have and had been managing to spend an hour or so of this time writing every night.  The other time is spent watching more serious TV although I need to be careful about what I watch or I find I have trouble getting to sleep.
  • 3am – 4am – Lee gets up somewhere between 3am and 3:30am and as soon as he stirs I start the coffee.  Most days he takes a shower, gets dressed, and then comes out to face the day and I try to give him as much space as possible while he wakes up.  The traffic starts to pick up again after 3:30am so I handle trucks until he says he’s ready.  At that point I brush my teeth and head to bed, hopefully to fall into a deep sleep.  Generally I have been finding I fall asleep pretty quickly but some days it’s a little tougher.

Actually I’m kind of glad I broke all this down because I have been beating myself up a little over not being more productive.  I do wish I could get more done in the 12am-3am time period, but I have always been a person who worked best first thing in the morning.  Since my first thing in the morning is now noon (a very busy time at the gate) it’s not the best time to sit down and write.  Anyways, that’s all I have other than to say we think we should be done here by the end of the week and I am hoping we get a little break.  Even though the work isn’t usually difficult never having a full day off can wear on you a little.  You start to hear bells dinging in your sleep!  I’d love to have a couple of days to just chill with our friends, but we will see how it plays out.

 

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

by

BRRR It’s Cold

As much as we like gate guarding, it isn’t much fun when the weather is bad.  And we’ve had all sorts of this weather this week, with lots of rain, lots of wind, and some extremely cold nights.  Thankfully, for us, there was a bit of a technical issue at the well and the traffic was lower than usual, but it’s still pretty cold, especially during shift change when I am outside in the weather trying to write on paper.  If it’s not windy, we try to stay under the awning as much as possible , but when it’s raining and windy out in the elements we try to keep the paper dry as much as possible.  Still it’s not New England winter, and I think of that when I start to feel a little sorry for myself.  I just really prefer those nice, sunny days!

Here I am in long johns, gloves, winter coat, and ear muffs. The wind was tough this particular day.

We’ve stayed busy despite the bad weather.  I have really enjoyed watching the Olympics and we are getting some great coverage especially late at night while I am working, which is cool. The only down side is it’s on regular TV so there’s no pause button and I swear I won’t have a truck for 20 minutes then right in the middle of the American ice skaters I’ll get three 🙂 I did get to watch the Canadian ice dancers long program all the way through…absolutely amazing.   Lee also decided to do some work on the computer, including formatting and changing out our C drive, which is extremely time consuming.  He picked a Sunday (our slowest day) and started working on the changes.  I woke up a little early and things were a bit chaotic, but I appreciated that things seemed to be going well.

He was doing this and jumping up to take care of the gate.

 

He was using the laptop and TV as a monitor

 

Good chance to clean everything out and move things around

So that went better than expected until we realized we had lost a file.  And that file was for my second recipe book.  I work off a special program so was forced to put the file in one place on the computer and that was the drive that was formatted.  I didn’t think to mention it and he didn’t recognize the file for what it was since it had a different name soooo long story short I lost about 70% of a completed book.  And yes, it was my only electronic copy and yes, that was pretty stupid, and boy was I upset about it.  But what are you going to do, so we started trying to figure out what we could salvage.  At the end I found a PDF I had run back in November so that leaves the recipes between now and then.  Two of those I found in the trash (thank heaven Jeremy’s chicken marsala recipe was still in there) and the rest I have the pictures in a backup file, but don’t have the actual recipes.  I’ll need to see if I can recreate what I did, and if not, well that’s just the way it goes.

I don’t feel cavalier about it in any way, but no one was hurt and it’s just “stuff” for lack of a better word.  It does represent hundreds of hours worth of work, which does sting, but hopefully I can find a way to recreate it with less effort.  I had the PDF, which I may try to edit in that file, because if I use the Bookwright program it will not allow me to copy and paste so I will have to hand type every recipe back into that program.  Anyway, I know people have bigger problems, but it was rough and I know Lee felt really bad, but really I should have had a backup file.  That’s on me.

Update:  Lee felt really bad about what happened and after we tried multiple programs to import the PDF we finally realized it would all need to be retyped.  Since I am not a huge fan of the Bookwright program, I tried to create the template in Microsoft Publisher.  I got pretty frustrated pretty quickly.  Creating templates from scratch was never my thing, so one morning while I was asleep, Lee not only created a template for me, but he also retyped every single recipe into the new format.  Wow…just wow. That was an incredibly generous thing to do and seriously made lemonade from the lemons.  So now I have almost everything from before, in a format I can use easily going forward, and I am only out a couple of recipes, which I am pretty sure I can recreate.  Really love that guy. 

On a completely different side note, one positive thing is I finally finished listening to those training webinars and have all my Professional Development units finished.  Slogging through all of those was not fun, but now that it is done I can redirect that energy into the book about us going on the road.  I sent the first three edited chapters to my oldest daughter Kyrston and she really liked it, plus she gave me some valuable feedback which I can incorporate in.  I just need to quit avoiding the editing and commit to doing at least one chapter a day.  I also need to let go of the idea that it will be perfect, because perfection can be the enemy of achievement.  It’s a story, and yes it’s a bigger one than these blog posts, but at the end of the day it’s still just a story.  That’s what I need to keep in mind or it will never be good enough.

The high point of the week though was when Kelly and Bill came down to visit.  Bill has been doing solar installs, but he took one of his breaks to come and see us which was very nice.  Bill is working for RV Solar Solutions now and is an incredibly competent guy.  If you have been thinking about solar and need someone you can trust to do it, I highly recommend Bill. You can see his spring/summer schedule on the RV Solar website if you are interested. They brought pie and we made pork chops, potatoes, and corn and it was wonderful seeing them.  Plus traffic was pretty decent and the weather that day was a little milder so the guys hung outside and watched for trucks while I cooked.

We did all get to talk inside a little bit

 

Kelly cutting the chocolate pie

 

Which was really, really good

 

During dinner I was doing trucks and then dishes and she took over for me and finished them which was so, so sweet.

 

We really appreciated them making the 1 hour and 45 minute drive and being understanding about the truck traffic.  Hopefully we will get to see them before they head to Quartszite, but if not, definitely at the reunion rally!

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

by

Do We think About Stopping?

I got a very nice comment in the blog post the other day that mentioned they were worried that we might be thinking about quitting after Amazon, and I found that interesting and thought I would take a few minutes to talk about it.  We do get the question somewhat frequently, especially when the blog gets a bit whiny, and the short answer to the question is “Not really”.  That answer is truthful, but it also surprises me because I tend to be a person who thinks through everything.  But when I start down that path, I truly can’t picture where we would be, and when my brain hits that brick wall I just stop thinking about it.

Part of the problem I think is we still don’t have a place we want to be.  I’ve talked about this quite a bit here and there, but probably should lay the scenario out again.  We have three kids in three states.  We have Lee’s parents, my dad and brother  in a fourth, and my sister and mom live in a fifth.  As much as I would like to live near any of them, how would we pick one? Of course it would make the most sense to pick a part of the country we really like and live there, but there’s a couple of problems with that scenario.  First we haven’t seen everyplace we want to see yet. Before becoming a full timer, I wouldn’t have thought twice about that, but now I know how varied the country really is, and if I pick a place, what if I was missing out on someplace really great I would like better?  That’s new for me by the way, as I have spent a lifetime of settling for the best I could do, but I don’t feel like I need to do that now.  Plus Lee has never been a person who settled easily, and he really wouldn’t want to do that now.

The second reason is the weather.  We don’t need absolutely perfect weather wherever we go all the time, but we have gotten spoiled living this life. When I think about places I have loved in the winter (Apache Junction, Tampa, or San Antonio), it’s impossible for my mind not  to immediately think about how hot those places are in the summer.  Same thing with places up north we enjoy in the summer.  We loved Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming, but how we would deal with the rain and snow?  Granted, weather is less of an issue when you live in a sticks and bricks home, but it would still be a difficult thing to give up and the place would need to be pretty special.

One thing I can actually picture is having a regular job again, although the thought of getting up every morning, putting on dress clothes, and driving in rush hour traffic to work isn’t a pleasant one. The work itself is something I think about, but the other parts, the politics, long hours, and the constant pressure are things that I simply do not miss.  That’s pretty weird, because I just took for granted that is how life had to be before this, but obviously I have lived another way for quite some time now.

And all of those things aside I really can’t picture stopping because of Lee.  He absolutely loves this lifestyle and isn’t even close to being ready to being done. I couldn’t take this lifestyle away from him without a pretty compelling reason, and so far I haven’t run across one. He would stop for me if I absolutely hated it, there isn’t a doubt in my mind about that, but I don’t hate it, and don’t see myself feeling that way any time soon.

Because here’s the thing: it’s just my life.  We have good days and bad days.  We get on each others nerves and make each other happy.  We are in beautiful places sometimes and other times are in not so nice places.  We have bad weather, arguments about money, and the occasional health concerns.  We worry about politics, our kids, our parents, and the environment as the occasion arises.  Sometimes we are bored, sometimes we are ecstatic, but most of the time we are just living our lives.  And on balance, for me, it is much more interesting and fulfilling than the life I used to live. I don’t know about Lee.  I think he’s happier, although sometimes it is hard to tell since he generally has a low level of dissatisfaction with life in general. (I’ve been less unhappy for longer periods of time doing this than I have ever been in my life. – Lee) A lot of creative people are like that though, and I try not to take it personally.  I figure if he’s not outright miserable, it’s a win.

You might be wondering what my old life was like if I find this more enjoyable, and that is a fair question.  I think the best way to describe it was a big ball of stress.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say my old life was killing me, but I was far enough gone that I had no idea how much stress there was until it was lifted.  I feel lighter and more hopeful.  I have more energy, more creativity, and am happier.  These are not small things.  There is absolutely nothing that I gave up in the way of material possession or financial means that comes close to these new feelings I am experiencing.  Truly…nothing. Maybe that sounds unbelievable to you.  I wouldn’t have believed it myself frankly.  I didn’t know I was capable of being like this. But here I am, and although I will probably never be capable of the free and easy spirit that many people I admire have, this isn’t so bad, considering where I started.

And that’s why I really don’t think about stopping.  Certainly if I am having a particularly bad day my mind starts to travel down that path, and then like I said, hits the brick wall of all those factors. That doesn’t mean that I live in denial that sooner or later something may drive us from the road.  Situations and people change, and I am certainly open to the likely possibility that it could happen.  But I also don’t feel there is any benefit to borrowing trouble, and that in and of itself shows how much I have changed.  For a long time I was a person who actively thought about what could go wrong and spent a ton of time obsessing about it.  Somehow, and I honestly have no idea how I got here, I have given myself permission to just exist in the moment. For the record, it’s pretty awesome.

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

  • As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.  Search Amazon Here
  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
  • You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

 

by

First Time in Kenedy and The Superbowl

Previously I was pretty harsh about some of the towns in west Texas, so I wanted to take a moment and say how much we like Kenedy. It is on the main road between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, but it also is a great example of how a town with a population of around 3K can prosper from the oil business.  The town has nice schools, two grocery stores, and several restaurants.  Whenever I go in, there are always oil people getting food or gas and it’s obvious the town is doing well.  Yes, there is a “not so nice part of town”, but the people I have met have been very friendly and there are lots of local service, clubs, etc that people can take advantage of.

This was really made clear to me when I went to get a haircut and talked at length with a young woman who grew up here.  I asked her how much it has changed and she said “so much” but she seemed happy with the changes.  Plus while I was there her mother came in and brought her a new Gucci bag she had purchased for her daughter online and seemed really pleased that she was able to afford such a present.  She admitted it was a smaller one, since that was what she could afford, but there was pride there and her daughter was obviously thrilled with the gift.  It was a sweet moment and told me a ton about how the locals were benefiting from the local economy boom, and I was really happy to see it.   Here’s some pictures of the town.

Similar population to towns in West Texas but many more services

Nice high school

There are several newer hotels in town, which was surprising

And relatively new apartment complexes

Give me a McDonald’s and a Pizza Hut and I am happy

Dentist

A very nice Great Clips which I went to

Here’s the UPS store we are using

 

There is a not so nice part of town but most of the houses look like these

The downtown definitely needs some work, but there is some spectacular architecture on these old buildings. I hear in the grocery store they are trying to get the money together to revamp the downtown which would be pretty awesome if they can manage it

There is even a chines restaurant. It was weird a massage place was next door

It was on the expensive side but the portions were large and it was pretty decent

And my favorite thing is this large hospital with an emergency room!! It’s comforting to be so close to services just in case.

Big fan of Kenedy.  I also made the drive up to see Cori and Greg to watch the Superbowl.  It fell on our anniversary, but Lee was very nice and covered for me because I am a long time Patriots fan and Cori is a long time Eagles fan.  The fact that we were near each other when both of our teams were in the Superbowl was too good to pass up and Lee was just fine as long as I brought him back brisket!!  I also got to see Linda and Steve and Kelly and Bill who had just arrived at the campground.  Good times were had by all, although I was definitely outnumbered and it was a great game.  I was really happy for Cori that her team finally got their ring.  Truly it was a great game and a wonderful opportunity to be with friends.

I walked into their camper to see this sign

And a little bit later to see this one.  Not nice!!

In case you can’t tell this is the bathroom

No it was funny and I did enjoy the philly themed food.  The hot pretzels were really good.

My favorite was this homemade ice cream flavored with Red Shasta. Yummy!

 

Hobie didn’t like the underdog signs at all.  I think he’s a secret Patriots fan 🙂

They also had two TV’s set up.  One outside and one inside which was nice and we were able to have a fire as well.  Really cool way to watch the Superbowl and I loved seeing everyone.  It was a long 2 hour drive home, and Lee was a trooper because he stayed up so late, but again glad I did it. He worked a 19 hour day so I could go.  That’s quite an anniversary present.

Bill enjoying the outside TV

Great picture on this outside one

And the inside was great as well. I went back and forth between inside and outside and they both worked great

And Cori and I stayed friends 🙂

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

by

January 2018 Budget (with Revenue)

The budget shows that we were $411 short this month, but we actually broke even.  One of our paychecks was short $450 due to a clerical error and that money will be coming in February. Still, it was a bit of a bummer that we spent so much, but since we discussed doing most of our annual home repairs in the next couple of months it shouldn’t be that surprising.  We also made a Costco run at the very beginning of the month and those are always pretty costly.    Also, we had a meeting to adjust the monthly budget amounts for each category based on the three prior year’s expenses.  As I go through each category in detail I will let you know any adjustments we made.

 

 

Campground Fees – We chose to stay in a campground with our friends for a couple of days between gates.  We could have stayed for free in the yard, but it was worth it to see everyone.  For this year we cut this budget item in half since we spent so little on campgrounds last year.  It’s still more than we usually spend, but I wanted to leave some extra in in case we get the opportunity to work less. 

Groceries –  We went over in groceries by $100,  mostly due to a $250 Costco run at the very beginning of the month.  We left the budget amount the same, despite the fact that we miss this mark more often than we make it.  I recombined the food and cleaning supplies etc back into one category since we did a pretty bad job of breaking that out month by month, and overall it just didn’t seem like there was enough in the second category to make it worth the trouble. 

Dining Out – We were $63 to the good, because all of our dining out food was fast food during travel or long work days.  I changed the label to convenience to make that category a little more clear and also upped the budget to $100 a month from $50.  After three years it’s clear that this category was just too low, and since we had savings in many other places I thought it was worth making this one more realistic.

Entertainment – We bought a few books and a couple Itunes purchases.  We were $71 to the good in this category. 

Cell/Internet – The bill was low this month because we finally got our credit for being charged for the cell phone I already paid for back in August.  I have adjusted the budget to reflect what the new bill should be going forward, and we are thrilled by the monthly savings of $128!!!  Thank you AT&T for your new unlimited plan. (For those keeping score, we used to pay $ 363 for two phones, a WiFi hotspot and an iPad with 80 GB of data, and we routinely went over that limit and paid $15 per extra GB. (!!!) Now we pay $ 128 for the same devices and unlimited data. For those who are curious, we have not seen any speed throttling or network management yet, and we are now consistently using over 600 GB a month, which might give you an idea of how happy we are with the new arrangement. – Lee)  

Truck Fuel – We broke even in this category which was quite a bit, mainly because we traveled from southeast of San Antonio to far west Texas and back again, and have driven back and forth to San Antonio from our current location a couple of times.  I upped the budget on this category to $425 which has been our average for the last couple of years, minus the trip to Alaska. 

Truck Maintenance – This category is a bit in flux.  We think we have enough maintenance visits remaining on our prepaid Ford plan to last the rest of the year, but that depends on how many miles we end up driving this year.  For the time being I will be putting in $50 a month. 

Health Insurance – This is another exciting category as our monthly amount (with subsidy) is only $110.  This is a monthly savings of $230 which is obviously significant. 

Cigarettes – We buy tobacco and tubes to cover a few months at a time, so the annual amount is really what matters.  We reduced the annual amount by $192 to reflect what we spent last year.  

Personal Care (Haircuts etc) – This month we went over by $19 because I splurged on a pedicure.  (You should see her toes! – Lee) I reduced this category by $25 a month to more accurately reflect what we have been spending.  Thank heavens for SuperCuts and Great Clips!

Shipping/Postage – We went over by $37 in this category because we had numerous deliveries, and the ones that came to the Kenedy each cost $5.  We are shipping things to the UPS store here and there is a $5 per item fee.  I also adjusted this category down $15 a month to more accurately reflect what we are spending. 

Gifts – I had this cool idea to start making gifts for people because I thought that might be cheaper.  Turns out the raw materials aren’t cheap, even though I found most of what I needed at Super Walmart.  Still I am having a lot of fun with it, so I’ll mentally use the underage in entertainment to balance this expense out a little.  Plus now that I know what I am doing I can keep an eye out for cheaper raw materials as we travel. 

Home Repair – Obviously we had a significant overage for the month in this category, spending $690 over budget.  $260 of that was the new toilet, and the rest was the raw materials for several repairs Lee has made.  As I have talked about in earlier blog posts, Lee is doing a year’s worth of maintenance while he has the opportunity, so we are still significantly under the $2400 annual budget amount.  And we did talk about these experiences as they occurred, so we knew this category would be steep this month. 

Overall, I would have liked to have spent less money, of course, but I understand where it all went.  Hopefully February will allow us to put some money away for April, since we aren’t planning on working that month at all. We also had an extra $1000 in “unexpected” revenue for some pay Lee was owed from a contract job he did last year, and selling one of our domain names that we weren’t using, which was a very nice surprise. (Out of the blue someone called and asked me if they could buy my RV repair domain, and since I’m not really using it I decided to let it go. I thought it might bring $100, but he offered $500, which even I knew was much better, and I’m not so good with the mathing. I thought about trying to get more, but he was a young guy, all excited about starting a new venture, and then I remembered that I despise greed, so I just let him have it for what he offered. I suppose I could have been a really great guy and countered with a lower number so he could have it for even less, but while I’m not greedy, I’m also not a moron. – Lee)

So from a cash flow perspective we are starting the year off just fine. 

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

by

Milton Signal Bell And Flashing Light…..Not Good Enough™

After using the modified Milton Signal Bell for a few weeks I decided…..it Isn’t Good Enough™. While the light inside works very well, it needs to be somewhere in your peripheral vision to see it. It’s not bright enough to overpower the lights in the rig, and it certainly isn’t bright enough to notice if you’re not in the room. And generally speaking if you’re doing anything in the rig that makes noise, you generally can’t hear the bell outside. Since the circuit is so simple, and everything works off of the simple diaphragm switch in the bell, I decided to add an additional feature, a classic mechanical two tone “Ding Dong” doorbell.

I was able to pick one up at the local Do It Best hardware store for the very reasonable price of $14.99.

A household doorbell is pretty simple and straightforward. It’s powered by regular old household 120v AC, which goes to a transformer, which knocks it down to 16v AC. The transformer is separate from the doorbell box, and usually is mounted somewhere in the house where it’s out of the way, because it’s ugly and bulky and would make the bell box that hangs on the wall bigger and heavier. Then there’s small gauge bell wire that loops to a momentary push switch (the door bell button) to close the circuit.

Here’s what it looks like:

When the switch/button is pushed, and the circuit is closed, electricity flows from the transformer to the solenoid inside the bell box which pushes out the striker/plunger to smack the first bar, and give you the “ding”. When the button is released, the electricity stops flowing, the solenoid is de-energized, and the spring on the solenoid pulls the striker/plunger back through the solenoid where it smacks the second bar, which gives you the “Dong”. In cases where you have a rear button which produces only the “Ding” or the “Dong”, that is accomplished by another striker that smacks one bar, but on the return stroke it’s blocked by a barrier so it never gets to the second bar. Imagine going through your whole life only living up to half of your potential because a tiny piece of plastic is in your way. Depressing.

And here’s how it works:

 

Just for fun, this is how it SHOULD work…

In my case, I don’t want to put the button out on the road because it would last for exactly one “Ding Dong” and then it would be ground into powder by the second set of wheels on a truck, and I already have a “button” in the form of the diaphragm switch on the bell. So I’m simply extending the circuit for the bell and the light and adding this one in. Which means the wire that normally runs between the solenoid, the switch,  and the transformer just gets shorted to run between the transformer and the solenoid. If I were to plug the whole thing directly into an outlet wired that way, it would “Ding” and the constant flow of electricity would just hold the striker against the bar, presumably for all eternity. But since it’s plugged in to the other circuit, I’m extending that signal bell switch to do double duty.

I also put on an extra long lamp cord power line so I can put it where I want it, and because I might want to turn it off, I put in an inline rocker switch. It works like a charm, and is loud enough to be heard over the TV or running water, wherever we are in the rig. It looks a little rough because of the transformer, so I am going to find a box that I can use to hold both the transformer and the doorbell mechanism.

It was easy and fun to do, took about 45 minutes, and cost $ 27.82.

Now it’s good enough, for now.

UPDATE: The doorbell turned out to be REALLY loud inside the rig, and Trace would jump every time it would go off, so I put a little strip of Gaff tape on the tone bars so deaden it a little. Worked like a charm. And I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: If you’re using duct tape, just…stop. Get yourself some gaff tape and thank me later!

Here’s a super short clip of it functioning, with bonus Tracy directing trucks in and out in the background.

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

by

Drilling Crew Out and Frack Crew In

As I have mentioned before, different teams of subcontractors complete different phases of an oilfield project, and when those teams switch out it can be a bit chaotic.  We have heard lots of people talk about the frack phase in particular but up until this point we have not experienced a full switch, having been brought in or left mid phase on both of the other gates we’ve worked. All I can say is it is crazy busy.  The volume has jumped astronomically and we are both busy on our shifts. What can be particularly challenging is when big equipment is leaving and coming in at the same time, and although this was somewhat staggered we did have a couple of instances where we had big rig traffic coming in and out at the same time, which can be tricky.  I kind of enjoy the challenge to be honest because I get to be bossy to my heart’s content, but if it’s busy (I had one 30 minute period where 15 trucks came in and 10 left for example) I do get a little harried.

Here’s an example of big traffic coming in and going out. These drivers are REALLY good though

Thankfully the drivers are all really good about following directions and the rule that incoming traffic always has the right of way does seem to be universally understood.  Our main goal is to keep people off the road, which requires some quick thinking when there is a line of trucks.  First and foremost all we do in those situations is get the plate number and if possible the company.  We wave them through and write really fast so we can mainly keep traffic in continuous flow.  One thing that suffers is the paperwork.  I have a teeny bit of dyslexia and on occasion my numbers get jumbled, but the company man was very clear.  The priority is always safety, and trucks sitting still on the main road is not safe.

The scope of these moves is hard to explain, although one anecdote may help.  At 1am I talked to some guys who went to Mcdonald’s and the 40 cheeseburgers they ordered really ticked off the night crew.  There are tons of people coming and going all day and night and for Lee in particular it’s been super busy.  I’ll just share some more pictures with you so you can get a feel for things, but the main point is sometimes there is no downtime in this job.  That’s important to know if you are thinking about trying it.

\

Even with the pavement we get some dust from these big guys

You can see me for scale. These things are huge

 

 

Here’s me being bossy lol. I thought I looked more intimidating than this 🙂

You can see the incoming truck for scale . This one was crazy big

 

Lee looking official

I have no idea what most of these things do, Lee think most of it was designed from Dr. Seuss drawings.

 

 

I will on occasion get out in the middle of the road but for obvious reasons try to keep that to a minimum.  If you are wondering why I don’t have my vest on, it’s a bee magnet.  We have set out bee traps but in the meantime any bright colors and they land right on you. So Deb no gate guarding for you.


The biggest bummer of the whole thing for me was they actually took the drill tower down after dark.  I really wanted to see that and take some pictures, but it all happened late with just floodlights on the area, which honestly surprised me.  I guess I thought they would have waited until daylight. Here’s the last picture I got of the drill towards dusk.

 

We did have a beautiful full moon though that was orange when it was close to the horizon but got white as it got higher in the sky.  There was also a lunar eclipse but we missed it since it was cloudy in the morning.

And last pic is one of the hawks in the field.  They have been around less with all the hoopla…or maybe I just don’t have time to notice them, but I got this cool picture of a red-shouldered hawk, which was a first for that bird for me.

 

 

So it was a crazy few days, but I am thankful to say that things have calmed down quite a bit.  We haven’t started the frack process yet, and expect some steady traffic through that, but for now the major big equipment moves all seem to be done.

 

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.