October 28, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time without a “Regular” Job

Monday was my last day of working at a job I truly loved and had for 16 years. I grew up professionally in the company, and a large portion of my adult life was devoted to my career there. A year ago when we decided to go on the road I thought for sure I would have to quit. Traveling in an RV was an unusual choice and although much of my work was done remotely, or with fly-in business trips, I thought it was too “outside of the box” for my then boss to approve. I was grateful and surprised though when he said I could travel anywhere on the east coast, as long as I was near an airport, had cell coverage, and internet access. So, unlike many people, I had the opportunity to try this lifestyle while at the same time keeping my current job. I am extremely grateful for that opportunity, because dealing with all of the change over the last year has been much easier with the consistency of a job I was comfortable in. And striking a balance on the east coast was relatively easy, because we have many field offices there and finding cool places to stay while still being within a reasonable drive to an airport was not that difficult. Lee and I both knew, however, that things would get much tougher when we headed out west. There are longer travel days, more places with minimal or no cell coverage, and staying close to an airport can be much harder. Shortly after we hit the road, I got a new boss, and he didn’t care where I was, as long as I could get to an airport, and still had cell and internet. That worked out just fine, and we were always able to meet those requirements without too much difficulty. We managed to make it work until we hit Glacier and it became clear to me that something had to give.

Just to be clear, many people travel and work corporate jobs very successfully in the West. I know two people very well, who have struck a good balance and manage to see great things and still work. For me though, the constant pressure of balancing enjoying the life and fully contributing to my job was coming to a head. The nature of my job required me to be in constant contact via cell phone which ruled out many of the more remote locations that Lee wanted to experience. I also never really felt like I was “off work” and weekends and vacation were often full of work concerns. Lee, to his credit, allowed me plenty of time to work this out. He never put pressure on me to choose, but he also wasn’t shy about talking about what he ultimately wanted this life to look like. As a good partner, he understood though that I would get there eventually and forcing the issue would only result in resentment on my part.

Simultaneously, I was thinking more and more about starting my own consulting company and what that would look like in this lifestyle. I had toyed with the idea for many years, but with a mortgage and three kids in the house, I never had the courage to take that leap. Now things were different. We had minimal debt, it was just Lee and I, and one of the major drawbacks of consulting (the weekly travel to a location) could be somewhat mitigated by our ability to move our house to wherever the work was. I was under no illusions that consulting would solve everything. I knew I would still need internet and cell, but it would give me more flexibility in my scheduling. Plus, I was very excited about the opportunity to do the work I loved for other companies and in other industries. One of the best parts of my job is when I get to help people’s lives be a little better. In a corporate job, those moments happen, but always on someone else’s terms. Consulting would allow me to focus on work that could be meaningful.

In many people’s minds the decision would be a no brainer, but for me it was really difficult to walk away from a “perfectly good job”. I was raised with a Midwestern work ethic and in that environment you don’t leave a job unless you have a really good reason. Plus, I am risk averse by nature, and to be honest, super comfortable with the environment I was in. I knew the rules, I had long term relationships, and a solid reputation as a person who gets things done. To walk away from all that was difficult, no matter how attractive the alternative was. So that’s where the situation stood until God/Universe opened a path for me. The company offered a Voluntary Separation Package that provided salary and health insurance for a specific amount of time, along with a separation bonus. The deal was the perfect amount, and came at the perfect time, so the choice seemed very clear to me. That doesn’t mean it was easy to make the choice, but there was not a doubt in my mind that it was the right thing to do. So I signed the papers, and the last few weeks have been about saying goodbye.

That has been brutal, by the way. You know when you leave a job that many of the people you have had daily contact with simply won’t be part of your life going forward, and because I was there for so long some of those people felt like family to me. There definitely is a grieving process and feelings of loss. Loss of relationships, loss of identity, loss of security. It is not a small thing. I am very grateful for my support system, however. People have been checking in with me and been great about acknowledging that this is a big deal and encouraging me to take my time dealing with it. So that’s what I am trying to do, deal with it.

So here’s my approach, and I am sharing this not because I think it will work for everyone, but in the hopes it might help someone. First, I am not treating this time as a vacation. Many people do, and that’s perfectly fine, but for me it’s important to spend some time every day working on my new life and business. I am being very careful to strike a balance here and not overdue it, because that could easily turn into feelings of being panicked. In my head, I know we will be fine. We are smart, driven people who work hard. As Lee says, we have been through much tougher situations than this, with less skills. Emotionally though, it’s hard not to give in to the fear. It’s not rational fear, it’s not rooted in anything that’s real, but wow, is it powerful. Knowing where it comes from, doesn’t really seem to help lessen its effect and as much as I would like to just move past it, I know it will take some time. So in the interim I completed my consulting website, www.tsperkinsconsulting.com, if you are curious. I updated my resume (thanks so much Cori for helping), I changed my Linked In profile, and I am reaching out to my professional network to let them know I am consulting now. Finally, I am writing this blog. Saying things out loud lessens their power over you. Knowing everyone goes through this experience sooner or later helps. Knowing that people truly care helps. Having Lee be so completely supportive helps. But ultimately, I understand that I have to work through this. I have to believe in myself. I have to put my big girl panties on and own my choice.

Thanks for listening,

Trace

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October 25, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Ride On The Bizz Johnson Trail

Today was about doing something fun. I don’t have an update on the truck (our adjuster has been out of town all week, so hopefully we will get an answer on Monday) and after an emotional last week at my job (which I am not ready to talk about yet) we decided to ride the Bizz Johnson Trail. (Well, the best part of it, anyway. – Lee) This past Saturday was the annual Fall Foliage ride and Lee volunteered to ride sweep. (The sweep rider is the person who brings up the back of the pack, and makes sure that if anyone has any mechanical trouble, or gets hurt, that they aren’t left to die all alone on the side of the trail. Since I have no bike fixing abilities, or medical training, I was really only able to guarantee that they wouldn’t die alone. – Lee) 16 people had signed up for the ride. Lee used a BLM truck and horse trailer to take all the bikes up to the far end of the trail, in a little town called Westwood, and the riders took a shuttle bus along with Stan, the BLM recreation director for this area. The Bizz Johnson trail is basically Stan’s life work, and he loves to ride the bus and give people a 30 minute talk on the history of the trail, and things to look for. Once the riders were all suited up and ready to go, they took off from Westwood for a quick three mile ride to Mason Station, the trailhead where the Bizz leaves the road. Stan followed along in the truck and trailer to check in with Lee at various checkpoints along the trail where BLM and Forest Service roads cross the trail. Below is a map of the trail.

The ride from Westwood to Hobo Camp (where we are work kamping) took most of the day, since he was going as slow as the slowest riders, but he came home raving about how much I would love it. Since we have been talking about going, and reconnecting with nature is a great way to shake off other things that are going on in your life, I was in. Lee did say that he wanted to start at the 18 mile mark, Westwood Junction, which I was happy to hear. Apparently the first 8 miles has a 3% upgrade and Lee said it wasn’t hard so much as “relentless”. The downhill section starts at Westwood Junction and knowing his audience Lee thought that would be more my speed. (The whole concept of “rails to trails” fascinates me. Back home in Keene, NH, there was a great rails to trails trail, and I just love the idea of abandoned railroads being re-purposed for something else, instead of just sitting there being of no use to anyone. The best part is, for those of us who are old (Tracy) and out of shape (Tracy, and to a lesser degree, me) and smokers (Tracy got me started smoking, I used to be a good kid, but she ruined me) railroad grades are never steep. The maximum for 19th century and early 20th century was 3%, which is in the neighborhood of only 150 feet of elevation change per mile. That’s a pretty easy grade, even for old out of shape smokers like Tracy. The downside to that is, when they have to make a lot of elevation, it can be a very, very, very long climb. So, it’s not hard, but it’s relentless. As you can see in the elevation profile below, it starts at about 5100 feet (the starting elevation is not accurate, Westwood is at 5100 feet) and over the course of 8 miles, it climbs to about 5600 feet. That’s not a lot of climb, but it’s steady. Basically, there’s no point in that first 8 miles that you can coast. Ever. It’s constant pedaling against gravity. Also, the first 4 miles is along the side of a county road, not a lot of room for bikes. And then once you get from Westwood to Mason Station, you’re on the trail, but it’s another 4 miles of 3% grade, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s boring. So, I decided to start from Westwood Junction, one of the handful of places where a Forest Service road crosses the trail. From there, it’s about a mile of level ground, then it’s all downhill from there. – Lee)

Let me say here that this was hands down the best bike ride I have ever been on in my life. There were whole long sections you can coast down if you want to, the trail is in very good condition, and I was thrilled by all of the different landscapes we saw in that 18 mile ride. It was so good I am not going to spend a ton of time talking about it though. Just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Where we started. (Stan was generous enough to let us use his BLM pickup to drive the bikes up to Westwood Junction, so we parked there and then headed out. Technically, as BLM camp hosts, we’re supposed to check the trails, so this was a legitimate official use of the vehicle. – Lee)

Dry creek beds, they have water in the spring. (The Susan River goes along the trail, and the trail crosses it many times, on beautiful old railroad bridges. Unfortunately, this time of year, and with it being as dry as it is, there’s no water in the river until the last 8 miles or so of the trail. – Lee)

Beautiful rock croppings all along the trail

Beautiful rock outcroppings all along the trail

One of my favorite spot was a dry creek bed that according to Stan is white water in the spring

One of my favorite spot was a dry creek bed that according to Stan is raging white water in the spring.

The rocks were huge and even I with my love of rocks wouldn’t walk out very far.

Lee stood out a bit to give it some persepctive

Right next to the trail and so neat to look straight up

An old powder shed build by the railroad out of railroad ties. Imagine that this little shed was once full of explosives!

One of my favorite views

(The section in the pictures above is the first “drop” in elevation. You not only don’t have to pedal once you get about a mile from Westwood Junction, you actually need to use your brakes. 3% isn’t much when you’re going up, but coming down gravity will grab ya! About 5 miles from Westwood Junction you come to Goumaz, which is a National Forest Service campground. It’s very small, with only 5 unimproved campsites, along the river. There’s a pit toilet, and a water spigot, and that’s it. Access to it is via a gravel road, and the sites are big enough for travel trailers, and at least one would easily hold our 40′ fifth wheel. No traffic noise, no air traffic, very quiet and peaceful, and best of all, totally free. – Lee)

There was a pit toilet available for use near a federal land campground we passed through

There was a pit toilet available for use near Goumaz campground we passed through

Dry camping, but free and we could have fit in a couple of these spots

At a certain point there was water in the creek and we got to bicycle by it as we went

At a certain point there was water in the river and we got to bicycle by it as we went

So you see the face in the rock? Looks like a donkey to me

Do you see the face in the rock? Looks like a donkey to me

These trees were amazing hanging onto this hillside

It was sandy in some places and rocky in others

Beautiful white rocks in one section

View of the mountain

Lee had a beautiful place picked out for our lunch, but after two hours of riding and only seeing 4 other people, there were people at the spot. He was pretty bummed but we kept on going and I thought we found a really nice place close by. (After Goumaz, there’s another nice long smooth drop, through totally different rock and vegetation, so you really get to see four distinct environments on the ride. It’s very interesting. Here and there along the trail, Boy Scout groups have cleared out a little area along the trail and built really nice benches. I had picked out a great spot near the bottom of the second drop section, where the trees were gone, and there is this huge flat valley floor with a massive ranch and the ranch house in the distance. It was a perfect spot for lunch, and we arrived there at just the right time, but there were people there. I should have made a reservation. – Lee)

The bench we ate on

Our lunch view

(After the second drop, the trail crosses a great trestle bridge, and then goes under the road. If you look at the elevation profile, it shows this in detail. It’s a very steep and very fast 100′ drop, under the road, and then on the other side you have to push your bike up, it’s way too steep and the gravel is too loose and deep to ride up. Instead, we rode down the older part of the trail, which is “closed” and just crossed the road. Way faster and no elevation change.I did the ride and push yesterday, and had no desire to do it again. If you’re following along on the map, this is the beginning of the final drop, at Devil’s Corral. This is another trail head, with parking and a pit toilet, and this is where the canyon part of the trail starts. This is by far the best part of the ride. – Lee)

There are lots of these railroad bridges, but this was the longest, and definitely the highest.

Underneath is a second stone bridge that’s no longer in use, from where the road used to cross the river. Now it’s just part of the trail.

One of the coolest things were the two railroad bridges built in 1913 that you got to ride through

One of the coolest things were the two railroad tunnels built in 1913 that you got to ride through

These redwood support beams are the original and in fantastic condition

(The two tunnels are a lot of fun. The second one, as you head downhill, is much longer than the first, and the temperature inside is at least 20 degrees cooler than the outside. Plus, when you leave the tunnels, about 50 feet in front of them you get hit by a blast of that cold air because as it comes out, the wind coming over the top of the mountain pushes it away from the entrance. So as soon as you exit the tunnel, you feel the normal outside temperature, then you ride through this brief section of air that’s as cold as the tunnel. Very neat. The Boy Scouts put a bench at that spot for that reason. It’s outside air conditioning! – Lee)

Loved these rocks along the trail

Beautiful outcroppings

One of my favorite pictures

(This last section of the trail continues to wind through the canyon, along the river, crossing it at six different bridges, and the water is a nice wide shallow clear river. It’s really beautiful and peaceful. It’s a very gentle down slope. There are lots of long gentle curves, with the river on one side, and steep canyon walls beyond the river, and 100′ steep rock canyon walls on the other side. After about 4 miles you reach the short connector trail that takes you into the Hobo Camp day use area, where we are living. The trail continues for another mile to the historic Susanville Depot and museum. We didn’t go all the way to the end, of course. We had driven our rental car down from the camper to the day use parking area, so we wouldn’t have to walk our bikes up the steep drive from the day use area to our camper. We locked the bikes in the bathroom storage room, drove the rental car back up to Westwood Junction to get the truck, and then drove the truck back to get the bikes. Wouldn’t you know it, Stan was walking the trail with his dog Sandy to get pictures of the fall colors in the late afternoon light. We had a nice chat with him and he gave us high fives for riding the trail. Stan really, really loves his job, and the Bizz Johnson trail. – Lee)

As you can see Lee is very passionate about the trail and I was totally serious when I said it was the best bike ride of my life. That being said, my tush is a little sore and I am on the tired side, so I asked Lee to jump in and help make this post not totally suck. I can see he took my request seriously 🙂 It really is a great ride and well worth a detour to try it. I hope you get to ride it some day.

(We’re going to watch some TV now, and then I might massage her tush. Cuz, you know, it’s sore. – Lee)

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October 20, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Putting Regular Gas in a Diesel Vehicle

I didn’t call this the “First time” (although it is) because that implies there might be a second time, and this is never going to happen again. I left off my last post with dropping the truck off at the dealership. Lee was then taken to a rental car place by the dealer and got us a rental car…which important since the truck is our only vehicle. After he got the rental he was going to the grocery store, since by this point we were out of just about. When I heard him pull up at the rig, I was surprised when he didn’t start bringing the groceries in, so I walked outside to see if I could help. When he turned to me, I saw a look on his face that I haven’t seen in a very long time. He explained he was at the store when he got the call from the dealer and the truck wouldn’t start at all for them so they pushed it into the bay, and tested the gas and it was regular gas, not diesel. He then said that the cost to repair it would be $9,000. I sat down quickly. He started to apologize and said he was so sick about what had happened. Then he explained he had called the 7 Eleven thinking they had put the wrong gas in their tanks and was told they didn’t sell diesel at all. At this point my mind was racing and I was still trying to absorb the $9,000 number. I was much less interested in how we had gotten there, than what we were going to do to solve the problem, but in a nutshell, here’s how it happened. We pulled in to the gas station, and Lee saw a green handled pump. His card didn’t work at the pump and went inside and asked the cashier to approve a fill-up on diesel on that pump number, which she did, not catching I guess that he had said diesel and in just a few minutes a tremendous amount of damage was done.

I actually had to get up and walk away from writing this after typing that. It’s still upsetting to think about. You see, Lee rarely makes mistakes. He is an extremely careful person about everything he does, and is almost OCD about anything safety related. I can count on one hand in the 26 years we have been together that he has made a mistake of this magnitude and interestingly enough two of them have been in the last year. The first was when the hitch was not completely secured and our rig fell on our truck (see post here) and the second was this. To give you some perspective, the last time before that was all the way back in 1992. In that moment I had a clear choice. I could give in to the emotion and fear of the moment or I could stay calm and move forward towards fixing the problem. The thought that came into my mind so clear was, “Something really bad has happened. Who do you want to be?” I have been dealing with a lot of fear over the last several weeks over quitting my job and how well I would handle a crisis without the foundation of work on which to rely, and here was my first crisis. Way earlier than expected, but the moment had come. And I am totally serious, in that moment I felt I was making a decision about my future, and what I decided would decide whether or not we would be able to make this life work for us. So I took a deep breath and calmly told him it was going to be OK. We needed to do some quick research and then go talk to the service manager in person. And I will say that as critical as I have been of some of the information found on forums, the information we found was very good. It stated that the longer you drove the vehicle the more damage was done, and yes, it was very expensive, but there were cases when a cleaning worked, and the solution was much less costly. So holding onto the fragile hope that we might be one of the lucky few we went to the service department.

We walked in and asked to see the service manager and he was sitting at the counter. I started to talk to him thinking he would know our situation but quickly realized he did not and filled him in. Let me mention here that I am really good with service departments. I am not mechanically inclined so I am extremely respectful of the technical knowledge they possess that I don’t, but as a project manager I also have developed an ability to call bullshit when people start to talk over my head. The manager was very clear that this rarely happened, but there was a detailed step-by-step process to follow when it did. There is a kit (they had it in stock at a cost of $4200) that has every part that would be affected by fuel contamination. So the technician would replace each part step by step and the engine would be as good as new, as though it had never happened, and most importantly, back in warranty. The last time they did this at that dealer, it took 5 full days of work, which is why the end price tag was $9,000. You might think “Go to another shop and spend less money”, and that absolutely went through my mind, but the last thing we wanted was to void a 6 year warranty one year into it so this was not the time to get creative. The service manager was clear he was not an expert in this and when I started to question him about it went to get his senior tech who had completed these repairs, to answer some of my questions. He also did us a huge favor by casually mentioning that insurance companies usually paid for this. He seemed surprised we were so concerned about the money. While he was getting the tech, Lee stepped outside and called the insurance company. We thought, “Well, it’s worth a shot”, but neither one of us thought they would cover something like this. I talked to the tech.

I should probably mention here that normally Lee would be dealing with the tech and I would be dealing with the insurance company, but since I was not the one who made the mistake we switched. Lee was still struggling to deal with the emotions of making the mistake, plus there was that whole “You’re an idiot” guy-think subtext. Right or wrong, women can make a mistake like this and get off scott free but when a man makes the same mistake in some way that means they want to take away his man card. Plus I knew exactly how to handle this, and Le,e to his credit just let me do it. When John (the tech) came in I personalized the situation. I explained we lived in our RV, that I could afford the repair but it would wipe out my savings (which wasn’t strictly tru,e but the level of impact would be huge) and basically threw myself on his mercy. That part was real as I was close to tears over the whole thing but managed to hold it together. This changed the conversation and we were all in it together. John said that the he could work through the process step-by-step and at each point stop, test the engine, and stop when it seemed to work. This might cost be less than the $9,000 but no promises. When he started saying, “If it was my money” I knew I was in good hands. Plus he seemed incredibly competent and I felt much better overall about the quality of work I would be receiving which was something.

Simultaneously Lee talked to the first person at Allied insurance. The representative said something like this wouldn’t be covered, and then hinted around that vandalism would be; if someone else had done this, then it would be covered. Lee rejected that as a choice because when you start out by lying, things generally go poorly from there, and we’re both big believers in karma. In fact, we are generally beneficiaries of a brand of it we call “Instant Karma”. After all that discussion, the rep asked if Lee would you like to file a claim even though it probably isn’t covered. Lee thought “What have I got to lose?” and gave the information for the claim. As I was walking out he received a followup call from an adjuster who took the information again, stated he didn’t think it would be covered but would file the claim anyway. We left the dealership feeling the enormity of what had happened but better about the steps we had taken. We stopped at the store and got the tjings we needed and shortly after we arrived home received a third phone call from a woman. She again took the information, said she wasn’t sure if it was covered but she would check and in under a half hour called back and said it was covered under our comprehensive plan (with a $1,000 deductible) and did we still want to make the claim. Absolutely we did. The magic words by the way, which the service manager shared with us are “accidental fuel contamination”. That is absolutely what happened, and Lee consistently stated this phrase through every conversation with the insurance company. I can’t even tell you the wash of relief I felt. $1,000 was way better than $9,000 and we wouldn’t need to cut corners on the work that was done. The insurance company said they would have an adjuster talk to the dealer and between the two of them they can work out what will be done along with the pricing. By the way, I haven’t had an insurance claim my entire life so we will see how much our rates go up, but as Lee said, that’s why you pay those premiums and it’s dumb not to use it when the situation calls for it.

So here we are. We are paying $30 a day for the rental car (which may or may not be covered by the insurance) and waiting to hear back on what needs to be done and how much it will cost. So we’re not out of the woods yet but feeling much better about things in general. I also wanted to mention that I try not to ask God for trivial things but this situation fell into the category where I did ask for strength to deal with it. After the day was done, I thanked him for looking out over us and for giving me the opportunity for personal growth. I believe that when you are tested your true character shows through and the things that are really important rise to the foreground. I thought precious little about leaving my job through all of this and instead focused on us and our future. I love my husband very much and feel very blessed to have him in my life and a situation like this really drives home how strong we are together. He took responsibility for his mistake, and despite incredibly strong emotions kept himself together. I fought my fears, and supported him absolutely. You really can’t ask for more than that, and in some ways during this time of transition for me this incident was a gift, because it reaffirmed we can get through adversity together.

Lessons Learned

A different colored handled pump does not necessarily mean diesel. Never pump your fuel unless you can physically put your finger on the word “diesel” on the pump itself.
Accidental Fuel Contamination may be covered by your comprehensive insurance plan. Make sure you check.
In the case of a serious repair go and talk to the service manager and technician in person. Talk about your options. Personalize the situation so they understand you are on a budget.

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October 19, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

The Post That Kept Changing

As I go through my weekends, I generally start to write my posts in my head as we do things. Not whole paragraphs or anything but lines about different things I see. I try to then take a picture to help me remember or sometimes I will jot a note in my phone. Somewhere along the line the name for the post comes into play and I usually get pretty excited. I like the “First” time doing anything and the best weekends are the ones where I have so many firsts I need to pick one. This weekend was a little different though. The post was going to be “First Time in Tahoe”, but that didn’t happen, then it was going to be First Time Riding the Biz Johnson Trail”, but that didn’t happen either. I’ll tell you why in a bit.

First the week. Things went well. I had some work things going on and Lee spent a ton of time working on the second video for Howard and Linda. We were happy to find out that the first one, an intro to their website, was well received at their most recent rally and as soon as he makes a few tweaks for Howard that one will be done. The second one is on their Utility Body Werks Hauler bed and is more video than pictures which is actually less edit intensive. Since he is doing this editing in our rig, I am seeing first hand how much goes into these videos and it can be fun to watch. I did tell Linda though this week that at one point I had him put on headphones because I simply couldn’t listen to the same audio clip for the 50th time lol. I am not sure how he has the patience for it, but I do believe it is not unlike composing music where every single note counts. I also found time to work on both my new resume and my consulting website. I would like to have both of these done by the end of next week, although that may be too aggressive a timeline, and Cori has been very helpful for both processes in giving me an objective “hiring manager” opinion. It’s nice to have friends! I also had a really long talk with my friend Dr. Jo about how things were going with the transition and she was also very helpful. I didn’t really want to talk to her in a professional capacity because I didn’t want to impose on our friendship, but after talking to Kyrston my oldest one morning I realized I was being an idiot. I am lucky enough to have a friend who is also a psychologist a little over an hour away from me during what is arguably the biggest transition I have been through since becoming a mother and I am not talking to her…just dumb. And of course she was happy to help, I think her attitude was a bit “What took you so long?,” but she understood I needed time to come to it on my own. She was great about validating the importance of what I was going through and let me know the warning signs I should keep an eye out for if things were getting too overwhelming. She also approved the tactic I have been taking of making sure every day I do something that is for my new life. I am making sure I don’t overdo it, but every day I work on something for the consulting business, this website, or work kamping. So despite the short paragraph above, it was a very full week for the both of us and we were really looking forward to the weekend.

A couple of things happened near the end of the week that I should talk about though. Fair warning, the first one is about poop, so if you have a delicate stomach you may want to skip this paragraph. Part of living in a camper is becoming well acquainted with your poop. You deal with it when you dump your tanks, you deal with it in the toilet bowl (water pressure doesn’t flush like a home toilet), and if you are work kamping you probably deal with it when cleaning the restrooms. And after a month, we finally ran into a messy bathroom situation. Lee was down cleaning the restrooms and one of them had poop all over the toilet seat, on the floor and even on the wall some. He thought it looked like someone had not quite made it to the toilet and as he stared at the mess several things went through his mind. He thought there should be limits to what volunteers were asked to do; he wondered if he should call the BLM maintenance person to handle it; and of course he was aggravated because someone left this mess in the first place. Then he thought about how nice this job has been, what a great deal overall it has been for us, and the fact that we knew this might happen eventually. What decided him was the fact that you can’t say you are willing to do the unpleasant job and then not do it, so armed with bleach, gloves, and a long handled scrubber brush he dealt with it. I was proud of him, and hoped that when my time came I would handle it as graciously. I didn’t think it would be the very next day, but there it was. I made the rounds and one of the close bathrooms and one of the farther away bathrooms had poop all over the toilet seats. And of course I didn’t like it, but I did what needed to be done. I don’t think in either case it was deliberate maliciousness, but let’s see how common this will be. Three times in one weekend is a bit concerning. I am talking about this because I want to give a well-rounded account of our experiences and that would be a deal breaker for some people. I will say though if you are unwilling to clean bathrooms it will severely limit your work kamping choices.

The second thing that happened was I started to get some fuzzy vision in my right eye. Over 5 years ago I had an eye surgery called PRK (like Lasik but more intense) that completely changed my life. I went from “coke bottle” thick glasses to no corrective lenses at all and although I have always known it wouldn’t last forever it was worth every dollar spent. I do get nervous about my vision though and really felt after several days I needed to get it checked out. Susanville is a very small town and there is only one optometrist here and he doesn’t take Aetna insurance. But I have a bunch of money in an HSA account and although he doesn’t normally take new patients they made me an appointment at the end of Thursday. He did a very thorough examination and determined I was getting a sty (pimple on the inner eyelid) and then gave me suggestions on over the counter drops to us. He also recommended the 20/20/20 rule since I work on the computer so much which is every 20 minutes take a break and blink 20 times and then stare at least 20 yards away for a few minutes. According to him you normally blink 20 times minute normally, only 10 times when watching TV, and only 5 times when working on the computer. This leads to dry eyes which is exacerbated by the arid conditions here in Susanville. I felt much better after talking to him and felt the $94 dollars was reasonable for the time he spent with me. I do need to get a prescription eye exam and he couldn’t fit me in for 1-1/2 months and we will be gone then. So I will make a trip to Reno for that visit and get my glasses there. One thing I have noticed about small town doctors is they are not lacking in work. I couldn’t get one dentist in town to accept a new patient and even the MD’s seemed overbooked. Luckily we are close enough to Reno that there are tons of doctors there and more have openings.

So, we were really looking forward to the weekend and our long awaited trip to Tahoe. I have wanted to go there every since Lee came home from a work trip about 20 years ago and said I would love it. But when we were getting ready in the morning it started to sprinkle. No big deal I thought, it never rains here and even if it’s here it won’t be there. Well, Lee checked the weather and it was going to rain all day and there were even flash flood warnings. So we decided that we would wait until another day. We could even go during the week when my job ends. Instead we decided to ride the Bizz Johnson trail on Sunday. On occasion Lee takes bikes up the trail for groups (using the BLM truck and trailer), and he was scheduled to make the trip on Sunday with a group from Reno. We thought we would take our bikes along as well and bike the 26 miles back, then take our truck up and retrieve the BLM truck. I was a bit nervous about a 26 mile bike ride since I have never done one but wanted to experience the fall colors and get some shots of the trail. So Saturday we were at loose ends and I went back to my initial list of things to do. Luckily I had one rainy day activity and we drove down to Reno to see Harrah’s automobile collection. Lee loves car collections and since it was only $10 I thought “Why not give it a shot?”. Well I am really glad we did. We had some initial trouble finding it, despite its name it is not in the Harrah’s casino, but a few streets down. It was really great. According to the signs it is considered one of the top 5 museums in the country and I really enjoyed it. The collection focused less on cars of famous people, although they had some of those, and more on the history of the automobile. Plus along the way they had some beautiful displays of clothing from the different eras. Smart really, giving the women something to look at, but to my surprise I also really enjoyed the cars. Each sign had some really interesting information on the cars from the progression of how it impacted the automotive industry. We spent over two hours there and I completely recommend it for a rainy day. I learned a lot and definitely was not bored.

1892 Phillion only one care produced

Beautiful wedding dress

I was fascinated by the small windshields in the older models

Each section of the museum was from a similar time period. This 40's era street was cool

Each section of the museum was from a similar time period. The black car was Sinatra’s.

Lee checking out one of Sinatra's car...he's happy

Lee checking out 1961 “Frank Sinatra” Ghia

They let you sit in this one so of course I had to dress up. I can see me tooling around in one of these

1914 Detroit electric car

Check out the battery bank.

I liked the displays of stockings

And handbags

One of our favorites a, Airmobile prototype which got over 90 miles to the gallon

One of our favorites was the Airmobile prototype which consistently got over 80 miles to the gallon

The back was really cool with it’s aerodynamic styling

The 1936 DeSoto taxicab was one of my favorites

This 1921 Kampkar was amazing. It had a bed and eating area

The 1921 Silver Ghost Rolls Royce was amazing. This one was made of solid plates of copper

My personal favorite was this 1936 Mercedes Benz...wow

My personal favorite was this 1936 Mercedes Benz…built for Princess Nina Mdviani

This 1947 volkswagen didn’t look that much different than my first car

This was Elvis's car until he gave it to his Karate instructor

This was Elvis’s car until he gave it to his long time karate instructor

John Wayne's car. Can't really see the Duke riding in this

John Wayne’s 1953 Chevy. Can’t really see the Duke riding in this

Lee loved the sliding doors on this model

Lee loved the sliding doors on this 1954 Kaiser-Darren

Afterwards we decided to go to In and Out burger. I have heard about them but never been to one and since Lee loves them wanted to try it. I love award shows and I always hear actresses talking about how they go in their expensive dresses to In and Out burger and the lengths they go to to protect those dresses. I understand why now. The burger is a good greasy and actually comes in a paper envelope to help you eat it. Unfortunately I really hated the fact that the bread was crunchy all around the edge. Other than that it was good but the bread ruined it for me. Lee was happy though and I at least I know what all the fuss is about.

In and Out burger Reno

Despite the line service was pretty fast

Here’s mine

Because it was so packed we had parked in the 7/11 next door. We both felt a little guilty about that since signs were posted but its hard to get the truck into just any parking space. Lee decided to buy gas there since we needed it anyways and that made us a customer, but immediately after fueling up the engine started acting funny. Aside from a poor initial alignment, we have thankfully had zero issues with the truck, but the engine started hesitating when Lee was giving it gas. We made it back to Susanville, but were concerned and when he had trouble starting the truck that night, we decided to take it into the Ford dealership on Monday. Thankfully for the first time in my life, I had loaded up on warranties on this vehicle. We bought both the Premium Maintenance Plan – 72 month 125,000 miles for $3150 (which covers all of our routine maintenance including oil changes) and the Premium Care extended warranty 72 month 125,000 miles $3396 (which covers over 500 items, including brake pads and loaner cars). Yes, I know that’s a high price tag but I don’t regret it at all. The peace of mind for 6 years is more than worth it and I had my eye down the road when our income might be much less. But unfortunately we had to cancel the Biz Johnson trail ride because we didn’t want to drive the truck away from town 26 miles, just in case. So Sunday was a football day…loved the Patriots/Colts game, and on the plus side now we have some activities to do after I leave my full time job. This whole thing might be the universe’s way of looking out for me, since a couple of nice activities might just be what I need to help with the transition. And I’ll let you know what happens with the truck repairs.

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October 13, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at the Rails to Trails Festival

The big event for our work kamping job was this weekend. It is the annual Rails to Trails festival which both celebrates the Biz Johnson Trail and helps the local non profit make money to maintain the rail depot at the Susanville end of the trail. The event is a combination of numerous marathons on the trail, including a qualifier for the Boston marathon, and a local festival at the depot itself. Lee has been shooting video of the various activities leading up to the event, part for his demo reel and partly for Stan, so I knew I would jump in and help with our regular work kamping duties. Plus, I volunteered to give caboose tours the day of the event itself. All in all we planned for a full weekend, and I was pretty excited about the opportunity to pitch in and help. Since the events started on Saturday, Lee and I took extra care with the grounds on Friday night. We stocked the restrooms with extra supplies, emptied all the trash and added extra bags at the bottom, and walked all the way down to the depot taking special care with the “micro litter”. As a side note, Stan taught us the concept of micro litter which is little things like cigarette butts and gum wrappers that will add up over time if ignored. Lee and I have actually made a game out of it, where we each take a side of the trail going in one direction and on the way back we switch. For every piece of trash we find that the other person missed, we get one kiss. Yes, I know it’s goofy, but we both get kisses and it’s a fun way to pass the time!!

Saturday morning Lee left very early with Stan to take any bike riders halfway up the trail. They had a company coordinate the races and did a nice job of sharing the space between normal bike riders and runners by staggering the departure points. After Lee dropped off the riders he went to various points along the route and took some video of the runners. It really is a beautiful trail, waiting for the fall foliage to take my ride, and I heard several of the runners say how much they enjoyed the scenery during their runs.

I kept an eye on things back at the Hobo Camp, where the finish line was located, and around 10:00am walked the trail down to the depot. Unfortunately the horse riders had used that section of the trail in the early morning and there was a ton of horse poop right in the road which would have affected the runners for the short marathon scheduled later that day. Normally I don’t mind the horse poop so much, but this was fresh and right in the middle of several spots of the run. I didn’t really have to do anything about it, but since I wouldn’t want to run through horse poop, I grabbed a bag and cleaned it up. Not my favorite way to start the morning, but it I couldn’t just walk past it.

Afterwards, I made it to the depot where the chili cook-off crews were setting up and got the keys to the caboose from Louise the event organizer. I really like the chili cook-off concept, because local non profits and companies compete with chili and salsa for bragging rights. All the food at the festival was locally produced, so it was yummy and a good way for folks to make a little extra money. They also had some local craft booths and a couple of raffles. I paid $10 for limted raffle (only 75 entries allowed) for $700 worth of Cabellas camping gear. Although I didn’t win, I liked that they pulled the raffle tickets right in front of the crowd and everyone cheered for the winner. Small towns are cool like that

They were selling these pioneer hats for the kids

They even had some free line dancing lessons

At 10:30 I went down to the caboose and opened it up for business. Stan had left me some information inside, and I quickly read up on the caboose. The story is that the local historical society wanted a caboose from the right era but they are pretty hard to come by. In 1989 a caboose with a cupola became available via a sale by another government agency and the complex negotiations for the caboose began. Finally the caboose was assigned to Susanville and was moved, via engine, to it’s new home. It was painted and restored and now resides in a fenced-in area. They actually had to fence it in because some homeless were living in it during the 90’s, so for the festival it needed to be moved out of the fenced area and down the track. Stan actually pulled it with a Ford 550 the day before, and when I arrived it was sitting all by itself off the main festival footprint. I didn’t think many people would come, but immediately upon opening I got a large family with three boys aged 12, 9 and 5 year old, Quinn, whose birthday it was. Let me say as the mother of three girls I understood conceptually that little boys liked trains, but had never seen it in action. I had a steady stream of 4-10 year old boys during my two sessions and they are fun, but a handful! Since the inside of the caboose is designed to be lived and moved in all of the metal rods are extremely sturdy. I let the boys climb and hang as much as they wanted, and just stood by in case anyone got too crazy. I will be honest, I got more questions on the inside toilet than anything else (which unfortunately was not covered by the material provided) and mainly just had fun talking to the parents. One mom, Melissa, I really enjoyed in particular as we bonded over having the experience of having three kids.

Right behind the sink is the bathroom, then a ice box and food storage area

Right behind the sink is the bathroom, then an ice box and food storage area

The conductor and two brakemen lived in the caboose and this was their stove/heat and office area

I opened the windows up in the cupola so the kids could look out and they were very good about being careful. There are bunks right under the window.

I had Lee take a pic of my caboose in the caboose 🙂

Between my tours I had an opportunity to go to the Chili cook-off. For $7.50 you get a small cup and are able to go try all of the different chili and salsa. We got a kit for free since we were volunteering, but it would have been a good deal either way. By the time we got around the tent we were pretty full and had definitely decided on our favorites. Lee loved the combination wild turkey, venison, and moose chili the best. I enjoyed a more traditional one offered by one of the non-profits. Those who paid got to vote and at the end the crowd favorites and judges favorites were presented with awards and of course bragging rights. The awards were really cute wooden spoons with engravings along with some plaques, and again, the winners got big cheers from the crowd. Throughout the day, hand car races were taking place along the railroad track. Lee was particularly interested in shooting video of these and our A.C.E. volunteer group, decided they would participate. These kids know how to work, they got up early as usual, and spent the morning clearing trails, and then came over in time for the festivities. I was delighted when they won second place. I thought for sure they would have a significant disadvantage to the locals, but they killed it and their time was overall second place. They got an award to take back to the main office and medals which was really fun.

My view of the racers from the caboose

The A.C.E team is on the left, the other car was the first place winners

The ACE Team. In front: Julius, George, Jacob, Marc. In back: Phil, Gina, and Bettina. How cute are they 🙂

Their award they get to take back to the field office in Lake Tahoe and put on the mantel

After the second tour I walked the path back, checked the restrooms, and changed into some shorts. A little while later Stan was kind enough to come and get me so that we could move the caboose. He had pulled it slightly uphill before the festival and now the kids and I were going to get to ride it back to it’s home within the fenced in area. That was a lot of fun and Lee got some great video. Unfortunately,we were all so excited about the project that we forgot to swing the gates out to open them, so once the caboose was in the pen there wasn’t room to swing the gates closed. So, after we rolled it in we had to pull it forward then hand push it back to get the gates to close. We did get to use a really cool wooden tool to move it by hand though. You put it under the wheel and then push down. The lever moves the 55,000 pound caboose a few inches at a time, and one person can do it all by themselves. It turned out I was pretty good at it, with great form, although not so great stamina. We all took turns and can now say we pushed a train. Not something I ever thought I would get to do, but really a lot of fun!!

Jacob and Marc were cracking me up as they said “I am Biz, and I am Johnson and together, we are Biz Johnson” in funny accents. You had to be there, but I was laughing so hard. Jacob is from Jersey and Marc is from Germany and they have bonded like they are brothers. Another great part of this program.

Lee shooting video

Lee quickly getting out of the way as we got closer

Stan pulling the caboose with the truck

George keeping an eye on the chains

Check me out!!

This is how the lever works

It was a really fun Saturday, and then on Sunday the real hardcore marathons were run. Lee went to the registration early to get footage of the runners checking in and boarding the buses, and then drove up the canyon ahead of them to get shots of the buses climbing the steep canyon hill out of town, and then on to the starting point 26 miles away. Stan was keeping an eye on the trail so I kept the main area clean. In between football (great Cincy/Seattle game) I checked the bathrooms and trash. People were pretty neat so I only needed to go down at 10, 12, and 2 so there was plenty of chill time in between. Lee had a much tougher physical day as he had strapped his camera bag and tripod on a mountain bike, along with another camera in a backpack, and drove from the starting point to the halfway point, and then rode the trail, stopping at numerous places to shoot video of the runners. He had a great time though, and got tons of really good video and pictures, plus quite the workout as he crisscrossed the last 7 miles of the trail. We all had a quiet evening, but then Monday we had a potluck dinner for the kids. I wanted to make them something homemade, and spaghetti is always my go to to feed kids who haven’t had a home cooked meal in awhile, and I really wanted to do it this time because we had three kids so far from home. Stan wanted to expand the dinner into a larger pot luck though, so I changed it to rigatoni which holds up better under pot luck conditions.

Lee shot interviews with all the kids to use as the background audio for the video, Stan cooked burgers, and Marissa (who is awesome) from his office brought lots of sides. She also brought her boyfriend who coincidentally is from Switzerland and Bettina had an opportunity to speak in her home language. I asked her later if it was nice and she said it was “weird”, because she has been speaking in English so much! I think a good time was had by all. Nice to know we can still throw a good party!! One of my favorite moments of the nights was when I was talking to Gina, who reminds me very much of my oldest daughter Kyrston, and spontaneously reach over and kissed her on the forehead and told her she was a good girl. She got all choked up, because she said it was such a mom thing to do, and it made her miss her parents in England. I can’t tell you how much we have enjoyed getting to know the ACE crew. It’s really been a gift to us and truly their parents should be very proud of them. Extraordinary young people!

I bought marshmellows thinking I would show Bettina and Marc and american experience but they looked at me strange and said,

I bought marshmellows thinking I would show Bettina and Marc an american experience but they looked at me strange and said, “We eat marshmellows on a stick.” lol

The government group talking about grants, etc. Honestly it’ like a foreign language. I thought my company used lots of acronyms!!

Stan showed a slide show in the rig. Who knew this many people could fit inside. I stayed outside..no way with the claustrophobia, but it's good to know we can squeeze this many in. Was a bit like a clown car though when everyone came out :)

Stan showed a slide show and a few videos in the rig. Who knew this many people could fit inside? We had 13 people in there at one point! I stayed outside..no way with the claustrophobia, but it’s good to know we can squeeze this many in. Was a bit like a clown car though when everyone came out 🙂

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October 9, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Identity Crisis

OK, maybe crisis is too dramatic a word for what is going on, but the term identity crisis evokes certain images, and of all of the ways I could find to describe how I’m feeling, that seems to be the most appropriate. It was another 4:30 am morning, I haven’t had one of those in awhile, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what woke me up in the middle of the night. And I absolutely want to say that this all feels vaguely self-indulgent. As I complete each transition task in my current job, say goodbye to another person I have worked with for a long time, or just check off another day, the process of moving closer to my new life continues to move forward. I fully understand that this transition would have happened at some point, regardless of the full-timing lifestyle. So this post isn’t really about full-timing itself. although it is the context in which I find myself dealing with this big change. The desire to downplay the change is strong, and certainly would make dealing with it somewhat easier in the short-term, but two of my good friends, Jo (a psychologist) and Cori (who has gone through this) seem determined to not let me get away with that. It comes from love of course, and I know objectively they are right, but the desire to take these feelings and shove them in a closet, for now, is pretty strong. Good friends are supposed to push you, and I have certainly pushed them in my time, but have to say being on the other end of this is not as much fun. I’m grateful for it, but I really don’t like it, because usually I am a person who faces things head on and deals with them proactively. Well, that’s not always true. I do an outstanding job of dealing with the known, but when it comes to high levels of ambiguity I have never done as well. And, wow, what my life is going to look like in a few short weeks is a whole lot of ambiguity.

And for the first time in my life I am seriously considering a third option that is different than fight or flight. Surrender is the word that keeps coming to mind. Trust there is a higher plan, surrender to knowing that what will be will be, and really allow myself the time to figure out what I want my life to look like. Here’s the thing though; I am not retiring. I’m not saying this would be any easier if I was, but I definitely am not, because we have bills to pay and we need to find a way to pay them. That being said, this whole conversation feels vaguely self-indulgent. People go through this transition every day, many having no choice in when it occurs. They have debt, mortgages, kids in school, divorces, a myriad of other factors that I don’t have to deal with. So I truly realize this could be incredibly worse and I am trying so hard not to start feeling sorry for myself. And yet regardless of the catalyst for such a change, I have to believe the core of emotions people experience are very similar. So as much as I cringe at writing about my struggle in this area, I do think it is relevant to some other people. Thus the post.

I am feeling loss. Loss of relationships, loss of financial stability, loss of being extremely competent at one thing, and loss of who I am now. The loss manifests itself in a variety of emotions, such as anger, sadness, denial, and withdrawal. The feelings are counter balanced by some feelings of interest or even excitement on what lies around the next corner, faith that I am absolutely doing the right thing, and gratitude for the support I have been receiving from friends and especially Lee. Having gone through this with Lee and his job when we first went on the road, I know enough to request space and positivity and he is giving me both of those things. The space is both physical and emotional. There are chunks of time when I don’t want to see anyone or talk to anyone and when I communicate that, he is not only not taking it personally, but also going away. I also need positive energy in order to avoid a negative cycle of self doubt. Although this is normally my role in the marriage, he’s done a very nice job of being a cheerleader for me and reinforces that everything is going to be just fine. As much as I appreciate that,I am working very hard not to rely on it. At the end of the day this is my stuff I need to deal with and I need to make it OK for myself. I can take help from others, I welcome it in fact, but ultimately I need to make peace in myself.

So what’s the big deal? Many, many people would have been absolutely thrilled to have this offer, Heck, a year ago I would have been ecstatic. What has changed? Well, I think I know a lot more about the lifestyle, and about myself. Going full-time led to some serious reflection on ourselves as individuals and as a couple. Seriously in the last year we have done more self-examination that we have done in 10 years. Although painful, the self-examination has led to some amazing changes in both of us, but I would say Lee has probably made the most significant changes; he truly walked away from everything, all at once. I had the consistency of continuing my job. When things got too scary, I could focus on work and feel like my old self. Emotionally, it was a crutch. Is that terrible? Not necessarily, I don’t know if everyone has the fortitude to flip their entire life upside down all at once. Sometimes people “hedge their bets” when becoming full timers by staying close to home, spending tons of time with family, or relying heavily on friends. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these things, and who says you need to jump into the deep end of the pool anyway? It’s not that different than easing my way into boondocking. Lee would have started that immediately, but I was having none of it. We eased into it with baby steps, and by the time we had worked our way up to an entire month of boondocking I felt really good about it as an alternative way of living in the lifestyle. So easing my way in works very well for me when I am dealing with something that is intimidating, but in this case I don’t know if that will be possible.

I will have money coming in until March, so definitely there is some transition time there, but as much as I would love to “fiddle-dee-dee, tomorrow is another day” the time away, I don’t think I can really afford to do that. I need a plan. Yes me, who always has a plan, is somewhat without one. I need to start my consulting business and I need to do some significant research and work around getting all the pieces together, website, collateral, marketing plan, etc. I know I need to be prepared to accept work the day after I leave my current job, and there are a certain amount of steps that need to happen before that date. OK, I can do that. I know the skills I have to offer and the types of companies I would like to do business with. These are things I have been thinking about for several years, well before we ever started full-timing. What’s changed? Well, everything. I now know how difficult it is to work full-time and enjoy this lifestyle. People absolutely do it, but I think almost all would agree that is not optimal. Plus my work choices impact Lee’s work choices in an even bigger way. Lee’s been working around my schedule for the last year and that has caused some tension. Not because he is not willing to put my work choices first, but because he was simultaneously trying to get his businesses going. Whenever there was a conflict, my work by necessity took priority, so a big part of making this change is to provide balance to those choices.

So that’s good, right? Well, yes, conceptually, but it may take an already complicated situation and make it more complicated. Before Lee and I went on the road we did an assessment of our skill sets and looked at the various ways we could make money. As I have discussed before they fell into some major categories, work kamping, video production, Mobile Tech service, Project Management Consulting, and online teaching. In a perfect world we would like to be able to mix and match those jobs, using the skill set that works in an area we want to spend some time in. It’s a good plan, and should work, but now that I am more educated I have some concerns.

Finding a job for both of us in the same place at the same time is going to be tougher than we originally thought. The exception of course is work kamping, but few of those jobs pay enough to cover even our low end budget. Those jobs will need to be augmented with some higher paying opportunities or side work taken during a work kamping job. Flexible hours then becomes a key feature in any work kamping job so we can have side work in our off time.
The mobile tech services requires not only a bulk of time in an area (at least 30 days to get things rolling and support part delivery), but also the right kind of campground. State Parks with lots of weekender traffic is not the best choice because folks are going back home after the weekend and most issues can wait until during the week or at their dealer. Full Time/Part Timers are a great source of business but in the winter the greatest concentration has been in Mega parks and in the summer everyone is scattered all over. We wanted to combine work kamping with RV tech work in the winter but there is more competition for the jobs and some (not all) park owners are nervous about the service work. We could stay on our own dime and build up a clientele, and indeed we need to try that, but then would need to make a significant amount to cover our campsite, which tends to be premium priced that time of year.
Video production has a lot of promise, as well as the benefit of Lee being able to edit during his off hours of anything else we might be doing. This is a business in its infancy though, and building a client base will take some time, plus in order to shoot the video we need to physically be located in an area for a period of time. Combining the video work with work kamping would be optimal, but it is not clear yet how much of a market there will be for campground videos. The other alternative would be where a place to stay is included in the deal and I will not work during that time, or maybe do something part-time.
Teaching project management online is something I have always been interested in but am a little hesitant because you absolutely have to have access to internet. Part of the benefit of not having a full time job anymore is we aren’t held hostage by the need for internet all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I love internet but there is a difference between wanting it and needing it. The good news is, the sessions are generally 8 weeks, the bad news is they don’t pay great and are tough to get. Still, it’s definitely something I am looking into.
Finally, my consulting. I know I could get contract work immediately, the largest problem is the contracts are generally on the longer side and we wouldn’t want to stay in an area that long. Also, they are almost always near big cities and for large companies. I would really like to market my skills to smaller companies in smaller towns, but in order to get the word out and bring in some clients we will need to stay in a place for awhile, and I could put out a ton of feelers and not really get any work. Contract work is a sure thing, plus you are backed up by another company in case there are any issues. Also, I really need to be careful that I don’t get into the habit of taking one job after another, because seriously, what is the point? That would just be trading one high stress career for another, and I really am trying to slow down.

Hence the identity crisis. The only way to really make this work for us is to explore all of these options, separately and in combinations. Over time I am sure we will find out what works and what doesn’t and I am very aware of how lucky I am to have so many options. Where I am struggling is what it will look like wearing all those different hats. I in no way feel certain jobs are beneath me, but as a person who pumped gas and waited tables in her youth, I do understand that the personality requirements for these roles may be very different. Sometimes people just want you to do your work and keep your mouth shut. As a person who has spent the last 13 years designing how people do work this might be a little tough. Oddly, Lee seems to be making the transition somewhat easily. He has let go of feeling responsible for every detail he sees, and as such is able to just follow direction. He has found other outlets for his creativity and intellect and maybe I will as well. All I know for sure is the me a year from now is going to be different than the me right now. Not a doubt in my mind. I could stay the same if it was all about me and what I wanted, but that’s not what this life is about…heck marriages shouldn’t be abut that, but many work that way. We spent many years with a “divide and conquer” mentality, but that is over now. We will figure this out together, but I have no illusions it will be easy.

And that is where the surrender comes in. Sometimes in life you simply don’t have enough information to make a solid plan. Traditionally I do not handle these situations well, and thankfully they have been few and far between in our marriage. The absolute worst one to date was my first childbirth. You can do all the research you want, but there is zero way to prepare for what that experience is actually like. And instead of surrendering to it, I fought it tooth and nail which made the entire situation much worse. The end result was of course fine, and one of the most magical moments of my life, but getting there was brutal. I’m older now and hopefully wiser, and realize that to some extent what will happen will happen. I do believe in a higher plan which helps some, but it’s still a day-to-day struggle to just relax, breathe, and believe it will all be alright. I’m working on it though.

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October 8, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

September 2015 Budget

Spent $4338 this month, roughly $450 over budget. This largely came from the home improvement area and grocery area but we have plans in place to address. Still room for improvement in some categories but we definitely feel like we are headed in the right direction.

Campground Fees – Thanks to Lee for finding free or near-free places to stay on travel days, and our work kamping job, this category is the lowest it has ever been. Lee has felt all along that once we got out west this category would be much lower and he was absolutely correct.

Groceries – Wow this one got completely out of control. By far the worst month we have had yet. We went back and took a look, and again it was being with friends and being forced to shop at small grocery stores with no other options. It wasn’t big bills, either, just numerous $80 trips. The good news is we implemented our new grocery/meal plan and in the last two weeks of the month only spent $245. If we continue to spend at that rate we will be under budget for October and maybe I will finally feel like we have a handle on this. For September I am going with “it’s always darkest before the dawn.”

Dining Out/Entertainment – One was over and the other was under, so it was a wash. That’s always a win in this category. And really good for us considering we were with friends and traveled, both of which in the past have caused us to blow the budget for these categories.

Fuel – Although we are over in both travel and local categories, we really look at this as an annual number and we are under by $1K for the year so far. We traveled from Montana to California in September and have done a few long driving trips to Reno while here in Susanville. I’m not that concerned as we only have three months left in the year, and we aren’t looking at any really long trips, so the annual number should be good. Which frankly is a miracle since this number more than any other was a big guess when we set the budget.

Home Improvement – Over by $300 dollars. We bought the flagpole buddy to help with cellular strength (works pretty good), and we hit a large Camping World in Oregon and went a little crazy buying all those things we had needed for several months but weren’t near a Camping World, and Lee bought the supplies to add new power outlets in the rig so that we can hook our electric heaters up to the additional power outlets on pedestals, so we can bypass the inverter. He also bought the supplies to add a 12 volt outlet in the bedroom and we bought an Endless Breeze 12 volt fan so I can run a fan all night without worrying about draining the batteries when boondocking. I will say that in order to prepare for less income coming in, we have decided to discuss all of these purchases proactively. Talking at the end of a week or month is reactive and doesn’t really help. Now we are having a meeting every Saturday morning where we will discuss in advance what we think we will be spending, especially in the more troublesome categories.

Clothing – Lee bought a cool hat (you’ve seen it in the pictures) and I went a little T-Shirt crazy. I have this idea that eventually I will take all the T-Shirts from the places we have been and make a quilt from them. Since they will serve three purposes (a shirt to wear, a memento from seeing something, and ultimately, a quilt) I don’t feel that guilty about spending the money. If I plan on continuing this though I will definitely need to look at adjusting this category next year.

Propane – We went way over and this was mostly used in the first week of the month in Glacier. Because it was cloudy and smoky, we had to use the generator to charge the batteries (which takes a ton of propane) and we also had to heat with propane, because we were not on full hookups. Obviously this is not the most efficient way to heat your home, and you really should take propane costs into account when thinking about boondocking in cold weather.

So it was a solid month and I am excited about our new grocery plan and proactively talking about the budget weekly. If neither you nor your partner is a spender by nature you may not need to go to these lengths, but since we were pretty much used to spending whatever we wanted whenever we wanted,it’s somewhat necessary. Part of me wishes we would have done this immediately, but for us we needed to come to it organically, because we don’t want to spend less money. We like spending what we want when we want, I mean really, who doesn’t? But we also know that that is just not sustainable. Because of our natures we needed to ease our way into this. And keep in mind we are not close to being where we want to be yet. This is our “me working full time making tons of money” budget. Next year’s budget will need to be leaner. We will see how it goes, and all I can do is be as honest as possible through the process.

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October 5, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Reno

This is a long one, you might want to grab a cup of coffee!

Although I had tons of work this week, it’s my year end close, we still found some time to help out the young people from the American Conservation Experience who are working this week on cleaning up the trail. I did have some reservations about 7 kids in their early 20’s staying that close to us, but after 9 days I can say I was pleasantly surprised. They are up early, out working all day, and very quiet when they are around camp. As a group they are all very friendly but also respectful of our space. Lee got to spend the most time with them this week as he spent some time shooting footage of them as they cleaned up the trail. He’s producing a short video about the project for Stan to use and the kids were more than happy to be a part of it. Also one night the battery on their truck died and Lee and I drove on the fire road down to where they were working and gave them a jump. The Bizz Johnson Trail is really something. It is 36 miles of rail trail converted into a bike path and some of the scenery is just beautiful. Plus there are some really neat tunnels cut into the hills surrounding us, and we will definitely be going farther up the trail with our camera to take some pictures.

The way the kids schedule works is 9 days on and 5 days off, so Wednesday night was the end of the first 9 day stint. Then they go back to the Lake Tahoe headquarters and rest and have fun, then come back for here for another 9 day stretch. Since not everyone is necessarily coming back to this location, Lee decided he wanted to fix them dinner. Since work was nuts, I was ok with that but said cooking and cleaning was up to him, which he readily agreed to. He made hot dogs and brats and I made some strawberry pound cake for everyone with home made whipped cream. As a side note I have never made whipped cream before but it is easy and yummy. A pint of whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla and blend until stiff. So good…I don’t know if I will ever buy the premade stuff again. After dinner, Phil the team leader taught us to play a game called stump. Phil is from Wisconsin and since our new son-in-law is also from there this game makes sense as a Wisconsin game. You take a tree stump and lightly tap in a long nail for each person. Then you take a hammer, flip it in your hand, and in one motion try to pound someone else’s nail. As soon as the nail is completely flat against the stump that person is out. It is much harder than it sounds and of course putting people out leads to all kinds of hilarity. I played a round and it was fun but the mother in me rebelled against flipping hammers up in the air that way. I can definitely see the attraction though for this group since they are often in very remote places for many days. There are usually stumps and nails are cheap so I get it. It was fun I have to say and I really enjoyed getting to know them all better.

Strawberry poundcake I made with real whipped cream

From Left: Lee, Justin, George, Julius, Grace, Marc, Phillip, and Gina

Stump

Since three of them are from other countries (Korea, Germany, and England) they were very interested in full time RVing and I was equally interested in why they would join a program like this. Essentially for them it is an opportunity to visit America, work on their English, and get some practical experience in a nature related field. Overall I was very impressed by every one of them, and even more so when the next morning, after they left, we found a bottle of wine and a card on our picnic table. If anyone thinks the Millennials are a lost cause as a generation, you might feel differently after you read what the card said:

Lee and Tracy,

“To say that you two were the best camp hosts that we have had would be a massive understatement. You took the time to get to know each of us on a personal level and brought us motivational treats. You also did countless favors for us over the past nine days, saving our bacon in several instances, and for that we are forever grateful. It has been an honor and a privilege to have shared this tiny campground that we all pretty much consider our second home. Both of you are amazing people and you have created a long lasting positive memory in all of us that we will not soon forget. We would also like to formally welcome you to your new lifestyle and may you never stop exploring and trying new things.”

The A.C.E Crew

This chokes me up again just typing it. We didn’t even do that much. We were just friendly, made them a couple of desserts and a meal, and got to know them. Anyway, if you ever have a chance to work with these youth organizations, I really recommend getting to know the kids. I think you will be pleasantly surprised as I was.

We also got a care package from Lee’s parents which really made it an awesome day. I love that they collect little things they think we would like and they actually got our address here and paid the $6 to ship them. This package had collapsible bowls, cocktail napkins for our parties with friends, and some great camping T-Shirts. Each item was thoughtful, relevant to what we are doing, and in almost every case does two things!! So nice of them and it meant the world to us!After the kids left things were pretty quiet and we actually got some rain. One of the interesting things about this part of the country is how many completely cloudless days there are. On the occasion when it does rain however it rains hard and we pretty much stayed inside. We both started to get a little antsy about our hair though. We hadn’t had haircuts since July before the wedding and really were getting shaggy. Unfortunately Susanville doesn’t offer a hair cutting place that I would even consider so off we went to Reno on Friday afternoon to go to a Super Cuts. I know I’ve said it before but Super Cuts is awesome. They are extremely clean and consistent across the country plus for $16 you get a nice haircut. They also carry my hair product and offer an eyebrow wax for $10. Really can’t beat it. They have recently added a “call ahead” feature and you can make an appointment the same day which they do a VERY good job of honoring. So we were in and out of there before 5pm and realized we should probably take advantage of our time in Reno.

Lee and I like to gamble, strictly for fun, on occasion, so I was very interested in checking out the casinos in Reno and seeing if we could actually have any fun gambling on such a limited budget. Lee used to go to Vegas for the week long National Association of Broadcasters conference every year and budgeted $100 per day for Black Jack. He usually broke even, that’s just the way blackjack works, but he went into it planning to lose the $500 for entertainment. Obviously that wasn’t going to work in this lifestyle where our monthly entertainment budget is $159 so we needed to talk it through. We went to Circus Circus because the web said they had $2 blackjack tables and we had dinner at a little diner there. The meals were excellent but man, am I ever tired of spending $3 for soda or iced tea. Consequently dinner was $37, but later I had an idea that I am going to start taking those little drink powder packets in my purse so we can have lemonade for dinner. The $10.99 for the meals was more than fair but the markup on an iced tea makes me crazy. As we ate we talked through what gambling would look like for us in this new world. This was progress by the way as instead of spending now and talking later we are really starting to have these conversations proactively. We determined that for the test I would take $20 (my standard amount for nickel slots) and Lee would take $100 for blackjack and we would see what happened. Lee had the harder decision to make by far and I won’t talk about about all the details, but if you are going to gamble you need a certain amount of money to start with. It ended up turning out great as he found a set of interconnected tables with an electronic dealer for $2 a game and ended up spending only $22 for about two hours of play. I spent $8 out of my $20. We also spent a few dollars upstairs on the huge arcade area Circus Circus has. We probably could have recouped that money if we were willing to stay longer, but we needed to close the gate back at the ranch, so we headed back. We did drive through the downtown area heading home though and I definitely want to go back and try out some of the other casinos. Overall the experience was great and better than anything we have seen short of Vegas including Atlantic City. We were offered free drinks several times, the slots were varied, and the kind I like, and it really had a small Vegas vibe unlike Indian Casinos we have been in. Plus, I have to say, I really like Reno as a town. I was expecting the worst, but they have really cleaned it up in the 20 years since Lee has been there and it’s a very nice little town.

Casino downstairs and arcade upstairs

Lee playing Whack a Mole…won a snake. He likes the games where you whack stuff 🙂

I completely rock the fishing game...won twice

I completely rocked the fishing game…won twice.

Lee tried Chicken in the pot for the first time and won we a bear :)

Lee tried Chicken in the Pot for the first time and won me a bear 🙂

What girl doesn’t like an armful of stuffed animals at an arcade

Saturday it rained some more, so I just took some chill time, and Lee worked on Howard and Linda’s videos. In case you are wondering, I am doing OK with the decision to leave my job, but I am having some rough moments. I had a really great review and conversation with my current boss which made me feel good about things, and I’ve talked to Cori several times. She has been absolutely wonderful because she went through a similar experience several months ago and not only does she get it, but she has been very understanding of how moody I have been over the whole thing. I am going along feeling great and then wham I get sad or a little depressed and Cori has been right there telling me it’s normal and will pass. She also sent me the picture below and it really struck home with me… so I thought I would pass it along.

Sunday was a little cloudy but no rain which was great because we had plans with Jo and Ben. Jo and Ben started their new jobs the last couple of weeks and we were dealing with my job issues, so no opportunity until now to see each other. I found a Celtic festival in Reno on Groupon though and we made plans to meet there on Saturday. This was the first time I had used Groupon (recommended by both Katy and Cori, two of the most bargain conscious chicks I know) and it worked great. They have a mobile app you can use and we got on online ticket which we just held up and shpwed upon entrance. We did have to pay a $5 parking fee though which brought the cost up to $10 per person. Unfortunately this was not my best pick. The event was super small and none of us felt the fee was worth the $10. Jo and Ben were so nice about it though and when we were done after 1-1/2 hours Ben came up with a Plan B. My favorite thing we saw was a demonstration on how to put on a kilt. Both Jo and I were fascinated as we had read about it, but never actually seen it done. I have included a step by step set of pictures below on that for those of you who have an interest. I found it fascinating and now feel like I could maybe buy and wear a kilt. By the way, women and men wore kilts at the same length until the 1500’s when the catholic church pushed for the women to wear them long for modesty.

Beautiful Draft horses at the Celtic Fair

Stage with some ok musicians playing, we listened to some Irish folk tunes for awhile

Falconer had several birds

Amazing how far they can turn their head

Really neat getting so close to them

Unfortunately the falconer was less interested in talking than charging $10 per picture holding the birds, so we passed

Unfortunately the falconer was less interested in talking than charging $10 per picture holding the birds… we passed

These weavers were really nice. and we talked to them for some time. Turns out Ben worked in a wool mill in New Hampshire when he was in his 20’s

Make the pleats on the ground by folding over cloth

Pleats should be one third of cloth and equally in the middle

Lay down on cloth and roll over you like a burrito

Adjust length to below the knee in winter and above the knee in the summer and place a belt around your waist

Pin the outside edge to stop the wind from blowing it open … never knew what those pins were for

Roll excess cloth at waist over belt

Pull extra on one side up (easier with two people)

Pull second side up

Tie with some cord as seen here

She placed a second belt on and you can see how cool the pleats are in the back

So there was some cool things but no way worth $10 and thankfully Ben had this idea to head to Virginia City, which is a an historic mining town about 30 minutes outside of Reno. A huge silver strike was found there, most people know it as the Comstock Lode, and tons of saloons were built. What is cool about this town is many of the original buildings are still in place and I loved the wooden boardwalk which follows the natural lines of the ground and made me feel like I was really in the old west. Plus in one of those awesome moments of serendipity we realized we were there during the world championship outhouse races. Oh yes, I am not making that up, and it was completely a happy accident. Can’t really describe what we saw in words, so let me just show you the pics.

Really cool old buildings

Check out the metal drain spouts

Now I know what gold looks like in the wild

This one was cool

Lee wasn’t kidding when he said people wore guns out west

Tons of little shops crammed full of antigues

Tons of little shops crammed full of antiques

Sign shop had tons of signs

For our friend Emily

The chandeliers in the old saloons were amazing

Really good country western band playing in one

And the outhouse races

You can’t make this stuff up

They were having fun

This guy did the starting guns hots..seriously old west

This guy did the starting line gunshots..seriously old west

Ben and Jo

When I sat in here, it started making pooping noises. Cracked me and Ben up

Old fire engine museum was very neat and free

A guy who has been in tons of fire museums said he had never seen these before and they were “priceless”

After spending several hours in Virginia City, we headed down to Jo and Ben’s place. They are staying at Sparks Marina RV Park right in Reno. Normally not a huge fan of these types of parks but they have done a nice job with this one. Every space has it’s own spot of AstroTurf. There are three nice dog parks, a clubhouse, pool and Jacuzzi. Plus across the street is a lake and marina with beach volleyball courts and nice picnic areas. Sometimes when you are working, convenience makes more sense than anything else, and it does feel isolated despite only being 10 minutes away from Ben’s work at the hospital. They also have immaculate restrooms, cable and really great free Wifi and with a monthly off season price of $575 a month is a nice deal.

Campground

Nicest of the three dog parks

Really great clubhouse

Got lots of puppy love from Peyton !!

Campground Reviews

Sparks Marina RV Park 1200 E. Lincoln Way Sparks, NV 89434 4 out of 5 pine cones

The spaces are close together but each has it’s own spot of AstroTurf. There are three nice dog parks, a clubhouse, pool and Jacuzzi. Plus across the street is a lake and marina with beach volleyball courts and nice picnic areas. Despite being right in town it does feel isolated and you have a nice view of the surronding hills. They also have immaculate restrooms, cable and really great free Wifi and with a monthly off season price of $575 a month is a nice deal.

Recipes

Spicy Drumsticks with Blue Cheese

4 drumsticks
3 TBL vegetable Oil
3 TBL white vinegar
4 tsp red pepper sauce (add more is you like spicy)
3/4 tsp salt

Mix oil, vinegar, pepper sauce, and salt in ziploc plastic bag
Add drumsticks and toss until well coated
Refrigerate at least 1 hour occasionally turning bag
Cook Chicken on grill for 30 minutes saving sauce in bag
Baste chicken with remaining sauce in bag and then cook an additional 10-15 minutes
Serve with Blue Cheese dressing for dipping on the side

Spicy Drumsticks

Fresh Strawberry Coffee Cake

Cake Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 TBL melted butter
1-1/2 cups strawberries , sliced

Topping

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Grease an 8 x8 x2 pan
Combine all cake ingredients except for strawberries, mix until well blended
Spread batter evenly in pan and sprinkle berries evenly over batter
Combine flour and sugar for topping then add softened butter. Blend by hand until mix is crumbly
Add nuts to topping and blend
Sprinkler the topping over strawberries
Bake for 35-40 minutes
Serve Warm

Homemade Whipped Cream

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat ingredients until stiff in large bowl
Refrigerate until used

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October 3, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Class of 2014 – Eighteen Month Update

It’s been awhile since I have given an update on the RV-Dreams Dreamers Class of 2014, and since October marks 18 months since we all attended the rally I thought this would be a great time to do it. Couple of reasons I like talking about what other folks are doing; first and foremost I think it clearly shows that this life looks very different for different people and that is completely OK. Secondly, it’s an interesting case study because it is a relatively small group of people from diverse backgrounds who started this lifestyle at roughly the same time. Please keep in mind that these brief synopses of folks lives are my interpretation only and couldn’t possibly encapsulate their experience. If they have a blog, I really recommend you check it out to get their whole story.

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

Jo and Ben – Traveling nurses, in their 50’s, who have been on the road for 18 months in an Arctic Fox fifth wheel. They are on their fifth work contract and have worked in Maine, Virginia, Florida, Washington, and Reno. They lost Anubis their beautiful Shepherd mix this year, but still have a beautiful Malamute Peyton who gets attention wherever they go. As a surgical nurse Ben has easily found work, but it has been a little tougher for Jo who works in home health and hospice. To solve this problem they intentionally selected Reno as a place they could both find a contract.

Craig and Jo – Are in their late 50’s and have spent quite a bit of time with fellow RVers including several months with Kelly and Bill. They recently had Jo’s cousin from Spain come and visit and enjoyed showing him the New York City area. Unfortunately Jo and Craig have been plagued by continuous problems with their Lifestyle fifth wheel and after spending several weeks in Indiana having it fixed the company has decided there is a structural issue with the frame and is going to completely replace the entire rig. Good news; Jo and Craig get to custom design the rig. Bad news; they have spent numerous weeks in a hotel (at Lifestyles expense) waiting to get the repairs done. I would love to say this sort of thing never happens but it absolutely does. Lesson Learned, make sure you work with a reputable vendor and buy a good warranty. Plus Jo is a strong advocate for their rights in this situation, as she has every right to be.

Eileen and Gene – In their early 60’s they purchased a second Winnebago when they realized they needed a little more space. The space came in handy as Gene’s mom was living with them in the RV until there was an opening in the assisted living facility she wanted to go in. In addition to taking care of Gene’s mom they have kids all across the country and have managed to see all of them as well as attend Gene’s family reunion. They logged a lot of miles in that first year but are slowing down now and really enjoying their time on the road. Max, their cutie patooty cavachon is still with them and enjoying himself.

Lee and Tracy – Are in their late 40’s and travel in an Open Range 386 FLR. We have been on the East Coast from New Hampshire to Florida, up to Ohio, in Minnesota, Montana and now California. Lee has done some work as an RV Tech but it has been more difficult than expected since we have moved so much. He has also done some video work. Tracy has been working in her corporate job the entire year, but just accepted a buy-out and will be trying her hand at consulting. They are currently doing their first work kamping job, volunteering at a BLM Day use park in California and next year will be about finding the balance between working to pay the bills and enjoying the lifestyle.

Cori and Greg – In their late 40’s Cori and Greg hit the road. Cori converted her full time job to a part-time job at the same company and Greg has been actively building his RV Solar Solutions business. They travel in a Country Coach Class A which is the hang out place whenever we are all together. They have been in the Outer Banks and spent most of the summer with Cori’s family in Texas. Then they headed back to Pennsylvania for some family obligations and will be spending the holidays in Texas. Cori has been able to work and travel on business trips from the road. They have found that they need to plan their routes in advance so they can publish their travel schedule in advance to schedule solar jobs, but are looking forward to more scheduling freedom in January. They travel with Hobie their adorably ornery cavachon.

Debbie and Steve – In their early 50’s, made a complete loop around the outside of the US and then spent some time with their kids back in California. They are currently traveling with their son’s rescue pit bull Hurley who has completely changed my opinion of pit bulls. He is an absolute sweetie. After holidays with their kids and Steve’s dad they will be spending time in Arizona and Colorado. They have been to so many cool places since starting I can’t even list them all, but they include Glacier, Yellowstone, The Tetons, and Zion. Deb reads lots of blogs and finds amazing campsites.

Linda and Scott – In their early 50’s , they have been at a work kamping job in Texas helping to build a new campground. Linda first worked as a nurse locally, then she worked from the RV processing medical charts, and she has also been working in the campground. Scott is having a great time, which is why they have stayed, but they are planning on doing some traveling in January. They travel with two dogs and two cats.

Sue and Guy– In their early 60’s , they sold their house shortly after they went on the road. They then bought a piece of property in Georgia and improved it so they now have three RV spots, which will give them a home base that their kids can visit. After working on the property they went on vacation with some friends in Mexico and are now back on the road traveling the west. They travel with Laci their super cute little terrier.

Bill and Kelly – Kelly and Bill are 50, retired and living off their investments in their Landmark fifth wheel. Most of their time has been spent on the east coast visiting family and friends and they have traveled between Pennsylvania and Florida. Since the stock market is not doing so great, as many others they decided to take a work kamping job to supplement this year and will be doing a stint at Amazon. See the first blog post about the experience here. After the holidays and a trip to the Keys, they will be heading out west. Unfortunately they lost their dog Cocoa and their cat Raskal, both long time family pets, this year. They travel with their remaining cat. Kelly wrote two posts on her first year anniversary thoughts, they are here and here.

Pam and Red – Pam and Red purchased a second fifth wheel, a Grand Design Toy Hauler. They have spent quite a bit of time in Arizona, Texas, and their home base in Arkansas. They are fond of attending rallys and have been to quite a few. They have also made friends everywhere they go and spend quite a bit of time with other RVers. They travel with three dogs who love the big porch on their new fifth wheel.

Eileen and Mario – Ellen finally retired and she and Mario went on the road. They went to Sturgis, Glacier, and Yellowstone and plan on spending several months in Quartzsite. As the last of the group to hit the road Ellen is making up for lost time and Mario is having fun with her. They have no pets.

And there are also many other couples who were at a RV-Dreams rally and went on the road in 2014. Here are a few I have kept up with:

David and Sharon sold their bed and breakfast, went on the road, traveled to Maine with some other Dreamers, including Bill and Nancy, and are currently looking for work kamping jobs.
Jim and Barb are retired and traveling in the northern part of the country, including a long stay in Canada. They tried work kamping at one point but pretty quickly decided it just wasn’t for them and focused on hunting and fishing instead. They have recently had some serious issues with their truck which has required changing their travel plans. Here is the link to their one-year anniversary recap.
Jim and Diana have spent most of their time this year near Michigan where Diana’s mom lives in order to oversee her care. They actually wintered in the north which was quite an accomplishment. They have done some work kamping and spent several weeks in Florida. Here is the link to their one-year anniversary recap.
Mitch and Cheryl bought a used RV and unfortunately have had one issue after another with it. Thank heavens they bought a good warranty, because the repairs have led to multiple months of staying still. Mitch is now working as a gas line inspector and they are spending time mainly on the East Coast. Here is the link to their one-year anniversary recap
Dino and Lisa are in their early 50’s and have spent time in out West and in Minnesota. They have work kamped and are currently at at Amazon. Although they started on the road with no pets they have added two cats.

So what are the stats? Please keep in mind my information is not perfect and these statement may be somewhat inexact but I believe they are mostly correct.

Most of the couples have been married 25 years or more. (Since this statistic is so different than the population at large I think it is significant although there are several exceptions of course.)
The average age of the couples is in their Mid-50’s (that’s surprising to me as I would have thought most folks would be older)
63% of the couples have children.
Most of the couples have pets and there are more cats than I expected.
Almost everyone has traveled to see family in their first year
Most couples have spent over a month with either an elderly parent or a child.
26% of the group have replaced their rigs since starting.
33% of the group have needed truck or RV repairs that were extensive enough to require a change to travel plans and an extended stay in an area. (This really surprises me as well, but I do think it is an accurate representation of the lifestyle.)
25% of the group have at least one person working full time.
60% of the group have social security or pension as their main source of income.
33% of the group have significant investment income.
46% of the group have done a work kamping job.
Despite all of the challenges, 100% of the group is still on the road!!

Definitely a lot of variation, which again proves the adage there is no one true way to RV. Plus, it’s been really great watching other people’s journeys as they have made the transition. Having this support system has meant the world to me, so I wanted to share some pictures of when groups of six or more Dreamers have gotten together along the way. I know I am missing some of course, because I haven’t been at all the meetings, so if you have an update or a pic you would like to add please send it along to camperchronicles@gmail.com and I will be happy to update the post and/or add some pictures in.

August 2014, Pennsylvania-Bottom: Ben, Bill, Jo Top: Kelly, Eileen, Gene, Lee, Tracy, Cori, and Greg

Greg, Cori, Steve, and Deb in front of the large pumpkin tower

October 2014, Keene, NH: Greg, Cori, Steve, and Deb

]

February 2015, Tarpon Springs, FL: Jo, Ben, Bill, Kelly, Tracy, and Lee

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

February 2015, Acadia, FL: In front: Lee, Tracy, and Jo In back: Cori, Greg, Craig, Kelly, and Bill

April 2015, Outer Banks, NC: Cori, Greg, Tracy, Craig, Jo, Kelly, and Bill

May 2015, Outer Banks, NC: Eileen, Gene, Susie, Guy, Jo, Criag, Kelly, Bill, Cori, Greg, Tracy, and Lee

May 2015, RV Dreams Reunion Rally, Marion, NC: Lee, me, Red, Pam, Guy, Sue, Pat, Bridget, Dave, Sharon, Cori, Greg, Bill, Kelly, Jo, and Craig

Ellen, Mario. Lee, me, Steve. and Deb being silly

August 2015, Glacier, MT: Ellen, Mario. Lee, Tracy, Steve. and Deb

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September 29, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in Lassen Volcanic National Park

Although this week was largely about dealing with work stuff, other things did happen. First we were joined at our campsite by 7 young adults from American Conservation Experience. It is a really cool program where young adults can volunteer their time and earn money for college and/or college credit. The group we have is here for 9 days, then has 5 days off, then comes back for another 9 days. They are very diverse, coming from all over the United States and there is also a young man from Germany, a girl from Manchester, England, and another girl from Korea. I was a little concerned at first because of the possible noise factor since they are tent camping behind us, but they work all day doing manual labor out on the property, come back at dark and eat and settle in pretty early. They are a really nice group and Lee has spent quite a bit of time with them. I’ve had other things going on, so was less available, but I did make them some hot apple crisp one night (the German guy loved it) and bought them some fresh strawberries another day at the farmer’s market. I guess for them this is a pretty cushy gig since they are so close to town. Often they backpack deep into National Forests and are 15 miles from the nearest anything. I definitely know this is a gig for young people though as they work hard all day and end up washing up in the nearby stream since there are no showers. Pretty impressive really, and an experience I think every young person should have.

The ACE Tents

They rotate who cooks every night and all meals are prepackaged and brought in coolers.

Lee loves working with young people, he volunteered frequently at the Keene High School career center’s video program, and he had a great time helping them get settled, but I had a pretty stressful week. So by Thursday I was ready to get out. I make a list when I come to an area of things I would like to do and then when I am feeling antsy pick from the list. Thursday evening we tried the Willow Creek Wildlife Area which is BLM owned and a nesting area for many birds including Sandhill Cranes. I knew this time of year it would be much less active but wanted to give it a shot anyway. Unfortunately it was a disappointment as it was just a road next to a creek and there was limited bird activity. We walked for a while, but the ranch next door with its strong cow smell drove us back to the truck. Still it was good to get out and at least I crossed something off the list. The most exciting thing that happened was when we flushed some ducks and I managed to get a shot of them. No clue what kind they are but it was neat.

Here’s the road we walked down

This cow was seriously stalking us

These guys kept fallowing us. Not sure what they were looking for us to do but was pretty annoying

The whole group kept following us as we walked. Not sure what they were expecting us to do but was pretty annoying

The creek was pretty but often overgrown and hard to see anything

Anyone know what kind of ducks these are??

I did get this really good picture of Susanville when we were driving back

Saturday we had talked about going to Lassen, but Lee found out he needed to drive some bikes down to the beginning of the trailhead. The local bus service can take a limited number of people with bikes, the 27 miles to the beginning of the trailhead, but when more sign up BLM services takes them in a trailer. Pretty cool that they do this and Lee took the bikes of 14 boy scouts up while Stan rode in the bus with them and talked to them about the history of the area and the trail. Then Lee and Stan rode some of the old logging and Forest Service roads along the trail and checked out some of the more remote locations on the trail. They had a nice time and I went to the farmer’s market. Unfortunately, it was the last farmer’s market of the season so I stocked up on meat from a local rancher, got lots of vegetables and gathered information from a couple of the people there who continue to sell from their farms after the farmer’s market stops. Since it’s still quite warm here, they have produce into October. The rest of the evening we just relaxed and splurged on some local Chinese food to celebrate my new endeavor. Unfortunately it was terrible…buffalo wing sauce on the General Tso’s chicken terrible. I will say we both really miss our Feng Tong in Keene! Twice in 9 months we have tried Chinese food on the road and both times it has been spectacularly disappointing. I’ve tried to master some Asian recipes at home, but really nothing can take the place of super good Chinese Food. Ah well…can’t have everything. We did take a little drive into town to check out the 60th anniversary sale at the local Big 5 Sporting Goods store. They are pretty common in the small towns out west we have been in, but I didn’t expect much. Turns out the sale was great and we ended up buying two Outdoor Ripcord 2L hydration packs for $25 each!! Much cheaper than Amazon and a backpack is something I wanted to try on in person to check comfort level. We knew if we were going to be taking hikes we absolutely needed these, to solve the water carrying problem if nothing else, and the price was right and timing was perfect for our planned hike on Sunday.

Sunday dawned and finally we were getting to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park, the number one thing we wanted to do in this area while we’re here. We were told it was like a “mini Yellowstone” without the crowds and since we had never seen anything like that before we were very excited to go. Since it is at high elevation and is closed when it starts to snow, we knew sooner was better than later. We came in from the northern route and the first place we stopped was the little museum. Actually, Lassen Volcanic National Park has a very cool story on how it got started. On May 22, 1915 a large explosive eruption of Lassen Peak was photographed by a local resident which brought national attention to the eruption and set the stage for the establishment of Lassen Volcanic National Park on August 9, 1916. It’s pretty amazing that the event was captured because this was still the days of the old-fashioned cameras with metal plates. The pictures, which have been blown up into wall murals, are really terrific considering the era and available technology. The museum also has an example of an old seismograph with explanations of how they differ from the newer ones. We got to see several newer ones as we went through the park and it’s clear that the government is still actively monitoring the volcano. After seeing the museum we started on the drive, which is roughly 30 miles one way through the park. It’s a really nice road and makes the $20 seven-day pass worthwhile. We got in for free with our America the Beautiful pass and am I happy to say that we have now broke even on the pass and still have 10 months worth of use on it!The first place we stopped was called Hot Rock. After the volcano explosion this huge rock was thrown through the air and landed in a meadow. Those of you who have been following know how much I love rocks and this is absolutely the coolest rock I have ever seen. It feels really smooth and is a great design so of course I had to climb up and get some pictures taken.

The road side view of Hot Rock

The back side is even cooler…I could have hung out here for a while

We continued driving and the views were really amazing. After Glacier I have been a bit worried that no other view could impact me the same way, but this was really cool. It’s different of course, but really stunning in places and the mounds of rocks caused by the explosion were really unique.

Beautiful lake in the background between the two trees

One of the neatest views is the Vulcan Eye. This outcropping was actually formed by lava after the explosion and it looks like an eye staring down on you. Very cool and a teensy bit creepy.

After driving awhile we found a great lunch spot at Lake Helen. The water in the lakes looks very green but I walked down to the lake and saw that the rocks are covered in clay and mud. Still pretty though and we enjoyed our sandwiches before moving on to our hike at Bumpass Trailhead.

Lunch site

Great view from the picnic table

There are many hikes in Lassen but after doing some research I picked Bumpass Trail. The hike is 2.6 miles round-trip and leads to Bumpass Hell which is one of the major “hot zones” in the park. The hike was described as moderate (which I agree with), because it is at high elevation and the trail is rocky. The trail does have many sharp rocks and I actually slipped and fell pretty hard when we were getting started because I was looking at a very cool rock…of course! The inclines are mild though, with about an 500 feet change in elevation to the site, and then a 250 foot descent into the site itself, and the only really rough part was coming out when at the beginning it was pretty steep. The best part of the hike, besides the end, was the fact that it was along a cliff and the views along the way were totally breathtaking. I really like when the hike itself has neat stuff to look at and not just the thing at the end.

Lee putting on his new pack

Seismograph monitor at the beginning of the trail

Lots of rock slides along the way

Amazing views

Most of the walk looked like the views above but as we got closer to the end we had a pretty neat encounter with a chipmunk. Now if anyone here doubts that Lee’s spirit animal is the chipmunk, please see the proof below that he is the chipmunk whisperer. There were tons of these little guys everywhere and most were pretty skittish, but this little guy saw Lee and knew just what to do.

Chipmunk catches sight of Lee

Chipmunk walks right up to him

Actually crawls on Lee’s foot sniffing him

Eating the trail mix we pulled out and tossed to him. He particularly liked the almonds

After the chipmunk encounter we started to smell the sulfur. Be forewarned these hot spots do smell, but I think it was completely worth it for the amazing views. I have personally never seen anything like this before and was totally fascinated. We spent quite a bit of time looking at all the different sections and just tried to stay up wind as much as possible. The fascination far outweighed the unpleasant smell in our minds and we really really enjoyed it.

Bumpass Hell named for the explorer who discovered it, was going to turn it into a tourist attraction, and then lost his leg when it fell through the crust into the steaming hot mud

Steam vents

Hot Pools

See the bubbles in the back

Bubbling mud pots

These signs couldn’t be more clear. We stayed on the boardwalk!!

After the hike we finished out the drive and stopped at the Sulfur Works. This is a huge bubbling mud pot that is right off the road with a wheel chair accessible path. This mud pot was huge and Lee had a good time taking some video of the bubbling. I wandered across the street and saw one of my favorite views of the day. It was a really nice park, we had a wonderful day and it definitely helped me reconnect with why we chose this lifestyle. Plus really cool rocks!!

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