March 7, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in a Winter Coat since going on the Road

I skipped last Sunday in the post before last because it was already really long and I wanted to give it justice, so I am going to start there and work my way forward through the week. As you know, Lee has been attending RV Tech School for the last 8 weeks and although I haven’t posted much about it (will do a nice long write-up when he’s done) it has been a major part of our lives. One of the best things about the school is some of the people he has met and we had an opportunity to have dinner with one of the couples last Sunday. Fernando (Nando for short) and Jen have a really interesting life and prove there are all kinds of full timers out there. Jen, if I get any of the details wrong please forgive me…it’s been over a week and my memory is not what it used to be.

Jen and Nando have been together for over 15 years and are raising three boys (ages 13, 12, and 9) in a converted bus (38 foot 1994 Monaco Dynasty…with no slide outs), which means: not a ton of space for 5 people. Jen (like myself) works remotely from the rig and also oversees the boys curriculum as they are home schooled. Many years ago when they were younger they liked going to folk music festivals and Nando noticed that the food being offered lacked any ethnicity at all. So largely on a whim initially they started providing Mexican food at some of the festivals. Over time they developed some repeat customers and have used it as many years to supplement the income they made from their “regular jobs.” Fast forward and they realize they could make a living from just the festivals so they flew to Florida and bought a bus. This is where the story gets really interesting. Jen does not like to plan too far in advance. This is a lifestyle choice, not caused by any sort of laziness (Jen works her butt off to make this lifestyle work for her family) but because of how she wants to live. So, you know me, the uber planner…the thought of no plan makes me break into hives (not really but you know what I mean). but as we were talking I opened my mind to the concept. Which was easy because Jen and Nando are obviously very good parents (I know this because they frequently say “those damn kids…” with a smile on their face which only supremely confident parents have the guts to say ) so I opened my mind to what they are doing and it’s easy to tell they are totally making this work. They want a non-conventional life and they want their children to have the same and although that was not our choice I say more power to them. They sold their house and flew down and moved the three kids into a used bus in Florida. Which promptly broke down in Georgia. They got it fixed and made it to Nashville where it broke down again. At this point they had to stop and wait three weeks for the correct parts and eventually Nando fixed the bus himself. I asked if he had any experience with fixing this type of engine and he did not, but he’s a really smart guy and mechanically inclined so he figured it out. During this time period they also needed to be at a festival and there was some flying back and forth to make that happen. I would say in general that sums up Nando and Jen. They take life as it comes and do what it takes to make things happen. I admire that tremendously and frankly wish I was more like them.

Like us Nando and Jen discovered the RV Training Center school and since they are all about multiple streams of income (which is very smart in this life) took a 10 week break from the bus, rented a small house, and came down here for the school. I met Jen at the luncheon the school had for families a few weeks ago and immediately felt a connection to her, so when Nando asked us to go out with them for her birthday I couldn’t say no. Yes I knew we would go over budget on dining out, and was pretty pooped from a busy couple of weeks, but I really wanted to get to know them better and I am so glad that we did. They purchased family passes to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and had free friends passes and asked us if we wanted to start the day there. I had been wanting to go, plus can’t pass up free, so we met there around 12:30. Jen won’t take her boys to traditional zoos only places where animals are kept for rehabilitation and research so this place is right up her alley. I loved it because along with Winter (the dolphin with the mechanical fin from Dolphin’s Tale) they help many sea turtles. Right when we walked in the door, we saw they were operating on a rescued sea turtle, and seeing my interest, one of the volunteers took us on a back hallway tour and spent 20 minutes or so explaining the facility and what they do. It turns out they get no royalties from the movie because they are a non-profit and operate on donations, admission fees, and over 400 volunteers. This may seem like plenty but according to the volunteer the previous weekend they responded to 18 calls for turtles in distress (10 were brought back and 8 died on scene) ranging from turtles cut by fishing line, tumors, and even one in a trash can. The volunteer was very passionate about what they do and I really appreciated her taking the time to show us the behind the scenes. My favorite story was of a female sea turtle who was picked up initially 5 years ago. She was helped and released back into the wild. A year later she was found on the same beach and sent back for another issue. Two years later same thing and then just 6 months ago. Turtles are smart. It was like she was checking into the emergency room 🙂

Lee got this great shot of the turtle operation through the glass

Rehabilitating turtle in its habitat

The Winter part of the aquarium was less interesting to me. They have Winter blocked so it’s tough to get a good picture unless you pay extra which was disappointing. I understand the money is going to a good cause, but I hate that commercial feeling, but the sea otter area was a nice treat and we got to see the staff working with the animals preparing training them for release which was cool. Overall I am glad I didn’t have to spend $22 each to go, but I am really glad we got to see it and Nando and Jen were great to hang out with.

Winter..you have to pay extra for a good picture

Here’s her tale without the mechanical piece

Sea otters being trained

Look at that face

African Pelican from the movie live here permanently now

Nando and Jen

Nando and Winter

Me and Winter

After the aquarium we tried to go to a beach restaurant in Clearwater, but because it was a really nice day the place was packed. I really don’t like Clearwater beaches, they are packed with tourists and driving/parking is a nightmare. I much prefer driving down the coast a bit and going to the lesser known beaches which are essentially the same but with less crowds. We didn’t have a back up plan, so we starting driving down the coast and eventually came to a waterfront (marina side) restaurant called The Pub Waterfront Restaurant. What a find!! I had the absolute best meal I have had since we got here…Bay shrimp, the best spinach and cheese dip I’ve ever had, and some yummy ice tea. It was $50 all in with tip (damn those drinks and appetizers) but it was really, really good. They offer reasonably priced meals before 6pm, btw, and if you’re in the area I highly recommend it. We ate and had plenty of time to drive down to Indian Rocks beach and watch the sunset. So we blew the budget but made some really good new friends…I would say that’s a fair trade 🙂

I took the next couple of days for work and readied myself for my first work trip up north. Because of the storms two trips have been cancelled, but on Wednesday (the very best day to fly) I flew from Tampa to Atlanta to Louisville with no issue. The first day wasn’t that bad. The sun was shining and it was cold but not windy. The second day however I remembered why I am done with winter. Overcast, spitting snow, and the wind had a nasty bite…really not cool. The meeting was great, the people were nice as always, but I discovered I don’t miss the snow AT ALL. No nostalgia, no nothing, just a desire to get back to the warmer weather lol. I flew back on Friday and I would like to take a moment to complain a bit. First they have banned e-cigarettes in the Louisville airport which is absolutely ridiculous. Non smokers want smokers to stop and the e cigarettes are having an impact on that. So why ban them?? Mine smells like Berries btw, and it contains absolutely nothing harmful in it for anyone. Also, they took my toothpaste, which makes me crazy. The same toothpaste can pass security multiple times and then one bored TSA agent will snag it. Seriously, they need some consistent rules in these airports. Anyway the flight itself was fine and it was an easy switch of planes in Detroit. Then it gets interesting. There was a woman who was sloppy drunk in the seat behind me and the first thing she said as she sat down was “how quickly can I get another drink?”. I am sympathetic to folks who are nervous flyers, but drinking too much and then asking for more is just stupid. Turns out she was in the wrong aisle (misread her ticket, big shock) and she was in the middle seat next to me. So she sat down and could not get the seat belt to secure around her. I am sympathetic to people who are larger, but no way was I OK with a drunk person being unsecured in the seat next to me. I very kindly mentioned we could get her an extender and we wanted her to be safe and she immediately got tense about it. I stood up and walked back to the attendant and asked for a seatbelt extender. She immediately said, “Did she ask for one?” I said no but it wasn’t safe and the airline attendant said , “We have to be very careful how we handle situations like this.” So let me get this straight you can take my toothpaste, you can ban e cigarettes, but someone can not wear a seatbelt because they might get offended??? Ever seen the scene in the TV show Lost where the plane hits turbulence and the non seat belted passengers go flying up in the air and strike the people around them?? All I could picture was getting smashed flat in a turbulence situation. Just to be clear I would have had an identical reaction no matter what her size. So I went back to my seat and was pondering my next move when the lady literally climbed over me (without me getting up) and took a seat two rows back. Well that worked OK, and although I rarely talk to people I am flying with Jennifer my aisle companion and I spoke quietly for a few minutes. Turns out Jennifer was a really cool person and I actually ended up sharing my blog with her by the end of the flight. So Jen if you read this, I enjoyed talking to you very much.

Mom is in town checking on Grandpa and I knew I was going to drive over and see them. I made the colossally bad decision however to drive straight from the airport to North Palm Beach. I was hoping I would cut my drive time down but because I hit Friday rush hour traffic it actually took longer. So I flew all day and then drove for 4 hours to get there. Not fun. I did enjoy hanging out with them, Grandpa is doing very well considering his loss and Mom and I had a good time visiting the beach that I spent quite a bit of my childhood on. My grandparents lived on Singer Island when I was young and we spent many summers at their condo right on the beach. So we went to a local park and walked down to the old condo and I enjoyed seeing a different ocean. I did NOT like the jelly fish however which were everywhere, but the waves are much bigger and wilder and the beach sand although not white was much deeper. We had a nice walk and then got pedicures (mom’s treat) and then took Grandpa to Chinese for lunch. It was pretty overcast throughout the day so I decided to drive back a little earlier and about 15 minutes into the drive it started to pour. Very poor visibility…people had their flashers on…and it took me another 4 hours to make it back to Largo. So I love my Mom and Grandpa but the drive both was pretty awful, and I am spending Sunday just relaxing until I fly out again on Monday to Albany, NY. Time to pull out the winter coat again.

Tiny free park on nice beachfront property

Walkway to beach

The waves are so much higher and I used to walk on those rocks in low ride as a kid

The tiny three story building in the middle is the condo complex my grandparents lived in

The tiny three-story building (in the middle of the picture) is the condo complex my grandparents lived in

The condo I spent my summers as a kid in

Grandpa and Mom

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February 27, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Hair Dye on the Road and other Girlie Stuff

I am not what you would consider a “girly girl”. I rarely wear makeup, haven’t been in a dress since my daughter’s wedding, and in general believe less is more when making decisions about my personal appearance. (And just look how smoking hot she is. Makeup ruins faces. That’s why I get to be married to a woman who is hurtling toward 50 like an out of control freight train, and when I look at her, I see a 16-year-old girl. Wear less crap on your face, that’s my advice to all you chicks out there. Not for me, I’m not in the market. But for whoever you’re trying to snag. Or keep. Or trade up to. – Lee) That being said, as I climbed up the corporate ladder, I started to pay more attention to these things because your appearance does change the way people look at you. Eventually I came up with a “look”; short hair, Brooks Brothers shirts, nice slacks (mostly purchased at second-hand stores), and some killer shoes that are the female version of the male dress shoe. (Don’t be fooled. All this project manager, masters degree, Six Sigma crap is an excuse so she can have a “look”. And the look is an excuse to have shoes. Oh my dear Lord in heaven, the shoes. They’re everywhere. There are shoes in the closet. Shoes under the bed. Shoes AROUND the bed. Shoes in drawers. Shoes under the couch. Shoes right. in. the. middle. of. the. damn. floor. There are shoes INSIDE of other shoes. And all of them are slightly different shades of dark blue. I swear. And guess what sentence I hear more than any other? Wait for it….”Have you seen my shoes?”. Yeah. The struggle is real. – Lee) The look took years (and countless pairs of shoes) to develop so I was a bit concerned when we started to explore this lifestyle on how that would change. There is a limited amount of space for clothing in an RV so you need to be very careful about what you bring. It’s true that I tend to wear the same things over and over..and when working in the rig I am a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl. I also brought a condensed version of my professional wardrobe, which I use for travel and trips to the local offices. (She only just barely condensed the shoes. She really does have a lot of shoes for someone who drives and flies everywhere. – Lee) It’s worked out well so far and largely how I dressed before this life is the same as how I dress now…just more shorts and t-shirts. Other “look” items have been a bit more challenging though.

Makeup is another item that has been a non-issue for me. I’m lucky that Lee vocally prefers me in no makeup and I only wear it on special occasions. I brought a few pieces with me..not even sure where they are, because I haven’t touched makeup once since we’ve been on the road. (I’ve thrown all of it away, to make room for shoes. – Lee) I am using a light tan as my base, a gleam in my eye as my mascara, and excitement as my blush. Ok, that’s kind of silly, but truly I think I look great because of those things and no makeup has been applied. My friends who do wear makeup, still wear it on occasion and please feel free to chime in on how that’s working in the comments section because for me it’s been largely a non-issue but I know that’s not the norm.

Nails, however, were a major change. I have had my nails done for over 12 years..clear gel with white tips, because my nails are very weak and I used to nibble on them. It cost me $42 a month to maintain them, but I always considered it a business expense so it didn’t really matter. Fast forward and we are doing our budget and I decide I needed to find another solution. Luckily my friend Dr. Jo found this amazing product at Walmart (Nail-Aid), and I tried it and it actually worked!! It’s $8.99, but lasts a really long time and seriously my nails used to bend and tear they were so weak and now that’s gone. For color I use Sally Hanson Diamond Strength Champagne Blush…which gives me an opaque pinkish tint which lets the whiteness of the tips show through…not as good as a french tip but very good for doing it myself…and finally a Clear coat of Diamond Strength Flawless. so I’ve saved my $42 a month with a $15 investment that will last several months and I like the way my nails look. I redo them once a week and feel pretty great about it. (It stinks the place up, but it makes her happy, so I don’t complain much. – Lee)

Nail – Aid almost GEL Harder Nails

Pedicures on the other hand, well, that’s a different story. Pedicures were not a business expense but a treat and I did them a few times a year in the summer time. Fast forward and my feet are bare more than they have ever been but I don’t have pedicures in the budget and I simply cannot duplicate what the professionals do…not even close. I somewhat jokingly asked Lee if he was willing to give it a shot, but the answer was an unequivocal no…so I miss them and hope to figure our a way to either get them inexpensively or find a good substitute. Maybe I should check out Groupon.

And so we finally come to hair, which for me has by far been the most stressful. As I’ve mentioned before I had the same hair dresser for 13 years and I really dreaded leaving her. The first haircut went much better than I expected, but now it’s past time for the first dye. I was really struggling though with whether I should dye it our not. First there is the cost ($80 at Super Cuts including tip) and the fact it really needs to be done every two months. I could go back to dying my own hair (did it for years) but I love the blonde streak in the front and that is beyond my capability to do. Then there’s Lee’s reaction. The grey has been coming into my hair pretty steadily and Lee really likes it. I mean really likes it…every time I go to get the hair cut he says “don’t dye it”…he touches it a lot and says how much he likes it. (It has a really great texture. Seriously, next time you see her, touch it. I mean, don’t be weird or creepy, just point behind her and ask what kind of bird that is, and when she turns around, touch her hair. But just for a second, because, hey, that’s my wife you’re groping. I have a sense of humor and everything, but don’t get all grabby. In fact, forget the whole thing, just take my word for it. It feels great. – Lee) I can’t remember him ever caring what color my hair was before but he really likes the grey. But the grey says something in our culture and it can have a business implication. Lee can go completely grey and he looks distinguished, a woman goes grey and she looks “old”. At least that is what we are conditioned to believe. So I was struggling, but needed to do something because I had a work trip scheduled and my hair was a shaggy mess. I called my friend Cori and she neatly summarized it. Yes, people could judge me, but did I really care what those people thought. Dammit!! I hate when she does that. So getting my hair dyed turned into a conversation with myself about who I am versus who I want to be. I was still on the fence though so I called the person who has been giving me hair advice my entire life…my mom. She said that she’s letting her own grey grow in because that’s in fashion now. Things got interesting! You mean I can be true to my new self and still be in fashion?…SOLD!! So I kept the streak and the rest I am letting go. It only cost $38 for a cut, eyebrow wax, and the one strip died…a bargain!! I did give Jim a $20 tip because he did a fantastic job but still $60 was cheaper than $80 and I normally won’t tip that much I think I was just on a high from the whole being my new self thing. (And with all the money she saved, she can put a down payment on a shoe! – Lee)

OK, so, we’ve talked about makeup and clothes, nails and hair….what’s left?….well shoes and purses of course. I seriously streamlined how many shoes I have, although it is definitely 3X as many as I need…(the first step is admitting you have a problem…) but baby steps right? I gave all my Coach purses to the girls and bought a new one for myself that was more low-key when we went on the road. I have found it’s actually okay to have one brown purse and wear it with everything. Crazy right? I would like to talk a bit about designer things though. When I was 14 years old I was pretty thin and nothing fit me very well. The first time I put on a pair of Calvin Klein jeans they actually fit me like a glove and I learned how well fit clothes could make a difference. Yes they were $44 in 1980, but I was lucky that my mom wanted to give them to me because of all the years she couldn’t afford to spend that kind of money on me. I never was a person who cared about a label for the labels sake, but I learned from Lee of all people who sometimes a well cared for quality product can actually save you money. For example when we were young I spent $25 on a new KMart purse 3 times a year (they fell apart on me so I always needed a new one. Then Lee talked me into buying my first Coach purse on sale for $90 which lasted a full two years actually saving me $60 over a two-year period plus I had a purse I really loved. So, before you immediately dismiss quality think is it something that will outlast its cheaper competitors and take that into consideration. BUT, and it’s a big but, sometimes paying for the label is just stupid. Recently I broke a $20 pair of sunglasses I absolutely loved and have been trying to find a replacement ever sense. Lee said find a quality pair of glasses and take care of them. His last pair of Ray Bans that lasted 12 years which roughly worked out to $12 a year, cheaper than buying 2-3 pairs of $20 sunglasses a year. (And guess what I replaced them with? The same damn Ray Bans, I won’t wear anything else, because I use them to protect my eyes, which I use to look at my wife. I am really not as complicated as people think I am. – Lee) His rationale is if it’s more expensive you’ll take better care of them, which is true but when I was in the airport today looking at $225 Versace sunglasses I thought; no freaking way. (Damn right. You gotta work your way up. You can’t just go leaping willy nilly from gas station shades to Versace. – Lee) So I went down to the Bijoux knock off store all the airports have (where everything cost $10) and found a really nice pair. They even gave me a little cloth bag to put them in. So yes, quality matters and yes sometimes it is even cost-effective, but sometimes it’s just dumb. The trick is knowing the difference!

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February 23, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time on a Sunset Cruise

This is probably the longest post I have ever done but it is very representative of an action packed week. It won’t hurt my feelings at all if you skim the words and just look at the pictures…lol. I took Monday and Tuesday off to spend more time with friends and it’s been a very full couple of weeks. Bill and Kelly are staying a week here in our RV park and they came on Monday. It was really nice that Kelly planned this out months ago to make sure she got to spend time with us. If you don’t know (I didn’t) RV parks in Florida fill up VERY early for the peak months (Jan-Mar). So it takes advance planning especially if you are trying to coordinate with other folks. Thankfully Kelly knew this and she pushed me to lock in here at Rainbow Village back in November and I ended up getting one of the last two spots. Kelly called at the same time and booked her week, and I am so excited the time has finally come. We have been driving all over the place to see people, and although it’s totally worth it, I am excited some folks are coming to us.

I read in Howard and Linda’s RV-Dreams journal that its common etiquette for the person already at the campground to cook a little meal for the people coming in on the first night so they don’t have to mess with cooking the same day as travel and setup. I really like that idea, and although I knew Kelly was seeing her parents Monday night wanted to do something. So I went up to Lazy Days in Tampa and picked up Cori and Texas Jo and then brought them back to see our RV park. We hung out for a while and I threw together some chicken and rice for Bill and Kelly to have for lunch the day they came in. Thank heavens I had something to fix. We’ve been running around so much I hadn’t gone to the grocery store, so it wasn’t as elaborate, but they really seemed to like the sentiment and having something hot to eat for lunch that they didn’t have to make. Once they got settled Bill and Kelly came down to my rig and the five of us hung out for a while. Then Greg and Craig came down, and Lee got home from school, and Kelly and Bill went to have dinner with her parents who live close by. The six of us then went to Indian Rocks Beach. We really wanted to share the sunset with them and have them listen to the veteran that plays taps every night at sunset. They talked to him a little and it turns out he is a Vietnam vet and every night he plays taps to honor the boys who didn’t come home. It was a lovely sunset and a lovely moment, and to add to the specialness we saw our first dolphin. I didn’t get a picture unfortunately, but it was frolicking about 30 feet from the shore right when the sun went down…magical. I spoke to one of the older gentlemen who was there and he said seeing a dolphin was a good sign. As the weather gets warmer they come to this beach in pods, so I am hopeful about future dolphin sightings and maybe a picture or two. Afterwards we took them to Crabby Bill’s for a Florida seafood experience and this time I got the local grouper which I highly recommend ($42 for dinner and $8 for tip…damn that appetizer!!)

The gang hanging out at the beach

Lee photo bombs Cori and Greg and expresses his man crush

Cori is saying stop taking pictures of me…not sure why, she’s super photogenic

I absolutely adore Craig and love that he took his shoes off

Cool turtle sand sculpture

Sand Alligator

Cori and Greg

No two sunsets are alike

Jo went right up to the trumpet player and talked to him then she spotted the dolphin and pointed it out…very cool

Vietnam Vet who plays taps every night to honor those who did not return

Lee communing with the sunset

On Tuesday, Kelly and I met for Zumba in the morning. There are 4-6 activities everyday here in the Rainbow Village, but because of work I have not been able to attend anything that really interests me. Since Kelly did Zumba for two years she wanted to go and when she invited me I thought it would be a good time to get started working out a bit. I brought my work out clothes with me, but have not even put them on…and since I really want to push myself to at minimum have 20 minutes of cardio three days a week this seemed like a good place to start. It was really a lot of fun…totally kicked my butt…was fun though. Kelly was awesome at it…me not so much 🙂 One of the best things about her is how encouraging she is though and she talked me through some of the rougher parts. This was NOT Zumba for the elderly. I broke out in a sweat and was huffing and puffing 20 minutes into the 45 minute session. The ladies in the class were really nice and encouraging also, and I definitely want to go back. Unfortunately it’s only once a week, but I really enjoyed it. As I may have mentioned I’ve been having some problems with my back and I was really feeling it when we were done. Kelly and I went back to the rig and she showed me this excellent stretching exercise you can use to relax the back. Amazing!!! I laid right down on her RV floor and stretched until the tightness went away. You know you are good friends with people when you can lay on the floor of their RV 🙂 Bill was very nice about the whole thing, and looked away as requested because I felt a bit silly. Silly or not, wow, the exercise worked and my back felt great when I was done. For those who are interested I laid on the floor on my back and then slowly brought my knees up to my chest. As soon as it started to hurt I stopped in the position until the tension eased then slowly used my arms to bring the knees in a little closer. Wait for the ache and repeat. It took at least 10 minutes before I could get my knees completely to my chest, but when that was done, the pain was gone.

Tuesday evening Cori and Greg came over for dinner so we could have a business meeting on Lee completing some videos for the RV Solar Solutions website. Although Lee is training as a mobile tech he doesn’t want to stop using his years of video experience and he would like to make videos on the road for campgrounds, nonprofits, or small companies like Cori and Greg’s. Since we are all such close friends, Lee can make a video for them which can help get the word out about RV Solar and down the road Lee will have something he can show potential clients as an example of what he can do. It started a little shaky for me because in the past when we had company we have usually sat outside, but it was a cold and rainy night and we were all in our rig together. I got hit with a strong wave of claustrophobia pretty early on and Cori and Greg were very supportive until it passed…which thankfully it did. They all had the business meeting in the front of the RV (we have a front living room model) and I hung out down in the kitchen cooking dinner and playing with Hobie who got to come visit our rig for the first time. Our computer desk is in the front, and Lee has hooked it up to our television, so they had a nice big screen to work with. They showed him some examples of videos they liked. He showed them some examples of work he had done, and they discussed vision along with a “homework” item of preparing an outline of the major concepts they would like to communicate in their videos. It was a very productive meeting and afterwards we all had dinner and as always great conversation.

On Wednesday it was back to work and I was playing serious catch up. I usually check emails on vacation days and address anything critical, but the other items do pile up. The nicest part of the day was Kelly came down for my lunch break and just sat with me and chatted. I like working in the rig and enjoy going to the offices when it makes sense, but I do miss having lunch with friends on occasion. She had strawberries and yogurt (healthy and yummy) I had Shrimp Lo Mein (not so healthy…lol). We chatted for the hour and when it was up I was right back to work. Really really nice. Wednesday night we took a day off and just watched some TV and ate some chili. I love having some chili or spaghetti sauce in the freezer for busy days and it was a great, quick hot meal.

Thursday, Kelly and I had coffee in the morning and then she went to the Clearwater Aquarium with her mom to see Winter..the dolphin with the mechanical tail they made the movie about. Her mom has an extra free ticket for me and I would have loved to have gone…but you know; work. Still it was nice that her mom asked me and Kelly and Bill came over for dinner that night. When we were in Pennsylvania Kelly made Seafood enchiladas for the group and I absolutely loved them. They tasted just like the seafood enchiladas from Chi Chi’s my favorite Mexican restaurant that Lee’s mom worked at for many years and I have been wanting to try the recipe for months. For some reason I was a bit intimidated by this one though so I asked Kelly if I could buy the ingredients and she would walk me through it…which of course she was happy to do. It’s a good thing she did because there were lots of steps, but this recipe is outstanding so she walked me through it and I feel like I could make it myself next time. I have included the recipe below but be forewarned this one is not for the faint of heart. It has roux in it…for heaven’s sake …which I got to make for the first time and wasn’t so bad 🙂 So the recipe for Shrimp and Crab enchiladas is here.

Seafood Enchilada

Anyway, we had a nice time just chatting. We have a lot of our family photos as a screen saver on our computer, which is in turn hooked up to the TV so we talked as pictures of our life flitted by. It’s a great conversation starter, btw, and a way to share your life in a non intrusive sort of way. You’re chatting about something and a picture comes up and someone asks …”who is that?”…or says “wow you look so young”, that sort of thing. At first I just had pictures of my past life on the screen saver, which was making me kind of sad to be honest, but as we add new memories and experiences I started adding new pictures in. The screen saver is on a randomized setting so one minute you see us with the girls in our 20’s and the next you see pictures from last weekend with the gang. It’s cool, because metaphorically I am saying my life is not just about what I experienced in the past but also about what’s happening now…and it makes the pictures less boring because we are constantly adding to them. Many people I know brought an electronic picture frame with them because you don’t have the space for picture albums. This is that concept on steroids!

Friday, Jo and Ben came up..and I promise I am getting to the sunset cruise here soon…lol. Jo and Ben have an Arctic Fox, but they also have a second truck which has a truck topper on it. We call their main rig the mother ship, and the smaller truck camper the “shuttle craft”. They can use the shuttle craft to take small trips, which is a very cool concept. They couldn’t find a site in Rainbow Village unfortunately, but were able to find an opening in Vacation Village about two minutes away. It’s not the best park, but for a couple of nights it will do. They are set up to boon dock in the shuttle craft, but from what I have seen there is precious little wally docking or boondocking in Florida so we were really glad they found a case close by and I was so happy they went to the effort to come hang with us. Following etiquette, Kelly made dinner for them on their travel day and also invited her parents who live 15 minutes away to come over. Everyone was a little worried about me with 8 people in their rig but it turned out to be just fine. First of all Joe and Barb (Kelly’s parents) were great and since everyone mostly sat I did OK. Joe worked as a deep earth core sample driller for many years and told some very cool stories about things he had found over the years (like a 90 million year old clam!). Kelly said she had the best show and tell as a kid because her dad was always finding neat stuff. He’s also worked all over the country on projects in New York, The Golden Gate bridge, etc. Basically he would pre dig down very deep to tell the engineers what type of soil and rock they were dealing with prior to the building starting. He worked on the original World Trade Center for example, and we had some interesting conversation on why it survived the 93 bombing but not the 2001 airplane strikes. He’s a great story-teller and when he gets really excited the Jersey accent comes out, which I love!! Since I work in construction, he reminded me a lot of most of the guys I work with so I felt comfortable right away. Barb’s really nice too and we spent some time talking about the difference between living in a condo complex versus in an RV. There’s a lot of what I call “high school” nonsense in condo communities, and we were talking about how nice it is that if our neighbors are obnoxious we can pick up and move. Barb largely likes her neighbors but she did look a little jealous 🙂 Kelly made clam chowder from scratch and we spent a great three hours laughing and talking. Plus Barb has a ton of birds at her condo complex, because one of the tenants feeds the storks hot dogs…yes hot dogs are bad for them but they love them apparently, so I am excited about stopping by and taking some pictures before we head to Tarpon Springs for our cruise.

Before the cruise on Saturday we stopped by Kelly’s parents condo to watch the feeding of the storks. There’s a gentleman there who has been feeding the wood storks hot dogs and they are almost as tame as dogs coming right to his hand to take the hot dogs. Yes I know it’s terrible for them, but damn it was cool and I had never seen a wood stork before let alone many and that close up. Plus whose going to argue with him…I’m not!!

Kelly and her dad Joe

Never seen a stork kneel this way before

Never seen a bird kneel this way before

Big crowd of birds waiting their turn

I have serious lens envy for Ben’s camera

After the storks (you can see more bird pictures on my bird page), we drove to Tarpon Springs to the marina. We arrived at 2pm and the captain told us he was worried that there might be a small craft warning on the water and if that happened we would have to return immediately with no refund. His previous cruise had experienced very high waves. He also couldn’t really leave early because captains have to submit a float plan, similar to pilots and their flight plan and they aren’t supposed to deviate from them. We talked to each other and decided unless it looked absolutely terrible we would give it a try. We paid for this earlier in the month and knew we wouldn’t have another opportunity to all be together so to me it was worth it even if the cruise was cut short. It turned out to be an absolutely amazing day. The wind actually dropped significantly and when we went out the sea was very calm…we were sailing at about 4-5 knots. I don’t know much about sailing, but I know what I like and there was enough breeze for some movement but not enough to make things rocky. The ship is called the Atlantis V and was captained by Joseph and his mate Austin. The boat is run by a non-profit and all proceeds go to Foundations Youth sailing program for disadvantaged kids. The first mate Austin was 20 and he was learning how to be a sailor. The kid lived on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin his entire life (high school graduating class had 5 people in it) and last year he moved to Florida all by himself to pursue his dream of making a living on the ocean. Gutsy, gutsy move…and the mate and captain were very pleasant during the entire sail. It is very informal…we were allowed to bring our own food and drinks on board and the boat will go out with a minimum of 6 people. If you are in the area check out groupon which had a $32 per person deal which couldn’t be beat. We were out over 3 hours so it was less than $10 per hour per person…a steal. My favorite part of the boat ride was the three times we saw dolphins. Initially they were far away, but on the way back they sailed along side the boat under it, and along both sides playing in the wake for at least 15 minutes. Never seen anything like that and the experience was absolutely magical.

Our sailboat the Atlantis V

Bill

Bill and Capt. Joe

Austin…isn’t he a cutie

I adore this picture of my husband…he loves boats and had such a good time

The boat had the coolest bean bag chairs you could lounge on …really really comfortable

One of my favorite all time pics of Joe

I think Bill looks like Magnum PI in this picture 🙂

Jo, Ben, Bill, Kelly, me, and Lee

Bill our Bartender and Kelly our Cruise Director

Our first dolphin sighting

Lee’s picture

My dolphin shot…not bad for a newbie

The girls

Love this picture of Ben.. he was totally in his element

Sunset from the sailboat

Anclote Key Lighthouse. The 2nd oldest continuing working lighthouse in the US

What captain Joseph called the "money shot"

Captain Joe stopped so we could get the perfect shot

After the sunset colors were even more amazing

The wave was from a boat that passed us…love the effect

We had such a good time, it truly was a perfect day so we gave Captain Joe a $20 tip per couple (he was worth every bit of that tip) and headed out to the Greek restaurant, Dimitri’s on the Water that the Captain recommended. Kelly has been wanting lamb from a Greek restaurant for a really long time, so we knew we definitely were going to have dinner. Problem though we had really stressed the dining out budget in February so we needed the price to be reasonable. This btw is the first place we have eaten in with tablecloths for a really long time and normally that is not kind on your budget. We managed though and had dinner for $25!! I had a salad with 4 shrimp…why 4 you say, well because the menu said market price so I asked. The waiter must never get asked that and he had to talk to the kitchen and they were $2 a piece…so I got 4. Lee got a Greek burger and we both drank water. Kelly really enjoyed her lamb, the company was great, and the service was absolutely outstanding. We actually tipped the waiter $7 on our $25 because he was so good. My thought was he shouldn’t have to suffer because we were on a budget. I bring all this up I guess to show you can eat in a nice restaurant on a budget, you just need to be really careful about what you order. Did I have to grit my teeth a little to ask the question about how much the shrimp cost?…sure. For a long time, I just plunked down the money, often regretting the cost versus value at the end of the meal. Understand we are not averse to $80 dinners, but we are trying to adhere to a budget and the more frequently we dine out in a month, the lower the checks need to be…it’s just math, not a statement about my value as human being or a my social status…at least that’s what I keep telling myself, but it truly is a very different mindset. Lee and I actually fist bumped when we got the check…that’s the first time that’s ever happened 🙂 Oh and I really appreciate my friends being so supportive as we work through it!!

Kelly, Ben, Jo, Lee, me, and Bill

So that was our week…we did more on Sunday, but I am going to use that for next week 🙂 I honestly can’t remember the last non vacation week in my life that was packed with so much activity. When we started this I told my boss I was tired of living my life on the weekends (which he totally got since he is a very cool guy) and in our sticks and bricks I feel like that is all we ever did. This week absolutely proved I can “live” during the weeks and still work which is nice. I’m tired, but it’s a nice tired and look at all the cool stuff we got to do. Can’t beat it.

Recipes

Mrs Gregg’s Baked Beans

This recipe was passed to me by my grandmother Betty, but she got it from Mike Greg’s mom who according to grandma made it as a meal when they were all poor. It is absolutely best 1-2 days old and I like it cold but it warms up just fine for those who like their beans hot.

Four 16oz cans of regular pork and beans (I like Campbell but dealers choice)
1-1/2 cups of brown sugar
2 TBL Mustard
1 cup ketchup
8-10 slices of bacon
Onion Salt

Place beans in a large pot
Add brown sugar, mustard, and ketchup and mix
In a large pan cook bacon cut into quarters. DO NOT cook until crisp.
Pour bacon and grease into bean pot and stir well
Sprinkle lightly with onion salt
Heat beans slowly to boiling; reduce to a simmer and simmer for 1-2 hours stirring occasionally; taste and add more onion salt if needed
Let sit overnight on the stove
Refrigerate the next morning
Heat and serve or serve cold at your next group function.

Y008

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February 18, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Pondering Friendships on the Road

I started this blog to write about things that mattered to me. It was part therapy ( well, mostly therapy) and a way to work through feelings I was having about the big change. I’ve found that the more honest I am the more it helps me, and hopefully the more it helps other people who might read it. Then along the way, I got some readers and you find there is some pressure (don’t know how else to explain it) to censor yourself. Let’s face it: no one wants to look like an idiot, and I don’t want to inadvertently upset anyone, but if I censor too much I lose the point of the whole thing. So I want/need to write about friendships on the road, but I do it with heavy trepidation as these relationships are very precious to me and I don’t want people to stop being friends with me because they are worried about what I might say…actually that is the very last thing I want. But, it’s 3am and I can’t sleep, and sometimes I just need to write. So please keep in mind these are my truths and my issues and I absolutely don’t speak for anyone else. Well, Lee gets a final edit, but I don’t speak for him either.

Last summer as we were preparing for the transition Lee and I realized that in order to be OK as a couple we first needed to be OK individually with what we were doing. It seems self-evident in retrospect, but it was a pretty big breakthrough for us at the time and the acknowledgement that we each individually had to be responsible for managing all the emotions we were dealing with was a big deal. Once you get yourself solid (the best you can) then you start to deal with it as a couple. Let me give you an example. I have some issues with claustrophobia. That is 100% a me issue and has nothing to do with Lee…so I had to decide whether or not I could live in a space this small, whether it was worth it to occasionally feel closed in, etc. Once I dealt with that, then Lee and I as a couple had to talk about what he could do to make this better. He’s a very touchy person (which I love) but sometimes in the small space it makes me feel more claustrophobic. So I had to communicate that in a way that wouldn’t hurt his feelings and make sure he understood I was asking for help with a “me” problem. Long story short, in order to make sure he didn’t feel rejected when I moved away from him or put a hand up, I needed to say the words out loud so he understood. Again, it sounds simple, but it wasn’t…at least not for us, and working through that one thing was a bit of a breakthrough. There have been many things like that, and I assume there will be many more.

So you are working though the changes individually, then working through them as a couple, then adding more people. There are lots of dynamics going. Everyone has their own stuff…then they have their couple stuff…and that couple has their individual stuff and couple stuff and there’s a lot of emotions flying around. What’s interesting is on the right day with the right group all of those individuals can make magic, but not always of course, because we are people and we have bad days and frankly we are all dealing with a lot of stuff. Wow, this is vaguish… OK I will give you an example; My mom left her hometown and went to Philadelphia with my dad and me while Dad went to medical School. Some of the wives in that group bonded in a way that they would not have under normal circumstances, because despite their differences they were all going through this huge thing together. They needed each other, they helped each other, and formed a support system that is still in place over 30 years later. I watched that happen as a child, and now going through something similar myself I can see the similarities.

The people I have met in this lifestyle are all very different. We have different religious backgrounds, different politics, and in general different life experiences. What we have in common is a willingness to color outside the lines, a desire for a high level of freedom, and an attraction to the wide open spaces. And I don’t know if this is just dumb luck or representative of full-timers in general, but the people we have become close with are all very intelligent and have a great sense of humor. So, it’s perfect right?…well, no, of course not. First and foremost we are dealing with long distance relationships here, which are complicated under the best of circumstances. And don’t forget we are all dealing with our individual stuff, then our couple stuff. So it’s complicated. Plus (and this is where I am totally speaking for myself), I am not so great at friendships. I spent the last 15 years having work relationships (which can be very meaningful and special) but are different from friendships in outside life. Work people come and go in each other’s lives and generally there are rules that govern those relationships. People don’t cross certain lines (at least I didn’t) because you could impact your livelihood and possibly end up in HR. Those were cleaner in a way and easier because you always had something to talk about that was impersonal. Not to generalize, but it’s like guys and sports. They can talk forever about sports and never delve too deeply into their emotional connection. Not that they don’t care about each other, but well, you know…

Wow, I really am taking the long way around here. And it’s largely I don’t want to say this wrong, but let me just jump in…thankfully Lee will tell me if I am over thinking all this. So here I am, woefully ill-equipped to manage friendships and for the first time since college finding myself with an embarrassment of riches in this area. Add to that the fact that I am not necessarily at my best due to all the individual pressure and couple pressure and whew, it’s tough for me. Now at this point I am sure many of you are thinking…man she is wound tight…and you would be absolutely correct. That’s a big part of why I decided to do this…to loosen up and let go and these friendships are an excellent way to do just that. Believe it or not I am slow to trust, yet I find myself jumping into the deep end of the emotional pool with people I barely know. Frankly it’s scary as hell, but if I continue my old ways in this new life…then really, what’s the point? It’s just a change in geography rather than an opportunity to grow as a human being.

But as you know, growth can be painful. You screw up, you get hurt, you hurt others and it can be supremely uncomfortable. So why do it? It’s a good question. Lee has been my best friend for over 30 years and generally we do just fine with just the two of us. For me, having one person who truly gets me and one person who unconditionally supports me has always been enough. So I know I don’t have to have it. Lee and I could wander around the country together and be just fine. I choose to have more people in my life, and by making that choice for myself I am also making it for Lee. And let’s face it, life is more complicated with other people in it. I need to invest in these relationships to keep them going. I need to make sure I give more than I take. I need to be on guard against emotional vampires who take and take and take. I need to lighten the hell up. And while I am doing all this, Lee needs to do it as well. Because these friendships come in pairs and it’s not just about me and what I want and need, but also about him and what he is comfortable with.

So why do it? Because I love these people. Really love them, which is odd because truly I am not that quick to love. Is it situational?…sure. (The same way you may have bonded deeply and quickly with people in high school, college or the military) Will it last?…I have absolutely no idea. I imagine some friendships will deepen, others will trail off and become nice memories, and still others will explode in a fiery blaze. Because that is life, and people are people, and not everyone gets along with everyone no matter how much you want it. The important thing I realize as I write this for me is to try. Be willing to risk myself and accept the outcome. Be who I am and allow others the same courtesy. And to some extent it will be what it will be. Dr. Jo is probably really proud of me right now 🙂

I did want to say, that I had a chance to talk to Linda briefly about this at the rally. She’s been on the road over 8 years now and as much as an expert in this lifestyle as I know. I asked her about how hard it was to go months maybe years without seeing people, and she smiled at me and said not to worry (she says that to me a lot..lol), when we met up with people we hadn’t seen in a long time down the road it would be like we had seen them yesterday. To a large extent we would pick up right where we left off. I find comfort in that.

I feel better writing this…there is power in saying something out loud (metaphorically speaking). I would just like to add to my friends…you matter to me. I would ask that you would forgive my craziness the best you can. I am really not that good at this, but I am trying. To the rest of you, thanks for listening.

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Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Search Amazon Here
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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February 16, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Loving my Snow Free Life

This is a bit of a catch up blog, so forgive me if it’s a bit all over the place. It’s been a busy few weeks and I have some things that I didn’t get the chance to write about and I want to make sure I don’t forget about them. All this sunshine can make you forget things! (For our friends up north: sun·shine:ˈsənˌSHīn/: direct sunlight unbroken by cloud, especially over a comparatively large area, ie; “we walked in the warm sunshine” – Lee)

First, I have to take a moment and say how happy I am that we sold the house and got out before this winter. If I picture myself sitting in the house waiting for it to sell, I get the shudders. Seriously, thank God we took what was offered and sold. They have had four named storms in the northeast in two weeks. They only name storms when the snow comes in multiple feet. Twice I have tried to travel for work and the flights have been cancelled. We dealt with that snow for 13 years, but this appears to be a whole new level and every time I see the weather, or look at pictures posted by my northern Facebook friends it reinforces the decision we made. It was not lost on me that instead of dealing with the piles of snow last weekend I was sitting in a kayak taking bird pictures. I hope I never take these moments for granted.

Cori asked me a question this week and it’s been rattling around in my head so I thought I would answer it here. She said “What will your blog theme be once you run out of firsts and aren’t newbies anymore.?” It was a good question. I think my answer for now is that if I am doing this right I will have enough firsts to last me awhile. There are so many places I want to see and experiences to try, that I will consider this a success if we are out there doing them. That being said, seconds of a really good thing aren’t bad either. As far as being a newbie, I don’t know at what point I will stop thinking of myself as one. Part of that is we had no real camping experience before trying this life, so many basic camping things that others take for granted we are totally clueless about. Add onto that full timing, which no one can truly prepare for, and that is a whole lot of new. At some point I suppose I will wake up and take the newbie off my tagline, but I think that moment will come when it comes. It will be interesting to see how long it takes .

On a completely different note, I’ve tried out all of the local grocery stores (Publix, Winn Dixie etc) and have settled on Walmart Neighborhood Market. Walmart prices are tough to beat, but I find the super centers to be incredibly chaotic and shopping there was something to be endured. So I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere in the Walmart Neighborhood Market. They only carry food and limited non food items (think of IGA’s from our childhood), and are small and very friendly. Because they are less crowded the pace is slower and you can really take your time, and the prices seem to be exactly the same as the bigger super centers. I’m a big fan…and this is coming from someone who went out of her way to avoid Walmart for many years. If you haven’t been to one yet, you should definitely check it out. I went this week and my grocery bill was only $119…can’t beat that. Oh and I got the best advice from my friend Craig. He said to spend the extra dollar on organic milk because it is actually more cost-effective than buying regular milk and throwing part of it away because it expires before you can use it. He’s absolutely right. The organic milk lasts much longer and as an added benefit tastes delicious!!

I also wanted to mention that since I have started walking more, I have been having some problems with my feet and back. I got a pretty nasty callous next to my little toe on my right foot and my back has been killing me. I thought I was just out of shape, but finally I broke down and saw a podiatrist for the first time in my life. Dr. Levy in Largo was great. He removed my callous, checked my walk, and made some suggestions for new shoes. I loved his no nonsense approach and his staff was extremely courteous. It was by far the most pleasant medical experience I have had since I came on the road. After the podiatrist, I went to Foot Solutions (which is a national chain) and they spent over an hour measuring my foot, checking my walk, and trying on various shoes with me. It turns out my foot has gotten larger (I went from a 7/12 W to a 8D) which was causing a lot of my callous problems. That coupled with a high arch was making me walk funny to compensate, hence the back pain. Yes, I spent $129 on a pair of Brooks shoes (which Lee was not so thrilled about), but really can you put a price on walking without pain??? I think not!

What else? Well, I got my quotes for insurance from a couple different places and decided on going with Miller RV Insurance. When you’re living full-time in your RV you need to get different insurance because most standard policies will not cover you if you’re living in the RV. Miller Insurance specializes in Full Timers and the agent I talked to, Stevia, (not a misspell) was absolutely fantastic. Our policy is underwritten by Nationwide insurance (the actual policy is offered by Allied Insurance) which gives me a good feeling especially since Nationwide is a reputable company and also based in my hometown of Columbus. One thing I want to mention here is the basic policy only came with $2K in personal property insurance. After significant discussion we ended up getting $30K in personal property. Lee felt very strongly that if something catastrophic did happen we would be able to replace everything. So think about that when signing up…computers, Ipads, phones etc alone are way more than $2K. The premiums went up a bit but it wasn’t too terribly crazy.

Finally, we are receiving mail at the new “home” address and we have the proof required to establish residency. Now we need to find the time to go to the DMV and get everything changed. With Lee’s school schedule it’s not that easy, so we may need to go once school is done. The main point I want to make here is it was WAAAY more time-consuming than I originally thought, both in hours spent on the task and the time delay to get things mailed to prove residency. If you’re planning on popping in and out of an area to establish residency you really need to do your homework and get everything done in advance. Luckily, we do have plenty of time, but it’s still been a pretty stressful process.

So enough of all the catch-up, now I can tell you about our week!! Linda and Howard of RV-Dreams were kind enough to allow us to crash their boon docking rally on Valentines day so we met up with Jo and Ben and all got there around 10 am. It was so fun having such a large group of the Class of 2014 together in one place. One of the coolest things was getting to meet Jim and Barb in person. We felt like we knew Jim and Barb because Deb and Steve had hung out with them and they knew all about us as well. They have a puggle Daisy May who is such a cutie patooty and a really great blog if you want to check it out. (As an added bonus, Daisy is a very, very quiet dog. Couldn’t get a word out of her. – Lee)

Jim and Barb

Miss Jo in front with Jo, Kelly, me, and Cori behind

Miss Jo in front with Dr. Jo, Kelly, me, and Cori

The RV-Dreams Boondocker Rally

Linda telling everyone to eat more cupcakes

Cori and Greg…shocking the Amazon Queen is on the computer 🙂

Kelly and Cori

Craig and Miss Jo

Cori taking a picture of me taking a picture of her

We had a wonderful time reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. I have taken Monday and Tuesday off to spend more time with folks before they leave, and Kelly and Bill are staying in our campground all next week…hooray!!! So because I have to stop this entry at some point, I will pause here, but there is definitely more to come!

Recipes

Neither of these recipes is what I could consider easy but they are so good for me it’s worth the extra effort. Plus both heat up well the next day

Chicken Pot Pie in Phyllo

8 TBL (1 stick) butter divided
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 celery sticks finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped carrot
2 TBL flour
1 cup chicken broth
2 cups cooked, chopped chicken
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 TBL parsley
2 eggs, beaten
12 phyllo sheets (makes two large servings)

Prepare all your ingredients in advance as several of the steps happen quickly
In a large skillet melt 4 TBL butter over medium heat
Add celery, onion, and carrot and cook until onion is tender approximately 2 minutes
Stir in flour and cook 1 minute without browning
Gradually whisk in broth
Cook stirring constantly until mixture is thickened and smooth
Add chicken, salt, nutmeg, and parsley and stir
Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Melt remaining butter
Stack 6 phyllo sheets per packet, brushing each sheet with butter as stacked
Place half chicken mixture on each stack
Make packet by folding ends in
Place on lightly buttered cooking sheet seam sides down
Cook 30 minutes until golden brown
Serve

Chicken Pot Pie in Phyllo

Daddy’s Special Chicken

This is Lee’s special recipe and the girls always called it Daddy’s Special Chicken. It takes awhile but so yummy. I asked him to write down his recipe hence the extra steps 🙂

Chicken breasts or thighs (boneless/skinless)
Butter
Lemon Juice
Flour
Garlic salt and pepper

Cut the chicken into small portions, about 3″ square
Pound it as thin as you can get it. The thinner the better. It helps to pound them between sheets of plastic wrap.
In a frying pan, melt butter and get the pan as hot as you can without the butter smoking
Dredge damp chicken in flour
Fry the chicken for only as long as it takes to crisp up each side. Sprinkle it with Garlic salt, pepper, lemon juice on each side
Turn only once
Once they’re cooked, keep them warm in the oven
Eat as many as you can before other people can get any!
Make someone else clean up the mess.

Daddy’s Special Chicken

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Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

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

February 9, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Cori and Greg are Here!

The first people we stopped to visit when we went on the road were our friends Cori and Greg. We stopped in Pennsylvania for the weekend before starting our new life, and had an amazing weekend. Although Cori and I talk or text almost every day we have really missed them. Finally their vacation came and they headed to Florida for a boondocking rally put on by RV Dreams. We are not set up for boondocking, plus Lee is in school every day, but the rally is only an hour or so from where we are staying and we are hoping to come visit everyone on Saturday. (That should be especially exciting, because they will all have been sitting out in a field for a week in the hot Florida sun, with full gray and black tanks, and not having had real showers for several days. It will be like human soup out there. I can’t wait. I won’t be distributing many hugs that day. – Lee) Needless to say we were super excited for a chance to see our friends in person. (1) They left Pennsylvania Thursday night and because they have a Class A and were super motivated, they managed to make it to Winter Haven, FL by late Friday night. (2) I was super excited. (3) I felt like a kid at Christmas to be honest, and we got up bright and early and drove over to see them. (So much for “Christmas”. There were no presents, unless you count the bottle of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey, which was mine to begin with, but I left it there back in November. – Lee) Sometimes when you see people you haven’t seen for a long time it can be a bit awkward, but with them we picked up right where we left off. The funniest part to me was that Cori would be mid-sentence and then just sort of trail off and smile…she was sun deprived in PA and that Florida weather was working it’s magic. (Or perhaps it was the booze. It’s hard to be sure. – Lee) Hobie, their amazing cavachon, seemed to remember me (or at least my doggie treats) and we had a great morning catching up. Then the day got even better. Kelly and Bill drove over to see them and we also got to see Jo and Craig. We hadn’t seen Jo and Craig since the RV-Dreams rally in Tennessee last April and although I’ve been following her terrific blog (This Moment in Time), it was so great to see them in person again. Texas Jo is a hoot and Craig gives the best hugs on the planet. (I’m going to let that one slide for now. – Lee) So the eight of us talked and ate and then had a wonderful bonfire (our first since coming to Florida). The campground Cori and Greg are at (The Outpost) also has a really nice lake and I got to walk down and take some bird pictures. (We saw a Muscovy Duck which only has small populations in Southern Florida and Texas as it is largely a Mexican and South American bird so that was really a cool sighting.) It’s also a brand new campground and the prices were super reasonable so if you’re looking for a place in the Winter Haven area I really recommend you check it out. (4) Cori broke out her new camera and she and Lee spent some time together taking pictures. (It’s not a camera, it’s a Nikon. – Lee) He was really happy to help someone who actually listened to the finer points of photography…as opposed to me who just likes to point and shoot and doesn’t listen that well in general.

Craig’s telling Hobie he has no more treats…Hobie is not buying it 🙂

Don’t mess with Texas!!

Lee and Cori playing with her new camera. (It’s not a camera, it’s a Nikon. – Lee)

Cori is testing her camera out …getting eye level with the ducks

My picture of the lake

Cori’s picture…I’m going to have to step up my game 🙂

White Ibis

The Muscovy duck was pretty aggressive walked right up to us and I had to back up some.

Jo, Craig, Bill, Kelly, Cori, and Greg will all be at the RV-Dreams Boondocking Rally this week and Greg’s going to do a solar install while he is there. Greg is an incredibly smart and experienced solar technician, so if you’re thinking about solar you should really check out his website RV Solar Solutions and give him a call. We are absolutely going to get solar panels down the road, but are trying to be good and pay off our little bit of debt first.

Greg doing a solar install

On Valentines Day Lee and I, along with Dr. Jo and Ben, drive over for the day to crash the party. Then Jo, Craig, Cori, and Greg will be staying for a few days in Tampa and I took a couple of days off to spend time with them. Excited about seeing Jo and Craig’s rig since they didn’t have it yet when we saw them last year, although Texas Jo is a super clean person so I am a little afraid Lee might have higher expectations after we see her place. (5. That’s 5 “supers” in one post. I need to get this wife of mine a cape, or a thesaurus. – Lee)

Greg

Kelly and Bill

Cocoa

Spanish Moss and Sky

Another Spanish Moss pic for Lee

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

If that wasn’t enough excitement for the weekend we got to go kayaking with Eileen and Gene. The last time we were together I asked if they could help me get Lee into the water in the boat. He is really concerned about kayaking in a rubber boat with alligators. (To clarify, I’m not concerned about kayaking in a rubber boat WITH alligators, that would be foolhardy. I’m concerned about kayaking in a rubber boat while alligators are trying to sink/get into the boat. It’s a fine distinction, but a pretty important one. You can’t be too careful with these things. While there hasn’t been a fatal alligator attack in Florida since 2007, that also means that it’s long overdue. There have been over 20 major bites in the past five years, however. That’s enough to warrant caution. If you don’t think so, go talk to one of those 20 people. They’re easy to spot, what with missing limbs and the like. Also, given that information, it begs the question why my wife is so keen to get me into a boat in rabid alligator infested waters. Food for thought. – Lee) Yes, I know it is unlikely it will be an issue, but as Lee says that is small comfort when you’re the one boat that an alligator attacks. So to get us started Eileen recommended Robinson Preserve because they didn’t see any alligators there. (That’s not exactly an endorsement. Have they been LOOKING for them??? How recently was their eyesight checked? Are they in league with Tracy in her plot to get rid of me, and their role in the conspiracy is to be alligator deniers? This is all very suspicious. – Lee) I was so excited to get on the water, take some great pictures, and hang out with Gene and Eileen!! Robinson Preserve is amazing. It’s free and pet and kid friendly. (Alligators love kids and pets. – Lee) They have walking and biking paths throughout the preserve and easy waterway access to kayak or canoe. They also have a four-story wooden tower you can climb into and the views are amazing. (The alligator problem is clearly so out of control they had to build a four-story tower to keep an eye on them. This is partially for viewing distance, but also to keep the more intrepid alligators from climbing up the tower to eat the watchers. They have very short legs, and would get tired and give up by the third story. – Lee) The bird watching was great and it turns out Eileen has an eagle eye when it comes to spotting birds. (And yet, she’s never seen a single one of the thousands of alligators lying in wait. Am I the only one who sees a problem with all of this? – Lee) Seriously, from now on she’s going on all my nature hikes with me. We just had the best time.. and I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves…mainly because I am completely pooped out by all the fun we had this weekend. (We really did have a great time, Gene and Eileen are a lot of fun, and are so easy-going and friendly, despite their nefarious alligator connections. And even though I never saw a single alligator, that doesn’t mean they weren’t there. It just means that they’re even hungrier than they were before. We’re all living on borrowed time. Hug your loved ones before it’s too late. – Lee)

Eileen and Gene

Seriously jealous of the synchronized paddling

I think I look a bit like Kelly in this hat :)

Are you digging my hat?

Gene and I were celebrating the Patriots super bowl win since we are both fans. (Or, he’s being held up by a gang of alligators. You be the judge. – Lee)

A nature sculpture

The views from the watch tower were amazing. (That kid in the red kayak was never seen again. – Lee)

Views from the watch tower

White Ibis. (Many Ibis are known to be aerial spotters for lazy and/or clever alligators in their spare time, guiding them right to unsuspecting rubber kayaks. – Lee)

Turkey Vulture in flight

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February 4, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Wedding Anniversary on the Road

Today is our 26th wedding anniversary, but our first on the road. So if you will indulge me, I thought I would take a few minutes to write the story of us, and a love letter to my husband. I am truly grateful to have married this man and grateful for the life we have created together and I wanted to celebrate that.

Lee and I met when he was 14 and I was 16. We were both working at our first job as busboys in a nice restaurant on the west side of Columbus. I had started there a few weeks before Lee and was in the process of bending over a long table and removing a tablecloth when we were introduced. So the first thing he saw was my tush, which thankfully is one of my better features, and apparently it made an impression! I was a pretty awkward 16-year-old. I had a car (a 20-year-old yellow VW bug) so you know I thought I was cool, but I was really uncertain about everything in life. In walks this kid who was like no one I had ever met. He wore a trench coat and a fedora and was completely fascinated with everything British. He exuded a confidence well beyond his years and was funny and kind. I’ve seriously never met anyone like him then or since. His story is that he fell in love with me the moment he met me. For years I didn’t believe it, but the best man at our wedding many years later did verify that in school Lee had always said he had already met the girl he was going to marry and knew it the moment he saw her. I on the other hand took quite awhile to catch up. We were friends for years, even after we both left the job and he moved to a different part of Columbus and eventually I went off to college, but friends who rarely saw each other. I spent the next 4 years dating a series of not so great guys and Lee had a serious relationship and ultimately joined the Air Force right out of high school. A two-year age difference is a large one through the high school years and certainly through the college ones so the timing was never right for us.

Lee had always wanted to live in England, and had the opportunity in the Air Force to do a tour at RAF Chicksands, an Air Force base about an hour outside of London. I went to college, left college, got engaged, broke the engagement, and was generally aimless when Lee came back to the states. So now he is 20 and I am 22 and we reconnect with each other. Finally the timing was right and at a time when we were both looking for purpose we re-found each other. So we went on a real date…our first and it was to Red Lobster. Now, I know some people stick up their nose at Red Lobster, but I will forever love them because that’s the night I fell in love with Lee. Here we were, sitting across from each other, and it was awkward because we didn’t really know each other because we had been apart for so long, when Lee picked up the paper napkin wrap that hold the napkin and silverware together, and did 20 minutes on why the paper napkin rings were unnecessary. I had not laughed that hard ever…truly…tears were streaming down my face…and in that 20 minutes I fell in love. Ladies, take note. Looks fade, money gets spent, but the ability to make someone laugh lasts forever. So we slept together that night (and that was really good) and moved in together a week later. We’ve never been apart since.

I was ready to get going with my life and start my family. Lee was happy to be with me finally after all these years and was happy to go along with whatever I wanted. So we started to plan the wedding and ended up getting pregnant right away. Hence the February anniversary. These days people get married before, during, and after their first pregnancy but back then it still had a stigma (at least in small town Ohio) so we moved up the wedding so I could do it while I had a relatively small belly. It was a pretty stressful affair. Everyone was worried we were too young, everyone was sure it wouldn’t last (I heard later many folks gave us 6 months at the wedding), and it was complicated by the fact that my parents had just gotten a very messy divorce and their relationship was still pretty raw. But despite all that, I got the wedding that I had envisioned as a girl and if it wasn’t perfect I will never forget the look on his face as I walked down the aisle. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

Wedding Picture

So we had Kyrston, and then Katy. How can I talk about those early years? Well we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. But we loved each other and more importantly we were friends. There were many times the friendship saved the marriage, because I couldn’t walk away from my best friend in the whole world. I often tell young couples that years 1,3,7, and 10 were the toughest…after that things settled down and it really is true. Lee got a really great job in the production field he had always dreamed of working in, we rented a house on a farm from my father which was great for the girls, we had Kay, and eventually after years of struggling financially were able to buy our first home. It was not easy; Lee traveled a lot for work and it turned out I was not so good at being alone, but there were many wonderful moments in those years. I loved being a mother…I don’t know how good I was at it, but I felt fulfilled by the family I created and I fiercely protected it. Lee was always 100% committed. Thinking back on how I was all over the place during that time, I really appreciate the fact that he stayed. Lesser men might have walked away, but he loved me and our girls and he filled our life the best he could with that love and laughter. As serious as things got, he could always make me laugh and there were many times the laughter got me through.

So we were going along living our life and then things got interesting. I always worked, but at whatever job had good benefits and flexible hours so I never really felt fulfilled professionally. Then the company I worked for went through a major merger and a job opportunity presented itself. I was completely not qualified and it would require moving to the Northeast, but I applied …sure I wouldn’t get the job. Turns out because of the chaos in the company only 4 people applied and I actually got the business analyst position. When I went home to talk to Lee about it, I was sure he wouldn’t want to leave Columbus. Our family was there, our home (which he loved) was there, and he had a good position with a production company. What he did say will tell you everything about Lee you ever need to know. He looked at me and said, “I think you should take the job. I’ve had my chance and now it’s your turn.” I was and still am completely humbled by his generosity. His willingness to give up everything, so I could have a shot at a profession was amazing. So he gave up his job, we moved to New Hampshire and started a new life together. He became the primary care giver to our kids and I worked long hours and traveled all over the country. I have to say he was better at raising the kids than I ever was, but it was still tough as not many couples during this time period had reversed roles. This is pretty commonplace now and I firmly stand by the fact that overall it was great for the kids. They got to experience primary parenting by both of us for large chunks of their lives and hopefully it will make them more well-rounded individuals.

The next 13 years were really great. After some initial struggles, we really hit our stride. Lee started a non-profit television station from nothing, and I fulfilled my dream to get my bachelors and my master’s degree and saw multiple promotions at my job. The girls made their way through their teen years…and as any parent knows who has survived those years: it ain’t easy. But overall I think we did an OK job. One kid left, then another, and suddenly, with only one left in the house, we were looking at what life would look like without children. We were finally making some real money and wondering what things would look like in the future. So, that’s where the blog picks up..and I won’t repeat here what I have already said in those posts, but I will say if it wasn’t for Lee this wouldn’t be my life. I would never have had the vision or the courage to completely turn things upside down and start this adventure. He brings those things to our marriage and I am so incredibly grateful to him for it. Plus he can still kiss me in a way which makes me tingle which is a really good thing 🙂 And he makes me laugh…oh, how he makes me laugh…

Having an anniversary in February to this point has not been that fun. Not much you can do in the northeast during the winter time. So today we went to celebrate our first wedding anniversary in this new life by going down to the beach together. I can’t think of a thing I would rather do to reaffirm our life together. We weren’t going to eat dinner out, but decided to go to Crabby Bill’s, which was on my list of places to see and had a wonderful dinner for only $50 (including tip). Lee’s grouper was amazing!! They had a musician playing live and he was really terrific. We really enjoyed it.

Musician at Crabby Bill’s was amazing

Sitting on the patio at Crabby Bill’s

My sweetheart

Finally to honor our marriage I wanted to share some pictures of us on our new adventure. I can write that we are really, truly happy but the pictures really say it all.

Looking Glass Waterfall

Niagara Falls

Acadia National Park

Sullivan’s Island

Charleston

In Deb and Steve’s camper in Rock Hill

Tonight at Indian Rocks Beach

Our feet in the ocean together... The new Lee takes his shoes off and walks in the sand :)

Our feet in the ocean together… “On the Road” Lee takes his shoes off and walks in the sand 🙂

Recipes

Bisquick Oven Fried Chicken

Simple and absolutely delicious…one of my favorite new recipes I have tried so far

1 Tbl butter
2/3 cup Bisquick baking mix
2-3# chicken
1-1/2 tsp paprika
1-1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Melt butter in 13×9 pan in oven
Mix bisquick and spices
Rinse chicken
Coat chicken
Place skin side down in pan
Bake 35 minutes then turn bake an additional 15 minutes

Bisquick Chicken

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January 30, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Full-Timing Budget

One of the first questions people have who are interested in the Full Timing lifestyle is: “Can I afford it?”. (Yes, you can, but nothing else. – Lee) Most people know they would love it, but whether they can make it work financially is a major roadblock. What made me really believe this was possible was reading RV-Dreams and seeing Howard’s budgets, so I promised myself that if we were able able to do this I would carry his generosity forward as best as I could and post my own budget as well. Last month I had every intention of posting it but it was such a disaster I gave myself a break and decided to start in January. Between trailing costs from moving, Christmas gifts, and too many meals eaten out with family, we were pretty far off the rails. (I ate nothing but Ramen Noodles and bought nothing. I have no idea what she spent all our money on. Probably hookers and blow. – Lee) So we hunkered down in January and for better or worse, I’ll show you how we did, below. By the way, I am using a spreadsheet created by Howard from RV-Dreams that is pretty terrific. I highly recommend it as a starting point for those of you who are interested in tracking your costs. (You’ll think you can just make your own, but you can’t. Just buy Howard’s. It’s worth every penny, and you’ve got enough to worry about without making spreadsheets. Trust me. – Lee)

So how did we start? We looked at budgets online, talked to our friends who went on the road before us, and made some not-so-educated guesses. Consequently, we knew that we would need to adjust the budget after some time passed when we had more data. Some folks pick a dollar amount and then shoehorn their expenses into that amount, but I wasn’t comfortable with that approach. (I prefer the “spend everything and assign blame to others later” philosophy. It has worked really well so far. I have, or used to have, lots of cool stuff. Then Tracy made me get rid of all of it and live in a little box with no high speed internet. This is awesome! – Lee) Instead we did a bottom up approach, looking at our costs for each particular item, seeing what the total was, and then adjusting down, as needed, to make it doable. The big questions was: “Could we live with it?”. This is also the fifth version of the budget we have done. As we got more information things changed. (My original budget included new towels and socks every day, and free pie that magically fell from the sky. I got more information, and it changed. – Lee)

When you ask the questions on forums about how much it costs to live on the road people generally say “as much as you have”. There is an element of truth in that but ultimately I feel it is a cop-out because few people are willing to live at a subsistence level even if they have the most beautiful view in the world. Most people who decide to full-time have lived pretty comfortably for some time and are used to spending money, so a complete adjustment to never spending anything isn’t quite practical for most. I say all this to preface my budget. (Isn’t the suspense killing you? You could just scroll down, but then you would miss everything I had to say. Perish the thought. – Lee) Could you live on less? Sure. Could we live on less? (Nope. Meeting adjourned. Let’s go get Chinese food! – Lee) Yes if we had to, and some day maybe we will. Are there categories and expenses that you will spend far less on because you simply don’t care about them? Absolutely. I will say that a human being can only deal with so much change at once and some of these items are in place to allow us time to get used to our new life. It will change over time I am sure, but for right now this is where we are:

January Budget

Let me review some of the bigger ticket items.

Campground Fees – $750 was based on what several other people we know used. We definitely feel we can get this down over time as we do more boondocking and feel more comfortable with places other than private campgrounds, but for now with full hookups this is a realistic.

Groceries – This is what we were spending in our sticks and bricks. We have tried to reduce this some by not stocking items but those savings have been offset by spending more on natural, fresh foods. Again, over time I expect we will do better with this but for right now it’s not an area we are looking at too hard. For us this is definitely an item we didn’t want to mess with too much with so much other change. Plus we are eating out less so spending more in this category. (Also, pie ain’t cheap, baby. And two pies costs twice as much as one pie. Bam. Math. – Lee)

Dining Out / Entertainment – We have $350 dollars all told in these two categories and there was some intense discussion around this. We thought we had padded the number and we would never spend this much and then completely blew both these budgets in December. This month we did much better but we really had to work at it. Part of the cool thing about traveling is there is so much to see. Part of the difficulty is seeing things without spending tons of money. We had to say “No, we won’t spend $72 on the Big Cat Rescue (which was #1 on my things to do in Tampa list) and instead spend $8 on the Sunken Gardens. ” Lee also came up with this great plan for looking at food as fuel versus an experience. If it was just fuel we should pack a lunch (which we still are lousy at) or drive home to eat or get McDonald’s. If it was an experience then we would eat lunches versus dinners and make sure we made the most of it. (The most effective way to get the most out of eating out is to make the other person need to go the bathroom by making waterfall noises, and taking food off their plate while they’re gone. Also, stealing food from other patrons, but you have to be fast. People are all weird about that, but I say it’s all part of the experience. – Lee) Souvenirs are a hard trap to avoid as well. Not having much space for things helps, plus I try to get magnets at places, which are relatively cheap. My big weakness is T-Shirts which can be super expensive but do serve two purposes (souvenir and clothing). So sometimes I get a shirt but most of the time I don’t and I try to only get them when they are sale.

Truck Fuel – This was one of the hardest items to calculate. We have $150 for running around wherever we are staying, and $250 if we are moving from place to place. Have no idea if those numbers will hold up because I still have a company car and those costs are coming directly from my paycheck. It’s awesome that gas prices are so low, but going places still costs gas even if they are free so I expect these expenses to go up as we leave the Tampa area and start traveling around some more. (I have argued that if we always camp near pie outlets, we can keep the fuel costs waaaay down. We’re still discussing it. – Lee)

Cell Phones/TV/Internet – Originally we had cell phone, internet, and TV broken into multiple categories, but when we decided to get rid of dish and just stream television we upped our usage to 80GB a month and are paying $361. I know this seems like a ridiculous amount of money, but I also know we use every bit of that 80GB in a month. Will this change over time? I hope so as we get to more wide open spaces, but for right now this is where we are at. (You want to see her freak out? Tell her she can’t watch “Scandal” because we’ve used up all our internets. – Lee)

RV Loan Payment – We wanted to come on the road debt free, but at the end of the day we were not willing to delay another year to pay off the camper. It was our choice to go on the road with this $400 payment and we felt and still feel it’s manageable. (My theory is that if we just keep moving, and Bank of America doesn’t read this blog, they’ll never find us. We’re still discussing it. – Lee)

So how did we do?? Well, certainly not as bad as last month, but not as good as I would have liked.

We had a budget of $3465 and we spent $4167 or roughly 20% over budget. So where did it go? Well, let’s talk about the red. (See how reasonable she sounds? Then BAM. No pie. You have to watch her. She’s good at business. – Lee) The biggest overage was Home Improvement. We only have $50 in the budget (which is probably too low) and I bought a $200 grill and Lee spent the rest at the Tampa RV show and on various other miscellaneous house items. (Every single one of them absolutely necessary and mission critical. – Lee) This is similar to having a new house…it’s hard not to buy stuff for it, but we definitely need to get this category under control. (See? Everyone agrees. Meeting adjourned. – Lee) The next largest overage was cigarettes. We used to spend $600 a month on cigarettes, but before we came on the road we started rolling our own which took the budget down to $200. Yes, smoking is bad, and we would like to quit, but in the interim it’s a part of our budget. We were thrown a major curveball though, when we got to Florida and we couldn’t find cigarette tobacco anywhere. Apparently they changed the taxes on cigarette tobacco, so everyone is smoking pipe tobacco which doesn’t roll well. Long story short, after an exhaustive search, Lee found a place an hour away that sells it so he bought 7 pounds of tobacco. This overage will even out during the next couple of months and if you’re not a smoker you won’t have to worry about this in your budget anyway, which is a good thing for multiple reasons. Membership fees were high (joined Escapees and Passport America), laundry went over because our washing machine was broken, and personal care was high because we both got haircuts. We may need to make that budget item higher. (I vote for no more haircuts. I want to look like Sean Cassidy. If Sean Cassidy was almost 50, and about 50 pounds over his ideal weight. If he was 7 feet tall.-Lee)

So what was the good news? We were $4 under budget in dining out…hooray..and thanks Eileen and Gene for buying me dinner that one night! (So sorry about your budget, Eileen and Gene, but it’s dog eat dog out there. – Lee) Entertainment we were under by $104, Fantastic!! And since we didn’t relocate this month we got $250 back on fuel. So there were some positives and I can definitely see that the things we focused on, we did well on. Overall I don’t feel that horrible about it. I think the big takeaway here is that you can set a budget in advance and then try to make that budget work, but until you get out there and live the life you really don’t know what it is going to cost. After talking to Lee about the results, we are going to start meeting every week to see how we are doing. (More meetings! Yay! – Lee) I don’t think he would have been willing to do that a month ago. We are evolving, and in this as in all other aspects of this life we need to be flexible and patient with each other. (Qpwsoedfsglkjldfgjlgkjdg. Sorry, I can’t type, I’m laughing because she said I’m “evolving” and “patient”-Lee)

On another note (although a large medical expense would definitely impact the budget) I had promised I would provide some followup on my Aspen Dental experience and since I had my appointment this Friday I thought I would share it here. I have been concerned about finding dental care on the road since the very beginning. As I have mentioned before I have always taken good care of my teeth and absolutely believe that clean and healthy teeth are necessary to maintain an overall healthy lifestyle. I thought there was no “Urgent Care” type company with a national network of dental offices and then my friend Cori mentioned Aspen Dental. Although they are not everywhere, they are growing and I loved the idea of being able to have my records on file in their national network. The office I went to just opened on Thursday and was absolutely beautiful. Every dental chair has a television attached to it (super nice feature) and everything was spotless. I knew I would have to get a full set of x-rays (despite having pictures of the x-rays from my June), but I was resigned to that since they stated they would not charge me if the insurance company didn’t pay for them. They did the full set which took awhile and then I was put into an exam room. Someone then came in and measured my gums and that’s when things got unpleasant. She recommended a two step cleaning process with an irrigation. I was taken aback since my teeth are in really good shape. When I pushed back she got very defensive and brought in the dentist. He proceeded to tell me that I had two potential cavities and a third cavity and they could take care of it the same day. He tried to show me with the mirror but I saw nothing and then he pressed hard on the tooth but I felt nothing. I may very well have the beginnings of a cavity, but at that point they had totally lost credibility with me so I stated I just wanted my cleaning. Then it got really bad. I went with the office manager into a room where we could talk about treatment course. This is standard procedure in this office and I was picturing my husband or someone else who always takes doctor recommendations being taken for a ride. I said I just wanted a cleaning and eventually she typed it up and handed me a paper that had the cleaning and the irrigation which my out of pocket would be $64. I have nothing against paying for a service I need but I was very clear. At this point I was livid. I told her I wanted only what my insurance would cover and nothing more and I was about two seconds away from asking to speak to their area manager. She finally backed down and printed out the service I requested AFTER I signed a release form stating I understood what they recommended and was refusing it.

They did have an immediate opening so I took a deep breath and went back with the hygienist who seemed very nice. We were about to start when the supervisor pulled her from the room and when she came back in her attitude was completely different. As my teeth were cleaned I got a nice lecture on gum problems. She then proceeded to use the pick to clean my teeth acting as if this was an unusual procedure. She even said that she felt she had to do it because it was the right thing to do for the patient. At this point I looked at her and said, “My hygienist always does this. It’s part of the standard cleaning .” She hemmed and hawed a bit and then changed the subject. So my teeth are clean which is the important thing but it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. Here’s the thing. A medical person has implied authority by virtue of their training that makes it more likely you will say yes to whatever they recommend. So I believe strongly that anyone in that position has a higher level of responsibility to provide the patient with their options. Does this always happen? Of course not, but when you’re in a sticks and bricks you hopefully have time to shop around and develop a level of trust and relationship with your provider. Losing these established relationships with my doctor and dentist is a major downside to the nomad life and forces me into a position of being extra vigilant in any medical situation. So will I go back? I’m not sure what other choice I have. It’s either fly back to New Hampshire twice a year for cleanings, find a new dentist every six months wherever we go, or use this chain and at least avoid the new patient experience. They did say that they do x-rays every year (instead of the standard 2) so honestly I am not sure if it will be worth it. I will give them one more shot in 6 months and see how much of a hassle that is. (After reading this, I have opted to stop going to the dentist. I have always hated it anyway. Plus, I want to look like Sean Cassidy, if he were almost 50, a little chunky, and toothless. – Lee)

So that’s the week, budgets and dentists. It wasn’t that bad…at least there was no snow and we had several absolutly beautiful days unlike our friends in the northern states. Tomorrow we are going to vist our friends in Ft. Meyers and next week Cori and Greg get into town. Really really looking forward to popping in at the boondocking rally and seeing everyone!

Lessons Learned

Being a new patient at a dentist involves two visits and most will not do the cleaning the same day as the initial consultation
You have to be your own advocate when you do not have an established relationship with the medical provider.
You can set a budget in advance and then try to make that budget work, but until you get out there and live the life you really don’t know what it is going to cost

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Supporting our Blog

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Search Amazon Here
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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January 25, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Tarpon Springs

Well this week was much better…although trying to establish new residency is a major pain in the tush…and on Saturday we decided to visit Tarpon Springs. Several people have said it’s a “can’t miss” place and since I like sponges as much as the next person and the weather was too overcast for a nature park we decided to check it out. We took our time driving there along the coast and it was really pretty with the wind causing huge white wave caps along the beaches. It did take more time that way though, and I decided to stop at a Greek restaurant right outside of the dock area instead of waiting until we got into the sponge dock area. Two reasons, I thought it would be easier to get in and out of, and cheaper. The Original Mama Maria’s was easy to get into and the prices were very reasonable. $9.95 for lunch which included one of 6 entrees, a salad or soup or fries and a drink. Lee absolutely loved his grouper sandwich and I had a gyro which was very good but as usual messy. I swear I can never eat one of those without dropping some of it on me, but it’s worth it!! Plus I loved the story. In 1959, John came to America as a sponge diver from Greece. In 1978 he had to stop sponge diving because of “the bends” which is a crippling affliction which happens to many divers. His wife Maria stepped in to support the family and opened the restaurant which is still in operation today. Go girl power!!!

The Original Mama Maria’s Greek Restaurant

My yummy Gyro

Fortified with lunch (which I counted as an experience not just fuel so $26 including tip was a reasonable price) we drove down to the wharf. We found a place to park for $3 and then walked into the Sponge Factory. Let me say there are many great Greek owned sponge places along the wharf but this one was in my estimation by far the best. The gentleman who ran it was so sweet. He gave me the 10% off coupon that was in the local map (even though I had no idea there was a coupon) and even though I didn’t quite spend $50 he gave me a free gift. I was super excited about the sponges. My friend Deb has a plant in her bathroom on the shower seat and I have been wanting something in that spot ever since I saw hers. A large sponge seemed perfect since we wouldn’t have to actually remove it when we took a shower, but I couldn’t figure out which sponge to buy. I seriously spent at least 20 minutes looking at every large sponge in the place and finally my very creative husband stepped in and helped me put together this arrangement. He even added a dried seahorse which was so perfect. It was a little pricey for all of it, but it really makes me happy so I am counting it towards our entertainment budget for January which we haven’t spent hardly any of!!

Yes I’m goofy but couldn’t resist

Really cool wind chimes in the store

The store was really cool with tons of shells, coral, and sponges

My free gift 🙂

My new shower decoration

Lee added the white finger sponges and the seahorse

After depositing my sponge safely in the car we walked down into the main part of the wharf. Unfortunately the meal and sponge factory were my favorite parts of the day as I found the rest of experience pretty touristy. Neither of us liked the hawkers who seemed to be everywhere and tried to get us on this boat or that one. Occasionally we saw something neat but mainly it was a ton of touristy shops. I did enjoy seeing the sponge boats though and recommend if you go traveling down the side streets as those shops were still owned by Greeks and seemed more authentic. I do recommend a visit to the Spice and Tea Exchange. They have numerous homemade spice blends and tea blends and I saw combinations I have never seen before. Their prices were too steep for us but if you’re a spice junkie this is definitely the place for you.

I loved this real sponge boat with a Greek captain

His sponge catch

All the boats had women’s names

Great statue commemorating the sponge divers

Really great spice shop. Super expensive but the spices were VERY strong and fresh

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky and cool enough to make a walk pleasant. We decided to visit Boyd’s Nature Preserve because it opens at 9am on Sundays (unlike the other parks which open at 12pm on Sundays. The preserve was absolutely terrific. It costs $3 to get in (well worth the fee just for the educational area and raptor cages, and they allow bikes on their trails and have a $2 tram ride at designated times. We chose to walk (although if we went back I would take a bike) and took the 1-1/4 mile main loop around the preserve. The signage was great, paths were clear, and there were multiple ecosystems including a swamp, and a small island you could walk across to. Plus we saw tons of birds very close up as they seemed to have no fear. Early on we were on a wooden bridge and I was taking a picture of an Ahinga when it flew straight at me. I backed up into Lee and it perched less than 3 feet away on the corner of the railing and posed for me…amazing!! By the way we see birds almost everywhere we go. I am constantly adding them at the top of the bird sighting page, but today I will also put them in the blog because the sighting was so very cool. Anything is a cage doesn’t count for bird sighting purposes but we were so close to the injured raptors below I had to add a couple of pics.

Full sized skeleton of an American Alligator in the learning center…huge

They have a raptor area where you can get very close to birds they have rescued

Immature eagle that fell from a nest that they have raised for educational purposes

Ahinga which flew up and landed so close to me then allowed me to take its picture

The walking paths were absolutely beautiful, in particular we enjoyed the island and the boardwalk that was over marsh area. All of these paths are wheel chair accessible btw and not that far from the main building.

Throughout the park they had a some art works that were really well done.

Crane made of metal in the lake

Giant armadillo

The most exciting moment though was when we saw a large bird and tracked it to a tree. We used the stand (shown below) to get some great shots of what turned out to be an osprey. It was very exciting and close enough we could see it well with the naked eye. They are very fluffy. Of all the birds shots we’ve gotten so far this was definitely the most challenging.

a blind near the water that you can take pictures from. WE got some shots of the Osprey from here

We were so excited when we got close enough to this osprey to get some pictures

Lee loves the Spanish moss

It truly was a wonderful morning and I soaked up some sun in the afternoon since I am heading up to New Jersey for a training class next week. Excited about the class in change management. Not so much about having to get my winter coat out 😦

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January 20, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Feeling Closed in

If you enjoy the adventure part of the posts more than the day to day stuff please feel free to scroll down to the picture of the sunset and start there. Don’t worry you won’t hurt my feelings 🙂

This week started a little rough. I really like where we are staying. We are in Rainbow Village, Largo a 55 plus community and it was by far the best of the choices we had. The people are very friendly, the facilities are spotless, and I feel completely safe. But I definitely miss my view and it’s much less fun working from the RV when you can’t step outside for a moment and look at something pretty. We aren’t within walking distance of anything and it would be a stretch to drive to the beach on my lunch break so I am feeling a bit stuck here. Lee is going to school everyday and getting out, but to be honest I am feeling a bit stir crazy. Then, to prove things can get worse, the site next to ours (which has been empty most of the time we’ve been here) was filled by a huge motor home. For some reason, their main slide-out with their dinette is facing our awning area and now I am staring right into their kitchen window. I am trying not to, but I don’t really have anyplace else to look, I mean it is really right in front of us. Can’t be much fun for them either since their windows open to us and now we can hear each others conversations. Geez. (They’ve got the better end of the deal, our conversations are much more interesting than theirs.-Lee)

So I know we need to start getting away from our site more, but just like in a sticks and bricks it’s tough to come home from work, make dinner, then have time to do anything. It’s odd really that here we are doing this crazy adventure and I am ending up being a more “traditional” wife than I have been in years. To be completely clear, I have tremendous respect for anyone who fills that role in a marriage, that was just not who I was in our marriage…mainly because I worked farther away, traveled quite a bit, and wasn’t nearly as good at it as Lee was. (Further evidence that I rock. She rocks in her own special way. – Lee) But things are different now, and as our life is evolving our roles and interactions with each other need to evolve as well.

I know we are both experiencing situations where behaviors we have been totally fine with for years are no longer OK. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. This gives us an opportunity to “reset” as a couple and figure out not only who we want to be individually but as a couple. (I want to be Benedict Cumberbatch. – Lee) One of the things you tend to do as a long-term couple with kids is divide and conquer. So we are just not that used to doing this together. I can count on one hand for example when we went to the grocery store together and now we are doing it every week. That might seem like a simple thing going to the grocery store, but when you have $150 for the week and two different opinions on where to go and what to buy, something that was previously very simple suddenly becomes a conversation and in some cases a negotiation. Everyone says communicate, communicate, communicate to deal with the transitions of the full-timing lifestyle and conventional wisdom is absolutely correct, but what they don’t say is all that communicating is exhausting. You’re working out “muscles” that you haven’t needed to use in a long time and sometimes it can be painful. (She’s right. Communicating with her is exhausting. I am more of a ray of light and joy in an otherwise grim world. – Lee)

So what does that all have to do with where we are staying? Well, the amazing views, moving about, and seeing cool new stuff for us makes those conversations briefer. They still happen but you’re trying to get through it as quickly as possible so that you can go see the cool things. When you sit for awhile and are living more of a “regular” life those conversations happen more frequently and take longer. Plus you are having them in a relatively small space and in our case we really need to be careful about how we have them. You can’t go to separate corners, raising your voice is a bad idea since it’s really loud in your tin box, and arguing outside isn’t an option because you have tons of neighbors. So you not only have to talk about issues that have been resolved for years you may also need to do it in new ways. You don’t have to do any of this of course. You could transplant your old roles into this new life but I wouldn’t recommend it. I truly believe that all of this communication is a VERY good thing. (She drinks. You should keep that in mind while reading her stuff.) Relationships can get stale and if nothing else this life is forcing us to reevaluate who we are with each other. I would however recommend that you do all that with a really pretty view. (I don’t know what she’s talking about. I always have the prettiest view there is. – Lee)

I know I am a bit all over the place with this post, but all of these feelings seem to go hand in hand. Frankly it’s too tough to be able to separate what’s a symptom and what’s the source at this point so I am working through all of them simultaneously the best I can. Not the best scenario. I also find myself missing having a dog. Not Molly (the cavalier we gave to a friend before coming on the road) but just a dog in general. (I have offered to lick her face to simulate having a dog, she seems uninterested. – Lee) Molly would have hated this lifestyle…she traveled terribly even short distances, but she was just one of many dogs I have owned in my life. Plus ALL of our friends have at least one dog and even though we get the occaional envious comment about the freedom a “no-dog” life offers, they all seem pretty happy with their choice despite any limitations the dog might cause. Cori/Greg and Gene/Eileen both have the same kind of dog (cavachon) and we love both of these dogs. They are small, smart, active, and cute as a button. I mean seriously look at these pictures…how can you resist these dogs faces.

Hobi “The Wonder Dog”

Max “The Cutie Patooty”

I know getting a dog is a long term commitment and should not be done on a whim. I also know that our concerns regarding us living with a dog in this lifestyle have not changed. But I really miss puppy kisses….don’t know what else to say. (The offer still stands.) So I went on my lunch break to a nearby puppy store to check them out. Let me say for all of my New England friends, I do know puppy stores are not the best place to get a dog. People feel so strongly about it there that I think I only saw one puppy store in the 13 years I lived there. But in other parts of the country they are pretty common and if you’re not in a circumstance to locate a local breeder or adopt through the local humane society they are an option. On a side note, my stepfather, who is 65, wanted to adopt a dog from the Columbus Human Society and because of his age they would only let him adopt a dog that was 8 years or older. Seriously not cool. People are living a lot longer and as much as I love dogs I definitely fall into the “they are animals and not people” group. Anyway, there is a puppy store right around the corner that I have been dying to go into, so I I took a quick trip on my lunch break on Wednesday. The place was very clean and they had tons of puppies…so lots and lots of puppy kisses and the staff was very nice and helpful. They didn’t have any cavachons but the trip certainly brightened my day. After the visit I spent some time researching the cavachon breed and am more convinced than ever that when we do eventually get a dog again, this is a great breed (by temperament) for this lifestyle. So I did some research and found a private home breeder in Sarasota and they had a white male puppy who was exactly what I was looking for. Lee and I had a serious conversation about it, but in the end his common sense won out over my puppy fever. We really don’t know what our life will look like (being here in Largo for 10 weeks is not an accurate representation) so the responsible thing to do is wait and see. I hate being a responsible grownup.

Walt the puppy I found at a local breeder was perfect but the timing was not

So in order to combat the “closed in” feelings and “no puppy” sadness, I have planned a nature day for us on Saturday. There are several wildlife parks/gardens in the area that are free or near free and I want to get out there with my camera and immerse myself in some wildlife. Plus, my good friend Jo (who seems to have a sixth sense for these things) sent me a text and asked me to come down and visit her and Ben, Gene and Eileen, and Kelly and Bill on Martin Luther King day. I totally forgot I have that day off and replied back with a huge enthusiastic YES!!! Lee has school that day so I will go down on my own and it’s great to have friends where being half a couple if not an issue at all. So this weekend is covered and I need to find something to do during the evenings and maybe on the occasional lunch to break up the day.

While I am talking about going to see Jo and Ben in Fort Meyers I wanted to mention the differences in weather. Even though they are only 2 hours south there is a 10-15 degree swing when you travel there. I think because Largo is in between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico and surrounded by water on three sides it is cooler. I don’t mind the cooler temps…I’ll take 50-60 over 10-12 degrees any day, but it is cloudy here. Not the Florida I am used to where it rains a bit in the morning and then is sunny the rest of the day, but overcast most days until early afternoon and then a little bit of sunshine. Again, waaay better than up north, but I could use some more sun as I think it would help improve my overall mood. So excited about seeing the gang, not just for the company, but for a little dose of warmer weather. It reminds me a bit of New Hampshire in that we could drive two hours into the Green Mountains in Vermont and get totally different weather.

This week we also spent some time dealing with some rig repair issues. When we originally got our rig they did not have a Splendide and gave us another washer/dryer combo. This never worked at all from the first day, so we made the dealer replace it with the Splendide we had ordered originally. Four months into use the Splendide just stopped working and locked tight with clothes and water inside it. When we called our warranty folks they said it was still covered under the Splendide warranty and Lee then had to call them and they told him to call a local RV tech to do the work and they would pay for it. The first tech he called refused to do anything but replace it (which Splendide would not accept) so Splendide provided the name of another tech. It took several days for the guy to call us back, another week to get on his schedule, and after waiting all day Monday for a no show he finally came on Tuesday. The tech was very nice and I was grateful I finally got my clothes out of the washer, but he said the board was fried and would need a part. We spent the rest of the week trying to get Flagg RV to send us some sort of paperwork that we could send to Splendide to prove it was under warranty. Meanwhile, doing some research on the Open Range site I also discovered that there was a recall on our slideout switches. Open Range Technical Service Bulletin 07092014 from Highland Ridge RV on July 09/2014: “Highland Ridge RV has identified a potential issue regarding the function of the slide-out systems with the Open Range products. Models affected are new unsold models and models that currently under the limited 2 year warranty…Highland Ridge RV has determined that the slide-out in/out switches that were installed may not produce enough electric amps for the system to function correctly. Due to this there is a chance of slide-out motors, gears boxes and/or drive shafts failing.” Other people on the forum stated they called their dealer and they either sent them new switches or scheduled a service visit. Our dealer (who has gone through four Service Managers in a one year period) didn’t notify me about the recall. I asked them if they could just send the switches and we could replace them. This was really a good thing, because we noticed the motor was making a funny noise the last time we put the slideout out and hopefully this explains it. I generally avoid the more technical discussions in the forum, but I have to say I am glad I stumbled across this as we could have had a much more serious problem down the road.

So enough of all of that not-fun stuff. Friday’s weather was absolutely beautiful, so Lee and I drove to Indian Rocks Beach (about 15 minutes away) to watch the sunset. Lee has gone a couple of times, but it was always too cold for me, but tonight was just perfect and we took the most beautiful pictures. We also got to listen to taps being played when the sun goes down. An older vet comes every night and plays his bugle as the sun falls beneath the waves. Absolutely lovely moment and a very nice man.

Sunset at Indian Rocks Beach in Largo Florida

Gentleman who plays taps every night at Sunset beach

On Saturday we got up early and decided to check out one of the four local parks. Pinellas County has a large park about 15 minutes away called The Florida Botanical Gardens. We went there first because it’s so close to the house I could go on a lunch break and hang out. We ended up spending several hours there because it was so amazing. It is totally free and it is divided into multiple sections so we took a while to walk around. They have the east and west gardens, a tropical section, wedding area, herb garden, butterfly garden, alligator area, and a wonderful historical village with over 25 buildings. The buildings were largely left to the historical society in wills with enough funds to completely transport the building. Then other members of the historical society fill it with antiques. Very, very cool, completely free, and totally unexpected. The historical area also has volunteers in several of the buildings who explain about the time period and the particular building they are in. I spent quite some time talking to a woman about how quilting is done today versus how it was done in the 1800’s. Really neat.

Camellia

I had no idea bananas had a large flower at the bottom. Reminded me a bit of the flower from Little Shop of Horrors

My first alligator. The duck swimming close by didn’t interest him at all

Turtles sunning themselves on the bank pretty near the gator but they seemed unconcerned

Center of the historical village

One of the volunteers was in the Grocery Store

Village Garage

The garage was very cool

After such a great time at the gardens I really didn’t want to go anywhere else, so we will save those for another day. We went back to the RV for lunch and then we puttered until 5pm when the RV Resort was having a pig roast. Lee wasn’t terribly thrilled about going, but I thought it would be good to at least put in a short appearance, plus free food, so we walked down at 5pm.

On Sunday Lee went to a study session held by one of his fellow students who is a retired Air Force Colonel and a whiz at all things electrical, so I decided to go and visit the Sunken Garden. After the great experience on Saturday, I almost didn’t go because I didn’t want to be disappointed, but the weather was beautiful so I drove the 20 minutes to St. Pete. Sunken Garden’s claim to fame is that it is a 100-year-old garden and I really wanted to see plants that were that old. The $8 admission threw me off though. Not because $8 is a lot of money but because I have found the free or near free attractions are often better. I was pleasantly surprised however and definitely felt I got my money’s worth. Although it was a bit crowded (there was a line when it opened at noon on Sunday) and not as big as I would have liked (only took me 45 minutes to walk through), it was jam-packed with huge beautiful plants and there were many more flowers in bloom than I would have expected in January. Also the gardens boast many plants from tropical regions around the world, so I got to see plants and flowers I had never seen before. Definitely worth a trip, but I would recommend going during a weekday if you can manage it.

The growth was huge and dense which makes the relatively small place feel bigger

Beautiful paths are cut at multiple levels so you could be very close to someone and not see them.

I have never seen flowering vines this high in my life. They were like two stories tall and hanging from the tops of giant trees

The limestone was excavated when the gardens were originally built

You sit on it and feel peace and serenity. IT was a really cool, smooth rock

This was the view across from the growing stone which did make me feel peaceful

Beautiful beautiful flowers

Never seen one of these before

I’ve never seen this flower either. Wish DeDe was with me she would have loved it.

Monday was a holiday for me and it was great because when living in New England I thought it was a waste to have a holiday in January (no disrespect to Martin Luther King just wish it would be a different day), but down here it was amazing. The day was absolutely gorgeous with temps in the high 70’s and sunny skies. Lee had school unfortunately , but I was free so got up early and drove down to Fort Meyers to see my friends Jo and Ben, Kelly and Bill, and Eileen and Gene. I had an absolutely wonderful time talking with my friends and we had a nice dinner (thank you so much Gene and Eileen for treating me…that was incredibly sweet) and I reluctantly left at 7:30pm to start the two-hour drive home. It was a long day but absolutely what I needed to brush the last of those “closed in feelings” away. I know I’ve said it before, but I absolutely love these people and they are the best support system in the world. No matter how you are feeling, they are there for you and although the experience does vary from person to person, we are all absolutely committed to supporting each other as we transition to the full timing lifestyle. There was lots of laughter, great advice, and some commiseration which is all a wonderful thing. And most importantly it reaffirmed that I am not alone in this. So thank you all so much for the wonderful day and I can’t wait until we are all together again.

From back left
Tracy, Ben, Kelly, Bill, Jo, Gene, and Eileen

Lessons Learned

When you are feeling closed in get out and do something. See friends, visit a nature park, go see an attraction.
You can fill an entire weekend without spending much money (I spent $8 this weekend).
Be careful of making any big decisions when your feeling antsy or closed in. Give it some time to pass.

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Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

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