August 2, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at a Bear Sanctuary

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

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

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

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

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

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

The cubs were so so cute about 7 months old

Big bear sleeping on a rock

Bear staked out his feeding station

This little guy was my favorite

Just in case you think they were all cute and cuddly

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

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

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

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

Mom and her cub

The little guys were good sharers

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

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

Lee’s Blue Moon pic

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August 1, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Lee’s First Birthday on the Road

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

Lee’s pic

Lee’s Pic

It was a feeding frenzy

I took this one pretty happy with the shot

Feeder on Lee’s hand

Lee’s

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

Sunset through the trees

The colors were awesome

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

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

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

Linda’s Lovely Lasagna

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

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

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

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

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

Lee’s “I like this pie” face

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recipe

Linda’s Lovely Lasagna

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

Sauce

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

Ricotta Filling

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

Additional

2 lbs mozzarella cheese sliced
1 box lasagna noodles

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

Linda’s Lovely Lasagna

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July 29, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Lee Hates Rainy Days

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

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

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

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

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

Particle board damage is the the right in the picture

Particle board damage is to the right in the picture

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

The new water spigot

Beautiful 40 PSI pressure

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

Drangonfly

Hummingbird

Doe and two adorable fawn

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

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

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

Lee making the fire

Everyone talking around the fire

Look to the right for the blue flames

Really beautiful moon

Lessons Learned

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

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July 27, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Eagles and Waterfalls

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

Visitors Center

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

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

Oh yes I sat on the chair!!

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

Grocery Store

Very strange liquor store

Grovery store carried a little bit of everything

Had key cutting and UPS shipment in the back

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

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

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

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

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

Moose Lake

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

Linda showing me how to use the poles

As my sister says I am stylin lol

Raspberries were yummy

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

I followed closely behind Linda watching what she was doing

Linda and I taking a break on a bench

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

First shot of an eagle

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

One of my favorites

Howard sitting on a rock

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

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

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

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

Stopping to eat lunch

Linda sitting on a rock enjoying the view

The gorge from the top

The gorge from ground level

Picture from the rocks below

Lee came down with me after a while

Great pic that Howard took for us

The moss was beautiful it looked like fairyland to me

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

Vermillion Falls

Water rushing though the chute

Amazing

Howard grabbing a pic

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

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

Lee decided to join in on the fun

The view that almost made me cry

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

Eagle in the tree

Eagle in the nest

The best closeup, I think Lee got this one

The resort viewed from the lake

Sunset

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July 26, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Hanging Out with Howard and Linda

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

Nick, Sean, and Lee

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

View directly in front of our rig

Side view with a sliver of the lake between the trees

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

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

The cliff view down into the lower part of the campground

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

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

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

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

Howard and Linda gave my soup two thumbs up

Great campfire and no wood required

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

Loved the colors on the lake

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

Recipe

Minnesota Wild Rice Soup

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

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

Minnesota Wild Rice Soup

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Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

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

July 25, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time with One Vehicle

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sexy, isn’t it?

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

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

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

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

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Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

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

July 23, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Wedding on the Road – Part 2

Saturday, the day of the wedding, dawned and we headed over to the venue pretty early. Let me start by saying I didn’t take one single picture the day of the wedding. But we did hire a great professional photographer so once those pictures come in I’ll be adding some of them. I will also say that this entry has absolutely nothing to do with full timing or camping, so if that’s where your interests lie you may want to skip this one.

Lee and I both still had work to do to get the venue ready and we headed straight over. Kat, Kyrston, and Stacy all worked on Kat’s makeup and hair in the morning, but Kat was generous enough to let me skip that and get straight to work. I know that probably sounds strange as the before wedding beauty ritual is usually a big moment for the mom, but those who know me understand I rarely wear makeup, my hair is as easy to style as possible, and I really wouldn’t have had much to contribute in this area. So thankfully my oldest daughter stepped in and they all (including my mom) had a wonderful hour of girl time.

Kyrston fixing Katy’s hair

I was re checking the venue site and making my list of needed items. Thankfully, my sister, brother, and dad were all at the Hastings Farmer’s market and were kind enough to do a last-minute Walmart run. One the big items I knew we needed was more bug spray. The ceremony site was very buggy the day before so I had Wendy buy me four double packs of Cutter Backyard Bug Control outdoor foggers. I give this product my highest recommendation. At Lee’s urging we waited until right before the guests were seated and we sprayed the ground, the willow branches, darn near everything, and it totally worked. I asked several people later in the day if they had any bug issues and everyone said no. $40 was a small price to pay for a bug free ceremony!!

The flowers had come in before we got there at 8:30am and this is where I made my first mistake. Oh yes, I made several throughout the day! The kids decided to do something different with their bridal party and Kat had two girls and a guy (our youngest daughter Kay was unable to attend because she could not get time off from the Air Force and Kat chose to leave the spot open) and Micah had two guys and two girls. So when four bouquets came in I made a quick look to make sure one was slightly bigger and that was the end of that. Apparently I can’t count, because later in the day (unfortunately too late to do anything about it) it was discovered by the bridal party that we were missing a bouquet. I thought three in my head, but there were actually four girls, two on Micah’s side and two on Kat’s. I have to say though that these moments are what make me so proud of my exceptional daughter. When she heard we were missing a bouquet, she immediately said “I didn’t want one anyway because you are both walking me down the aisle” and she gave her bouquet to one of the girls. Jamie, one of the groom’s attendants, also immediately said she was carrying a book for the reading and didn’t need one. This kind of mistake could have caused full-blown drama with the wrong group of women, but thankfully it was easily resolved. I did feel bad though, so if you ever do this, please do yourself a favor and stop and actually count the flowers, corsages, and boutonnieres. You’ll thank yourself later.

Next my helpers arrived with Jeremy and we started touching up the tables from yesterday. Moss looks pretty cool but it is god awful messy, so we were doing a lot of blowing the little pieces back to the center to avoid smudges on the white tablecloths. Also, one of the farm’s kittens jumped up on the head table and pulled down some moss right in front of me. I love kittens, but after all my work I thought my head might explode and the kittens thankfully were put away for the rest of the day. Then we had to put all the flowers out, which we held off as long as we could so they would hold up in the heat, which they did. Kat had selected a florist who works with all wildflowers and the effect with the moss was really cool. Ivy and Jylissa our helpers were critical at this stage because it was many trips up and down the stairs bringing out the vases they had put together the day before. Around this time Kat and Micah arrived at the venue and I should probably take a moment to show you the schedule. We spent a lot of time as a foursome working out these details and it was based on some very specific ideas the kids had. Kat wanted to do a “First Look” at the dress with just her, Micah, and the photographer and then she would walk around the rest of the day prior to the 5pm ceremony. We were a little concerned it would water down the ceremony itself but it was actually fantastic and allowed us to space pictures throughout the day. I highly recommend it.

11:00 Tracy, Lee, and Stacy help Kat get into dress (we ate quickly during this). Linda and Jim with Micah.

12:00 “First Look” Kat and Micah, then bride and groom pictures, then bride and groom and parent pictures.

1:30 Rest of bridal party arrives; bridal party pictures

3:00 Extended family arrives – more pictures

4:00 Venue open to all guests

4:45 Shuttle bus from hotel arrives

5:00 Guests seated

5:15 Ceremony

Scheduling things out to this level might seem like overkill, but have you ever been to a wedding where the cake isn’t cut until 9pm?? This is how you avoid that happening. By the way, putting the dress and veil on a daughter is one of the most special moments for both of us and this did not disappoint. The venue had a beautiful room for us to use and that one on one time with your daughter before things get crazy is very special.

Bridal room

Bridal room

Because Lee is her dad Katy got movie lights for her makeup retouch

In our family we use Gaffe tape for everything!!

In our family we use Gaff tape for everything including stickie bras that don’t stick well!

Putting on the veil was so special

While Kat and Micah were getting their pictures taken, Lee and I got dressed, then got our pictures, then we were back to work talking to the caterers, bartenders, organizing the snack table, finalizing video camera placement, etc. This time period is where Jeremy and Wendy were absolutely invaluable. It’s hard to be in five places at once, and everywhere I wasn’t, either he or my sister were. Plus, Jeremy and Kyrston found the time to work out Skyping with my youngest daughter Kay, and Jeremy carried her around via his phone during the ceremony and after for over an hour. One of my favorite moments of the day was walking my daughter down the aisle and seeing Kay’s face on the phone as we walked past Jeremy. The three of us actually stopped the processional and said a quick “Hi” to her, and it was so special. I was sad she couldn’t be there in person, but Jeremy’s kindness helped make her a part of the day.

Before the ceremony, Kat, Lee, and I did have some more one-on-one time as she made final preparations and then it was time to join the bridal party. We walked up a small hill behind the tree and then Lee let the couples go one at a time carefully controlling the timing. I was in the back when I realized I had forgotten the hand fasting ribbon which was to be used by myself and Micah’s mom Linda to tie their hands together during the ceremony. The ribbon was about as far away as it could be (too far to run back without stopping the music) and I really started to panic. Kat, again, wonderful in those critical moments all day, just laughed and said she felt calmer because I had made a mistake and then suggested we use the ribbon from my dress. Thank God I had one, and we untied it and the ceremony went off without a hitch, It really was a fun and unique ceremony as the kids had a very clear vision of what they wanted it to be and I was so happy to be a part of it.

Linda, Kat, Micah, and I during the handfasting ceremony

The rest of the night was dinner, speeches (which were awesome), the father/daughter dance and mother/son dance, and cake cutting, then the first shuttle arrived, most of the older folks and young kids left, and the twenty somethings really cut loose on the dance floor. Everyone seemed to have a really a good time and although being the Mother of the bride can be exhausting it was all worth it when Micah told me it was a “perfect day.” That meant the world to me and made me cry. He’s a very nice young man and we feel very blessed to have him in our family. I think this picture says it all.

Kat & Micah

The next morning my family and Kat and Micah met for breakfast as my brother and dad were headed to the airport. Then Kat, Micah, Kyrston, Jeremy, my mom, Wendy, Lee’s mom and dad and his Aunt Dorothy all came over to the camper. Thank heavens Dede and Denny stopped and bought lunch for everyone because I don’t think I had it in me to cook. We sat and talked and watched the kids open some of their presents and had a really great time although after the last person left I fell into bed at 8pm and slept like the dead until 6am. It was a wonderful, wonderful week and I am so happy we got to be a part of it.

On a side note, I did want to mention that Dede and Denny actually bought us some presents and brought them over on Sunday (everything does at least two things) and when they left DeDe put a beautiful card in the bathroom sink where we would find it at the end of the night. Her note read: “Never lose sight of the fact that it is never about a destination – life is always about the journey! I hope that your journey is always fun and full of adventure! Even the bumps of the road are part of the journey. Enjoy them all. Here’s to a beautiful ride. Love, Mom and Denny.” She is such a special woman and Denny is an amazing man. They have been so very very supportive of this lifestyle from the very beginning and the thoughtfulness they put into both their gifts and that card still makes me tear up thinking about it. We love you both and I know you are reading this because you always read our blog! So, it’s back to our adventure now and in some respects we feel like we are truly getting started. The last eight months has been largely about family, friends, and Lee going to RV Tech school, but now we are headed for the wide open spaces and will be really seeing if this lifestyle is sustainable for us. Stay tuned, because although it may be bumpy at times, I can promise you it will be an interesting ride!

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July 22, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Wedding on the Road – Part 1

I’m sorry it has taken me so long to write a new blog post. We had the pre-wedding, the wedding, and then we moved, so things have been very busy. I also wanted to mention that although I took pictures around the date of the wedding, the actual wedding day I chose not to take any pictures at all. We hired a professional photographer and those pictures will be available in about 30 days so I will share them in a separate post. But I am jumping ahead. Let me go back to the beginning.

We left Anatoth Farm on the Wednesday before the wedding, and moved to St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park, a county park in Hastings, MN. I chose this park because of its proximity to the venue, and the hotel where the out-of-town guests were staying, but what a pleasant surprise. The sites were extremely large and well cared for, and our site “Z” was one of the best sites we have ever stayed in. Now, before you get too excited, there’s some down side. They don’t allow pets, they have a somewhat grumpy staff (both volunteers and employees) and are only water and electric, but WOW, the site itself was really terrific.

View from our campsite

Boat dock area

St. Croix River

The fawn that visited us every morning

After getting settled, we ran into Hastings and went to Walmart. We are going to spend a month in International Falls, where Lee will be doing some video production for the RV-Dreams website. The campground we will be staying at is very remote (about 34 miles to the nearest grocery store) so Linda recommended stocking up. I knew the next few days would be crazy so decided now was the best time to get it out-of-the-way. I’m so glad that I did, because as you will see, the next few days were definitely action packed. When we were driving through Hastings I saw a sign that said The Falls of the Vermillon River. After a quick internal debate I asked Lee if we could turn around and stop. I am still not used to the fact that we can just stop and see things. That’s one of the best things about this lifestyle, the ability to take a pause and really look around. Even after eight months though, I still feel the conditioning to get where I am going, and finish what I am doing, but I am getting better at taking the time to stop and see things and enjoy myself! Every time the thing we stop to look at is awesome, it reinforces how good the decision was to slow down and take a look. Take a look at the pictures and you decide if the short detour was worth it. Both Lee and I definitely thought it was.

This was a really big waterfall tucked in a corner of a park we were really surprised.

The walls surrounding the falls were really cool with natural caves

Lots of old beautiful trees and as a tree lover this one really spoke to me

So we had a couple of nature moments which was lovely because by Thursday the wedding was in full swing. I took Wednesday through Friday off so had plenty of time, and we took full advantage of it. First, we met the kids for lunch at this really funky Ecuadoran restaurant. It’s one of Kat’s favorites and since it was her 24th birthday, she got to pick. It was actually very good and we loved spending time with just us, Kat and Micah, Nick (our almost son), his girlfriend Slushie, and Kyrston (who had flown in the day before). One thing about this wedding; it really showed how much people love my daughter. We had several of her friends from New Hampshire come in and Nick and Slushie flew all the way in from San Francisco, as well as my parents and brother and sister, who flew in from Ohio, and Lee’s parents and aunt, who drove from Ohio.

From left: Nick, Lee, Micah, Kat, and Kyrston

From left: Slushie, Nick, Lee, Micah, Kat, and Kyrston

After lunch we all split up, and Kat, Kyrston, and I went out for some beauty. First we went downtown and visited Kat’s hair salon and got eyebrow waxes. It was really nice and in a mall that was in a variety of connected office buildings. Because the snow is so bad there is a complete enclosed skywalk system that connects most of the buildings on the second floor, and the first and second floors are often taken up by retail establishments which take advantage of the foot traffic. Very cool. Then we met Linda (Micah’s mom), Sarah (Micah’s Sister), Jamie (Sarah’s wife), and Stacy (the maid of honor) to get manicures and pedicures. It was a lot of fun, and afterwards we went back to Sarah and Jamie’s house and met the all the guys for dinner. That was amazingly fun. We ate food, drank wine, and played a really fun game called “J’awesome”. It’s a game the kids made up by combining Taboo, Charades, and Password. It’s pretty complicated to explain but you use the same phrases through all three rounds, but are allowed to use less clues each round to get people to guess. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long while and the wine was really good. It was the perfect way to start off the weekend with both sides of the family together and we were so grateful to Sarah and Jamie for hosting.

From right: Stacy, me, Kyrston, Sarah, and Jamie

Stacy (who was the best maid of honor I have ever seen) and Kat

Stacy (who was no kidding the most amazing maid of honor I have ever seen) and my girl Kat

My beautiful Kat (also known as Katy)

My son-in-law Micah and me

Micah’s brother Jesse who was an absolute doll through the whole process. He kept giving me random hugs to keep me going. Such a sweetheart.

Linda…Micah’s Mom was having a great time

Thursday was a ton of fun but the serious work started on Friday. Lee and I got to the venue at 8:50am (luckily the wine was so good I didn’t even have a teeny hangover) and were pleasantly surprised to see that Stacy had beat us there was already working! See what I mean? Best Maid of Honor ever!! The venue is called Jean Acres (the owner’s name is James Jean which cracked me up) and it’s a working farm that they have converted into an event venue. Really cool place and I can see why the kids fell in love with it, but it doesn’t come with staff, so we knew we (and our awesome volunteers) would be doing most of the heavy lifting. We started with setting up the tables and the place settings because we knew this process would take some time. Katy and Micah were very specific about what they wanted for place settings, as they wanted them to represent their interests. By this time I was on board with the idea but I knew it would take time. Luckily, Stacy was a huge help with this and we got the tables complete in 2-1/2 hours. I’d like to mention here that you can have an absolutely gorgeous wedding on a budget, but you need to do a lot of the work yourself. Since we are on a budget and not afraid of some hard work we were perfectly happy to jump in. Plus I have to say it was really fun getting to explore my artistic side and when my mother-in-law told me three times at the wedding how great the tables looked it was totally worth it. My picture below doesn’t show them in the completed stage, so I’ll replace them with the photographers photos later but here’s a taste so you can get an idea. We added flowers and twinkle tea lights the next day.

Micah loves dinosaurs and I was all about making that happen so this centerpiece (with some flowers that came later) was on the head table

Linda and I chose pictures of the kids and then coordinated them with one of Kat and Micah’s favorite quotes which was in the third frame. These were a huge hit

They had books, with keys and a cup of tea really cute. We also had one with lab beakers but I didn’t get a pic of that

This is pre flowers but the space was really quite beautiful once it was all done

Kat and I had a really good time

While we were working on this Kyrston arrived with her boyfriend Jeremy who came straight from the airport. Jeremy is an Assistant Manager of a beautiful wedding venue in Newport Rhode, Island and he was an absolute life saver. I would put him on an area and say “work your magic” then walk away and come back to find something absolutely gorgeous. This was the first time Jeremy had met Lee (who rarely likes the boyfriends on the first meeting) and Lee was impressed. Plus, he’s a really sweet guy and obviously adores my daughter. Gotta love that!

Jeremy’s snack table made from stuff he found laying around…amazing

Jeremy and Kyrston

While my crew was working on the reception area, Lee and his crew were working on the ceremony site. The farm has a huge beautiful willow tree and the kids decided they wanted to get married underneath it. Katy had hired two people from Panera to help Saturday and Sunday and they worked with Lee to get the 120 chairs arranged. He also placed stakes in the ground so the wedding party would know where to stand and with Nick and Slushie’s help started setting up the four video cameras to tape the rehearsal. Lee was a wedding videographer when we were very young and has done many, many weddings, but he was going to be pretty busy walking the bride down the aisle so Nick graciously offered to help with the cameras during the actual ceremony. Luckily we knocked most of the work out prior to it getting really hot but around 12:30 it was pretty brutal. I think it was the hottest day of summer so far and the humidity was very high. Everyone hung in there though, and we were in good shape when the rest of the wedding party started to arrive around 2:30.

Slushie and Nick were a huge help with the video setup

I have to say the rehearsal worked beautifully. Jim (Micah’s dad) set up his sound system (he has done sound at many weddings) and Lee worked with everyone to get the timing and blocking down. Then we walked through the ceremony twice and were done by 4:30. It was incredibly hot, but folks were very patient with the process, and I will say Lee knows what he is doing, because the actual ceremony the next day went off without a hitch and that is largely due to the pre-production work he coordinated in the rehearsal. After the rehearsal, the wedding party went into the party room section of the venue which was somewhat cooler and had the rehearsal dinner. Micah’s Aunt and Uncle made some wonderful food and the deserts Barb made were to die for. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel everyone was staying in, and met my family that had flown or driven in that day. My sister Wendy came with my mom and my brother Eddie came with my dad. Lee’s parents Dede and Denny drove and had stopped in Indiana to pickup Lee’s Aunt Dorothy. It was wonderful seeing everyone and we had a really big group between our and Micah’s family and it was a nice informal way for everyone to meet the day before. This seems a good place to break, so stay tuned for The Wedding – Part II and thanks so much to all my friends and family who were so very supportive throughout the process.

Lee directing the wedding party

Lined up in nice neat rows

Pulled pork, cucumber salad, and kale salad all from ingredients produced from the farm …yummy!!

The two kinds of chees cake were awesome!!

The two kinds of cheese cake were awesome!!

From left: P.J her best man, Stacy her maid of honr, and Kat

From left: P.J her best man, Stacy her maid of honor, and Kat

Katy wore a beautiful dress

St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park 10191 St Croix Trail S, Hastings, MN 4 out of 5 pine cones

Extremely large and neat sites all pull through in the modern campground area. Electric and Water only but very clean dump station, Site Z is on the corner looking into woods and field and we regularly saw deer walking through. There is a beach and boat access, along with conference centers, a playground, volley ball court, tennis court, and many other common areas. NO PETS are allowed in the campground (although we saw them in the boat dock area). It was largely empty the entire time we were there and the fellow campers were quiet and polite. My largest complaint was the office staff and campground hosts. They were not very friendly to “out-of towners” and complete sticklers for the rules. That being said, aesthetically it was a beautiful park, one of the nicest we have stayed in. There is no wi-fi, but my ATT coverage was good. The price is $25 a day and what is not very clear on their website is there is an additional per car $5 day access pass you have to pay for on arrival. (Reservations for the campground are done online.) The annual pass is $25 which you can purchase if your stay is 5 days or longer. They are also inflexible with their cancellation policy. We left a day early and even though we told them that at the beginning of our one week stay they were unwilling to refund us that day. You can stay in the park for one week but then need to move to another spot if you are going to stay longer.

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We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

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

July 15, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Stillwater, MN

As much as we are enjoying the farm, I really wanted to get out this weekend and see the area a bit so I decided on visiting Stillwater, MN which is about 45 minutes away. Stillwater is a very quaint town built on Lake St. Croix which was made when the Mississippi where it joined the St. Croix river. Originally the St. Croix river was an outlet of the glacial Lake Duluth (precursor to Lake Superior) and ran much higher and even before that the ocean covered Minnesota during the Cambrian period. The rock walls are very distinctive and chiefly made of sandstone and because they exist here in such pristine condition, these formations are known as the St. Croixian series wherever they appear in North America. The town is also the site where the state of Minnesota was originally formed and is super cute with tons of restaurants and shops. So geology, history, and shopping…I am totally in!!

Stillwater as seen from the height where the river used to be

Birthplace of Minnesota

An example of the sandstone walls

They had paddleboat tours along the lake

They have done an excellent job with the town itself by taking the old existing buildings and turning them into retail establishments without losing the original look and feel of the city. I was also very fond of this little park they have called Teddy Bear Park for kids and my absolute favorite was the million dollar restroom. There is a simple brick restroom down on the waterfront which they call the million dollar restroom because it is taking up a space of prime waterfront real estate. Very cool. So great shops, lots of bar restaurants, and a funky feel. Hang onto your wallet though because the prices are on the high side and it’s hard not to want to buy a few things.

Grainery converted into a cafe

The “million dollar” restroom

This particular building reminded me of downtown Keene

Every time I see an Oil and Vinegar store I think of my friend Deb who used to own one

Fun main street

I loved this sign outside of one of the bars

This is one of those bar bikes where everyone pedals and it meanders around town

An Adirondack chair made out of leftover skis was cool and unique

My favorite store had tshirts with the jacket covers of out of print books

a kids section

Lee was bummed they only had the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy in medium

Lots of neat outdoor cafes

This brewery was awesome

After Stillwater we took our time driving back to the farm and along the way we discovered an old drive in theater that had been turned into an outdoor church. Our friend Mark loves drive in theaters and we knew he would like the pictures so we stopped and checked it out. Pretty neat concept really you can drive in with your car and then listen to the minister who is on a little stand.

We also stopped and saw Rice Beds Creek which is an area close to the the farm where wild rice grows. The harvesting process sounds pretty laborious. It is a two person job, one pushing the canoe, the other inside. You bend over the rice (which looks like tall grass) and then whack it so the rice falls in the bottom of the canoe. I guess it is a hot, buggy exercise and once you have the rice you still need to to take it somewhere to be processed (baked and hulled). I bought some wild rice from the Co-Op at $17 a pound and we will see if the taste is worth that much work. Most Minnesota wild rice you eat in stores is actually a hybrid of regular rice and wild rice which allows it to be grown and cultivated by more traditional methods. It was cool though and the pictures don’t do justice to how pretty the area was.

Wild Rice Creek

Sunday I had an opportunity to attend the West Denmark Lutheran church. I was raised and confirmed Lutheran and identify myself as such (although I am quite happy to attend other churches as well) and was excited about the opportunity to attend a Lutheran church in an area of the country where they are very common. The West Denmark church was founded primarily by some Danish families and reflects both the Lutheran religion but also the culture and value systems of the local danish people. The original church was lost to fire in the 1980’s and the new one is full of the most beautiful wood. It also has several pieces of hand carved wood (including the large cross) that were done by a member of the church who was the great-grandson of a famous danish woodcarver. The church sits on 11 acres of lake front property and has multiple buildings including a small school, party room, church, and house for Pastor Linda and her husband. I was curious as to how they made that work with such a small congregation but it turns out that the church allowed a widow and her 5 children to live in the house after the father died. All 5 kids went on to become very successful in life and not forgetting what the church had done for them contribute substantially to infrastructure projects. I love stories like that. Makes me believe in the human spirit. The other thing I really liked about the church is that on it’s programs it states that it is open to all regardless of race, creed, or sexual orientation. So this tiny Danish church in the middle of rural Wisconsin is doing it’s own small part to support the LGBT community. Again, amazing what you find as you wander this country and some of the nicest surprises are in the least likely places.

West Denmark Lutheran Church

The cross was hand carved and beautiful

The detail on the banisters was stunning and represented the Danish heritage

Loved this prayer stand

This handmade Danish ship was made by a deceased parishioner and hangs proudly from the rafters

Very lovely

The rest of Sunday was largely uneventful but we did have some very serious storms at night. Linda and Jim offered to allow us into their home but we decided to ride it out in the rig. Peak gusts were over 50 mph and the rig did shake a little, but it was manageable. I felt quite a bit safer since we weren’t near any big trees, but the lightning did freak me out a little. It’s definitely going to be part of what we have to deal with going forward and overall I thought we did OK. Lee’s really calm in a crisis so that helped keep me calm as well.

So that’s the end of the farm posts. I work Monday and Tuesday, we move to a campground closer to the venue on Wednesday and then its all wedding through the weekend. Don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me for awhile I am guessing I will be pretty busy!!

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July 11, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Farm Cooking is the Best!!

Aside from wedding planning and work we’ve been trying to take it easy this week. Lee spent a couple of days mowing on the farm and had a blast. He gets very zen when he mows and I got to spend a day teaching Jim and Linda how to make my Great-Grandma Alice’s homemade noodles. These are the types of activities we rarely get to do in the RV and both of us enjoyed ourselves immensely. My Great-Grandmother was a huge part of my life and since I was little little she would let me “help” her make noodles. So not only are these the best noodles I have ever eaten but they hold deep sentimental value for me. Unfortunately they take all day to make and a ton of work space. I could probably do it in our table in the rig but it was much better making them in Jim and Linda’s large farm kitchen. Jim is a real foodie (I caught him watching Julia Child on PBS the other day) and with the ingredients he has to work with, who can blame him? Since one batch of the noodle recipe requires a dozen eggs and eggs are definitely something not in short supply out here, I asked if I could use their kitchen and they kindly agreed. Linda and I had a lot of fun and the noodles turned out pretty good, not as good as grandma’s of course, but not bad. So we made three batches and they kept some and I have others to freeze plus now they have a recipe they can try if they have a lot of eggs to use up. So I have included the recipe below, just in case you are so inclined but be prepared for your table to be taken up for most of a day.

Linda and I making some noodles. The flour on our faces was added for effect !!

I also made dinner for them one night (pasta shells stuffed with meatballs, using Mom’s spaghetti sauce recipe) and we had a salad fresh from the garden. Ahhh, salads. We have had a fresh salad almost every day and every one has been different. We largely have been making our own dressing and trying different ingredients and every one has been delicious. To this point in my life I have largely stuck with iceberg lettuce but the quality of lettuce coming out of their garden has won me over. Plus they made kale salad one night and I liked it much better than I thought I would. Kale is one of those “superfoods” that is really good for you, and I was glad to try the recipe of someone who is a true kale lover. So, it’s been a great eating week with my only concern being that I don’t overeat to the point where the dress I’m wearing to the wedding doesn’t fit! Actually, the calorie count on these meals is pretty low and the ingredients are so fresh they don’t need heavy sauces to give them flavor. So, yummy and good for you..I am sold on this farm living!!

I do like to give a complete view though, and farm living in an RV does come with some challenges. Water was my first concern. Not all well water is equal and some is not drinkable at all unless it is filtered, but we are very lucky here that the water quality is excellent. Pressure is another matter though as we are sharing a pumped well-water source with both the main house and all the animals. Generally pressure is fine, but whenever they are watering the animals it goes down to a trickle. We are working around this by filling our tank in the evenings and then using the our freshwater tank and water pump during animal feeding times. It took a few days to figure out the routine, but now we’ve got it down.

Electric has also been interesting. They have a 30 amp outlet on the side of their garage, but it is a different, residential connector than the 30 amp adaptor we have for the rig. So, we’ve been using the standard 15 amp outlet with an adaptor to our 50 amp rig. We have a voltage regulator which protects us from sudden drops and increases in power levels, but we need to be careful on how many amps we are pulling at one time. Lee has gotten really creative about this, changing the fridge to propane prior to running the microwave, or turning the water heater off throughout the day and only using it in the morning. Again, once we figured it out it has been fine but when it started to get really hot we all felt we needed to try something different. We need at least 30 amps to run one air conditioner, and since our space in the field is full sun the internal temperature of the rig can get 15 degrees higher (or more) than outside. Lee discussed it with Jim and he picked up a 50 amp stove/dryer outlet box at the local hardware store. He removed the existing 30 amp outlet and installed the 50 amp outlet. The breaker is still 30 amp, so there’s no danger, but it does allow us to pull the full 30 amps we need to run at least one AC, which is actually adequate to cool the rig and pull down the humidity level. Running two AC units, at least in moderate heat, just allows them both to cool without working as hard. Then we tested the power and we were able to run one air conditioner at a time, which should be a life saver this weekend as the heat index is going to be extremely high with 70 percent humidity. So keep in mind although the farm may have 30 amps, the outlet may not be RV compatible. Farm outlets are different from RV ones. Technically, the outlet Lee installed is not supposed to be used outside, but it’s not exposed to the elements, because the garage has a roof extending 10′ from the side of the building, creating plenty of cover so if it rains there’s no danger of the outlet box getting wet. It’s also going to be in place for less than 5 days.

Another possible issue was heavy rain. I was very concerned about being on grass because we have seen friends get stuck in fields before. We talked to Jim about this ahead of time though and our spot is grass on gravel, in a high point on the yard, and has very good drainage. This was proved out when we had 6″ of rain in a 24 hour period and we had no standing pools of water. Lee was proactive as well and put the wheels on rubber mats and the stabilizers in rubber squares as well which worked great. (Before we left to go on the road, Lee bought two heavy rubber horse stall mats and cut them into squares for all 4 jacks and longer strips for the tires on the truck and RV in case of this kind of scenario. I love how he thinks ahead and it was great to see it work.

(Another thing worth pointing out is that since we’re still not hardcore “boondockers” yet, we don’t go over the top with water conservation yet. We take normal showers, and we cook and eat on regular pots and dishes, so we use water to wash dishes. We also do laundry in the rig. [As a further aside, as part of the electrical solution, I hung a laundry line between the rig and the garage to dry clothes. I love the smell of clothes dried on a line, there’s nothing like it.] So, we fill our grey tank pretty quickly. We have a portable tank in the bed of our truck and a macerator pump, and when we stay places that don’t have sewer connections, I pump the grey water into the tank so I can drive it to a dump station. That has worked very well in the past, but being here for two weeks and no nearby dump station, we are doing something a little different. We’re on the edge of a grazing pasture, and since it’s just grey water, we are using the macerator pump and 100′ of hose to just pump the grey water out into the field. I’ve stuck a post in the ground and attached the hose to the end of it, and I’m essentially just watering the field. There’s been no smell whatsoever, and I’m putting water back into the ground. After a week and a half, the grass and wildflowers in that area are already noticeably taller than those around them.- Lee)

Bugs is the other big surprise to me. When we visited before it was September and the bug population was manageable but its high growing season here and not surprising the bugs are in a flurry. We are using our tiki torches and pots quite a bit to some effect, but get herded inside at dusk when they really seem to go nuts. When (not if) they get inside, our tennis racket style bug zapper does work great. The main house has lots of bats which work wonders to keep the porch and immediate area largely free of bugs. I am thinking we should have a bat house over by the garage area where we are staying for future visits 🙂

These issues don’t really bother us at all. Jim has been more than helpful in trying to get us setup as comfortably as possible. Lee views it as a bit of a challenge and by looking at it like a puzzle to be solved, avoided any feelings of frustration. I’m so grateful to have a place to stay for free, I am more than happy to get creative, so overall the entire situation has been great. But I realize not everyone has the knowledge to do electrical rewiring and not every property owner would be OK with it in any case, so it’s very important that you recognize the situation may have unique challenges and then work together to find solutions.

The nicest thing that happened to me this week was Cori sent me a surprise. She reached out to Linda on Facebook and coordinated sending a care package to me at the farm. She included a wedding care package for Lee and I (including a lot of alcohol and some tissues that say “This Ain’t My First Rodeo” which made me laugh as this is the second wedding we have planned. It also included a super sweet card and my favorite, a package to take into the brides ready room the day of the wedding with tons of little things that we could need in an emergency. The kit was put together by Cori and included some great items like the Altoids I use, bug spray (it’s an outdoor wedding) and a first aid kit. It was such a thoughtful gesture that I immediately burst into tears. Later when Lee took a break from mowing and saw the present I told him how surprised I was I started crying, his response was “I’m not surprised. You’re an emotional wreck.” Men!!! I think I am holding up pretty well considering. Anyways, it truly was one of the kindest things anyone has ever done for me and I love Cori for it.

Our wedding care package

The card she sent...I'm the little girl which cracked me up

The card she sent…I’m the little girl… cracked me up

Yes those are tears in my eyes

The package for in the brides ready room

The package is for the brides ready room

Recipes

Grandma Alice’s Homemade Noodles

The recipe below is per batch. Since the drying process takes so long and the noodles freeze so well I recommend making multiple batches simultaneously, assuming you have the table space. The noodles can be used for chicken and noodles, soup, or any other recipe that calls for egg noodles.

12 eggs
3 cups flour
4 TBL water

Add 2 complete eggs and 10 egg yolks to large mixing bowl and mix
Add 3 cups of flour and mix until you have a yellow colored ball of dough (do not over mix as this will result in tough noodles)
Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes
Cover table with thin layer of flour
Place ball of dough on table and smash somewhat flat with hands, flip and flour the top lightly
Using a rolling pin roll out the dough to about 1/4″ thickness (this is an inexact science the main point is uniform thickness throughout and the piece of dough does NOT need to be perfectly round)
Lightly flour the top and let dry for 2 hours
Flip and lightly flour the other side (too little flour and it sticks, too much flour and you lose the egg flavor, again, inexact science)
Let dry for 2 hours
Start with the edge of the dough and roll into a multi-layered tube (think strudel)
Place tube on a cutting board and with a VERY sharp knife cut to desired width. (I like about 1/4″ but they can be skinnier or thicker)
Take slices and gently unroll pinching off noodles into desired lengths; shake gently and let dry on table
Freeze in ziplock bags with as much air removed as possible.

Home made noodles

Easy Stuffed Shells

16 uncooked pasta shells
16 oz spaghetti sauce (bottled or Connie’s sauce with no meat)
16 frozen full cooked Italian meatballs (thawed)
1 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Thaw meatballs
Cook pasta shells as directed by the box, drain, and rinse with cool water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Place 1/2 cup pasta sauce in bottom of baking dish
Place one thawed meatball in each shell and lay on top of sauce
Pour remaining sauce over shells
Top with cheese
Bake covered for 35 minutes
Uncover and bake for 3-7 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly
Serve

Easy Stuffed Shells

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