April 21, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Long-Term Camping with a Large Group

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s About Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pea Island Bird Sanctuary

Pea Island Bird sanctuary

Pea Island

Pea Island I loved how wild it was

Canadian Goose and reflection on Pond

Egret with reflection in marsh

Great Egret in flight

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

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

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

A hand drawing showing why they chose the site

A replica of what they flew in

The plaque says it all

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

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

Plaques where the fourth flight ended

Track showing how long it was back to the take off

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

Lee capturing the moment

The monument is on a Hill overlooking the first runway

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

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

Millers Seafood Restaurant

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

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

Giant cow kite

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

Recipes

Mama Jo’s Sugar Free French Toast Casserole

Ingredients

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

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

Mama Joe’s French Toast Casserole

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April 16, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in OBX

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

Our Anthem

Our blog address on the back of the camper

Our blog address on the front of the camper

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

Flowers we sent to Cheryl at the DMV

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

Lee’s picture

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

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

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

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

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

Wendy’s Chicken Pot Pie

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

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

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

Ocean Waves Campground

Morning on the beach

Lee staring at the sunrise

Campground Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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April 11, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Living Outside of My Comfort Zone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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April 9, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Third Budget

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

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

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

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

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April 5, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time on Augustine Island

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lee loves the twisty trees here

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

The moon starting it’s lunar eclipse

Loved the colors

Sunrise on Anastasia Island

Beautiful

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

The farmer’s market was a long two down

Absolutely gorgeous orchids for sale so pretty

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

All of this for under $20

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

The best picture we could get outside of the gated area

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

Saw this shop online and had to go

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

The building the shops were in is made from seashells

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

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

My mom would have really liked this store

Lee loves Bogie and humored me with the photo

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

Lightner Museum

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

Gingerbread house on a side road

Very cool dinosaur log bench

The walk to the quarry

Here’s all that’s left of the quarry

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

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

Love these little flowers

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

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

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

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

Easy to get into the water from the shore

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

Nice view of the lighthouse

A vendor rents sailboats, kayaks etc right in the park

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April 2, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Finding Campgrounds Isn’t Always Easy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lessons Learned

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

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March 29, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Establishing Residency in Florida

After the kids left we were more than ready to leave Apopka and head up to St. Augustine to get our driver’s licenses and new license plates taken care of. Lee was taking care of getting the rig travel ready and I was on a series of conference calls for work, but he is so efficient it really didn’t take him long to get us ready to go. At the last-minute I shut the computer down and stepped outside the rig while he completed the final task of hooking the fifth wheel up to the hitch in the truck. For those who don’t know, I find this to be the most intimidating part of owning a truck/fifth wheel combination. So I am going to do my best to explain how it works. We have a Reese hitch mounted in the bed of our truck. The front of the fifth wheel has a kingpin which hangs down. See pictures below:

This is the hitch we have

This picture shows where the king pin is on the fifth wheel

This picture shows where the king pin is on a fifth wheel

You have to lower or raise the fifth wheel (using the landing gear in the front at the bottom) so the truck can be backed up right under where the kingpin is. Once it is straight you have to lower the fifth wheel down so the king pin can slide into opening on the rear of the hitch. If everything is the right height and the right angle the kingpin will click between these jaws and then you can lock the jaws closed around the kingpin.

Shows how the king pin and the locking jaws fit together

B. the king pin slips into A the locking jaws

Sound easy?? Well, it’s not. It’s tough for Lee who is very mechanically inclined and I honestly don’t know if I could ever do it alone. Once the kingpin is in the locking jaws it’s really tough to tell if it’s properly seated. There is a locking handle that theoretically will not go into place if the fit isn’t right but it is absolutely less than ideal. Needless to say Lee is extremely careful about how he hitches the truck, because we know of several people who have damaged their truck bed, tailgate, or the hitch when the hookup is not done properly.

Back to Tuesday.

I was standing outside on a call when Lee started to move the truck forward and BANG! the front of the camper slipped out of the hitch and dropped down on the back of the truck. Lee STOPPED!!! Very important because often people don’t stop here and the damage done is so much worse. I yelled stop and then got off the phone call I was on. Michele was very understanding later when I explained why. I have to say from this point, Lee was absolutely amazing. I was breathing pretty hard but he got out and slowly started checking out the damage. As you are going to see from the pictures below we definitely have a guardian angel. Although the weight of the RV landed on the truck bed side walls it was also cushioned by the Blue Boy we just bought which took all of the impact from the kingpin.

Full weight of RV on truck often crushes the back

Small side dent was all we received

The blue boy too the bulk of it...and has since completely reinflated back to its original shape and still works

The blue boy took the bulk of the weight..

Blue Boy after two days completely reinflated with minimal scratching

What is absolutely amazing is the blue boy has since “re-inflated” on its own and although it has some scratches was not punctured! It appears to still be working. If the Blue Boy would not have been in the back the kingpin would have likely punched a hole in the truck bed and crushed the tailgate. After much discussion we chose between the gate and the hitch as the blue boys permanent home because we can lock it in place and even though we need to remove it when hitching it’s a great way to use some largely unusable space. That decision (along with Lee stopping immediately) probably saved us thousands in truck repairs and a major delay until it could all be fixed. I can’t even tell you how blessed we feel about how this turned out. Lee is an extremely careful person. He double checks and triple checks everything. So let me say if this can happen to him it can absolutely happen to anyone.

Everything worked fine thankfully on the short trip to St. Augustine and I continued to work while Lee set up the camper. St. John’s Campground is attached to a flea market and we knew it wouldn’t be the best place to stay but needed somewhere close to Green Cove Springs so we could work on getting residency. Originally we were only staying a few days and then heading to Savannah, but I have work trips booked the next two weeks so we have cancelled Savannah and are now going to stay here. Lee needs time to get together everything for his business; signage, liability insurance, business cards, etc…and although this is definitely not a place I would pick to vacation it’s working well enough for us to meet professional requirements. Plus it’s Passport America and full hookup sites are $22 a night for two weeks which is a bargain this time of year in Florida. We really need to make back some of the money we spent in Apopka!

Wednesday we went right to Green Cove Springs and started the process of becoming residents. See below for a step-by-step of how the process went.

1. We chose St. Brendan’s Island as our mail service in Green Cove Springs, FL. ( After some initial issues with changing our addresses with Bank of America, we got all of our addresses changed and started receiving mail there…you need two pieces from either a bank or insurance company to establish residency)

2. Went to the Courthouse in Green Cove Springs to establish domicile. It cost $15 each (Visa/Master Card card accepted) and all we needed was our old NH driver’s licenses to get this done. No lines and took about 10 minutes. As a side note, we chose to go to the Court House/DMV in Green Cove Springs because it is a small town and they are familiar with people establishing residency and using the mail service there.

3. Drove next door to the DMV. On Weds at 10am there were two people in line in front of us. Driver’s licenses required a birth certificate or passport and proof of SS# (SS card, W-2, or pay stub. If you have a clean driving record they do not require you to take the written test, just an eye exam. If you do not have a clean record they can require a written and/or driving test at their discretion. They took the pictures immediately and printed the licenses. Cost was $44.25 each and all major credit cards were accepted.

4. Voter Registration can be done right at the DMV after you get your license. It’s free and they give you a card with numbers to call if you want absentee ballots. Update: The voter registration board very quickly sent me a letter that stated this was not a real address and they could not register me. I have voted consistently since my first time in 1984 and found this to be pretty upsetting, but at this point I am not really in a position to completely change my home state again. After asking some folks on the forum and reading the fine print, I emailed my Letter of Domicile to the voting board. Will see if this solves the problem.

5. Vehicle registration requires a VIN # verification of the truck, car, or driveable motor home, trailers and 5th wheel thankfully do not require this. If you drive it to them they will walk outside and do it for you, or you can take the vehicle to a police station or authorized car dealership and have them do it. I recommend driving your vehicle there as it was super easy. You also need titles for the vehicles in hand. If you own them outright, this is no issue. If the bank owns them, you need your loan account number and the address the DMV can write to request a copy of the title. This surprised us as I have read nothing about this requirement anywhere but luckily the DMV person Cheryl was extremely helpful and walked us through it. We ended up filling out all the forms in advance and then calling her with the account #’s and addresses. She called back within an hour to tell us it had been processed. She stated once the titles came in, we could pay over the phone and then she could mail the plates. We will see how this works and hopefully the titles will come before we leave the state. Worst case we could drive back down here from OBX and pick them up. Thankfully the tags don’t expire until August so we do have time, but we really want to get all this done.

Overall I was very pleased with the process. We would have been shocked if everything had gone off without a hitch and the woman at the DMV was so nice it made the experience exceptional. 3 out of 4 items in one day is not bad. I asked if I could have requested titles in advance but she said no it had to be done by the DMV for them to accept it. So we are here for another couple of weeks and hopefully it will all be taken care of before we leave. If we have to leave before everything is taken care of, my impression was they would mail the plates to us. I have to say that was by far the best DMV experience I have ever had in my life. Highly recommend going to Green Cove Springs if you have to get all this done.

Also, I thought I would mention that we managed to kill the pretty large ant colony that we acquired in Clearwater. Lee found it in the basement crawl space between the kitchen sink and the bathroom sink and there were hundreds of ants. We tried numerous things but the Combat Ant Bait Strips is what worked for us. We placed them along the ledges where we saw them crawling and they eventually took the poison back to the colony and we haven’t seen an ant in two weeks. Hooray!! I’m not usually this blood thirsty but those little suckers were everywhere.

I really needed to take a weekend “off” after last weeks marathon of activities so this weekend we just relaxed. We did pop over to the Flea market that is attached to the campground we are staying at and spent an enjoyable couple of hours looking at stuff we neither needed nor had room for. The place was huge and very popular with the locals, they even had some live music playing in the center. Don’t get me wrong, it was a true flea market with lots and lots of old stuff, but sprinkled in were some cool booths we really enjoyed. There was a nice used book stall in the flea market for example and Lee got a hardback copy of Hunt for Red October for $2 in perfect condition. When we got back to the rig and he looked at it, he realized it is signed by Tom Clancy! Overall its been a very busy week and as I will be traveling for the next two weeks for work (Nashua and Princeton) I was glad for some down time. Lee is going to use the next two weeks time to finish getting his business setup so he can start working. Also, next weekend will be exploring St. Augustine and I am really looking forward to that.

On a completely side note for those who are wondering where Lee’s comments are…he reads and edits every single blog post. Sometimes he wants to chime in and other times he isn’t feeling it. Can’t force the funny as he says. This puts me in a situation to leave the blog posts unpublished until he feels it or go ahead and publish them. As much as I would love for him to add to every post, I do think it’s important to keep it somewhat current. So think of it as a special surprise when he chimes in. That’s what I do.

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March 25, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Having a Daughter Stay with us

Lee has a serious case of hitch itch (the desire to move along which strikes some RVers who stay in the same place to long) but I am viewing the move with mixed feelings. I’m comfortable here in Largo. I know where the grocery store, etc. is, plus I’ve finally learned the roads, but now we are going to move on. Don’t get me wrong, this is definitely not the place we want to put down roots…it’s way too congested for us, but I am comfortable. It’s funny how quickly you can get into the habit of a place. Plus Rainbow Village has really provided a great long-term visit experience. I’ve written more below, but I would absolutely recommend it if you’re looking to stay in the Clearwater area for more than a month. Lee washed the RV, truck, and car and accomplished numerous other outside chores. As a side note, washing RV’s is not allowed in many campgrounds so you really need to take advantage of those that do allow it. It looked very pretty when he was done although he was adamant about not washing any particular side in full sun (something about hurting the finish and decals) so the chore did stretch out throughout the day as the sun moved.

In one of the periods where we were waiting for the sun to re-position, we went to an Asian market. I have numerous recipes that require pretty specific asian ingredients that you just can’t get at a regular store so I was excited when he stumbled across a full-sized Asian market. What a terrific experience! I almost want to put the $106 we spent into the entertainment category. I had a blast and the store was very neat with extremely clean restrooms and people at every check out lane to assist. What a refreshing change from most standard grocery stores. They had live fish in tanks for sale (including eel), tons of ingredients you wouldn’t find anywhere else (complete pigs feet, dried squid,etc.) and lots of items imported from China, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, and Korea. I was attracted to those labels that were almost solely in a foreign language for their authenticity and luckily the price label on the shelf always had an English translation. I did have to google a couple of things though to make sure I was getting it right but it was tons of fun. An entire aisle of noodles for example…how cool is that?

Best Asian market I’ve ever been to!

Sunday we took our time getting ready. It was a short drive (less than 2 hours) to Apopka and we couldn’t check in until after 1pm. Normally on a travel day we like to get up and out, but the short hop allowed us to take our time. The driving went perfectly and when we arrived at Magnolia County Park it was absolutely beautiful. There was a lake across the street, huge peacocks in the yard, and it was a very nice and clean facility. So we had big smiles on our faces when we walked into the office…until the camp host said he didn’t think we would fit in Site 11. I was confused by this as I specifically stated in my phone call we had a 4o foot fifth wheel and allowed the camp host to book our site. The host didn’t understand what had happened but suggested we drive back in our car first to see what we thought. We drove the route and although we did think we could squeeze into the slot, unfortunately we did not see how we could get out of the park as the last turn to get out was very tight between two low hanging trees. We also couldn’t drive back the way we came because the right pulling out would have had us hitting the electrical pedestal. So here we were in Apopka during spring break with Katy and Micah on their way to stay with us, and no site to be had. To the credit of the park hosts they were very nice and they called several state parks for us to see if they had a spot. There was one about three miles away which accommodates horse trailers but unfortunately they were not willing to guarantee anything beyond Thursday. Since I wasn’t willing to wing it with the kids, I started to push Lee a bit to see if he could try to make the spot work and finally he held the truck keys out to me. This was pretty effective as I realized I wasn’t willing to chance it so why should I expect him to do it? At that point we started looking and found a park called Lost Lake that takes Passport America. Lee called the number and we drove there, but the camp office was closed. Luckily there was another couple waiting and the owners (taking their first day off in three months) sent over someone to help us and the other couple. We got a huge pull through site with 50 amp and full hookups and although the weekly rate of $210 for this site had no Passport America discount we were happy to have it. Under normal circumstances we would not stay here, but the kids will mostly be at the parks or Cape Canaveral so really we only need a place for them to sleep and me to work. The wifi is really strong and although the park is pretty run down the people seem pretty nice and frankly I was glad we found a place at all at that point. I will say it’s the second time we have tried to stay at a State or Local park where we were assigned a site that we simply could not get into. Lesson Learned is to have more discussion with these type of campgrounds when making the reservations.

Because we got in on Sunday and the office was closed, the camp host told us to just come check in and pay tomorrow. We were quoted $210 a week over the phone, and we knew the Passport America price we were given would not apply to the site we were in. What we didn’t know until the next morning was that they were charging us $35 a night for 9 nights and then an extra $10 for each of the kids for each night, which was yet another $90. By the time we found this out it was late into the first night and we were totally set up. So we paid $370 for one week in a very mediocre park. The kids offered to make up the difference, but we weren’t going to make them pay for our mistake so…Lesson Learned is when finding a second site don’t just take the first thing that comes along. Take some time to research again even if that is inconvenient. I did go back later and called the owner we had spoken to and she said she would refund the $90 but when we went to the office the person working there said she didn’t know how to do it. By the time we left at the end of the week, she had figured it out, so we did ultimately get the refund. However, we would absolutely NEVER stay here again. See at the bottom of the page for my detailed campground review.

The kids came and so the week was really fun. We looked at our budget in advance and talked about how to handle it. We have $350 a month for entertainment and dining out, so obviously that wasn’t going to cut it. We didn’t mind going over some but this could quickly turn into a $1,000 week so we talked through it first with each other and then the kids when they came. The deal we struck was the kids paid for one of us to go to a park and we would drive them and pay for our own food. Lee went to Universal Tuesday and Wednesday and I went to Epcot with the kids on Thursday. Because they didn’t have to pay for a hotel room or car rental it made the vacation far less expensive for them and because we went separately and tried to keep food costs down it made it affordable for us. Plus the kids went with Lee to the store and we planned out some meals to make at the camper, and they chipped in for some of the groceries, and we bought some really nice steaks to make for dinner at the campground on Friday night. Saturday we all went to the Kennedy Space Center together and everyone paid their own way (which was more affordable because the ticket prices are so much lower their.) Altogether we still blew the budget some, but it wasn’t a complete disaster which was good for everyone plus sets a good precedent for future kid visits. When you have more than one and want to be fair, everything you do (in our case) needs to be multiplied by three so I feel pretty good about how the visit turned out financially .

Enough of that now onto the good stuff: here are pictures of the two days in Universal Studios which Lee, Katy, and Micah did. Katy and Micah are huge Harry Potter fans and really the purpose of the whole trip was to see these two mini parks within the two Universal parks. Universal has put half in one park and half in the other, pretty much forcing you to by a two -day park hopper pass (they give you a third day free, but despite the costs the kids (and Lee) had a really good time and were gone from park open to closing time both nights.

Kat bought a wand at Harry Potter world in Universal which is interactive with displays in Diagon Alley

Great shot of the dragon breathing a fire-ball

The Hogwarts train actually rides you from the newer section of the park to the old one

Thursday, Kat, Micah, and I went to Epcot. The first time I visited the mouse I was 5 years old (see picture below), and I love Epcot the most. Micah has never been to any Disney park at all, and chose Epcot as his park to visit so I was thrilled to go. We had a great time in all the countries eating a little snack in almost every one and the kids drank a little something in everyone as well. We were there open to close and definitely got our money’s worth.

My dad and I in Disney the year it opened

Katy had a nice chat with Alice

Hook was awesome

Katy and the Crocodile

Kat and Micah at the Tequila bar …they had a jalapeno and cucumber margarita that they said was delicious

Micah, me, and Kat at this great Moroccan restaurant at Epcot

Micah with his huge man crush on Aladdin

Tinker Bell was talking at me ...freaked me out a little

Tinker Bell was talking to me about pixie dust …freaked me out a little. Kat loved it

Micah was nice enough to put on every weird hat I found for him

So I thought this was a bear and put it on not knowing it was a beaver which as Micah says is funnier

So I thought this was a bear and put it on thinking I would freak Lee out …but it was a beaver which totally cracked Micah up

These made me laugh

Nice to see Katy can still be silly

Hydroponic Garden in Epcot

Loved the Topiaries

The Frozen topiary was really pretty

Friday we all took the day off and chilled. Everyone was pretty pooped from all the walking, even the kids. We went around Apopka a bit….which I truly am not that found of…and looked for some Roadside Attractions. The only neat thing I found was a beautiful Buddhist Sanctuary I stumbled across (only 3 miles from the campground).

Buddhist Sanctuary

Loved the Buddha

The dragon was very cool

So I was a bit bummed, but on the way back to our site we saw the coolest bus in our campground. It’s owned by a couple that train entertainment cats and it was AWESOME. I would have loved to have met them but didn’t see them around, but the bus speaks for itself. Interested in the story…check out CircusCats.com

The front of their bus was awesome

Circus Cats .com

Seriously you can’t make this stuff up

Saturday we went to the Kennedy Space Center and I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting it was. First of all they have RV parking close to the entrance for only $15 (so you can pop out and make your own lunch) and they also offer free dog kenneling. The complex has its own bus tour which includes several buildings and we got to go very close to the launchpads. It was a terrific combination of adult experience with enough interactivity for kids and adults alike and well worth the $50 admission price. As a bonus, the space complex is completely surrounded by protected wetlands so there are opportunities to see wildlife. We saw our first wild gator, an eagle, turtles, and numerous other birds. A retired engineer was in one of the buildings and he explained to me how the lunar module reconnected with the command ship after landing on the moon. Really interesting conversation and the engineer said, “I understand why people think we faked it. I worked on the projects for 42 years and I am still amazed at what we managed to accomplish with 1960’s technology.” Really enjoyed my conversation with him. My only disappointment was how small and isolated the astronaut memorial site was. I vividly remember the Challenger explosion that killed the first civilian teacher that went into space and unfortunately the Saturn rocket building really downplayed the two explosions that killed entire crews and significantly set back our space program. But other than that I was incredibly impressed by the entire experience and Highly recommend it if you are in the Titusville area.

Kat and Micah at Kennedy Space Center

Assembly plant is the largest single story building in the world

This huge transporter moves the rockets from the assembly building to the launch pads

The launch pad and water tower being worked on by Space – X

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These fences curve inward because apparently alligators can climb a 6 foot fence…yikes!!

Interactive movies were great

This eagles nest has existed since before the Kennedy Space Center was built

Our first alligator in the wild

Full size Saturn Rocket

Dave worked for NASA as an engineer for 42 years and he answered some questions I had

The beds were weird you have to zip yourself into them so you don’t float away

You think RV toilets are bad? In space you have to watch your pee and poop on a monitor to make sure none floats away

Slides aren’t just for kids !! It went fast

Read this if you’re a Colbert fan

Memorial plaque for the astronauts who have dies

Memorial plaque for the astronauts who have died

Sunday was the kid’s last full day and they went to Magic Kingdom, but we went to visit our rally friends Mario and Ellen. We haven’t seen them since April of 2014, and it was great to catch up. Ellen is finally retiring after 27 years in the same locale and although they are planning on taking long RV trips, they decided they don’t want to full-time quite yet. So Ellen is fulfilling her dream of living on the beach and selling her very nice modular home near Orlando. The house was really open and airy and the 55+ resort was super friendly. She’s selling it for under $50K and is willing to owner finance if anyone is interested! So Ellen and Mario will be part-timers living in their home at the beach in the winter and traveling the country or staying in their mountain campsite in Northern Georgia in the summer. Speaking of that, Ellen has a beautiful 1-1/2 acre full hook up wooded lot near the Appalachian Trail in Northern Georgia. She rents it out by the day, week, or month and offers a 20% discount to all her friends. The monthly rate is only $360 (all-inclusive) and it looks like a great place to hang out if you’re trying to manage your budget and want to explore that area. If you’re interested send her an email at EBendana @ yahoo.com, and mention you saw it here. We spent several hours with them and one of the coolest things was we walked through an abandoned orange grove next to her community. We picked a big bag full of tangerines…totally yummy right off the trees, and saw the ponds on the property. Hopefully we will get to see her and Mario in either South Dakota or Montana this summer as they are planning a 4 month trip which will be in the same area we are staying.

I know this is a very long post, but I wanted to mention that having four people in the rig went much better than I expected. We had plenty of hot water for 4 showers in the morning if we used the propane to help the water heater recover, the kids kept their stuff in our bedroom in the daytime which kept down on the clutter, and because I found I could be in the room with them for longer stretches. Still spent a lot of time outside and with at least some of us out most days it worked really well. I would definitely be up for trying it again. And finally, speaking of the kids, Micah proposed to Katy at Magic Kingdom and they came home engaged!!! I was so glad that we were here when it happened. We really like Micah and they have been very happy the last four years together. And in case anyone is wondering, we talked about the money for the girls weddings before we came on this adventure. It was important to me that the money was set aside just in case, so we should be all set there. Plus, now that we are mobile, we can spend more time with her prior to the wedding. Pretty exciting all around!!

The newly engaged Micah and Katy

Lessons Learned

When making a reservation at a State or County park be very specific about your length and height when talking to the camp host. Don’t only talk about the site but also discuss getting in and out of the park.
If you have daughters and plan on paying for their weddings, set that money aside before you embark on this life.

Campground Review

Rainbow Village 11911 66th Street Largo, Florida 4 out of 5 pinecones

A really great 55+ community that will take younger couples. It is centrally located to St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Tampa and within 2 hours of Bradenton, Arcadia, and Fort Myers. Indian Rocks Beach is only 15 minutes away and despite the fact that it is located in town, the park itself feels somewhat isolated. With over 65% of the sites taken by permanent or seasonals, I would not recommend the park for short stays but really liked it for the 10 weeks we were there. The park has outstanding laundry facilities, a billiard room with 5 tables, large pool, card room, library, and a huge rec room. There are numerous activities every day and since many of the folks who are there are french Canadian many of the activities are offered on alternating nights in either English or French. The management was terrific, the people living there were incredibly nice, and it was exceptionally clean and well maintained. We stayed in site #433 which was tough to get into but worked great for us once we were there.

Magnolia Park 2929 S Binion RD Apopka, FL 3 out of 5 pinecones

Small state park in Apopka Florida is reasonably priced in a beautiful setting. The sites are on the small side and the entrance and exit would be extremely tight for a 40 foot rig. We chose to not stay here because we did not think we could get our fifth wheel through the exit. The camp hosts were very friendly and tried to find us another location to stay in. I would definitely recommend it if you have a smaller rig, but I was disappointed that the person I spoke to on the phone was not completely accurate on whether or not my rig would fit in the park.

Lost Lake RV Resort 3400 S. Clarcona Rd, Clarcona FL 1 out of 5 pinecones

Absolutely the worst park I have stayed in so far. The Lost Lake is basically a hole in the ground that used to have water in it. Lots of permanent residents in very old and very poorly maintained vehicles, but I will say the people who lived there were all very nice and friendly. We were told the 50 amp pull through we were given did not honor the Passport America discount but they had no other sites available. When we pulled up there was no one in the office and we had to wait (with another couple) for over 30 minutes until someone came to give us our sites. The next day when we went to pay we were told it would be an extra $90 for my daughter and her fiancée to stay with us for the 7 days. Eventually we did get the $90 refunded but it took multiple trips to the office. Visited the restroom on the way in and two of the three toilets weren’t working. Used it again on the way out and there was no toilet paper. I would never go there again and absolutely do not recommend it.

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March 17, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Update on Dreamers Graduating Class of 2014 and Working from the Road

It’s been almost a year since we attended the RV-Dreams rally in Sevierville, TN and I thought it would be a good time to give an update on the Graduating Class of 2014. While we were at the rally we met tons of couples who were planning on full-timing and of the 11 couples in the pictures below 10 are on the road!! So for those of you reading this who think it all sounds great but could never happen for them, maybe this will be a little proof that it can happen 🙂 Also, it really demonstrates how different the life looks for different people.

Here is the newbie class of 2014...all the people we have been hanging out with all week !!

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

Jo and Ben – Traveling nurses who have been on the road for a year in an Arctic Fox fifth wheel. They are on their third work contract and have been from Maine to Florida this year. They travel with a Malamute and a Shephard Mix.

Craig and Jo – A retired couple who waited three years to make their dream a reality as they took care of Jo’s aunt until she passed away. They travel in a Lifestyle Luxury fifth wheel and have mainly been in the southwest and southeast with some jumps up to the Midwest to get solar, Mor-Ryde suspension, and custom RV furniture. No pets but Craig adores every dog he comes across and the feeling is mutual .

Eileen and Gene – Both retired, just purchased their second Winnebago. They have been all over this year from Wyoming to Maine to the Florida Keys. They took a “break” in Florida for a few months so Gene’s mom could stay with them in a condo they rented, but will be back on the road very soon. They travel with a cavachon.

Lee and Tracy – On the road since November 2014 in an Open Range 386 FLR, we have been on the East Coast from New Hampshire to Florida. Lee just finished a 10 week RV Technician school and will be working as a Mobile Tech on the road and Tracy continues to work from the rig as a project manager with the same company she worked for before selling the house. No pets currently.

Cori and Greg – Have been stationary full-timing for a little under a year in their Country Coach Class A as they started a Solar business and finished other job responsibilities. They will be starting their wandering in April and will be doing solar installs on the road. They travel with a cavachon.

Debbie and Steve – Get the award for most miles traveled in their Montana Fifth Wheel. They started in California, went across the northern US, down the east coast and into Florida, and are now exploring the South West. Steve works from the rig for a large software company and Deb keeps them moving and organized. They are still waiting for their house to sell, but have the ability to full time while waiting. They are currently traveling with their son’s pitbull who is a total sweetie.

Linda and Scott – They did a bit of traveling out west in their Trilogy Fifth Wheel and then took a long-term work kamping assignment in Texas helping to start a brand new campground. Linda is a traveling nurse and Scott enjoys working at the campground they are at so much they may extend and continue to stay in Texas. They travel with two dogs and two cats.

Sue and Guy– Have been waiting to sell their house all year and finally decided they had waited long enough. Guy retired and they have hit the road in their Class A with their house still on the market, and couldn’t be happier. They are swinging through the Southwest, but then are heading back to the east coast. They travel with their little dog.

Bill and Kelly – Kelly and Bill are retired and living off their investments in their Landmark fifth wheel. They have traveled from the Midwest to Florida so far and are with their dog and two cats.

Pam and Red – Pam and Red are retired and just purchased their second fifth wheel a Grand Design Toy Hauler. They have been to Alaska, to Quartzsite and are now heading to Texas among many other places. Pam doesn’t have a blog, but sends us these great newsletters with beautiful pictures of the places they have been. They travel with three dogs. Of all the couples Lee and I have the most travel envy for Pam and Red as they are ALWAYS somewhere super cool.

Eileen and Mario – Are the last couple left in the group who are not on the road yet. Ellen finally retires in just a few months and they are trying to figure out what the next stage looks like. Mario loves his toys so they are currently in a toy hauler. I don’t think they travel with pets.

There are many other couples from the rally or the RV-Dreams forum who accelerated their plans and ended up going on the road in 2014/2015. Here are a few of them…it really was a good year for graduates.

David and Sharon sold their Bed and Breakfast and are now in Florida
Mitch and Cheryl sold their house and are traveling in Florida as they work on the road
Curt and Glinda retired and are hanging out in Arizona
Larry and Brenda retired and hanging out in Texas
Dawn Raye a soloist who is seeing the country which I think is incredibly brave
Jim and Barb retired and traveling all over and definitely get the most boon docking nights award

I know I talk quite a bit about these people we started the journey with, but thought this would be a good time to check in on how they are doing. We have had the opportunity since full timing to meet with 9 of the couples and will be seeing several more at the RV-Dreams reunion rally this May. In my mind we are family. Maybe we don’t see each other as much as we would like, and are spread out across the country, but truly an RVing family. Love you guys and very happy for all of you that your dreams are coming true. Go Class of 2014!!!

On a completely separate note I wanted to take a moment and give an update on working from the rig. So far our travel schedule has been pretty simple with 6 weeks in South Carolina and then 10 weeks in Largo, Florida. Now we are entering the phase where we will be moving every 10 days or so and I wanted to pass along some of my lessons learned. These are very specific to my particular work situation but hopefully they may help others. You should know we have two vehicles and I fly for work at least once a month, sometimes twice and the work trips certainly complicate things.

1. We have to plan our route at least 30 days ahead. My trips are mainly booked 30 days in advance and I need to know what airport I am flying in and out of in order to book the trip. This requires coordination in advance of where we will be and the necessity of being within two hours of an airport. Thus far on the East coast has not been a huge deal but as we move out west this will require more careful planning. The upside of the pre-planning is less stress and the ability to really look for a good campground deal. The downside of course is less spontaneity. Currently we are booked in campgrounds through May 15th, but are loosely schedule through July 4th.

2. The weekends are the only time we are guaranteed to be able to see local attractions. I am trying to book us in campgrounds on a schedule so we have two full weekend days to see local attractions. The two days do not have to be consecutive, but I like one Saturday and one Sunday if possible. When I am working from home we have the opportunity to see local attractions in the evening but many are only open during the day or if nature related only during daylight hours. In addition, I have to assume that a work trip could be scheduled at any time. Recently we booked a week in Savannah (which has been on our Must See list from the beginning) at a state park near the city. The price was high, $273 for a week, so we decided to try to just stay there one week, which essentially gives us part of a weekend. We booked the campground (which was already filling up btw) and two days later I was scheduled for a training class that same week. Usually, I do have some flexibility over my schedule, but other trips are mandatory. So we had a decision, do we cancel the week, try to stay somewhere else, or let the plans stand. When faced with these decisions, I like to make a plan and agree that unless there are extenuating circumstances this is how we will handle similar scenarios going forward. Ultimately we decided to keep the reservation as we would not be able to get our deposit back and there wasn’t really another campground close to Savannah that looked appealing. Does it suck that Lee will be in the really cool campground all week, and I will be in New Jersey…sure. But why should he suffer because I have a work trip, plus I am looking forward to the class its just a shame it’s in a not very exciting part of New Jersey lol. In order to make this work,btw, I will be flying out of Jacksonville, Florida on Monday and then flying back into Jacksonville on Friday and then driving to Savannah on Friday.

3. Travel days are complicated. We have two vehicles which means I cannot work from the rig while Lee drives. I am seriously tempted to turn in the company car, but it is saving us so much money when we get to a place I have held onto it. That may change once we are moving more, because I could work on the computer while Lee drove and we could travel any day and any time we wanted. With two vehicles I can only travel a few hours in the morning during the week. My conference calls start around 9am est usually and I need to be in front of my computer for most of them. Can’t do that while driving. So that means we have very short hops or we travel on weekends. We are still working through it, and again in the east it is less of an issue because new areas to explore are relatively close to each other. Should be very challenging when we get out west and we are dealing with longer drive times and the time change as well.

4. Vacation Days are used differently. Over the years my use of vacation days has morphed. When the kids were small much of them were used in kid related illnesses or activities. When they got bigger we used them to travel back to Columbus so the kids could see their grandparents. Finally we started taking a couple real vacations a year and I used the extra days for long weekends. (I have 4 weeks vacation a year.) My vacation schedule flips to a new year April 1st and I am thinking about using some vacation days as travel days to help make the schedule a little easier to manage. Occasionally I will want to take a week off (Rose Bowl Parade HOP and RV Dreams rally come to mind), but the best us of the extra days might well be allowing us to travel with no limitations or through areas with limited cell coverage. Will let you know as it unfolds.

So that’s what I have learned so far and at this point I am sure some of you are thinking is all of this even worth it. My answer is heck yes 🙂 The other night I worked until 6pm…drove 15 minutes to see a beautiful sunset on the beach…and then came back to the rig in time for my 9 pm call. I would have worked those same hours in New Hampshire but without the sunset on the beach 🙂

Lessons Learned

Depending on your work situation travel may be complicated and require planning in advance
Vacation days might be used as travel days or to extend a weekend to see extra stuff
There isn’t as much time as you might think to see local attractions during a work week. Allow yourself a full weekend in a place to really see the area.

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March 11, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Second Budget

Well the second trip up north definitely did me in and I got laryngitis for the first time in my life. For a couple of days last week I couldn’t speak above a whisper and I felt pretty much like crap until the following Tuesday. I did manage to meet my daughter Kyrston and her boyfriend Jeremy for dinner one night. They drove 1-1/2 hours and I drove an hour and we met in Vermont. Thankfully the weather cooperated and we had a very nice time although I had to whisper my way through the dinner. Jeremy was pretty sweet about it and it was wonderful seeing Kyrston since we hadn’t been together since we left in November. When I got home on Friday I was a wreck, so I slept most of Saturday and stayed in the camper on Sunday as well. Dr. Jo came up to see us one last time before we leave Tampa and brought Peyton and Annubis with her. It was sad because although I know I will see her down the road I don’t know when. But it was so sweet that she drove the four hours round-trip to see us and hopefully we’ll see her and Ben sooner rather than later. So nothing exciting this weekend at all to share in the picture department, but I do have February’s budget finished.

February Budget 2015

The good news is we did better than last month!! Still over budget but only spent $3900 versus the $4100 for last month. The highlights are as follows:

Went over a bit in campground fees because electric here in Florida was much more than we expected ($88 for the month of January and we didn’t use AC once). So if you are staying in Florida for an extended period of time, factor that into your budget,
Groceries under budget…hooray!! Thank you Walmart Neighborhood market!
Dining out we went over by $82, but we knew that would happen this month and we did much better at communicating on this category so I still count this as a win.
Entertainment we were under by $106 which cancels out the overage in dining, but I would like to track those as separate categories and try to stay under in both.
We were under in truck fuel and used no relocation fuel which was great. We will see what happens in this category when we start moving again next week.
RV and Truck Insurance was high because we switched to a full-timers plan and had to prepay on one and were paying in arrears in another. One time blip. We will be paying $160 rather than $90 going forward though, but totally worth it for the piece of mind by having the right kind of coverage for our lifestyle. Next month I will adjust the budget on this once I get a clean monthly bill.
Ok… Home Improvement…went over by another $372. Obviously we need to get this category under serious control. It’s hard to complain though when Lee is doing such cool customization to the rig…but yes we have discussed it in detail.
Clothing we went over by $72 and that was all me and the new shoes I bought. I’ll take the hit on that one.
Personal care went over by $72. This is another category we will need to adjust because obviously $50 is not going to get it done for us, even going to Super Cuts.

So overall we did ok, especially for as much activity that we packed in with our friends. In March my daughter Kat and her boyfriend are coming to stay for a week, so that should be interesting, but they are chipping in on groceries which should help.

Couple of expenses not on the budget I did want to mention though;

I signed us up for the Escapees Rose Bowl Parade HOP. It’s been a bucket list item of mine since I was a teenager and the all-inclusive week will cost us $1680. The includes tickets to everything, transportation, campground for 7 days, and one meal a day. So I took $840 out of savings as a deposit and consider that our “vacation” this year.

We also had to buy a portable water tank and a macerator pump since we are staying for a week at a campground with no full hookups. This was on our original purchase list, but we didn’t buy it before we left. Thankfully, we got an unexpected refund check on our house insurance for $500 which covered the costs. How awesome is that!! My advice here is you will be tempted to wait and buy some bigger ticket items once you are out on the road. In some cases that may make sense as you won’t have enough information about what to buy until you try out the lifestyle, but I absolutely recommend a separate savings account for those items so they don’t come out of your contingency funds.

I also wanted to pass along that Jim and Barb of Jim and Barb’s RV Adventure just hit their one year mark and shared their annual expenses here. To prove the point that everyone’s budget and experiences are very different, they have traveled for a year with an average campground costs of $5 (they boon dock a lot). They also spent $7,400 for the year in fuel because they traveled quite a bit last year. I am so glad they shared the information so I could drive home the point that literally Your Mileage May Vary…. Plus they have a darn good blog :).

So that was my week. This week is all work, and getting ready to move on to Apopka. Then things start to really get interesting as we see how moving around and my working gel…plus first time with a kid staying with us. Should be interesting and lead to some new firsts!!!

Lessons Learned

When preparing for full timing set aside the money for big infrastructure items (blue boy, solar, wifi booster etc) that you don’t want to purchase up front but know you will need down the road. This should not be part of your contingency fund
Adjust your initial budget as real spend data becomes available
Everyone’s budget truly is different based upon how they travel and what their personal requirements for living comfortably are

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