October 8, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

September 2015 Budget

Spent $4338 this month, roughly $450 over budget. This largely came from the home improvement area and grocery area but we have plans in place to address. Still room for improvement in some categories but we definitely feel like we are headed in the right direction.

Campground Fees – Thanks to Lee for finding free or near-free places to stay on travel days, and our work kamping job, this category is the lowest it has ever been. Lee has felt all along that once we got out west this category would be much lower and he was absolutely correct.

Groceries – Wow this one got completely out of control. By far the worst month we have had yet. We went back and took a look, and again it was being with friends and being forced to shop at small grocery stores with no other options. It wasn’t big bills, either, just numerous $80 trips. The good news is we implemented our new grocery/meal plan and in the last two weeks of the month only spent $245. If we continue to spend at that rate we will be under budget for October and maybe I will finally feel like we have a handle on this. For September I am going with “it’s always darkest before the dawn.”

Dining Out/Entertainment – One was over and the other was under, so it was a wash. That’s always a win in this category. And really good for us considering we were with friends and traveled, both of which in the past have caused us to blow the budget for these categories.

Fuel – Although we are over in both travel and local categories, we really look at this as an annual number and we are under by $1K for the year so far. We traveled from Montana to California in September and have done a few long driving trips to Reno while here in Susanville. I’m not that concerned as we only have three months left in the year, and we aren’t looking at any really long trips, so the annual number should be good. Which frankly is a miracle since this number more than any other was a big guess when we set the budget.

Home Improvement – Over by $300 dollars. We bought the flagpole buddy to help with cellular strength (works pretty good), and we hit a large Camping World in Oregon and went a little crazy buying all those things we had needed for several months but weren’t near a Camping World, and Lee bought the supplies to add new power outlets in the rig so that we can hook our electric heaters up to the additional power outlets on pedestals, so we can bypass the inverter. He also bought the supplies to add a 12 volt outlet in the bedroom and we bought an Endless Breeze 12 volt fan so I can run a fan all night without worrying about draining the batteries when boondocking. I will say that in order to prepare for less income coming in, we have decided to discuss all of these purchases proactively. Talking at the end of a week or month is reactive and doesn’t really help. Now we are having a meeting every Saturday morning where we will discuss in advance what we think we will be spending, especially in the more troublesome categories.

Clothing – Lee bought a cool hat (you’ve seen it in the pictures) and I went a little T-Shirt crazy. I have this idea that eventually I will take all the T-Shirts from the places we have been and make a quilt from them. Since they will serve three purposes (a shirt to wear, a memento from seeing something, and ultimately, a quilt) I don’t feel that guilty about spending the money. If I plan on continuing this though I will definitely need to look at adjusting this category next year.

Propane – We went way over and this was mostly used in the first week of the month in Glacier. Because it was cloudy and smoky, we had to use the generator to charge the batteries (which takes a ton of propane) and we also had to heat with propane, because we were not on full hookups. Obviously this is not the most efficient way to heat your home, and you really should take propane costs into account when thinking about boondocking in cold weather.

So it was a solid month and I am excited about our new grocery plan and proactively talking about the budget weekly. If neither you nor your partner is a spender by nature you may not need to go to these lengths, but since we were pretty much used to spending whatever we wanted whenever we wanted,it’s somewhat necessary. Part of me wishes we would have done this immediately, but for us we needed to come to it organically, because we don’t want to spend less money. We like spending what we want when we want, I mean really, who doesn’t? But we also know that that is just not sustainable. Because of our natures we needed to ease our way into this. And keep in mind we are not close to being where we want to be yet. This is our “me working full time making tons of money” budget. Next year’s budget will need to be leaner. We will see how it goes, and all I can do is be as honest as possible through the process.

————————————————————————————————————————————-

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Search Amazon.com here

October 5, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Reno

This is a long one, you might want to grab a cup of coffee!

Although I had tons of work this week, it’s my year end close, we still found some time to help out the young people from the American Conservation Experience who are working this week on cleaning up the trail. I did have some reservations about 7 kids in their early 20’s staying that close to us, but after 9 days I can say I was pleasantly surprised. They are up early, out working all day, and very quiet when they are around camp. As a group they are all very friendly but also respectful of our space. Lee got to spend the most time with them this week as he spent some time shooting footage of them as they cleaned up the trail. He’s producing a short video about the project for Stan to use and the kids were more than happy to be a part of it. Also one night the battery on their truck died and Lee and I drove on the fire road down to where they were working and gave them a jump. The Bizz Johnson Trail is really something. It is 36 miles of rail trail converted into a bike path and some of the scenery is just beautiful. Plus there are some really neat tunnels cut into the hills surrounding us, and we will definitely be going farther up the trail with our camera to take some pictures.

The way the kids schedule works is 9 days on and 5 days off, so Wednesday night was the end of the first 9 day stint. Then they go back to the Lake Tahoe headquarters and rest and have fun, then come back for here for another 9 day stretch. Since not everyone is necessarily coming back to this location, Lee decided he wanted to fix them dinner. Since work was nuts, I was ok with that but said cooking and cleaning was up to him, which he readily agreed to. He made hot dogs and brats and I made some strawberry pound cake for everyone with home made whipped cream. As a side note I have never made whipped cream before but it is easy and yummy. A pint of whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla and blend until stiff. So good…I don’t know if I will ever buy the premade stuff again. After dinner, Phil the team leader taught us to play a game called stump. Phil is from Wisconsin and since our new son-in-law is also from there this game makes sense as a Wisconsin game. You take a tree stump and lightly tap in a long nail for each person. Then you take a hammer, flip it in your hand, and in one motion try to pound someone else’s nail. As soon as the nail is completely flat against the stump that person is out. It is much harder than it sounds and of course putting people out leads to all kinds of hilarity. I played a round and it was fun but the mother in me rebelled against flipping hammers up in the air that way. I can definitely see the attraction though for this group since they are often in very remote places for many days. There are usually stumps and nails are cheap so I get it. It was fun I have to say and I really enjoyed getting to know them all better.

Strawberry poundcake I made with real whipped cream

From Left: Lee, Justin, George, Julius, Grace, Marc, Phillip, and Gina

Stump

Since three of them are from other countries (Korea, Germany, and England) they were very interested in full time RVing and I was equally interested in why they would join a program like this. Essentially for them it is an opportunity to visit America, work on their English, and get some practical experience in a nature related field. Overall I was very impressed by every one of them, and even more so when the next morning, after they left, we found a bottle of wine and a card on our picnic table. If anyone thinks the Millennials are a lost cause as a generation, you might feel differently after you read what the card said:

Lee and Tracy,

“To say that you two were the best camp hosts that we have had would be a massive understatement. You took the time to get to know each of us on a personal level and brought us motivational treats. You also did countless favors for us over the past nine days, saving our bacon in several instances, and for that we are forever grateful. It has been an honor and a privilege to have shared this tiny campground that we all pretty much consider our second home. Both of you are amazing people and you have created a long lasting positive memory in all of us that we will not soon forget. We would also like to formally welcome you to your new lifestyle and may you never stop exploring and trying new things.”

The A.C.E Crew

This chokes me up again just typing it. We didn’t even do that much. We were just friendly, made them a couple of desserts and a meal, and got to know them. Anyway, if you ever have a chance to work with these youth organizations, I really recommend getting to know the kids. I think you will be pleasantly surprised as I was.

We also got a care package from Lee’s parents which really made it an awesome day. I love that they collect little things they think we would like and they actually got our address here and paid the $6 to ship them. This package had collapsible bowls, cocktail napkins for our parties with friends, and some great camping T-Shirts. Each item was thoughtful, relevant to what we are doing, and in almost every case does two things!! So nice of them and it meant the world to us!After the kids left things were pretty quiet and we actually got some rain. One of the interesting things about this part of the country is how many completely cloudless days there are. On the occasion when it does rain however it rains hard and we pretty much stayed inside. We both started to get a little antsy about our hair though. We hadn’t had haircuts since July before the wedding and really were getting shaggy. Unfortunately Susanville doesn’t offer a hair cutting place that I would even consider so off we went to Reno on Friday afternoon to go to a Super Cuts. I know I’ve said it before but Super Cuts is awesome. They are extremely clean and consistent across the country plus for $16 you get a nice haircut. They also carry my hair product and offer an eyebrow wax for $10. Really can’t beat it. They have recently added a “call ahead” feature and you can make an appointment the same day which they do a VERY good job of honoring. So we were in and out of there before 5pm and realized we should probably take advantage of our time in Reno.

Lee and I like to gamble, strictly for fun, on occasion, so I was very interested in checking out the casinos in Reno and seeing if we could actually have any fun gambling on such a limited budget. Lee used to go to Vegas for the week long National Association of Broadcasters conference every year and budgeted $100 per day for Black Jack. He usually broke even, that’s just the way blackjack works, but he went into it planning to lose the $500 for entertainment. Obviously that wasn’t going to work in this lifestyle where our monthly entertainment budget is $159 so we needed to talk it through. We went to Circus Circus because the web said they had $2 blackjack tables and we had dinner at a little diner there. The meals were excellent but man, am I ever tired of spending $3 for soda or iced tea. Consequently dinner was $37, but later I had an idea that I am going to start taking those little drink powder packets in my purse so we can have lemonade for dinner. The $10.99 for the meals was more than fair but the markup on an iced tea makes me crazy. As we ate we talked through what gambling would look like for us in this new world. This was progress by the way as instead of spending now and talking later we are really starting to have these conversations proactively. We determined that for the test I would take $20 (my standard amount for nickel slots) and Lee would take $100 for blackjack and we would see what happened. Lee had the harder decision to make by far and I won’t talk about about all the details, but if you are going to gamble you need a certain amount of money to start with. It ended up turning out great as he found a set of interconnected tables with an electronic dealer for $2 a game and ended up spending only $22 for about two hours of play. I spent $8 out of my $20. We also spent a few dollars upstairs on the huge arcade area Circus Circus has. We probably could have recouped that money if we were willing to stay longer, but we needed to close the gate back at the ranch, so we headed back. We did drive through the downtown area heading home though and I definitely want to go back and try out some of the other casinos. Overall the experience was great and better than anything we have seen short of Vegas including Atlantic City. We were offered free drinks several times, the slots were varied, and the kind I like, and it really had a small Vegas vibe unlike Indian Casinos we have been in. Plus, I have to say, I really like Reno as a town. I was expecting the worst, but they have really cleaned it up in the 20 years since Lee has been there and it’s a very nice little town.

Casino downstairs and arcade upstairs

Lee playing Whack a Mole…won a snake. He likes the games where you whack stuff 🙂

I completely rock the fishing game...won twice

I completely rocked the fishing game…won twice.

Lee tried Chicken in the pot for the first time and won we a bear :)

Lee tried Chicken in the Pot for the first time and won me a bear 🙂

What girl doesn’t like an armful of stuffed animals at an arcade

Saturday it rained some more, so I just took some chill time, and Lee worked on Howard and Linda’s videos. In case you are wondering, I am doing OK with the decision to leave my job, but I am having some rough moments. I had a really great review and conversation with my current boss which made me feel good about things, and I’ve talked to Cori several times. She has been absolutely wonderful because she went through a similar experience several months ago and not only does she get it, but she has been very understanding of how moody I have been over the whole thing. I am going along feeling great and then wham I get sad or a little depressed and Cori has been right there telling me it’s normal and will pass. She also sent me the picture below and it really struck home with me… so I thought I would pass it along.

Sunday was a little cloudy but no rain which was great because we had plans with Jo and Ben. Jo and Ben started their new jobs the last couple of weeks and we were dealing with my job issues, so no opportunity until now to see each other. I found a Celtic festival in Reno on Groupon though and we made plans to meet there on Saturday. This was the first time I had used Groupon (recommended by both Katy and Cori, two of the most bargain conscious chicks I know) and it worked great. They have a mobile app you can use and we got on online ticket which we just held up and shpwed upon entrance. We did have to pay a $5 parking fee though which brought the cost up to $10 per person. Unfortunately this was not my best pick. The event was super small and none of us felt the fee was worth the $10. Jo and Ben were so nice about it though and when we were done after 1-1/2 hours Ben came up with a Plan B. My favorite thing we saw was a demonstration on how to put on a kilt. Both Jo and I were fascinated as we had read about it, but never actually seen it done. I have included a step by step set of pictures below on that for those of you who have an interest. I found it fascinating and now feel like I could maybe buy and wear a kilt. By the way, women and men wore kilts at the same length until the 1500’s when the catholic church pushed for the women to wear them long for modesty.

Beautiful Draft horses at the Celtic Fair

Stage with some ok musicians playing, we listened to some Irish folk tunes for awhile

Falconer had several birds

Amazing how far they can turn their head

Really neat getting so close to them

Unfortunately the falconer was less interested in talking than charging $10 per picture holding the birds, so we passed

Unfortunately the falconer was less interested in talking than charging $10 per picture holding the birds… we passed

These weavers were really nice. and we talked to them for some time. Turns out Ben worked in a wool mill in New Hampshire when he was in his 20’s

Make the pleats on the ground by folding over cloth

Pleats should be one third of cloth and equally in the middle

Lay down on cloth and roll over you like a burrito

Adjust length to below the knee in winter and above the knee in the summer and place a belt around your waist

Pin the outside edge to stop the wind from blowing it open … never knew what those pins were for

Roll excess cloth at waist over belt

Pull extra on one side up (easier with two people)

Pull second side up

Tie with some cord as seen here

She placed a second belt on and you can see how cool the pleats are in the back

So there was some cool things but no way worth $10 and thankfully Ben had this idea to head to Virginia City, which is a an historic mining town about 30 minutes outside of Reno. A huge silver strike was found there, most people know it as the Comstock Lode, and tons of saloons were built. What is cool about this town is many of the original buildings are still in place and I loved the wooden boardwalk which follows the natural lines of the ground and made me feel like I was really in the old west. Plus in one of those awesome moments of serendipity we realized we were there during the world championship outhouse races. Oh yes, I am not making that up, and it was completely a happy accident. Can’t really describe what we saw in words, so let me just show you the pics.

Really cool old buildings

Check out the metal drain spouts

Now I know what gold looks like in the wild

This one was cool

Lee wasn’t kidding when he said people wore guns out west

Tons of little shops crammed full of antigues

Tons of little shops crammed full of antiques

Sign shop had tons of signs

For our friend Emily

The chandeliers in the old saloons were amazing

Really good country western band playing in one

And the outhouse races

You can’t make this stuff up

They were having fun

This guy did the starting guns hots..seriously old west

This guy did the starting line gunshots..seriously old west

Ben and Jo

When I sat in here, it started making pooping noises. Cracked me and Ben up

Old fire engine museum was very neat and free

A guy who has been in tons of fire museums said he had never seen these before and they were “priceless”

After spending several hours in Virginia City, we headed down to Jo and Ben’s place. They are staying at Sparks Marina RV Park right in Reno. Normally not a huge fan of these types of parks but they have done a nice job with this one. Every space has it’s own spot of AstroTurf. There are three nice dog parks, a clubhouse, pool and Jacuzzi. Plus across the street is a lake and marina with beach volleyball courts and nice picnic areas. Sometimes when you are working, convenience makes more sense than anything else, and it does feel isolated despite only being 10 minutes away from Ben’s work at the hospital. They also have immaculate restrooms, cable and really great free Wifi and with a monthly off season price of $575 a month is a nice deal.

Campground

Nicest of the three dog parks

Really great clubhouse

Got lots of puppy love from Peyton !!

Campground Reviews

Sparks Marina RV Park 1200 E. Lincoln Way Sparks, NV 89434 4 out of 5 pine cones

The spaces are close together but each has it’s own spot of AstroTurf. There are three nice dog parks, a clubhouse, pool and Jacuzzi. Plus across the street is a lake and marina with beach volleyball courts and nice picnic areas. Despite being right in town it does feel isolated and you have a nice view of the surronding hills. They also have immaculate restrooms, cable and really great free Wifi and with a monthly off season price of $575 a month is a nice deal.

Recipes

Spicy Drumsticks with Blue Cheese

4 drumsticks
3 TBL vegetable Oil
3 TBL white vinegar
4 tsp red pepper sauce (add more is you like spicy)
3/4 tsp salt

Mix oil, vinegar, pepper sauce, and salt in ziploc plastic bag
Add drumsticks and toss until well coated
Refrigerate at least 1 hour occasionally turning bag
Cook Chicken on grill for 30 minutes saving sauce in bag
Baste chicken with remaining sauce in bag and then cook an additional 10-15 minutes
Serve with Blue Cheese dressing for dipping on the side

Spicy Drumsticks

Fresh Strawberry Coffee Cake

Cake Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 TBL melted butter
1-1/2 cups strawberries , sliced

Topping

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Grease an 8 x8 x2 pan
Combine all cake ingredients except for strawberries, mix until well blended
Spread batter evenly in pan and sprinkle berries evenly over batter
Combine flour and sugar for topping then add softened butter. Blend by hand until mix is crumbly
Add nuts to topping and blend
Sprinkler the topping over strawberries
Bake for 35-40 minutes
Serve Warm

Homemade Whipped Cream

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat ingredients until stiff in large bowl
Refrigerate until used

————————————————————————————————————————————-

October 3, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Class of 2014 – Eighteen Month Update

It’s been awhile since I have given an update on the RV-Dreams Dreamers Class of 2014, and since October marks 18 months since we all attended the rally I thought this would be a great time to do it. Couple of reasons I like talking about what other folks are doing; first and foremost I think it clearly shows that this life looks very different for different people and that is completely OK. Secondly, it’s an interesting case study because it is a relatively small group of people from diverse backgrounds who started this lifestyle at roughly the same time. Please keep in mind that these brief synopses of folks lives are my interpretation only and couldn’t possibly encapsulate their experience. If they have a blog, I really recommend you check it out to get their whole story.

Back Row: Craig, Lee, Gene, Steve, Greg, Scott, Linda, Kelly, Bill, Pam, Red, Jo, Mario Front Row: Ben, Jo, Eileen, me, Cori, Debbie, Sue, Ellen, and Guy

Jo and Ben – Traveling nurses, in their 50’s, who have been on the road for 18 months in an Arctic Fox fifth wheel. They are on their fifth work contract and have worked in Maine, Virginia, Florida, Washington, and Reno. They lost Anubis their beautiful Shepherd mix this year, but still have a beautiful Malamute Peyton who gets attention wherever they go. As a surgical nurse Ben has easily found work, but it has been a little tougher for Jo who works in home health and hospice. To solve this problem they intentionally selected Reno as a place they could both find a contract.

Craig and Jo – Are in their late 50’s and have spent quite a bit of time with fellow RVers including several months with Kelly and Bill. They recently had Jo’s cousin from Spain come and visit and enjoyed showing him the New York City area. Unfortunately Jo and Craig have been plagued by continuous problems with their Lifestyle fifth wheel and after spending several weeks in Indiana having it fixed the company has decided there is a structural issue with the frame and is going to completely replace the entire rig. Good news; Jo and Craig get to custom design the rig. Bad news; they have spent numerous weeks in a hotel (at Lifestyles expense) waiting to get the repairs done. I would love to say this sort of thing never happens but it absolutely does. Lesson Learned, make sure you work with a reputable vendor and buy a good warranty. Plus Jo is a strong advocate for their rights in this situation, as she has every right to be.

Eileen and Gene – In their early 60’s they purchased a second Winnebago when they realized they needed a little more space. The space came in handy as Gene’s mom was living with them in the RV until there was an opening in the assisted living facility she wanted to go in. In addition to taking care of Gene’s mom they have kids all across the country and have managed to see all of them as well as attend Gene’s family reunion. They logged a lot of miles in that first year but are slowing down now and really enjoying their time on the road. Max, their cutie patooty cavachon is still with them and enjoying himself.

Lee and Tracy – Are in their late 40’s and travel in an Open Range 386 FLR. We have been on the East Coast from New Hampshire to Florida, up to Ohio, in Minnesota, Montana and now California. Lee has done some work as an RV Tech but it has been more difficult than expected since we have moved so much. He has also done some video work. Tracy has been working in her corporate job the entire year, but just accepted a buy-out and will be trying her hand at consulting. They are currently doing their first work kamping job, volunteering at a BLM Day use park in California and next year will be about finding the balance between working to pay the bills and enjoying the lifestyle.

Cori and Greg – In their late 40’s Cori and Greg hit the road. Cori converted her full time job to a part-time job at the same company and Greg has been actively building his RV Solar Solutions business. They travel in a Country Coach Class A which is the hang out place whenever we are all together. They have been in the Outer Banks and spent most of the summer with Cori’s family in Texas. Then they headed back to Pennsylvania for some family obligations and will be spending the holidays in Texas. Cori has been able to work and travel on business trips from the road. They have found that they need to plan their routes in advance so they can publish their travel schedule in advance to schedule solar jobs, but are looking forward to more scheduling freedom in January. They travel with Hobie their adorably ornery cavachon.

Debbie and Steve – In their early 50’s, made a complete loop around the outside of the US and then spent some time with their kids back in California. They are currently traveling with their son’s rescue pit bull Hurley who has completely changed my opinion of pit bulls. He is an absolute sweetie. After holidays with their kids and Steve’s dad they will be spending time in Arizona and Colorado. They have been to so many cool places since starting I can’t even list them all, but they include Glacier, Yellowstone, The Tetons, and Zion. Deb reads lots of blogs and finds amazing campsites.

Linda and Scott – In their early 50’s , they have been at a work kamping job in Texas helping to build a new campground. Linda first worked as a nurse locally, then she worked from the RV processing medical charts, and she has also been working in the campground. Scott is having a great time, which is why they have stayed, but they are planning on doing some traveling in January. They travel with two dogs and two cats.

Sue and Guy– In their early 60’s , they sold their house shortly after they went on the road. They then bought a piece of property in Georgia and improved it so they now have three RV spots, which will give them a home base that their kids can visit. After working on the property they went on vacation with some friends in Mexico and are now back on the road traveling the west. They travel with Laci their super cute little terrier.

Bill and Kelly – Kelly and Bill are 50, retired and living off their investments in their Landmark fifth wheel. Most of their time has been spent on the east coast visiting family and friends and they have traveled between Pennsylvania and Florida. Since the stock market is not doing so great, as many others they decided to take a work kamping job to supplement this year and will be doing a stint at Amazon. See the first blog post about the experience here. After the holidays and a trip to the Keys, they will be heading out west. Unfortunately they lost their dog Cocoa and their cat Raskal, both long time family pets, this year. They travel with their remaining cat. Kelly wrote two posts on her first year anniversary thoughts, they are here and here.

Pam and Red – Pam and Red purchased a second fifth wheel, a Grand Design Toy Hauler. They have spent quite a bit of time in Arizona, Texas, and their home base in Arkansas. They are fond of attending rallys and have been to quite a few. They have also made friends everywhere they go and spend quite a bit of time with other RVers. They travel with three dogs who love the big porch on their new fifth wheel.

Eileen and Mario – Ellen finally retired and she and Mario went on the road. They went to Sturgis, Glacier, and Yellowstone and plan on spending several months in Quartzsite. As the last of the group to hit the road Ellen is making up for lost time and Mario is having fun with her. They have no pets.

And there are also many other couples who were at a RV-Dreams rally and went on the road in 2014. Here are a few I have kept up with:

David and Sharon sold their bed and breakfast, went on the road, traveled to Maine with some other Dreamers, including Bill and Nancy, and are currently looking for work kamping jobs.
Jim and Barb are retired and traveling in the northern part of the country, including a long stay in Canada. They tried work kamping at one point but pretty quickly decided it just wasn’t for them and focused on hunting and fishing instead. They have recently had some serious issues with their truck which has required changing their travel plans. Here is the link to their one-year anniversary recap.
Jim and Diana have spent most of their time this year near Michigan where Diana’s mom lives in order to oversee her care. They actually wintered in the north which was quite an accomplishment. They have done some work kamping and spent several weeks in Florida. Here is the link to their one-year anniversary recap.
Mitch and Cheryl bought a used RV and unfortunately have had one issue after another with it. Thank heavens they bought a good warranty, because the repairs have led to multiple months of staying still. Mitch is now working as a gas line inspector and they are spending time mainly on the East Coast. Here is the link to their one-year anniversary recap
Dino and Lisa are in their early 50’s and have spent time in out West and in Minnesota. They have work kamped and are currently at at Amazon. Although they started on the road with no pets they have added two cats.

So what are the stats? Please keep in mind my information is not perfect and these statement may be somewhat inexact but I believe they are mostly correct.

Most of the couples have been married 25 years or more. (Since this statistic is so different than the population at large I think it is significant although there are several exceptions of course.)
The average age of the couples is in their Mid-50’s (that’s surprising to me as I would have thought most folks would be older)
63% of the couples have children.
Most of the couples have pets and there are more cats than I expected.
Almost everyone has traveled to see family in their first year
Most couples have spent over a month with either an elderly parent or a child.
26% of the group have replaced their rigs since starting.
33% of the group have needed truck or RV repairs that were extensive enough to require a change to travel plans and an extended stay in an area. (This really surprises me as well, but I do think it is an accurate representation of the lifestyle.)
25% of the group have at least one person working full time.
60% of the group have social security or pension as their main source of income.
33% of the group have significant investment income.
46% of the group have done a work kamping job.
Despite all of the challenges, 100% of the group is still on the road!!

Definitely a lot of variation, which again proves the adage there is no one true way to RV. Plus, it’s been really great watching other people’s journeys as they have made the transition. Having this support system has meant the world to me, so I wanted to share some pictures of when groups of six or more Dreamers have gotten together along the way. I know I am missing some of course, because I haven’t been at all the meetings, so if you have an update or a pic you would like to add please send it along to camperchronicles@gmail.com and I will be happy to update the post and/or add some pictures in.

August 2014, Pennsylvania-Bottom: Ben, Bill, Jo Top: Kelly, Eileen, Gene, Lee, Tracy, Cori, and Greg

Greg, Cori, Steve, and Deb in front of the large pumpkin tower

October 2014, Keene, NH: Greg, Cori, Steve, and Deb

]

February 2015, Tarpon Springs, FL: Jo, Ben, Bill, Kelly, Tracy, and Lee

In front: Lee, me, and Jo In back: Cori, Greg, Craig, Kelly, and Bill

February 2015, Acadia, FL: In front: Lee, Tracy, and Jo In back: Cori, Greg, Craig, Kelly, and Bill

April 2015, Outer Banks, NC: Cori, Greg, Tracy, Craig, Jo, Kelly, and Bill

May 2015, Outer Banks, NC: Eileen, Gene, Susie, Guy, Jo, Criag, Kelly, Bill, Cori, Greg, Tracy, and Lee

May 2015, RV Dreams Reunion Rally, Marion, NC: Lee, me, Red, Pam, Guy, Sue, Pat, Bridget, Dave, Sharon, Cori, Greg, Bill, Kelly, Jo, and Craig

Ellen, Mario. Lee, me, Steve. and Deb being silly

August 2015, Glacier, MT: Ellen, Mario. Lee, Tracy, Steve. and Deb

————————————————————————————————————————————-

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

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

September 29, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Lassen Volcanic National Park

Although this week was largely about dealing with work stuff, other things did happen. First we were joined at our campsite by 7 young adults from American Conservation Experience. It is a really cool program where young adults can volunteer their time and earn money for college and/or college credit. The group we have is here for 9 days, then has 5 days off, then comes back for another 9 days. They are very diverse, coming from all over the United States and there is also a young man from Germany, a girl from Manchester, England, and another girl from Korea. I was a little concerned at first because of the possible noise factor since they are tent camping behind us, but they work all day doing manual labor out on the property, come back at dark and eat and settle in pretty early. They are a really nice group and Lee has spent quite a bit of time with them. I’ve had other things going on, so was less available, but I did make them some hot apple crisp one night (the German guy loved it) and bought them some fresh strawberries another day at the farmer’s market. I guess for them this is a pretty cushy gig since they are so close to town. Often they backpack deep into National Forests and are 15 miles from the nearest anything. I definitely know this is a gig for young people though as they work hard all day and end up washing up in the nearby stream since there are no showers. Pretty impressive really, and an experience I think every young person should have.

The ACE Tents

They rotate who cooks every night and all meals are prepackaged and brought in coolers.

Lee loves working with young people, he volunteered frequently at the Keene High School career center’s video program, and he had a great time helping them get settled, but I had a pretty stressful week. So by Thursday I was ready to get out. I make a list when I come to an area of things I would like to do and then when I am feeling antsy pick from the list. Thursday evening we tried the Willow Creek Wildlife Area which is BLM owned and a nesting area for many birds including Sandhill Cranes. I knew this time of year it would be much less active but wanted to give it a shot anyway. Unfortunately it was a disappointment as it was just a road next to a creek and there was limited bird activity. We walked for a while, but the ranch next door with its strong cow smell drove us back to the truck. Still it was good to get out and at least I crossed something off the list. The most exciting thing that happened was when we flushed some ducks and I managed to get a shot of them. No clue what kind they are but it was neat.

Here’s the road we walked down

This cow was seriously stalking us

These guys kept fallowing us. Not sure what they were looking for us to do but was pretty annoying

The whole group kept following us as we walked. Not sure what they were expecting us to do but was pretty annoying

The creek was pretty but often overgrown and hard to see anything

Anyone know what kind of ducks these are??

I did get this really good picture of Susanville when we were driving back

Saturday we had talked about going to Lassen, but Lee found out he needed to drive some bikes down to the beginning of the trailhead. The local bus service can take a limited number of people with bikes, the 27 miles to the beginning of the trailhead, but when more sign up BLM services takes them in a trailer. Pretty cool that they do this and Lee took the bikes of 14 boy scouts up while Stan rode in the bus with them and talked to them about the history of the area and the trail. Then Lee and Stan rode some of the old logging and Forest Service roads along the trail and checked out some of the more remote locations on the trail. They had a nice time and I went to the farmer’s market. Unfortunately, it was the last farmer’s market of the season so I stocked up on meat from a local rancher, got lots of vegetables and gathered information from a couple of the people there who continue to sell from their farms after the farmer’s market stops. Since it’s still quite warm here, they have produce into October. The rest of the evening we just relaxed and splurged on some local Chinese food to celebrate my new endeavor. Unfortunately it was terrible…buffalo wing sauce on the General Tso’s chicken terrible. I will say we both really miss our Feng Tong in Keene! Twice in 9 months we have tried Chinese food on the road and both times it has been spectacularly disappointing. I’ve tried to master some Asian recipes at home, but really nothing can take the place of super good Chinese Food. Ah well…can’t have everything. We did take a little drive into town to check out the 60th anniversary sale at the local Big 5 Sporting Goods store. They are pretty common in the small towns out west we have been in, but I didn’t expect much. Turns out the sale was great and we ended up buying two Outdoor Ripcord 2L hydration packs for $25 each!! Much cheaper than Amazon and a backpack is something I wanted to try on in person to check comfort level. We knew if we were going to be taking hikes we absolutely needed these, to solve the water carrying problem if nothing else, and the price was right and timing was perfect for our planned hike on Sunday.

Sunday dawned and finally we were getting to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park, the number one thing we wanted to do in this area while we’re here. We were told it was like a “mini Yellowstone” without the crowds and since we had never seen anything like that before we were very excited to go. Since it is at high elevation and is closed when it starts to snow, we knew sooner was better than later. We came in from the northern route and the first place we stopped was the little museum. Actually, Lassen Volcanic National Park has a very cool story on how it got started. On May 22, 1915 a large explosive eruption of Lassen Peak was photographed by a local resident which brought national attention to the eruption and set the stage for the establishment of Lassen Volcanic National Park on August 9, 1916. It’s pretty amazing that the event was captured because this was still the days of the old-fashioned cameras with metal plates. The pictures, which have been blown up into wall murals, are really terrific considering the era and available technology. The museum also has an example of an old seismograph with explanations of how they differ from the newer ones. We got to see several newer ones as we went through the park and it’s clear that the government is still actively monitoring the volcano. After seeing the museum we started on the drive, which is roughly 30 miles one way through the park. It’s a really nice road and makes the $20 seven-day pass worthwhile. We got in for free with our America the Beautiful pass and am I happy to say that we have now broke even on the pass and still have 10 months worth of use on it!The first place we stopped was called Hot Rock. After the volcano explosion this huge rock was thrown through the air and landed in a meadow. Those of you who have been following know how much I love rocks and this is absolutely the coolest rock I have ever seen. It feels really smooth and is a great design so of course I had to climb up and get some pictures taken.

The road side view of Hot Rock

The back side is even cooler…I could have hung out here for a while

We continued driving and the views were really amazing. After Glacier I have been a bit worried that no other view could impact me the same way, but this was really cool. It’s different of course, but really stunning in places and the mounds of rocks caused by the explosion were really unique.

Beautiful lake in the background between the two trees

One of the neatest views is the Vulcan Eye. This outcropping was actually formed by lava after the explosion and it looks like an eye staring down on you. Very cool and a teensy bit creepy.

After driving awhile we found a great lunch spot at Lake Helen. The water in the lakes looks very green but I walked down to the lake and saw that the rocks are covered in clay and mud. Still pretty though and we enjoyed our sandwiches before moving on to our hike at Bumpass Trailhead.

Lunch site

Great view from the picnic table

There are many hikes in Lassen but after doing some research I picked Bumpass Trail. The hike is 2.6 miles round-trip and leads to Bumpass Hell which is one of the major “hot zones” in the park. The hike was described as moderate (which I agree with), because it is at high elevation and the trail is rocky. The trail does have many sharp rocks and I actually slipped and fell pretty hard when we were getting started because I was looking at a very cool rock…of course! The inclines are mild though, with about an 500 feet change in elevation to the site, and then a 250 foot descent into the site itself, and the only really rough part was coming out when at the beginning it was pretty steep. The best part of the hike, besides the end, was the fact that it was along a cliff and the views along the way were totally breathtaking. I really like when the hike itself has neat stuff to look at and not just the thing at the end.

Lee putting on his new pack

Seismograph monitor at the beginning of the trail

Lots of rock slides along the way

Amazing views

Most of the walk looked like the views above but as we got closer to the end we had a pretty neat encounter with a chipmunk. Now if anyone here doubts that Lee’s spirit animal is the chipmunk, please see the proof below that he is the chipmunk whisperer. There were tons of these little guys everywhere and most were pretty skittish, but this little guy saw Lee and knew just what to do.

Chipmunk catches sight of Lee

Chipmunk walks right up to him

Actually crawls on Lee’s foot sniffing him

Eating the trail mix we pulled out and tossed to him. He particularly liked the almonds

After the chipmunk encounter we started to smell the sulfur. Be forewarned these hot spots do smell, but I think it was completely worth it for the amazing views. I have personally never seen anything like this before and was totally fascinated. We spent quite a bit of time looking at all the different sections and just tried to stay up wind as much as possible. The fascination far outweighed the unpleasant smell in our minds and we really really enjoyed it.

Bumpass Hell named for the explorer who discovered it, was going to turn it into a tourist attraction, and then lost his leg when it fell through the crust into the steaming hot mud

Steam vents

Hot Pools

See the bubbles in the back

Bubbling mud pots

These signs couldn’t be more clear. We stayed on the boardwalk!!

After the hike we finished out the drive and stopped at the Sulfur Works. This is a huge bubbling mud pot that is right off the road with a wheel chair accessible path. This mud pot was huge and Lee had a good time taking some video of the bubbling. I wandered across the street and saw one of my favorite views of the day. It was a really nice park, we had a wonderful day and it definitely helped me reconnect with why we chose this lifestyle. Plus really cool rocks!!

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

September 24, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

A Very Big Step

It was roughly a year ago today when I told my then boss about our decision to become full-time RVers. This was a very difficult conversation to have for several reasons, not the least of which was I was sure that I was going to get fired. I work for a very large company and what I am doing is extremely unusual. Truly, of the thousands of people I work with, I don’t know of one other person who has ever done anything like this. And since it is a very conservative company, and I was in uncharted territory, I assumed the worst. Consequently I did a significant amount of research on what it would take to start my own consulting company. Lee and I had looked at our skill sets and really thought about how we could make money on the road. Consulting was something I have always wanted to try, but with kids and a mortgage it was too big of a risk for me. And for me, a big part of why I was so attracted to the full timing lifestyle was that I thought it would work so well with consulting for a living. I know for many people full timing and minimal working go hand in hand, but that was never my goal. I wanted a lifestyle that would give me more flexibility in my work environment. I never expected it to eliminate the need for our working completely.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when my then boss, Dave, agreed to give it a try. He wanted me to stay in the southeast part of the country, which I felt I could make work at least initially and he also had a small list of requirements that would make him feel comfortable with the arrangement. Since there was so much change going on in my personal life I was very happy to meet those requirements in order to keep the job. If you don’t already know this about me, you should know that left to my own devices I am a not much of a risk taker. I have worked at the same two companies for 23 years and as long as I have had opportunity for growth I’ve been promoted every 2-3 years, have great benefits, and lots of exciting job assignments. I didn’t feel the need to take a big risk and with the responsibility of the kids and the house and life in general I was always mostly content to stay where I was. There was always a part of me though that wanted to stretch my boundaries and see what I could do on my own. I mostly took those feelings and put them into school and for 10 years I worked, raised kids, and educated myself. I completed my bachelors, my master’s, my PMP (project management) certification, and finally my Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification. At the end of the MBA I knew I was done. My skill set was good enough and now was the time to apply it. All of this coincided with the decision to become full-time RVers. I do think it’s important to note here that my professional journey, while somewhat complimentary to my personal journey, would have happened regardless of the decision to full-time. Full timing with its low debt financial position and lack of a mortgage makes it easier to make bolder choices professionally, but I like to think I would have done that regardless of whether I was a full timer or not.

Fast forward to a year later and overall I have been very grateful to have had the opportunity to stay with my company. It gave me some consistency in a year of major change and kept a more than adequate stream of revenue coming in. The situation was not without its stresses though. It has taken awhile to work through how to do my job on the road. Business travel, using home space for work space, the need for constant cell/internet communication, and RV travel days have all been major issues we have had to work through. With Lee’s help, we have addressed every issue head on, and I feel very confident at this point I could do this job indefinitely while being a full-time RVer. Plus my new boss Charlie has been absolutely amazing about it. His stance, since we first talked about it, has been “as long as you are near a phone and an airport why do I care where you live?”. What a great attitude, and hopefully I have paid him back by providing him with lots of value despite my unusual situation. But unfortunately, I am very aware that his attitude is somewhat unique. Co-workers seem to fall into one of three categories when it comes to what I am doing. They couldn’t care less (as long as they are getting what they need, they are really interested and happy for me), or they seem to have an issue with it simply on principle. I learned pretty early on to downplay the more amazing aspects of the lifestyle. People who are largely unhappy don’t really want to hear about how you saw grizzly bears over the weekend. So unless someone asks, I generally just don’t mention where I am, or what I am doing and even then, depending on the people, I tend to downplay the experience. Enough people have fallen into this last category though it has made me nervous about what would happen if I got a new boss. Because of my role, and changes in the company structure, I have had 5 different bosses in the last 5 years. Just in the last year I have had to have the full timing conversation with two different people and both times it was very stressful. Basically, any time you do something unusual in a large company it increases your risk position. Since I tend to be risk averse by nature, that’s not a comfortable position for me to be in.

Wow, I am really taking the long way around here, but I think it is important to fill in the background for others who might find themselves facing a similar situation. Plus, it is therapeutic to write about it. Overall, things have going well with the job. I am grateful as I said for the stability and certainly for the paycheck, but the last couple of months have been a little more difficult for me. A couple of things happened that started to change my outlook some. First we spent a month with Howard and Linda of RV-Dreams and I got to see first hand what it looks like to both live the full-time lifestyle and make a living on your own terms. While we were there I had a couple of bad days in particular and Howard and Linda spent quite a bit of time talking to me about my situation. Linda summed it up beautifully by saying I had a foot in both worlds and was struggling with that. Then we went to Glacier and I experienced both the high of what this life could be and the low of struggling with limited cell coverage. I have never felt the limitations caused by the need for cell phone, internet, and airport so keenly as when I was in Glacier and it was not lost on me that the only way I even made that work at all was by taking a week of vacation time. For the first time in years I was completely disconnected from work and I found that very freeing.

And then something very interesting happened.

When I got back from vacation and was slogging through a ton of emails, I saw one that said I was eligible for a voluntary separation program.

The email was close to a week old and stated that the company was offering an enhanced separation package to people who qualified. As an interesting side note, last year they also offered a similar separation package but I was 30 days shy of the years of service needed to qualify. Yes, just 30 days. At the time I was pretty mad at the world for not qualifying, but now in retrospect I believe that was absolutely God looking out for me. I really don’t know how I would have done with so much change at once, but I am absolutely certain our life would look very different now and many of the best experiences we have had this year simply would not have been possible with that much immediate financial pressure. This time, however, the timing was almost too perfect and this is where my faith in God comes into play. Yes I am risk averse, and yes I am not a huge fan of change, but when God lays out a path for you that is that clear, well in my opinion you are an idiot if you don’t follow the path. So, I applied for the Voluntary Separation and after a nerve-wracking 10 days received the call that it had been accepted. Contractually I can’t talk about the specifics of the deal, but it does allow me to pay off our remaining debt (except for the RV) and gives me full salary and health care at current prices for quite some time. Basically, it puts us in the exact position we originally thought we would be in after selling the house, and allows us to really see if this lifestyle is financially sustainable for us. I have been very honest about our budget and expenses in this year, and in the back of my mind I have wondered whether or not we could make this work without my real world regular salary. Now we will get the opportunity to find out, plus we will truly get to experience what full timing is like without the compromises required by my job. Is it a big step? For me, yes, and here’s a list of questions and their answers that have been rattling around in my head.

Can we do it? I have no idea, but smarter people than me believe we can.
How will we fund it? Hopefully through multiple revenue streams including RV Tech, videography, work kamping, and consulting.
What about health insurance? I get health insurance at current rates for several weeks and then will look at COBRA versus Affordable Health Care. Not crazy about what that will do to the budget but we are going to need to figure that out, like so many other people. Thankfully, we have been very healthy and I have been contributing money to a HSA account for several years and I have over $10K in that fund, which I get to take with me. That will hopefully cover any expenses for a few years. Of course something catastrophic could happen at anytime, but in that scenario I will be glad we took the time we had and really lived life and saw things. The monthly cost of insurance is a real concern though.
What will our lives look like? At this point I have learned enough about this lifestyle to know that I have no clue. I do have zero expectation that it won’t involve compromise. The difference is we hopefully get some say in what compromises we will and will not make rather than someone else deciding for us.
What if it all goes horribly wrong? First I have faith that God wouldn’t lead me down this path just to pull the rug out from under me, but to answer the question, worst case scenario we can always stay for a while and find traditional jobs.
Am I excited? Not really. Just being honest here. Mainly I am dealing with feelings of fear and loss. I know that’s kind of sad, but I am not a throw caution to the winds kind of person. Hopefully as I work through the more negative emotions, the more positive emotions can take their place.
What am I afraid of? The simplest but most powerful fear is of being poor. I grew up poor, and know firsthand what that is like. I also understand poor isn’t about how much money you have but more about the quality of your life. I knew a farmer who lived on $10K a year and she was by no means poor. I also understand that this is a deeply rooted fear which is at the heart of my reluctance to take financial risks. It’s time for me to face that head on and conquer it once and for all. The second fear is much more complicated. I wrote about changing the way I define myself in a blog post several weeks ago. Giving up my job is really going to bring that to a head as what I do for a living has always been a major piece of how I define myself. During this transition some serious self-examination is definitely called for, but to be honest I am not looking forward to it. I think most people go through this experience the first time they lose a job or a company they have built, but I have never been in that position. I have never been fired or downsized and this is the first time in my life I have left a job without having another one to go to. Weird right? So this is long overdue, but ultimately people who come out the other side always say they are better off for the experience.

My main goal at this point is to give myself time to work through all of this and keep as much of it off of Lee as possible. Small space, lots of emotion, not a great combination. He has been very supportive, especially since he just went through this himself almost a year ago, but ultimately it’s my journey and I need to take responsibility for it. And take a lot of deep breaths. That always helps.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

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

September 20, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Week in Susanville

Our first week in Susanville was a bit of a mixed bag. The spot was great and we got to do some cool things, but both Lee and I got a stomach virus on Saturday which lingered into late Thursday. It’s been so long since we’ve been sick we weren’t very prepared for it, but we muddled through and managed to end the week on a high note. On Saturday, Jo and Ben, fellow Class of 2014 Dreamers, came to see us with their beautiful husky Peyton. Jo and Ben are traveling nurses and took their very first contract job in Maine back when we were still trying to sell our house. Then we got to see them again when we were both in Florida last winter. It’s been 6 months though since we’ve been together and it was very nice that they made the trip from Reno to say hi. A lot can happen in 6 months of this lifestyle, so we had things to talk about and it was good to get reconnected. I was a little ambitious on the menu though, making three new menu items, and spent more time cooking than visiting which was kind of a bummer. It was very nice seeing them though, but Lee and I both got more tired as the day went on. After they left it was clear something was going on physically with both Lee and I. I know you don’t need the details, but there are times when the small space and one bathroom can be a little difficult.

Despite not feeling well we still needed to get acquainted with the town and complete some grocery shopping. Plus we made a firm commitment to ourselves that for the next several months we would commit to a new approach to the food budget. After discussion we decided we would work on four major areas and hopefully would not only eat better, but would spend less money.

Have food for travel days to ensure eating out is not necessary
- There is a big difference between choosing to eat out on travel days and having to because you don’t have anything that can be made easily. We have several meals that can be pre-made and are easily heated up so we have hot, filling food for travel day lunches and dinners. The only challenging part is that you must plan ahead. Some of our travel day meals that we prepare and freeze in advance are sloppy Joe’s, hamburgers, spaghetti, chili, leftover fried chicken, and pulled pork. None of them are fancy, but they are definitely hot and filling, which is a good thing.
Create a weekly menu plan that includes enough meals and leftovers for most of the week.
- Eating full meals is actually more expensive than eating “catch as catch can” throughout the week, BUT eating full meals with leftovers, if planned carefully, can actually be less expensive and certainly eliminates waste.
Minimize food waste
- First and foremost use what you have, especially any item that can expire. Take notice of what you are throwing away and start meal planning accordingly. For example: hamburger buns come in a pack of 8 and it’s difficult for two of us to eat 8 buns in a week. So if I am going to buy buns I try to plan at least two meals that require them. Better chance I can use them before they go bad. It does lead to some restrictions on what we can eat and when, but since food waste makes Lee nuts, and the money waste makes me crazy, it is something we are willing to do.
Create a shopping list that directly relates to the weekly menu plan.
- Since we are trying to incorporate more fresh foods into our diet along with doing some bargain shopping, sometimes the ingredients come before the menu plan. We discovered a Grocery Outlet Bargain Market here in Susanville and went to check it out prior to making our weekly meal plan. They also have a fantastic farmer’s market here on Saturdays so again we bought fresh food first and then filled in the rest with items from the standard grocery store.

Just to be clear, we do buy name some brand items, and at this point I am unwilling to stop trying new recipes which often require more expensive ingredients. We are just being more purposeful with our purchasing decisions and meal planning. We are better organized, better fed, and hopefully will save on our budget. Either way since food is one of the highest variable costs we have it is important to us that we have a game plan on how we are dealing with it.

The items they have are extremely well priced and the people who run the place were very nice

Great farmer’s market for such a small town

We grow what we sell is what you want to see

So, shopping and menu planning was the primary focus of the early week along with Lee organizing the Day Camp and me getting caught up on work. The illness just kept getting worse though until Wednesday when I actually took a sick day and slept about 10 hours. I can’t remember the last time I took a sick day, but I felt majorly yucky. Thankfully that seemed to mostly kick it for me, and Thursday afternoon, I decided I just needed to get out and explore a bit. We decided to go and visit the Litchfield Wild Horse and Burro Corral . The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for the Wild Horses and Burros that are on federal land. Since the horses have few natural predators, they monitor the population levels and occasionally round-up the horses when they surpass the estimated 22,000 that the land can handle. Those they bring in are treated for illness and malnutrition, gelded, and eventually put up for adoption. According to the locals it is a controversial program, because many people feel the horses should just be left alone. I was curious so Lee and I drove over to Litchfield to check it out. I didn’t have many expectations , but was really impressed by what I saw. The horses are divided into large roomy pens by sex, and in the case of males, age. They were very well cared for and many of the animals were beautiful. They were obviously wild though as few approached us and only once got close enough for a pat on the nose. The employee at the office was happy to let us wander and see and then afterwards she spent some time answering out questions. After seeing it for myself I am sold on the program. These horses are adopted out for around $125 and they live on a trial basis with the family for 1 year prior to the adoption becoming permanent and the ownership papers being transferred. In those cases where the horses cannot be adopted and over crowding becomes an issue, they are released back into the wilderness area from which they are taken. Speaking of which, BLM never takes all the horses in an area, they just reduce the populations. According to Program Assistant Viddel, “It is not our intention to eliminate the wild horses. Simply to control the population.” I liked her, I liked the setup, and the horses were absolutely beautiful. Well worth a visit if you happen to be near one of the facilities in the west.

BLM Horse Corral Office

Burros

Lee walking down the center between the corrals

Look at the muscles on this horse. Amazing

Map showing all the areas where wild horse live. Marked in black

The mares and babies were in a separate pen…the babies were more curious but the moms were having none of it. Makes sense since they are the most vulnerable in a wilderness situation

The visit was very interesting and totally free. If you would be interested in adopting one of these horses please keep in mind you need to arrange transport and they require a rest period after every 24 hours of travel. They also obviously need to be gentled, but wow, what beautiful animals.

Friday was a busy work day for both of us so we really focused on work throughout the day. Lee spent the week looking at all of Howard’s RV-Dreams, pictures so he can use some of them in the videos he is creating. Since Howard takes more pictures than I do and has been collecting them for 10 years this is a bit of a monumental task, but important for the creative process. He made it through 2011 this week, so hopefully by the end of next week, he will have copied all the ones he needs. Subsequently we didn’t get to do our walk through until around 5:30pm and we saw that a huge tree had fallen and blocked the bike path. This was weird. I mean what are the odds since it obviously wasn’t tampered with in any way. The situation was complicated by the fact that Stan was out of the office with minor surgery and it was after hours for the maintenance man. Lee did call Stan because we were concerned it would be dangerous, but the chainsaw on site he pointed us to didn’t work. Finally Lee got creative, love that about him, and used a hand saw to partially cut the limb and then an axe and a rock to get it all the way. The path was cleared and we both felt quite a bit better about the safety aspect, plus it’s nice to provide a valuable service since this is such a great site.

We were concerned because someone riding a bike fast around that corner could have an accident

The limbs are bigger than they look and heavy wood. I couldn’t lift one. Lee could but there was nowhere to push it to

Lee split the wood with a rock and an axe

Then he trimmed up the edges

All clear and safe again 🙂

Saturday was the day we had been looking forward to. Our youngest daughter Kay has been in the Air Force for just over a year and we have not seen her since last October when we went to San Antonio to see her at her basic training graduation. She and her boyfriend, Jake, met us in Sacramento, which is roughly the half way point between Monterey, where they are stationed, and Susanville. I would love to say we saw Sacramento, but we mainly just hung out with Kay and Jake, catching up with her and getting to know him. The only things we really did all day were eating lunch at Chipotle and buying some LUSH face scrub at a nearby mall. On a side note, I have never been able to use any face scrub or moisturizer in my life until I discovered Lush in Las Vegas. All products are all natural and hand-made, they even put a sticker with the bio of the person who prepared it, and my skin, which always breaks out, loves it. I mention this because if you are going to hang out in more arid regions face cream is a must, and I HIGHLY recommend trying Angels on Bare Skin for the scrub and Celestial for the moisturizer. Lush stores are only in upscale malls, but worth a trip as they will try numerous products on you for free, which is how I was convinced this stuff would work in the first place. And yes, it’s expensive, but the product lasts me around 5 months and I can’t even express how well it works. Anyway, I digress. Lee, Kay, Jake, and I mostly hung out in the mall food court and talked. I would have loved to go outside somewhere but it was HOT. It hit 99 degrees that day, which we were not prepared for having come from the high 70’s in Susanville, and air conditioning was a bit of a must. It was really nice seeing her and nice seeing him, plus the drive each way was absolutely beautiful as we went to Sacramento through the Plumas National Forest and drove back through the Sierra Nevadas. Lots of driving, but so worth it to see my girl.

We stopped to see the other end of the Biz Johnson Trail in Westwood

Love Paul Bunyon and Babe the Big Blue Ox . This wasn't to bad of a statue

Love Paul Bunyan and Babe the Big Blue Ox . This wasn’t to bad of a statue

Huge boulders in Plumas NAtional Forest

Plumas NAtional Forewt had Feather River winding through it

Plumas National Forest had Feather River winding through it

The valley leading into Sacramento

Jake and Kay walking to meet us

Loves her daddy

And he loves her back

They are pretty cute together

This was her are you going to keep taking pictures face 🙂

Lessons Learned

To reduce grocery costs try the following:

Have food for travel days to ensure eating out is not necessary
Create a weekly menu plan that includes enough meals and leftovers for most of the week.
Minimize food waste
Create a shopping list that directly relates to the weekly menu plan.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

September 18, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Work Kamping

One of the things Lee and I were the most curious about when we started full-timing was the concept of work kamping. Essentially, work kamping is when you trade your time and labor for a free campsite. There are many different variations of work kamping, but a common theme is it is a way for many full timers to reduce their campground costs. Since most full timers in years past were retired people, many work kamper jobs are geared towards folks who are retired and want to stretch their retirement dollars a little farther. But with the influx of younger full timers, there has been some change in work kamping and many positions now require more strenuous physical labor and/or more money per hour for work performed. However, with so much variation and so many employers it was tough to really get a handle on what work kamping would look like for us. This coupled with the fact that many of the assignments are long-term (4-6 months is common), although Lee and I were anxious to try a work kamping assignment we were cautious about what we applied for. There are many websites that have work kamping opportunities and the most popular is Work Kamper News, which not only has job opportunities listed but also helps you build an online resume and allows work kampers to review the employers in a confidential environment. Since we wanted to research what jobs were available, we purchased an annual membership. I highly recommend this if you are researching the full-time lifestyle because for a minimal cost of $27 a year you can see all of their job listings. We now have the $47 Silver membership which includes the full listings, daily hotline emails for immediate opportunities, and the online resume builder which makes your resume available to employers on the website.

We have been watching the hot line emails for several months now and have even been contacted by a couple of employers. Unfortunately none of the opportunities fit our existing itinerary. Many people who have been doing this a while follow a route and know what areas of the country they will be in during certain time frames. For those of us who are newer, there are so many things to see we tend to cover more territory and move faster. Although I think we have done a nice job of not rushing all over the country and burning ourselves out (a common newbie problem), we also haven’t been really interested in staying in any one place more than a couple of months at a time. Since most positions are longer than that, for us, work kamping hasn’t really been a good option. I say that knowing full well that we have this luxury since we have income coming in and others may need to commit to a work kamping job right away. If possible though I wouldn’t recommend it right out of the gate, since it is stressful enough settling into the lifestyle and I am not sure I would want to commit to a work situation immediately. There always are exceptions of course. Our fellow Class of 2014 graduates Linda and Scott Malchak found a work kamping job in Texas helping create a new campground and they have been there over a year and absolutely love it. She has some great info about the experience on her blog Conservative RV and I really recommend you check it out to get their perspective.

There really is no one true way when it comes to the when, where, and how of work kamping, but I do intend to share my experiences in this area because I do believe they will be a big part of our lives going forward. Please keep a couple of things in mind. This is our experience and depending on your personality and the employer they absolutely will vary. Also, I do not intend to bad mouth any employer in this forum. If something particularly egregious happened I would probably share that, but in general I am a professional person, these are jobs, and I don’t believe any kind of social media is the place for that. Within that context though I will tell my experience as accurately as possible. It will be a balancing act, but I believe I can honestly relay our experience and still remain professional. Also, it’s worth noting that I only say this now because it’s our first job. Our experience so far here in Susanville has been great, just trying to set the stage for future experiences that may not be as good. Anyway, on with the story.

A couple of months ago we had seen a position on the hotline to volunteer as camp hosts on BLM land and not only was the timing right but the location in northern California was perfect. The commitment was only 2 months and after Lee spoke to Stan about the position we thought it would be perfect. It is a volunteer position, which means there is no hourly pay for work performed, but we would get a free full hookup site. Lee really liked the fact that it’s not actually a campground, but a day use location, that opens in the morning and closes in the evening, and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management or BLM. Stan has worked for BLM for over 24 years and is very enthusiastic about what he does. He seemed like a great guy and the work for site tradeoff seemed very fair. Essentially Lee would open the gate at 8am every day, check/clean the restrooms once a day, and walk one mile of the bike trail picking up litter, then shut the gate at sunset. A couple of hours worth of work 5 days a week and we get to stay in a beautiful setting without other campers, for free. One of the good things about waiting until the last-minute to pick up a job is many of the shorter term positions become available. People leave a position or have an emergency and need to be replaced. The negative of course is the additional stress waiting until the last-minute may bring. We decided to wait until the last-minute, although this really isn’t my normal preference, because we were adamant that we did not want to sign up for a 4+ month job right out of the gate as our first experience. Baby steps. Turns out we found something within a couple of weeks on Work Kamper and then found a second volunteer position in the California Redwoods for December by looking at the State of California website. Another good resource for volunteer positions in particular are the Department of Natural Resource websites for each state you are interested in. Although many of their positions may already be filled, and it requires many more emails and phone calls to nail something down, if you are looking for something in a particular area and love state/federal parks this may be something you want to try out. Lee invested several hours with email/phone correspondence before finding and locking down the Redwood job, but hey, it’s the giant ancient redwoods and how cool is that? One more thing I should mention: season really comes into play with these positions. If you are willing to be in an area slightly out of season there is more opportunity. Since we spent 15 years in New Hampshire a little bit of cold weather doesn’t bother us at all, we actually prefer it, and this allows us to be in areas where there are fewer people, hence more positions are available.

But, back to this experience. We arrived in Susanville on Thursday in the late afternoon after a tiring day of driving. The last five miles into town were an 8% down grade. We were looking forward to getting set up in our new site. What we weren’t counting on was the immediate need for orientation and paperwork. Stan had asked us to contact him when we were close and we drove over to the BLM office. Susanville is a very small town (pop 7000) and the BLM office is on the small side. We didn’t think we could fit the rig in the parking lot so drove around to a parking lot nearby and then gave Stan a call. He had us come into the office and gave us an orientation. It was a really good one. Stan introduced us to people, gave detailed explanations on how things would work, where to get our mail, etc, and introduced us to a ton of people. He also told us all about what the Bureau of Land Management does, showed us maps of the area, and gave us some of the history. He’s a very nice guy who is very passionate about the area, we just weren’t expecting all that information coming off several days on the road so we felt a bit overwhelmed by it all. After filling out the paperwork, he led us to our site and as soon as we pulled the truck in proceeded to give us another two-hour orientation on the site itself. He explained the job duties and told us where all the supplies were plus we walked some of the trail so he could show us the other set of restrooms, trash cans, etc. We asked a lot of questions and he assured us that he was available either by phone or in person for any follow-up issues we had and then he left so we could finish setting up. By this time it was getting kind of late and we were bushed, but thankfully we have our basic setup down to a science at this point and I had some easy travel day food that was ready to prepare. It was all worth it though when we had a moment to look at our new home.

This is the “off side” of our camper, which faces the road that comes into the day use site at Hobo Camp, Susanville, CA

The site is very nice. It sits at the top of a canyon, and is well removed from the upper parking area, and several hundred yards from the main day use area, although we can look down on the picnic area, restrooms and parking lot. We have a nice new power pedestal, which includes two 50amp, a 30 amp and a 20 amp hookup. There’s a sewer hookup, and city water. Plenty of space for our car, a nice heavy picnic table, and a fire ring. Plus, there’s quite a bit of seasoned firewood cut and split and stacked, for our use. In the day use area there are several picnic tables and outdoor grills down the hill along with two pit toilets. The main bathrooms and area was very clean when we arrived although the trail itself and second set of bathrooms needed a bit more work. Overall, it just took Lee a few days to get everything ship-shape and organized and so far maintenance from that point on has been pretty easy. We’ve also been visited by several BLM employees who are just checking in to make sure we are doing fine. They had a bit of a problem with the last working couple and want to make sure everything is going well with us. The last folks were a little overzealous with holding people to the rules, including locking someone in the park and refusing to open the gate to let them out, which is one of the reasons why they are no longer here. We just keep reassuring the BLM employees that we can keep an eye on things without going overboard. Once the initial flurry of visits was done, things have been blissfully quiet. The folks who use the park are very nice and have caused no issues at all so far. Having the place all to ourselves every evening is absolutely wonderful. There are a group of college kids who are volunteering as part of a college program starting next week and will be living on site in tents, but for right now it is just us and we are really enjoying the solitude.

View from our camper down the hill

Here’s our camper from the bottom of the hill

Picnic area

Picnic Area

Very nice clean restrooms. Lee says they are barely used

Cliffs across from the creek whete people like to rappel and climb

Cliffs across from the creek where people like to rappel and climb

In addition to the picnic area, the park has the Susan river running through it that some kids swim in, and part of a very nice rails-to-trails bike trail called The Bizz Johnson Trail that goes for over 20 miles. We are only responsible for the trail a quarter-mile in one direction and a half mile in the other, and the walk to look for litter is good exercise. In October there will be some excitement on the trail as it is used as a qualifier for the Boston Marathon. Generally though, aside from the occasional visit by local cross-country teams, the trail is used by people walking their dogs. Out here in the west, dog walking and dog poop is handled differently than back east. The local ordinance says dogs need to “be under control” and voice control counts. Also, people don’t really pick up their dog poop. The first time we walked the trail I was a bit horrified by all the poop on the sides of the trail, but after talking to the BLM maintenance guy about it realized that’s just the local culture. At this point I just shrugged and let it go and I think that is a VERY important point to Work Kamping success. I don’t live here, I am visiting and there is no point in trying to impose my cultural values on other people. It just annoys folks and frankly what right do I have? As long as I am not responsible for cleaning up the mess (which we are not) then let the dog’s poop wherever they want. My job is to maintain the rules and regulations as they exist and in a reasonable way. Period. For example, medical marijuana is legal in California and occasionally people smoke pot in the day area. We talked to the BLM employees about it and they simply ask folks to move farther along the trail and keep it out of the family picnic area. I can see how someone could get a little crazy on this issue, checking cards etc, but really life is too short. If someone complained or I saw an issue I might politely ask them to move down the road, then again I might not. We have the number of Darren the local BLM law enforcement officer and would be more likely to call him or the police if we saw something suspicious.

But that’s all speculative as nothing weird has happened at all. Just people coming in, walking their dogs, and leaving. The most excitement we have had is several new bird sightings, including a covey of California quail (say that three times fast) and watching a family of deer that likes to hang out near our site. We did ask about local wildlife and were told mountain lions are at the top of the food chain here, but there hasn’t been a confirmed sighting in 12 years. When I asked Stan what to do just in case, he said make yourself as large as possible and then said some people take their shirts off and wave them to make themselves even bigger. He said this with all seriousness and I had to bite my lip to not crack up. If I see a mountain lion I do not think I would start stripping under any circumstances, but I did really appreciate the pointer!!

Steller’s Jay

Western Bluebird

Covey of California Quail

Super cute baby likes to hang out near our wood pile

Overall it’s been a terrific start to our first Work Kamping job. We really love the site, the people are very nice, and we are appreciating the solitude. Will keep you updated as things happen, but I totally get why people do this now.

————————————————————————————————————————————–

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

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

September 15, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

August Budget 2015

This was supposed to be the first month of truly reduced expenses. Ah, the best laid plans. I am trying hard to be philosophical about it, but it’s tough as every month it seems we have one large expenditure that blows the budget. So we can look at this one of two ways. Either these first year expenses are one time variances and will not be repeated in year 2, or there will always be something in the $500 range every month and the budget needs to be adjusted accordingly. When it comes to the emotional aspects of this lifestyle I am very loose, but when it comes to money the practical side of my brain kicks in and it is all about the cold hard facts. So I will keep reporting the data and you draw your own conclusions, as I will draw mine.

In August we spent $4700 which was $850 over our budget. More than half of this overage was caused by an emergency purchase of a cell phone booster and associated costs. We were in a campground with no cell service and due to work needed to solve that problem immediately. The other major portion was RV Relocation Fuel which went $289 over our monthly budget. The second number doesn’t bother me so much because we understood these costs would vary from month to month and the yearly number is way more important from a budget perspective. Eight months into the year we have used roughly half of our relocation fuel (money used to travel from place to place rather than money used to travel locally once we get their), so I think we are in pretty good shape in this category overall. You would hope that underages in other categories would smooth that out in the overall budget but sadly that was not the case. For a detailed explanation by category, please see below.

Campground Fees – Did as expected in this category. Half of the month was free because it was covered as part of Lee’s working and the rest was spent on campgrounds in and near Glacier. Since we stayed right in Glacier park for a week I think the cost was more than fair. And the state campgrounds were much less expensive than the local private parks.

Groceries – Honestly not sure what happened here other than most of the month was spent with people, which always costs a little more, and more importantly in areas where there was no Wal-Mart. Shopping exclusively at small, local grocery stores does add up and although we had stocked up prior to heading to northern Minnesota, we still had to buy meat and fresh vegetables locally. I really do miss a large freezer for situations like these, but although we have looked at some alternative there at this point it seems more trouble than it would be worth. With just the two of us for the next few months these costs will hopefully realign, and we have made a commitment in September to eliminate as much food waste as possible.

Dining Out – I think we did really good in this category with an overage of $68 considering we were with people for two months. That was largely attributed to one expensive fish dinner with Howard and Linda, which normally we wouldn’t do but I really wanted to try the local fish in Minnesota and there wasn’t really a cheaper alternative.

Entertainment – Again not so bad especially considering we were in Glacier for two weeks. Steve and I spent a lot of time in gift shops, and although the T-Shirts cost me an overage of $50 in the clothing category overall not so bad for a once in a lifetime experience.

Cell Phone – Overage of $30 for August. We will be seeing a $52 overage in this category every month until the end of the year when I adjust the budget, because for work I simply had to break down and get a Verizon phone. We got the cheapest phone and the lowest plan available, but unfortunately cell/data has now jumped to over $400. Since this is also our television solution, it’s not that far off from what most people are paying, but in August we looked at all our options and have decided to stick with this solution for now. Mainly because we use a ton of data and we are grandfathered in on a double data plan with AT&T. Going 100% to Verizon at this point would result in a significant loss of GB per month at roughly the same price.

Gifts – $80 overage in gifts again this month because I sent a friend some flowers for a surgery she was having. Honestly I just don’t know what to do about this category. I feel like we either need to completely be hard-core and eliminate all but the basics or just own it and adjust the budget accordingly. I will decide at the end of the year.

Propane – This was over by $54 because we were camping with no services in Glacier and it was cold. Initially we tried to watch the propane usage, but I finally drew the line at having no power and being cold. This did put us $53 over for the year and more costs will be coming in obviously, but at Lee’s work kamping job he gets a $100 a month propane “gift” which may actually allow us to stay on track in this category. I guess it’s worth mentioning that no services does cost something even with solar and additional propane costs are part of that. Because the campground fees in Glacier were $23 in addition to the higher propane use, it really wasn’t a good deal financially, but hey Glacier…what are you going to do?

Misc – This was travel cash. We haven’t done a great job of capturing all the cash we have spent although we have worked hard to keep it at a minimum and I have certainly tried. Mostly we need cash for farmer’s markets and firewood when we are stationary, which I have been pretty faithful about adding to the budget, but travel days do use cash, so I captured how much we took out this time and even though we didn’t spend it all in this month I am going to take the hit when we take it out of the ATM.

So that’s where we are. We have another set of travel days in September, but then three months without campground fees while we work kamp at two different locations in California (and hopefully no more one time expenses) so maybe finally we can hit a new low in the budget. My overall feeling about the spending is simultaneously feeling I should give us a break in Year 1 and frustration because I wish we were doing better. Can it be done better? Absolutely. Can we do it better? That is yet to be determined. Since I am currently still working full-time, it really is a non-issue as I am making enough money to cover all these costs. If/when that situation changes these numbers become much more serious. We have tried to live as if we didn’t have the money coming in, but of course that’s tough because we have the safety net. I mention this because it’s important to note that we are living within our means. Our income right now is much higher than the average full-timer, so it’s not necessarily representative of the average experience, if there is such a thing. In any event, we will see how it unfolds. Stay tuned.

————————————————————————————————————————————–

September 13, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Hearing Coyotes

We left Glacier on Monday and started to head farther west, to Susanville, California. I was excited about hitting California at last since that put us one step closer to seeing our daughter Kasey and the prospect of getting to be in one place for two solid months, and on full hookups no less, was great. It turned out to be a very emotional day though. I’m not so great with goodbyes and even though we knew we would be seeing Deb and Steve again soon, it was sad for me. And it wasn’t just leaving them. It was leaving the place. Glacier had a tremendous impact on me. It was the kind of place I had only dreamed about when starting this lifestyle, and to leave it for the unknown was tough. So I wasn’t in the best frame of mind when we pulled out, and then I decided that I really needed to drive.

Lee has being doing most of the driving since I have been working in the car and he’s terrific at it, but I want to do my fair share as much as possible. Plus, I need to keep practicing in order to be as self-sufficient as possible. That may be an odd choice of words since we are absolutely a couple when it comes to this lifestyle, but we have never in our life maintained traditional roles and it’s tough for me that this has been so different. Let me take a step back and explain. Throughout our marriage we have often switched roles. I was the primary care giver and Lee worked the travel job when the kids were very small and then we switched later in life and I was the primary wage earner and Lee had a job with flexibility that gave him the time to handle most of the kid things. Lee’s always been a better cleaner than me, he’s always handled the laundry, and I have dealt with insurance, 401K, taxes, etc. At various times in our marriage we have both handled the checking account and budgets and for the first time ever when starting this life we both are doing that together. When you have three kids and two full-time jobs you do a lot of divide and conquer, and consequently we aren’t very good at doing things together despite 25 years of marriage. Now we are trying to do things together and it has caused some conflict along the way. Mainly because Lee seems capable of handling almost any of the aspects of the full-timing lifestyle and I, who consider myself pretty competent person, often find myself floundering. Plus, to be completely honest there is a whole lot of “I don’t want to” going on in my head around dealing with dumping tanks, mechanical issues, and the driving. This “I don’t want to” attitude is amplified by the fact that many people in this lifestyle fall into traditional roles, where the guy handles the outside and the girl handles the inside. Don’t get me wrong, there are advantages. You physically stay out of each others way during the tear down and setup process and it’s certainly more efficient from a time standpoint, at least initially. But it falls into that whole old divide and conquer mentality that we are trying to get away from. And most importantly, I don’t ever want to be in a situation where I am stuck. If something, God forbid, happens to Lee, I need to be able to function. I suppose I could call Greg, Bill, or Steve and say “Hey, can you fly to where I am and drive me to somewhere with full hookups until I figure this all out?,” But seriously, I am a smart, capable woman and no matter how intimidated I am, I never want to be in that situation.

Sorry, went kind of afield on this one. Anyway, driving is a part of that and although I am very comfortable with driving on flat roads, I haven’t done much on hills. So we were coming down out of Glacier and I kept thinking “on the first break we will switch and I will drive”. Well let me say the road was scary. It’s twisty with some steep grades and I started to get more and more nervous. All of this is happening in my head, I am not talking at all to Lee and then at the first break I just started crying. Needless to say he is pretty caught off guard and we talked about it. He didn’t think it was a great idea for me to practice driving on these particular hills either, but I absolutely hated the idea of not trying simply because I was scared. I won’t bore you with the whole conversation but suffice it to say he was pretty great about it, and he got us through the worst of it and then stopped the truck and had me take over. It still wasn’t easy, but less terrifying, and Lee sat and very calmly talked me through it. As a side note this is a huge advantage of only having one vehicle. I drove for about 1-1/2 hours, and largely did OK as he taught me how to allow the engine to do most of the braking for me. I’m not going to say I ever felt comfortable, but I certainly was no longer terrified at the end, and I feel somewhat confident that I could drive my way out of a hilly terrain situation. Anything more extreme, I need more practice for, but it’s a start.

The foothills and lake I drove around. Very windy road in and out of several small towns. I would love to say I enjoyed the view, but I was way too focused on what I was doing.

Lee has planned our trip to Susanville in 5-6 hour driving blocks (which always seems to come closer to 7 hours with the stops) and our first night we stopped at Thompson Falls State Park. The campground was recommended by Deb and Steve, and I only say that because it is interesting how different experiences can vary. The park was practically empty and since it was raining most of the time we were there we didn’t really get to see anything. It is a small park and along the river, but I found it to be somewhat depressing. There was a train track pretty close by, and the campground had no services of any kind. Plus it was kind of pricey at $28 and for me had a gentle air of neglect. I freely admit my experience was tinged by my overall state of mind, but I wouldn’t stay there again. To be fair though, Deb and Steve spent several days there and really liked it.

Pretty view of the river at Thompson Falls. The campground itself though was not my favorite.

The next day I was happy to leave, and we started out, soon hitting Idaho. I have been to Boise and really liked it and Idaho is definitely on my list of places to spend some time, but driving through the panhandle of Idaho is very hairy. There were several steep hills and one in particular that had a 6% grade and a 25 mph speed limit since it was so twisty turning. Even Lee was sweating it a little and I thought no way would I drive that particular stretch of road again. There are tons of campgrounds along the Snake river though and we saw lots of RV’s despite it being slightly out of season. We think it must be a great place to fish plus there are gold mines still in operation in the hills. It was interesting, mainly because we were roughly following the same trail Lewis and Clark took, but nothing I saw along the way made me want to stop and stay awhile. It was good when we hit Washington finally, because the roads got much better and the landscape started to broaden out a bit. We stopped at our very first Corps of Engineers park in Plymouth, Washington.

People have been raving about Corps of Engineer parks since we started the lifestyle and we have been eager to stay in one. They are reasonably priced, well laid out (sure engineers designed them), and overall considered the best for a place to stay if you run across one. I hate to say that my first COE experience was a bit disappointing. Yes, the park was easy to get in and out of, but again it had an air of neglect to it. There was a ton of dog poop in the field behind where we were, and although it was along a river you couldn’t actually see it because it was so overgrown by shrubs. There was also no access to the water that I could see so when I walked down to the edge the best I could see was the picture below. I was thrilled to have some services though and we hooked up to water and electric for the first time in weeks. We were also excited to see there was a sewer hook-up at the site, but when Lee inquired about it, turns out many of the sewer hookups are “broken” and our site was one of them. If this would have been a regular campground, I am sure my standards wouldn’t have been so high, but after all the hype it was a bit of a let down. The coolest part of the whole stay was the beautiful sunset we saw and for the first time I heard coyotes howling in the distance. That is an eerie sound and more than anything made me realize we were in the West now.

“View” of the river from Plymouth Park

Sunset, colors not enhanced

The next day the terrain really started to change and it was definitely more arid. I had heard that the eastern part of Washington, Oregon, and California was more arid and that was definitely the case. My experiences with Oregon and California have all been coastal so it was hard to reconcile what I was seeing with my view of those states as lush and green. In parts it was pretty though, but overall not my favorite terrain. I am hoping to like the desert when we get there, but this is not what I consider true desert, but rather arid landscape with lots of dead plants in it. It’s obvious there has been a drought, and I understand why there have been so many fires because all the vegetation was painfully dry. I did enjoy parts of Oregon though, particularly the Bend area. We stayed right outside of Bend in LaPine State Campground. LaPine was really nice. They have over 125 sites in multiple loops, over 80 with full hookups. Nice separation between sites and although it was wooded, it was not terribly overgrown. Several hiking trails, close to Bend which is a cool little town, and by far the nicest place we stayed on this trip. I thought the price was reasonable at $26 a night and although cell service for AT&T and Verizon was on the weak side we were able to get service with our booster. The only negative part of the experience was when we switched sites to a pull through. We checked with the hosts who were fine with it and moved to an available site that was a bit larger. We were just hooked up when a Class A drove up and a woman got out and said we were in her site. Apparently they had reserved the site for two days, missed yesterday’s date, but were here today. She was adamant that we were going to need to move, and frankly I was not in the mood for this. There were 40 other sites open in the place and the sign on the site we took had said it was available. She and I were about to square off over it, when thankfully her husband walked up and said he would look for another site. Full on rudeness is not something I have to deal with much in this lifestyle, but obviously it does happen. And I have zero patience for an entitlement attitude, which was coming off her in waves. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and they moved two spots down to an almost identical spot and we were able to relax for the evening.

The next day we finally hit California. For the first time we had to stop at a mandatory checkpoint for both RV’s and Trucks. We were asked a cursory question about whether we were carrying fresh fruit, the answer was no as we had used the bananas up the other night, and were on our way. This part of California is also extremely arid and I could see the results of them being in such a bad drought. Now I know little about farming or the drought conditions, but I will say we saw numerous farms growing hay in August and they were using a serious amount of water to keep their fields green. Again, I am sure there are two sides to this story, but the contrast between the near desert-like ground that was not being tended and the green fields was a little startling. When we hit the Modoc Forest area though the landscape really changed. We were in rolling hills again and lots of evergreens. It was still incredibly dry though and we we were a little concerned when we saw a helicopter flying overhead carrying a large bucket underneath. We have never been exposed to forest fires like this, and when we saw the road was partially closed got concerned. It would have been extremely difficult to turn around, but luckily the firemen were on the job and they were close to putting out a fire that was right next to the road. There were at least 30 of them and I wanted to stop and thank them for their courageous service but of course we needed to keep driving as they were still working. We all know what a courageous job they have done this summer but seeing them at work, covered with soot was humbling. We all enjoy our park system and the work they have done to keep areas safe and open has been extraordinary.

Thanks to them we safely made it through Modoc Forest and then finally to Susanville. I will cover our arrival in my next post, but we are safe and sound and decompressing from our month of boondocking and traveling. Overall, at this point I would say that although Glacier was the experience of a lifetime, getting there and leaving was on the stressful side. Hopefully we will get better at moving around so much, but at this point I still prefer staying in a place for longer stints of time. We will see how I feel though after having exhausted everything to do in the Susanville area, but for right now I am really glad to be in one place and with full hookups.

Campground Reviews

Thompson Falls State Park Thompson Falls, MT 2 out of 5 pine cones

Very small state campground with 18 sites and no services. Some sites were very large and there was decent separation between sites. There is a train track nearby and a road, and there was some road noise and train noise. Dense tree cover, which is not optimal for solar, and the toilets are pit toilets. $28 a night when we stayed there. They have shelters and some group tent camping areas, but charge premium prices for them. It is on a beautiful river with a boat doc and there was a camp host who politely greeted us when we arrived, but the campground had a feeling of neglect. Close to a small town with some stores, but ATT and Verizon coverage was very weak.

Plymouth Park COE Campground Plymouth Park, WA 3 out of 5 pine cones

Multiple pull through sites with electric and water. Great pads with nice picnic tables and fire pits. There is a day use area with beach and boat launch, but no access to the river near the campground. Close to a small town and near a road with some traffic. Lots of dog poop throughout the grass area and the view of the river is totally obscured by overgrown shrubs and trees. Very strong Verizon and AT&T signal. $24 a night. Two sets of camp hosts on site who were friendly and obviously keeping a good eye on the campground. Fine for an overnight stay, but I wouldn’t choose to spend several days here.

LaPine State Campground 15800 State Rec RD, Bend OR 4 out of 5 pine cones

They have over 125 sites in multiple loops, over 80 with full hookups. Nice separation between sites and although it was wooded, it was not terribly overgrown. Several hiking trails, close to Bend which is a cool little town, and by far the nicest place we stayed on this trip. I thought the price was reasonable at $26 a night and although cell service for AT&T and Verizon was on the weak side we were able to get service with our booster. They would be a 5 but their reservation system is a little goofy and we had a problem with a site being double booked while we were there. I really liked it though and would go back for a longer stay.

————————————————————————————————————————————–

September 9, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Staying on the East Side of Glacier

On Wednesday we took our time moving from Fish Creek to the St. Mary’s campground on the East side of Glacier. It was Deb’s idea to split our vacation week between two different campgrounds in Glacier, and it was a good one. Not only did we get to experience both sides of the park, but the two campgrounds had a totally different look and vibe. St. Mary’s is very open, good for solar, and has an absolutely breathtaking view of the mountains from almost every site.

View from our site. The clouds are obscuring the mountains, but when they cleared…WOW!

Plus, bears. Yes, the campground is full of “service berry” bushes and the bears just love to munch on them. We got a very serious talk on bear safety when we arrived, and throughout our stay there were numerous bear sightings by rangers and fellow campers, throughout the campground. In fact, our original sites that we reserved were in a loop that they closed due to excessive bear activity! We didn’t see the bears initially as they come into the campground at dusk and dawn, but you could hear horns from parts of the campground whenever they were seen. The rangers use negative conditioning; loud noises and if necessary shooting them with a bean bag gun, which doesn’t hurt so much as irritate them, but the bears couldn’t resist the berries and just kept coming back. I have to be honest, I was incredibly unsettled. It’s one thing to be on a hike or wilderness and be “Bear Aware” but to have to worry about it when you step outside your rig is a different story. Our site, Loop C #107 was on bear path central and we saw pretty big piles of bear poop everywhere.

This was two steps away from our stairs. See the berries in it?

Service berry bushes everywhere

This nice big present was next to our rig one morning…unnerving.

Wednesday, we got settled into the area and went to the local grocery store. It was a small one and the prices were absolutely crazy but they did have some outstanding Huckleberry ice cream which sort of made up for it. Steve and I are obsessed with Huckleberries and tried everything we could find that had Huckleberries in it. It turns out because of the fires the crop had been small this year and the prices were $75 a quart so everything huckleberry had a high price (ie: $45 for a whole pie) , but we didn’t care. We were huckleberry crazy. Plus Steve shares my love of a good gift shop and there are many of them on the Eastern Glacier side, so we munched and shopped our way through East Glacier. In our defense, we kind of had to because the weather turned. It rained on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and although we would go out and see things during the lighter rain periods we weren’t up for doing any big hikes. The rain actually caused tons of snow up in the mountains and my pictures changed from rocky tops, to snow-capped mountains as the week went on. Poor Deb, who just wanted to go on hikes, had the worst of it, but it was no picnic for Lee and I either. For the first time we had limited battery power, no internet, and very cold rainy temps. We actually talked about moving on at one point, that is what the lifestyle is about after all, but Lee wanted to wait it out, so we stayed. I am glad we did, because despite the crappy weather we managed to squeeze a few things in and they finally lifted the fire ban so the last two nights we got to have a campfire with Steve and Deb. As a side note, Steve and Deb stayed an extra day and on Monday they finally got to do the hike she wanted to Iceberg Lake. It was 5 miles each way through Grizzly country and they had a wonderful time, but you’ll need to read Deb’s blog to get the details on that!

Anyway, I’m jumping ahead.

Thursday was the best day and we decided to get breakfast first. This really great local diner had huckleberry pancakes for $4.95 and the absolute best bacon I have ever had in my life. That’s saying something since I love my bacon, but it was thick and local Montana bacon and so yummy. Our waitress was also very friendly and we talked to her about Many Glacier versus Two Medicine. When she said Two Medicine was the less visited I got interested. When she said there were some great falls there, I was sold.

The Park Cafe

Huckleberry Pancake

Totally yummy Montana bacon

We headed out straight from breakfast in the hopes of beating the worst of the rain and drove to Two Medicine. Along the way we stopped to take some pictures of the lake and I saw two white crosses down a hill. We walked down a path and saw the crosses with bronze plaques on them stating that members of the Blackfeet tribe had their ashes scattered there. It was a beautiful place and I can see why there families chose it.

I absolutely loved Two Medicine. The drive was great and a short walk down a flat nature trail took us to some of the most unusual falls I have ever seen. Running Eagle Falls was named after a real Native American Woman who was a warrior for the Blackfeet tribe. This is very unusual and because her spirit quest took place on top of the falls they have been named for her. What is unusual about the falls is no water comes from the top. Instead the water comes from underground and out of the falls. We actually met a young man who was there spreading his best friends ashes on the site and he told us he had been up top many times and it is just a rocky field. Really neat experience and I really liked the nature trail itself which had signs showing how the local tribes used various plants and trees for medicinal purpose.

The Story of running eagle

The Running Eagle Nature Trail had several of these

On Friday it rained almost all day and we took the day off. It’s been a lot of running around and I just needed a day to chill. We read a little, watched TV during generator hours, and basically vegged. Unfortunately, Saturday wasn’t much better and our tempers were getting a little frayed. Freezing cold rain has got to be my least favorite weather, I’ll take snow over that any day, and the only thing that salvaged the day was the fact that we finally got to have a fire. We had a tiny break in the rain and started one after dinner which was great, but the night was unfortunately cut short by more rain. We drove over to Many Glacier to check it out and found some really nice falls a short way in. Those pictures turned out fine, but it started to rain harder and despite my umbrella but I was super worried about the camera getting wet. We did stop at the lodge in Many Glacier which has a Swiss Alp theme for some hot drinks and Steve and I enjoyed another really cool gift shop, but the rain cut the day short. The high point of my day was I finally found the perfect Glacier T-Shirt with huckleberries and a snow-covered glacier mountain. As a side note, I have been trying to buy a T-Shirt in every really cool place we have been, with the hopes of eventually making a quilt of my travels. Sue can hopefully teach me how.

Overcast day

More clouds

The Lodge

Deb getting warm by the cool fire pit in the center of the hotel

One bear we saw

More clouds…pretty though.. Lee took this pic

Finally on Sunday things started to clear up. The day dawned bright and we decided to go back to Many Glacier. The skies were clear and we got some beautiful shots plus saw some more bears high on the hill. If you go to Glacier and want to see bears from far away, Many Glacier is the place. Just drive along the road until you see people stopping and looking and have them point out the bears. Both times we went we saw more than one. Nothing as cool as our up close encounters earlier in the week but still neat to see.

The rainbow that greeted us Sunday morning

Much clearer day

Immature Sheep or Goats not 100% sure. I think they are sheep because of their coloring

Another bear

This potential bear caves were really cool

These possible bear caves were really cool

It was a much better day and we had a great dinner of Alligator stuffed chicken. Yes it’s true, Deb and Steve had bought it in Louisiana and cooked it for us, so yummy, and another campfire. Right after dinner I heard a car horn going off and walked down to the rig to get my camera, just in case. There less than 40 feet from me by our rig was a 400 pound grizzly bear. I stood there with my mouth hanging open and I swear he turned his head and smiled at me! Then he ambled on his way straight into a deep bunch of bushes behind our rig. It was an absolutely amazing moment and even though I didn’t have my camera it will forever be etched in my mind.

We had a great time with Steve and Deb and look forward to seeing them in Arizona this winter, but on that high note I was happy to leave Glacier and move on to our next adventure in Susanville, CA. Lee starts his first work kamping job and we get to sit in one place and be on full hookups for two months. Not going to lie, I need a little down time, and although I did better than I thought I could with no hookups for almost a month I am ready for some nice, long hot showers!! Still, I will absolutely miss the view.

Campground Reviews

St. Mary’s Campground St. Mary’s, MT 4 out of 5 pine cones

Outstanding views and clear spaces for solar which is important because there are no services at the site. Water spread throughout the campground. but the pressure was so high it broke our water thief device. Good dump station and very attentive staff. The big draw here is the bears. The campground is full of berry bushes and there were several bear sightings in the campground throughout out stay. One of the loops was even closed due to bear activity. The rangers and hosts keep a close eye on everything, but I would not recommend if you have small children.

Recipe

Skillet Green Beans

1-2 pounds of green beans
4 TBL butter
4-6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
salt
sugar
1/2 cup water

Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat
Add thinly sliced garlic cloves and cook stirring frequently for 2 minutes
Add trimmed green beans and a few pinches of sugar and salt; cook 2 minutes
Add 1/2 cup water, cover, cook until tender about 6 minutes
Uncover and boil until the water mostly evaporates about 1-2 minutes
Serve

————————————————————————————————————————————–

Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Uncategorized

September 2015 Budget

First Time in Reno

Campground Reviews

Sparks Marina RV Park 1200 E. Lincoln Way Sparks, NV 89434 4 out of 5 pine cones

Recipes

Spicy Drumsticks with Blue Cheese

Fresh Strawberry Coffee Cake

Homemade Whipped Cream

Class of 2014 – Eighteen Month Update

First Time in Lassen Volcanic National Park

A Very Big Step

First Week in Susanville

Lessons Learned

First Time Work Kamping

August Budget 2015

First Time Hearing Coyotes

Campground Reviews

Thompson Falls State Park Thompson Falls, MT 2 out of 5 pine cones

First Time Staying on the East Side of Glacier

Campground Reviews

St. Mary’s Campground St. Mary’s, MT 4 out of 5 pine cones

Recipe

Skillet Green Beans