May 6, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

April 2015 Budget

I made some changes to the budget this month. We have been struggling with how to show prepaid campground fees. We are prepaying more often than we originally thought we would, and having the costs show up in the month we prepay instead of the month they will occur doesn’t show a completely accurate picture. Craig (who used to run his own small business) made an excellent suggestion. We have a $1,000 campground fund set aside now in a separate bank account and when we prepay we take the money from that account and then pay it back in the month we stay at the campground. This solves the cash flow issue I was concerned about and allows us to register the costs in the month we take the benefit. I have gone back and changed some categories over the last few months so that the annual totals are correct. I am not going to go back and change the posts for the first few months. There are limits to the amount of work I am willing to put in on this!

A couple of other things I wanted to mention before I get into the details of how we did. I really am astounded by how much our communication regarding money has improved over the last few months. We not only review how we are doing twice a month, but have constructive conversations around our expenses. The change in our relationship in this area is such an incredible side benefit to this lifestyle. So I would recommend budgeting even if you are in a position where you don’t need to closely track your costs. It’s good to know what you are spending your money on in any lifestyle, but especially when full timing because the costs are quite different from a traditional “sticks and bricks” lifestyle.

We ran a little over this month, but considering the amount of fun we have had it was well worth it. The overage was predominantly all of the one time Florida registration/drivers license fees. We also had to scramble to change some campground reservations when we had to extend our St. Augustine visit for an extra week. Unfortunately this led to losing the deposit at Skidaway (time frame too short for a refund), but surprisingly we actually were under in the campground category for the month. The grocery category was over by $126 (not surprising with all the group meals we have been doing), but we gained some of that back by being under in the dining out category. As a side note I really appreciate the group understanding we are tightly budgeted and not pressuring us to go out to eat frequently. People offer but are totally fine with us declining and they have been very accommodating about eating out as a lunch instead of the more expensive dinner.

Once again we are over in the Home Improvement category, but since Lee did some customization on our windows so they push out farther and we get a nicer breeze it’s hard for me to complain. We also spent $213 for the vinyl lettering on our rig. I put this money in Miscellaneous rather than home improvement because, well, I wanted to. Have to say I adore the lettering, Lee did an excellent job, and I would spend that money again in a second. Another side note: I already have a new blog follower because she saw the lettering on our RV at Ocean Waves, read the blog, and liked it!!!

April 2015 Budget

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May 3, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at an Adventure Park

A couple of months ago we made the plans to come to OBX, and opened it up to anyone who had extra time before the RV-Dreams reunion rally. Everyone’s schedule was very different and although 8 of us were available for the whole month, others were going to try to come for just part of the time. I’ve been really excited about seeing Guy and Sue, because I haven’t seen them since we all met a year ago and they had the longest delayed “launch” of any couple. They have been waiting for their house to sell this entire time and Guy continued working and Sue continued hoping through the long winter. Finally Guy’s doctor said the time had come to retire, and they decided they had waited long enough. So the last couple of months they have been traveling, visiting family, and getting used to the lifestyle, and they decided to reroute their plans and spend a couple of weeks here in OBX with us. All I can say about Sue is that in a room full of interesting people, she stood out. She has this great energy she carries with her and I can’t wait to compare notes on how things have been going over the last year. Here’s my favorite pic of Sue from the Rally (it was Kentucky Derby night) and seriously anyone who has access to a hat like this let alone can pull it off is someone I want to hang out with.

Sue…really the picture says it all

Sue and Guy are also taking advantage of this time to add a solar system onto their rig, and who better to do it than our friend Greg, owner of RV Solar Solutions. Lee’s going to be taking some video of the entire process so Greg will have some videos to use for his website. It was a great week, but I am getting ahead of myself a little and should start back at the beginning.

Sunday was a rainy day. Actually we had several rainy days in a row. We all love being here during the “shoulder season” because the crowds are minimal and the weather is beautiful on many days, but we did have a string of rainy/cloudy days this week. So I decided to go looking for a mother’s dress for my daughter’s upcoming wedding, threw it out to the group, and Kelly came with me. One of the many great things about Kelly is that she’s up for almost anything. We had a nice afternoon in Duck, NC going into small boutique shops and talking. Kelly is a really nice person. She didn’t mind the cold or the hour drive each way, she was just happy to help out a friend. Although we didn’t find anything, I did get some ideas and it was nice to see the Duck area which is where many of the wealthier people live in OBX. Worth the drive just to see some of the houses. Crazy money though…we saw a small inland lot (no house on it) for example for $299K. We also stopped at First Flight Adventure Course on the way back and Kelly and I both decided we wanted to do it so we scheduled some time the following Saturday…but more of that later.

Work was pretty busy this week so long days in the rig, but every night we joined together for appetizers, drinks, and sometimes dinner. Cori took on coordinating the food schedule (God love her) and it’s turned into more of a challenge than any of us thought. We have a calendar schedule, but then the girls have to talk about it every night to make sure we have the basics covered. Otherwise you end up with all vegetables and no meat or vice versa. Plus since the grocery store is so far away, we need to pre-plan a bit to have the ingredients we need. It’s a bit of a pain, but the dinners themselves are so fun we don’t want to stop doing it. I actually think it would be much easier with more or less people. With 4 you split it in half and with a larger group there are plenty of dishes so less coordination needed. Even on Bring your Own Grill night we are coordinating the sides somewhat so like I said it takes more coordination than I think anyone counted on. Still I love it personally. Cori did divide the schedule up with some “On Your Own” nights which is great. Each couple can go out to dinner, or eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich if they want to and that has given us an opportunity to break up into smaller groups, which is nice for some deeper conversations.

So Sunday night we hung out with Cori and Greg and then Monday night with Bill and Kelly. Tuesday we all celebrated meeting each other at the Sevierville rally with appetizers and a potluck followed by an excellent fire on the beach and Jo’s famous Cinnamon rolls for a late dessert. Jo even sent Howard and Linda from RV-Dreams a picture of all of us waving on our one year anniversary which was pretty neat since they are right now back in Sevierville with a whole new group.

Anniversary Potluck

So nice to see Cori having such a good time

Cori having a really good time..the stress is melting off her 🙂

Craig eating one of Bill’s excellent chicken wings while Hobie stares hopefully

Jo sent this picture to Howard and Linda

Craig’s fire was art

Lee, Craig, Jo. and Kelly

Lee loves the fire

This is not as dangerous as it looks

Really nice fire

Jo’s excellent Splenda Cinnamon Rolls

The week was going great and then Sue said they had rearranged some things and would be in OBX on Thursday!!! Very cool. We scrambled a bit to have a travel day dinner for them. One of my favorite RV etiquette rules is that you cook for whomever is visiting you on their travel day since travel days are so crazy. Nothing fancy, just hot and filling food since travel days also require some physical activity. Cori volunteered to make her shredded pork since she had pork loin in her freezer (I am seriously jealous of her residential refrigerator) and the rest of us pitched in.

I went to Urgent Care for the first time ever, for a sustained earache, and it turned out it was from a flight I took with a bad head cold a few weeks ago and should resolve itself over time. It was OK. The wait was about an hour but the doctor and nurse were nice and there was no issue taking my insurance. Lee went to get the oil changed on my car, and to the dentist for a routine cleaning, and did not have such a good experience. Even though they said they could get him in right away he waited 1-1/2 hours for a 10 minute oil change. Not great, but we are limited in the places we can go because of my fleet coverage, and there are no chain oil change places to be found in the Outer Banks. The dentist was worse. There was only one Aetna choice, Michael Morgan, DDS in Kitty Hawk. I was placed on hold when making the appointment for 8-1/2 minutes but was thrilled that they had an appointment at 10am on Thursday for the cleaning. Lee said the office had older equipment, but the cleaning and exam seemed competent. The problem is when he went to leave they demanded he pay for the cleaning even though he had the insurance card and it’s covered by insurance. Then they stated it would be $130 but when he pulled out our HSA medical Visa they immediately changed the amount to $75. NOT cool. I ended up calling Aetna and registering a complaint. Not so much because of the $75 but more because of the principle of the thing. I have had wonderful experiences with Aetna over the years and frankly expect more from their in-house providers.

So Lee and I were both pretty cranky when Sue and Guy rolled in, but just seeing them was so exciting I had to give her a huge hug. They had a tough morning having gotten stuck in the mud at a campsite earlier, and were super relieved to be here. We tried to give them some time to settle but everyone was so excited to see them it was tough not to converge on them. So we met around 5pm for dinner and drinks and the meal was hot and filling. Cori makes awesome pulled pork! Then we sat outside (eventually moving into Cori and Greg’s party bus) and we talked and laughed and laughed until 9pm. At one point Cori and I tried to have a little meeting to talk about what was happening the next few days but that got out of hand quickly. Lee is a complete rabble rouser and made the whole crowd VERY unruly. Eventually though we got through it and to share the schedule I will put it below. It’s important to note that any person or couple has the right to opt out of anything at any time…and it may seem like over-scheduling but with work schedules and so many people I don’t know a better way to do it. So here’s the email I sent out. As a side note I was trying to find some time to talk to my daughter about her wedding plans and when I was going through the schedule she said ,”Are you at camp?” My reply, “Yes honey, adult camp with lots of booze thrown in!!”

Friday night – Lee is making chicken, I am making green beans, Kelly is making REAL mashed potatoes, and Cori is making desert. Sue is organizing a game.
Saturday morning around 9 am – Kelly is making breakfast with Cori’s assist
Saturday afternoon leaving for the Adventure Park at noon
Saturday Night – Derby Night. Cori has sliders, Sue has Black Bean dip (so my husband will hush about it), I have deviled eggs and stuffed cherry tomatoes, Kelly and Jo are still deciding. Cori is organizing a game
Sunday leave for Ocracoke Ferry at 8am. Lunch is on the island and then everyone on their own for dinner
Monday is grill your own meat night…sometimes we like to coordinate sides for this but it’s hard …maybe everyone brings their own sides this time???
Tuesday is Cinco de Mayo with Jo and Greg providing the food and Lee and Guy providing the music (just kidding on the last part, although I would like to see Lee actually hold the guitar at least. Bill is making margaritas!!
Weds is on your own.

Friday night was fun. Lee’s chicken was a resounding success and even though it was cold and rainy, Cori and Greg opened their rig for us all to eat inside. We brought over several folding tables and the 10 of us fit quite comfortably for the dinner and the game we played after. I am pretty sure Sue’s job will be Master of Games because we played Left, Right, Center which is a very simple dice game that had a “gambling” element that made it very fun. You start with three quarters and roll the number of dice for the number of quarters you have left. Your quarters get passed to the left or right, or stay with you or go in the center pot depending upon what you roll. So there’s lots of trading back and forth of quarters and basically whoever has the last quarter wins what is in the pot. I think there was $7 on the table but some competitive spirits came out and it was easy and a lot of fun. The coolest thing about the game is because it’s simple it doesn’t take a ton of mental attention so you can keep the conversation flowing and still play.

Craig and Jo

Playing Left Right Center..I think Greg is winning

I think we were all pretty sick of the rain by this point, but the forecast calls for beautiful weather the rest of the week and Kelly, Lee, and I were all excited about the First Flight Adventure Course on Saturday. To start the day, Kelly made a breakfast of biscuits and gravy which is Lee’s absolute favorite. I don’t care for it so rarely make it, but my Mom used to make it for him every Christmas we were together. It was awesome, she and Cori put on quite a spread. Then we left to go to the adventure park. It was an absolutely phenomenal experience and worth every penny of the $49 it cost. I’m going to walk you through it step by step though because I truly hope if you have a chance to do this or something similar you do. What you don’t see in the pictures is Bill (Kelly’s husband) who had done something similar about 10 years ago and agreed to take our pictures. He did an outstanding job, especially considering he had to stay outside the action zone a hundred yards away, and shoot through lots of rope and cable and other obstacles. Lee and I are really grateful that he was there to capture the moment.

First we got in and signed releases, were weighed (250# limit and they weigh you on site) and then got suited up. A huge group of kids came along with girls from a bachelorette party, but it’s such a large course it really didn’t feel crowded. The course is divided into three height sections with two courses per height. The higher you go the harder it is and you can stop at any time or use your two-hour block to repeat courses you liked. The staff was fantastic… adult, competent, and extremely encouraging.

Kelly is a little nervous

Kelly getting pysched up

Me, Lee, and Kelly outside the course

It is a requirement that each person complete one of the lowest level courses and then you can go to any level you like. We let the young kids go first and watched a bit and then tackled the first course. Kelly was tentative at first, but we had her go after me and before Lee and she soon got the hang of it. We were all really encouraging of each other and helped each other along. Every course has both a physical and mental component. There is a “trick” to making them easier and we definitely learned from each others successes and “oopses”. This would be a great place to conduct a team building exercise as the three of us totally bonded on that course. It was very cool.

After the initial run we all started to get more confidence and the smiles started to come out. Don’t get me wrong there were some tough ones in there, but we all started to really enjoy ourselves and after 1 and 2 we moved up to the second level and challenges 3 and 4.

You have to stop periodically and keep your tether in front of you which can be a challenge if you need two hands

Going a little too fast

Ooops got a little cocky

Kelly strolling across the tight wire

I had a hard time with this one but Lee and Kelly did great

I had a hard time with the fish one but Lee and Kelly did great

This was my favorite one...the bachlorettes were scared of it and I said "Hey two 50 year old women are doing this " A couple tried it after that

This was my favorite one…the bachelorettes were scared of it and I said “Hey, two 50 year old women are doing this ” A couple of the girls tried it after that

Look at Kelly moving with authority so awesome

Lee’s rocking it

At the end of every challenge you got to zip line back to the center as a reward

These barrels look easier than they were

I was all excited about the boat until I got on it

Standing is NOT recommended

Kelly learned from my mistake and sailed right through

My least favorite of the 2nd level challenges

Holding on for dear life

These were super wobbly but fun I giggled through the whole thing

So we finished 1-4 and Lee and Kelly (who are smart) decided they were done. I thought I would like to go up and try #5. I would say if I did this again I would either stop at 4 or try 5 earlier in session as I was getting tired and the highest level was MUCH harder.

I got across these but my tether was on the wrong side and had to untangle myself. Not easy on a spinning loop

These weren’t so bad ..you had to swing from one to another just required some coordination

The first two obstacles were hard but the third was brutal. It required a commando crawl across a rope. I am familiar with how to do it…every military movie shows it and I thought of my daughter in the Air Force and decided to give it a go. Unfortunately for the first time height came into play as you are staring straight down, plus I ran out of arm strength 2/3 of the way through and had to use my legs to scootch the rest of the way. I am proud of myself for doing it, but I was really scared and had to take a minute to compose myself. I was facing away from Kelly and Lee but forgot Bill was on the ground taking pics. Still these really do capture how I was feeling in that moment.

So I am halfway across and Lee told me later Kelly asked him if he thought I would quit. Lee said, “Not a chance in hell.” Which is incredibly sweet but I probably would have if there was an easy way to get down. But it was back or forward, and given those choices I will always pick forward so I took a breath and kept going. Kelly and Lee talked me through the next one, because the center platform tilts sideways so you have to keep perfectly center or you’re going to get dropped some. I understand it’s mainly mental…you are on a guide wire after all, but it’s still scary when you drop.

Started ok

Caught up

Not looking good

Yelled “Made It Bill” and he yelled back “Wait till you see the next one

I blew him a kiss rather than the alternative of flipping him off which I seriously considered 🙂

Lee and Kelly looking on

The 2nd to last one was designed by a sadist because the things you put your feet on roll under you. Finnally I said screw it and sat on one and then moved my butt from one to another which was still not easy but at least possible. The last one had rings to use to pull yourself across which I flat out couldn’t do so I glided down to the next platform instead. Overall I am glad I tried but I think I’ll take credit for completing 4-1/2 courses. Still keep in mind you can stop at any level you want and go back and redo your favorites. We still had 20 minutes left on our time, but we were all pooped out so decided to stop. It was an amazing experience and I am so glad I got to do it.

Whew

Thanks heavens I’m done

And if that wasn’t enough Cori organized a Derby party for Saturday night. We all made appetizers and had a nice time watching the race on Cori and Greg’s outside TV. Tomorrow is Ocracoke with the group…but we will have to save that for next week’s post.

Derby Party

Day 3 of the Black and White Photography Challenge

The Black and White Challenge asks bloggers to post 5 consecutive blogs with a black and white photo. I recommend my long time friend Ted Julian to take up the challenge since he is a new blogger who is writing about his camping experiences with his wife and young kids. This week, Lee taught me about shadows and encouraged me to take the same pictures at different times of the day to get different shadow effects. This was taken in the evening and I really like how it turned out.

Day Three of the Black and White Photo Challenge

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April 28, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Changing Relationships

So here I am on Monday morning, awake at 3am…not sure why I can’t sleep…I’m not upset or anything, but I woke up with a thought and I felt I wanted to use the time to write about it. The thought was that you could take your current relationship and plop it into an RV and live your life or you could use this lifestyle as a catalyst for change. Any couple that is solid and stable enough to stay the same through this process, more power to you, but we are finding that the change in scenery is also changing our relationship. The thought doesn’t upset me, and despite the evidence to the contrary it doesn’t keep me up at night, because as Lee says, the change is an organic one and at least for us it’s part of this whole process. We started all of this by recognizing that being empty nesters was barreling down on us and we needed to make some changes as a couple to survive that. I’m serious about that…despite being married for 25 years, knowing each other since we were 14 and 16, and truly liking each other, we both saw the handwriting on the wall so to speak that because we had drifted apart if we didn’t take steps to remedy that we would eventually be in trouble. Neither of us are people who settle in life. We both want and even demand high levels of quality in our relationships, each other, our work situations, our children etc. It doesn’t make us easy people and we certainly weren’t easy parents, but I think that this desire for excellence comes from the right place. We want to be better and have always demanded as much from ourselves as we have from others.

So we knew we would never be the couple that stay married and just sort of tolerate each other. I can see how people drift into that, though. Once the kids are gone and financial pressure lessens, and life in general gets easier, it’s nice, and you don’t want to rock the boat. You relax a bit, get complacent, and then next thing you know you stop working at your relationship. As all things without change, the marriage gets stagnant and ultimately the people themselves get stagnant or they go looking outside the marriage for what they are not finding within it. We’ve all seen it and many of us have experienced it, so Lee and I were acutely aware of what could happen and decided in advance we wanted to do what we could to head it off at the pass. There are lots of reasons people start full-time RVing. The desire for adventure, wanting to live with less rules, the need for simplicity in their life, there are a myriad of reasons. But for me the absolute number one reason was a desire to strengthen my marriage. Let me be absolutely clear here…we were not in trouble. Things were good, probably better than they have ever been for us, but as I said I could see down the path of what could be and since absolutely nothing is more important to me than my relationship with my husband, I wanted to do everything I could to give us the best chance possible.

It’s interesting because this lifestyle was a huge risk. It has put levels of pressure on our marriage that we haven’t felt since we were very young adults with babies, but that pressure feels to me like the pressure needed to make a diamond. For those of you going through it, you’ll get it, but let me try to explain: You take two people who love each other, are friends, and have known each other for a long time. You take most of their stuff away from them, put them in a 400 square foot box, and make them live together while changing their exterior environment frequently. Wow. Put that way it sounds like a reality show. But stripped down to its basics that is really what we are doing here. Yes, we get to see amazing places, yes we are checking bucket list items off left and right, but when those things aren’t happening we are living our regular day-to-day life and the rules above apply. So the rewards are amazing but it can be extremely hard. But as Lee and I often remind ourselves, nothing in our life that was ever worth anything came without a cost. To quote Tom Hanks from the movie A League of Their Own, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”

It has been hard on our relationship these last few months but it’s also been great for our relationship. We are talking more to each other than we have since we were young together and trying to figure it all out. We are challenging each other to be better. And most importantly we are loving each other more deeply. So respectfully, for those couples who have taken their old relationship and plopped it into this new life intact, you might be missing out on a great opportunity here. It’s scary to mess with something that matters so much and tough to meddle, especially when it isn’t broken, but the reward in this case (in my opinion) is well worth the risk.

Day 2 of the Black and White Photography Challenge

I am participating in the Black and White Blog photography challenge where every post for 5 posts I am showing a black and white photo along with nominating a friend to also participate. Today I nominate Cori Young, my very good friend who has a new camera and a new blog to take up the challenge.

I’m really enjoying taking these black and white photos. Lee said this was his favorite because it told a story

Recipes

Stir Fry Rice Noodles with Pork

Since my trip to the Asian Market I have been trying different recipes. We tried three different recipes with rice-stick noodles and this was definitely the winner. It’s not that difficult (as these recipes go) and the flavor was super yummy.

8 oz rice-stick noodles
4 TBL vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic (minced)
1 pound thinly slice lean pork
4 TBL soy sauce (separate)
1 (10 0z) can chicken broth
16 oz shredded cabbage (you can use the bags in the grocery store pre-cut for cole slaw)
1/2 cup finely shredded carrot
4 green onions (finely chopped with greens separated from white part)
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

Soak rice stick in a bowl fully covered with water for 30 minutes then drain well
Heat a wok over high heat; Add oil and heat until lightly bubbling
Add garlic, then pork and stir-fry for two minutes moving pork frequently
Add 2 TBL soy sauce and stir fry two minutes longer or until pork absorbs most of sauce
Add broth and 2 TBL soy sauce
Stir in chopped cabbage, shredded carrot, and chopped green onion bottoms; Cover and cook for two minutes
Add noodles and pepper; cook stirring for two minutes or until noodles absorb most of liquid
Spoon onto platter and sprinkle with the white part of the chopped green onions

Stir Fried Rice Noodles with Pork

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April 26, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

1st Week Black and White Photo Challenge

Deb challenged me to the black and white photo challenge for blogs and I cheerfully accept…nominating Kyrston Perkins to accept the challenge as well. The idea is, you post a black and white picture in your next five blog posts and since I am enjoying playing with my camera so much I was excited to try. Lee and I have been having an epic philosophical discussion about Photoshop for several weeks, so there are actually two for today. The first one I took in color and Lee Photoshopped it, and it does look amazing, but I don’t feel like I took this picture…it’s more like he created it. It’s an awesome picture and as he said…it’s what I had in my head but I didn’t actually capture it. (The ‘shopping here was minimal. I think she should have included the original for comparison. All I did was change it from color to black and white, crop a little bit off the far right edge of the frame, because there was a pretty bright object that I don’t think she intended to include, and it really ruined the elegant slow graduation from bright on the left from natural light through a porthole to the darker interior of the ship on the right. I also tweaked the brightness and contrast a little to coax out that graduation a little more. – Lee)

The “tweaked” pic

This one is one I like. I did crop the edge a bit, which to me is no big deal but other than that the colors are as I took them using the black and white setting on the camera. Heck, I was excited I found the black and white setting all by myself! So I don’t think I did too bad for my first time.

My “raw” pic

So since Cori, Lee, and I are having this ongoing discussion I thought I would explain my viewpoint. To me, photography is sort of the modern-day version of hunting. You either make the shot or you don’t. And yes, this way of thinking leads to many near misses which can be disappointing, but when you get that perfect shot it (and the sense of accomplishment) is yours forever. Lee takes amazing pictures. Some of the best ones you see in my blog are his, but that came from years and year of practice. His pictures are GOOD and I want mine to be that good. The only way I know to do that is to try and fail until I get it right. If I can fix my mistakes easily then what is my motivation to really work hard and get better, plus how will I ever experience the moment of capturing the perfect shot. So my personal lines at this point are cropping on the edges is ok…enhancing color is out and I really hate brushing things out of the middle of the picture. The only exception would be a very rare photo with a combination of people in it. Just for the record I draw the line at photoshopping a person out. That person was part of your life…own it. I judge no one else, but for me pictures catalog your life and it is what it is …good, bad..and ugly. I don’t want to sanitize or enhance my life. (Luckily she doesn’t feel that way about personal hygiene. – Lee) Plus I really, really love that feeling of the perfectly capturing the moment. …But as I said, that’s just me. (Originally I completely disagreed with her on this. When I was a kid one of my idols was my uncle Gay, who was a pretty serious shutterbug, in addition to being an early adopter in the computer revolution, and a ham radio enthusiast. He also smoked a pipe, and wore hats. You just don’t see cool like that anymore. He was kind, and had a very dry sense of humor, and mostly treated me like a person instead of an obnoxious little kid, which is probably what I was most of the time. Most importantly, he didn’t pooh-pooh my dreams of chasing creative endeavors like lots of people. He took me seriously, so everything he taught me went straight into the middle of my brain and has stayed there ever since. One of the things he taught me was that every professional picture I had ever seen was the final choice from dozens, if not hundreds of shots that didn’t “make the cut”. And then that shot was cropped and tweaked and played with until it was as good as it could be. But I also agree with Tracy now as well. When she says “I want to get good, not cheat”, that makes sense too. – Lee)

This week in OBX started out great with our friends. (Don’t get nervous, that’s not foreshadowing. It started great, and didn’t suddenly turn sour. It just continued to be great. Not as dramatic, but better in the long run. – Lee) We went down to the beach Monday night and had a lovely bonfire. I haven’t done that since the kids were small, and it was so fun and the tide kept getting closer and closer and periodically we would all lift our feet to avoid a wave. Totally awesome!!

The gang at the beach

We threw a huge piece of driftwood on the fire

Greg, Hobi, and Cori having a great time

Cori had to travel for work Tuesday – Thursday and I had a ton of work to do myself, so aside from gathering in the evenings to eat together it was pretty event free. I will say it has gotten cold this week (high 50’s in the evenings) and I wouldn’t mind that so much but the wind cuts right through you. Since there are 8 of us..no one’s rig is really large enough to accommodate everyone for a meal so we are eating outside. The food and company are great, but I can’t take the cold so many of the nights during the week ended early for me. Friday night the weather was a little better and we had seafood night. Kelly made her world-famous clam chowder (so good), (People, don’t let her lack of poetic prose mislead you, Kelly’s chowder is not just good, it is truly spectacular. There is nothing in the world like it. It tastes like the smiles of angels. A chorus of heavenly voices belts out “Hallelujah” when you lift your spoon from the bowl. – Lee) Then we made scallop skewers with bacon, pineapple, scallops, and mushrooms, and Cori made bacon wrapped shrimp. Plus Cori, who is the Queen of appetizers, made this amazing crab dip. It was a huge portion and was gone in no time.

Saturday morning I was up early and captured a beautiful sunrise. It’s the nicest one I have seen in a while and when Lee woke up and saw I was gone he came down to the beach and joined me. It was a very nice moment with just the two of us.

Sunrise on the beach with the sea grass I love

The cloud cutting across the sun was cool

Lee had me take this shot…I love that when he sees a great pic for me he points it out but doesn’t take over unless I ask

Saturday morning we decided to visit the Roanoke Island Festival Park . It’s a 25-acre interactive historic site representing the first English settlement attempt in 1585. Although we knew it might be cheesy, for $10 each it turned out to be a lot of fun.It was the second best interactive museum I have ever been to, for one thing. The content was adult but the exhibits were interspersed with lots of great hands-on activities for kids. (Get your minds out of the gutter, it wasn’t THAT kind of adult, despite Greg’s best efforts. Well, one thing was, but this is a family blog, so you’ll just have to go there yourself to find it. We all laughed like twelve-year olds. – Lee) I would skip the movie though. We watched all 45 minutes of it and I thought might actually expire from the production quality. (The movie is truly awful. Not just garden-variety awful, but world-class awful. It was like the tears of angels, it was so awful. – Lee) The museum is indoor/outdoor with a Roanoke Indian village area, a replica of a ship the English brought to the Island, and the fort area. They had some character actors in certain areas that were happy to answer any questions you had and really added to the experience. Overall I highly recommend it (especially for a cloudy day) we all learned something and had fun, can’t ask for more than that. It was also a lot easier to visit with a large group than I thought it would be. There is enough stuff to keep everyone interested without being right on top of each other. (OK, I’ll give you a hint: there’s a part in a little hut that has a row of little boxes, each with a native American word on a door, and when you open the door, you hear a recorded voice pronounce the word. One of them should never have made it past the censors. We opened that door about a million times. It was glorious. There were no children present, but I imagine that busloads of elementary school kids have rejoiced in discovering it over the years, much to the likely chagrin of their teachers and chaperones, who almost certainly hang back once the kids move on, and then repeatedly open the door, and laugh, and laugh. – Lee)

In the parking lot outside having a nice chat

The first building…loved the flowers

They made canoes by burning first then scraping the softened wood with shells, we all got to try

This is an old fashioned lathe…really neat

Bill got very excited about 1500’s brew making

I wouldn’t mess with Bill… seriously he’s fierce

The ship replica

The Ship

Dinghy with Roanoke Village in the background

Bill spent quite a bit of time talking to the first mate

Lee’s beautiful picture

This almost was the black and white winner. (There are an unsettling number of pictures of Greg putting his tongue on things. – Lee)

Lee’s grumpy about mixing corn

Greg made Lee laugh so hard...let's just say one of the Indian names sounded a little dirty and like the 12 year old boys they are they had a huge laugh over it

Greg made Lee laugh so hard…let’s just say one of the Indian names sounded a little dirty and like 12-year-old boys they had a huge laugh over it 🙂

Great recreations in the museum

Lee is duck hunting..there are ducks on the ceiling with sensors

Lee hated doing this but humored me…I think it’s super cute

How can Greg still look cool in this gettup?? Got me but he rocks it

It was a really fun day, topped off by an excellent All American dinner made by Cori and Greg. Can’t wait to see what happens next!
(More misleading foreshadowing…-Lee)

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April 21, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Long-Term Camping with a Large Group

We have camped with large groups before at rallies, but this month is different. To celebrate Cori and Greg’s launch into the big wide world, we decided we wanted to be together. The first two weeks here we have 4 couples (Cori and Greg, Bill and Kelly, Jo and Craig, and us) then we are joined by Sue and Guy and Eileen and Gene and hopefully Red and Pam if Pam can get Red’s butt in gear…. (love you Pam!) So it’s interesting being with a group for an extended period of time. Most folks who full-time wander their route and as they meet up with others they hang together for a week or so. There are exceptions of course. Groups of friends meet at Quartzite (an RV hangout place in the desert) or at rallies. Some do like to caravan and travel together for extended periods or will plan a trip together to Alaska or Mexico. As with everything else in this life, there is endless variation and it’s certainly not “one size fits all”. Being with a large group is interesting because the dynamics change as the group makeup changes. For those who haven’t done this it’s like a dinner party in some ways. Great mix of people and you strike gold, wrong mix of people; not so fun.

So I think we were all a little nervous about throwing ourselves together for an extended period of time. We talked about it in advance and promised each other we would give each other space. You really need to allow each person some alone time, each couple some couple time, and give the group enough time. For those who have done this for years maybe it happens organically, but we planned it out a bit. One of the funnest things we did was give everyone a “job”. It sounds silly, and it is, a little, but it was fun assigning a role to everyone in the group based on what they loved to do and what they were good at. If this is starting to sound over structured…it’s not. It was a fun way to kick off the first night and when we have a group disagreement we always defer to the person who is ultimately in charge of the thing. So here are the “jobs”; it was a pretty fun conversation.

Party Planner – Cori is in charge of all things party and made a master schedule for us on what nights we would cook together and what types of dinners we would have (pot luck, theme nights, progressive dinners.) We are 40 minutes round-trip from a grocery store with a limited supply of food, so we all agreed a little extra planning in the food department was called for to avoid spending a fortune in gas.
Master Chef – Jo is an amazing cook and when the meals are being prepared she is in charge. She doesn’t cook all the ingredients but coordinates them and makes sure we have all the other pieces parts (ie: condiments, vegetables, bread) needed for the meal. Again, you might think this is overkill but we all love to eat and its important the workload and cost is fairly distributed.
Logistics – Kelly makes sure we all get to where we need to be. She coordinated the campsite, paid the deposit (since they only accepted checks), made sure our sites were next to each other, and generally anything related to getting the group from one place to another we defer to her.
Bartender – Bill managed beverage and bottling companies his entire life and spent many years in Jamaica in the rum business. Plus he makes one hell of a drink and has an amazingly well stocked bar so he plans our drinks (coordinating of course with the master chef). We just need to make sure we keep supplying him with the raw materials he needs. I’m telling you, if you ever have an opportunity to have Bill make you a drink, take it. He even puts fruit and little umbrellas on the glasses…awesome!!
Fireman – Craig was a fireman his entire life and now is in charge of all things fire. Since we hope we don’t have a fire in any rigs we have expanded those duties to include building fires on the beach and grilling. The other guys help since we have three grills running simultaneously but Craig is definitely the man in charge.
Media Consultant – Lee gave himself this job and at first we all thought it was a bit of nonsense, but he has taken it upon himself to grab the camera and capture some moments. He also talks about press releases (which I think are just made up) and is going to be videotaping a couple installs Greg is working on so we will see if this job actually carries any weight.
Security – Speaking of Greg, he has put himself in charge of security. Which basically means he wants to stand around and look cool in his Ray Ban’s. I will say though Greg has proven himself to be very courageous in a crisis. He saved his dog from a vicious attack earlier this year and helped rescue a couple who fell out of their kayak on a Peace River kayaking trip. Seriously, he can be heroic, but mainly I imagine him just standing around a lot.
Safety and First Aid – Greg assigned me this role and you would hope there would be little need, but last night Craig gashed his knee and with a little encouragement let me clean it out for him. I definitely need a better first aid kit. Craig was being all “I don’t need to worry about it” tough but since I am the Safety director I got to override him and he handled it with his usual grace.

So there you have it. It’s somewhat tongue in cheek of course, but also a great way to have one person make a decision when the group can’t agree. If you are ever with a big group for an extended period of time…seriously…I totally recommend it.

Craig as the Fire Master cooks on a grill and a deep fryer.

Greg as security overseeing the grillers…you noticed he’s not actually doing anything just watching…oh yeah that’s security

Me giving first-aid. Craig was very gracious about it

Me giving first-aid. Craig was very sweet about it

The group…Jo cooked a fabulous meal, Kelly set everything up, and Cori throws one heck of a party and everyone has a custom drink made by Bill 🙂

I did want to mention that we were all so excited Cori and Greg were finally here we went a little crazy. Craig had the idea for the sign which we posted at their site, Jo and Craig and Kelly and Bill provided champagne and Lee and I gave some gag gifts to welcome them to their new life.

It’s About Time

Hobie proudly destroyed hhis new frog I bought him in about 5 minutes

Hobie proudly destroyed his new frog I bought him in about 5 minutes

Lee bought Cori this hat…she can keep it because it does two things

I gave Greg a blow up doll to put in the front seat of his rig and talk to when Cori is in the back

I gave Greg a blow up doll to put in the front seat of his rig and talk to …you think blowup doll and you gotta think Greg plus she looks a little like Cori

Cori (who was not jealous at all) strapped her into the driver’s seat of their rig

Saturday, Jo made a delicious French Toast breakfast (see recipe below it was really good) and then Lee and I took off to see Pea Island and explore a bit. Cori, Greg, Bill, and Kelly have all vacationed here, but it is our first time so we wanted to see some nature stuff. Pea Island is part of the Hatteras National Seashore and is a bird sanctuary. They have a walkway (about 1/2 mile) that you can take down to a viewing station and we got some beautiful pictures of the marsh and sound. I also added a few new birds to my bird page…hooray!! But had to share here some cool pictures I got of birds and their reflections. It was very relaxing as usual…those nature walks are wonderful for me to clear my head and get into the weekend mode. Plus it’s totally free which is my favorite kind of nature!!

Pea Island Bird Sanctuary

Pea Island Bird sanctuary

Pea Island

Pea Island I loved how wild it was

Canadian Goose and reflection on Pond

Egret with reflection in marsh

Great Egret in flight

Saturday night we had another great dinner…thanks to Jo with fajitas, some amazing homemade guacamole, roasted vegetables, and home-made tortilla chips and we stayed out chatting and catching up until after dark. The only bummer is there are no fire rings right at the campsites. You can have fires down on the beach but the tides haven’t been quite right so Craig and Bill are keeping an eye on the tide schedules so we can hopefully have a fire soon. Nothing better than hanging out by a fire with a group of good friends.

Sunday we let everyone know we were going up to Kitty Hawk to see the Wright Brothers National Memorial. What we all agreed was if someone wanted to do something, they would let others know and it was up to everyone if they wanted to go or not. Cori and Greg were getting settled and Jo and Craig has some family stuff they were working on, but Kelly and Bill came with us and we had an awesome day. Bill has been here many times with the Boy Scouts so is very familiar with the area and he was our tour guide as we visited some places. We stopped first at the Bodie Lighthouse which to me is the quintessential lighthouse. It turns out that Bill’s great-grandfather worked in a lighthouse, which was really neat and we spent some time learning about how the lighthouse was rebuilt twice (lost once to weather and blown up once by the Confederates). We could have climbed to the top but it was $8 each and 217 stairs so we all decided to give it a pass. Still really nice and the rangers were extremely helpful.

Next we stopped at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. It was only $4 per person to get in (very reasonable) and Bill and Kelly who have an America the Beautiful pass got in free. Well, I was delighted when we pulled up and saw a sign saying the memorial was free today because it was National Parks Week. Yes, it’s only $4, but my friends know me and Bill called it when he said he wanted to see my “It’s Free” happy dance. I also just love this country. It is so great that we have this memorial and nice that they have free days on occasion. The Memorial is the large field that they actually took off from and you can walk the path of that first flight. Up on a hill is a beautifully maintained granite sculpture created in the 30’s and there is a small museum with some artifacts inside. Let me say that if you don’t buy into the idea that this moment changed all of human history going forward, you probably would think it was lame…but all four of us were struck by the importance of the moment and Lee and I actually felt we were walking on hallowed ground. Growing up in Ohio, we learned about the Wright Brothers (born in Dayton) when we were young elementary school kids, and I never really thought I would have an opportunity to visit the place I had read about. I know we are not the only ones who felt that way because Neil Armstrong carried a piece of the cloth and wood from the original 1903 Wright Flyer when he set foot on the moon. We all highly recommend it and hope you will get a chance to visit it if you’re ever in the area.

A hand drawing showing why they chose the site

A replica of what they flew in

The plaque says it all

The aussie we asked to takwe the picture had a tough time hence the weirdo look on my face

The Aussie we asked to take the picture had a tough time hence the weirdo look on my face

Plaques where the fourth flight ended

Track showing how long it was back to the take off

You walked up the steep hill and this is what you see…awesome. The pictures do not do it justice

Lee capturing the moment

The monument is on a Hill overlooking the first runway

Bill and Kelly whose full-time lifestyle was achieved by dauntless resolution

After the hike we were starving and all really wanted local seafood. Our Logistics specialist Kelly, jumped on Trip Advisor (which she and Bill say rarely steer them wrong) and found us a great local restaurant on the water called Miller’s Seafood. Kelly had a lobster roll that was so good Bill didn’t even get a bite. His fish sandwich was good and only $10. Lee and I splurged and got combo plates with local shrimp and local flounder, fries, and hush puppies. The portions were huge and every single bite was delicious. Since we got waters to drink with tip we ate very well for $42 for the two of us and I had enough left over to take home for lunch on Monday. Plus the company was delightful and we had a nice time catching up.

Millers Seafood Restaurant

View from our window seats..they had a patio but it was too chilly for me

After lunch we also all went to Kitty Hawk Kites which is a HUGE kit store and more. Yes their prices are high..the quality of their product is top-notch, but we all found some cool stuff on clearance. Bill got a terrific stunt kite 50% off. Kelly got this balloon she’s been wanting. I picked up a cotton zip up jacket for only $10 and Lee didn’t get anything because he already bought his kite back in St. Augustine. I think he was regretting that a little bit. It was a really cool store and fun to look even if you don’t choose to buy, plus they offer hang gliding lessons, kite seminars…really all things kites. My favorite was a HUGE cow kite that was hanging from the top of the building…totally cracked me up.

Giant cow kite

It was a really fun day and we enjoyed hanging out with Bill and Kelly very much. For dinner I cooked my mom’s spaghetti and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Thankfully the rain held off long enough for us to eat outside under Greg and Cori’s canopy. If the rest of my weekends here are this good, I will be a happy, happy girl.

Recipes

Mama Jo’s Sugar Free French Toast Casserole

Ingredients

5 cups of cubed bread
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups of milk
1/4 cup granular Splenda
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon
Pam Cooking Spray

Spray baking dish with Pam
Beat eggs, milk, 2 tablespoons sweetener, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and vanilla extract together in a bowl
Mix Bread with Egg/Milk mixture above
Pour into pan
Place in refrigerator overnight
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Sprinkle additional Splenda and cinnamon mix on top of the casserole
Bake for 30-40 minutes until top if slightly crunchy

Mama Joe’s French Toast Casserole

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April 16, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in OBX

First off I would like to thank all the people who reached out to me publicly and privately to tell me my latest post either spoke to them, or to give me encouragement. I heard from people who I didn’t even know were reading the blog and it was so nice to hear back from people, especially on a post that really opened up about my insecurities. It gives me courage to not censor myself but keep telling my truth..so thanks again. It even surprised Lee, which was interesting. I mean, he lives with me so I thought he would have known, but apparently I am a better faker than I gave myself credit for. Plus it sparked some great conversation between Lee and I which is always a good thing. While I was gone on one of my work trips, Lee added this amazing lettering to our rig with the blog address, and part of the lyrics from our favorite song “The Way” which has become our anthem. Made me so very very happy, I truly have the best husband ever. (It’s true, she really does. – Lee)

Our Anthem

Our blog address on the back of the camper

Our blog address on the front of the camper

This week we also finally finished the process of becoming State of Florida residents. I sent my Letter of Domicile to the voting board and received a letter back that I was all set to vote, so that was good. We also worked with this absolutely amazing woman Cheryl (at the DMV in Green Cove Springs) and she was a life saver. The truck title came in quickly, but the RV title took a really long time (Bank of America really needs to get their act together) so Cheryl said we could fill out all the paperwork and she would process and mail us the tags when the title came in. Talk about going above and beyond, and this allowed us to leave on our scheduled day of Sunday. Came down to the wire (we were filling out papers Friday at 4:30pm) but we made it. I was so grateful when Cheryl called on Monday and said the title had come in and everything was processed that I sent her some flowers to thank her. Yes I know that’s a little weird, but people should be thanked for going above and beyond. Here’s a picture of the bouquet I sent below. I called to make sure she got it and it made her day. (This was way more hassle than it should have been, by they way. In this day and age, documents should be electronic and easily transferred from anywhere to anywhere. We were able to prove Tracy’s identity to the state of Florida using her passport, a birth certificate, and, get this, a W-2 from 1989 that just happened to be in the bottom of an old taxes envelope that we thought was empty, and used to carry all the docs to the DMV to keep them all together. I’m not sure what we would have done to prove her SSN if it hadn’t been for that ancient W-2. But! Bank of America needed three weeks to get a certificate of title from Jacksonville to St. Augustine. On the plus side, Cheryl was the best, and it’s always fun to give someone flowers. – Lee)

Flowers we sent to Cheryl at the DMV

Sunday we finally left Florida and I will say we were both happy to see it go. We loved Florida in January and February but the weather kept getting hotter and muggier and we were both more than a little uncomfortable towards the end. (Technically I’m always a little uncomfortable, but the heat and humidity made it worse. – Lee) Plus it was incredibly congested with spring break season and although we really liked Anastasia State Park Campground (see review below) we were both very excited about heading back up north to the Outer Banks (OBX). We did get to have an up close and personal experience with Rascal, our resident raccoon, before we left. I know they don’t generally come out in the daytime but he didn’t appear sick; just really curious. Both Lee and I got some great pictures before he decided we were not that interesting after all and wandered off. (This little guy definitely has a route that he follows. The first night we were there, Trace and I were just hanging out outside under the awning by the light of our Tiki torches and Tiki pots, and we heard a little rustling in the bushes, and he just strolled out. He seemed surprised to see us there, and scampered away. He came back several times, but on the second to last day we were there, he decided to try his luck during the day. – Lee)

Lee’s picture

My pic…Rascal climbed on a tree and posed for me

Because we had scheduled our route to stop in Ebenezer Park near my sister Wendy we had about 6 hours of driving ahead of us. Normally we would try to split that into two days, but decided to try to knock it all out on Sunday. Turns out that was not the best decision, because of crazy heavy traffic it ended up taking us a full 10 hours to drive and the roads were extremely congested which made it much more stressful for Lee. Since he drives the truck and rig (and I follow in my company car), he sets the pace and it really is not the same driving a truck and fifth wheel as driving a car. You need to go slower for one thing (Lee tries to drive between 60 and 64 to help conserve fuel and maintain better control) and you are limited in what roads you can take due to a need for high overhead clearance. Well I won’t dwell but those who have done it know what it’s like and suffice it to say when we rolled into the campground at 6:30pm we were both tired and a bit on edge. (I’m happy to do a little dwelling. It’s been two days and I’m still annoyed at those people who caused a 6 hour day to be a 10 hour day. Yeah, a little “on edge”. So here’s a pro tip, for all you assholes that don’t know how to drive (present company excluded, of course): when you see a sign that says “Lane Ends 1 Mile Ahead”, go on ahead and get the hell over while everything is flowing smoothly. Waiting until the last possible second so you can have a little more time without a car in front of you DOESN’T WORK. We sat in stop and go traffic for over an hour and a half at the Georgia-Florida line and again outside Columbia S.C., because: people. They’re the worst. – Lee)

What happens next proves to me that God has a sense of humor. After writing about how comfortable I was in my little home and how the claustrophobia was practically a non issue, one of our slide outs refused to slide out. Let me say we’ve been having some minor issues with our desk slide out for a while and finally it decided enough was enough. This is the first truly major issue we have had with the Open Range since we bought it and it’s interesting it is a slide because that was one of our biggest concerns when we bought the rig. The Open Range is significantly less expensive than the same Montana and has a motor/gear/pulley system slide out versus the more traditional types on most rigs. The company passes those savings along to its consumers and we saved more than $10K on almost the same rig as the Montana. Lee likes the slide out system because it’s open to inspection and has a back up manual option to bring slide outs in with a hand drill and a tool they provide if the motor fails or there’s no electricity. In this case though, the gearbox is the problem, so the drill solution would not work. (I’m actually a big fan of this type of slide mechanism, because the workings are easily accessible, and you can visually inspect the entire system any time. And the parts are not that complicated, and relatively easily replaced. (Stay tune for more detailed information on that, which should include rare photos of me laying on top of the slide out box.) However, there really should be an option to bypass the gearbox, and manually bring in/out the slide. – Lee) Luckily it was stuck in the “in” position though because we could in theory live with this issue indefinitely. Lee called Open Range and described the problem over the phone and the gear box definitely needs replaced. He’s working with them to coordinate service when we are in OBX. I will say here that this situation really didn’t upset us too much. Everyone we know has had a major issue at some point or another and truly it’s a question of the levels of difficulty they cause, and if can you function while you are waiting to get it fixed. Since we have a two-year manufacturers warranty and another five years extended warranty on top of that, we know we are covered, it’s just a matter of getting the parts and the labor to do it. Since Lee is a certified tech they are going to send him the part so he can do the repair himself. I am just thankful it’s not a “stop everything” emergency. I am working at the kitchen table for the time being…hooray for laptops… and I will definitely be spending more time outside which is why I said God had a sense of humor. (As an added bonus, since she’s at the kitchen table, I get to use the desk, because I have no claustrophobic tendencies, which will come in handy when I’m crammed between the slide out and the ceiling. Anyway, the desk is where the computer is, so I get to actually use the computer in the daytime, so that’s something. If she didn’t know better, she might wonder if I had somehow sabotaged the gearbox on purpose. And it would be a shame if it took weeks and weeks for the part to get here and she had to continue working from the kitchen table. – Lee)

My slide “in” rather than slide “out” lol

We went over to see Wendy Monday night and I couldn’t believe how much Abram (the child she is in the process of adopting) has grown. He didn’t remember us at first, which was a bit sad, but warmed up quickly and we got to watch him do all kinds of cool things. He is an active crawler now, sits easily, and eats real food with a ferocious appetite. Seriously, that boy can eat, and we had a lovely time catching up with Wendy, Josh, and the kids. She made us dinner and if I haven’t mentioned it before Wendy and her husband Josh met in cooking school and wow, can they cook. She made homemade chicken pot pie from a rotisserie chicken which was to die for. She tried to explain the steps but I glazed over at some point and she said “You know, like when you make a regular pie.” She looked a bit horrified when I admitted I have never made a pie in my life. One great piece of budget advice she gave that I wanted to pass along to my friends on a budget is she looks for the sale day for rotisserie chicken and buys the maximum of 2 when they are $4.99. She then cuts them up and uses them all week in other recipes like chicken enchiladas, etc. Really smart, and as she said, that price for well cooked chicken is cheaper than the non cooked price per pound. My sister is super smart and I’ll be trying that tip out next time I see those chickens on sale. Wish I could post some pics of Abram but because of the adoption process we have to be careful. Lee crawling on the floor with him was absolutely adorable. (In addition to being ruggedly handsome, I am also adorable. It’s a hard balance to maintain, but I manage. – Lee) So here’s aside shot of us and Abram and a picture of Wendy’s chicken pot pie. Just looking at the picture of the pie makes my mouth water. (For scale, that stone dish is like 14″ across. That’s a big damn pot pit. And Abram ate the whole thing all by himself. – Lee)

Wendy’s Chicken Pot Pie

Abram, me, and Lee…can you tell we love our newest nephew

We left early Tuesday morning and drove a few hours to Raleigh which was the halfway point between OBX and Rock Hill. We are getting pretty good at packing up and rolling out with minimal fuss and the traffic wasn’t too bad along the way. There wasn’t much in the way of campgrounds in and immediately surrounding Raleigh available, so we stopped at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds. It’s not really a campground in the traditional sense, it’s basically a large field with a hundred or so full hookups that the vendors stay in during fair ground events. It’s open to the public, but there are no amenities at all, and they don’t take reservations, and they only take cash. Currently it was almost filled by people working on a new power plant and the state employee who let us in was very nice. It’s $25 a night though (way overpriced for what you get) and cash only, which is always a pain. I wouldn’t stay here again unless I didn’t have any other choice since it really had no redeeming qualities other than a strong ATT signal. (I completely disagree here. I would rather stay in a place like this for a half day/overnight, because it was cheap, had full hookups, was easy to get in and out of, and close to the interstate without being within earshot of it. – Lee)

Again, got up early the next morning and drove to the Ocean Waves Campground in the Outer Banks. I have never been here and I was so impressed by the wildness of it. After the carefully coiffed beaches of Florida it was cool to see the wild and untamed dunes. Our campground is absolutely amazing with its own little patch of dunes and beach less than 100 yards away. We checked in and quickly got set up for our month-long stay. So glad we won’t be moving for a while! I enjoy staying in one place and there is so much to do here, I can’t wait for the weekend to do some exploring. We are spending the month here with our friends Jo and Craig, Kelly and Bill, and Cori and Greg. And then later Sue and Guy, Eileen and Gene, and Red and Pam may drop in as well. I’m excited about being with RV-Dreams folks again and looking forward to catching up with everyone and exploring this beautiful place.

Ocean Waves Campground

Morning on the beach

Lee staring at the sunrise

Campground Reviews

St. John RV Park and Flea Market 2493 State Rd St. Augustine 3 out of 5 pine cones

The site was well maintained with full hookups and with the Passport America discount only $17 a night, unlimited. The people that worked there were extremely friendly and helpful and they had strong and free WiFi. I liked having the flea market next door as it was very large and fun to walk around on the weekend. It also had easy access to the freeway (the road to the entrance is literally next to the interstate ramp) and wasn’t that far from St. Augustine proper. The only problem with the campground is there were quite a few permanent trailers that look really trashy because they are just not well maintained. It’s a shame, because it has a lot of potential and I vacillated between a 2 and 3 but finally gave it a 3 because it was quiet, I felt very safe there, and the price was so good.

Anastasia State Park Campground 300 Anastasia Park Road St. Augustine 5 out of 5 pine cones

Deep, well wooded sites with 30 AMP electric and water. The facilities in each loop are extremely clean and the park has a huge beach, walking trails, and bike paths for those who stay there. Getting on and off the island can be a bit time consuming if you use the Bridge of Lions. We recommend using Rte 312 instead. It’s the same distance from the park entrance. The amphitheater next door played some particularly loud music one night, but overall it was a great experience. They have no WiFi and ATT cell service was a little low but strong enough to work. There is a free boat launching area and a vendor that rents boats if you don’t have your own. If you have a large rig be careful about what sites you reserve. There are not very manage that can handle the really big rigs. We stayed in #72 which was a bit tight width wise but very deep. Definitely a must try if you are in the St. Augustine area for any length of time, but book in advance because they fill up quickly and it’s tough to get a spot.

North Carolina State Fair Campgrounds 1025 Blue Ridge Blvd, Raleigh NC 2 out of 5 pine cones (+1/2)

Large field where vendors stay. The fair grounds are not in the best neighborhood and it was a little hard to find the actual campsites. Cash only and $25 a night for full hookups which is high for a field. The website says free WiFi but it doesn’t actually connect to the internet and although the area is gate controlled and protected by state employees I didn’t feel super safe, not unsafe exactly just not very comfortable. The sites were full of construction workers working on the nearby power plant. There was a noisy train that ran close by and even though it was for one night not a place I would return to. In a pinch you can make it work but I wouldn’t recommend it. (Pay no attention to her, she drinks. This is a perfectly serviceable overnight spot. – Lee)

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April 11, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Living Outside of My Comfort Zone

I’ve been mulling all week how to write about this without appearing too negative or giving the wrong impression as to what things are like, but ultimately I think the best thing to do is to just write it all down and allow you to draw your own conclusions. So here goes;

Some people seem to thrive outside of their normal routine and comfort zone. My friend Deb comes to mind, she has thrown herself into this lifestyle with a zeal that I truly admire and to be honest, am somewhat envious of. Lee also has taken to this life very well, thriving on constant newness and change. There are many people like that and if you are one of them, bless you, but I have found unfortunately I am not. I don’t know why I am surprised. In my former life I wasn’t a person who sought adventure. Don’t get me wrong, I liked adventure when it came my way, especially when it was wrapped up in a set of carefully controlled circumstances (I think that’s why so many people like cruises), but I wasn’t a “jump in the car and see what was beyond the next horizon person”. Lee always has been, and I imagine Deb is…and folks like that bring a magic and joy into the life of those of us who don’t lean in that direction. But…and its a big one…there is a difference between searching for adventure occasionally and living a life of adventure.

When you were in school and learned about the pioneers did you think, “That sounds amazing! I would have totally done that!” or did you think “Wow I’m glad we have airplanes and good roads now.” Lee would have definitely gone west young man…whereas I think I would have stayed in my comfort zone. (I probably also would have been eaten by a bear, or a shark , or an alligator, or died of dysentery. So there’s that. – Lee) So what is the comfort zone? It’s the place where you feel safe and content. It has a sameness and a routine that you can rely upon. The specifics don’t really matter, many people have comfort zones that others would find unacceptable or even unhealthy, but the general feeling of belonging and sameness it evokes is the point. I wanted to leave New Hampshire, no offense to my many friends who live there, I have known for years it was not the place I ultimately wanted to be, but after 13 years of living there, it was my comfort zone. I knew where the grocery store, dentist, hair stylist, restaurants, etc were. I knew what the weather would be like, how the food would taste, and how the people would treat me out in the world. I knew the rules, and even if I didn’t always like them I understood them and could function very well within them. (This does not apply to me at all. I hardly ever even understand the rules, whatever they are, and once I start to get a grasp on them, I usually don’t like them, and start looking for ways to break them for the better. It’s really hard for me to function in what most people think of as the real world. – Lee)

Fast forward..it’s been almost five months since we have been on the road and I am definitely outside my comfort zone. I think I thought this lifestyle would quickly become the new norm, and I think for many that is the case, but unfortunately or unfortunately (you judge) that is not the case for me. I will say the RV as a home part has become the new norm and much more quickly than I would have imagined, I love my little “luxury apartment on wheels” as I call it. The claustrophobia is practically a non issue and I don’t miss all that stuff and clutter I used to have in my old life. I still love that it only takes 10-15 minutes to clean and the woodwork (which was done by the Amish) still makes me very happy. So when I am inside my little home I am in my comfort zone which is a really good thing because when I step outside of it I am not.

There are two sides of me at war when I step outside of my rig. The part that desires sameness and routine and the part that desires adventures and newness. Sometimes I can’t wait to get outside, go explore, see the new; other times I just want to step back inside and read a book or watch some TV. As I am typing this I am feeling bad about myself, as if there is something wrong with me that I can’t just grab every moment, but then I think I bet there were pioneer women who stayed very close to their covered wagons as they traveled out west. It didn’t mean they weren’t brave, or willing to risk, it just meant they weren’t going to jump on a horse and explore the vista. Lee would have been an advance scout ranging all over the area on his pony. (Why does it have to be a pony? Why not a big horse? Are you saying I’m small? That’s just rude. And yes, it’s true, I would have wanted to get as far ahead of all the people as I could, and see everything first, before they showed up and spoiled it. Then I would also get to go back and say “Hey, wait till you see this cool thing up ahead! You’re going to love it. – Lee)

As I am writing this I am losing patience with myself. I want to ride the pony over the hill, see the next sunset. (Yeah, you ride the pony. I’ll ride the horse. – Lee) I don’t want to have to stay close to the sameness. Not to get too deep into the psychology here but these two halves of my brain are my mother and father in a nutshell. My mother adores adventure, has traveled all over the world, and is always open for the new and exciting. My father is deeply rooted in the community where he grew up and although he enjoys traveling occasionally and is willing to take calculated risks, loves being in his comfort zone. So where am I on the spectrum? Somewhere in between but definitely leaning more towards my dad. Because I am a risk averse person, I often choose the comfort zone because it’s much easier to manage risk when you know the environment and the rules. And yet I did this crazy thing…selling my house and moving into my RV. So I must have some of my mom in me.

I have said to my friends, so I might as well say it “out loud” here, left to my own devices I never would have chosen this lifestyle. What I mean by that is I don’t have the vision, courage, or risk taking in my nature to sell everything and go on the road. Lee does though, and many of the most wonderful things in my life have come to me by following his lead and his vision. I have seen what is beyond the next horizon or experienced the unusual from simply allowing myself to follow his path. Those moments in our lives are crisp and clear in my memory and some of the moments I most treasure, but they were moments, and not an entire life. There is a difference between throwing caution to the wind and doing something crazy and adventurous and then returning to your normalcy versus choosing the adventure day in and day out. I knew when we chose this I would be taking a huge permanent step outside of my comfort zone and it would change me. I did this on purpose, knowing full well that the one good thing that comes from being outside your comfort zone is personal growth. I wanted to grow as a person and as a couple and felt this life would be a catalyst for that growth. I also understood full well how painful growth can be. Nothing worth anything in life comes without a price and I was and am willing to pay that price for the positive changes on the other side.

I need to remember that when I feel uncomfortable that this was a choice, and more importantly a choice made deliberately and with care. There are risks certainly, but the possible rewards were and are worth it to me. The rewards go beyond seeing and experiencing new things, although those rewards are a good enough reason in and of themselves, they are also personal growth. I may not have been born with a pioneer spirit, but I can develop one. I can become a person whose comfort zone is a much wider circle and even if I never become Lee or Deb I can see the things they see and experience a much wider world before I go.

(Anything I say at this point would just detract from that message. Get me, I’m a model of self-restraint. – Lee)

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April 9, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Third Budget

So March was a pretty rough budget month. We knew we would go over in some categories because of Kat’s visit, but we also got hit with some extra expenses because it was a long month. In addition, we pre-booked some campgrounds into the August time frame and about $719 of the campground fees are actually paying for campgrounds in future months. I thought about whether or not to go ahead and put those payments in the future months, but decided to leave them in the month the cash was actually expended. This budget isn’t just about how much you spend but when you need the cash, so going forward the payments will always be reflected in the month they happen.

So we spent $4,631 this month and went over budget by $794. The overage was largely caused by $719 in advance campground fees and overage in groceries of $200. Detail is below

Prepaid campground fees $719. The month only actually cost us $563.60 in campground fees because we had prepaid at Rainbow Village and St. John’s was very inexpensive at $17 a night. We also did receive a credit from the campground in Apopka which brought that week down to a more reasonable number.
Groceries were way high this month with an overage of $276. The bulk of that was $131 at the Asian market and $70 for a very nice steak dinner for the kids one night, but yeah, this was not good. We are going to start tracking food versus non food items separately to see if we can get a handle on this and Lee is going to rearrange our cabinets so we can meal plan around what we have instead of double buying because we don’t know we already have something.
Dining out; I am thrilled about that, we only went over by $90 because we ate out in numerous amusement parks throughout the week.
Feel the same about entertainment which was only over by $68 and the overage was mainly this really nice kite that Lee bought for OBX.
Part of our registration fees hit this month. $32 for registering domicile and $119 for drivers licenses both of which are one time costs. In April we will get our license plates, which should give us an idea of that annual budget.
Tolls was $42.50 this month and that was all spent in the week around Orlando. If you are planning on going to the parks, build that cost into your budget.
Clothing was over $188 because Lee bought several year’s worth of shirts, but we are ok on the annual budget of $600.
We were under in Fuel, Cigarettes, Haircuts, and laundry all of which helped put some money back in.

So it was not the best month we’ve had but it could have been way worse by far and we had a good budget discussion around some of the items we are still struggling with. Plus it’s life right?…your kids come to visit, you spend more than you want on food in a month….these are things that happen whether you live in a RV or in a regular house.

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April 5, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time on Augustine Island

Last week I traveled back to Nashua, New Hampshire for work which is about an hour from where we used to live and the office was my home office. First I walked off the plane into snow flurries. Not unexpected unfortunately for late March in New Hampshire, but compared to the mid 70’s I left not so great. The weather was better as the week went on, but there was still patches of snow on the ground and everything was so brown…lol. Jacksonville is lush and green in March and New Hampshire definitely suffered by comparison. I did get to see my oldest daughter Kyrston Monday night though for dinner, which was great. She drove over an hour each way to come and see me and we had a great time talking and eating at Texas Roadhouse. One cool thing about traveling is being on an expense report, so eating out is not only expected but largely necessary, and Kyrston paid her own way so great steak dinner with $0 budget impact 🙂

Kyrston is such a good daughter to humor me with this pic

The week was very good work wise. I had the opportunity to facilitate a Kaizen event (fancy name for a brainstorming session) with a terrific group of people. I was a little rusty because I hadn’t done it in a while, but the group was great and we came up with about 20 practical ideas to improve the project we are all working on. I love these events when the group dynamic is good and then one was very productive. I also drove to Boston and Hartford while I was there, which made for some long days but again got quite a bit accomplished. So I was pretty tired when I drove to the airport, Friday noon to get on my returning flight. Something really interesting happened at the airport. When I went through security I pulled out my brand new Florida drivers license and a young TSA agent asked me if I was going home. I had to stop and think for a second, is Florida my home, well not really but my fifth wheel is my home and I am going there flashed through my head pretty quickly, but since this is not really a conversation you want to have with a TSA agent I smiled and said, “Yes.” Then she glanced at my driver’s license again, looked envious, and said “Lucky.” That was the surreal moment. I have traveled extensively over the last 15 years and no one ever looked at my New Hampshire drivers license and said “Lucky.” Pretty cool moment actually but like I said….weird.

While I was gone last week, Lee was working on finalizing the name, insurance, signage etc for his Mobile Tech business (we will talk about that when it’s all done) and also decided to try to move us. We were staying at St. John’s RV Park Campground in St. Augustine. The price was terrific at $17 a night unlimited Passport America price for full hookups, but it isn’t the kind of place we would want to stay long-term. I will say the people were incredibly nice and helpful, the grounds were well cared for, but unfortunately there are numerous permanent trailers that give the place a run down look. We did feel completely safe there and the campground itself was very quiet. It’s a shame really because if they could just get some of the permanent dwellings to clean themselves up it would be much nicer. Anyways, our friend Deb mentioned St. Augustine State Park and when we went to visit it complete home run. Water and electric, reasonably priced with ocean access inside the park and deep well wooded sites. Unfortunately at our size there were only a few walk in sites we could fit into and all the reserve able sites were booked for weeks. The campgrounds policy on the walk in sites is first come/first serve when they vacate so whoever shows up at the office first got the site. We went and looked and only Sites 72, 69, or 41 would actually work for us. At that point, since I was traveling for two weeks, I kind of gave up on it, but Lee decided he wanted to stay there and became a man on a mission.

First he went to the best campsite for us and asked when the people were leaving. When he explained the situation (the folks who were Canadian) were happy to give him the date of March 31st. Then he hooked up the camper and drove to the campground at 8am. HE knew what their car looked like so he watched cars for 4-1/2 hours until they left and then popped into the camp office and nabbed the site. Now this sounds extreme ( and it is), but he said at least 10 people stopped by in those 4 hours so he doesn’t think it would have worked any other way. So I was driving back to a strange campsite from the airport that I had only been in once with just the site number to guide me. Luckily, the signage was good and even though it was very dark, I found our new site. Wow what can I say…he had it all lit up with our tiki torches and it was deep and completely wooded and so beautiful and peaceful. Plus a big fat raccoon sauntered out of the bushes and walked through our campsite as plain as you please. Absolutely amazing and the type of site we always pictured when we thought about this lifestyle. I was so happy to be home and especially happy to be here and incredibly impressed by my very special husband.

The woods go back very deep and although we can hear others cannot see anyone

Lee loves the twisty trees here

I woke up really early Saturday morning because I was excited about possibly catching a bit of the lunar eclipse. And since I was already up we decided to go down and watch the sunrise on the beach. I did get to see some of the lunar eclipse before it clouded over (no pictures unfortunately) and we watched an absolutely beautiful sunrise. Most sunrises I have seen don’t have much color but this one was like a sunset in reverse and absolutely gorgeous.

The moon starting it’s lunar eclipse

Loved the colors

Sunrise on Anastasia Island

Beautiful

After sunrise Lee made me breakfast (with my favorite Bob Evans sausage links) and we took Steve’s advice and went around the corner to the local farmers market. I think this was the best farmers market I have ever been to with a mix of crafts, fresh grown produce, flowers, and food stands. Lots of booths gave out free samples and we munched our way happily down the aisle. I got some pineapple oranges, local radishes, homemade meat rub, and a turtle carved out of a coconut. Yes I didn’t really need that but for $6 how could you go wrong and the guy that makes them was awesome. I also wanted to mention here that when you get produce at farmer’s markets you should really look and see where the food is coming from. Many markets are now selling wholesale fruits and veggies and passing them off as local grown. They’ve actually enacted some laws against this in California and a lot of what you see in farmer’s markets is really grocery store quality food repackaged. I always look for signs stating what farm it is from and usually won’t buy if there is nothing listed unless the price beats a local grocery store and the quality is good. There were several stands that fit this bill for me and I absolutely recommend a visit if you ever get to stay here…it was phenomenal.

The farmer’s market was a long two down

Absolutely gorgeous orchids for sale so pretty

See the sign on locally grown. If it’s local they will NOT have everything that’s in your grocery store, but what they do have will be bigger and better

All of this for under $20

Since it was still early and wasn’t super hot yet we decided to take a drive around St. Augustine a bit and see if there was anything we wanted to do. Whenever we go to a new area I create a word document with possible things to see gleaned from Trip Advisor, Roadside Attractions, and the areas community website. Have to say for St. Augustine nothing really jumped out at me. Many of the places are pretty touristy and the prices are on the high side. We did drive by the lighthouse and take a couple of pictures but didn’t want to pay the $9.95 each to walk up it. I would have liked to see the Fountain of Youth area but that’s $15 each also and really didn’t look that great. We talked about getting a trolley pass since people recommend it but $24.95 for a three-day pass (no single day passes offered). Are you seeing a theme here 🙂

The best picture we could get outside of the gated area

Really the main town related thing I wanted to do was walk along and see a couple of the shops I found when researching. So we were on our way there when my sister Wendy texted me that a friend of hers was from St. Augustine and told me about this little hole in the wall shrimp place called O’Steens. We were only a mile away so we stopped in and found at least 8 people waiting in line at 10:35 and the place didn’t even open until 11am. I stopped and checked the menu ($12.95 for 9 shrimp basket) and we wandered back across the bridge. May want to try it later. We headed for St. George Street which is in the heart of old town St. Augustine and despite the crazy traffic had no trouble finding parking in a lot. We walked around and saw the couple of shops I was interested in and took a picture of the main building in old downtown. The two shops were really cool and I recommend them. Sea Spirits Gallery and Gifts was all sea related art. It was super pricey, but I just enjoyed walking through and looking at everything. If you go in, go all the way through to the back and get to walk into this cool little courtyard between two buildings which was a bonus surprise. But we spent all of an hour walking around before we decided to go back to the campground. There was also a cool shop around the corner called Filthy Rich. It was run by this very nice couple and they specialize in jewelry made by local artists that matches the jewelry of celebrities. I got lost in the Audrey Hepburn section and spent quite a bit of time looking at the Jackie Kennedy line (was thinking about you Mom). Didn’t buy anything but it was really neat to look around and Lee though largely bored did like the Jack Kennedy style sunglasses they have.

Saw this shop online and had to go

Beautiful wood sculpture of turtles was done from one piece (except for the flippers)

The building the shops were in is made from seashells

This courtyard was the neatest suprise, felt like I was in Morocco. The shop was in one of the oldest buildings in town

This courtyard was the neatest surprise, felt like I was in Morocco. The shop was in one of the oldest buildings in town

My mom would have really liked this store

Lee loves Bogie and humored me with the photo

Statue sent from Spain as a present to the city of the original Spanish Governor of St. Augustine.

Lightner Museum

Truly the best part of the day were the things we just stumbled upon. We took a couple wrong turns on side streets and saw some cool residential houses. The side roads are very narrow because the town is so old and there were some neat houses tucked into them. Also we stopped on our way back into the park (which costs $4 for one or $8 for two or more for a day pass btw) and took a walk along a path to see the remains of a quarry that the Spanish used to build houses on the island. The pit itself was more a study of how nature will take anything back over but we kept walking and at the end there was a pond with about 20 wild turtles in it. Someone must be feeding them because they all came up to the dock when we walked on it, and I have never seen that many turtles in the wild before. Then on the way back to the campsite Lee saw a big turtle on the side of the road and we stopped and looked at him for a while. He was not impressed 🙂

Gingerbread house on a side road

Very cool dinosaur log bench

The walk to the quarry

Here’s all that’s left of the quarry

The little guy on the right had so much algae on him he looked like a Chia pet

Big Turtle walking on the side of the road in the park

Love these little flowers

The rest of the day we just chilled. I tried to catch up on some media stuff and really needed some down time. One thing that happened while I was gone is we received a letter from the voting board about our address being a mailing address. Someone on the forums mentioned we just need to send in proof of our domicile to fix this, but it is one more extra thing that you have to deal with when your trying to color outside the lines. On the one hand I am not bothered so much because this life is so great and a little extra work is worth it. On the other hand I can get extremely annoyed because it feels like I am pushing a boulder uphill with the paperwork to get state residency established. Will let you know how it all works out.

Sunday we woke up and decided to go kayaking. We were due for some rain but not until later in the day and Lee doesn’t do so well on the water in full sun anyways so we headed out around 9am. It was a great day to go. Empty because of Easter Sunday and although we had sun wasn’t extremely hot. I have been wanting to try our Sea Eagle on the ocean and I will say that it is a lot more work to paddle with the stronger currents. We had fun though paddling along the marsh inlets and even though we didn’t see any manatees got some good shots of the birds. So it was a good weekend, but now I’m headed out for a week in Princeton, New Jersey at a change management training class. Lee’s going to finish getting our license plates (hopefully) and maybe visit the Pirate Museum and Spanish fort here.

Wood Stork hanging out where we put in ..looking fro some fish

Wood Stork hanging out where we put in ..looking for some fish

Easy to get into the water from the shore

You can paddle pretty close to the sand dunes and hear the ocean behind them

Nice view of the lighthouse

A vendor rents sailboats, kayaks etc right in the park

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April 2, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Finding Campgrounds Isn’t Always Easy

I’ve spent quite a bit of time recently trying to book our travel, and I thought I would take a minute and talk about how challenging it can be, especially for a newbie. I knew from reading Howard that he spends hours finding really great campsites, but I guess I thought as long as I did X, Y, and Z, then I would find them too. The problem is that everyone’s situation is very unique and the more limitations you have, the more difficult finding campgrounds can be. At first I was really down on myself, thinking I was doing something wrong, or maybe wasn’t spending enough time on it, so I called my friend Deb who seems to be a genius at this planning, and spent an hour on the phone with her finding out exactly how she is doing it. I got some terrific tips, but I also realized that my restrictions and her restrictions were not the same. So I thought I would write down my steps (along with challenges) in the hopes it might help someone who is new to this as well. These steps start after you have determined an area of the country you would like to be in and a rough time frame.

1. Will you have cell coverage? Most of my work is done on the phone and although I don’t have to have 4G I need at least 3G for emails and conference calls. Deb told me about a terrific app called Coverage? made by a couple called Technomadia who have been working from the road for a long time. They have some great information on their website about finding campsites, internet on the road, boondocking, and many other topics, and the app was certainly worth the very reasonable $2.99 fee. You can select your carrier and the type of coverage (3G, 4G, etc) and it shows the area you are going to visit. Recently I spent quite a bit of time looking up campsites on the east side of Glacier National Park in Montana only to discover that the cell coverage for ATT is very spotty. Some people will buy a short-term coverage plan from another carrier in these situations but since my work phone is ATT, I always need ATT coverage.

2. Do they have sites you can fit into? As I’ve discussed before many of the older campgrounds are designed for 35′ trailers, or shorter, yet more and newer fifth wheels and Class A’s are 40′ -45′. If you have a longer rig it will significantly reduce the places you can stay. Many people downsize to a smaller rig because of this factor, but since we love ours and it’s here to stay we just need to be aware of this. Unfortunately the length information on many websites is either missing or inaccurate. Sometimes you can fit in a 35′ space in a fifth wheel because the back-end can hang over the pad, assuming there is no obstruction behind you. Sometimes campgrounds have a few sites that will fit 40′ or longer. The best websites list the footage by site, but those are rare and in some cases that information isn’t 100%. Calling the campgrounds to verify seems to work the best and I also use that as an opportunity to verify the cell coverage in Step 1.

3. What is your budget? Our budget is roughly $25 a day (sometimes we spend more and sometimes less), but we use that as our starting point and this is where length of stay comes into play. Some places have seriously discounted weekly or monthly rates and others are part of clubs like Passport America, Escapees, or Thousand Trails that significantly reduce the cost but only on certain days of the week or for a certain number of days. Also, contrary to what I used to believe State Parks are not always the lowest price. You can certainly make the case that they provide the highest value, but you also have to be extra careful the criteria for Steps 1 and 2 are met. Again, a phone call for this step is often valuable because they might have a monthly rate that they are not advertising on their website…many do.

4. Would you stay here? This is a very subjective question and very difficult to know if your aren’t there. Many people solve this problem by waiting to make reservations until they get to an area. This can work well if you have a high amount of freedom of movement and the willingness/ability to boon dock overnight if you can’t find a place. We are trying to schedule our travel days on the weekends and be settled during the week for my work. We also need to know at least a couple of months in advance where we will be so I can schedule work flights. I know most people don’t have these restrictions, but others may not be comfortable with a high level of ambiguity in their travel plans…especially not in the beginning, so these factors can cause you to make a decision with limited information. RV Park Reviews has been very helpful. I look for patterns of comments more than any single one and if nothing else it might give me pause and look farther down the road. Also, really good comments can solidify my decision. We also look at Google Maps, especially for long stays. You can see the area that surrounds the campground and then use what you see to ask questions such as…Is there traffic noise? How close is the nearest grocery store? It’s VERY easy to see on Google Maps whether a campground is a parking lot or a wooded area with water nearby. Those things can’t be fudged, but it won’t really show you what the tree height is so if you are in a bigger rig keep that in mind.

5. Do they have availability? Unfortunately you often go through steps 1-4 to find out they have no availability during the time frame you want to be there. This can be incredibly frustrating to get to the end and find that out, but I think it’s better than falling in love with a campground and then seeing it won’t work for you because of 1-4. You might feel differently and do the steps in a different order, but I would rather look at what I can have and discuss changing our travel times than look at what we can’t ever make work. I’m not much of a window shopper. Sometimes the availability information is on-line, but you need to be careful because it isn’t 100% accurate. If you are reserving through Reserve America or KOA (one of the big reservations sites) you’re probably ok, but with the smaller ones I tend to pick up and call and reserve over the phone. Plus many of the family owned campgrounds take only reservations over the phone. Some of these will accept credit card deposits, but others will only accept cash or a check in the mail. So they are holding the site until your check comes theoretically. This can be a little stressful until you get a confirmation the money was received which in some cases can take a couple of weeks. If you live in the area, these campgrounds are not hard to book, but doing it from another state can be challenging.

As I am going through the various steps I have numerous windows on my computer /Ipad open, because as I am answering the questions in the steps above I am going through the various campsites one at a time.

Have Coverage? open to see the area with a 50-100 mile radius
Check Ultimate Campgrounds for city/county/state/ federal parks
Check Recreation.gov for federal campsites which include Bureau of Land Management and Corps of Engineer sites
Check Passport America
Check Escapees Campground book for deals
Look at RV Park Reviews for trends in comments for sites you think are possibilities

So as I was sitting here writing this I thought I would go and try to book two weeks at Glacier Park in August. Because it’s a Sunday and still winter there I was unable to verify cell coverage and if we would fit. Kept going though because I was feeling pretty good about it and then picked a spot and got all the way down to the end and read the Park Reviews. First three reviews for St. Mary campground in Montana state very clearly that there was no ATT service. So that was two hours spent and I am just left frustrated at the end and frankly without the immediate energy to start all over. Shame on me…I should have followed my own steps.

So after taking a break …Deb called me and what ensued was amazing. I was working from the computer and desktop. She was working from her laptop and phone in the car while they were driving and between us we managed to coordinate a week together right outside of Glacier Park. It was fun doing it with Deb because it took some of the pressure off, and making decisions on what would work gave me a higher level of confidence. So happily I can report we are all set from Aug 22nd – 30th and then Steve and I will both be taking a week off from work so we can go deep into Glacier and not have to worry about cell service. Should be a ton of fun…miss Deb and Steve quite a bit and can’t wait to see them.

Lessons Learned

Don’t underestimate the complexity of planning your trips, especially if you’re new at it.
Don’t panic! You will figure something out, it may just take a while.
Figure out what your process is and follow it to avoid making yourself crazy.
Don’t skip steps as it will probably burn you down the road.
Planning with a friend is more complicated but can also be more fun as many hands make light work.

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Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Uncategorized

April 2015 Budget

First Time at an Adventure Park

Day 3 of the Black and White Photography Challenge

Changing Relationships

Recipes

Stir Fry Rice Noodles with Pork

1st Week Black and White Photo Challenge

First Time Long-Term Camping with a Large Group

Recipes

Mama Jo’s Sugar Free French Toast Casserole

First Time in OBX

Campground Reviews

St. John RV Park and Flea Market 2493 State Rd St. Augustine 3 out of 5 pine cones

Anastasia State Park Campground 300 Anastasia Park Road St. Augustine 5 out of 5 pine cones

North Carolina State Fair Campgrounds 1025 Blue Ridge Blvd, Raleigh NC 2 out of 5 pine cones (+1/2)

Living Outside of My Comfort Zone

Third Budget

First Time on Augustine Island

Finding Campgrounds Isn’t Always Easy

Lessons Learned