August 8, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Work Trip from the “Middle of Nowhere”

Generally I don’t blog about my work trips, but because this one was a bit unique, and many people are trying to figure out how to work from the road, I thought I would share this one. Up to this point we have been within an hour and a half of an airport, not including smaller regional airports. Plus, I had the company car so if I needed to travel for work, I would drive to the airport, leave the car in parking, and pick it back up when I returned. We knew when we turned in the car this would get more complicated, but I spoke to my boss and since he was open to me renting a car in those situations it seemed like it would work out OK.

So, when the work trip came up while we were in the remote location of Lake Kabetogama I thought it would work out. I always judge how remote we are by the distance to the nearest McDonald’s because sadly, in my mind, that is a sign of “civilization.” In this case we are 30 minutes from the nearest McDonald’s and 2-1/2 hours from the closest large airport in Duluth, MN. There is a small airport 30 minutes away in International Falls, but only Delta flies into there and the minimally offered flights run around $1100. Yikes! Since Lee didn’t want to drive the 5 hours round trip to the airport, twice, I decided to rent a car one way to get there, and do it again to get back. The first problem was finding one. The only agency anywhere close was Avis and they were at the International Falls airport. Still, a 1-hour round trip is better than 5 hours round trip and I booked it. My company books all travel through AmEx though and Avis is not on the approved list so I had to make the arrangements myself. A one-way rental is pricey ($131 plus gas each way), but there really weren’t any other choices. I picked the car up Sunday and then drove the 2-1/2 hours Monday morning. The drive was very pleasant, two lane highway with minimal traffic and I found a delightful local talk radio station to listen to along the way. The whole program sounded like an over the fence backyard conversation and I enjoyed it immensely as local radio is a great way to get to know the people in a place.

When I reached the airport I was surprised by how small it was. It only had four gates, and was shared by two airlines; United and Delta. Unfortunately, it only had one little snack bar/restaurant in it though, and they were packed. One of the planes got pulled for mechanical issues and one of the downsides to flying out of a small airport became apparent. There are no other planes to catch if something happens to yours. So it’s wait until the next one comes in or come back the next day. Luckily mine was OK and I made it to O’Hare with minimal issues. Normally I carry on my luggage but I was headed to Louisville (Howard and Linda’s hometown) and she had jokingly talked about these nuts she loved that were only in a store in Louisville. Since I was going to be 15 minutes from GFS (a restaurant supplier that regular people can also shop at) I was happy to go. Well, I was glad I did because the store was very cool, and if I would have left it at the nuts I would have been fine, but they had some other stuff I couldn’t pass up including a 10# bag of restaurant rice for $4.99 that I just had to have. That damn bag of rice led to a serious of unfortunate events as they say, but here I am jumping ahead again, so let me walk through the week.

Linda’s special mixed nuts

Would have loved to take advantage of this deal not that I have the freezer space for it

This is what I bought for Lee and I

I was in Louisville to attend a 2-1/2 day meeting but I had two full travel days on either end. Unless you’re going to a hub city like Atlanta or Charlotte, flying out of small airports practically guarantees a full day of travel. But that’s OK, I generally don’t mind and if you take an early flight you have some time the first evening to see the city or whatever. When I was on my way it occurred to me that I should take advantage of civilization and try to get some errands done. First, they have Super Cuts which is my haircut place of choice when I can find them, and I decided to get my hair cut and the highlights in my hair redone. I carry a color card from my Super Cuts back in Keene so it’s easy to use them when I want the stripe in the front of my hair done. I made the appointment online Tuesday and after the meeting headed over. Unfortunately the entire ATT network was down for data for several hours that day. Not sure if you heard about that but it was down for several hours in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. So I had to go old school and use Map Quest and print out directions. Our company doesn’t get GPS in the rental cars so I am used to using my phone, but no phone and wow gotta say are we all in trouble if these data systems ever go down for long periods of time. I followed the directions and about two minutes from the destination got stuck waiting for a train at a crossing. Not any old train, but the longest one I have ever seen, and it was stopped on the tracks for a while. I couldn’t go around because I had no idea where I was or how to get there so I sat in that line for 30 minutes (not an exaggeration ) until the train finally moved off the tracks. Once I moved over the tracks I could not find Super Cuts anywhere. Finally I stopped in an auto parts store (I am not too proud to ask for directions) and saw that I had put in Old LaGrange Rd instead of LaGrange Rd and the Super Cuts was across the street and I would not have had to wait. ARRRGGGGG. No way! Thankfully I had used their online check in system (which I am a big fan of) and even though I was a half hour late they brought me right to the front of the line. On the way back, same problem, the freeway was closed down to one lane and again could not reroute myself. I ended up getting back to the hotel at 8pm but on the plus side a major check mark against the task list.

I also made an appointment at Aspen Dental. As I have talked about before, getting dental care on the road has been a major issue for us, and while in Florida I tried out Aspen Dental since they have a network of over 400 locations and I don’t have to go through the new patient rigmarole every time since they can look my records up on their system. On the plus side, at Aspen Dental the care itself is fine and no new patient nonsense, on the downside they do the full court press on services and you really have to be able to say no to go into one of them. Not everyone can say no to a medical professional, but having grown up with medical people I certainly can. So when I walked into their office Thursday evening for my appointment and was told, “We need $40 for a fluoride treatment today,” my response was “Excuse me?” She repeated the statement a little less certain and I said, “I just want a cleaning.” To her credit she let the issue drop. Let me be perfectly clear, if I needed work done I probably would not do it here, but they are fine for cleanings, just don’t be fooled into out-of-pocket up charges that are unnecessary. It’s turned into a decent option for me on the road though, but I still won’t send Lee there because he is one of those people who says yes to everything medical people say. I would rather in his case keep finding local dentists to send him to, but that’s stressful as well. Thankfully it’s only something that needs to be done every 6 months.

After the dentist appointment I stopped at GFS to get the nuts and really got excited about the other things they had. Suddenly I am thinking “How much can I fit in my bag?” and chose a 10# bag of rice (Lee loves rice), a big bag of powdered cheese, gravy, and fruit punch mix. I know, odd combination, but those were items we use commonly, and the prices were great. When I got back to the hotel room it took some careful packing but I got everything into the bag. It did feel heavier than usual, but I didn’t think too much of it. The next morning I was up at 4am and headed to the airport. I turned in the rental car and then checked in with my bag. When they weighed it, it was 13 pounds overweight…YIKES. So I moved to the side and started rearranging. Well, the rice and powders I bought were roughly 13#, so there you go. I could have thrown the rice away…thought of it, but I got stubborn.. and so the saga begins. OK, saga is a bit of an exaggeration but it definitely had a cascading effect. First, I ended up putting my work laptop in the checked bag, which I never do, because I didn’t want to carry all that through O’Hare. Second, when I went through security (not once but twice) the rice threw off all kinds of warning flags and I got pulled out of line for a second scan. When in O’Hare (my fault went outside to smoke) they actually did a full body pat down because it scored a warning. To be clear I don’t mind the security (I flew two weeks after 9/11 and never want to go through that again) and the TSA was extremely polite and professional. Still, I kept thinking “Is this damn bag of rice worth all of this?”.

I got on the plane to fly to Duluth and we made it all the way down the runway when we were forced to turn back for a mechanical issue. Thankfully they let us deplane (opportunity to go the bathroom, get a snack etc) and then finally decided to bring a new plane up. Again there are a limited number of flights so I was thinking I might be stuck overnight and the two-hour delay to change planes was better than the alternative. Actually, when we landed the airport was clouded in until 100 yards above the ground and the pilot said if we would have been on the original flight plan we might have had to reroute. So these things happen for a reason and as a seasoned traveler in general I try to be philosophical about them, but my forbearance was about to be tested in a big way.

Small airports have the huge advantage of being easy to pick up your luggage, so I was surprised when halfway through the luggage process the baggage carousel stopped working. It took at least 15 minutes for them to fix it, so I used the time to get my rental car back, and then I watched as person after person got their bag. Well guess whose bag didn’t come off?? Mine. And when I asked who to talk to this is when small airports are a major disadvantage. I stood in line for the one person at the counter and he said he couldn’t help me because he was a Delta employee not a United employee. He asked that I move aside and wait and I stood there for another 15 minutes watching him help other people. During this time a young woman in her 30’s came up and asked if she could book a flight to International Falls. Turns out Stephanie had booked a one way car from Alamo online but when she came to this airport they had no such reservation. Probably because they have no Alamo in International Falls. Avis wouldn’t help her because they said they had no cars and she talked to the cab driver who said it would cost $350 to take her there. She was bearing up well, but I recognized the look on her face because I was feeling the same way and I said, “I’m going to International Falls, why don’t you ride with me.” I meant it. The day was turning to complete crap, the airline was totally not helpful, so why not be people and just do the right thing. Plus it cost me nothing to have her come along and she looked like a normal person in trouble. She got an off look on her face though, don’t blame her it was a weird offer, and she went to talk to her boyfriend. Simultaneously I asked the young man at the counter if he was going to call someone or not, and he got on the walkie to get someone to come down and talk to me. So Stephanie comes back and asks very tentatively if she could send a picture of my driver’s license to her boyfriend (sure why not) and I am going through the painful process of having another kids take my baggage information which instilled absolutely zero confidence in me. Yes they would deliver the luggage 2-1/2 hours away but no he had no idea where it was.

Stephanie by this time (along with her boyfriend who was on the phone and rightfully concerned) had decided I was the best of their bad options so we walked across and got the rental car. Turns out Stephanie was a very nice person, mother of a 14-year-old and this was the first time she had ever flown alone. I appreciated the company because by this time I was very tired and having someone to talk to really helped me to focus on driving and not get super upset about the bag. We finally made it to the very small airport in International Falls and Mark her boyfriend tried to give me some money. I said, “Absolutely not” and told Stephanie that in some time in her life she would have a chance to pay it forward with someone else and to please just do that. Actually the whole experience really salvaged the day for me and I am grateful to her in a way for letting me do something nice for her. I gave her my card with blog info so Steph if you’re reading this it was a true pleasure meeting you and good luck getting through those teen years with your daughter lol. She sounds like a great kid though so hopefully you will have an easy time of it.

So it’s Saturday morning and they still haven’t found my bag but I am feeling better just writing this all down. Is travel from a small airport easy. No. Can it cause issues that wouldn’t happen necessarily in a larger airport, absolutely. Was the experience enough for us to restrict our travel to always be close to an airport…nope, but it was not a fun 14 hour travel day and I can absolutely see having similar issues in the future (the rice aside I am NEVER doing that again). It’s a price that, in my case, must be paid for the lifestyle and I am willing to pay it for the great views and isolated settings.

Update: I made a mistake on the July budget missing the $400 payment for our RV. This takes us to $3800 for the month which is still our lowest month but not the significant difference I thought it was. Very sorry for the mistake and I have updated that page for future reference. Thanks so much to Bill for pointing the mistake out to me. It was caused by rushing to get the post done prior to the work trip, but I will absolutely be more careful int the future.

Luggage Update: After 24 hours of watching the website and feeling like nothing was happening I sat on hold with the Indian call center until I got an actual person on the phone. I was polite but firm and finally the agent got Gail from O’Hare on the phone with me and she had actually opened my bag very recently trying to find a black bag for another person. Thank heavens!! She was wonderful and promised to put it on the noon flight to Duluth. So thanks Gail…I owe you!!

Lessons Learned

When printing out directions from the web make sure you have the correct address
Never ever check your laptop (or anything else you can’t lose) in your luggage
Count on long travel days from small airports
Count on fewer services in small airports
One way rental cars are expensive; think about the cost in both dollars and time when you make that decision
If you can help someone…do it. It really is a great feeling.

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August 7, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Crossing into Canada

It’s been many years since we have traveled to Canada (since before they started requiring passports) so when I needed to go to International Falls to pick up a rental car, Lee and I decided to go early, see International falls, and then make the crossing into Fort Frances. Lee had been to International Falls a couple of times, but I had not,so I did a little research to see what there was to do in town. I was naturally intrigued because I saw on a map a major river ran through it, and thought there must be a falls there. Unfortunately for me, the falls had been commandeered by two paper plants (Boise Cascade on the American side and Resolute Forest Products on the other. So apparently there are man-made falls, but according to the locals you can’t really see them because they are under the bridge that crosses into Canada. 100 years ago the natural falls existed though and the locals are pretty philosophical about the fact that the largest part of the waterfront in downtown is taken up by Boise Cascade and there definitely is an industrial smell in the air. At one point I overheard a conversation between a local woman and her visitor, “Like we say, honey, as long as you smell the mill it’s the smell of prosperity.” Interesting viewpoint and pretty practical in a “mill town” of 6,154, but personally I wouldn’t want to live there. Even on a Sunday the smell really permeated everywhere outside. Let me start by setting the expectations pretty low on this post.

Industrial buildings all along the river around the border crossing

With the falls a bust, I had a couple of other items on my list. There is a small park in town called Smokey Bear Park that has a giant statue of Smokey the Bear and a football statue for Bronko Nagurski. I love football but wasn’t really familiar with Bronko who according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame “was the symbol of power football during the 1930s.” He was a fullback for the Chicago Bears in the 30’s and was known for his “sheer brutal line smashing.” This was back in the days when almost all players were bruisers so that’s saying something. I didn’t go into the museum though, my football interest is definitely more modern area, plus this little park is right next store to the Boise Cascade plant and the smell in the air really doesn’t encourage you to linger. No offense to anyone who lives there who might happen to read this, but I am pretty sensitive to smells and compared to everywhere else we have been in Northern Minnesota (which is blissfully pollution free) it was quite startling.

Smokey the Bear Park

Bronko Nagurski Statue

After the statues, we were looking for an outfitter. There was one in the “Top 5 Things To Do In International Falls”, but after driving in circles then stopping and walking up to the building we realized the business was no longer open. Fortunately, I had seen a couple of others as we were driving around and we stopped at Ronnings Borderland Outfitters to take a look. The store is way bigger than it looks from the outside and they have work clothes, hunting clothes, and a little bit of hiking stuff. They had just gotten in a few pairs of hiking pants and since this is something I would never want to buy without trying them on, I found a pair of Dakota Grizzly’s that looked like I could fit into them. Turned out they fit perfectly (Men’s size 34/31) and I really liked the color (Iguana green). Lee wasn’t crazy about the price ($59.99 on sale and really he may be taking this budget stuff to seriously), but he researched online and it was comparable with what they would cost at online retailers. Plus, I just don’t like buying clothes on the internet. I like to try things on and make sure they feel comfortable and these really did. After we bought my pants we walked downstairs and, wow, shoe heaven! They had a HUGE stock of hiking boots, working boots, and all kinds of Moccasins. Again, the prices weren’t rock bottom, but definitely in line with what I have seen in other places. I exercised some self-control and no shoes were bought. I would really like a pair of those fur-lined Moccasins but I can’t see spending $55 on them and although Lee and I agree at some point we need to get hiking boots, we have no idea what brand, type, etc and definitely need to research and hike more before investing in something like that.

I was hungry after the shopping and Lee knows when I’m the first of us to say “I’m hungry”, there is a ticking clock on maintaining my sweet disposition. So we headed to the Chocolate Moose, our chosen dining “experience” restaurant. I love little local places and wanted to eat some Walleye since our friend Steve had recommended it. The service was very good, the decor was awesome, and we both really like the walleye. I did skip the dark chocolate mousse desert (not a fan of dark chocolate) and instead got a very delicious milk chocolate moose pop. Had a nice time and at $25 (before tip) not too pricey for an experience lunch.

Loved this coat hanger

And this carved antler (not a real one)

I’ve seen these signs everywhere and check out the bear climbing the wall to the left

My kind of place

Loved the water glasses and the water was ice-cold!!

This carved beaver statue was very cool

Lee bought me this yummy chocolate moose

Unfortunately their as a serious moose accident before I even got to the car. It fell off right into my mouth :)

Unfortunately there was a serious moose antler accident before I even got to the car. It fell off right into my mouth 🙂

After lunch, we stopped at another outfitter hoping to find Lee some hiking pants. This place was mainly fishing and hunting equipment and the folks working there were not nearly as nice. I did like their sign outside though and ended up buying two Coughlan mosquito head nets we can slip on when things get too buggy. I could have saved $1.75 if I would have bought it at a Wal-Mart but since the nearest one is 1-1/2 hours away, I didn’t mind ponying up the money…plus supporting a local business.

So since the outfitting was a bust we decided to pop over into Fort Frances, Canada. I will admit I was a little nervous crossing the border and it turns out I had some reason to be cautious at least. First, I was surprised to see a sign for a $6 charge to cross the bridge. Since the bridge was extremely short and nothing special, and only took cash, I was suspicious. Ridiculous really to charge to cross this, but at least it was only a one way charge. This is not a major crossing and it was obvious locals moved back and forth through here. But I have to say despite the line of vehicles being long (at least 15 vehicles going into Canada) it was only 21 minutes going out and 10 minutes coming back. Also, we remembered to turn off our cell phone roaming as Linda recommended. Actually, we weren’t sure what the rules were so we just put them into airplane mode. I recommend knowing how your plan works prior to getting anywhere close to the border so you don’t inadvertently charge yourself extra fees. Also, coincidentally there was a Class A in line in front of us, and although they made them turn the engine off and an agent walked through the rig, it was quicker than I thought, taking less than 5 minutes.

The end of the $6 bridge …ridiculous

Two lanes open for crossing

Where the experience got interesting was the questions we were asked. Going into Canada we were stumped by the following questions:

Where are you from? “Uh…..we are FT RVers who roam the country.” We got a cocked eyebrow on that one, so going back the other way we just said our “home state”, Florida which has the advantage of matching our driver’s licenses. Plus do you really want to have a long involved explanation with a customs agent???
Whose RV are you going to fix? “Uhhhhh..whaaat?” Oh yeah, Lee has the magnetic signs on his truck for RV repair work. “Oh no we are just going to explore a bit not working on anyone’s vehicle.” This we got grilled on a bit, next time leave the signs at home and this was a non-issue when we returned to the US side.
Do you have any eggs or poultry with you? “Uhhhh…no.” But I had to think about it, and frankly we should have checked the rules prior to crossing.

So there were a couple of uncomfortable moments but we made it through so thought we were OK. Coming back we had totally different questions.

Are you bringing anything back with you? “Yes, we bought some potato chips.” which she didn’t seem to care about. Again, should definitely have known the rules before buying stuff.
Where did you get that firewood? OK this one was bad. We carry a significant amount of wood in the truck at any time and the US agent was surprised they let us into Canada with it. (The Canadian agent never left his chair so he probably didn’t see it). Lee told the story of where he had gotten the wood and she seemed a bit bemused, stating “I can’t believe you made that up, so it must be true.” So we got lucky twice and were allowed to bring the wood back into the US but we could have lost $40-50 worth of wood either way.

So, lesson learned, no such thing as a “simple” border crossing in today’s world and a little bit of research prior to each trip is in order. Once we got to Fort Frances Lee turned on our GPS and I was really pleased that it not only worked,it also immediately translated our speeds into kilometers and still gave speed warnings. We weren’t sure what to do, so Lee said “Let’s stop at the grocery store and check it out.”. That was interesting as the prices were really good in some areas (especially with the exchange rate) and not so good for others. Plus we were fascinated by the new brand names, different packaging for established brands (Oreo’s had a cool package), and the new flavors of certain items like Lay’s potato chips. We bought about $27 worth of chips and snacks and used our American Express Gold Card which I vaguely remembered did the exchange for free (not 100% sure about that though.) After that we just drove around a little and looked at the town. It’s waterfront area was much nicer than the International Falls side and apparently people are much hardier as there were folks swimming on the 75 degree day. I guess it’s all relative.

There is an invisible line in the middle of the river and if you cross it you are supposed to go to customs. This water skier stayed on the american side of the line

Couldn’t resist the black and white pic

Loved the sea plane area

These planes take fisherman to remote camping areas

So it was an OK day but sometimes I plan days and they are kind of a bust. That’s part of the story though. Sometimes you start a day with low expectations and end up being totally wowed, but other days you go in thinking things will be amazing and not so much. Lee enjoyed it way more than I did, but I felt vaguely uneasy the entire time we were in Canada. Hopefully that will change with more crossings, but I did feel pretty unprepared, and really didn’t like not knowing the rules. I am traveling to Louisville for business this week, so you won’t see anything from me for a little while.

Lessons Learned

Be familiar with your cell plan rules prior to getting close to an international border.
Use your home state to answer the question where are you from when leaving the country.
Take magnetic work signs off your truck prior to crossing the border so they don’t think you are working in their country.
Check the restricted product rules prior to making the crossing. These do change.
Remove wood from your vehicle prior to making the crossing

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August 4, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

July 2015 Budget

Oddly despite all the wedding crazy we had the best month we have ever had from budget perspective. The way I handled this month was to remove all direct wedding expenses and last minute costs for the wedding itself, and leave in meals, clothing and travel costs because if you attended a wedding or family event you might have similar expenses. Based on this criteria we only spent $3804 this month. We only spent $191 this month on campground fees. To be clear, our actual cash flow was much less, but that money came out of contingency funds. The incidentals weren’t that bad. We spent less than $750 in last minute incidentals which is a testament to the good job Kat did on planning the wedding. For more detail on each category please see below. This amount was updated in August when I discovered I left out our RV payment. I apologize by the mistake which was caused by rushing to get the post out before a work trip.

July Budget 2015

Campground Fees – The first two weeks we “moochdocked” on the Miles family farm, which was wonderful. We could have stayed there the entire time, but wanted to be closer to the wedding venue during the week of the wedding. The last week of July our campground costs were covered as part of the compensation package for the video production Lee is doing for Howard. Both moochdocking and work kamping are totally legitimate ways to keep costs down in this area and we are very excited to finally be able to save some money in this category.

Groceries – We’re happy this category stayed under despite stocking up at a Walmart before going to northern Minnesota. It will be interesting to see how we do in August with a stocked cupboard but more expensive local groceries.

Dining Out – We went over by $276. The bulk of that was the Ecuadoran lunch we bought for all the kids which came in at $170. I left it in because sometimes you just want to pick up the check. Bill and Kelly can relate! If you take that meal out and offset with the $127 we were under, in entertainment it wasn’t that bad of a story. Plus, we ate quite a bit of fast food this month. We were running all over the place and providing meals for the people that volunteered with the wedding setup. Individually, small dollar amounts, but it does add up.

RV Relocation – For the first time in a while we went over in this category, but we are $2K under for the year. It will be interesting to see how this is affected when we head out west next month.

Cigarettes – We have been rolling our own cigarettes for one year now (using finely shredded pipe tobacco, an electric roller, and tubes you buy for around $3 a box) and our average monthly costs have gone down from $520 a month (two cartons a week ) to $125 a month. This is a substantial savings and of course it would be nothing if we quit but since that’s not in the cards for us right this moment, saving all that money makes this possible. As an alternative, our friends Jo and Craig have changed 100% to vapor which has the advantage of being better on the budget and a healthier alternative. Either way if you smoke and want to be a full-time RVer we definitely recommend you look into it. There is way to much variation in cigarette prices from state to state and rolling our own allows us to pre-buy tobacco when it’s cheaper.

Clothing – Over by $242. This was some of Lee’s suit, earrings for me to wear to the wedding, and an extra set of sunglasses when I misplaced mine. Thankfully I found the originals. I love those glasses and bought them in an airport so could not necessarily find them again. I left the bulk of this in because when you are going to a special event you might need a new shirt, shoes, or dress. It happens.

Personal Care – I was shocked we were under in this category. Lee got a haircut and I had my eyebrows waxed and a trim but nothing else. I did help pay for some pedicures for the girls prior to the wedding but left that in as a wedding expense because I wouldn’t have done it normally. I do miss my pedicures quite a bit! At $32 a pop though I just can’t justify it. I keep trying to talk Lee into giving it a try but he is not interested, plus the best part is the cool massage chair and hot towels and I don’t think he could duplicate that.

So, it was a really great month and since two weeks of August campground fees are also covered, we’re looking forward to seeing how next month goes. We may actually be getting the hang of this. Hope I didn’t jinx us !!

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August 3, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Another Moon Filled Night

Saturday, Lee and I decided to go down and see the visitors center at Ash River Trail. Mike, at the Lake Kabetogama visitors center had recommended seeing the beaver pond overlook so we decided to drive down and take a look. Plus, we like just driving around a bit when we get to an area. You never know what you will get to see and it gives you a good feel for what living in a place would be like. The thing that strikes us the most about this part of the country is the lack of people. Even in high tourism season, the roads are largely empty and the stores don’t feel packed. The largest group we have seen since coming here was at the Bear Sanctuary and that was only about 30 or so people. So we were a bit surprised by how full the parking lot was at the visitors center. Mostly it was tons of trucks with boats in varying stages of getting on the lake, and there were no people in the visitor center itself, so that was good. Actually, I am jumping ahead, so let me go back a bit.

Lee took this shot for me of the sign

On the way to the visitor’s center we stopped at the Voyageur National Forest Overlook trail. This .5 mile loop is categorized as easy…well not so much. The trail was very narrow, lots of roots, and there is a pretty steep climb halfway in. Plus the “overlook” is a rock where you can stand and see a little bit of forest. Not the grand vista I was picturing. Luckily when we started we bug sprayed because we needed it and brought a bottle of water, because it was hot in there. I’m not sorry we did it, but it definitely occurred to me before we jump into these hikes I probably should do some research. The sign on the trail gave minimal information and we really weren’t prepared if something had gone wrong.

The “overlook”

Pretty flowers outside

The next stop was the Beaver Pond Overlook, which they state is moderate but I found way easier than the first hike. It’s short and although there is another steep climb there are hand rails and nice stairs going up to the observation deck. Here was the view I was looking for. Absolutely beautiful and we met a nice older couple on the trail who kindly pointed out some blueberries and a cool tree that woodpeckers had been working on. I love how people share their knowledge in these places. It’s a great way for newbies like us to learn.

Helpful stairs

Very nice platform

First wild blueberries I’ve ever picked and eaten

One of two dams

It was 360 degree beautiful, this was behind us

Loved the clouds that day

Selfie

Lee’s shirt was appropriate!!

The grubs are in inside the tree in the warren. Lee took this pic because it was tough to get it to focus. Have I mentioned how cool it is to have an experienced photographer with me at all times. Sometimes it’s great to hand him the camera and say “Here honey take the pic!!”

Then we moved on to the Ash River Visitors Center. It was very nice, but I have to say I like the Lake Kabetogama center better. It did have a cool table though with a beaver pelt, moose antlers and a deer antler that people could touch, which I appreciated. Plus when you walked out back it had a nice view of the lake. We didn’t spend much time there but touching the moose antlers made the stop worth it. I get excited about all kinds of things…OK, I am picturing what Greg would say to that, but you know what I mean. It doesn’t take much to make me happy which is a pretty terrific way to live, I recommend trying it!

Visitors Center

Cool table with local items you can touch

Lake Kabetogama

On the way back to the campground we saw a sign for NOvA, a physics laboratory sponsored by the University of Minnesota. In the spirit of our new lifestyle we made the turn and drove several miles down an isolated road until it reached a dead end at a large secured compound. It felt like we stumbled upon a secret lab (OK, not so secret; they do tours on Thursdays) but still it was cool. According to The University of Minnesota website, “The completed section of the detector is about 12 feet long, 15 feet wide and 20 feet tall. It catches cosmic rays – particles produced by a constant rain of atomic nuclei falling on the Earth’s atmosphere from space – at a rate of 3,000 rays per second. When cosmic rays pass through the NOvA detector, they leave straight tracks and deposit well-known amounts of energy” I have absolutely no idea what it is all about but “the $283 million NOvA experiment involves 169 scientists and engineers from 34 global universities and laboratories” and “when the detector…is completed, physicists will use it to explore the mysterious behavior of neutrinos, fundamental building blocks of matter that are thought to have originated in the Big Bang. Way cool. So in order to celebrate this discovery what else can you do but stop and take a picture with a big fish? We have passed this sign numerous times but never stopped and I couldn’t pass an opportunity to ride on the fish and get my picture taken. Plus, it’s across the road from my favorite little convenient store Gateway General . I really like this store because it has a little bit of everything, and yes, the prices are high, but not so high that you feel guilty for not driving the 30 minutes into Littlefork, Orr, or International Falls. Plus the people who work their are super nice.

N.O.v.A

Riding the fish!!

General Store Check out the sign on the side

Gateway General Store

That evening we went over to Linda and Howard’s for dinner. Linda had invited us earlier in the day and in true Full-Timer fashion we cobbled together a meal from what we each had available. What made this one especially good was the addition of fresh vegetables from the farm H&L are working on. We had marinaded chicken, quick pickle ribbons, green beans, and zucchini fries. It was all very good and healthy and I included the recipe for the Quick Pickle Ribbons below. Neither Howard nor I care for cucumbers but this recipe makes them taste a bit like sweet jerkin pickles and we both liked it. After dinner we played Qwerkle (Howard and Lee won and I came in second again, twice) and then we had a large beautiful bonfire and watched the moon rise. It was another 6 hour evening and I am amazed by myself and Howard’s capacity to hang in so late in the evening. It’s a testament to how good the conversation is and how easy the four of us have become with each other that neither Howard or I need to call it a night early as we are both kind of known for with our friends. Tomorrow it’s International Falls and maybe a pop over to Canada. Looking forward to it.

Grilled marinated chicken thighs

Quick Pickle Ribbons

Fresh green beans with bacon

Zucchini fries

Linda gave me some kosher salt when I mentioned I didn’t have any. Love the smiley face on the bag !!

The clouds (not color enhanced) reminded me of the Michaelangelo painting on the Sistine Chapel

Nice big blaze

Settled into a very beautiful fire

The moon coming up

Recipes

Quick Pickle Ribbons

4 medium size cucumbers; scrubbed but skin on
2 large carrots, peeled
1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
2 TBL dill weed
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 TBL kosher salt (sea salt can be substituted)

Using a vegetable peeler peel the cucumber lengthwise into long thin ribbons. Stop when you reach the seeds and discard remainder
Using same technique turn peeled carrot into long thin strips stopping when you reach core of carrot and discard
In a large bowl combine cucumber, carrot, onion, dill weed, and pepper
In a small saucepan bring vinegar, sugar, and salt just to boiling over medium-high heat
Pour immediately over vegetables, stir to combine
Cover and chill for 1 hour
Ready to serve will last for up to 3 days

Quick Pickle Ribbons

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August 2, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at a Bear Sanctuary

When I researched the area last weekend I was particularly intrigued by the bear sanctuary. Lee, as everyone knows, absolutely loves bears. OK, I can’t even type that with a straight face because several months ago Lee decided to watch some bear attack videos and he’s been nervous about meeting bears every since. (I do not love bears. Bears love me. Because I am crunchy, and good with ketchup. Only a fool would NOT be nervous about meeting bears. If you are a fool, feel free to go to YouTube and watch some videos. Or do a Google image search for bear injuries. Then come tell me how cuddly they are. – Lee) Since he also really wants to get me out west into the wide open space where apparently bears abound, there is a bit of a contradiction here that we have not worked out yet. So I thought we would take advantage of the closeness of the sanctuary and check it out. We had no idea what we were getting into, but at $8 per person the price was right and I expected to see a few bears. Wow, were we underestimating the experience.

The Vince Schute Wildlife Sanctuary had an interesting start. During the depression Vince sold the family farm to start a logging company. It became very successful, but they had a serious problem with local bears breaking into the cabins the loggers stayed in and stealing the food. So, for many years Vince and his loggers hunted and trapped the bears. In the early 70’s, tired of the killing, he started voluntarily feeding the bears in an area away from the cabin and although this drew bears to the area it kept them away from his men and their cabins. In 1993, at the age of 80, he became concerned about what would happen to these bears when he became too sick to feed them (you should never feed bears because when you stop they often become a “nuisance bear” and then must be killed) so he started a wildlife refuge. There are no cages or fences here. The bears come because they are fed every night and the population of bears varies depending upon the time of year and season. Because of this they are only open between 5-8pm Tuesday – Sunday and don’t absolutely guarantee a bear sighting.

As I said, our expectations were low, but it was something we could do on a Friday evening, so after work we headed over. The reserve is 13 miles outside of the small town of Orr, Minnesota, so it’s really in the middle of nowhere. When you pull into the gravel drive there are numerous signs telling you if you see a bear on the road please honk your horn loudly at them. The sanctuary uses negative conditioning to keep the bears off the road until you get into the sanctuary area itself. It’s not much to look at, a small stand to buy tickets and a gravel parking lot, then you take an old school bus into the sanctuary itself, and the observation deck.

All of the staff were college kids doing summer internships. Many of them live on the property

The platform area itself is very nice, 12 feet off the ground, pretty large, with a nice gift shop in the middle. Lee decided to take his nice professional video camera just in case, along with a tripod, and that’s where we ran into a problem. First, no tripods are allowed (only monopods) which makes sense because there were many children there, and it’s a tripping hazard. Second, when Lee pulled out the professional grade camera things got weird. We were barely into the experience when the assistant manager came up and talked to Lee. We were told that videotaping was not allowed. Once Lee assured him the camera was for personal and not commercial use, he finally allowed him to start shooting, asking only that we not shoot footage of the bears being fed, or how close volunteers got to the bears. Just a minute or two later, the manager came out. This young lady looked to be all of 21, and announced herself as the director of the non-profit, and she asked him to stop shooting, and explained that videotaping was not allowed. At this point I was getting annoyed, I wanted to see the bears. I let her say her piece and Lee again reiterated we were not professionals, and finally I turned to her and said, “You do realize I can take excellent high definition video with my SLR camera?” She paused and admitted she did indeed know that, and that she was fully aware that everyone around us was shooting video with their phones and SLR cameras, and even a few consumer level video cameras. Then she said somewhat sheepishly they had had some problems with naturalists coming into the sanctuary and taking videos and causing problems. Then she said she would allow it. As a side note, for $200 per person you can pay to go down on the grounds with the bears and have a private tour. Not sure I would pay for that, seems like it’s a bad idea all around, but the option is available.

I know many people are purists when it comes to wildlife and I respect that, but I will take a moment to tell you where I come down on the issue. Anything that inspires people, children in particular, to respect wildlife and that does not hurt the animals in any way is a good thing. I listened to more than one kid start the experience by asking grandma if they could play a game on their phone and then actually stopping and watching as the bears started to get more active and feed. This is the next generation, and unless we want our wildlife to be reduced to pixels on a screen we need to find a way to capture their imagination. I think the sanctuary did a nice job of that. Just my opinion, your mileage may certainly vary. Plus, selfishly, what a tremendous picture opportunity! We both had a blast taking pictures and shooting videos. I took over 300 shots and I am going to share some of my favorites with you. It was really fun, the price was right, and as you’ll see, the bears didn’t have a problem with the deal. I highly recommend it if you’re ever in the area.

The cubs were so so cute about 7 months old

Big bear sleeping on a rock

Bear staked out his feeding station

This little guy was my favorite

Just in case you think they were all cute and cuddly

Wouldn’t want to meet up with this guy in the wild

The nursing mom’s (bottom right) were so slim in comparison to the males

The first thing the mom’s teach the babies is how to climb a tree and when they growl the babies go up fast

They even had a three legged bear (missing the front left leg)

Mom and her cub

The little guys were good sharers

We stayed for a couple of hours and the bears were active so we got tons of great pictures. With that much time and closeness you could really play with the shots and get a little creative, which I appreciated. Plus, did you know more people die from potato salad each year than black bear attacks? That was an interesting fact and one I can believe since I’ve had some pretty yucky potato salad in my day. Seriously though, don’t feed bears. Use noise for negative reinforcement. They used air horns in the parking area and I think I may get one for Glacier. And here’s a link to their website with lots of great how to live in bear country information.

So from a photography standpoint I was feeling pretty good about myself, but then we got home, and Lee took this amazing picture (with my SLR) of the Blue moon. You can even see the craters on the right hand side for heavens sakes…ahh well, I guess I need to keep practicing, but as Lee said, “It was a perfectly lovely day.”

Lee’s Blue Moon pic

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August 1, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Lee’s First Birthday on the Road

Despite the rain, Wednesday was a better day than Tuesday, and after the rains cleared in the evening the hummingbirds were out in full force. We saw as many as 7 around our feeder at one time (if you don’t own a hummingbird feeder get one; it’s really cheap entertainment) and Lee got some great pics. He also put the feeder right on his hand and they got super close. Had to share some of his amazing pictures because they really are so good, plus what’s not to love about hummingbirds? They are cheerful, industrious little birds. Plus the sunset was absolutely amazing, as it often is after a storm, and I got some pics of that as well.

Lee’s pic

Lee’s Pic

It was a feeding frenzy

I took this one pretty happy with the shot

Feeder on Lee’s hand

Lee’s

We’ve only seen one male in plumage so I was happy Lee got these pics

Sunset through the trees

The colors were awesome

So onto Thursday. As I have mentioned I don’t believe in coincidence. What are the odds that we would be practically next door to the people who were very instrumental in helping us choose this lifestyle on Lee’s first on the road birthday AND that Howard’s birthday would be the day before Lee’s? Astronomical? See, my brain won’t accept that. When the odds get into those high numbers I have to believe that something else is going on and God/Higher Power/the Universe (however you identify it) is in play. Your mileage may vary on that, heck I don’t even know if my kids buy into my philosophy, but it’s one truth that I feel pretty rock solid on. That being said, when we discovered a week ago the guys’ birthdays were so close Linda and I sat down to plan a little celebration. The interesting thing is that neither guy is much into birthdays. I love birthdays (big shock for those who know me), but Lee generally plays them down and Howard is the same way. Linda and I were having none of that though, and decided they were having a party whether they liked it or not!!

The first item up for discussion was food, and since they both love lasagna and Linda bakes a great one, she volunteered. It is not an insignificant amount of effort and she taught me how to make a lasagna, which believe it or not I have never done before, and I was really grateful. I have included her lasagna recipe below. Next we discovered Howard loves Caesar salad and since Lee’s first job as a kid was making Caesars from scratch table side at a restaurant, we decided to have him make Caesars for everyone. (That wasn’t my first job, it was my second job. My first job was busboy at the fabulous West Wind Steakhouse, at which I met Tracy and decided to marry her. I then waited seven damn years for her to get her act together. It’s also the first job I was ever fired from, because I was so giddy to be around her all the time at the tender age of 14 that the manager decided I was drunk from finishing off leftover drinks, which I was not. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t drink after other people, not even my own wife or kids. It’s gross. – Lee) This left me with little to do but the bread, and I was OK with that. Howard requested German Chocolate Cake and Lee of course wanted pie. Unfortunately I am not much of a baker, but Linda recommended a little bakery around the corner and they could make a dutch apple, which is Lee’s favorite. It was $15 for the pie, on the high side, but since he is not getting a drone (liked he wanted) for his birthday seemed a small price to pay. (This is why I am not into birthdays, by the way. I asked for a drone, and what I got was a pie, and being forced to work like some kind of indentured servant. If, by the way, you are reading this and have an extra $1000 you need to get rid of, just click here. – Lee) I did feel guilty though about how little I was contributing and decided to spend my lunch break picking raspberries. This is another thing I have never done and thankfully Carol, the super nice camp host here at The Pines , loaned me her hat netting. Picking raspberries is a ton of work and crazy buggy. They were yummy and went well with the cake and pie, but not sure its something I would want to do on a regular basis. (She lies. Putting raspberries on a Dutch apple pie is an abomination. Don’t do it. Think of the children. – Lee)

The pie was beautiful (until she put berries on it – Lee)

Linda’s Lovely Lasagna

Lee showing Linda how he makes Caesar salad from scratch. Linda has access to this nice kitchen in her workamping job

Raspberries and the one blackberry (identified by Howard) that I found. Yummy!!

Raspberries and the one blackberry (identified by Howard) Yummy!!

After we ate (the lasagna tasted as good as it looked) we lit candles and sang. Well, Linda sang while I murmured along. Then the guys opened their cards and little presents while we ate. It was yummy; the cake and pie were really good, and afterwards they taught us to play a game called Qwerkle. It is sort of like dominoes with shapes and colors and Linda was totally in the groove. She was the Qwerkle Queen and won both games. I was pretty happy I came in second both times, but the birthday boys did not do so well. (I was distracted. The lines made by the game pieces did not even come to close to lining up with the lines on the table. Also, I had raspberry seeds stuck in my teeth. – Lee) I had read about Qwerkle in Howard’s blog but it made a lot more sense as we played it. Plus, I really liked the way they explained the game, being very transparent about strategy techniques while we played. There’s nothing worse than playing a new game and having people hold back critical info until you make the mistake. Yes, we’ve all played with folks like that and not only does it take the fun out of learning a new game but can even make you feel stupid, which is the antithesis of fun. Howard and Linda not only helped us play but were happy to allow us to change some moves when we had made an obvious mistake. That made it a lot more fun, and Lee said he wanted to buy the game as soon as we left. It was another very nice night, and I was so glad we could share their birthdays. It’s really nice sharing those moments with people and unlike a sticks and bricks existence that is in no way a given.

Howard and Lee with their cake and pie. Note the pile of raspberries on my pie, rendering it something almost like pie, but with raspberries. I’m still not ready to talk about the wax bits that fell of the candles into my perfectly good pie. – Lee)

Lee’s “I like this pie” face

Linda gave Lee more packets of fire colors since we liked those so much

I bought Howard a book about an adventure couple which I thought he could relate to

I bought Howard a book about an adventuresome couple who paddle to Alaska. I thought they could relate.

Linda and Howard teaching us to play Qwerkle. Love this pic!

The second game we put all the squares together which results in a very unusual game. I had to take a pic, usually things are more jumbled than this

The second game we started with all the squares together (which is very unusual) I had to take a pic because I thought the board was so pretty. (Note how the pieces are not aligned with the lines in the table. Chaos. – Lee)

Recipe

Linda’s Lovely Lasagna

This is a really old family recipe Linda has been using for a long time. You can substitute ground hamburger for the Italian sausage but it’s not recommend as the Italian sausage really adds to the flavor. This recipe makes enough for two 9×13 casserole dishes. You can cook both and freeze one or halve the recipe.

Sauce

3 lbs Italian sausage
1-1/2 cloves minced garlic
1-1/2 TBL basil
1-1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 lbs canned tomato sauce
3 six oz cans tomato paste

Ricotta Filling

3 eggs
4 cups ricotta cheese
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 TBL parsley flakes
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 TBL pepper

Additional

2 lbs mozzarella cheese sliced
1 box lasagna noodles

Brown meat slowly draining off excess fat
Add additional sauce ingredients and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally
Cook noodles in a large pot of salted water until tender; drain and rinse
Combine ingredients for ricotta cheese filling
In a 9×13 casserole dish (Linda uses Glad Bakeware which works perfectly and is disposable) layers noodles (roughly 4 lengths per layer).
Spread noodles with Ricotta mixture
Add a layer of meat sauce (roughly 1/2 thick) so it covers noodles and ricotta
Add a layer of sliced mozzarella cheese covering sauce
Repeat steps 5-8
Add a third layer of meat sauce
Add a third layer of mozzarella cheese
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is lightly browned (as seen below)
Let stand for 20 minutes outside of the oven and then serve.

Linda’s Lovely Lasagna

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July 29, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Lee Hates Rainy Days

In case you think every day is eagles and waterfalls I probably should write a bit about early this week. Monday I was back to work and it was a busy work week for me, with lots going on and unfortunately this coincided with some not so great weather. Lee is a putterer. He always likes to be doing something and since the something he is working on usually makes my life easier, I like that about him. Not so much on rainy days though, because he’s limited to puttering inside and I am trying to work inside and its a pretty small space for all that. I know he’s getting particularly antsy when he starts to pace and even though we have levels in the camper (a huge benefit in my opinion) it’s still pretty distracting. I’ll be on a conference call, pretty tuned into what we are talking about and I keep catching him out of the corner of my eye. Distracting. I try to tell myself to be reasonable, he has to go somewhere, but I am trying to focus. So as a general rule rainy days and forced inactivity are a recipe for us to start sniping at each other. We have gotten MUCH better about this as time has gone on, but it’s still a little jarring and to be honest on those days I miss the space our house provided. Not the house itself mind, but our ability to go to our separate areas and stay away from each other for hours at a time. Lee also likes to sit outside in the morning and drink his coffee and wake up. This process takes some time most days, but on rainy/windy days he is forced to do it inside, not optimal.

In some respects I hate even writing about this because God knows I am not a joy to be with all the time, but it’s a major part of the experience and if I don’t write about the not so great days along with the great days, it will give an unbalanced view of what this lifestyle is like. Tuesday the weather started out ok, windy but sunny and Lee took advantage to fix some things outside. Our experience with the camper has been sort of a steady stream of minor issues. For us this has largely been fine since Lee is handy plus it gives him something to work on. Occasionally these have turned into larger issues, but mainly they are relatively minor things that Lee can fix. He likes doing it and I feel better knowing he is keeping such a close eye on things. So he spent the morning working on a couple of issues that were minor but could have become major.

The first was the fact that our drainspouts (that drip when the AC is on) are designed terribly and were leaking on one of our slideouts. We know some folks who had a rotted out slideout (its plywood board in there and a tiny leak can cause an issue), so Lee bought a tube to move the water out farther and then gently peeled back the protective coating and saw that indeed some water had gotten into the wood. Since it’s plywood it soaks water up like crazy so he clamped the area open and let it sit in the sun to dry out.

The temporary fix Lee put on for the drainspotus to make sure water went away from the slide

The temporary fix Lee put on for the drainspouts to make sure water went away from the slide

Particle board damage is the the right in the picture

Particle board damage is to the right in the picture

I also should mention here that our water pressure has been very low (mostly under 20 PSI) and I spoke to Hekrem (who runs maintenance here) and asked him to replace the pre-regulated water-spout with a standard one. We have an adjustable water pressure regulator in the rig so we’re protected, and once we removed their “special” regulating spigot we immediately shot up to 40 PSI which is where we like to run. I don’t blame the campground for having regulated water, though. Many weekenders don’t understand how much damage excess water pressure can do and this protects them and their rigs, but as full timers we have a really good handle on that and would rather regulate ourselves. I mention this because it was an eye opener for us. If you are getting low water pressure it may be at the spigot and not the water pressure itself.

The new water spigot

Beautiful 40 PSI pressure

Lee also wanted to fix our electric grey water valve. We love the electric valves, but again, poor design. (Not so much a design flaw as an installation flaw. It’s basically a normal valve, with the addition of a small 12v electric motor with a shaft that runs parallel to the “T” handle. The shaft has a ring at the top that slips over one side of the “T” handle, and when the motor pushes the shaft up or down, the ring pushes the “T” handle up or down to open and close the valve. Pretty simple and effective, but since it’s designed to allow you to slip the ring off to manually open or close the valve, the ring snaps into a clip. When it was installed, apparently it wasn’t snapped in properly, so it slipped off. I didn’t understand this because when I “fixed” it the first time, I was on the wrong side of the valve, and didn’t see the clip. I just thought it was due to the angle at which the valve was installed. So I “rigged” it to stay in place, which it did, for a while. This time, I was on the opposite side, and saw the clip. Now that it’s firmly attached, it should work until the end of time. Or thereabouts. – Lee) Since the gravel is pretty sharp here he laid down a tarp under the camper and cut a small hole in the belly pan underneath the rig. The whole time I was talking to some finance people at work about a problem I was having and suddenly my phone rings, and it’s Lee. I did something here I am not proud of, I sent him to voice mail. As soon as I did it I regretted it, but it was an important call and I am very careful about work always coming first during work days. Suddenly part of my brain starts thinking about him lying under the rig and what if he’s hurt but about the time I was going to go check, thankfully he walked in the door. I pointed to the phone, he nodded and that was the end of that, or so I thought. Later that night he told me he had cut the hole a little small and when he got his head up to look, he realized the edges were super sharp and he was worried about cutting his neck on the way back down and wanted me to spot for him. That’s why he called. (That corrugated plastic that our belly pan is made of is razor-sharp on the edges. Once I got my head up in there, I could feel it against my neck, and it really freaked me out. I’ve cut my hands and wrists pretty badly on that stuff in the past, so make sure you make a big enough hole to work in. I usually cut three sides and then just fold it down, to make a little access door. When you’re finished, you can seal up the access door using underbelly tape. It’s great stuff. – Lee) OK, so I am the worst wife ever and note to self when your husband is under the rig and calls you, you should probably see what he wants. So the morning was good, productive, and we even had a couple of animal sightings. Lee got some nice pics from the hummingbird feeder and we saw a doe and two fawn wandering about the treeline near the campground.

Drangonfly

Hummingbird

Doe and two adorable fawn

Then things changed. The rain came and went and in combination with the increasingly blustery winds he had to come inside. Since he’s working on video I thought this would be a perfect time for him to sit down and dig in but this is where his pacing comes into play. When Lee is working on a video it is a very creative process and takes place initially largely in his brain. The way I understand it is he builds the image in his brain of what the video should look like before he ever starts to edit. So most of the creative process happens while he is “puttering” and once he gets to a place where he knows what he wants to do he starts editing. I get this more than ever, as I partially write many of my blogs in my head as I am going through my day, but since my work consists of more concrete activities involving spreadsheets and project plans and whatnot, it can be frustrating. He’s wandering and thinking and I am sitting and focusing and while that works when both the inside and outside spaces are available not so much on rainy days. Inevitably I will start making suggestions on things he should do which goes about as well as you would expect that it would. Then the sniping starts and it all kind of devolves from there. I will say we are both doing much better about not letting these moments escalate into a full on argument though. We both take a breath now and stop ourselves from going too far, but it can get tense, and again, small spaces don’t help.

As the day wore on though we both settled in and the weather cleared up during dinner. Lee was doing the dishes (I had cooked a chicken and wild rice dish which was OK but not recipe page worthy) and there came a knock on the door. We have been up on this cliff side plateau by ourselves for a whole week. We’re not sure why no one else is staying here, but that’s OK with us because we have this huge space all to ourselves, so I was a bit surprised when I looked out the window and Linda asked if we were up for company. She had a loaf of zucchini bread in her hand and a huge smile on her face and my initial thought was “What a pleasant surprise!” and my second thought was “Oh shit, I am a mess!”. They had just come from having dinner with an RVing couple that read Howard’s blog and Linda looked awesome. I, on the other hand, although showered, was wearing orange shorts, a wrinkled green T-Shirt, and messy hair. I looked vaguely like a rumpled pumpkin. As a general rule I don’t care much about stuff like that, but the rig was on the cluttered side as well. I have never been a great house cleaner and although it is much easier to clean in the small rig it’s also easier to make a mess and those who know me understand I am a messy cook. (Commentary redacted. – Lee) I suppose I could have asked them to stay outside, many people would have, but inviting people into my home who visit is deeply ingrained in my midwestern character so invite them in I did. I did straighten up for a few seconds until Linda kindly said “Let’s just sit down.” and finally I mentally shrugged and thought; the hell with it. We are friends now and it’s probably no secret that I lean towards the messy and just because you could literally eat off Linda’s floor doesn’t mean my floor has to be spotless. By the way, this little melodrama was playing largely in my head, I am sure they didn’t even notice, and certainly didn’t care. All I can say is sometimes my Grandmother’s voice is strong in my head. Lovely woman and a major role model in my life, but her house was always spotless and mine is definitely not. (Additional commentary also redacted. – Lee)

Howard and Lee split our last piece of pie (very unusual for Lee to share pie; he must really like Howard) and Linda and I had a glass of wine which chilled me out quite a bit. Then Lee went outside and built a great fire away from the rig and we sat outside talking for hours. They are really interesting people, great listeners, and provide wonderful insight. Plus, since they have been through many of the things we are now going through, it’s wonderful to hear on occasion, “Yes, we survived that, and came out better as a couple on the other side.”. We also had a beautiful near full moon, and I had bought this small package of campfire color minerals which added some really neat blues and greens to the fire. It was a great night and when I went inside to grab Linda’s purse for her saw it was 11:45pm. We were all surprised it was that late and we got to wish Howard a “happy birthday in 15 minutes” before they left. We are having a joint Lee/Howard birthday dinner on Thursday, which I am really looking forward to since it turns out Howard and Lee’s birthday’s are one day apart. Wednesday however is another rain day so we will see how we get through that first!

Lee making the fire

Everyone talking around the fire

Look to the right for the blue flames

Really beautiful moon

Lessons Learned

If you are having low water pressure it might be a regulated spigot and not the water pressure itself
If your drain spot is dripping water on the slide out you should find a way to route it away from the rig.
Water in the slide out can warp/rot the particle board. It’s very important to keep an eye on this.
If you are going to cut a hole in the corrugated plastic make sure it’s large enough to freely move your head. Also use underbelly tape.
If your husband if working under the rig and calls you, take the call!!

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July 27, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Eagles and Waterfalls

Saturday Linda and Howard had to finish up their hours at the farm, so Lee and I decided to explore the area a bit. (This has nothing to do with me talking to Howard for hours. Clearly they slacked off on their own time. – Lee) Usually I come to a new area with a list of things to do, but with the wedding I didn’t have any time to research. So I really wanted to get oriented. Linda had recommended the Kabetogama Lake Visitors center so that was our first stop. Mike, the ranger, was extremely nice and I really liked the center. It had lots of good information, some exhibits, and a cool place for kids to learn. Plus I got a Voyageurs National Park T-Shirt for $15…nice quality and a good price! (Plus she looks really hot in it. – Lee)

Visitors Center

This beaver exhibit was pretty neat and educational. Later I saw an unusal beaver dam and recognized it because of this display.

Next we decided to visit the nearest town Littlefork (pop 641) and check out the hardware store and grocery store. Little Fork is the home of Jackpine Savage which according to the urban dictionary is “A person descending from northern Minnesota’s iron range that does all things to satisfy their instantaneous desire. They can be found wearing winter boots year round and carrying multiple guns.” Might be why they had this statue downtown next to the hardware store.

Oh yes I sat on the chair!!

Polkinghorne’s Hardware (the home of Hardware hank) was great. It takes you back to a time when hardware stores provided a little bit of everything and this one did not disappoint. We spent at least an hour wandering through the store and ended up spending about $80 on some reasonably priced items that both filled a need and helped support the local economy. The local grocery store was small but had most of my favorite items and the prices again were not bad considering. Plus, the staff at the grocery store, J&D Family Foods, was incredibly nice and even walked our groceries out to the car for us. Haven’t seen that level of service in a really long time. My only disappointment was the local liquor store which is really 2/3 bar and a tiny liquor for sale area. They call them On & Off stores up here which I have never seen and unfortunately their selection was really teeny tiny. Tried to buy a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon there for Linda but they hardly had any wine. We liked the town though, wide streets, just a few shops, and although it was small it was very neat and tidy. (It was a Saturday, right around noon, and the place was like a ghost town. No sound at all. I felt like I was in a Twilight Zone episode. I like towns like that. – Lee)

Grocery Store

Very strange liquor store

Grovery store carried a little bit of everything

Had key cutting and UPS shipment in the back

I loved this bridal registry, no high tech here just a display (Check out the grooms last name that was funny)

I loved this bridal registry, no high tech here just a display (Check out the grooms last name, I wonder if she’ll change hers)

We bought this new skillet because our shallower one was spilling when we aren't completely level

We bought this new skillet because our shallower one was spilling when the RV isn’t completely level

It was nice wandering around a bit and on the way back to the camper we stopped and saw Moose Lake. The picture absolutely does not do it justice as it is a perfect round little lake. Unfortunately we didn’t see a moose in it, but I absolutely could picture what it would look like if we had. (There was a moose, I think he was scuba diving. – Lee)

Moose Lake

Sunday was the big day though and we were going on a hike with Howard and Linda. I was a bit intimidated because H&L are VERY experienced hikers, but Howard picked a moderate hike for us that had some amazing views. I had told him I don’t like to hike for the sake of hiking, for me I like to get to the end and see something and he picked the perfect spot. Also Linda had brought an extra set of hiking poles along so I could try them and after the initial awkwardness they really did help my back not to hurt. For the first time I carried a backpack (Lee carried the camera as he shot video along the way) and it was packed with many of the items Linda had recommended. I had a small first aid pack, some snacks, a light lunch, and following Linda’s example a “pee pack”. A “pee pack” is basically a ziplock bag with some wipes if you have to pee along the trail. I’ve never carried one before but it made a ton of sense to me, so the pee pack is now standard hiking equipment. It’s really great hiking with experienced people because you learn a ton. Linda talked me through several “rough” spots on the trail showing me how she used her poles to balance and both Howard and Linda pointed out little things I never would have seen like the remains of a pine cone a squirrel ate, raspberries, and juniper.

Linda showing me how to use the poles

As my sister says I am stylin lol

Raspberries were yummy

Howard says these aren’t blueberries. They are blue and look like berries I don’t get it 🙂

I followed closely behind Linda watching what she was doing

Linda and I taking a break on a bench

Although Linda and Howard significantly slowed down their pace, it was still pretty brisk for us and the 91 degree heat was not helping. I haven’t sweat that much in a long time, but I was determined to keep up and get the hang of this hiking thing. Early in the hike (when I still had breath to spare) I told Linda how disappointed I was that we hadn’t seen any eagles during our time in Minnesota. She was keeping an eye out though, and stopped and pointed out an eagle across the lake that I would never have seen. I was so excited I forgot about the heat and initial awkwardness of walking with the poles and stood transfixed.

First shot of an eagle

From that point on the walk was great. I was becoming more comfortable with the poles and there were several little places to stop and every single picture I took was beautiful. When a place is that gorgeous you just point and shoot.

One of my favorites

Howard sitting on a rock

A couple of boats went by but there were hardly any people

On one of the stops I doused my hair to cool down a bit

On one of the stops I doused my hair with very clean lake water to cool down a bit

After several stops, all more breathtaking than the last, we reached Vermillion Gorge itself. It did not disappoint. The water rushed through this great canyon gorge and we sat on the rocks and ate our lunch; another first for me. After getting a little protein kick, I had to see if I could reach the rocks below and was very happy that with care I could climb down. The view was so amazing and down below all you could hear was the rushing water. Very neat moment.

Stopping to eat lunch

Linda sitting on a rock enjoying the view

The gorge from the top

The gorge from ground level

Picture from the rocks below

Lee came down with me after a while

Great pic that Howard took for us

The moss was beautiful it looked like fairyland to me

After hanging out for a while we went back and Lee set a very brisk pace. Howard said he was like a cow going back to the barn which would have made me laugh if I had any breath for it. Finally, I cried uncle and asked for a break and then had Lee carry the pack the rest of the way. It was very hot on the way back I was glad when I saw the parking lot but Howard had one more surprise. He asked if I had one more short walk in me, and honestly for a moment I thought “No way!” but when he mentioned a waterfall I perked up. I love waterfalls, plus we got to ride in the air-conditioned truck for 10 miles before getting there, and then it was a very short walk to an amazing view of the Vermillion Falls. What was especially cool was that we had seen The Falls at Vermillion River in Hastings and now we were seeing the falls from the same river to the north. I liked these falls even better than the first though because they had a really neat rock “chute” that water was rushing through. Plus at the end there was, no kidding, one of the best views I have seen since starting this lifestyle. We sat on the rocks and put our feet in the water and I got very emotional for a moment. If nine months ago anyone had told me I would be sitting in that beautiful place and looking at that view with Howard and Linda I would have thought they were crazy. This lifestyle has truly exceeded my wildest expectations and I feel very blessed to be doing this.

Vermillion Falls

Water rushing though the chute

Amazing

Howard grabbing a pic

Enjoy the sun and foot massage ...doesn't get better than this

Enjoying thesun and foot massage …doesn’t get better than this

Lee decided to join in on the fun

The view that almost made me cry

And if that wasn’t enough, after we got back to the campground and ate and rested a bit, Howard took out one of the pontoon boats from the resort (they get to use them for free if no one is renting them) and Linda asked him to take me over to where the Eagles nest was. We got some amazing shots of a pair of eagles with a nest, watched the sunset, and towards the end I slipped into the water and took a quick swim in the lake. The lake was cool but comfortable and really dark and mysterious. It was beautiful, something I have always wanted to do, and instead of talking myself out of it, I just jumped right in, which really what this life is all about!!

Eagle in the tree

Eagle in the nest

The best closeup, I think Lee got this one

The resort viewed from the lake

Sunset

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July 26, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Hanging Out with Howard and Linda

After we dropped off the car Monday we had one more surprise before leaving Minneapolis. Sean, a young man who had worked for Lee at Cheshire TV years ago when it was brand new, reached out to us out of the blue and asked where we were in our travels. Sean left Keene and joined the Army six years ago, doing two tours in Afghanistan. His goal in joining the military was to make money to pay for farrier school, which was a lifelong dream of his. After his overseas tours he did a stint in Alaska and finally left the service to pursue his dream by attending a school in Nebraska. Through sheer coincidence (or no coincidence at all as I believe more in God/The universe than I do coincidence) he was heading back to Keene when we were in Minneapolis. So he rerouted himself and came to see us on Monday, which was the best of all possible days. Nick was still in town until Monday night and since he and Sean had worked together for a while he came over as well, and Lee had a great time with the guys until late in the evening. It was really wonderful seeing that Sean was doing so well and it was VERY nice of him to go out of his way to stop and see us.

Nick, Sean, and Lee

Tuesday morning we got up very early and made the drive up to Voyager National Park. Part of Lee’s compensation package for the video work is a campsite for the month and although we said we would make do with almost anything, Howard was very generous and put us in a high-end resort about four miles from where they are work kamping. The Pines at Kabetogama is right on beautiful Lake Kabetogama and a very popular spot for fishermen and boaters. We don’t fish and don’t own a boat, apart from our Sea Eagle kayak, but the views are absolutely spectacular. We had the choice of a few different sites upon arrival and ended up choosing Site #1 which generally goes for $60 a night. It’s a two level campground and our site is up on the cliff, which we really enjoy because the sites are larger and we have a bit of a view of the lake from our RV. Not to mention that of the fifteen or so sites on the cliff, when we got here there were only three other rigs, and they were all together. They were gone by Friday morning, so we’ve got the whole cliff top to ourselves, for now. The campground is in the process of being renovated though and the sites are set up a bit oddly. We ended up reversing our direction so that we were facing the woods and running the power and sewer under the rig. The sites up here are not quite level yet which has been a bit of a challenge, but we are working on re-positioning to fix that. So far the thing that impresses me most is the level of service you get here. Every employee is extremely nice and they have obviously gone out of their way to differentiate their offering from that of their neighbors. As usual, when we stay in a place for a while I like to wait until the end before completing my review, but I have to say that we are really pleased to be here.

View directly in front of our rig

Side view with a sliver of the lake between the trees

Open lots where they are working, not a huge fan of the gravel

This would have been our view if we didn’t park backwards

The cliff view down into the lower part of the campground

Before going on with the story though I should probably take a few minutes and explain how this all happened. I was first introduced to Howard’s blog RV-Dreams back when Lee was trying to convince me that the full timing lifestyle was actually possible for people our age who still needed to work. When he talked about living full-time in our rig I was fascinated by the concept but thought it was something only retired people could afford to do. So although I was intrigued and definitely open to the possibility of trying it someday, since our money over the years had largely gone into raising our children, I just didn’t believe it was possible for us. Lee persevered though and he found Howard’s journal and more importantly (at least initially) Howard’s budgets. He knew immediately that this was a person I could relate to and was smart enough to connect me with the blog and step back. I think it’s important to note, that to this point I had never read a blog in my life. I thought they were largely self-indulgent (funny now when I am so into writing my own) and never I felt I had the time or interest to follow anyone’s life that closely. Well, in no time at all, I was hooked. I devoured the blog, reading a month a day until I finished the preceding eight years and was caught up. At first I approached it as a research project, but as I read and learned I felt I got to know Howard as a person and frankly I found him interesting in his own right. I mean, here was a highly successful business man who had the guts to walk away from his professional life and start a new one in uncharted territory. I thought (and still do) that he and Linda were pioneers and I found that type of courage compelling aside from what I was learning about the lifestyle. At some point during the reading I discovered that they held educational seminars (or rally’s as they are called) and I knew I had to go. Again, highly unusual for me. I love Star Trek, for example, but have never felt compelled to go to a convention, but I knew I had to be at that rally.

Fast forward to the first rally in Tennessee and aside from meeting people I had touched base with in Howard’s RV-Dreams forum (another first for me), I was incredibly excited about meeting Howard in person and very interested to meet Linda. I was very pleased to learn that Linda is a full partner in RV-Dreams and I was incredibly relieved to see an example where the lifestyle was working for a strong, vibrant woman. Somewhere along the line in my research I was becoming concerned that I was going to need to turn into a 50’s house wife (no offense to anyone that was one as it was an incredibly hard job), to make this work, and that is simply not who I am. Seeing Linda thrive in a full-timers environment was one of the things that convinced me that I personally could do this. From that moment on I always wondered if we could be friends, she’s my kind of chick and we are of similar ages and all, but aside from one dinner we had while I was on a work trip during our whole process of getting ready we didn’t come into contact with each other.

Fast forward again to one year later and Lee and I were at the reunion rally. You may remember that at the reunion rally, Lee volunteered to shoot some video of the various activities at the rally. It was our way of paying back a little of what we felt Howard and Linda had given to us, plus Lee loves shooting video and he thought it would be fun. He made two “happy faces” videos for them and Howard and Linda really liked his work. It turned out that Howard was seriously considering having some video website content made and was looking into possible vendors. When he discovered what Lee could do he started thinking about some alternatives. Over the last few years Howard’s demographic is definitely shifting. Certainly there are still many retired folks becoming full timers but they are now joined by the 40 and 50 somethings who want to work on the road and be full-time. When Howard saw what Lee could do, they started meeting about the possibility of Lee doing some video work for his website. We always talked about video work being one of our revenue streams, but we’ve been so focused on getting the RV Tech business up and running that the video business was secondary. Howard truly saw the possibilities though and he also really likes to help working full-timers get started.

The day before we left, Linda called us and let us know she was making dinner for us. One of the etiquette rules I learned from them was when one person travels to another it’s nice to make dinner for the travelers. Travel days can be stressful and it’s nice to not have to worry about cooking a meal after setup. We went out to the farm where they are work kamping for the summer around 6pm and Linda made a great meal of baked spaghetti. Then we shared a campfire with them and talked for several hours. It was really fun and relaxed and exactly what I needed after a long wedding week. The next night Howard and Lee setup a business meeting at our place and I decided to cook. I will say this was more stressful in the beginning because like an idiot I decided to try two new recipes. The Minnesota Wild Rice Soup turned out beautifully (recipe below) but the Shrimp Stir Fry not so much. They were nice about it though (I am my harshest critic) but really I should have stuck with a previous winner for the main course. Afterwards we wandered down to the main campground where they have three large fire pits and a free fire every night. The sun setting was beautiful on the lake and again we had a really good time. I will say though that the pace of the last week finally caught up with me and I called it an early night.

Howard and Linda gave my soup two thumbs up

Great campfire and no wood required

Howard taking a picture of me taking a picture of him. You may see a lot of that 🙂

Loved the colors on the lake

Thursday, Howard and Linda caught up on work hours at the farm (both do 20 hours a week) and I caught up on some much-needed sleep. I took a really long nap and then went to bed at regular time and finally felt like myself again. Weddings are not for sissies! Friday though I sent Linda a text and invited her over for some time just her and I. Lee had gone earlier in the day and had a quick business meeting with them, but he stayed and talked to Howard and Linda came over and saw me. What a fantastic conversation. I was worried about whether it would take her a while to warm up to me, but Linda is a very honest and transparent person, which I love. Our several hour conversation ran the gamut from childhood to now and she cheerfully ate the night before’s leftovers when we ran into the dinner hour. What surprised both of us more is that Lee and Howard talked over at their place for the same amount of time. Finally at 8pm we drove over to “rescue” Howard and found him and Lee in a really deep conversation as well. We all stayed together until about 9:30 but then we finally went home. We left with plans to take a hike with them on Sunday (where I will get to hang out and Lee will start shooting video) and I am really looking forward to it. I am really looking forward to deepening these friendships over the next month and I know Lee is going to make some awesome videos. If this is what our future looks like, working and full timing, I am very excited about it!

Recipe

Minnesota Wild Rice Soup

1/2 cup uncooked Minnesota wild rice
1 large onion diced
8oz package chopped Portabello mushrooms
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
8 cups chicken broth
1 pint light cream or half-and-half

Add rice to two cups of water in a saucepan and simmer for 45 minutes. Put aside
Saute onions and mushrooms in butter in a large pan about 3 minutes or until vegetables soften
Stir in flour, cooking and stirring over medium heat until flour is fully mixed but NOT browned; set aside
Heat up 8 cups of chicken broth
Slowly add HOT chicken broth into vegetable-flour mixture until well blended
Stir in cooked rice
Season generously with salt and pepper; heat thoroughly NOTE: Soup can be prepared to this point, set aside then reheated before adding the half-and-half
Add 1 pint of half-and-half slowly stirring well and heating but do not boil
Serve

Minnesota Wild Rice Soup

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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.

July 25, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time with One Vehicle

One of the things that some people with a fifth wheel struggle with is whether or not to have a second vehicle. As you are getting rid of your stuff and selling your house, you might start talking about whether or not to keep a car. It truly is a big decision because it will impact the day-to-day logistics of your life, and to some extent, your budget. In our case it was a no brainer because I had a company car and the small monthly fee I paid included insurance and gas, so financially it was a really good deal. Plus, I worked many years to get to the point in my company where I qualified for a company car and frankly was in no big rush to give it up. So for the last 8 months, Lee has driven the truck/fifth wheel on travel days and I drove behind him. Where the second car will be is always a big discussion point. Our friend Kelly drives in front of Bill in their second car, and others (myself included) prefer to follow. Early on I was in front of him and we got separated once and that stressed me out so much that from that point on I would only follow. (That was actually a pretty cool experience. We were driving to Cori and Greg in PA, and somewhere we got separated; totally different roads. Because I was dangerously low on fuel, I didn’t want to try to turn around to find her, and I couldn’t navigate her over the phone, so I just told her where we were going, and that we would meet up there. After an hour or so, our roads converged again, and we were within a mile or so of each other. – Lee) Unfortunately I never found following him to be relaxing either. Lee tries to use cruise control as much as possible to help with safety and fuel economy, but traffic, construction, and just general road speeds cause you to speed up and slow down more than you would think. (Not to mention the fact that even with more truck than we need, using cruise control I generally climb hills a little slower than a car, and coast down hills faster, so she’s constantly having to adjust to keep a reasonable distance behind. – Lee) So I am looking at the back of this big rig (I have it memorized) and would really need to watch his speed constantly. If I lagged more than 1-1/2 cars behind, other cars were always jumping the space between us as well. Plus it just wasn’t a great view. (That’s just rude. I have a nice butt. – Lee) Some of these drive days can be long (although we try as much as possible to keep them short hops) and I missed seeing the vistas. In a nutshell, we tried every combination and I never found one that I was totally comfortable with.

The larger problem though for me was how two vehicles limited my flexibility on when to drive. The best time to drive obviously is midweek after morning traffic and before rush hour, but those are prime work hours and I never felt right about driving too much during them. I am a salary employee and apart from scheduled conference calls I can work whatever hours I need to, but I didn’t like being away from email for so long. On the few days we traveled mid-week I would stop at every break and lunch and check emails, but it just added a lot of extra pressure for me to an already stressful travel day. As a side note, Lee and I still find travel days pretty stressful, but they have gotten much better as we have gotten a routine down and Lee has simplified the tasks I need to do on the inside to minimize the time. (Tweaking the pack/unpack process to simplify and speed it up has been one of my favorite things about moving around. I love process improvement. – Lee) Still, imagine you are driving to some place you have never been, on roads you are not familiar with. You need to make sure you map out places to stop for gas (not always easy in more rural areas) and rest stops (I have to stop every two hours or so for a bathroom break) and lunch (try to find a nice place you can eat inside the rig to keep costs down) and then add to that “Oh honey, I just got an important conference call thrown on my schedule and we need to stop at 2:30 for it!”, and it gets pretty complicated. (I highly recommend a few apps for this. Pilot/Flying J have a great trip planner app that shows you their locations on your route, and gives you detailed info on each location, including if they have RV lanes, propane refills, fresh water fill, dump station, etc. iExit is another great app that tracks your location and tells you where rest stops are, as well as what is at every exit. The best feature of that app is that it knows which direction you are travelling, so doesn’t tell you about rest stops that are on the opposite side that you can’t get to. – Lee) Lee was totally awesome about it though and incredibly sensitive to the fact that work always had to come first. I am sure there were times he got extremely frustrated with the restrictions but he truly never said a word about it, just taking the logistical challenges and making them work. But really the simplest and least stressful thing was to travel on days off or weekends which we tried to do as much as possible. The down side to that of course is that I was losing some of my precious off time.

As we explore this lifestyle we have adopted as a couple this idea that we are collecting data. We try things in different combinations and if it doesn’t work out, oh well, we got some good data. That attitude about things has helped us tremendously because rarely do we feel like we have failed when things don’t go well, instead we collect the data that a particular set of circumstances doesn’t work for us and really, how could we have known without doing it first? The full-time RV lifestyle is so subjective that you can only learn so much from others experiences. Often you have to try a thing to see if you like it or not and that’s totally fine, it’s all part of the “There is no one true way” mentality. So after we collected the data over eight months I decided to turn in the second vehicle. This was 100% my decision and although I was leaning in that direction already, the timing catalyst was my company completely refreshing our fleet, which meant I would be getting a new car in July. That sounds like a good thing, who doesn’t want a brand new car, especially one you get for free, right? Well not really, because I am now a “resident” of Florida and Florida requires onsite VIN verification for initial registration of a vehicle, so I would need to fly down to Florida, pick up the car and get it registered, then drive it back to Minnesota where I needed to be for the wedding. Basically I decided God/the universe was trying to tell me something and it seemed a perfect time to just turn the car in. Luckily, my company has offices in every major city across the country, so all I needed to do was drop the car, key, and fuel card off at the Minneapolis office. I have to mention here that my boss has been really great about all of this. He didn’t even blink when I told him I wanted to turn the car in and he seems to have a really good handle on the fact that I am moving every month or so. So Monday morning (after all the family left Sunday) I went back to work and Lee and I headed into Minneapolis very early to drop off the car. Dropping off the car itself was painless, the two hours worth of traffic each way not so much, but when it was done I did feel a bit “lighter” about the whole thing.

One thing I talked to Lee about in advance is how I would react to feeling like I didn’t have a vehicle. We haven’t shared a car for 23 years and our truck has been his vehicle since we bought it. I knew I might have an emotional reaction, especially since I was coming off the emotions of my daughter’s wedding, and gave him a heads up to please be sensitive about it. (This is new behavior btw, in the old days I would have just expected him to recognize all that and act accordingly and then get mad if he didn’t do it…frankly life is too short for that nonsense). Not only did he listen but he acted. When I stepped into the truck he had set aside one of the sunglasses holders for me. (MY truck has two sunglasses holders. One for my primary set, and one for my spare. Now she’s hogging one of them. I have no idea where to put my spare set. Might need to get a new truck. – Lee) He also set up a phone cradle on the window and a charger cable. Very cool. (Very difficult for me to see out of that lower right corner of the windshield now. I hope I don’t have an accident because of that, and dent my truck. And now I need to go buy a new power outlet. Her phone, iPad and iPod are going to be eating up a lot of power outlets. And power. I might have to get a bigger truck just to handle all the power drain. Also, while it’s fresh in my mind, I should mention that her iPod is packed with questionable music choices, about which there will be much discussion and debate before she accepts that it won’t be played in my truck. Also also, no romance audio books. I’m uncomfortable with that kind of dirty talk. Especially if it’s about Amish people. I’m sure it won’t take long before she’s storing shoes in there, too. – Lee) Plus he had done a considerable amount of research and bought a mobile laptop mount, the same kind that are used in police cars, and as soon as he could he installed it for me. (It’s really self-defense. Otherwise I would be balancing her laptop on the steering wheel while she played Candy Crush worked. – Lee) Now I have my own little office space in the truck with laptop, Wi-Fi, and phone and I can work while we are driving if we chose to. I am really excited about it because this completely opens up our flexibility when traveling. I will still want to be in one place if I have an important call that I am running, but 90% of my work can now be done from the vehicle. Will I miss having the second vehicle, I am sure I will and there will be a financial impact for sure, but we are going to try it this way, collect some data, and if we want we can always buy another car. It’s not like they quit making them.

(All kidding aside,the laptop mount is very, very cool. It’s made by RAM Mounts, which sounds very masculine and strong, and that’s important. They also have a ton of other things that travelers might find useful. Do not blame me if you spend your money on cool stuff, instead of squandering it on food and insurance. There is a “no drill” version for pretty much every vehicle in existence, and for the rest, you can either create holes and tap them or have that done to do the installation. They’re pricey, but I think they’re worth it, even for people who don’t work from their vehicle. You can use a computer to plan routes, look things up, watch a movie, play video games, whatever. The instructions recommend that the driver not do any of these things while driving, which I think is pretty bossy and fascist, but whatever. Installation took me less than half an hour once I had everything together that I needed. They are very solid and infinitely adjustable. I do NOT recommend going with a cheaper “consumer” product. They just won’t hold up. More info below on how it works. – Lee)

Loving my new truck office. (This is totally fake, she’s not even working.)

Sexy, isn’t it?

The base is installed by removing the two front bolts that hold the seat to the car, and then replacing them with included standoffs and longer bolts.

The mounting platform is then bolted to the base. The kit includes stabilizer feet to go between the base and the car floor if there’s too much “wiggle” from the length and the “top heaviness” of the system.

The vertical upright post is in two pieces, and can be easily adjusted for height and swivel using a gigantic knob. Then there’s a “swing arm” with another slightly smaller knob that allows to further fine tune the position, and distance from the user, and finally, the tray mount is attached using a very large ball mount that allows to adjust the tilt, angle and roll of the “desk” to literally any position. Everything is big, and as a result, there’s tons of surface area on anything that grips. It would take a gorilla to move this thing once it’s locked it place, and there’s no room in the truck for a gorilla with all of Tracy’s crap, and shoes and stuff.

The laptop is held to the desk via four rubber padded grip arms that can be placed anywhere on the sides of the desk to allow for ports and air vents. The top is spring-loaded so putting the laptop on and taking it off takes just a second or two. The whole rig is very strong and stable. There is some “bounce” and “wiggle” because it’s top-heavy and things that don’t flex break, but it’s not bad.

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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.

Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Uncategorized

First Work Trip from the “Middle of Nowhere”

Lessons Learned

Crossing into Canada

Lessons Learned

July 2015 Budget

Another Moon Filled Night

Recipes

Quick Pickle Ribbons

First Time at a Bear Sanctuary

Lee’s First Birthday on the Road

Recipe

Linda’s Lovely Lasagna

Lee Hates Rainy Days

Lessons Learned

Eagles and Waterfalls

First Time Hanging Out with Howard and Linda

Recipe

Minnesota Wild Rice Soup

First Time with One Vehicle