November 7, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Working on The New Businesses and Volunteering

Well, if I was worried about being bored after leaving my job, this week certainly proved that would not be the case! The bulk of the week was spent finalizing numerous aspects of our businesses, culminating in Lee publishing his website for Open Road Video and our ordering business cards and signs. Lee’s videos are his resume, so it was a much larger venture pulling together everything he would need for the website. If you have been curious about his work, take a look. One of the things that has been difficult for us in all of our businesses is finding a way to communicate that we are a truly mobile workforce,without coming across as less professional in any way. It really adds a layer of difficulty to marketing our services as most people look for a company in the area the business is located. That is changing as people are more mobile, but the bias is still to hire locally. So we understand this could be an uphill climb, but we are hoping that between the three businesses, Open Road Video, Open Road RV Repair, and TSPerkins Consulting we will be able to make enough to cover our relatively low budget. I know we have a lot of support out there, so I would ask if you know of anyone who you think could benefit from our services, please pass our information along. Since you understand the lifestyle, you could explain that we are mobile workers, which is actually a benefit, because we can take our skill sets to where they are needed.

Along with working on the businesses I spent quite a bit of time on my blog this week. We are coming up on our one year full timing anniversary (!) and I wanted to do the milestone some justice. I ended up completing two posts, one strictly about the facts and figures, and another about the emotions. In addition, I will be adding a financial review at the end of the calendar year which will slice and dice our costs in detail. I also have been reviewing all of my recipes, adding small pictures on the page and removing the ones that at second glance I felt did not make the cut. This work is still in progress as I will need to remake some of the dishes to get better pictures for the site. Lee was pretty excited to hear that! I’ve also been trying out many new recipes, almost all of which Lee liked but I am so-so about. The dish has to be delicious and worth the effort to make my cut and I have pretty high standards. Lee’s been very happy to be my guinea pig though, and even if a recipe doesn’t hit a home run I am learning some new cooking techniques which has been a lot of fun. I will say that on occasion I have been missing having a dishwasher. New recipes often require extra pans on the first go round and my hands are getting a little “pruney” from all that washing. Yes, Lee does dishes, actually better than me, (Better than pretty much anyone. – Lee) but since I am often making a huge mess I feel I should at least clean up some of the cooking dishes. Oh, and I forgot to mention that they had a local library sale and for $25 I bought a HUGE box of cookbooks. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me as I had gone through all of my other ones. Although I am not generally a fan of cutting up books, storage is of course an issue, so I look at the recipes and cut out the ones I am interested in, and put them in a file folder. (I don’t think she should feel guilty. In almost every case, the cookbooks she’s going through are old, and have had a good long life, and probably been passed from person to person. She ends up getting them at garage sales, flea markets, and library sales. So she’s giving them their last big hurrah, and plus, they get to see the country before they’re slaughtered. – Lee) In general these recipes can’t be found online as they are often family recipes from non-profit fund raisers or local restaurants. I was thrilled that I saw so many different ones since I was in California and when I paid for them the librarian said how great it was to see someone so happy about books at the library. So when you are in an area, check out the local library and see if they are having a sale. Not only does the money go to a good cause, but these are some of the cheapest books you will ever find!

My awesome box of recipe books!!

The small file folder I put my recipes in

Along with all of that we also got to do something really rewarding. Each fall, Stan does senior tours of the Bizz Johnson trail and we both volunteered to help. Stan gets golf carts from the local city golf course and then works with two different nursing homes to take seniors on an 8 mile ride up the trail. We did this on Thursday and it was a great example of something I would not have been able to do if I was still working my corporate job. Although it was very chilly, it was a clear day and we took one group up the Bizz, and at Devil’s Corral we dropped them off and brought another group down. My first passenger, Inez, was a very sweet lady who was a fellow rock lover and my second passenger Jack seemed to enjoy all the beautiful color still on the trees. They were very bundled up and really seemed to enjoy themselves and I certainly enjoyed getting an opportunity to share nature with them. Lee’s first passenger was Ray, a 96 year old WWII Navy veteran who retired from being a principle at the local high school. His second passenger, Dave, was a chatty octogenarian who really kept Lee on his toes through the whole trip. We stopped at several places along the way and Stan talked about the history of the trail which was very informative and even though I was super cold by the time it was done I am so glad we went. I always wanted to volunteer more in my old life and I am so glad to have this experience be a part of my new one.

Dropping off the golf carts that the local golf course generously donated

Lee and Stan dropping the gate

Check out my guy !!

Here is Inez my first passenger getting out of the van. Loading and unloading these folks was no small task

Lee with 96 year old Ray who was still pretty sharp

Getting lined up and ready to go

And we are off

Everyone liked the many beaver dams we saw

Stan would stop at some places and give some history which Jack my second passenger really liked

Here’s me and Jack. As bundled up as I was it was still pretty cold on the return trip

Everyone really liked the tunnels

And the 8 wooden bridges that we went over

Stan sharing some history

So glad there was still so much color

Y083 Y073

Y060 Y059

It was a very beautiful day and a lovely experience. When Jack, who had difficulty speaking because he had suffered a stroke, thanked me for driving him, it really touched me. Lee had a wonderful time as well and we were both so glad to be able to give back a little. Our time here at Susanville is coming to an end, and it really has been a great experience. Look for my yearly recap posts which should be coming out later this week and as always, thanks for reading!

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November 4, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at a Coffin Race

I know, weird title right? But it was more fun than it sounds. Susanville sponsors a “safe and sane” Halloween where they close off a large portion of their Main Street and little kids walk around to all of the downtown stores and get candy. In the middle of the street they have push cart races (no steering wheel allowed), which were quite entertaining to watch. It reminded me a bit of Keene’s pumpkin festival costume parade, although on a much smaller scale of course, and we really enjoyed it. Actually I have no complaints about the town at all. The people are pretty nice and I love the small town feel. This was the perfect first time work kamping assignment and on that note I did want to mention that Stan (our BLM coordinator) is looking for volunteers for next year. He is willing to break up the season if you want a shorter time commitment and you seriously cannot beat the full hookup site we have. So if you have an interest send me an email at camperchronicles@gmail.com and I will send you Stan’s contact information. That being said, here’s some pictures of the Susanville festival to give you a feel for the town.

I am a sucker for little kid costumes

The line stretched around both sides of the downtown for candy

Love the pigtails

They had a dog costume contest also

My absolute favorite dog costume…he was just “lion” around

A hot dog!! Who doesn’t love a good pun

Some adults got into the action as well

Lee’s favorite was the blind ref

Loved the Sherlock!!

This dog looked super!!

I am a big fan of homemade costumes

Very serious about the candy!!

One of my favorites. Future CEO. Oh yes I can be spider man but I am throwing in a tutu…awesome!!

This bloodhound was so creeepy. Amazing costume though

This bloodhound was so creeepy as a spider. Amazing costume though

A lion trying to eat a sucker

A lion taking a snooze

Best family costume was a circus family

And they had their little lion walk through the hoop for candy was adorable

There was a parade of the coffins first

My personal favorite for costume

The races started at one end of the street

Police and fire versus local Ag

Local track team was awesome. They ultimately won. Loved the costumes.

I loved how much fun the teens were having

Look how much fun the teens were having

NEver sen this before. Bulldozer for candy

Never sen this before. Bulldoze had candy in it, but the kids loved it

Someone is pooped out

Really nice event and a good way to support the downtown

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November 1, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

October 2015 Budget

We finally lived a month really focusing on controlling all of our spending and, Wow! We spent only $2893.59 which is $1,000 less than the best month we have had to date. We reduced spending in almost every category. For details on how we did it please see below.

Campground Fees – We are volunteer work kamping so no fees this month. We have a beautiful site and there is minimal work that needs done in the off season so it has been more than a fair bargain.

Groceries – We have struggled in this category but this month we put a new plan in place. (I would just like to point out that in the entire month, I didn’t buy a single pie. Clearly the overage is due to Tracy’s reckless purchasing of salad components. She’s the Ron Swanson of salad.-Lee) We have regular meal plans and have eliminated waste down to the minimum. Towards the end of the month we did struggle. Meat continues to be a problem as we don’t have a large freezer and are somewhat at the mercy of that week’s prices. What we are doing now is buying whatever meat is on sale and menu planning around it which takes some creativity on my part. We also just ate whatever was in the cupboards the last couple of days to avoid making a store run until the first of the month. I am in no way prepared to declare victory in this category, but it’s a huge step forward.

Dining Out – We went over because we celebrated my last day of work. We could have skipped those meals but in my mind certain things deserve a celebration.

Entertainment – Very happy with this category because we managed to do several things this month, yet didn’t spend a lot on them.

Cell Phones /Internet – This category has a new baseline with the minimum Verizon phone plan we bought. Since that will now be my work phone this may actually go up, but for now we are holding the line. This includes 80GB data (and we use every bit of it, every month), an AT&T phone, a Verizon phone with 1GB of data (mainly use the AT&T wireless), and an AT&T Ipad.

Home Improvement – Look at who is getting serious about the budget!! Lee spent $25 and that was on a new outlet in the kitchen. Major improvement!! (I wouldn’t even have had to do that, but it’s getting pretty cold at night, routinely down to the low 30’s. We have a space heater in the bedroom that’s plugged directly into the power pedestal, so it doesn’t go through the inverter, which doesn’t have enough amp pass through to handle it. There’s also a built in electric fireplace in the living room, which also bypasses the inverter. So we had a toasty bedroom, a toasty living room, and a freezing kitchen, which is exacerbated by the constant opening and closing of the outside door. So, I put in a dedicated outlet that bypasses the inverter, and the cost was for the outlet box, a new outlet (I don’t like to reuse old outlets) and a special thin saw to cut through the very thin wall veneer. I didn’t want to risk using something bigger and tearing the paneling. So now it’s toasty warm everywhere, and as long as we are on electric hookups, we won’t need to use our propane furnace. – Lee)

Cigarettes – We stocked up in Reno in anticipation of moving to the Redwoods and that is the cost of a 15 week supply of tobacco and tubes. For the year we have spent half of what we anticipated and that budget amount was $4300 less than we were spending while in a sticks and bricks. As usual, I know smoking is bad, but if you are on a budget and want to smoke, rolling your own is absolutely the way to go. (I know not many people smoke anymore, but if you do, seriously consider doing this. Before we hit the road, we were spending $130 a week, $6700 a year on smoking, which is a truly ridiculous price to kill yourself slowly. The same amount of tobacco and the tubes to stuff it in is $25 per week, or $1300, and it takes about 90 minutes a week to roll two cartons. That’s over 80% savings. And the machine is only $75. – Lee)

So there we are. In order to prove this is not an anomaly we need to see what happens over the next few months. It does prove it can be done though, at least short term, which is very comforting.

(I am currently hard at work preparing a truly epic “I told you so” speech. – Lee)

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October 30, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at Lake Tahoe

It was a busy week. Monday was my last official day of work and I needed to drive to Reno to drop off my computer, phone, etc to the office there. Since Jo and Ben are in Reno we made arrangements to eat dinner with them after they finished work. That left Lee and I with some time to kill. Luckily, I got an eye appointment at the Lenscrafters in town so we were able to fill the day. We dropped off the work stuff around 11:30 (which was surreal) and then headed over to the Atlantis Casino for lunch. They have a Manhattan style deli that Jo and Ben gave high marks and I felt the need to treat myself. Lee got a HUGE Reuben (not as good as Katz Deli but very good) and I got egg salad (a go-to comfort food for me) and some yummy cheesecake. The lunch was on the pricey side at $40, but you don’t leave your job every day. The service was outstanding, though, and afterwards we both played $5 worth of slots each which culminated in Lee winning $17.25, so at least my cheesecake was paid for! I will say that although I liked the interior of the casino, the slots were disappointing (I like the old style where the wheels turns not the new computer ones) and it was very smoky.

Manhattan Deli

Lee’s Rueben

Watching him try to bite into it was fun!!

Big ole piece of cheesecake

Afterwards Lee dropped me off at Lenscrafters and I had a good time picking out a new pair of sunglasses for my prescription. Five years ago I had a PRK eye surgery (like Lasik but more intense) and my vision has been amazingly wonderful every since. But I have noticed some distance fuzziness so decided it was time to get an eye exam. The entire experience was terrific. The doctor was great and people who worked in the glasses area very helpful. Plus the prices were reasonable ($125 for Ray Ban frames) and best of all they were able to complete the glasses the same day so no return trip required!! After I was done, we went to meet Jo and Ben for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. I love Mexican, but Lee is not a huge fan, but on this occasion I got my pick. And they had raspberry margaritas my favorite which were totally yummy. It was so nice celebrating the start of my new life with RV friends and I really appreciated their being with us.

Jo and I with big margarita

Unfortunately Tuesday and Wednesday were not so great. It rained both days and Lee and I were both a little cooped up, plus the enormity of the change was really hitting home with me and there still was no definitive word on the truck. It turns out our claims agent went out on a sick leave and the claim wasn’t transferred properly. Lee got it back on track by Wednesday, but we lost several days to that. We were also hearing some things from the dealer about used engines that didn’t sound right to Lee. Thankfully he took the bull by the horns and called Ford (who said absolutely our warranty would be voided by a used engine) and the dealer we bought the truck from (who stated there were 12 new engines in stock in Memphis. Lee, armed with this information, took control of the situation and stopped us from being pushed in a direction that could have had disastrous consequences. The old adage “trust but verify” really came into play here. I don’t think the service manager was deliberately misleading us (he said a used engine would be fine with the extended warranty), but it doesn’t really matter. We knew we might have to pay some money in the difference, “betterment” the insurance agent called it, but we didn’t want to lose the money we had spent on the warranty. So, it was a frustrating couple of days for a variety of reasons so I decided to cook a couple of new recipes. Thankfully they were both home runs (which rarely happens) and Lee loved them both. Plus he was hovering while I was trying to make spring rolls for the first time, so I put him to work. He did an excellent job wrapping them and they tasted delicious, plus he said the Spicy Korean BBQ was “restaurant quality” so I will definitely be making both again. See the end of the post for full recipes if you are interested. The yummy Spicy Korean BBQ was incredibly easy, relatively inexpensive, and heated up well later. That’s the trifecta for us!

Lee rolling some spring rolls for me

Thankfully the sun came out on Thursday and we could finally make our trip to Tahoe. We have been wanting to go since we got here, but one thing or another kept getting in the way. Lee worked there years ago and has always wanted to show me and I of course wanted to see it. We were just getting ready to leave when Lee got a phone call from the claims adjuster. It turns out a brand new engine is actually cheaper than a used one so amazingly we are getting a new engine and only have to pay our $1,000 deductible. I have never been so happy to pay $1,000 in my life. And, wow, did I feel a weight lifted from me. Feelings about the job have been all mixed up with worry about the truck, and I had no idea how much that was getting to me until we got the good news. So feeling 100 times lighter we jumped in the rental and headed to Tahoe.

The drive was beautiful and although we hit some pretty ominous clouds when going over the mountains between Reno and Tahoe, Tahoe itself was beautifully clear. We drove the loop and I absolutely loved the area. Seriously, I could spend an entire summer here there is so much to do and the drive just whetted our appetites for more. The very best parts were Inspiration Point (the quintessential Tahoe view you have probably seen), Squaw Valley (where Lee worked and stayed many years ago, and Sand Harbor. That being said there was a lot more that we didn’t have time to explore including numerous hiking trails. Definitely putting it on our list of work kamping places, but as usual let’s let the pictures tell the story.

The top of the road we drove in

The first view of the lake

The cloud was rolling in at eye level

Very cool cloud

The water was so clear and beautiful

Although the lake was very low I actually liked it because you could see so many rocks. We spent the most time at Sand Harbor which was practically deserted walking around on the rocks. You know how much I love my rocks!!

The setting was so nice we came across a catalog photo shoot

Lee was super brave climbing right up on the big rocks

The water was so clear and see the little minnow

I was in rock heaven!!

I loved these formations

After Sand Harbor we kept driving, stopping at several beautiful scenic spots along the way. Part of the lake is in California and the other part is in Nevada and whole sections of it are National Park. What I particularly loved was that it was beautiful on both the lake side and the hills side. It was the kind of place where you couldn’t take a bad picture and everywhere you looked was just beautiful. When we hit Inspiration Point though that was something special. As a general rule, you always know when something is worth seeing when there are lots of people speaking in foreign languages. My only complaint was the bathrooms were an absolute mess. As someone who has been responsible for public land bathrooms I was a bit horrified, but besides that the view was spectacular. Plus, the lone paddleboat on the water came into view right when we were there and I was thrilled to get a shot with the boat.

This stretch of beach is all National Park

This Jay posed for us. He was begging treats

This Jay posed for us. He was begging for treats

Emerald Bay

I know right!!

At this point we were starving and stopped at a local BBQ place for lunch. The price was reasonable, the view was of the water, and I got to put my new drink plan in action. Paying $3 plus for drinks has been driving me crazy, so I bought a box of Country Time Lemonade On The Go packets and stuck a couple in my purse. One packet worked beautifully with a glass of ice water, it was really really good and cost about 10 cents per pack. I didn’t feel embarrassed at all mixing my lemonade. As far as I am concerned restaurants should be embarrassed about the 90% markup on their beverages. Anyway, it was yummy and the little bit of a sugar kick I sometimes want when we are out exploring. After lunch we drove to Squaw Valley, where the Olympics were held and many famous people ski in the winter, and Lee showed me the resort where he worked and stayed many years ago. Absolutely beautiful, I can totally see why people like to stay there.

Our lunch spot

My only complaint was the rather loud music inside. I think I am getting old lol

Here’s my yummy lemonade

The pier outside the restaurant

This pic shows you how low the water level was. That’s a pier in the background.

Squaw Valley Resort

The patio and ski lift area

The pool/hottubs area was amazing

The previous Olympic village now condos

It was an absolutely perfect day and exactly what I needed.

Recipes

Spicy Korean Pork

2 lbs country-style boneless pork ribs; cut into 1 inch cubes
2 TBL chili garlic sauce (if you would like less spice use 1 TBL)
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tsp ginger
2 TBL sesame oil
3 TBL brown sugar
Brown Rice (P.F. Chang brand was yummy)

Add all ingredients except pork and whisk into a blended marinade
Add cubed pork to the mix and let sit for at least 20 minutes
Grilled marinated pork (you can place on skewers if that is easier), uncovered for 10 minutes turning every 2-3 minutes
Service on brown rice

Spicy Korean Pork

Baked Chicken Spring Rolls

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1-1/2 cups boneless, shredded chicken or pork
1-16oz bag coleslaw mix with carrots
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
1 TBL soy sauce
20 spring roll wrappers (16oz package)
Dipping sauce of your choice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Brush baking sheet with 1 TBL vegetable oil
Combine meat, coleslaw mix, scallions, ginger, sesame oil, and soy sauce in large bowl
Place water in a small bowl
Place one spring roll wrappers in front of you and keep others covered with a damp cloth
Brush edges of wrapper with water
Place a TBL of mixture on top of wrapper then roll towards you
Tuck in sides and complete roll
Place on baking sheet seam side down
Repeat with remaining filling and wrappers
Brush tops of rolls with remaining vegetable oil
Bake for 15 minutes; turn over and bake for 10 more minutes
Serve with dipping sauce

Spring roll mix

Brush wrapper with water

Add one tablespoon of mix

Roll towards you and tuck in ends

Brush tops with vegetable oil and bake

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October 28, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time without a “Regular” Job

Monday was my last day of working at a job I truly loved and had for 16 years. I grew up professionally in the company, and a large portion of my adult life was devoted to my career there. A year ago when we decided to go on the road I thought for sure I would have to quit. Traveling in an RV was an unusual choice and although much of my work was done remotely, or with fly-in business trips, I thought it was too “outside of the box” for my then boss to approve. I was grateful and surprised though when he said I could travel anywhere on the east coast, as long as I was near an airport, had cell coverage, and internet access. So, unlike many people, I had the opportunity to try this lifestyle while at the same time keeping my current job. I am extremely grateful for that opportunity, because dealing with all of the change over the last year has been much easier with the consistency of a job I was comfortable in. And striking a balance on the east coast was relatively easy, because we have many field offices there and finding cool places to stay while still being within a reasonable drive to an airport was not that difficult. Lee and I both knew, however, that things would get much tougher when we headed out west. There are longer travel days, more places with minimal or no cell coverage, and staying close to an airport can be much harder. Shortly after we hit the road, I got a new boss, and he didn’t care where I was, as long as I could get to an airport, and still had cell and internet. That worked out just fine, and we were always able to meet those requirements without too much difficulty. We managed to make it work until we hit Glacier and it became clear to me that something had to give.

Just to be clear, many people travel and work corporate jobs very successfully in the West. I know two people very well, who have struck a good balance and manage to see great things and still work. For me though, the constant pressure of balancing enjoying the life and fully contributing to my job was coming to a head. The nature of my job required me to be in constant contact via cell phone which ruled out many of the more remote locations that Lee wanted to experience. I also never really felt like I was “off work” and weekends and vacation were often full of work concerns. Lee, to his credit, allowed me plenty of time to work this out. He never put pressure on me to choose, but he also wasn’t shy about talking about what he ultimately wanted this life to look like. As a good partner, he understood though that I would get there eventually and forcing the issue would only result in resentment on my part.

Simultaneously, I was thinking more and more about starting my own consulting company and what that would look like in this lifestyle. I had toyed with the idea for many years, but with a mortgage and three kids in the house, I never had the courage to take that leap. Now things were different. We had minimal debt, it was just Lee and I, and one of the major drawbacks of consulting (the weekly travel to a location) could be somewhat mitigated by our ability to move our house to wherever the work was. I was under no illusions that consulting would solve everything. I knew I would still need internet and cell, but it would give me more flexibility in my scheduling. Plus, I was very excited about the opportunity to do the work I loved for other companies and in other industries. One of the best parts of my job is when I get to help people’s lives be a little better. In a corporate job, those moments happen, but always on someone else’s terms. Consulting would allow me to focus on work that could be meaningful.

In many people’s minds the decision would be a no brainer, but for me it was really difficult to walk away from a “perfectly good job”. I was raised with a Midwestern work ethic and in that environment you don’t leave a job unless you have a really good reason. Plus, I am risk averse by nature, and to be honest, super comfortable with the environment I was in. I knew the rules, I had long term relationships, and a solid reputation as a person who gets things done. To walk away from all that was difficult, no matter how attractive the alternative was. So that’s where the situation stood until God/Universe opened a path for me. The company offered a Voluntary Separation Package that provided salary and health insurance for a specific amount of time, along with a separation bonus. The deal was the perfect amount, and came at the perfect time, so the choice seemed very clear to me. That doesn’t mean it was easy to make the choice, but there was not a doubt in my mind that it was the right thing to do. So I signed the papers, and the last few weeks have been about saying goodbye.

That has been brutal, by the way. You know when you leave a job that many of the people you have had daily contact with simply won’t be part of your life going forward, and because I was there for so long some of those people felt like family to me. There definitely is a grieving process and feelings of loss. Loss of relationships, loss of identity, loss of security. It is not a small thing. I am very grateful for my support system, however. People have been checking in with me and been great about acknowledging that this is a big deal and encouraging me to take my time dealing with it. So that’s what I am trying to do, deal with it.

So here’s my approach, and I am sharing this not because I think it will work for everyone, but in the hopes it might help someone. First, I am not treating this time as a vacation. Many people do, and that’s perfectly fine, but for me it’s important to spend some time every day working on my new life and business. I am being very careful to strike a balance here and not overdue it, because that could easily turn into feelings of being panicked. In my head, I know we will be fine. We are smart, driven people who work hard. As Lee says, we have been through much tougher situations than this, with less skills. Emotionally though, it’s hard not to give in to the fear. It’s not rational fear, it’s not rooted in anything that’s real, but wow, is it powerful. Knowing where it comes from, doesn’t really seem to help lessen its effect and as much as I would like to just move past it, I know it will take some time. So in the interim I completed my consulting website, www.tsperkinsconsulting.com, if you are curious. I updated my resume (thanks so much Cori for helping), I changed my Linked In profile, and I am reaching out to my professional network to let them know I am consulting now. Finally, I am writing this blog. Saying things out loud lessens their power over you. Knowing everyone goes through this experience sooner or later helps. Knowing that people truly care helps. Having Lee be so completely supportive helps. But ultimately, I understand that I have to work through this. I have to believe in myself. I have to put my big girl panties on and own my choice.

Thanks for listening,

Trace

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October 25, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Ride On The Bizz Johnson Trail

Today was about doing something fun. I don’t have an update on the truck (our adjuster has been out of town all week, so hopefully we will get an answer on Monday) and after an emotional last week at my job (which I am not ready to talk about yet) we decided to ride the Bizz Johnson Trail. (Well, the best part of it, anyway. – Lee) This past Saturday was the annual Fall Foliage ride and Lee volunteered to ride sweep. (The sweep rider is the person who brings up the back of the pack, and makes sure that if anyone has any mechanical trouble, or gets hurt, that they aren’t left to die all alone on the side of the trail. Since I have no bike fixing abilities, or medical training, I was really only able to guarantee that they wouldn’t die alone. – Lee) 16 people had signed up for the ride. Lee used a BLM truck and horse trailer to take all the bikes up to the far end of the trail, in a little town called Westwood, and the riders took a shuttle bus along with Stan, the BLM recreation director for this area. The Bizz Johnson trail is basically Stan’s life work, and he loves to ride the bus and give people a 30 minute talk on the history of the trail, and things to look for. Once the riders were all suited up and ready to go, they took off from Westwood for a quick three mile ride to Mason Station, the trailhead where the Bizz leaves the road. Stan followed along in the truck and trailer to check in with Lee at various checkpoints along the trail where BLM and Forest Service roads cross the trail. Below is a map of the trail.

The ride from Westwood to Hobo Camp (where we are work kamping) took most of the day, since he was going as slow as the slowest riders, but he came home raving about how much I would love it. Since we have been talking about going, and reconnecting with nature is a great way to shake off other things that are going on in your life, I was in. Lee did say that he wanted to start at the 18 mile mark, Westwood Junction, which I was happy to hear. Apparently the first 8 miles has a 3% upgrade and Lee said it wasn’t hard so much as “relentless”. The downhill section starts at Westwood Junction and knowing his audience Lee thought that would be more my speed. (The whole concept of “rails to trails” fascinates me. Back home in Keene, NH, there was a great rails to trails trail, and I just love the idea of abandoned railroads being re-purposed for something else, instead of just sitting there being of no use to anyone. The best part is, for those of us who are old (Tracy) and out of shape (Tracy, and to a lesser degree, me) and smokers (Tracy got me started smoking, I used to be a good kid, but she ruined me) railroad grades are never steep. The maximum for 19th century and early 20th century was 3%, which is in the neighborhood of only 150 feet of elevation change per mile. That’s a pretty easy grade, even for old out of shape smokers like Tracy. The downside to that is, when they have to make a lot of elevation, it can be a very, very, very long climb. So, it’s not hard, but it’s relentless. As you can see in the elevation profile below, it starts at about 5100 feet (the starting elevation is not accurate, Westwood is at 5100 feet) and over the course of 8 miles, it climbs to about 5600 feet. That’s not a lot of climb, but it’s steady. Basically, there’s no point in that first 8 miles that you can coast. Ever. It’s constant pedaling against gravity. Also, the first 4 miles is along the side of a county road, not a lot of room for bikes. And then once you get from Westwood to Mason Station, you’re on the trail, but it’s another 4 miles of 3% grade, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s boring. So, I decided to start from Westwood Junction, one of the handful of places where a Forest Service road crosses the trail. From there, it’s about a mile of level ground, then it’s all downhill from there. – Lee)

Let me say here that this was hands down the best bike ride I have ever been on in my life. There were whole long sections you can coast down if you want to, the trail is in very good condition, and I was thrilled by all of the different landscapes we saw in that 18 mile ride. It was so good I am not going to spend a ton of time talking about it though. Just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Where we started. (Stan was generous enough to let us use his BLM pickup to drive the bikes up to Westwood Junction, so we parked there and then headed out. Technically, as BLM camp hosts, we’re supposed to check the trails, so this was a legitimate official use of the vehicle. – Lee)

Dry creek beds, they have water in the spring. (The Susan River goes along the trail, and the trail crosses it many times, on beautiful old railroad bridges. Unfortunately, this time of year, and with it being as dry as it is, there’s no water in the river until the last 8 miles or so of the trail. – Lee)

Beautiful rock croppings all along the trail

Beautiful rock outcroppings all along the trail

One of my favorite spot was a dry creek bed that according to Stan is white water in the spring

One of my favorite spot was a dry creek bed that according to Stan is raging white water in the spring.

The rocks were huge and even I with my love of rocks wouldn’t walk out very far.

Lee stood out a bit to give it some persepctive

Right next to the trail and so neat to look straight up

An old powder shed build by the railroad out of railroad ties. Imagine that this little shed was once full of explosives!

One of my favorite views

(The section in the pictures above is the first “drop” in elevation. You not only don’t have to pedal once you get about a mile from Westwood Junction, you actually need to use your brakes. 3% isn’t much when you’re going up, but coming down gravity will grab ya! About 5 miles from Westwood Junction you come to Goumaz, which is a National Forest Service campground. It’s very small, with only 5 unimproved campsites, along the river. There’s a pit toilet, and a water spigot, and that’s it. Access to it is via a gravel road, and the sites are big enough for travel trailers, and at least one would easily hold our 40′ fifth wheel. No traffic noise, no air traffic, very quiet and peaceful, and best of all, totally free. – Lee)

There was a pit toilet available for use near a federal land campground we passed through

There was a pit toilet available for use near Goumaz campground we passed through

Dry camping, but free and we could have fit in a couple of these spots

At a certain point there was water in the creek and we got to bicycle by it as we went

At a certain point there was water in the river and we got to bicycle by it as we went

So you see the face in the rock? Looks like a donkey to me

Do you see the face in the rock? Looks like a donkey to me

These trees were amazing hanging onto this hillside

It was sandy in some places and rocky in others

Beautiful white rocks in one section

View of the mountain

Lee had a beautiful place picked out for our lunch, but after two hours of riding and only seeing 4 other people, there were people at the spot. He was pretty bummed but we kept on going and I thought we found a really nice place close by. (After Goumaz, there’s another nice long smooth drop, through totally different rock and vegetation, so you really get to see four distinct environments on the ride. It’s very interesting. Here and there along the trail, Boy Scout groups have cleared out a little area along the trail and built really nice benches. I had picked out a great spot near the bottom of the second drop section, where the trees were gone, and there is this huge flat valley floor with a massive ranch and the ranch house in the distance. It was a perfect spot for lunch, and we arrived there at just the right time, but there were people there. I should have made a reservation. – Lee)

The bench we ate on

Our lunch view

(After the second drop, the trail crosses a great trestle bridge, and then goes under the road. If you look at the elevation profile, it shows this in detail. It’s a very steep and very fast 100′ drop, under the road, and then on the other side you have to push your bike up, it’s way too steep and the gravel is too loose and deep to ride up. Instead, we rode down the older part of the trail, which is “closed” and just crossed the road. Way faster and no elevation change.I did the ride and push yesterday, and had no desire to do it again. If you’re following along on the map, this is the beginning of the final drop, at Devil’s Corral. This is another trail head, with parking and a pit toilet, and this is where the canyon part of the trail starts. This is by far the best part of the ride. – Lee)

There are lots of these railroad bridges, but this was the longest, and definitely the highest.

Underneath is a second stone bridge that’s no longer in use, from where the road used to cross the river. Now it’s just part of the trail.

One of the coolest things were the two railroad bridges built in 1913 that you got to ride through

One of the coolest things were the two railroad tunnels built in 1913 that you got to ride through

These redwood support beams are the original and in fantastic condition

(The two tunnels are a lot of fun. The second one, as you head downhill, is much longer than the first, and the temperature inside is at least 20 degrees cooler than the outside. Plus, when you leave the tunnels, about 50 feet in front of them you get hit by a blast of that cold air because as it comes out, the wind coming over the top of the mountain pushes it away from the entrance. So as soon as you exit the tunnel, you feel the normal outside temperature, then you ride through this brief section of air that’s as cold as the tunnel. Very neat. The Boy Scouts put a bench at that spot for that reason. It’s outside air conditioning! – Lee)

Loved these rocks along the trail

Beautiful outcroppings

One of my favorite pictures

(This last section of the trail continues to wind through the canyon, along the river, crossing it at six different bridges, and the water is a nice wide shallow clear river. It’s really beautiful and peaceful. It’s a very gentle down slope. There are lots of long gentle curves, with the river on one side, and steep canyon walls beyond the river, and 100′ steep rock canyon walls on the other side. After about 4 miles you reach the short connector trail that takes you into the Hobo Camp day use area, where we are living. The trail continues for another mile to the historic Susanville Depot and museum. We didn’t go all the way to the end, of course. We had driven our rental car down from the camper to the day use parking area, so we wouldn’t have to walk our bikes up the steep drive from the day use area to our camper. We locked the bikes in the bathroom storage room, drove the rental car back up to Westwood Junction to get the truck, and then drove the truck back to get the bikes. Wouldn’t you know it, Stan was walking the trail with his dog Sandy to get pictures of the fall colors in the late afternoon light. We had a nice chat with him and he gave us high fives for riding the trail. Stan really, really loves his job, and the Bizz Johnson trail. – Lee)

As you can see Lee is very passionate about the trail and I was totally serious when I said it was the best bike ride of my life. That being said, my tush is a little sore and I am on the tired side, so I asked Lee to jump in and help make this post not totally suck. I can see he took my request seriously 🙂 It really is a great ride and well worth a detour to try it. I hope you get to ride it some day.

(We’re going to watch some TV now, and then I might massage her tush. Cuz, you know, it’s sore. – Lee)

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October 20, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Putting Regular Gas in a Diesel Vehicle

I didn’t call this the “First time” (although it is) because that implies there might be a second time, and this is never going to happen again. I left off my last post with dropping the truck off at the dealership. Lee was then taken to a rental car place by the dealer and got us a rental car…which important since the truck is our only vehicle. After he got the rental he was going to the grocery store, since by this point we were out of just about. When I heard him pull up at the rig, I was surprised when he didn’t start bringing the groceries in, so I walked outside to see if I could help. When he turned to me, I saw a look on his face that I haven’t seen in a very long time. He explained he was at the store when he got the call from the dealer and the truck wouldn’t start at all for them so they pushed it into the bay, and tested the gas and it was regular gas, not diesel. He then said that the cost to repair it would be $9,000. I sat down quickly. He started to apologize and said he was so sick about what had happened. Then he explained he had called the 7 Eleven thinking they had put the wrong gas in their tanks and was told they didn’t sell diesel at all. At this point my mind was racing and I was still trying to absorb the $9,000 number. I was much less interested in how we had gotten there, than what we were going to do to solve the problem, but in a nutshell, here’s how it happened. We pulled in to the gas station, and Lee saw a green handled pump. His card didn’t work at the pump and went inside and asked the cashier to approve a fill-up on diesel on that pump number, which she did, not catching I guess that he had said diesel and in just a few minutes a tremendous amount of damage was done.

I actually had to get up and walk away from writing this after typing that. It’s still upsetting to think about. You see, Lee rarely makes mistakes. He is an extremely careful person about everything he does, and is almost OCD about anything safety related. I can count on one hand in the 26 years we have been together that he has made a mistake of this magnitude and interestingly enough two of them have been in the last year. The first was when the hitch was not completely secured and our rig fell on our truck (see post here) and the second was this. To give you some perspective, the last time before that was all the way back in 1992. In that moment I had a clear choice. I could give in to the emotion and fear of the moment or I could stay calm and move forward towards fixing the problem. The thought that came into my mind so clear was, “Something really bad has happened. Who do you want to be?” I have been dealing with a lot of fear over the last several weeks over quitting my job and how well I would handle a crisis without the foundation of work on which to rely, and here was my first crisis. Way earlier than expected, but the moment had come. And I am totally serious, in that moment I felt I was making a decision about my future, and what I decided would decide whether or not we would be able to make this life work for us. So I took a deep breath and calmly told him it was going to be OK. We needed to do some quick research and then go talk to the service manager in person. And I will say that as critical as I have been of some of the information found on forums, the information we found was very good. It stated that the longer you drove the vehicle the more damage was done, and yes, it was very expensive, but there were cases when a cleaning worked, and the solution was much less costly. So holding onto the fragile hope that we might be one of the lucky few we went to the service department.

We walked in and asked to see the service manager and he was sitting at the counter. I started to talk to him thinking he would know our situation but quickly realized he did not and filled him in. Let me mention here that I am really good with service departments. I am not mechanically inclined so I am extremely respectful of the technical knowledge they possess that I don’t, but as a project manager I also have developed an ability to call bullshit when people start to talk over my head. The manager was very clear that this rarely happened, but there was a detailed step-by-step process to follow when it did. There is a kit (they had it in stock at a cost of $4200) that has every part that would be affected by fuel contamination. So the technician would replace each part step by step and the engine would be as good as new, as though it had never happened, and most importantly, back in warranty. The last time they did this at that dealer, it took 5 full days of work, which is why the end price tag was $9,000. You might think “Go to another shop and spend less money”, and that absolutely went through my mind, but the last thing we wanted was to void a 6 year warranty one year into it so this was not the time to get creative. The service manager was clear he was not an expert in this and when I started to question him about it went to get his senior tech who had completed these repairs, to answer some of my questions. He also did us a huge favor by casually mentioning that insurance companies usually paid for this. He seemed surprised we were so concerned about the money. While he was getting the tech, Lee stepped outside and called the insurance company. We thought, “Well, it’s worth a shot”, but neither one of us thought they would cover something like this. I talked to the tech.

I should probably mention here that normally Lee would be dealing with the tech and I would be dealing with the insurance company, but since I was not the one who made the mistake we switched. Lee was still struggling to deal with the emotions of making the mistake, plus there was that whole “You’re an idiot” guy-think subtext. Right or wrong, women can make a mistake like this and get off scott free but when a man makes the same mistake in some way that means they want to take away his man card. Plus I knew exactly how to handle this, and Le,e to his credit just let me do it. When John (the tech) came in I personalized the situation. I explained we lived in our RV, that I could afford the repair but it would wipe out my savings (which wasn’t strictly tru,e but the level of impact would be huge) and basically threw myself on his mercy. That part was real as I was close to tears over the whole thing but managed to hold it together. This changed the conversation and we were all in it together. John said that the he could work through the process step-by-step and at each point stop, test the engine, and stop when it seemed to work. This might cost be less than the $9,000 but no promises. When he started saying, “If it was my money” I knew I was in good hands. Plus he seemed incredibly competent and I felt much better overall about the quality of work I would be receiving which was something.

Simultaneously Lee talked to the first person at Allied insurance. The representative said something like this wouldn’t be covered, and then hinted around that vandalism would be; if someone else had done this, then it would be covered. Lee rejected that as a choice because when you start out by lying, things generally go poorly from there, and we’re both big believers in karma. In fact, we are generally beneficiaries of a brand of it we call “Instant Karma”. After all that discussion, the rep asked if Lee would you like to file a claim even though it probably isn’t covered. Lee thought “What have I got to lose?” and gave the information for the claim. As I was walking out he received a followup call from an adjuster who took the information again, stated he didn’t think it would be covered but would file the claim anyway. We left the dealership feeling the enormity of what had happened but better about the steps we had taken. We stopped at the store and got the tjings we needed and shortly after we arrived home received a third phone call from a woman. She again took the information, said she wasn’t sure if it was covered but she would check and in under a half hour called back and said it was covered under our comprehensive plan (with a $1,000 deductible) and did we still want to make the claim. Absolutely we did. The magic words by the way, which the service manager shared with us are “accidental fuel contamination”. That is absolutely what happened, and Lee consistently stated this phrase through every conversation with the insurance company. I can’t even tell you the wash of relief I felt. $1,000 was way better than $9,000 and we wouldn’t need to cut corners on the work that was done. The insurance company said they would have an adjuster talk to the dealer and between the two of them they can work out what will be done along with the pricing. By the way, I haven’t had an insurance claim my entire life so we will see how much our rates go up, but as Lee said, that’s why you pay those premiums and it’s dumb not to use it when the situation calls for it.

So here we are. We are paying $30 a day for the rental car (which may or may not be covered by the insurance) and waiting to hear back on what needs to be done and how much it will cost. So we’re not out of the woods yet but feeling much better about things in general. I also wanted to mention that I try not to ask God for trivial things but this situation fell into the category where I did ask for strength to deal with it. After the day was done, I thanked him for looking out over us and for giving me the opportunity for personal growth. I believe that when you are tested your true character shows through and the things that are really important rise to the foreground. I thought precious little about leaving my job through all of this and instead focused on us and our future. I love my husband very much and feel very blessed to have him in my life and a situation like this really drives home how strong we are together. He took responsibility for his mistake, and despite incredibly strong emotions kept himself together. I fought my fears, and supported him absolutely. You really can’t ask for more than that, and in some ways during this time of transition for me this incident was a gift, because it reaffirmed we can get through adversity together.

Lessons Learned

A different colored handled pump does not necessarily mean diesel. Never pump your fuel unless you can physically put your finger on the word “diesel” on the pump itself.
Accidental Fuel Contamination may be covered by your comprehensive insurance plan. Make sure you check.
In the case of a serious repair go and talk to the service manager and technician in person. Talk about your options. Personalize the situation so they understand you are on a budget.

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October 19, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

The Post That Kept Changing

As I go through my weekends, I generally start to write my posts in my head as we do things. Not whole paragraphs or anything but lines about different things I see. I try to then take a picture to help me remember or sometimes I will jot a note in my phone. Somewhere along the line the name for the post comes into play and I usually get pretty excited. I like the “First” time doing anything and the best weekends are the ones where I have so many firsts I need to pick one. This weekend was a little different though. The post was going to be “First Time in Tahoe”, but that didn’t happen, then it was going to be First Time Riding the Biz Johnson Trail”, but that didn’t happen either. I’ll tell you why in a bit.

First the week. Things went well. I had some work things going on and Lee spent a ton of time working on the second video for Howard and Linda. We were happy to find out that the first one, an intro to their website, was well received at their most recent rally and as soon as he makes a few tweaks for Howard that one will be done. The second one is on their Utility Body Werks Hauler bed and is more video than pictures which is actually less edit intensive. Since he is doing this editing in our rig, I am seeing first hand how much goes into these videos and it can be fun to watch. I did tell Linda though this week that at one point I had him put on headphones because I simply couldn’t listen to the same audio clip for the 50th time lol. I am not sure how he has the patience for it, but I do believe it is not unlike composing music where every single note counts. I also found time to work on both my new resume and my consulting website. I would like to have both of these done by the end of next week, although that may be too aggressive a timeline, and Cori has been very helpful for both processes in giving me an objective “hiring manager” opinion. It’s nice to have friends! I also had a really long talk with my friend Dr. Jo about how things were going with the transition and she was also very helpful. I didn’t really want to talk to her in a professional capacity because I didn’t want to impose on our friendship, but after talking to Kyrston my oldest one morning I realized I was being an idiot. I am lucky enough to have a friend who is also a psychologist a little over an hour away from me during what is arguably the biggest transition I have been through since becoming a mother and I am not talking to her…just dumb. And of course she was happy to help, I think her attitude was a bit “What took you so long?,” but she understood I needed time to come to it on my own. She was great about validating the importance of what I was going through and let me know the warning signs I should keep an eye out for if things were getting too overwhelming. She also approved the tactic I have been taking of making sure every day I do something that is for my new life. I am making sure I don’t overdo it, but every day I work on something for the consulting business, this website, or work kamping. So despite the short paragraph above, it was a very full week for the both of us and we were really looking forward to the weekend.

A couple of things happened near the end of the week that I should talk about though. Fair warning, the first one is about poop, so if you have a delicate stomach you may want to skip this paragraph. Part of living in a camper is becoming well acquainted with your poop. You deal with it when you dump your tanks, you deal with it in the toilet bowl (water pressure doesn’t flush like a home toilet), and if you are work kamping you probably deal with it when cleaning the restrooms. And after a month, we finally ran into a messy bathroom situation. Lee was down cleaning the restrooms and one of them had poop all over the toilet seat, on the floor and even on the wall some. He thought it looked like someone had not quite made it to the toilet and as he stared at the mess several things went through his mind. He thought there should be limits to what volunteers were asked to do; he wondered if he should call the BLM maintenance person to handle it; and of course he was aggravated because someone left this mess in the first place. Then he thought about how nice this job has been, what a great deal overall it has been for us, and the fact that we knew this might happen eventually. What decided him was the fact that you can’t say you are willing to do the unpleasant job and then not do it, so armed with bleach, gloves, and a long handled scrubber brush he dealt with it. I was proud of him, and hoped that when my time came I would handle it as graciously. I didn’t think it would be the very next day, but there it was. I made the rounds and one of the close bathrooms and one of the farther away bathrooms had poop all over the toilet seats. And of course I didn’t like it, but I did what needed to be done. I don’t think in either case it was deliberate maliciousness, but let’s see how common this will be. Three times in one weekend is a bit concerning. I am talking about this because I want to give a well-rounded account of our experiences and that would be a deal breaker for some people. I will say though if you are unwilling to clean bathrooms it will severely limit your work kamping choices.

The second thing that happened was I started to get some fuzzy vision in my right eye. Over 5 years ago I had an eye surgery called PRK (like Lasik but more intense) that completely changed my life. I went from “coke bottle” thick glasses to no corrective lenses at all and although I have always known it wouldn’t last forever it was worth every dollar spent. I do get nervous about my vision though and really felt after several days I needed to get it checked out. Susanville is a very small town and there is only one optometrist here and he doesn’t take Aetna insurance. But I have a bunch of money in an HSA account and although he doesn’t normally take new patients they made me an appointment at the end of Thursday. He did a very thorough examination and determined I was getting a sty (pimple on the inner eyelid) and then gave me suggestions on over the counter drops to us. He also recommended the 20/20/20 rule since I work on the computer so much which is every 20 minutes take a break and blink 20 times and then stare at least 20 yards away for a few minutes. According to him you normally blink 20 times minute normally, only 10 times when watching TV, and only 5 times when working on the computer. This leads to dry eyes which is exacerbated by the arid conditions here in Susanville. I felt much better after talking to him and felt the $94 dollars was reasonable for the time he spent with me. I do need to get a prescription eye exam and he couldn’t fit me in for 1-1/2 months and we will be gone then. So I will make a trip to Reno for that visit and get my glasses there. One thing I have noticed about small town doctors is they are not lacking in work. I couldn’t get one dentist in town to accept a new patient and even the MD’s seemed overbooked. Luckily we are close enough to Reno that there are tons of doctors there and more have openings.

So, we were really looking forward to the weekend and our long awaited trip to Tahoe. I have wanted to go there every since Lee came home from a work trip about 20 years ago and said I would love it. But when we were getting ready in the morning it started to sprinkle. No big deal I thought, it never rains here and even if it’s here it won’t be there. Well, Lee checked the weather and it was going to rain all day and there were even flash flood warnings. So we decided that we would wait until another day. We could even go during the week when my job ends. Instead we decided to ride the Bizz Johnson trail on Sunday. On occasion Lee takes bikes up the trail for groups (using the BLM truck and trailer), and he was scheduled to make the trip on Sunday with a group from Reno. We thought we would take our bikes along as well and bike the 26 miles back, then take our truck up and retrieve the BLM truck. I was a bit nervous about a 26 mile bike ride since I have never done one but wanted to experience the fall colors and get some shots of the trail. So Saturday we were at loose ends and I went back to my initial list of things to do. Luckily I had one rainy day activity and we drove down to Reno to see Harrah’s automobile collection. Lee loves car collections and since it was only $10 I thought “Why not give it a shot?”. Well I am really glad we did. We had some initial trouble finding it, despite its name it is not in the Harrah’s casino, but a few streets down. It was really great. According to the signs it is considered one of the top 5 museums in the country and I really enjoyed it. The collection focused less on cars of famous people, although they had some of those, and more on the history of the automobile. Plus along the way they had some beautiful displays of clothing from the different eras. Smart really, giving the women something to look at, but to my surprise I also really enjoyed the cars. Each sign had some really interesting information on the cars from the progression of how it impacted the automotive industry. We spent over two hours there and I completely recommend it for a rainy day. I learned a lot and definitely was not bored.

1892 Phillion only one care produced

Beautiful wedding dress

I was fascinated by the small windshields in the older models

Each section of the museum was from a similar time period. This 40's era street was cool

Each section of the museum was from a similar time period. The black car was Sinatra’s.

Lee checking out one of Sinatra's car...he's happy

Lee checking out 1961 “Frank Sinatra” Ghia

They let you sit in this one so of course I had to dress up. I can see me tooling around in one of these

1914 Detroit electric car

Check out the battery bank.

I liked the displays of stockings

And handbags

One of our favorites a, Airmobile prototype which got over 90 miles to the gallon

One of our favorites was the Airmobile prototype which consistently got over 80 miles to the gallon

The back was really cool with it’s aerodynamic styling

The 1936 DeSoto taxicab was one of my favorites

This 1921 Kampkar was amazing. It had a bed and eating area

The 1921 Silver Ghost Rolls Royce was amazing. This one was made of solid plates of copper

My personal favorite was this 1936 Mercedes Benz...wow

My personal favorite was this 1936 Mercedes Benz…built for Princess Nina Mdviani

This 1947 volkswagen didn’t look that much different than my first car

This was Elvis's car until he gave it to his Karate instructor

This was Elvis’s car until he gave it to his long time karate instructor

John Wayne's car. Can't really see the Duke riding in this

John Wayne’s 1953 Chevy. Can’t really see the Duke riding in this

Lee loved the sliding doors on this model

Lee loved the sliding doors on this 1954 Kaiser-Darren

Afterwards we decided to go to In and Out burger. I have heard about them but never been to one and since Lee loves them wanted to try it. I love award shows and I always hear actresses talking about how they go in their expensive dresses to In and Out burger and the lengths they go to to protect those dresses. I understand why now. The burger is a good greasy and actually comes in a paper envelope to help you eat it. Unfortunately I really hated the fact that the bread was crunchy all around the edge. Other than that it was good but the bread ruined it for me. Lee was happy though and I at least I know what all the fuss is about.

In and Out burger Reno

Despite the line service was pretty fast

Here’s mine

Because it was so packed we had parked in the 7/11 next door. We both felt a little guilty about that since signs were posted but its hard to get the truck into just any parking space. Lee decided to buy gas there since we needed it anyways and that made us a customer, but immediately after fueling up the engine started acting funny. Aside from a poor initial alignment, we have thankfully had zero issues with the truck, but the engine started hesitating when Lee was giving it gas. We made it back to Susanville, but were concerned and when he had trouble starting the truck that night, we decided to take it into the Ford dealership on Monday. Thankfully for the first time in my life, I had loaded up on warranties on this vehicle. We bought both the Premium Maintenance Plan – 72 month 125,000 miles for $3150 (which covers all of our routine maintenance including oil changes) and the Premium Care extended warranty 72 month 125,000 miles $3396 (which covers over 500 items, including brake pads and loaner cars). Yes, I know that’s a high price tag but I don’t regret it at all. The peace of mind for 6 years is more than worth it and I had my eye down the road when our income might be much less. But unfortunately we had to cancel the Biz Johnson trail ride because we didn’t want to drive the truck away from town 26 miles, just in case. So Sunday was a football day…loved the Patriots/Colts game, and on the plus side now we have some activities to do after I leave my full time job. This whole thing might be the universe’s way of looking out for me, since a couple of nice activities might just be what I need to help with the transition. And I’ll let you know what happens with the truck repairs.

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October 13, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at the Rails to Trails Festival

The big event for our work kamping job was this weekend. It is the annual Rails to Trails festival which both celebrates the Biz Johnson Trail and helps the local non profit make money to maintain the rail depot at the Susanville end of the trail. The event is a combination of numerous marathons on the trail, including a qualifier for the Boston marathon, and a local festival at the depot itself. Lee has been shooting video of the various activities leading up to the event, part for his demo reel and partly for Stan, so I knew I would jump in and help with our regular work kamping duties. Plus, I volunteered to give caboose tours the day of the event itself. All in all we planned for a full weekend, and I was pretty excited about the opportunity to pitch in and help. Since the events started on Saturday, Lee and I took extra care with the grounds on Friday night. We stocked the restrooms with extra supplies, emptied all the trash and added extra bags at the bottom, and walked all the way down to the depot taking special care with the “micro litter”. As a side note, Stan taught us the concept of micro litter which is little things like cigarette butts and gum wrappers that will add up over time if ignored. Lee and I have actually made a game out of it, where we each take a side of the trail going in one direction and on the way back we switch. For every piece of trash we find that the other person missed, we get one kiss. Yes, I know it’s goofy, but we both get kisses and it’s a fun way to pass the time!!

Saturday morning Lee left very early with Stan to take any bike riders halfway up the trail. They had a company coordinate the races and did a nice job of sharing the space between normal bike riders and runners by staggering the departure points. After Lee dropped off the riders he went to various points along the route and took some video of the runners. It really is a beautiful trail, waiting for the fall foliage to take my ride, and I heard several of the runners say how much they enjoyed the scenery during their runs.

I kept an eye on things back at the Hobo Camp, where the finish line was located, and around 10:00am walked the trail down to the depot. Unfortunately the horse riders had used that section of the trail in the early morning and there was a ton of horse poop right in the road which would have affected the runners for the short marathon scheduled later that day. Normally I don’t mind the horse poop so much, but this was fresh and right in the middle of several spots of the run. I didn’t really have to do anything about it, but since I wouldn’t want to run through horse poop, I grabbed a bag and cleaned it up. Not my favorite way to start the morning, but it I couldn’t just walk past it.

Afterwards, I made it to the depot where the chili cook-off crews were setting up and got the keys to the caboose from Louise the event organizer. I really like the chili cook-off concept, because local non profits and companies compete with chili and salsa for bragging rights. All the food at the festival was locally produced, so it was yummy and a good way for folks to make a little extra money. They also had some local craft booths and a couple of raffles. I paid $10 for limted raffle (only 75 entries allowed) for $700 worth of Cabellas camping gear. Although I didn’t win, I liked that they pulled the raffle tickets right in front of the crowd and everyone cheered for the winner. Small towns are cool like that

They were selling these pioneer hats for the kids

They even had some free line dancing lessons

At 10:30 I went down to the caboose and opened it up for business. Stan had left me some information inside, and I quickly read up on the caboose. The story is that the local historical society wanted a caboose from the right era but they are pretty hard to come by. In 1989 a caboose with a cupola became available via a sale by another government agency and the complex negotiations for the caboose began. Finally the caboose was assigned to Susanville and was moved, via engine, to it’s new home. It was painted and restored and now resides in a fenced-in area. They actually had to fence it in because some homeless were living in it during the 90’s, so for the festival it needed to be moved out of the fenced area and down the track. Stan actually pulled it with a Ford 550 the day before, and when I arrived it was sitting all by itself off the main festival footprint. I didn’t think many people would come, but immediately upon opening I got a large family with three boys aged 12, 9 and 5 year old, Quinn, whose birthday it was. Let me say as the mother of three girls I understood conceptually that little boys liked trains, but had never seen it in action. I had a steady stream of 4-10 year old boys during my two sessions and they are fun, but a handful! Since the inside of the caboose is designed to be lived and moved in all of the metal rods are extremely sturdy. I let the boys climb and hang as much as they wanted, and just stood by in case anyone got too crazy. I will be honest, I got more questions on the inside toilet than anything else (which unfortunately was not covered by the material provided) and mainly just had fun talking to the parents. One mom, Melissa, I really enjoyed in particular as we bonded over having the experience of having three kids.

Right behind the sink is the bathroom, then a ice box and food storage area

Right behind the sink is the bathroom, then an ice box and food storage area

The conductor and two brakemen lived in the caboose and this was their stove/heat and office area

I opened the windows up in the cupola so the kids could look out and they were very good about being careful. There are bunks right under the window.

I had Lee take a pic of my caboose in the caboose 🙂

Between my tours I had an opportunity to go to the Chili cook-off. For $7.50 you get a small cup and are able to go try all of the different chili and salsa. We got a kit for free since we were volunteering, but it would have been a good deal either way. By the time we got around the tent we were pretty full and had definitely decided on our favorites. Lee loved the combination wild turkey, venison, and moose chili the best. I enjoyed a more traditional one offered by one of the non-profits. Those who paid got to vote and at the end the crowd favorites and judges favorites were presented with awards and of course bragging rights. The awards were really cute wooden spoons with engravings along with some plaques, and again, the winners got big cheers from the crowd. Throughout the day, hand car races were taking place along the railroad track. Lee was particularly interested in shooting video of these and our A.C.E. volunteer group, decided they would participate. These kids know how to work, they got up early as usual, and spent the morning clearing trails, and then came over in time for the festivities. I was delighted when they won second place. I thought for sure they would have a significant disadvantage to the locals, but they killed it and their time was overall second place. They got an award to take back to the main office and medals which was really fun.

My view of the racers from the caboose

The A.C.E team is on the left, the other car was the first place winners

The ACE Team. In front: Julius, George, Jacob, Marc. In back: Phil, Gina, and Bettina. How cute are they 🙂

Their award they get to take back to the field office in Lake Tahoe and put on the mantel

After the second tour I walked the path back, checked the restrooms, and changed into some shorts. A little while later Stan was kind enough to come and get me so that we could move the caboose. He had pulled it slightly uphill before the festival and now the kids and I were going to get to ride it back to it’s home within the fenced in area. That was a lot of fun and Lee got some great video. Unfortunately,we were all so excited about the project that we forgot to swing the gates out to open them, so once the caboose was in the pen there wasn’t room to swing the gates closed. So, after we rolled it in we had to pull it forward then hand push it back to get the gates to close. We did get to use a really cool wooden tool to move it by hand though. You put it under the wheel and then push down. The lever moves the 55,000 pound caboose a few inches at a time, and one person can do it all by themselves. It turned out I was pretty good at it, with great form, although not so great stamina. We all took turns and can now say we pushed a train. Not something I ever thought I would get to do, but really a lot of fun!!

Jacob and Marc were cracking me up as they said “I am Biz, and I am Johnson and together, we are Biz Johnson” in funny accents. You had to be there, but I was laughing so hard. Jacob is from Jersey and Marc is from Germany and they have bonded like they are brothers. Another great part of this program.

Lee shooting video

Lee quickly getting out of the way as we got closer

Stan pulling the caboose with the truck

George keeping an eye on the chains

Check me out!!

This is how the lever works

It was a really fun Saturday, and then on Sunday the real hardcore marathons were run. Lee went to the registration early to get footage of the runners checking in and boarding the buses, and then drove up the canyon ahead of them to get shots of the buses climbing the steep canyon hill out of town, and then on to the starting point 26 miles away. Stan was keeping an eye on the trail so I kept the main area clean. In between football (great Cincy/Seattle game) I checked the bathrooms and trash. People were pretty neat so I only needed to go down at 10, 12, and 2 so there was plenty of chill time in between. Lee had a much tougher physical day as he had strapped his camera bag and tripod on a mountain bike, along with another camera in a backpack, and drove from the starting point to the halfway point, and then rode the trail, stopping at numerous places to shoot video of the runners. He had a great time though, and got tons of really good video and pictures, plus quite the workout as he crisscrossed the last 7 miles of the trail. We all had a quiet evening, but then Monday we had a potluck dinner for the kids. I wanted to make them something homemade, and spaghetti is always my go to to feed kids who haven’t had a home cooked meal in awhile, and I really wanted to do it this time because we had three kids so far from home. Stan wanted to expand the dinner into a larger pot luck though, so I changed it to rigatoni which holds up better under pot luck conditions.

Lee shot interviews with all the kids to use as the background audio for the video, Stan cooked burgers, and Marissa (who is awesome) from his office brought lots of sides. She also brought her boyfriend who coincidentally is from Switzerland and Bettina had an opportunity to speak in her home language. I asked her later if it was nice and she said it was “weird”, because she has been speaking in English so much! I think a good time was had by all. Nice to know we can still throw a good party!! One of my favorite moments of the nights was when I was talking to Gina, who reminds me very much of my oldest daughter Kyrston, and spontaneously reach over and kissed her on the forehead and told her she was a good girl. She got all choked up, because she said it was such a mom thing to do, and it made her miss her parents in England. I can’t tell you how much we have enjoyed getting to know the ACE crew. It’s really been a gift to us and truly their parents should be very proud of them. Extraordinary young people!

I bought marshmellows thinking I would show Bettina and Marc and american experience but they looked at me strange and said,

I bought marshmellows thinking I would show Bettina and Marc an american experience but they looked at me strange and said, “We eat marshmellows on a stick.” lol

The government group talking about grants, etc. Honestly it’ like a foreign language. I thought my company used lots of acronyms!!

Stan showed a slide show in the rig. Who knew this many people could fit inside. I stayed outside..no way with the claustrophobia, but it's good to know we can squeeze this many in. Was a bit like a clown car though when everyone came out :)

Stan showed a slide show and a few videos in the rig. Who knew this many people could fit inside? We had 13 people in there at one point! I stayed outside..no way with the claustrophobia, but it’s good to know we can squeeze this many in. Was a bit like a clown car though when everyone came out 🙂

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October 9, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Identity Crisis

OK, maybe crisis is too dramatic a word for what is going on, but the term identity crisis evokes certain images, and of all of the ways I could find to describe how I’m feeling, that seems to be the most appropriate. It was another 4:30 am morning, I haven’t had one of those in awhile, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what woke me up in the middle of the night. And I absolutely want to say that this all feels vaguely self-indulgent. As I complete each transition task in my current job, say goodbye to another person I have worked with for a long time, or just check off another day, the process of moving closer to my new life continues to move forward. I fully understand that this transition would have happened at some point, regardless of the full-timing lifestyle. So this post isn’t really about full-timing itself. although it is the context in which I find myself dealing with this big change. The desire to downplay the change is strong, and certainly would make dealing with it somewhat easier in the short-term, but two of my good friends, Jo (a psychologist) and Cori (who has gone through this) seem determined to not let me get away with that. It comes from love of course, and I know objectively they are right, but the desire to take these feelings and shove them in a closet, for now, is pretty strong. Good friends are supposed to push you, and I have certainly pushed them in my time, but have to say being on the other end of this is not as much fun. I’m grateful for it, but I really don’t like it, because usually I am a person who faces things head on and deals with them proactively. Well, that’s not always true. I do an outstanding job of dealing with the known, but when it comes to high levels of ambiguity I have never done as well. And, wow, what my life is going to look like in a few short weeks is a whole lot of ambiguity.

And for the first time in my life I am seriously considering a third option that is different than fight or flight. Surrender is the word that keeps coming to mind. Trust there is a higher plan, surrender to knowing that what will be will be, and really allow myself the time to figure out what I want my life to look like. Here’s the thing though; I am not retiring. I’m not saying this would be any easier if I was, but I definitely am not, because we have bills to pay and we need to find a way to pay them. That being said, this whole conversation feels vaguely self-indulgent. People go through this transition every day, many having no choice in when it occurs. They have debt, mortgages, kids in school, divorces, a myriad of other factors that I don’t have to deal with. So I truly realize this could be incredibly worse and I am trying so hard not to start feeling sorry for myself. And yet regardless of the catalyst for such a change, I have to believe the core of emotions people experience are very similar. So as much as I cringe at writing about my struggle in this area, I do think it is relevant to some other people. Thus the post.

I am feeling loss. Loss of relationships, loss of financial stability, loss of being extremely competent at one thing, and loss of who I am now. The loss manifests itself in a variety of emotions, such as anger, sadness, denial, and withdrawal. The feelings are counter balanced by some feelings of interest or even excitement on what lies around the next corner, faith that I am absolutely doing the right thing, and gratitude for the support I have been receiving from friends and especially Lee. Having gone through this with Lee and his job when we first went on the road, I know enough to request space and positivity and he is giving me both of those things. The space is both physical and emotional. There are chunks of time when I don’t want to see anyone or talk to anyone and when I communicate that, he is not only not taking it personally, but also going away. I also need positive energy in order to avoid a negative cycle of self doubt. Although this is normally my role in the marriage, he’s done a very nice job of being a cheerleader for me and reinforces that everything is going to be just fine. As much as I appreciate that,I am working very hard not to rely on it. At the end of the day this is my stuff I need to deal with and I need to make it OK for myself. I can take help from others, I welcome it in fact, but ultimately I need to make peace in myself.

So what’s the big deal? Many, many people would have been absolutely thrilled to have this offer, Heck, a year ago I would have been ecstatic. What has changed? Well, I think I know a lot more about the lifestyle, and about myself. Going full-time led to some serious reflection on ourselves as individuals and as a couple. Seriously in the last year we have done more self-examination that we have done in 10 years. Although painful, the self-examination has led to some amazing changes in both of us, but I would say Lee has probably made the most significant changes; he truly walked away from everything, all at once. I had the consistency of continuing my job. When things got too scary, I could focus on work and feel like my old self. Emotionally, it was a crutch. Is that terrible? Not necessarily, I don’t know if everyone has the fortitude to flip their entire life upside down all at once. Sometimes people “hedge their bets” when becoming full timers by staying close to home, spending tons of time with family, or relying heavily on friends. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these things, and who says you need to jump into the deep end of the pool anyway? It’s not that different than easing my way into boondocking. Lee would have started that immediately, but I was having none of it. We eased into it with baby steps, and by the time we had worked our way up to an entire month of boondocking I felt really good about it as an alternative way of living in the lifestyle. So easing my way in works very well for me when I am dealing with something that is intimidating, but in this case I don’t know if that will be possible.

I will have money coming in until March, so definitely there is some transition time there, but as much as I would love to “fiddle-dee-dee, tomorrow is another day” the time away, I don’t think I can really afford to do that. I need a plan. Yes me, who always has a plan, is somewhat without one. I need to start my consulting business and I need to do some significant research and work around getting all the pieces together, website, collateral, marketing plan, etc. I know I need to be prepared to accept work the day after I leave my current job, and there are a certain amount of steps that need to happen before that date. OK, I can do that. I know the skills I have to offer and the types of companies I would like to do business with. These are things I have been thinking about for several years, well before we ever started full-timing. What’s changed? Well, everything. I now know how difficult it is to work full-time and enjoy this lifestyle. People absolutely do it, but I think almost all would agree that is not optimal. Plus my work choices impact Lee’s work choices in an even bigger way. Lee’s been working around my schedule for the last year and that has caused some tension. Not because he is not willing to put my work choices first, but because he was simultaneously trying to get his businesses going. Whenever there was a conflict, my work by necessity took priority, so a big part of making this change is to provide balance to those choices.

So that’s good, right? Well, yes, conceptually, but it may take an already complicated situation and make it more complicated. Before Lee and I went on the road we did an assessment of our skill sets and looked at the various ways we could make money. As I have discussed before they fell into some major categories, work kamping, video production, Mobile Tech service, Project Management Consulting, and online teaching. In a perfect world we would like to be able to mix and match those jobs, using the skill set that works in an area we want to spend some time in. It’s a good plan, and should work, but now that I am more educated I have some concerns.

Finding a job for both of us in the same place at the same time is going to be tougher than we originally thought. The exception of course is work kamping, but few of those jobs pay enough to cover even our low end budget. Those jobs will need to be augmented with some higher paying opportunities or side work taken during a work kamping job. Flexible hours then becomes a key feature in any work kamping job so we can have side work in our off time.
The mobile tech services requires not only a bulk of time in an area (at least 30 days to get things rolling and support part delivery), but also the right kind of campground. State Parks with lots of weekender traffic is not the best choice because folks are going back home after the weekend and most issues can wait until during the week or at their dealer. Full Time/Part Timers are a great source of business but in the winter the greatest concentration has been in Mega parks and in the summer everyone is scattered all over. We wanted to combine work kamping with RV tech work in the winter but there is more competition for the jobs and some (not all) park owners are nervous about the service work. We could stay on our own dime and build up a clientele, and indeed we need to try that, but then would need to make a significant amount to cover our campsite, which tends to be premium priced that time of year.
Video production has a lot of promise, as well as the benefit of Lee being able to edit during his off hours of anything else we might be doing. This is a business in its infancy though, and building a client base will take some time, plus in order to shoot the video we need to physically be located in an area for a period of time. Combining the video work with work kamping would be optimal, but it is not clear yet how much of a market there will be for campground videos. The other alternative would be where a place to stay is included in the deal and I will not work during that time, or maybe do something part-time.
Teaching project management online is something I have always been interested in but am a little hesitant because you absolutely have to have access to internet. Part of the benefit of not having a full time job anymore is we aren’t held hostage by the need for internet all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I love internet but there is a difference between wanting it and needing it. The good news is, the sessions are generally 8 weeks, the bad news is they don’t pay great and are tough to get. Still, it’s definitely something I am looking into.
Finally, my consulting. I know I could get contract work immediately, the largest problem is the contracts are generally on the longer side and we wouldn’t want to stay in an area that long. Also, they are almost always near big cities and for large companies. I would really like to market my skills to smaller companies in smaller towns, but in order to get the word out and bring in some clients we will need to stay in a place for awhile, and I could put out a ton of feelers and not really get any work. Contract work is a sure thing, plus you are backed up by another company in case there are any issues. Also, I really need to be careful that I don’t get into the habit of taking one job after another, because seriously, what is the point? That would just be trading one high stress career for another, and I really am trying to slow down.

Hence the identity crisis. The only way to really make this work for us is to explore all of these options, separately and in combinations. Over time I am sure we will find out what works and what doesn’t and I am very aware of how lucky I am to have so many options. Where I am struggling is what it will look like wearing all those different hats. I in no way feel certain jobs are beneath me, but as a person who pumped gas and waited tables in her youth, I do understand that the personality requirements for these roles may be very different. Sometimes people just want you to do your work and keep your mouth shut. As a person who has spent the last 13 years designing how people do work this might be a little tough. Oddly, Lee seems to be making the transition somewhat easily. He has let go of feeling responsible for every detail he sees, and as such is able to just follow direction. He has found other outlets for his creativity and intellect and maybe I will as well. All I know for sure is the me a year from now is going to be different than the me right now. Not a doubt in my mind. I could stay the same if it was all about me and what I wanted, but that’s not what this life is about…heck marriages shouldn’t be abut that, but many work that way. We spent many years with a “divide and conquer” mentality, but that is over now. We will figure this out together, but I have no illusions it will be easy.

And that is where the surrender comes in. Sometimes in life you simply don’t have enough information to make a solid plan. Traditionally I do not handle these situations well, and thankfully they have been few and far between in our marriage. The absolute worst one to date was my first childbirth. You can do all the research you want, but there is zero way to prepare for what that experience is actually like. And instead of surrendering to it, I fought it tooth and nail which made the entire situation much worse. The end result was of course fine, and one of the most magical moments of my life, but getting there was brutal. I’m older now and hopefully wiser, and realize that to some extent what will happen will happen. I do believe in a higher plan which helps some, but it’s still a day-to-day struggle to just relax, breathe, and believe it will all be alright. I’m working on it though.

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Search Amazon Here
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Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Uncategorized

Working on The New Businesses and Volunteering

First Time at a Coffin Race

October 2015 Budget

First Time at Lake Tahoe

Recipes

Spicy Korean Pork

Baked Chicken Spring Rolls

First Time without a “Regular” Job

First Ride On The Bizz Johnson Trail

Putting Regular Gas in a Diesel Vehicle

Lessons Learned

The Post That Kept Changing

First Time at the Rails to Trails Festival

Identity Crisis