GYPSY G-MAS: Life On The Road

Busy, Busy, Busy!!

2011-09-24T22:16:00.000-06:00

Current Location: Cortez, CO

We've been so busy I haven't had time to blog! Yes, I know that's not much of an excuse so I'll also blame it on poor internet connections at several of our stops. I probably could have posted without pictures, but there is so much to share that I just decided to wait until I had time and better connections. We've done so much in the past couple of weeks it's hard to know where to begin, but I'll try to cover it all briefly.

As I've shared with you already, we spent our first week and a half after leaving Portland traveling around the state of Oregon. After some serious decompressing and waiting out the Labor Day crowds in Valley of the Rogue, we headed to the coast. While there, we had the pleasure of meeting Sue and Mo of The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales. I know I talked about this in my last post, but I wanted to share one of my favorite pictures. I feel like this is a great summary of our visit. Even though we had met less than an hour prior, it was like hooking up with old friends, full of chatter and lots of laughter. The 4 hours we spent together felt more like 4 minutes. We look forward to crossing paths again soon.

Abby (behind Sue), Sue, Mo, Tracy, Connie, Hunter on Harris Beach

From the coast, we headed back inland to visit Crater Lake. This was the one place that I wanted to visit before leaving the state so it was a must-stop, regardless of how much back-tracking it required. The lake is more awesome than I could imagine. It is so blue, it's hard to capture it in a photo. Tracy was still nursing a sprained ankle so we weren't able to hike down to the lakeshore (the only way to reach it is a 700 ft elevation drop/gain hike), but we were able to do several shorter hikes to get a little off the beaten path. We only had a couple of days there and since we didn't get to do everything that we wanted to, I guess we'll just have to go back! It is definitely worth a return visit.

Crater Lake - it is the most amazing color of blue

Connie & Tracy enjoying the moment

Upon leaving Crater Lake, we headed south to meet up with some friends in the Mount Shasta area of northern California. We met Ron and Chris last summer. They were regular guests of North Shore Campground, where we worked. It's funny how you just have an instant connection with some people; Ron and Chris are two of those people. We didn't have the opportunity to spend a whole lot of time with them last summer as we were always working when they were there, but they were so easy to share a conversation with that we felt an instant bond. We kept in touch over the winter and were hoping to meet again someday. Fate stepped in and due to a change in plans, we were able to join them for a weekend camping trip. It was non-stop and before we realized it the weekend was over, but we knew as we parted ways that we had solidified a life-long friendship.

Ron & Chris at Middle McCloud (?) Falls

By now, it was really time for us to head eastward. We still had a couple of weeks left in our schedule before reaching Denver, but we had a lot we wanted to do along the way. From California we headed southeast for a quick overnight in Fernley, NV. The next day we started down the Loneliest Road in America, Highway 50. It is a long, fairly boring stretch of road, but there's something about the solitude that makes it very peaceful. Our next stop was a 2-night stay in Ely, NV. We had noticed that we would be driving right by Great Basin National Park and since one of our goals was to visit every National Park, we knew we had to stop.

Great Basin NP would not be a destination in and of itself, but if you're in the vicinity, it is well worth the stop. It is truly an oasis in the middle of the desert. The scenic drive takes you up to over 10,000 feet, more than 4000 feet above the valley floor. Once at the top, Tracy decided her ankle was feeling well enough for a longer hike, so we ventured down the alpine lake loop trail. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful break from driving.

Stella Lake with Wheeler Mountain and its glaciers in the background

Our next major stop was planned for Durango, CO, but Ron & Chris pointed out to us that our route would take us right by Capitol Reef National Park in Utah and they insisted it was worth the stop. So we adjusted our schedule slightly (after all, isn't that the beauty of this lifestyle?) and headed to Torrey, UT for another 2-night stay and a visit to another national park.

And they were right...it was well worth the stop. With only a day to explore, we were up and at it early. We settled on a fairly strenuous hike, our favorite way to explore the parks. There were several hikes that piqued our interest, but we selected the one to the top of Cassidy Arch. Once again, we made a great choice.

Tracy on top of Cassidy Arch

Just a note about the above picture. Tracy is not fond of bridges and doesn't like having nothing but air beneath her. So the fact that she is the one who wanted to walk out on top of the arch, a bridge of sorts, is truly amazing. I'm proud of her!

And for perspective...view from the trail down to the parking lot on the valley floor!

Tonight, we are sitting in Cortez, CO, just outside of Mesa Verde National Park. We have 2 days planned for exploring, not near enough time but it will have to do for now. We are packing a lot in in a short amount of time. We would much prefer a slower pace, spending several days at each stop, but we do have to get to Denver eventually.

The last 3 weeks have done wonders for our psyches. It has reawakened our souls. We have been reminded of the wonders of the road and the beauty of this lifestyle. THIS is the life we dreamed about. And we know now that we need to find a way to keep the dream alive.

Slow Internet and Comments Issues

2011-09-16T23:26:00.001-06:00

Current Location: Joseph Stewart State Park, west of Crater Lake, OR

Just a quick update since it's been over a week. We've not had very good internet connection so I've delayed posting in hopes that I could include some pictures. There are lots to share. But that doesn't seem too likely so this'll have to do.

When last I wrote, we had just gotten to the coast. We spent several enjoyable days out there, although it was quite chilly. I think we picked the windiest point on the coast, Cape Blanco, which also happens to be the western most point in Oregon. Although we made a couple of trips to the beach, it wasn't all that pleasant and therefore didn't spend as much time as we would have liked walking on the sand.

We did, however, have a great beach day on the day we drove down to Brookings to visit Sue and Mo of The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales. They apparently know where to go, because it was sunny and warm, with virtually no wind. Sue wrote a wonderful post, along with some great pictures, on her blog, so since my access is limited, please check out her review. I couldn't have said it better!

On Monday, we left the coast and headed back inland towards Crater Lake. We've had a great time exploring the park and the area. As always seems the case, there is so much more we'd like to do, but just haven't had the time. Unfortunately, our hiking has been somewhat limited due to Tracy's recovery from a sprained ankle a couple of weeks ago. Each day is an improvement but it's still weak and we didn't want to push it. So we took it easy, tackled some of the easier trails, and did some sightseeing.

Tomorrow, we are heading to California for a couple of days to visit some friends we met last summer. Then it's time to head eastward. Hopefully, I'll have better access from here on out.

Also, I understand that my last post had some type of issue that resulted in the inability to leave comments. I'm not sure what happened or why, nor do I know how to resolve the problem. I'm hoping that by simply publishing a new post, the problem will be fixed. But if anyone has any ideas of what might have happened, please share.

Out Of The Frying Pan And Into The Freezer

2011-09-07T22:44:00.001-06:00

Current Location: Cape Blanco State Park, southern Oregon coast

This morning we packed up and headed out to the coast. Perhaps we're used to settling for longer periods of time, but it didn't seem possible that it was already time to go. Our hitch hadn't even had time to start itchin.

We thoroughly enjoyed Valley of the Rogue SP and would stay there again in a heartbeat. It's easily accessible with big, well-spaced sites. They do have some full hook up sites, but most are just water and electric. But with a dump station on-site, that's no problem. They even have laundry facilities which I found surprising for a state park. If I had to state one negative, it is that it is very close to the interstate and you can't really get away from the road noise. But after having spent 5 months in a park that was right next to a very active train track and in the flight path of PDX, the sounds of traffic just seemed like steady white noise to us.

And although we could have easily enjoyed several more days there, we were ready to escape the heat. The temps in the valley had been hovering in the mid to upper 90's and the evening cooldown didn't seem to begin until well after 9:00 (as I write this at 8:45 pm it is still 85 degrees at the park). The coast usually promises cooler weather, so we were looking forward to that.

Be careful of what you wish for, right? OK, maybe we had just become accustomed to the warm weather, but when we stepped out of the truck...BRRR. With the wind blowing and the fog rolling in, t-shirt, shorts and sandals were not going to cut it. Time to dig out the jeans and sweatshirts. I don't think I've had long pants on since...June? And they sure feel weird. But it's a nice change of pace. The forecast for the week is low 60's, which is a little cooler than we'd prefer but certainly pleasant enough. And on the bright side, the cool temperatures will entice us to have more campfires!

We, or maybe it was more me, were a little nervous about our arrival. This campground is a first-come, first serve and it's rather small (about 50 sites). Most of the sites are decent size with probably over half being 45' or longer. We were hoping that by coming in mid-week after Labor Day there would be lots of availability, but knowing the coast is a popular destination, we really did know. It's a little more crowded than I would have thought, but we did find a vacancy in one of the longer sites. Phew! So now I can sit back and relax again. I guess I just do better when we have reservations.

This park seems very nice, just what we've come to expect from the Oregon State Park system. It has a very secluded feel, but it is easy to get to and has everything we need. We have 50 amp electric and water hookups. Unfortunately, the dump station is temporarily closed, but our next stop after this has a dump station so it's not a problem. The brochure promises several miles of hiking trails to ocean overlooks and beach access and we look forward to exploring those and the surrounding area in the coming days. The southern coast is the one section of the Oregon coast that we had yet to visit so it we're excited to venture into new territory.

Campfires n S'mores

2011-09-05T19:42:00.000-06:00

Current Location: Valley of the Rogue State Park, OR

Campfires n Smore's...two of our favorite things. OK, maybe only one favorite. The other we appreciate on rare occasion.

Last night we had our first campfire in what seems like eons. And how we enjoyed it. We love relaxing around a campfire. Why is it so mesmerizing to watch those flames dance? Even though it was quite warm (still hovering around 90 well after 7pm), how could we camp without having a campfire?

And how could we have a campfire without making s'mores? S'mores always sound good, but in truth, they are really too sweet for us to indulge on very often. It is typical that we buy a bag of marshmallows, make one s'more each, and usually watch the rest of the bag go stale before we're ready for another one. But alas, we may have discovered a secret! Somehow we got talking about spreading a little peanut butter on the graham cracker...our justification is that the protein would make it a little healthier! :) And how could it not be good? Peanut butter and chocolate are a great combination. Peanut butter and graham crackers aren't too bad either. And as a kid, I sure enjoyed my fluff-a-nutter sandwiches. So why not put it all together? As expected, it was good. But what was an even better surprise, the peanut butter cuts the sweetness so we each had 2!

As a matter of fact, that was our dinner. Yes, seriously. Hey, we're adults here and we can eat what we want! We did have a healthy snack of hummus and veggies a little earlier along with our cocktails of moscow mules. We got turned on to moscow mules through Oprah, who shared them on her camping trip to Yosemite. If you're looking for a refreshing drink on a hot afternoon, give one of these a try. Although we've made them following her recipe, we've found that our simplified version tastes just as good: combine half a can of ginger ale, juice of 1 lime, and a shot (or 2) of vodka and serve over ice. Delish!

I know I said it before, but I'll say it again...we really miss camping. This is one of many conundrums we have with full-timing. While RV Parks have their time and place and we do enjoy the convenience of full hookups, getting away from civilization is the way of life we really prefer. Unfortunately, having a large rig significantly limits the type of camping we can do. Don't get me wrong, we love our rig. It is very comfortable to live in full-time, but it comes with limitations. There were many reasons that we ended up with something this large, some of which are justified and some of which I attribute to beginner's pitfalls. I recall when comparing rigs, saying several times 'a few feet longer won't really make any difference'. Well, we learned quickly that a few feet can make a huge difference, not only in the floorplans and storage, but also when it comes to parking. We also overestimated the space we would need. We have yet to fully fill every storage compartment. It's a nice luxury not to have it all crammed full, but there are times that I would gladly give up the space. We frequently talk about significantly downsizing, but most likely that won't happen until we're animal-free, which unfortunately is probably not that far away. So until then, we continue to learn what works and doesn't work for us. I think it is a continual adjustment process, but then again, so is life.

A Long Overdue Update

2011-09-02T17:24:00.000-06:00

Current Location: Valley of the Rogue State Park, OR

Hello! Is anyone still out there?? I know it's been a long time...too long. I won't be at all surprised if all my faithful followers have gone elsewhere, but in the event that at least one of you is still lurking, I thought I'd post an update.

So just a quick recap of the last several months. As planned, we did spend the summer in Portland. Tracy was able to extend her accounting contract until mid-August. Pretty good, considering it started out as a 6 week contract! They even asked her to stay permanently, and she went as far to inquire about it even though we agreed that it would have to be a pretty amazing offer to entice her to stay. It wasn't amazing enough, although she still stayed on several weeks after that to train her replacement.

My job at the RV park ended on Wednesday, August 31. Although I had originally planned to work through Labor Day, it turned out that a completion at the end of a pay period was preferable, so we agreed on the end of the month, which suited me just fine. I was more than ready, having hit that wall about mid-month. My role changed throughout the summer. I was originally hired for the front office, but it was clear from day 1 that they were overstaffed. I hoped that as summer arrived, it would be busy enough to keep us all entertained, but that was not to be. And I am not one that likes to be bored so I asked if there was any grounds work that I could help with. I started working one day a week outside, as weather permitted, helping with minor landscaping chores. That quickly grew to the point where I was asked if I wanted to move to grounds permanently and that's what I ended up doing most of the summer, with the occasional day in the office to fill an absence. Overall, I preferred the physical activity and fresh air. Most of my time was spent pushing a mower...4-5 days a week, 8 hours a day got pretty monotonous by the end of the season. Add to that some difficult attitudes and an ex-Marine boss ('nuf said) and I was glad to see the end.

We did finally experience the good weather of the Northwest. We had a great summer, with lots of sun and only a few days topping 90 degrees. We certainly had it better than a lot of the country, so no complaints here.

We stayed very busy through the summer, experiencing as much of Portland and the surroundings as we could fit in. Although we didn't do everything we wanted to (do you ever?), we were ready to leave. Ultimately, we still believe we made the right decision staying in Portland. We had some great experiences and we learned a lot. Will we return? Probably not, and that's ok. We still like the culture of Portland and for a city, it would be near the top of our list. And there's so much we like about Oregon, but we would certainly pick our dates differently!

Our hitch itch was getting strong, so we left Portland yesterday, September 1. Yep, less than 24 hours after my last shift, but with Tracy not working, she was able to prepare everything. Because we hadn't planned to leave this early until just a couple of weeks ago, our options for Labor Day weekend were somewhat limited. We were adamant that we wanted to camp (after spending so much time in RV parks) and pretty much focused on the Oregon State Parks, which we have come to love. We really wanted to head to the coast but getting reservations out there was not to be. So we headed south to a beautiful state park just south of Grants Pass, Valley of the Rogue. It sits right along the Rogue River and we have a beautiful, large site overlooking a huge meadow. The sites are spacious and although there are RVs nearby, we are on a corner lot so all we see from our front door is the meadow. We are back in our element...again! :)

We will stay here until mid next week, waiting until the holiday crowds are well gone. And then we're not sure where we'll go. Since we really wanted to spend some time on the beach, we may back track a little bit and head that direction. Or we may continue eastward toward Crater Lake, another must-stop destination on our list. Ultimately, we are making a slow trek back to Colorado for a while, planning to take about a month to get there.

So that's a quick, or maybe not so quick, update of the last several months. But I also wanted to share a little about why I quit writing and more or less dropped out of the blogging world for awhile. As many of you know, we were dealing with some emotional turmoil when I last wrote. To some extent that continued throughout the summer. I felt that my last several posts were all on the depressing side, and although I always want to write true to my heart, I didn't want to continue to be a downer. Sometimes, there comes a point where you just have to regress and work things out on your own and I think I was reaching that point. In addition, it was difficult to find inspiration to write so I just walked away. For those who were loyal followers, I'm sorry if it seemed abrupt. I appreciate the several of you who reached out to me directly to make sure I was ok. And for all of you I followed, I apologize for lapsing in my support. I hope to get back in the swing of blogging now that we are RVing once again!

Our long term plans are unknown at this time. We have questioned whether we will continue full-timing. We love it when we can live the lifestyle we dreamed of. But we continue to struggle with finding the balance of where we want to be with where we feel that we need to be in order support ourselves financially. We don't want to simply live in an RV in order to claim that we're full-timing. I think that you would all agree that there are certain sacrifices we make when living in an RV and most of those are well-worth what you get in return, namely the ability to travel. If we're not able to get the return we're seeking, then is the investment worth it? We do not yet have that answer, but we continue to seek it daily. We accept that our pace will be slower than most, but then again we're younger than most so perhaps that's ok. If we can only travel a couple months out of the year, like we are doing now, then is that enough? I don't know.

Upon returning to Colorado, we plan to settle for awhile and regroup. I have some dental issues which need to be attended to and could result in some lengthy recovery, so we want to stay nearby. We also feel that Denver offers us one of the better possibilities for jobs since we have a strong network there. We don't know how long we'll stay, but it will mostly depend on our employment situation. At this point, we're considering all our options and will make the necessary decisions as the times come. Although we're not seeking to settle back down permanently, if circumstances are such that that appears to be our best option, then we are willing to consider that. We realize that we don't have to make any long-term decisions today and we are just trying to let fate run its course. I do believe that if we're meant to stay, we'll know it; and likewise, we'll also know if we're meant to continue on.

But for now, we're just going to enjoy being back in our element and take full advantage of the next several weeks. Whether it is the end of our full-time journey, or just the start of our next phase, we'll find out soon enough! Until then, thanks for listening to me ramble once again! It feels good to be back! :)

Thank You

2011-04-29T14:56:00.002-06:00

Current Location: Fairview, OR

Thank you, once again, for your kind words, support and suggestions. We have taken them all to heart and are working on our attitudes. And ultimately, we know we have nothing to complain about. We have our health, we have our home, and most importantly we have each other. With all the recent devestation and loss of life in the southeast, it seems so petty to find issue with any aspect of our life. We are extremely grateful for everything we have.

We are doing much better. We are still working to find peace in our current situation, but have also started planning what comes next. We are eager to continue on with the journey we started. We have agreed that it is too soon to give it up, nor do we want to give up. We haven't even given ourselves a chance to succeed, or fail for that matter.

Speaking of failure, that is one of the things that I found myself fearing. As we were talking through our feelings, I mentioned that I felt we had something to prove. Like so many of you, we had our share of naysayers. We also had a lot of people who were living vicariously through us and cheering us on. I guess I felt pressure to be successful for all of these people. And with the pressure to succeed, frequently the fear of failure joins in. But the only people we have anything to prove to is ourselves.

The other day I heard this quote by Samuel Beckett:

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

And it hit me. There's really nothing to fear. When we started out, we really had no agenda other than to experience life. There's no right or wrong. The only failure we could have had is if we didn't try in the first place. From here on out, as long as we're true to ourselves, it can only be successful. If we try something and it doesn't feel right, then it's ok to admit that and try something different. One of the best things about this lifestyle is its flexibility. Sometimes it's hard to remember that a seasonal job is not a career. Renting an RV site is not a long-term investment.

I find it kind of funny now, but one of the things that freaked me out is that this park is about 70% long-term residents. And by long-term I mean years, some upwards of 20 years. Although a small section of the park is reserved for short-term guests, overall the park has more of a mobile home park vibe (although the managers are very strict about the appearance so it doesn't look like a trailer park). I felt sucked in, as if I were never going to be able to leave. Over the last few weeks, I've heard multiple times "I thought I was going to travel too, but I stopped here and never left.". All of a sudden, I feared that would be us. Was this our new life? This definitely wasn't what I signed up for!

It now seems somewhat ridiculous admitting to this. Of course this isn't our life. It's difficult to extricate ourselves from the illusion because we're not surrounded by other RVers. Our neighbors are all stationary who just happen to live in RVs. Most of them don't choose to be mobile though. Our coworkers are all in long-term jobs/careers (I will have one other workamper who will be joining the office staff in late May so maybe that will help). We seem to be the anomoly, even in a so-called RV park.

The feelings we've had lately are ones that we never would have ever imagined. This life is full of surprises. But we'll continue to learn, as we do from each and every experience. Although we don't always understand, we know that these are all necessary lessons that we must work through.

So we will continue at our snail's pace for now, but will be eagerly awaiting the day that we can put the pedal to the metal, or at least shift out of first gear!

In closing, I would like to remember all those who were impacted by the recent storms. Hopefully, the wild weather is done with for awhile, but it is yet another reminder that nothing in this life can be taken for granted. Live your life today, for there may be no tomorrow.

LTD (Live The Dream)

2011-04-24T21:20:00.004-06:00

Current Location: Fairview, OR

Yesterday, we drove out to Hood River during a warm and sunny afternoon. We didn't really have any agenda in mind, but just wanted to check out a new town. We knew that there were several micro breweries located here and had planned to have lunch at one of them. We chose Full Sail Brewery for no particular reason. They have a couple of limited edition beers on the menu, aptly named 'LTD', which are subtitled Live The Dream. Of course that immediately caught our eyes.

So what does 'living the dream' really mean? That has been a question on the forefront of our mind lately. As many of you have noticed, I've been absent for the last few weeks. Thank you to those who have worried about us. We are safe and healthy.

But I've been in a bit of a funk and guess I just haven't been motivated to write. I would like to blame it on the weather. SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is an actual affliction and I have no doubt that it occurs frequently out here. So maybe that is partly to blame. But I think it is a combination of things.

It started with our California gig falling through. I think that affected us more than we care to admit. I know things happen, many times for reasons unknown, and you just have to accept them and move on. We've done that (or are still trying to) but it doesn't mean we can't still be disappointed. From there, we made the decision to stay in Portland through the summer. We had many reasons for this decision and all are still viable, but we find ourselves doubting that we made the right choice.

Our feelings about the area haven't changed, but we feel like we've fallen off course. This wasn't the life we envisioned when we dreamed of fulltiming. We're living in a park that we don't really care for. We're working jobs that are providing financially but are not all that fulfilling. Isn't that what we wanted to get away from when we started fulltiming?

Don't get me wrong. The park is ok. It's clean and safe. It's rated a 5W in Woodalls rating (not that that means that much). Our jobs are ok. We both like the people we work with. But it's all just ok. We don't want ok anymore. If we're really living the dream, then shouldn't we be achieving more?

One of our biggest challenges, as I see it, is that we need to find the balance between making a living and living our dream. I know there's a reason that there's not many pre-retirees fulltiming. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. But I have to believe it is possible. I also know that it will require sacrifices, such as the sacrifices we feel we are making this summer. What I find myself questioning is how many sacrifices will need to be made to make it successful and will it be worth it?

I guess what we're really struggling with is figuring out what our dream really looks like. We have the idealistic view, but what about the realistic view? I don't want to be someone who simply lives in an RV. I want to be an RVer. And believe me, I've seen firsthand that there is a difference!

We are unsure what our goal is or even if we need to have one. Are we looking to have as many different experiences as possible? Yes. Are we wanting to explore different areas of the country to find a new place to settle down? Possibly. Are we looking to become rich? No, but we need to be able to sustain ourselves and prepare ourselves for the future. Do we want to continue careers in our current professional careers? Not really, but we know that those jobs are lucrative and for that we feel like we shouldn't dismiss them.

I find it ironic that so many of the doubts I had fought off while making the decision to fulltime are resurfacing. Things like 'you need to work high paying jobs to save as much money for that elusive retirement period', 'you are a college educated person, why would you want to work a minimally-paying, non-challenging job when you have the skills to get a real job', 'if you're out of the workplace for too long, you won't be marketable any longer and it will be much harder to get a job', 'you're just going through a phase, snap out of it and come back to the mainstream!'. Why are these thoughts all coming back? Is this all telling me something?

Do all of you have continuous doubts? Do you find yourselves reevaluating your decisions constantly? I wish I were the type of person that could just relax and go with the flow, but I fear the planner and analyzer in me won't allow that. Does that mean that I'm not cut out for this lifestyle? Am I fooling myself in believing that we can live this lifestyle and be financially stable at the same time?

Thanks for allowing me to blabber, gripe and think out loud. I know our current situation is short-term. One of these days, the rain will stop and the sun will stay out for more than a day at a time. In 5 months, our work will be done here and we'll really be rolling down the road this time, hopefully with some extra money in our pocket. I realize that no one can give us all the answers and none of us has a crystal ball. I just appreciate you listening and am grateful for any advice, life experiences, suggestions, comments or rants you want to offer.

And I want to assure you that we will work ourselves out of this. Often when I find myself confused and wandering aimlessly, I tend to 'disappear'. I stop writing because I feel like I just talk in circles. Sometimes I stop reading because I'm jealous that you're all finding ways to make it work while I seemingly can't. But I will return. So again, thank you for your concern and thank you for your support.

Moving Day...And Our New Plan

2011-03-31T22:10:00.002-06:00

Current Location: Fairview, OR

The last couple of weeks have felt like a little bit of a ticking time bomb. Once the bottom fell out of our summer plans, we felt under pressure to come up with a new plan and quick. The end of our reservations at our current park was coming up quickly and we had already extended twice, once when we thought our California start date was being delayed and once after we found out that we didn't have a California start date. We basically had two options - to extend a third time or move on.

At the same time our California gig was disintegrating, there was an ad in Workamper News for a seasonal position at another RV park in Portland. We half heartedly joked that we should apply, but really didn't think about it too seriously. Over the next several days, we did a lot of soul searching amidst all the pain and disappointment we were feeling. We partly just wanted to hit the road and run away, but we knew that really wouldn't solve anything. So we conjured up our rational sides.

About this same time, Tracy mentioned the Portland workamping job again and asked what I thought about staying in Portland. She had left her contract position on very good terms and thought there might be an opportunity to return. And even if that didn't work out, her recruiter had told her to contact him anytime she returned to Portland because she would be easy to place.

Hmmm, that was an interesting thought. We have fallen in love with Portland and had mentioned multiple times that if we were ever ready to settle down, this would be high on our list, rain and all. And we had been told by multiple people that we were leaving just as the weather was getting good. We survived the worst, why would we want to miss the best? But on the flip side, we had spent the last 6 months in the Northwest. Would we really want to spend another 6? Wasn't this life all about travel and experiencing new places? Were we just taking the easy way out or is this something we really wanted?

Even though we were still torn, I decided to contact the park to get more information about their opening. I mentioned that I was in Portland and would be willing to come in and talk in person. I received an immediate response and we set up an appointment a couple of days later. It's rare in workamping positions that the employer and employee get to meet before hand or that the employee gets a chance to check out the park. In the meantime, Tracy contacted her recruiter to explore her options.

I walked out of my appointment with a job offer, pending a successful background check, which I knew wouldn't be an issue. Tracy had gotten a positive response from her recruiter and a potential plan was starting to take shape. Now we just had to decide if we really wanted it.

Financially, it made sense. Tracy was earning pretty good money and my position would include our site plus a wage for all hours worked. In addition, we wouldn't have any travel expense to speak of and with current gas prices, this was certainly a factor. But it isn't all about the money. If money was our primary motivating factor, then we wouldn't be living this lifestyle. There had to be more reasons to stay.

The winter weather had prevented us from seeing and doing a lot of things. Even on the reasonably nice days, we were pretty limited. Staying the summer would provide the opportunity to accomplish a lot of those things. And if we were really serious about settling down someday, it would be beneficial to get a feel for all 4 seasons.

If I sound like I'm trying to talk us into it, that's probably because it's true. I wouldn't be truthful if I said that we knew without a doubt that this was the best thing for us. We have a few doubts and we've gone back and forth many times. But in the end, the yes's outweighted the no's. And what's the worst that could happen? We come to the conclusion that we made a mistake? It certainly wouldn't be the first time. And it's only for 6 months. I'm sure the time will fly by.

So here we are...still in Portland to stay for a bit longer. It's not exactly how we envisioned this summer to be. I wish I could say that I am as excited about this job as I was about our management position. It will be different and it will provide a view into a different type of park operations. It will certainly be a lot less stress. Unfortunately, our site doesn't even come close to comparing to our site last year. This is definitely city living in a typical RV park. But as much as we wanted to return to California this summer, we just have to face facts that it isn't a possibility. So we will try to focus on the good...and there is a lot of good.

Today was moving day and it was our shortest move yet. A whopping 30 miles! OK, 29.6 to be exact. Once we were hitched up and started rolling, we so wanted to keep going. It felt good to be on the move again. But we will have lots of opportuntities in the future and for now we are meant to be here. We still don't understand it all, but we will trust that we are being guided in the right direction.

525,600 Minutes - take 2

2011-03-28T21:06:00.006-06:00

Note: This post was supposed to be published on March 26, on which we celebrated our one-year fulliming anniversary, but due to technical difficulties I was unable. I'm still having problems with formatting, but hopefully I can get it to a state that it's at least readable. Otherwise, this may be my last post ever!!

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred moments so dear

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights and cups of coffee

In inches, in miles, in laughter and strife

In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

How do you measure a year in the life?

- "Seasons of Love" from the musical Rent

It's hard to believe we've been official fulltimers for a full year. How could that be possible? It seems like it was just yesterday that we were fantasizing, but not really believing, that we could really do this. And now we've been at it for a full year.

And what a year it has been! We've had many highs...and a few lows. We anticipated that this would be a year of learning and we were not disappointed. Embarking on this journey, we knew we really didn't have a clue as to what to expect. We had RVed for years, so we weren't overly concerned with that aspect, although driving a big truck with an even bigger rig behind has taken some getting used to and is still a bit intimidating. We had done lots of reading about others' experiences, but we knew ours would have its own unique twists, so we couldn't count on following in any one set of tire tracks. At some point, you realize that there's only so much preparation you can do and if you really want to know whether you're going to sink or swim, you just have to jump in with both feet and say a little prayer.

As March 26 was approaching, we found ourselves reflecting often about the past year. Was it everything we thought it would be? What did we really expect anyway? Was it a successful year? What, if anything, would we have done differently? Do we feel any better prepared now than we did then?

We had a lot of dreams, but few goals, when we began last spring. We knew we wanted to experience some places we had never been before. And not just visit as we used to do on vacation, but spend ample amount of time in an area to get to know the community. In order to do this, we knew we had to find a way to support ourselves. Otherwise, it would be a very short trip. We wanted to gain some workamping experience to determine if this was something we would be interested in doing in the future and whether it would be a viable source of income. Beyond those thoughts, we had no plans.

A year later, I would rate us as reasonably successful. We visited several new areas. We started off in southeastern Texas, while setting up our residency. From there we worked our way slowly west to northern California. We spent 4 1/2 months there while working our first workamping gig. In September, we continued north through Oregon to Washington and then back to Oregon where we are today. All of these places were new to us, so even though it sometimes feel like we didn't travel extensively, we did accomplish what we said we wanted to.

We were also able to earn some money throughout the year. Although we had prepared a budget based on our previous expenses and several other fulltimer's budgets, we really didn't know how accurate this was and just hoped we were somewhere in the ballpark. Workamping proved to work out well. Not only were we earning money, but we were also lessening our expenses by staying put. It's certainly not a high paying gig and I'm still not convinced we could support ourselves solely on those wages, but we enjoyed it and reassured ourselves that it is something worth seeking out in the future.

But I think we also reinforced what we already suspected in that it is prudent to balance workamping with more lucrative employment in the form of professional contracts. That is what we sought out this winter and it was somewhat of a hit and miss. Admittedly, we didn't try as hard as we should have because we thought we had a guaranteed source of income this summer. We learned a hard lesson in that there are no guarantees in life. Not a lesson that anyone wants to be reminded of, but apparently it's necessary from time to time. So we were a little complacent and our results showed. Tracy was successful; I was not. But we took some other lessons away from our experience and will apply those in the next round.

Looking back, I do think we learned a lot, but are nowhere near done. If we could replay the past year over, would we do anything differently? In hindsight, yes; but given the information we had at the time, I think we would have made many of the same decisions. We certainly don't have any regrets, but there are some areas where we feel we could improve.

Number one, I need to work on relaxing a bit more. That may sound ironic since I haven't worked for several months, but that's not the kind of relaxing I'm referring to. One of the allures of this lifestyle is the adventure. LiveWorkDream recently commented on one of my posts and included the following quote: "At its core, adventure is the willingness to commit to an uncertain outcome with an open heart and an open mind" (author unknown). This quote resonated with me on several levels. I have come to realize that I am more structured than I care to admit and the idea of an uncertain outcome is very difficult for me. I do take risks, but they are usually very calculated through lots of research and analysis. I do like to have a plan and prefer to have at least a glimpse around the next corner. Does that make me unadventurous? I don't think so, but it does cause a little extra worry since this lifestyle comes with a fair number of uncertainties. I know that I need to ease up and I'm working on some of those barriers, but it takes time. I do know that things have a way of working out as they are meant to, regardless of how much worry is mixed into the pot, so I will keep reminding myself of that as I progress.

Ideally, we would like to travel more. It's difficult sometimes to follow other bloggers who are crisscrossing the country as we sit. But we realize that we are in a different position that most fulltimers. We made the choice to begin our journey before retirement. We recognize that our path will be largely dictated by work opportunities. We could seek out shorter and more frequent jobs which would allow us to be on the move more often and that might be something we investigate in the future. But for now, we are comfortable with 4-6 month gigs. In the grand scheme of life, 6 months is a very short period of time. We hope to be doing this for many years so we don't need to be in a hurry. If we can continue on the pace of 3-4 new places each year, that's a huge improvement from where we started. It's sometimes hard not to measure our adventure against others, but ultimately, we know we need to define what's right for us.

So overall, do we think we made the right decision? Absolutely! It's not always perfect and it may not always be easy, but I feel that we are finally in control of our destiny. Even though we may not change our scenery as often as we'd like, I love having the freedom to know that we can. We may have to make certain sacrafices to adhere to our frugal budget, but I do believe that we gain so much more than we've had to give up. It's difficult to put ourselves back in the mindset we had when pondering this lifestyle, but I know without a doubt that we desperately needed a change. It's possible that we could have achieved what we needed to through less drastic measures, but I think we were at a point where we needed a huge shake up. Part of me was seeking the challenge and part of me just wanted something new and different. Regardless of the motivation, we both agree that this lifestyle suits us. Someday, we may find the desire or the necessity to settle down again, but until then, we will continue to cruise along at our own pace.

Bring on year #2!!

525,600 Minutes

2011-03-27T13:19:00.002-06:00

For those of you looking for my latest post, I'm experiencing problems. I've been trying to publish a post for the last 24 hours but to no avail. I'm so frustrated at this point, that I'm walking away and will try again in a day or two. Stay tuned...

Silver Falls State Park

2011-03-24T15:31:00.009-06:00

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

Yesterday's forecast was for sun and mostly dry. What did we wake up to? SUN! And believe me, we haven't seen much of that this month. As a matter of fact, Portland is on track to break a record which has been standing since the 50's - the most days of measurable rain (at least .01 inch a day) in the month of March. The record is 27 days and the forecasters are pretty certain it will be broken. We knew it was wet here, but it's even the locals are saying so!

North Falls, 136 feet

So when we saw blue sky we knew we needed to take advantage of it. A visit to Silver Falls State Park has been on our list since we arrived. We've been waiting for the perfect day, but finally came to the conclusion that this might be as good as we get.

Lower North Falls, 30 feet

This state park is known for it's waterfalls, and they weren't overselling themselves! The Trail of Ten Falls winds through the park in an 8 mile loop, but there are several cutoffs available to allow for shorter hikes. We weren't convinced the rain would hold off long enough, nor were we sure our fitness level was up to par, but we were able do a pleasant 5 1/2 mile loop which took us by 7 of the 10 falls. I guess we'll have to make it a point to go back and see the rest.

Middle North Falls, 106 feet

The trail winds through the forests and canyons, right along the river. Most of the time, the trail takes you right to the base of the falls and on a couple of occassions, it takes you behind the falls. I imagine this is a very popular place in the heat of the summer. The first two falls were fairly close to the main parking lot and there were more people than we expected on a weekday (spring break), but once we got about 1/2 mile down the trail, it was very peaceful. I don't think we probably passed more than a total of 10 people the rest of the day.

Winter Falls, 134 feet

Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on the main trail, so Hunter had to stay home for this one. He never likes being left behind, but it's even harder when he sees the pack come out and the water bottles being filled. He's a really good pouter, but he's getting old enough now where we think he's just as happy to stay home and nap. But he still does his best to make us feel guilty!

Double Falls, 178 feet

As you've probably figured out by now, I'm kind of partial to waterfalls. I love being around water anyway, but there's just something in the way a droplet of water becomes so powerful as it succumbs to gravity. And with all the rain we've been getting, you can believe there was a lot force this time of year.

Lower South Falls, 93 feet (noticed the sunny hillside above the falls!)

This is a spectacular park and one that I would highly recommend to anyone visiting the area. Even if you are not a hiker, there are a couple of falls you can reach with very short walks and some nice overlooks. The drive to the park is through a beautiful countryside full of Christmas tree farms and vineyards. Even without the park as a destination, it would make a nice day's drive.

South Falls, 177 feet

This day was just what we needed. It was great to be able to get out and enjoy some fresh air and warm sun while doing a little physical exercise. And it was nice to give our minds a break from the craziness of the last few weeks, if even just for a few hours. The rain drops started just as we could see glimpses of the parking lot and by the time we reached the truck, it was coming down pretty hard, but all in all, it was a perfect day!

Life Is A Rollercoaster

2011-03-21T17:12:00.002-06:00

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

Remember when I asked how boring life would be if it always went as expected? Well, we could use a little boring about now!

We should have recognized that the high we were on was simply the ride up to the top of the rollercoaster; little did we know that the top was so near and the only way left to go was down.

Last week was a bit of a tough week for us. In a nutshell, the owners of the campground in California did a 180 degree turn and decided to manage the campground themselves, essentially putting us out of a job. Unfortunately, in order to reach that decision, it took several days of discussions with frequent changes. In the end, they did offer us the opportunity to return in a much reduced role, but we ultimately made the decision that it was no longer a good fit for us and we walked away.

I think we experienced just about every emotion in the book over the course of only a few days, but what felt like eons. Shock, disbelief, hurt, anger, insulted, confused, sadness, dejected, betrayed, overwhelmed, grief and finally some level of relief that we could start to put it all behind us. We still don't entirely understand what happened, nor how it could have deteriorated so quickly, but we walk away with our heads held high knowing that we did everything in our power to try and make it work.

It's just another reminder that we can't control other people's actions; we only have control over our own reactions. We know that this whole ordeal will only make us stronger. We will learn from it. We still whole heartedly believe that everything happens for a reason and that this just wasn't meant to be. None of these rationalizations make it any less painful, but with each minute that passes, we are feeling better and have begun to find some positives in the situation.

We don't know where we are going from here, but we recognize that there are oodles of options. We remind ourselves frequently that that is yet another beauty of this lifestyle - we are not limited geographically or weighted down by possessions. We already have some strong prospects and will hopefully have some good news to report soon. In the meantime, we have extended our stay in Portland for a little while until we can figure things out. With the current price of gas, it didn't seem to make sense to aimlessly drive around. We need to focus on finding a job and that's much easier to do while stationary, even though it pains us not to take advantage of our free time. We have our whole lives; we don't need to be in a hurry.

For those of you who thought about visiting the campground this summer, we would still encourage you to do so as it is a beautiful place; unfortunately, we just won't be there to greet you.

The road of life is full of curves and speedbumps. Some may slow us down, but none will ever stop us from moving forward!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2011-03-09T13:23:00.006-07:00

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

How boring would life be if things went always as expected?

Tracy found out yesterday that her job would be coming to an end on Friday. This was not totally unexpected. Over the last few weeks, her workload had diminished to the point that she was struggling to keep busy. But we were still disappointed. We were hoping to have an income for a couple of more weeks, but once we got past our initial reaction, we realize that it's actually working out just the way we need it to.

The bigger piece of news we received came late last week from the owners of the campground that we will be returning to this summer. We were informed that the year-round caretaker/maintenance manager would be leaving before the beginning of the season. Uh oh, what does this mean??

Just a quick recap on how things left off last Fall. We had agreed to return this summer as assistant managers, primarily in charge of running the store/office, managing the seasonal workampers, and handling guest relation issues. It was not expected that we'd be too involved in the maintenance side of the operations except to help out when needed. This position was well within our comfort zone because while we would be taking on additonal responsibilities, we felt it would allow us to learn the aspects of campground management at a more relaxed pace.

Well, Randy's sudden and unexpected departure put a huge gap in the staffing structure. I think it was quickly apparent to the owners, as well as us, that having assistant managers wasn't going to be enough to fill that gap. We were asked whether we were interested in taking on a more elevated role as full-fledged managers over the entire campground.

My initial reaction was there's no way. We weren't that involved with the maintenance work last year and we certainly don't have the technical expertise. Randy's departure doesn't just mean that we're losing a body, but the multiple years of knowledge he has is going with him. The thought of taking all of this on was very daunting. And I questioned whether we were really the right people for this role. We've never managed a campground before.

So we did what we do best. We analyzed. We listed the pros and cons. We did a little soul searching on what it was we were really looking for, both in the short and long term. And we discussed whether we thought we were really qualified. If we didn't truly believe we could be successful, then it wouldn't be the right position for us, no matter how much we wanted it.

I think in the back of our minds, we both knew what our answer would be. One of the reasons that we originally decided to return this summer is because we believed that our skills and experiences could help make a difference in the campground experience for the owners, our fellow workers, and the guests alike. That motivation and passion still exists. Throughout the winter, we've frequently talked about the campground and our excitement about what lies ahead.

So although it is a lot more responsibility than we had originally planned to take on, we also realize what an amazing opportunity this is. And it's not like we haven't jumped in with both feet without really knowing what we were doing before. After all, look at our lifestyle change. Quitting our jobs, selling our house and hitting the road with no idea what was ahead of us or how we were going to make a living. If that doesn't qualify as daunting, I don't know what does!

Although the initial feeling about Randy's departure was "oh no, what are we going to do?", as time has passed we've started to see the silver lining. We realize this is a chance to start with a clean slate. Although we liked and worked well with Randy, he was challenging at times and definitely worked at his own pace. We had some minor concerns about how well he would accept us as managers, especially when our responsibilities overlapped. We now feel like we can move forward without worrying about bruising someone's ego.

The other factor that really helped make our decision was the faith of the owners. If they didn't feel that we were qualified, they wouldn't have asked. They have addressed our concerns about lack of technical knowledge by ensuring us that they plan on hiring people with those skills. They have told us that they want us to have the freedom to do things our way. That type of empowerment is huge and knowing that they have that level of trust in us gives us the confidence to believe in ourselves.

That's not to say that we aren't scared sh#*less. We are. We know that we have a lot of work ahead of us, tons to learn and no doubt, we will make some mistakes. But we also know that you have to take risks to grow and if you don't allow yourself to fall down occassionally, then you're not trying hard enough. From the start of our journey, I've had a feeling that there's something wonderful out there waiting for us but that the only way to reach it was to trust our hearts. I don't know that this is it, but perhaps this is the next leg which will ultimately lead us to where we're supposed to be. I am a believer in fate and destiny and I do think everything happens for a reason.

This new role means that we will need to be at the campground sooner than expected. Originally, we were due to arrive at the end of April, but now we will be reporting at the beginning of April, possibly sooner. So Tracy would have been wrapping up her contract within a week or so anyway. And with the extra free time, hopefully we'll be able to do a little traveling before settling down for the summer. Now the only question is, where to?

The Columbia River Gorge

2011-03-07T16:18:00.006-07:00

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

Just before Tracy landed her job (the day before to be exact!), we took a drive through the Columbia River Gorge. We woke up to a relatively clear and sunny day which we thought would make for a beautiful backdrop. We've learned that you need to take advantage when you see the sun because you never know when you'll see it again! The forecast was for cooler temperaturates and a little wind, but we figured the sun would counter balance that.

The gorge from the historic highway

So off we went. Little did we know that when the weatherman predicts wind, the gorge is not the place to go! Apparently, there are atamostopheric wind differentials on the east and west sides of the Cascades, which effectively make the gorge a wind tunnel. It's a very popular place for windsurfing and we now understand why. In other words, if you go to the gorge, expect wind!

Latourell Falls, 249 ft drop

The Columbia River separates Oregon from Washington so we decided we'd drive the Oregon side on the way out and the Washington side on the way back. There are only a few places where you can cross the river, so we had to keep that in mind as we meandered along.

Wahkeena Falls, 242 ft drop

We drove along the historic Columbia River Highway (historic route 30). It's the oldest scenic highway in the U.S. The highway was completed in 1922 and was an engineering achievement in its time. It was a main thoroughfare back then, but was eventually replaced with I-84. The highway has been restored to resemble what it looked like back in the 20's and 30's.

Bridal Veil Falls, upper falls 100 ft drop, lower falls 60 foot drop

It's a beautiful drive through the forests and along the cliff sides, with several overlooks and numerous waterfalls along the way. We stopped at most of the pull offs and walked a few short trails. Unfortunately, the wind was brutal, even among the trees, so we found ourselves staying outside just long enough to snap a few pictures. Like many of our adventures this winter, we'd like to return in the warmer weather to do some more serious hiking.

Multnomah Falls, upper falls 542 ft drop, lower falls 69 foot drop

This is the tallest falls in Oregon and the 3rd tallest year-round falls in the U.S.

After taking in so many awesome waterfalls, we headed out of the forest and to the gorge to visit the Bonneville Dam. The Dam was built in the early 1930's as part of the New Deal program. It's main functions are river navigation and generating hydroelectric power.

Bonneville Dam

By the time we reached the town of Cascade Locks, about 30 miles down the highway, we pretty much felt beaten down by the wind. The next river crossing was another 15 or 20 miles further east and it was getting late enough that we decided to start heading back towards home. The drive on the Washington side wasn't nearly as scenic and was a bit of a disappointment compared to the historic route. There weren't many stopping points and it quickly veered away from the gorge so there wasn't much to see. But our alternative would have been to return via I-84 which we didn't want to do, so we still enjoyed our drive.

Bonneville Dam from the Washington shore

The Columbia Gorge was high on our list of places to visit while we were here and even though it was a chilly day, we had a great time. Another check on our list!

Snow Day!

2011-02-24T17:47:00.002-07:00

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

We've managed to evade the snow all winter...until today. Seattle did have a major snow event over Thanksgiving, but we were in Alaska. And it did snow while we were in Anchorage, but we were just visiting so that didn't count in my mind. We were counting our blessings when the snow was dumping on the southeast and the deep freeze was cooling down the southwest. Although we've experienced enough rain to last us the rest of the year, the silver lining is that rain means that it's warm enough to not have to worry about snow!

But our day has arrived. The weather forecasters have been talking about this storm for days. And late last night, our big snow arrived. All one inch of it! Almost all of the schools in the region were closed, which make me chuckle, considering that the snow was completely gone by 10 am.

Now I know that other places in the Portland-metro area received more snow and I fully understand that the closures were made early in the morning when the snow was still falling and I know that they're not used to getting much snow here, but still it was such a non-event! Having grown up in the Northeast and having spent more than 20 years in Colorado, I guess I'm used to snowfall measured in feet.

The widespread school closures also meant that many businesses decided not to open also. And that included Tracy's office, so she got an unexpected day off! Unfortunately, she's battling a bug that's been going around so she spent most of her free day in bed. And I spent most of the day trying to be quiet so she could sleep. I guess that's one of the downfalls of living in such a small space.

And unfortunately, this storm brought along a cold front. For the first time since we've been here, they are predicting overnight temperatures in the teens and low 20's. Brrr. I guess it's our time though, so no complaining here. We've had a pretty mild winter all things considered. It's so tolerable that we've both said that we would consider spending another winter here! If you had asked me earlier in the winter I might have had a different answer, but both the weather and our attitudes improved once we moved to Portland. It may not be your typical snowbird locale, but it's really not a bad place to winter down!

Housewifery

2011-02-16T17:41:00.003-07:00

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

For the past couple of weeks, I have been working a very important job. It wasn't the job I envisioned for myself this winter, but we all have to play the hand that's dealt to us. For the first time in my life, I am an official, full-time housewife!

As I've mentioned before, one of our primary intentions for wintering in an urban locale was to land temporary jobs. I will be the first to admit that we didn't set ourselves up very well for success. We spent too much of the Fall away and while those visits were wonderful and I wouldn't trade them, that took almost 2 months out of our job search time. It was about this time that we were leaning heavily to relocating to Portland and wanted to focus our job search there. But we had committed ourselves to staying in Washington through the holidays. We thought we could still search for jobs 180 miles away and figured that if one of us landed a job, we would come up with some temporary living quarters until we could get relocated. While doing the preliminary work remotely was not a problem, we found that the recruiters really didn't want to do much until we were local. Understandable. Then the tree incident happened and that set us back another 3 weeks.

We were still hopeful that something would materialize. We would be in Portland for almost 3 months and the feedback we were receiving was positive. Just about the time that we were getting a little dejected, Tracy received an offer and it was right up her alley. She is currently providing some accounting assistance to a local non-profit. We're not sure how long it's going to last, but they are very pleased with her so we're hoping they'll keep her through March. I, on the other hand, have not been so lucky. Unfortunately, I have found that most of the technical jobs are desiring a longer commitment. Although I was willing to do work that I was overqualified for, I'm not sure my recruiter was as invested in me as Tracy's was in her. I think it would have been much different if we would have been in town longer.

So now that Tracy is doing the 9-5 thing again, she has hired me as her official housewife. I've never been a housewife before and I don't think she's ever had one. It's a new fronteir for both of us! :) And I, for one, am enjoying it, knowing that it is only temporary. I don't think I could do this for the long term.

So what do my days look like? Well, the morning starts out with me getting up with Tracy and fixing her breakfast (ok, I admit she let me stay snuggled in yesterday when it was cold and pouring rain). I pack her lunch and get her out the door on time. I have to say that it sure does make mornings a whole lot less stressful knowing that only one of us is on a time schedule. My next important task of the day is to get Hunter out for his business. We usually try to do a 2-3 mile walk, weather permitting. Then the fun keeps going with laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning, or whatever other mundane chore is on task for the day. About then, it is time to get dinner started so that Tracy has a hot meal waiting for her when she walks in the door.

In the midst of all of that, I am busy planning activities for the weekend. One of the downsides to Tracy being employed is that our play time is drastically hampered. So I do my best freeing up the weekends so that we can continue with our exploring. We still have a long list to conquer. Hopefully, I won't run Tracy ragged!

It is amazing how quickly my days fly by. It seems like I don't do much, but before I know it, Tracy is walking in the door. It is pretty sad that a trip to the grocery store is the highlight to my week. Yesterday, Tracy suggested that we do the grocery shopping in the evening and I immediately said NO! I told her she can't take away my only excuse for leaving the house. Of course, I was only kidding, kind of. I don't want to do much exploring without her, but there are still some state and city parks that I would like to check out as soon as the weather improves. There are also some museums and such which offer free or deeply discounted admission during the week, so I will try to hit those as well.

Although I miss spending the days with my best friend, we know that it will only be for a short time. We have taken away a lot of positives from this experience. The first being that temporary professional contracts are a viable source of income. Since these tend to be significantly more lucrative than workamping, we will probably continue to seek out these types of opportunities from time to time to rebuild/increase our savings. And that might mean, that occassionally one of us may have to play housewife. Next time it may be Tracy's turn, but I'm hoping to do such a good job this time that I'll get rehired for the next opportunity! :)

PTSD

2011-02-12T21:21:00.002-07:00

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

WOW! Once again, I am flabbergasted by this blogging community. First, let me thank all of you who left comments. Your support and kind words touch me more than I can say. And also thank you to those who mentioned me in their blogs. I am truly honored by the recognition. I had no idea I could cause such a stir! ;)

Oftentimes, my writing is just a form of thinking out loud and I think this was one of those times. When I started the post, I think I had a slightly different direction in mind, but I wrote what was flowing through my brain and that's what came out. My inclination is to write and rewrite until I get it just right, but sometimes I think it's better to just put it out there and let it be.

As I was writing, I think I was answering my own self doubts. For me, personally, I need to write from the heart. Ultimately, my motivation comes from within. I do go through periods where I struggle with my self esteem and it is during those times I question why anyone would find interest in my thoughts. But then I have to remind myself that I write because I enjoy it and it helps me formulate and organize my thoughts. Have you ever found that you think better while walking? When I was working and I was struggling with an issue, I would often take a break to walk around the block and would frequently return with a much clearer mind. Writing, for me, serves a lot of the same purpose.

So would I keep writing without comments? Probably, but your comments really do encourage me and I truly, truly appreciate all of them. So again, thank you!!

And now on to tonight's subject...PTSD. Yes, I'm talking about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I don't think I realized how affected we really were by the tree coming through our roof. Certainly, at the moment it happened it was a big deal and it directly affected our lives for several weeks afterwards. But once we got the RV fixed and settled back in our home, I thought it was all behind us.

Not so, appearantly. The wind makes us all cringe. We have a storm front moving through and this afternoon, the wind really picked up. We do have one tree that is near the back of the rig and as soon as things started falling, the animals were basket cases. Hunter paced and whined and wanted to crawl in the smallest space he could find. Jazzy wasn't a whole lot better; his eyes wide open with every bang. And you all know how loud an RV can be in a storm. We tried to turn on the radio to drown out the scary sounds, but I don't think it was possible to turn it up loud enough (and we wouldn't have been able to stand it!).

But it's not just the animals. We both find ourselves cringing with every noise and neither of us particularly like being under trees, whether it's in an RV or on foot. This morning, we went hiking, trying to get in a little exercise and fresh air before the storm arrived. About half way through the wind started picking up. We were deep in the forest and couldn't help but watching the top of the trees swaying. It was just a wee bit unsettling and I think it was about that time that we picked up our pace.

I wonder if our "wounds" are still too fresh and if over time, our fears will calm. Or will we always have a wind anxiety? I know it's somewhat irrational. After all, what are the chances that a tree would fall on our RV for a second time? Especially so soon after the first. But I think we are all experiencing some level of flashbacks. With each bang, I know I visualize a branch falling and causing damage. Hopefully, time will erase, or at least dull, those memories.

Thankfully, the rains arrived and the winds died down. I doubt that any of us would have gotten much sleep tonight otherwise. I never thought I'd be so happy to see the rain! :)

What Is The Purpose Of This Blog?

2011-02-10T22:44:00.003-07:00

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

Once again, I find myself in a blogging block. And I think all of you are to blame! When I first decided to write a blog, it was primarily to keep our closest friends and relatives apprised of our location and excursions. I also wanted to keep some type of journal for historical purposes, so that when I lost my memory in old age (uh oh, I think I'm well on my way), I'll have something to remind me of these days. I wasn't particularly self conscious because I wasn't sure anyone would be reading. I just wrote what was on my mind. As a matter of fact I published my first several posts before I even shared the link with anyone! I wasn't even sure I was going to share it, but I must have let it slip in a moment of weakness.

And a funny thing happened. I gained followers. At first it was just a few, but the number kept growing. Now I'm up to 81 publicized followers and I know there are many more lurking in the shadows. A few of these folks I know personally, several others are fellow bloggers whom I follow, but many are people whom I don't know. I don't know how they found my blog. They've never left a comment or initiated contact. I don't know if they read regularly or just occassionally or if they still follow at all.

I am flattered by it all. It still amazes me that anyone would choose to read my ramblings, when there is so much more entertaining stuff out there. There are far better writers than me. And there are certainly those who are more diligent about writing. So why me?

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. Suffice it to say, I am humbled by it. But that humbling has also led to a problem. Pressure! I feel like I need to write for you. I feel like I need to publish regularly to hold on to my audience. And I feel like I need to write interesting, informative pieces to keep you coming back. Although I've always told myself that I'm writing this primarily for me and it doesn't matter if anyone reads it, I know that's not really true. Having an audience is kind of addictive. Although I don't measure my success by the number of followers, it is certainly flattering to watch that number grow. And I have to wonder that if I stopped receiving comments, would I eventually stop writing?

So while it is motiviational to have followers, it also causes a challenge for me. You see, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and if I'm going to write knowing that it will be read by others, I want to write something good. And if I don't think I can do that, then I will procrastinate and not write anything at all. It's a bad habit and I've thought more than once about giving up this blogging business altogether; but I like writing and I like being part of the blogging community, so I'm not ready to stop just yet.

From the beginning, I've struggled with what I want the focus of this blog to be about. Do I want it to be a travelogue? Do I want to focus more heavily on the full-timing lifestyle and what it's like to live in a small box on wheels? Do I want it to be educational for those interested in RVing, either part or full-time? Do I want to keep it more introspective and talk about things like why I don't blog more often? I don't know, but I've always felt that I needed a direction. The one thing I do know is that I don't want it to be mundane. I don't want to talk about what I had for dinner or how many loads of laundry I did today. I realize that that's all part of the lifestyle too, but I think that's boring, both to write about and to read. But just in case you're wondering, I've done 4 loads of laundry over the last couple of days, made a trip to Super Walmart to stock up on groceries, and made a quiche for dinner tonight. :)

As I write this, I think the answer to my question is becoming clearer. I think this blog is probably a little bit of everything. I am introspective by nature and although I am a fairly private person, oddly I find it pretty easy to write about my feelings (much easier than talking about them!), so I will no doubtedly continue with my reflections. And although we tend to stay stationary for longer periods of time, we are still busy exploring and I would like to share our experiences. I definitely want to share more pictures. I'm getting better about remembering to take my camera, but I'm slow to get the pictures uploaded and if I wait for the pictures, I may never publish a post. I hope that some of my babbling will be educational and I will try to share tidbits of what I learn everyday. But mostly, I think I just need to write whatever's on my mind.

Maybe my blog doesn't need a singular direction. Maybe by just sharing whatever topic surfaces will be educational and interesting. And hopefully my writing will be good enough...

Do any of you fellow bloggers struggle with what to write about and how often to write? Or am I just crazy??

Exploring Portland and Beyond

2011-01-31T23:30:00.010-07:00

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

The days seem to be flying by. It's hard to believe that today is the last day of January. We have been keeping busy finding out Portland is all about. Shortly after arriving, we made a list of all the things we wanted to do while we're here. If we don't write it down, we'll forget and we'll find ourselves pulling out of town with a lot of "wish we had done that"! Our original list contained more than 15 items and as quickly as we're marking old ones off, we're adding new ones. While that means we'll probably never complete the list, we're certainly trying to make the most of our time here.

We figured one of the best ways to learn about a city is to take a guided tour. On Saturday we took a walking tour of Portland (http://www.portlandwalkingtours.com/). It was a little pricey ($19/person), but for 2 1/2 hours of entertainment and education, I think it was well worth it and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the city.
A few little fun facts about the city:

How did Portland get it's name? There were 2 primary landholders who each wanted to name the city after their home city. One was from Boston and the other was from Portland, ME. They argued for quite some time and could never come to an agreement. Finally, the townspeople had had enough and forced a decision. A penny was flipped and the winner would get to choose the name. So Portland was literally named by a flip of a coin.
Portland is home to the smallest park in the world (designated by Guiness Book of World Records). Originally, there was supposed to be a light post here, but the city never completed the project and instead the median remained dirt and weeds. A local newspaper editor, whose office window overlooked the median, was notorious for griping about the city for years and stating that he had the worst view in the city. One day, he planted a bush there and from that day on, his outlook changed and he praised the city in his columns. (yes, that little tree in the round median is the park!)

Portland is becoming well-known for it's sustainability, social consciousness and eco-friendliness. There are many miles of bike lanes (I don't remember how many, but several hundred) and one stat that our guide gave us is that there are over 17,000 bike commuters daily. That's a lot! They are trying to become the most eco-friendly city in the world. But biking is not the only way to get around. Apparently, skateboarding is also a common means of transportation, as noted by the skateboarding lanes!

After our tour, we moved on to another "must visit" in Portland - Voodoo Donut. Now, let me say that we're not donut connoisseurs. I never fell for the Krispy Kreme craze and I can't remember the last time I even ate a donut. But this place was consistently listed on all the 'visit Portland' sites and it is supposedly "world famous", so while we were downtown, we decided to check it out. Well, it certainly does have its following. As we approached the building we could see a long line of people outside. I figured it was for something else, but as we got closer, it was evident that they were all waiting for donuts! The line was a mixture of young and old, local and tourist. How could we not join the ranks and stand in line? And stand we did, for probably a good 30-45 minutes! If we had known it would take that long, we probably wouldn't have waited. But once we were in line and watched as the line continued to grow and grow, we couldn't give up our spot. After all, all these people must know something, right? We finally got inside the very small little, non-descript storefront. There was not really a menu to speak of, just a huge variety of donuts. Some were pretty basic looking, but others were topped with everything imaginable (froot loops, cheetos, bacon, oreos, and so much more). So was the wait worth it? Probably not. The donuts were good, but they're donuts. Personally, I would have preferred a freshly baked cookie or even a fresh piece of warm bread. (I guess that's my age speaking!) Although I'm sure they were just recently made, they weren't "fresh out of the oven" hot, nor was there even any scent wafting around to torture us while we waited. But we're glad we experienced a piece of Portland culture and it's not like we had to be anywhere else!

The line (notice the small, handpainted sign before the marquee. That's the door. We probably would have walked right past if not for the line!):

With our sugar buzz in high gear, we buzzed around the city checking out a few more sites, until the sugar wore off and we crashed and were both ready for a nap. It was a full day, but thoroughly enjoyed learning about and experiencing the city. Although we are not really city people, we really like the vibe of Portland and look forward to venturing downtown again soon.

Almost every day we try to get out and see something new. That is one advantage of not working - there's ample time to explore - and we're taking full advantage of it. Of course with no income, we need to be frugal and many of our outings cost nothing, other than some gas. Oregon has a vast state park system, several of which are close by. We try to get out and hike as often as we can, when the weather cooperates.

Tyron State Park, a rainforest in the middle of the city!

We actually have had pretty decent weather. Granted, we've not seen much of the sun, but the area has been experiencing an unusual "dry" pattern the last couple of weeks. Of course, dry is relative. Coming from the arid Colorado climate, I would not exactly call this dry. Most mornings there is fog and the grass is damp. But I guess because there is no rain falling from the sky, they consider it dry. OK, I'll take it!

One morning last week, when the valley was particularly shrouded in fog, the weatherman said the coast was clear and sunny, so we decided to take a drive out there. We didn't really have a specific destination in mind, but knew that Hunter would appreciate a good run on the beach. These days, he only has about 5 minutes of good running energy, but it's still amazing to see him let loose and go! One of the many nice things about Oregon is that dogs don't have to be on leash on the beaches, just under control. Not that we probably had to worry this time of year since the beaches weren't very crowded, but we do like to adhere to the rules. Unfortunately, the weatherman wasn't exactly correct. Once again, I think their weather terms are relative. We did experience some sun on the drive out, but it was pretty overcast and a little foggy in places. But it was still pleasant and we had a great time.

Cannon Beach:

We still have a long list of things we want to do while we're here. We have reservations here at the park until mid-March so that will hopefully allow us to check off many of the items. Despite the weather, we are enamored with the state of Oregon. I don't know exactly why, but it just has the right feel to us. If we ever decide to settle down, this would be high on our list of places. And until then, we hope to return often. Of course, the "problem" with this lifestyle is that there are so many places to go and we want to see them all! It's difficult to think about returning to places we've already been, no matter how much we like them, when there are so many unexplored areas. It's a tough life, but someone has to live it!

Nothing Beats Sleeping In Your Own Bed

2011-01-20T22:51:00.003-07:00

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

After several delays and a lot of frustration, we finally took possession of our home on Monday afternoon. Our primary frustration centered around the lack of and mis communication by the RV dealership.

All week long, we were led to believe that the repairs would be completed by Friday afternoon at the latest. When we talked to the dealership on Thursday afternoon we were given the same timeline. On Friday morning, however, we were given a new twist to the story. Long story short, we wouldn't be able to pick up the rig until Monday, but were told that it would be ready first thing Monday morning. I don't know why we believed them because when Monday morning arrived, we were told it wouldn't be ready for a couple of hours. Those couple of hours spanned into most of the day.

We finally were able to do a walkthrough around 1pm and found several issues. Although we made sure that they fixed everything to our satisfaction (mostly), we were extremely frustrated because most of the issues implied (to us at least) a lack of care to our home, which equates in my mind to a lack of quality. The good news is that the tech who was doing the majority of the roof work seemed to know what he was doing and was very conscientous. I wish I could say the same about the rest of the staff. Needless to say, our nerves were frayed by the time we finally pulled out of the dealership at 3:15. So much for getting an early start to the day!

This was certainly not ideal because we still had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. We were headed to Portland and we needed to be there so that Tracy could start a job on Tuesday morning (which didn't work out, by the way). We really didn't want to set up in the dark, but ultimately didn't feel like we had much choice.

We had a couple of things on our side, however. It was MLK day so the traffic was pretty light and it wasn't raining. Luckily, we had toured the RV park awhile back, so we kind of knew what to expect. The roads within the park are fairly narrow which made manuevering a little difficult, but we finally got parked with a huge sigh of relief.

We did the minimal setup for the night, had a quick dinner and fell into a wonderful night's sleep in our own bed. After sleeping in a hard, creaky hotel bed and cooking in a less than ideal kitchen, being back in our own home is heaven! Sometimes, it's hard to appreciate what you have until you are without. I sincerely hope that we are never without our home again.

The one bright spot in this whole ordeal has been our insurance company. I have been very impressed with them. Our adjuster has been responsive, pleasant and exceedingly quick in processing our claim. I mentioned in an earlier post that it all seemed way too easy, but they really seem to have their act together. For anyone looking for insurance, our policy is through Victoria, the RV specialty branch of Nationwide. We bought our policy through Miller Insurance. I would highly recommend both companies.

I wish I could say the same about the RV dealership, Fife RV. We had some warranty work done by them in October and were pleased, but I think that in part that might be because we gave them 3 weeks to do a 2 day job. Now that we asked them to handle a much larger job, many of the problems became obvious. It seems like it's a poorly managed shop. I'd like to believe that the techs are skilled (we saw nothing to the contrary), but they definitely seem to work at their own pace. And the endless runarounds and poor communication certainly did not exude much confidence. We will not do business with them again.

But we hope that it is all behind us now. We are slowly getting settled in Portland and are eager to explore this city that we've heard so much about. The weather is even improving. They are predicting 5 days of dry, partly sunny weather. That's about as good as you can ask for around here in the winter!

Progress At Last

2011-01-12T22:51:00.003-07:00

Current Location: Fife, WA in an extended stay hotel

The new RV parts finally arrived on Monday afternoon. They had done all the prep work and were ready to dive in. We stopped in on Tuesday morning to check it out in person. We didn't stay long because we didn't want to impede their progress, but were able to snap a few pictures.

It's amazing how much they had to disassemble. On the slide, they took out the light fixtures, removed the decorative paneling, moved all the furniture and removed a couple of the cabinet doors. On the main ceiling, they removed the ceiling fan and the air conditioner. On the outside, they removed the roof vents and stripped both roofs. It's hard seeing our beloved home in such disrepair.

But the good news is they anticipate that it will only to take a few days to do all the repairs and put everything back in order. I'm cautiously optimistic, but won't be at all surprised if it takes longer than they expect.

We're hoping to be back in our home on Friday. We'll find out tomorrow if we'll make that date.

Hotel living has grown old. We've developed some habits we're not too proud of. We sleep late because there's really no reason to get up. We're limited in what we can do during the day because we can't leave Hunter in the hotel alone and it's too cold to leave him in the truck for too long. We try to get out and walk every day, even in the rain. We've explored many of the city parks and walking trails. We've eaten out a lot more than we normally would. That's in part because it's something to get us out, part due to our limited cooking facilities in the hotel, and part because we're on someone else's dime (insurance is covering our living expenses). In short we've become slugs and we're not happy with ourselves.

We're really anxious to get our lives back on track and the pieces are starting to fall into place once again. Once we get the rig back, we'll be headed directly to Portland, OR, about 180 miles to the south of us. Tracy has accepted a temporary contract at a printing company and she starts on Tuesday. I don't have any solid leads yet, but hope that things will pick up once we're settled. I'm also looking into some volunteer opportunities. It will be good to have a reason to get out of bed again. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss working.

We're not even 2 weeks in to 2011 and things are already looking up. I have a good feeling about the things to come!

Blue Sky And Bright Sunshine...Where Are We?

2011-01-05T14:34:00.008-07:00

Current Location: Fife, WA in an extended stay hotel

For 6 days in a row, we woke up to bright blue sky and sunshine. We must be dreaming! We haven't seen this much sunshine since we left California. Maybe our luck really is changing in 2011.

Well, the sunshine didn't last (we are now back to rainy days) but we tried to get out and enjoy as much of it as we could. Tracy was still recovering from the crud that so many caught over the holidays so we stuck to low level activities.

We started out going for a drive to get some good pictures of Mount Rainier. "The Mountain", as it's referred to by locals, is visible from pretty much anywhere in the Seattle-Tacoma region. Its summit is over 14,400 feet and when you're standing at or near sea level, that's pretty darn high. It's an awesome sight when it's not shrouded in clouds.

The next day we drove out to Mount Rainier National Park.

The view of The Mountain is far better from outside the park. Once you're inside, it seems to lose some of it's massiveness.

Also, the park is very forested and while it is very beautiful, you can't see much from the road. This is one of the buildings along the park road. It was built in the late 1800's and is now used as an administrative building. We loved all the icicles hanging over the dark wood.

Most of the roads through the park are closed in winter. I didn't know this but the Park is known as one of the snowiest places on earth. The town of Paradise (elevation around 5400 ft), which is inside the park, has had over 220 inches of snow by the end of December and last winter recorded a total of 650 inches. The highest amount of snow recorded in one winter was 1,122 inches in 1971-72. That's almost 100 feet! That's a lot of snow!

We drove about 10 miles into the park until the roads started getting a little slicker than we were comfortable with. We continued on for another mile or so until we could find a place to turn around our big truck, but we just took it slow and made it back down without any trouble.

We also spent a day exploring Tacoma and drove out to Point Defiance Park. It is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. It contains a zoo, an aquarium, and multiple gardens. We hope to be back some day when all the gardens are in bloom. It also has miles of hiking trails and lots of picnic areas. I'm sure this place is crazy in the summer, but it was pretty quiet during our visit. We did a short walk along the beach, during which we saw some whales and a couple of eagles.

There is a 5-mile drive through the park which contains a lot of overlooks. One is of the Olympic mountain range.

From another stop, we could see the Tacoma Narrows bridge. It is the 5th longest suspension bridge in the U.S. We've been over this bridge several times since the dealership where our RV is currently living is on the other side. Not something that Tracy is exactly fond of, but she crosses it like a trooper (and with her eyes open!)

We stopped for a bowl of chowder at Dukes Chowder House (highly recommended!) along the waterfront. That's the restaurant on the right-hand side and The Mountain in the background. The steam you see on the left hand side is from the Port of Tacoma, one of the largest ports in North America.Although we haven't had the best luck during our stay in the region, we do admit that this is a very beautiful area and we look forward to coming back in the summer when we can truly enjoy the outdoors. And hopefully we'll have a few more days of sunshine yet this winter.

We ended our afternoon with a stop by the RV dealership to check on our RV. Not much progress has been made as they're still waiting for the parts to arrive. They do have it inside the bay so it is protected from the cold which was a relief since we've had several nights below freezing. They've started doing some prep work on it but not as much as we had hoped. They said the parts were shipped on Friday and were expected to arrive either Wednesday or Thursday. We're not sure why it took until Friday to get them shipped since we agreed to their estimate on Tuesday. I know it was the holiday season but what was happening on Wednesday and Thursday? We didn't ask about the delay, but I think we're realizing that we may need to stay on top of them to ensure that things are moving as quickly as possible. On Monday, they said that it would still probably be another 2 weeks before it's done. We dropped it off the previous Monday, which means that we'll probably be in the hotel closer to 3 weeks. Uugh. I sure hope it's not any longer as we're already getting itchy to get back in our home and on with our lives. But we also recognize that getting frustrated or depressed about the situation is not going to help anything, so we're trying to stay relaxed and make the best of it. It's all part of the adventure, right? :)

2010 In Review

2010-12-31T21:19:00.003-07:00

Current Location: Fife, WA in an extended stay hotel

It's hard to believe that there are only a couple of hours left in 2010. Over the last few days, I've been trying to find one word that would sum up the year, but I can't seem to find just one. So much happened this year that it almost blows my mind.

2010 started off with us putting our stix n brix on the market. We had high hopes, but realistic expectations. We were wishing for an offer by March, but knew that we may not see an acceptable one until summer.

Before January ended, we also found our dream home on wheels. We hadn't planned on buying anything so soon, but we were offered a deal we couldn't refuse.

If the first 30 days were any indication, we were in for quite a ride in 2010.

The pace picked up ten-fold in February when we accepted an offer on our house. We had 30 days to get really serious about downsizing and packing up our few remaining belongings. The excitement and anticipation kept our adrenaline flowing and somehow we managed to get it all done.

March arrived before we knew it and the real changes were about to begin. We both left our jobs and turned over our house to the new owners in mid-March. We were officially unemployed and homeless. There was no turning back now! We took possession of our new home the last week of March. It still amazes me that all of the pieces fell into place so perfectly.

We spent the first part of April settling into our new home. Even though we downsized a lot, we quickly found out that we still had a ways to go. At the time, it was a bit frustrating and disheartening, but I don't think we've missed one thing that we chose to leave behind. Quite the opposite actually. We continue to find things that we have yet to use and wonder if we still have too much stuff.

April included yet another milestone in this year of transitions. We changed our state of residency and became "paper" Texans. We refer to ourselves as paper Texans because after years of being Colorado residents, neither of us can quite swallow the idea of being a Texan. And since we've spent less than 2 weeks in the state, I'm not sure we really count as real Texans anyway.

From Texas, we headed to California and our first stint as workampers. Once again, our expectations were widly exceeded. We spent the summer loving living in the mountains and working at the campground. It was a nice departure from our years of sitting behind desks.

We hated to see the summer come to an end, not only because we were having so much fun but also because we were undecided about our winter plans. Although we had accepted an offer to spend the early part of the winter in Washington with Tracy's aunt and uncle, we had our concerns about adjusting to the wet climate the Northwest is known for.

The last few months of 2010 have been filled with mixed emotions. We've spent a lot of time reuniting with family and friends. We haven't hit the job hunt as hard as we probably should have, but that will come in January. And then our year ended with a bang, literally!

Wow, what a year it has been! It has been a year of huge changes and tons of personal growth. We've learned so much that that can only be gained through experiences. We've had lots of ups and a few downs, but we wouldn't change a thing. Well, almost nothing (we could have done without the tree through the roof!).

We are quietly ringing in 2011 here in our hotel room, but are really looking forward to the new year and all that is awaiting us. I have no doubt that it will be another year full of education and adventures. Hopefully most will be good, but a few low points are probably to be expected too (but that's what makes the high points so high, right?). We're ready for whatever comes our way!

We wish you all a very happy, healthy, peaceful and fun 2011!

Homeless Again

2010-12-28T12:18:00.003-07:00

Current location: Fife, WA at an extended stay hotel

Yesterday morning, we packed up the RV and towed it into the dealer. Although we weren't looking forward to being without our home, it was kind of a relief to drop it off. At least we don't have to worry about any more tree limbs falling! Over the last few days, we cringed everytime there was a breeze. I guess we're a bit paranoid now.

After making all the arrangements with the dealership, we left in search of a hotel. I had scoped several online, but we wanted to check them out in person before reserving anything. We weren't looking for anything fancy, and basic is pretty much what we got. But it is clean, located in a decent part of town and convenient. It is your typical studio efficiency. It has a little kitchen with a full size refrigerator, a stove top, a toaster and a microwave. We won't be cooking any gourmet meals, but it will allow us to eat at "home". The supplies are sparse. They give you just enough for one meal - 2 plates, 2 bowls, 2 glasses, 2 sets of cutlery. I guess we'll be washing dishes a lot.

But the one thing we did comment on was how spacious it feels. It's funny how your perspective changes when you're used to living in less than 400 square feet. There is plenty of room for Hunter and his bed. We have more than enough cupboard and closet space. And there is a bathtub. You can bet we'll be taking advantage of that while we're here!

The repairs on the RV should begin today and will take about 2 weeks. That is, of course, based on the preliminary estimate. If they find structural damage once they remove the roof then our stay here will be extended, but we're crossing our fingers that it will all go as expected.

They will be fully replacing the main roof, as well as the slide roof. They offered us the option of replacing only half of the main roof, which would require a seam in the middle. This would be a cheaper and quicker alternative. They were confident that this would be just as good as replacing the full roof, but admitted that anywhere there is a seam there is always a chance for leakage. They also admitted that the "right" way to fix it would be to replace the full roof. Since the insurance company also estimated for a full roof replacement, that is what we agreed to. Now is not the time to take shortcuts, even if it would mean getting back into our home sooner.

So here we sit, homeless again. It dawned on me the other day, that in the approximately 12 weeks since we left our workamping gig, between our trip to Colorado, our trip to Alaska, and now this, we'll have lived outside our home almost as much as we have lived in it. This is definitely not what we expected when we dreamed of fulltiming. I thought the whole point of having a house on wheels was so that you can take it with you! I didn't think we'd ever have to pack a suitcase again.

But life is full of unexpected adventures and I think we've learned pretty well to just go with the flow. In many respects, the timing is as good as it could be. We don't have any firm commitments right now, so we haven't had to rearrange any plans. It's a relatively quiet time at the dealership, so they are able to get the work done quickly. And being in a hotel with unlimited heat is not so bad when the weather forecast is for freezing temperatures and snow! As I've said before, it could be so much worse.

I sure hope 2011 brings us a few less adventures, though. Or at least less of these types of adventures. The way I figure it, we're getting all this stuff out of the way during our first year of fulltiming so that we have nothing but smooth roads ahead!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T15:10:00.004-07:00

Merry Christmas to all
And Happy New Year too
As we all say farewell
To this year almost through

I wish you good health
Happiness and cheer
And all the best things
In the coming new year

I wish peace for the world
And true freedom for all
For the Devil and hate
A final downfall...

I hope those filled with greed
Will find they have enough
That love and friendship
Will replace all that "stuff"

I hope the homeless and hungry
Find relief from their plight
(And we know they would
if we'd all do what's right)

I wish a life for the Children
That will be worth living
Each with loving parents
Who know the art of giving

Colorblind would be fine
And respect for our Brother
An end to those Religions
That believe there is no other

I wish Mankind united
In one common cause
To root out all evil
To make it what was

I hope all who have passed
Find peace in their New World
And that the Stars & Stripes
Will fly proudly, unfurled

I hope we'll care for our Earth
Quit polluting this place
Before it's too late
For the Human Race

So Merry Christmas to all
And to all a good night
And during this Season
Let's vow to do right.

~ Del "Abe" Jones

Well, We Hadn't Planned On A Christmas Tree INSIDE The RV...

2010-12-22T17:41:00.008-07:00

Current Location: Auburn, WA

...but apparently some greater power felt that we needed one!

We've been having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. I think it's safe to say that we've never been real big on the holidays to begin with and this year, our hearts just aren't in it. But we were trying and on Friday we woke up to blue sky and bright sunshine. What is this? An early Christmas present? We spent the day exploring and elevating our moods. By the time we returned home, we were even talking about doing some decorating. Boy were we fooled. It turns out that it wasn't an early present at all...it was simply the calm before the storm.

Friday evening the winds starting picking up and there were some significant gusts. We found out after the fact that gusts were reported as high as the mid-60's in the region. We're fairly tucked in where we are so while we could hear the wind, we weren't really feeling it. So we weren't overly concerned. I guess we should have been.

We headed to bed around 11pm and were first woken up around midnight with small pine cones pelting the roof. For all you RVers, you know how loud that can be. These are fairly small cones so we didn't think they would be damaging, but boy was it loud. We slept fitfully for the next couple of hours, until we heard a BANG. We both thought, uh oh, and sprang from the bed. Of course, it was 2 am so you couldn't see much outside. I thought that maybe a plastic vent cover or light cover might have been broken, but knew there wasn't much we could do about it in the middle of the night, so we climbed back in bed.

Neither of us really slept and about a half an hour later, we heard a much bigger BANG and we both knew that it wasn't good. Again, we jumped out of bed, while both the animals were running for safety toward the bedroom. I can't publish what came out of our mouths, but I can share a picture of what we saw:

Yep, what you're seeing is a tree branch in our living room!

There was no going back to bed this time. We threw on some clothes and went outside to find a huge tree branch leaning against the side and on top of the RV. Although we knew what we'd find, we climbed up on the roof and sure enough, one of the limbs had broken off and punctured through the roof.
The sound was so loud that it woke Tracy's aunt and uncle up. Once we saw the lights come on, we went over and shared what happened. They graciously agreed to take in two very freaked out animals until we could get a handle on the damage and figure out what we needed to do.

Thankfully, Uncle Jack had some tarps in his garage which we used to patch up the hole. It wasn't raining, but who knew how long that would last and the last thing we needed was to have water damage on top of everything else. Even more thankfully, the wind had died down some, allowing us to be up on the roof without fear for our lives.

Once we finished the patch job, we thought we would lay back down and catch a couple of more hours of sleep. Yeah, right! Not only were we unnerved, but when we entered the RV again, we noticed some additional damage on the living room slide. I guess all of our focus was on the ceiling fan and neither of us had noticed the hole in the slide.

Yep, another limb had come down on the far slide (opposite side from where the other branch fell) and punctured through the roof there. We did remove a large limb from that slide, but neither of us had noticed the hole in the roof!

More expletives. Then it was back up on the roof to survey the additional damage. Sure enough, there's a big hole in the center of the slide roof. By this time, I'm sure you can image that our moods were quite foul. Instead of trying to tarp this one, we decided just to pull in the slide for the night and would deal with it in the daylight.

I'm sure we both felt like just laying down and crying but neither of us did. After getting over the initial shock, I actually think we kept our emotions in check pretty well.

While we were laying in bed waiting for daylight to arrive, I found myself counting my blessings. What could we be thankful for after a night like this? First of all, no one got hurt. It could have been so much worse. Second, our home is still livable, at least for the short-term. We are warm and dry and all of the systems are functioning normally. Third, we have insurance. Although this is our home and one that we love, it ultimately is just a thing and it can be fixed. And lastly (but not least), if this had to happen, we couldn't have hoped for a better place. Although we questioned whether we were at fault for parking under trees and not pulling in our slides during a windstorm, we realize that this could have happened anywhere. And at least here we have a lot of help, moral support and love.

The several days that have passed have been busy with phone calls and sharing of information. So far the insurance company has been very easy to work with and very expedient. For those of you looking for an insurance agent, we used Miller Insurance and received a policy through a subsidiary of Nationwide. Although Miller isn't involved in the claim process, I would hope that they would step up to the plate if we ran into problems with the adjuster. After an initial hiccup in getting assigned to the wrong adjuster, Nationwide has been very responsive and seem to move quickly. Even though we are in the midst of the holiday season, we already have an estimate from the adjuster and an appointment on Monday with the RV dealership. It is the same dealership we used back in October to have some warranty work done, so they are familiar with the rig. They understand that we will be homeless during this time and have promised to expedite the repairs as best they can. So far, it all seems way too easy and I'm a bit leary. But I hope to be able to report back in a couple of weeks that all went smoothly.

So while this disaster did nothing to improve our Christmas spirits, we are extremely thankful for all that we have. And although we gave up on the idea of decorating, I guess we did end up with a Christmas tree in the house after all!

Merry Christmas!

Rain Is A Good Thing

2010-12-15T22:40:00.004-07:00

Current Location: Auburn, WA

Or so I'm trying to tell myself!

Yep, this is winter in the Northwest. Here's a glimpse of the 5-day forecast. It's not a whole lot different than the past week and the 5 days after this look frighteningly similar.

So instead of feeling glum and frustrated, I'm trying to embrace it. I'm constantly working on being more positive (yeah, I still need a lot of practice!). So in looking at the glass half full, here are a handful of reasons why I love this weather:

1. Rain is necessary...without it there would be no life
2. You can't have a rainbow without the rain
3. Nothing smells fresher than the earth after a rainstorm
4. It provides a good excuse for an afternoon nap
5. It is forcing us to use the gym on a daily basis
6. Comfort food - what better time to enjoy comfort food than when it's cold and wet (another reason the daily gym visits are a must!)
7. It certainly makes the surroundings green and lush
8. We're saving lots of money on sunscreen!
9. I (still) love the sound of raindrops pattering on the roof of the RV
10. We have lots of time to do all of those indoor projects (now we just have to find the motivation!)
11. All of this rain will make us really appreciate the California sunshine this summer
12. If the precipitation is in the form of rain, then it means that it's above freezing.
13. Sooner or later, it has to stop!

Got others to add to the list? Pass them on!

Staying Active

2010-12-06T22:04:00.002-07:00

Current Location: Auburn, WA

First off, a big thank you for all of the support and understanding. We are working on figuring things out and already have a couple of prospects. Your response is the main reason that I feel comfortable sharing my thoughts. It helps immensely just to write them out, but it's never easy opening up to the world. So again, thanks for the wonderful responses!

We've actually had a few reasonably nice days. Not bright sunshine, mind you, but we've seen patches of sunshine and blue sky, in between the clouds and drizzle. But hey, I'll take it. Unfortunately, the forecast for the next several days is not so promising. Oh well, gotta enjoy it while we can.

One of our priorities this winter, besides finding jobs, has been staying active. We so enjoyed our summer where we were outside and moving every day. The weather here has made that difficult. We get out for hikes whenever possible, but we know that won't be enough. Hunter still makes us get out, rain or shine, but those walks tend to be rather short. We are really adamant that we aren't going to gain back the weight that we lost this summer. Nor do we want to lose our fitness.

So we decided a gym membership would be a worthwhile investment. It's not in the budget and while we can't really afford to stray from the budget much, we both decided this was a necessity. Not only for our physical well-being, but for our mental state as well. One of the best remedies for depression is activity. And if that means that we need to cut back somewhere else, then that's what we'll do.

We decided that a national chain would be the best choice since we aren't sure where we'll ultimately end up. We really debated on whether we should wait until we get settled, but who knows when, or if, that will be. So we decided we should just bite bullet. I found that 24-hour fitness offered a free 7-day pass, so we started out with that during the week between returning from Colorado and going to Alaska. We went 6 of the 7 days. A good start. And we found that we kind of missed the routine when we were in Alaska.

So upon returning from Alaska, we took the plunge and joined. We've been pretty good about going almost every day. Right now, it's easy since we're not working. It feels really good to move about and get a good sweat rolling down your back (I know, that's not very girl-like). We're not doing any strenuous weight-lifting or body-building, mostly just cardio and some circuit training.

It's nice to have at least one purpose for getting out of bed in the morning. With not having any place to be by any certain time, it's really easy to become lazy. We're trying to force ourselves to get up and be out of the house by 9, but we've not been very successful at that yet. We'll continue to work on that one.

One added advantage to the gym - a hot shower every day that we can stand in as long as we want! Yes, we can take hot showers in our rig, but since we're not hooked up to water, have limited power, and are trying to conserve our propane, we try to be mindful of our water usage, especially hot water. And there have been some days where the promise of a hot shower is our only motivator for going to the gym. Hey whatever it takes, right?

Blogging Hiatus

2010-12-01T19:35:00.003-07:00

Current Location: Auburn, WA

Wow! I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted. I took a break from the blogging world, both reading and writing. I didn't really intend to, it just kind of happened. I apologize to all of those who were loyal followers and those that I follow. I can really appreciate those who find things to write on a daily basis. I don't think I'll ever be there. I don't even always boot up the computer every day! In this techno-centric world, I find it nice to be off-line occassionally.

We've been busy traveling, but not RVing. First was our extended visit to Colorado, where we spent over 3 weeks. We returned to Washington for about a week and then were off to Alaska for the Thanksgiving week. That was an unexpected trip which solidified when we were in Colorado. Both trips were joyous, but we really missed our own home and our own routine.

I've been trying to figure out why I haven't been inspired to write. In part, I'm sure, was probably because we weren't living in our RV and we weren't in our own routine. I suspect there's more, but I'm not sure what. The one thing I promised myself when I start blogging was that I wouldn't let it become a chore or an obligation. I would write when I felt like writing. That's easier said than done. I started this blog for myself as a way to capture the feelings I was struggling with. I decided to make it public so that I could share it with close friends and family. I never expected to have so many followers and I certainly never expected to find such a tight-knit blogging community. Now I find myself feeling that I owe it to all of you to keep writing. And I feel a little guilty for not following all of your adventures and tribulations over the past several weeks.

One of my other primary purposes of starting this blog was for a historical reference of our new lifestyle. I don't want to write about what we had for dinner or how much laundry we did. I prefer to write about more introspective stuff, like feelings and emotions. I also tend not to write when I'm down. And although I can't say that I've necessarily been depressed, the last couple of months have been a little unsettling. I guess I'm feeling a little lost with my life at the moment.

I think I've come to realize that planning is essential in my life. I've always been a planner. I like to-do lists. I like to have a road map and to have at least some idea of what's around the next corner. I've found that I prefer to know that we have reservations rather than just roll in someplace and wing it. I'm sure we miss out on some great adventures by not being as spontaneous as we could be, but planning provides a certain comfort for me.

So with that said, I think that's part of where my struggle is coming from. We have a very loose plan for this winter. We knew that when our gig in California ended we would head to the Northwest and spend some time at Tracy's aunt and uncle's in the Seattle-Tacoma area. We also knew that we would have to find work and figured that a large metropolitan area would increase our chances of landing something.

So what's the problem, you may be wondering? Well, I'm not exactly sure. We've been so busy with our recent travels that we haven't had a chance to start our job search. And now that it's time to hunker down and start that exercise in earnest, we're questioning whether we want to stay in the area. The Seattle-Tacoma area is definitely a metropolitan area in all senses - sprawling, tons of people and lots of traffic. Didn't we leave Denver because we wanted out of the city? What are we doing in another large city? Although we haven't done too much exploring, it just doesn't have the "it" factor. I would much prefer a smaller community.

The Northwest climate is also a huge challenge, especially for someone who is used to sun and semi-arid climates. I like to think that we're adaptable and able to handle most anything, but I'm not sure this is the place for me, especially since this is a La Nina year which means that it will be wetter and colder than usual. To make it even more difficult, we're parked in a fairly dense grove of trees so even if there is sun, we won't have any streaming in our windows. In addition, we have limited power and water resources. Our limited power means that we can't run many of our electrical appliances simultaneously without tripping the breaker, which requires us to turn off one to run another. We're adjusting, but it's a pain. We're also unable to stay hooked up to water, which I guess is not that big of a deal since we'd have to unhook when temperatures go below freezing anyway, but it's kind of a hassle to unwind and rewind the hoses every week.

Tracy's aunt and uncle have been very generous and we are extremely grateful for all they have done for us and feel fortunate to be able to spend so much time with them, but I'm just not sure this is what I envisioned when I dreamed of this life. Part of me says to suck it up and just deal with it. It's only for a few months. And without a current income stream, the smart financial decision would be to stay put. But another part of me feels like we should move on and find a better fit. After all, isn't that the beauty of having a house on wheels? We have a few potential areas we'd like to explore more and hopefully the income will follow.

There's another part of me that's struggling with the feeling that we're not taking full advantage of this lifestyle. So many of the blogs I follow talk about all of the travels so many are doing and frankly I'm jealous. It was one thing to be jealous when we were still in a stix n brix, but it's another to actually be living in an RV and still not taking advantage of it. We were stationary all summer and here we are staying put this winter and we'll be stationary again next summer. When does the traveling part come in? I know our traveling will be limited because of work, but if we're not working, why are we sitting still?

So the question is, do we hunker down and try to find jobs here and make the best of it? Or do we postpone looking for jobs until we find somewhere else to live? Or do we look for jobs elsewhere and hope to find a place to live nearby? There are still some workamper opportunities available for the winter, most just working for site. Should we take one of those and hope we can struggle through without an income?

This is what I mean by not having a good plan. Too many decisions and no clue of which way to go!

I'm sure there are some of you wondering if we are having second thoughts about this lifestyle. Wasn't life easier when we had a steady income? In some respects, yes it was, but we have no desire to go back. I believe that this is all part of the learning experience. We know now that we need to have a more difinitive plan and we definitely will in future years. And as far as this year, we'll continue to work on defining and revising our current plan.

No life is without its speed bumps and this is just one of many in ours. We continue pushing through and figure it out somehow, someway. And in the meantime, I'll work on blogging more often.

Home?

2010-10-23T08:42:00.007-06:00

Current location: visiting Boulder, CO

I haven't felt very inspired to write lately. I don't exactly know why, but in part I think it's because we feel unsettled. I've thought many times about writing, and even started a few, but the right words just weren't coming. And I'm not sure they're here now either, but I feel like I need to post an update. We've accomplished a lot, but yet there's not much exciting going on all at the same time.

Since ending our summer job and leaving North Shore Campground, we had a nice relaxing break in Oregon. From there, we headed up to Tracy's aunt and uncle's in the Seattle-Tacoma area, where we plan to spend the winter, or at least part of it. We spent our first week there getting to know the lay of the land and preparing for our multi-week trip back "home" to Colorado.

That's one word we stumble on a lot...."home". We find ourselves, and most of our friends and family, referring to Colorado as home. But it's not really home anymore. Our rig is our home and the entire country is our home. Yet when people ask us where we're from, we both tend to say Colorado. Our license plates and drivers licenses say Texas, we came to feel that northern California was partly our home, but the fallback is always Colorado. Will it always be or is it just that we're too recently departed from Colorado to completely detach?

Before we could leave for Colorado, however, we had arranged to take our home in for some warranty work. We had compiled a pretty long list of issues over the summer. None are major, most are just minor annoyances, but we wanted to get them fixed before getting parked for the winter. After talking with the dealer, we decided that leaving the rig with them while we're in Colorado would work the best for all parties. But dropping off our home and then driving away felt really weird. We both felt it. That's our whole life that we're leaving behind. Now we truly do feel homeless.

We were excited to get back to Colorado and reunite with friends and family. We did the drive in 2 very long days. We questioned ourselves multiple times about what we were doing. I thought our new lifestyle meant that we didn't have to do these types of marathon drives any more. Really, what was our hurry? It's not like we had to rush back to work or cram in a vacation into a short span of time. I guess, ultimately, it came down to frugality. Since we weren't towing our home, it meant that we had to sleep in hotels. We knew our gas expenses would be high, so I guess we figured we could save a few bucks by limiting ourselves to one overnight stay. I'm not sure it was worth it and we may slow down on our way back.

We've been in Colorado for about a week now. It's been nice reuniting with friends and family. We've been able to spend some quality time with each of our moms and have met up with a few friends. We have many more people to see and are trying to fit as many in as possible. We also squeezed in a quick trip to Nebraska to visit Tracy's son, some of her other relatives, and some close friends. We've crammed in a lot in a week.

Although we're having fun, we've also been feeling a bit discombobulated. We're missing our home. We miss our bed and our pillows. We're missing Jasper (he stayed behind in Washington). I think this trip has taught us yet another lesson - one of the greatest benefits of having a home on wheels is that you can take it with you. Next time, we won't leave ours behind. It's not that we aren't comfortable where we are. We have everything we could ask for. And we are very grateful for it. There's just something comforting about having your own belongings around you and living in your own space.

I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make. Maybe I'm just rambling. We've expreienced a wide range of emotions over the last few weeks and I suppose we're just trying to find our way. I guess that's just normal life, regardless of what lifestyle you're living.

Shocked, Dumbfounded and Speechless

2010-10-16T22:35:00.003-06:00

Current location: Boulder, CO

I've been a bit behind on posting, partially because not much was going on. I was going to post an update tonight...but I decided to catch up on the blogs I follow first. One of the first ones I read was Margie's, which was written by their daughter about their unexpected and untimely deaths. I had to read it several times to convince myself that I was really reading the words correctly.

Margie's was one of the first blogs I started following. She was a frequent commenter on my blog. We corresponded a couple of times via private email and although we hadn't met in person, I considered her a friend. We had made tentative plans to meet this winter when she returned to Tumwater, WA, which is not too terribly far from where we will be.

It's moments like these that reinforce our decision to live our life now. None of us know how many more tomorrows we have.

I don't know what else to say...the words are not coming to me right now. Rest in peace, Margie and Bruce.

Got A Little Too Much Color At The Beach

2010-10-03T21:31:00.009-06:00

Current Location: South Beach, OR

We've had pretty good weather since we arrived. It takes until about 10am for the fog to burn off and then the sun is out until about 4pm when the fog starts rolling back in. The temperatures have been a little on the cool side, but with the sun it's not too bad.

Our campground, South Beach State Park, is just about perfectly situated. We're nestled in trees so we're not right on the beach, which means that we're protected from the wind and the brunt of the salt. There are several walkways leading to the beach, the longest of which is about 1/2 mile. Once at the beach we can walk quite a ways. On the one end is the jetty which leads into Newport harbor. I'm not sure how far it is to the other end because we have yet to reach the other end, but I would guess it's at least a 2 or 3 mile stretch of beach.

Hunter, we have discovered, is a beach dog. He gets that wet sand between his toes and he turns into a puppy. Full of excitement and energy. He loves being chased by the surf and I think he's finally figured out that he doesn't want to drink the water (although he has to try it at least once a day!). We let him off leash and he just runs laps around us, spraying sand and splashing water. He runs himself so hard that I sometimes worry that he won't be able to make the walk home.

One of his favorite games, we've discovered, is blocking us from running out of the surf. As we walk along and the surf starts rolling in, he intentionally stands right in front of us so that we can't get out of the way. As we scream and giggle, he thinks it funny and splashes around to get us even wetter. This has become a daily occurrence.

But it's all fun...until someone gets hurt. Can you guess who that might be?

Yep, you're right!

In all of the excitement, Hunter somehow head butted Tracy. It's amazing Hunter didn't knock himself out too. 24 hours later, the black eye surfaced.

I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to think that this lifestyle might be a little too dangerous for some. Remember this picture from back in April?

Matching black eyes. What's next??!? I'm not sure I want to know :)

Reverse Migration

2010-09-30T21:48:00.002-06:00

Current Location: on the road, central coast of Oregon

On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
Goin places I've never been
Seein things I may never see again
~Willie Nelson

Yes, we are on the road again! I was so excited to finally have the opportunity to change my 'current location' tagline! It was getting to feel a little silly having it at the top of all of my posts when we never moved!

On Wednesday morning we finally hitched up and pulled out of North Shore Campground. And where are we going? Why North, of course! WHAT?? North? Aren't we supposed to be going South this time of year?

We decided to follow a little known practice called Reverse Migration! When others go south, we go north. And today we find ourselves on the beautiful Oregon coast.

Around early June we started trying to figure out where we would spend the winter. The only thing we knew for certain was that we decided against workamping for the winter and instead wanted to find jobs using our professional skills. We didn't have a lot of criteria other than that (1) we didn't want to go to a typical snowbird locale, (2) we wanted to target a somewhat populous area where there would be good employment potential and (3) we wanted to stay out West (we thought we were going to Alaska next summer until we decided to return to North Shore).

It was around this same time that we had our first visitors of the summer, Tracy's uncle Jack and aunt PJ. She had not seen her uncle in over 30 years and didn't remember her aunt at all (although they had met when she was a baby). We all hit it off great. Shortly afterwards, they extended an offer that we ultimately couldn't refuse.

Jack and PJ live in the Seattle-Tacoma area and have an RV pad on their lot with full hookups. They invited us to spend the winter. We didn't immediately accept, although it was always in the back of our minds. It certainly met all 3 of our criteria, but we were concerned about feeling like intruders and wanted to make sure we wouldn't be taking advantage of what was already a generous offer. After several more discussions, we came to the realization that it was just too good to pass up. So we're headed north...to Washington!

For someone who has lived in sunny Colorado for most of the past 25 years and spent the summer in sunny California, going to the northwest during the wet season is a little concerning. As a matter of fact, that is probably my biggest concern about the entire decision. Will I be able to make it through the winter? I've been in dry climates for so long I don't even own a raincoat! What will it be like not to see the sun for days on end? Will I become depressed?

I'm hoping the climate won't be as bad as I think. And we're pretty resilient, so I think (hope) we can deal with most anything. But if it turns out to be unbearable, we always have the option of moving elsewhere. After all, that is the beauty of this lifestyle.

I am excited to explore this area of the country. As Willie says, "goin places I've never been" and I've never been to the Northwest. We will spend a few days on the Oregon coast before continuing north and from what I've seen so far, I'm going to like it. We are staying in an Oregon State Park, right along the ocean. The drive along Highway 101 was beautiful, although it's hard to stop too many places when you're so big. So we're planning to do some day trips to the surrounding area as well as fit in some beach time. I think we're ready for some downtime!

Our Last Workday...Top Memories Of The Summer

2010-09-26T13:57:00.006-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

We've officially reached the end of our season. Today is our last day of work. It's bittersweet. Even though we'll be returning next year, we're sad to be leaving. It seemed like just yesterday we were pulling in in a blizzard. We were excited to get here, anxious to get working, and maybe a little nervous about what lay ahead. Now, here we are four and a half months later, anxious to move on to our next adventure, excited to reunite with friends and family, but also a little blue to be leaving the comfort of the place which has come to feel like home.

As we've started to pack up, we've done a lot of reminiscing about our experiences this summer. Here are a few of the top memories, ...the good, the bad and the ugly!

10pm security rounds - quiet hours, which begin at 10pm, are strictly enforced. We receive many compliments on this policy, but there are the select few who think we're just trying to ruin their fun. We try to be pleasant when asking people to quiet down and for the most part, people are understanding and apologetic. But we have also been called some nasty names and had a few profanities spouted at us, mostly by those who have had one (or more) too many. Thankfully, other members of their party usually reign them in and we've never had to get the Sheriff involved. We don't take that kind of stuff personally, but it sure does make a bad end to the day.

The stars and the moon - one of the perks to the 10pm rounds is that we get to enjoy the beautiful nighttime sky unaltered by city lights. I realize that all we need to do is step outside on any night, but we're usually in bed or too tired to make the effort. I think I have seen more shooting stars this summer than I have in my entire life. And to see the lake lit up by the full moon is a sight to be seen. We have just a short walk from the shop where we put the golf cart away at the end of the night, but I don't think we've ever walked that stretch without having our necks craned looking at the millions of stars.

Visitor policy - this is another one of those strictly enforced policies and one that has caused its share of grief, both amongst the staff and the guests. In one of my first posts after starting work, I mentioned the number of rules to be learned. There are a lot and it's a bit overwhelming. It takes awhile to figure out what information to ask for and what reminders to offer guests. It wasn't until just before the 4th of July rush that it was suggested that we ask arrivals if they are expecting visitors and remind them of the policy (# of visitors are limited and must be pre-registered and pre-paid). It all seems perfectly logical now, but at the time, it was yet another thing to remember at a very hectic time. By that time in the season, we had already gotten our routines down and for me, it was just one of those things that I had a mental block on. Not to make excuses, but it sure would have helped me if we had started doing that from the beginning. As a result, I was strongly reminded multiple times to ask about visitors and even questioned as to whether I had issue with the policy. I suspect that if Dez and Katrina were asked to reflect on our individual experiences, this would be close to the top of my list. :)

MB - speaking of the visitor policy, we had one guest in particular which we had extreme problems with in regards to visitors. I don't think it is ethical to share her name, so I'll just refer to her by her initials. MB was reminded of our policy prior to her arrival and even purchased an extra site so that she could have additional visitors. When she arrived at check-in, she provided us with a list of names of who would be visiting on which days and which ones were overnight versus day visitors. We all thought everything was in order until the first visitor arrived. He was on the list as a day visitor but stated he was staying overnight. That was the beginning of a mess. Visitors on the list didn't show, but other visitors were showing up who weren't on the list. As a result, we were turning people away. Later that day, it was discovered she had a number of unregistered visitors who walked in over the causeway. When questioned about it, she admitted to it claiming that there wasn't enough parking space so they walked in. Exactly what did she not understand about the policy?? Things got a bit nastier from there and she was ultimately asked to leave. It is the only eviction that happened this year. And as a result of this incident, a fence was erected near the path to the causeway.

Accidents and injuries - a season really couldn't go by with no injuries, could it? And for those of you who have followed this blog for awhile, you are familiar with Tracy's reputation (remember the black eye and the multiple bangs of her head?). The most memorable accident happened on a rare rainy afternoon. An storm blew in with high winds, thunder and lightening and driving rain. I was working in the store at the time and there was all this commotion going on outside. Katrina on the radio looking for Randy; Tracy zooming by on the quad. I had no idea what was going on until it was over and Tracy was sitting on the porch, covered in mud and in a state of shock. The wind and waves had broken a cable on one of the boat docks and it was seemingly floating away with boats still tied in its slips. Long story short, Randy was in the water trying to control the dock and Tracy was helping from shore. The side of the road is aligned with logs, preventing people from driving on the beach. Tracy was running this way and that to get Randy the necessary supplies and you guessed it, she tripped over the log. Well, I guess she didn't really trip, but she stepped on it and it was slippery and she fell. She landed on her hands, which bent both her wrists back. But her adrenaline was pumping and she didn't realize she was hurt until she was sitting on the porch. Then the shock wore off, and the pain began. She was sore for awhile and had some good bruises, but nothing was broken and she was back to normal within a few days. But Tracy had yet again enforced her reputation! :)

Hunter's accident - speaking of injuries and reputations...there's no doubt that Hunter and Tracy are related! I knew we couldn't get through a summer without Hunter injuring himself too. I had just gotten to work and I got a call over the radio - "Connie, are you busy?". "Not yet, why?" "Hunter fell down the RV stairs and cut his leg. I think I have to take him to the vet." Luckily, Katrina was in the store and I was able to run home to get a better assessment. By the time I got there, Tracy had gotten the bleeding to mostly stop, so we bandaged up his leg and decided that we'd wait until the next day to determine if we needed to find a vet. Let it be known, that Hunter's first aid kit is a large as ours. We have accumulated a lot of supplies over the years and are used to wrapping his leg. The injury happened on the same leg that he's had surgery and numerous other injuries so there is very little skin left. It's mostly scar tissue, but we did get it to eventually heal and he's back to normal too.

Chipmunks and mice - one of the problems with staying put for so long is that critters tend to find their way in, especially when you live in the woods. Early on, I wrote about invasion of the chipmunk. Jazzy alerted us to it, but luckily he never caught it. We were able to shoo that one back outside. But we never knew he was such a fierce hunter, nor that he could move so quickly. We let him outside from time to time (on a leash) and he has a great deal of fun chasing all of the chipmunks. They're not very afraid of him and he's been able to catch a few, but usually drops them before he kills them. Not too long after the chipmunk incident, we started hearing and seeing evidence of mice. And then Tracy came home to one, dead on the doormat, inside. We quickly realized that we needed to fill all entry points that we could find. They were still finding ways in, but I think - hope - we finally got rid of them. Just another tribulation of RV living!

Eagles - I have written about them and posted pictures, so theres not much more that I can say, other than that I am still awed by them and I will miss them.

Making life-long friends - again, I have already written on this subject. We have gotten to know so many people this summer and there are a few special ones who we believe will be friends for life. If you're reading this now, you know who you are! :)

This summer has been a great one and it's hard to see it come to an end. But the next one will be here before you know it and I'll have a whole slew of new memories to share!

For those of you who are wondering where we're headed next, I'll share that in my next post. This one's grown kind of long. :)

Working For A Living

2010-09-16T11:28:00.005-06:00

Current Location: Chester, CA

As has happened so many times in the past year, we have had another amazing opportunity drop in our laps. But before I go there, I want to talk a little about that nasty four-letter word: w-o-r-k!

Most of us have been there, and many of us still are. When we decided to set out on this magical journey, we knew we would have to continue working. As we were ending our 9-5 jobs, we frequently heard the comment "I sure wish I could retire so early". We were always quick to make the correction - we aren't retired, we're simply adjusting our lifestyle. We expect to be active in the workforce for many years to come; it's just not the same workforce that we used to be a part of.

Because of the need to support ourselves, we know that our full-timing experience will look a lot different from that of many other full-timers. Our destinations, to a large part, will be determined by job prospects. Of course, we'll also seek opportunities in locations that we want to visit. And these jobs will most likely require us to be sedentary for longer periods of time, which equates to less traveling.

But that's ok - we recognize that those are the "sacrafices" we have to make. And it's hard to even call it a sacrafice, as I sit here in one of the most beautiful locations I could imagine. After all, what is the alternative? Returning back to a 9-5 job, with a measly 4 weeks of vacation a year, if we're lucky? No thanks! I'll make the sacrafices.

So back to our most recent opportunity. We've been asked to return to North Shore Campground next year...as assistant managers! Before the offer was even made, we had pondered the idea of returning for a second year. But like most RVers, we have a long list of places we want to go and we weren't sure if we wanted to spend another summer in the same location, no matter how beautiful it is.

So when the offer was presented to us, we had to make our usual pros and cons list. And when the pros outweighed the cons, we expressed our interest and began more serious discussions on what the position would entail.

Like most of our decisions, this was not one that was made lightly. Admittedly, there were several times this summer when I thought to myself (or even expressed out loud) how glad I was that we were just the worker-bees and could walk away from it all at the end of our shift. Although we helped as we could, the bigger issues were escalated to someone other than us and I was more than happy to hand them off. Well, that will certainly change next year. Now we'll be the ones to whom the issues are escalated. And our days won't be done until we reach our official days off because we'll be on call 24 hours a day during our workdays. Are we sure we really want to take on those headaches? After all, weren't we striving for a low stress life??

And coming back here means putting some of our travel plans on hold. Although we plan to full-time for many years to come, we also made the leap into it now because we know there are no guarantees in life. What if something should happen in the next few years which causes us to end our travels? Will we regret "wasting" multiple years in the same location?

So by now, you're probably wondering why we accepted. As with most situations, there are trade-offs. We ultimately came to the determination that we would be gaining far more than we would be giving up.

First, there are the financial gains. We will be making significantly more next year than we did this year, which will put us in a much better financial position. And knowing that we have a job lined up for next year relieves a lot of the pressure for this winter. Although I would never make a decision solely based on money, it is a necessary evil and it, unfortunately, it is a major factor in our decisions.

Second, we still have a lot to learn and this is a great opportunity for more education. For years, we had talked about owning a B&B, a set of cabins, or a campground. I'm not sure that we'll ever want to be that tied down again, but you never know what the future holds. Taking on managerial duties will give us a little more taste of what it would be like, if we ever do go down that road. And even if we don't, having the experience on our resume can only help us in future jobs.

Third, we believe we can make a difference. Not only will we help the owners and current staff by providing stability, but we have many ideas for improvements of the operations too. If only one or two of those ideas is successful, then we'll have made a difference.

Fourth, although this is not the perfect place (is anyplace?), we're already aware of a lot of the challenges that we'll be faced with. That's not to say that we won't be surprised or that some things may not work out like we expected, but we have a pretty good idea of what we're signing on for.

Lastly, and possibly most important, we like it here. As we're preparing for our departure in a couple of weeks, we find ourselves sad about the prospect of leaving. As I mentioned in a previous post, we really like the people - from the campground owners, to our co-workers, to many of the regular campers whom we've come to know. They have embraced us and they are all happy that we are returning. And of course, there's our site which I've gushed about numerous times. I'm sure we could probably buy one just as nice for $50 or more a night, but I couldn't imagine a nicer one as a workamper. And on top of all of that, we didn't accomplish nearly everything we wanted to this summer. We still have many mountains to climb and endless places to explore. We also have friends and family who didn't have a chance to visit this year, so we're hoping they'll have a chance next year.

I could probably go on with the pros and cons, but suffice it to say, life is full of difficult decisions. But when we really sat down and weighed all of our options, this one wasn't really all that difficult to make. It just made sense on so many levels. And ever since we accepted the offer, we've been really excited about the prospects for next year. And that's why we know we made the right decision.

Funny thing about these laundromats out here

2010-09-10T11:18:00.002-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

I discovered something that I didn't think was possible, or at least not prevelant. The laundromats in this part of the country actually expand clothes instead of shrinking them!

Before we left our stix n brix, our clothes continually shrank. C'mon, I know you all know what I'm talking about. You buy a new pair of pants and they fit perfectly...at first. But before you know it they're a little snug and eventually you reach a point where they're either no longer comfortable or they look terrible on you. Then you have to go buy a new pair, but you go up in size thinking that that will account for the magical shrinking problem. But sooner or later, the same thing begins happening. The only conclusion that I could reach was that it was all due to the washers and dryers. It certainly couldn't be me gaining weight!

This summer we've experienced an amazing phenomenon. ALL of our pants and shorts have become loose and some are downright uncomfortable to wear because they are too big! Isn't that ironic??

About mid-summer I had another suprise. I can now fit into a pair of shorts which were once my favorites. I haven't been able to wear them for probably 3 or 4 years. Tracy is about a size smaller than me so when I outgrew a pair of shorts (my pants were too long for her), I would hand them down to her. Her wardrobe grew quickly as mine shrunk. Now, much to her dismay, I am starting to steal them back!

We haven't weighed ourselves - I try not to get too hung up on numbers. I prefer to go by feel - so we don't know how much we've lost, but it feels good. The downside is that we don't have a very large budget for clothes, but we're going to have to replenish a few pair of jeans. At least we don't need much.

Success in such a short amount of time is astonishing, especially since we didn't even try. We didn't go on any diets, nor did we really watch what we ate. But I think we can attribute the difference to 2 things: a more active lifestyle. and a lack of convenience foods.

On the first point, we are most definitely more active. Although we haven't worked as much grounds work as we thought we would, we're also not sitting behind a desk all day. Throughout the summer we averaged about 10 hours a week on grounds; the rest of our shifts were in the store. But even when we're in the store, we're on our feet all day and moving about. I don't know of any formal statistics, but I'm sure you burn a lot more calories simply by standing instead of sitting. Add to this that Hunter no longer has a fenced yard where we can just let him out. So he requires walks, at least 2 a day if he has his way. Each of those walks is generally at least a mile, sometimes upwards of 3 or 4 miles.

Although the exercise is great and we feel better because of it, I really believe that our weight loss is as much due to my second point, lack of convenience foods. In our prior life, we ate out a lot. And I mean a lot. I would go out for lunch at least 2 or 3 times a week. I used the excuse that I needed an escape from the office, but I also know that I am an emotional eater. I was unhappy at work, so I would sell myself that a delicous lunch prepared by someone else would make me feel better. It rarely did, but I continued the trend anyway. After working all day and coming home emotionally drained, neither of us felt like cooking. Living in the suburbs of a large city, there were a lot of (too many) restaurants nearby, many of which we passed on the way home. The sight of a sign, or a billboard, implanted the idea of eating out into your brain. You're hungry and you're tired and what better idea than eating out. So we did, at least a few nights a week. The problem with eating out, as I'm sure you all know, is portion control. One restaurant serving is frequently 2, 3 or more times the recommended portion size. But we've been accustomed to big servings and we have a habit of eating what's in front of us. Although we frequently shared meals or took leftovers home, I have no doubt that I was ingesting more calories than I could burn.

Nowadays, we rarely leave the campground on our working days. We do venture out on our days off, which usually includes one meal out. The restaurants in and around Chester are not all that tempting, and a bit on the expensive side, but we have found a few favorites. Where we used to average 3 or 4 days out a week, we now average 1, and that is either for lunch OR dinner, not both. Needless to say, this helps our budget as much as it does our waistlines. And you know, I really don't miss eating out. More often than not, we appreciate our own cooking much more than someone else's.

One of my original goals of this new lifestyle was to be more fit. I still couldn't run a marathon (nor do I want to) or bike a mountain pass (not sure I really want to do that either), but we're definitely headed in the right direction. Now if we can just manage not to backtrack during the winter!

Winding Down

2010-09-06T20:50:00.003-06:00

Current Location: Chester, CA

We survived the last crazy weekend of the season. It really wasn't all that bad; maybe we've just become accustomed to it. The arrivals on Friday night straggled in, starting around 2pm and lasting until sometime after 10pm. We were in the store until about 9:30pm, at which time we left Dez to handle the rest. When we drove by for security rounds at 10:00, she was still there, but thankfully was gone by 11:00 when we returned.

Today, most everyone departed and we are now back to the peace and solitude. I know it's not good for business, but I sure do prefer the campground like this. However, I also realize that if it was always like this, we wouldn't be here since they wouldn't be able to afford us. So I guess we should be thankful that it was a busy summer.

We still have 3 weeks of work left. Holy cow, only 3 more weeks?? Could that really be true? There's a lot of work still to be done to prepare the campground for closure (it closes Oct 10). In addition, the other workamper couple with whom we worked this summer departed this afternoon. So we will also be picking up some of their slack. The store will become very quiet and the shifts will probably drag by; but the grounds will be busy and those days will no doubt fly by. As we have done throughout the summer, we will split our time between the two. And I'm sure before we realize, our 3 weeks will be up and it will be time to hitch up and hit the road.

I find myself with very mixed feelings about that. I'll be sad to leave, but excited for the next adventure. Once again, I find myself feeling anxious about the unknown. Excited, but also a little scared. We've come to know this as home and soon we will have to say good-bye. A lot of the same feelings we had in April are resurfacing. I wonder, will it always be like this after an extended stay?

All in all, it's been a great first summer. We worked hard, but also found a lot of time for playing. There were moments of frustration and we hit a period in mid-summer when we were feeling weary. But I think that is normal. We managed to find a second wind and it felt like our attitudes were adjusted overnight. I don't know exactly what caused our perspective to change; perhaps we just realized how lucky we are to live our dream! How many people in this world can really say that?

From our perspective, this season was a huge success. Not only did we get along well with the owners and our coworkers, but we bonded with quite a few of the campers as well. There are many regulars who come here every year. Some rent a site for the season, others just make it up for a few weekends a year. But we made friends with many of them and will depart with a handful of email addresses and phone numbers so that we can stay in touch over the winter. It really warmed our hearts to be embraced so quickly and strongly.

Before our arrival, I frequently said that what will make or break this experience will be the people. We had a good idea of what type of work we would be doing and were pretty certain we could handle that aspect of it. But as with most situations, if you surround yourself with good people, then even the worst situations are bearable. We get along pretty well with most people and can tolerate almost anyone, so we were pretty certain that we would be able to last the 4 months we committed to. But we didn't want to just get through it. We didn't want an experience where we were counting down the days and longed for the end. Been there, done that. We wanted a happy and memorable experience. We got all that we wished for and much, much more. And it's mostly because of the people (ok, the location and the bald eagles weren't so bad either!). It's hard for me to believe that future workamping gigs will be as special.

As our season winds down, I find myself reflecting frequently on the last 4 months. We have learned so much, both about running a campground and about ourselves. We are starting to get a better sense about what our full-timing life might look like, at least for the next couple of years. I will be sharing a lot of this over the next few weeks. I haven't blogged as much as I had hoped to this summer, but I have a feeling that I might make up for some of that in the near future. So stay tuned!

The Last Hurrah

2010-09-03T12:40:00.002-06:00

Current Location: Chester, CA

Today, we embark on the last busy weekend of the season...and a busy one it will be! We are expecting almost 80 arrivals today, which is more than we've had on any other day of the season. For comparison, on the Friday before Fourth of July we had about 50 arrivals.

Throughout the summer, people were more likely to straggle in earlier in the week, with many arriving on Wednesday and Thursday. Thus, keeping Fridays busy but not hectic. But now that school is back in session, almost everyone is coming in today. And I have no doubt that it will be crazy, possibly with cars and trailers backed up to the road (which is probably a quarter of a mile from the store).

To make the day even longer, we have our last security rounds tonight (hooray!). We will stay open in the store until 9:00, an hour later than usual and then we have to be out on rounds at 10:00. We're expecting a busy night with security too knowing that people will be excited to start their long weekend. Many won't even be arriving until 9 or 10, which will keep the activity and noise level a little higher than desired.

But we know that we just need to get through the next 3 days and then the great calm will arrive. That seems like a long way off right now, but we've made it this far, we can manage a few more.

Oh boy, wish us luck!

Held Hostage

2010-08-26T10:47:00.006-06:00

Current Location: Chester, CA

This morning I woke up at 6 am and decided to get up instead of laying there and drifting back to sleep. We're trying to retrain our bodies back to the schedule we had before this summer, when staying in bed until 7 am was considered sleeping in. Nowadays, we're lucky to be awake by 7!

But I digress. I thought I would get up and take my book outside. But when I looked out the window, there was a doe in our front yard having breakfast. (forgive the picture quality...it was still somewhat dark and was taken through a dirty window)

After munching for a bit, she decided to lay down for a siesta. She layed right next to our deck for over an hour. I'm surprised she didn't climb up on the deck and settle down the dog blanket we have out there for Hunter. :)

She must have finally decided that she was hungry again because she started nibbling on Tracy's artwork! There were several branches with moss that must have looked tasty. So much for that sculpture!

Finally, after a couple of hours, I was able to exit. But I didn't really mind. What a great way to start the day. I never tire of observing nature.

Have I mentioned lately that I love this life?!!

Catching Up

2010-08-12T09:28:00.011-06:00

Current Location: Chester, CA

I owe you a bit of catching up. I can't believe my last post was 2 weeks ago. Where does the time go??

Let me start by thanking you all for the many birthday wishes. It was a good, and uneventful, birthday. We both had to work so that was the excitement for the day. I was granted a reprieve of my security rounds that night. The owners graciously offered to do it for me so that we could at least enjoy a glass of wine before falling into bed. It was a nice gesture and greatly appreciated. Thanks D & K!

I had decided that what I wanted for my birthday was a short get away. We had both been feeling the need to explore the area a little bit and it seemed like a travesty to spend the summer in California and never make it to the ocean. So we headed to the coast early Monday morning. We had no particular destination in mind, although we decided we'd head toward the Mendecino area. We most certainly did not take the direct route, which would have involved an interstate. We took all back roads which probably about doubled our driving time, but we enjoyed it. We saw the variety of the landscape - the windy mountain roads, several beautiful lakes, the grasslands and valleys, the orchard areas, the redwood forests, and the coastline.

We arrived in Fort Bragg around 3:00 to fog and cold. Yep, we must be on the coast! After finding a room for the night, we headed to the beach. This area is very dog friendly and most beaches allow dogs. Hunter has only been to the ocean a couple of times and doesn't really know what do make of it. He provides lots of entertainment for us. He doesn't know what to make of the surf and most definitely doesn't like the taste of the water. He is used to lakes that he can wade in and drink from. After doing a short jaunt on the beach we headed for dinner, at the North Coast Brewery. A good meal was one thing we were really looking forward to. We haven't found many good restaurants around Chester, so now we really appreciate good food.

Here's Tracy and Hunter chillin' on the beach...literally. It was quite chilly. We didn't think very clearly when we packed and didn't even bring a pair of pants with us. Good thing we at least had sweatshirts.

The next morning we woke up to more fog. We hoped that it would burn off as the sun came out, but it never really did. We did have a few moments where the fog was out far enough that we could see the coastline, but just as quickly as it rolled out, it came back in. Here's the fog bank we contended with most of the day. Before heading north toward home, we took a short detour south to the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. There was a nice half mile walking trail to the lighthouse and dogs were allowed. We probably spent close to 2 hours walking and wandering around. We were practically the only ones out there and it was really peaceful.
From there we headed north up Highway 1 along the coast. We knew we had a long drive back but we didn't really care, so we just took our time.

Hwy 1 eventually turned inland and joined up with Hwy 101. We continued to head north, taking another detour on the Avenue of the Giants. This is the old 101 which goes through a large grove of redwoods. It's about 30 miles long and slow, but far more scenic.

Those are some tall trees! At this point we knew we better start heading for home. We still had a long ways eastward. One of the problems with getting to the coast from Chester is that there are no direct routes. There are only a few east-west roads to the coast and they're all full of curves, narrow and slow. But it is all beautiful. In total we drove about 650 miles in 2 days. It was a lot of driving but we really enjoyed our time away.

Just like most vacations, it was quickly forgotten as we fell right back into work. We had another busy week which was made busier by trying to squeeze in the chores we normally do on the weekends. But we needed to get it all done during the week because we were expecting visitors again.

Our friends, Jolie and Renee, from Colorado drove out to spend a few days with us. We are honored that they, and all of our previous visitors, made the effort to come here specifically to see us. We are especially honored that Renee, who does not particularly like camping, was willing to spend 3 nights sleeping in a tent. And she handled it like a pro. Maybe camping isn't so bad after all?

They arrived Sunday afternoon just as we were winding down our work week. Perfect timing! They got their tent set up while I wrapped up my final hour and we spent the rest of the evening catching up. Monday, we headed out to explore the New Clairvaux winery, which is located on the grounds of a monastery. Selling wine is one of the ways they support themselves. We did a little wine tasting and explored the grounds a bit and then headed a few miles down the road to Chico for lunch and beer tastings at the Sierra Nevada brewery. Hmm, are you seeing a theme here? We wrapped up the afternoon with a brief shopping trip at Target and then headed back to the cool of the mountains. Chico is at a much lower elevation and was in the upper 90s. We ended the day sitting around a campfire and making smores. A very enjoyable evening with good friends.

I think we were all ready for a more relaxing day on Tuesday so that's exactly what we did. We just hung around, played cards, talked, drank, and the hours passed quickly. Before we knew it, the day was coming to an end. We had a farewell breakfast on Wednesday and then they were off and we were back to work. How those days off fly by! J & R - I hope you enjoyed your visit as much as we enjoyed having you here!

The last few days have been back to the same old grind. And now you're caught up with our lives! I am behind in reading blogs from the last couple of weeks too. We seem to go through periods where we don't even turn on the computer, except for maybe a quick peek at email. It's nice to be disconnected once in a while.

It's hard to believe that we're already in mid-August and our time here is winding down. There are so many things that we said we wanted to do while we were here and now we only a few more weeks left. I suppose that's the way it will always be though. So I'm sure we'll keep busy over the next month or so. But for now, I better get this posted. It's just about time for security rounds. Hey, only a few more weeks of those too!

45

2010-07-30T09:07:00.003-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

45 rpm....remember those little records?

I-45...the shortest primary interstate highway

45 minutes...one half of a soccer match

+45...the international dialing code for Denmark

45...the number of years since I was born in this lifetime

Yes, today is my 45th birthday!! And I am utterly amazed at where I am at this stage in my life. It is still unbelievable to me that I am living my dream at such a relatively young age. When we first began dreaming this dream, it was discussed in terms of retirement. What age exactly that was, I don't know, but I'm sure it was sometime after 65. Then we started talking about how to achieve this dream early and figure out a way to retire early at 55. I'm not sure if that was Tracy's 55 or mine, but it just seemed like a good milestone.

But, ultimately, we couldn't find a good reason to wait and so here we are. When I stop to think about it, it is really mind boggling that we actually went through with it. I am proud that we had the courage to 'just do it'. I am honored by the support we have received, both by those who know us personally and those who only know us through this blog. I feel a certain amount of responsibility to succeed at this lifestyle for all those who are living vicariously through us and for those who will eventually follow us down the road.

I still think we are just a little bit crazy. How could we not be? I admit that I kind of like the idea of bucking the norm of society and finding our own way through life. We have no agenda other than to be happy. We still have to find ways to support ourselves and that brings it's own set of anxieties, but that's just part of the big puzzle of life and I am confident that we'll find all the right pieces.

But mostly, on the first day of my 46th year, I am just amazed at my good fortune. I am sharing my life with my soulmate and we've found a way to live life on our own terms. How could I be any happier? I can hardly wait to see what the next year has in store for me. Yes, this is a good life.

A New Perspective...And A Refreshing Get Away

2010-07-28T11:00:00.003-06:00

Current Location: Chester, CA

Last week I wrote about how the summer was beginning to wear on me. What a difference a week can make! Several things have happened in the past week which have encouraged me to rethink and appreciate my own situation.

First of all, our neighbors left and the cabin has not been rented for the last 4 days. Our serenity has returned, although just for a short while. But we decided to take advantage of the peacefulness while we had it and spent one of our recent days off at home. Admittedly we felt a little invaded upon. But I have to remind myself that for the majority of our time here, we have this area to ourselves. No doubt, we are spoiled.

Secondly, I shifted my mindset a little. I reminded myselft that most of the campground guests are on a brief vacation from the stresses of their lives. This is their brief opportunity to let loose and relax. Because this may be their one chance in a long while for vacation, they want everything perfect. And in some cases, they don't know how to let go and end up sharing their stress with everyone who steps in their way. Whether it's a weekend or weeklong vacation, they eventually have to return to their overburdened lives, the hustle and bustle of the city, the heat of the valley, or whatever it may be. Me...I am lucky because once their vacation is up, I still get to stay here.

The third thing that happened which gave me pause was that I talked to one of my former coworkers. This was a person I worked with very closely; she was actually my client of sorts. Talking with her brought back so many familiar emotions. Things haven't changed much since I left. The same frustrations which caused me to want to leave still exist. The pressures and the anxieties have not gone away. It was a very strong reminder of why I am where I am now and how happy I am to be here!

The fourth thing was that one of our blogger friends, Ken and Nanette, abruptly and without warning, lost their workamper job for the summer. This was completely unexpected and left them in a bit of a financial pinch, but they were able to maintain a positive outlook and have already landed another opportunity for the remainder of the summer. Their whole experience reminded me to focus on the positives. Although I'm sure they had their moments of anger and feeling victimized, they did not express one negative word towards their former employers in their blog. If they can handle what could have been a crippling situation with such an attitude, certainly I can deal a little better with the occassional grouch. And if nothing else, it reminded me to be thankful for what I have because I really do like where we are and what we're doing.

Lastly, was a personal message from our friends and mentors, Howard and Linda Payne . They were working here last summer and Linda felt much the same way about the same time of year. She shared their blog entry written on July 22 last year, in which they were feeling the need to escape. I found it ironic that my post last week was written on July 19, almost exactly a year apart. Reading their entry helped validate my feelings - that it was ok to feel the need for a break. No matter how good something is, it eventually can become tiring.

Their escape was to Juniper Lake, a beautiful lake on the outskirts of Lassen Volcanic National Park. Because it is several miles up a sometimes rough gravel road and it is not accessible from the main road in the park, the lake does not tend to attract as many visitors. This has been on our list of places to go, so yesterday we decided that it was time. We took Linda's suggestion, packed a picnic and headed out for the day. We took our beach chairs and our books and enjoyed several hours of peace and quiet. There are several trailheads that take off from the lake, but because we had Hunter with us (dogs aren't allowed on National Park trails) we couldn't explore much. We did walk, or rather waded, along the lake shore, but mostly we just sat and read and marveled at the beauty. It was a really nice day and helped to refresh us for the coming week.

imagine some pictures here...I tried to upload a few but was experiencing technical difficulties. I will post them another time.

We are planning a longer get away for next "weekend". We don't have a specific destination in mind, but we're going to pack up the car and head for the coast, with plans to stay overnight somewhere. Once again, we'll have Hunter with us, so that limits us somewhat, but we're hoping to find some beaches and/or trails where dogs are allowed. This is the kind of road trip that we love to do. We just set off in a general direction and wander. I'm really looking forward to it.

Short is all relative

2010-07-22T11:30:00.003-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

No, I'm not talking about Tracy! :) (hee, hee...sorry, honey)

One of the things we give up as fulltimers is a visit to a known and trusted hairstylist, along with doctors, dentists, etc. Others have written about shedding tears upon leaving their longtime providers. Back in Colorado I had my hair cut by the same lady for over 20 years. I would drive an hour after a long day of work just to go to her. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I was forced to switch to someone new about 6 months before we left Colorado. So you would think that finding someone to cut my hair wouldn't be all that traumatizing.

And it isn't really traumatizing...I just dread doing it so I procrastinate until I can't stand it any longer. So I finally got up the nerve in May to get my hair cut here in Chester. I was very conservative, just asking for a trim. I fully blame myself because I didn't want her to cut it too short. And she didn't. It was great for a couple of weeks, but it quickly became longer than I like. My hair is very thick and straight, so when it gets to a certain length, it becomes very heavy and I need to blow dry it in order for it to look good. I prefer the ease of wash and wear and would rather not have to deal with blow drying. But because I procrastinate, I've been blow drying my hair for the last 4 weeks or so.

Once again, I reached the point of needing a haircut NOW, so I made an appointment for this morning. I had returned to the same lady...she seemed to do an ok job last time. And I had made up my mind that I wanted it shorter this time. For those of you who know me personally, I keep my hair pretty short anyway, so going short is not usually a big deal. When I went in this morning, I told her I wanted it shorter than last time, kind of spiky all over. I told her I wanted a wash and wear cut. So she asked if "finger length" was about right. I looked at my finger and thought, a couple of inches, yeah that sounds good. Then she asked if I wanted my bangs longer and I said no, about the same length as the rest (I can't stand it when my hair falls in my eyes). So she started cutting and I had my eyes closed due to all the hair falling.

Imagine my surprise when I opened my eyes. Her fingers must be really short! Maybe she said "finger TIP length". My hair is maybe an inch long. I basically have a long crew cut and she left me no bangs to speak of. Yikes!

Well, it is short and it is wash and wear! No blow dryer for me for a long time!! Be careful of what you ask for!! It's a good thing that I'm not all that attached to my hair. And now I'm really thankful that it grows fast. I guess next time I need to be a little clearer with my directions...and maybe a picture wouldn't be such a bad idea either!

Hot and Tired

2010-07-19T16:56:00.002-06:00

Current Location: Chester, CA

Another of our work weeks has drawn to a close. It was the hottest week yet, with temperatures in the high 90's. I don't like heat and I don't function well in it. Anything above 90 is too hot for me. Today we saw a little relief...I think it's only the high 80s. And it's supposed to continue to drop over the next couple of days. Let's hope!

I have been tired the entire week. Perhaps it was the heat. Or possibly we're still recovering from the shake up of our routine last week. Or it could be that we have lost our private oasis.

As I've mentioned previously, our site is away from the campground...which is wonderful...but it is right next to one of 3 rental cabins. This is the largest and most expensive cabin so it has only been rented a couple of times since we've been here. Well that all changed last week and is continuing into this week.

We've had 2 family reunions in succession and we've found that they all like to congregate at this cabin. I can certainly understand why. The cabin has a large deck and a private "beach" (shoreline) that is separate from the rest. Last week the group that was here was mostly adults and one 5 week old baby which cried a lot. They also brought jet skis and set up quite a party area down on the beach. Our sounds of nature were overtaken with the constant grind of the jetski and smells of gas. In hindsight we'd like to have them back.

This week we have a family reunion with LOTS of teenagers. Once again, they all congregate out here. Everyone seems to feel the need to drive to this cabin (even though it's an easy 5 minute walk from the campground) so they pretty much block us in. And the majority of kids are screaming girls. Last night we had to listen to what sounded like hundreds of them in the water for a post-dinner swim. Because it was dark, they were screaming at every little thing that touched them underwater. And you know how that goes. One screams, then another, and then another until they're all making as much noise as possible. We were counting down the minutes until 10:00 quiet hour so that we could go down and tell them to shut up. Thankfully, the adults of the group finally went down and to get them all out of the water. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. I think they are here all week, and most of the group hasn't even arrived yet.

I'm not sure who comes in after these folks but I sure hope it's a quiet ederly couple! We would still pick this spot over any other, but we sure do miss our privacy.

I fear that the summer is beginning to wear on us. We are working in the store more than on grounds because that is where we're needed right now. I miss the break from the customers that grounds work provides. We both still have one full day of grounds each week. Mine is Sunday and I really need it after 4 long days of customer service. People wear me out! I am pretty much an introvert...I guess that explains why I chose a profession of working with computers. Although I dealt a lot with clients, I also had a lot of time where it was just me and the computer. And I have to admit that I am starting to catch myself looking forward to the winter when I can hopefully return back to that kind of work for awhile.

That's not to say that I regret taking this job. Quite the contrary. We both needed a break from our old routine and this has certainly provided it. And there are many things we like here. 90% of the people are great. They're happy to be here and very appreciative of the service we provide. But it's the other 10% that wear you down. Maybe if we were only working 20 hours a week, it wouldn't seem so bad.

But an opportunity to experience and learn is what this is all about. We are learning that it is all about balance. Ideally, we will find a way to bounce back and forth between the traditional workforce and workamping; hopefully allowing ourselves a month or two off between gigs. If we could get away with limiting our work weeks to 20 or 30 hours, that would be perfect, but I don't know if our bank account will allow that.

It feels like we've been living this lifestyle for years, but we have to remember that we've only been doing it a few months. We are still figuring it out and don't ever expect to have all of the answers. But, isn't that part of the beauty? There is some anxiety in not knowing what the immediate future holds, but then again, that's what makes it an adventure. We may be feeling weary today, but we are extremely thankful that we have the opportunity to experience this life as we choose for as long as we can.

Yes, We Are Still Alive And Doing Well

2010-07-13T11:44:00.003-06:00

Current Location: Chester, CA

I know we're way past due on posting an update. I can't believe my last post was before 4th of July! That seems like so long ago now!!

So just a quick update to let you all know we're doing well. We survived the 4th of July. As far as arrivals and check ins, everything went amazingly well. People just kind of trickled in starting on Wednesday through Saturday. We never really had a big rush of people. In that respect, it was a lot smoother than most other weekends.

The challenges of the holiday came after everyone was in. We had quite a problem with visitors, even though we asked everyone at check-in if they were expecting visitors and reminding them of our policy. But this is where we expected to have issues, so we were as ready as we could be. All in all, it was a pretty smooth weekend, although still busy and still tiring.

We went immediately from ending the holiday weekend to entertaining company. My dad and his wife stopped by on their cross-country trip. As a result, we've been busy and have barely turned on the computer in the past week. It's been great having them here but it really throws us off of our routine.

They left this morning so we have one day to readjust and relax before starting our next week of work. I'll write more later when I have time, but just wanted to calm any concerns since we've been offline and out of touch.

Hope all is going well with everyone out there and I look forward to catching up with all of you soon!

Ready Or Not, Here IT Comes

2010-06-30T22:27:00.002-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

What is IT you might wonder? The dreaded 4th of July holiday weekend! Yes, what a difference a year makes. Last year, we couldn't wait for the long holiday weekends. And now we can't wait for them to be over with!

It's going to be a crazy weekend. When many of the monthly and seasonal clients specifically leave the campground during this time, you know it must be bad. Many campers already started rolling in this week, but the big rush will come on Thursday and Friday.

Chester has a 4th of July parade and fireworks that are pretty well known in the area so that attracts a lot of people. One of our biggest challenges of the weekend will be unauthorized guests. This campground has a pretty strict visitor policy. Every visitor must be pre-registered and paid for in advance. And the number of visitors must still fall within the maximum number of people allowed on a site, even if the visitors are not staying overnight. I'm sure you can imagine how confusing this is for us to track when we get busy. Well, because of the fireworks show, we are expecting a lot of visitors...and probably a lot of disgruntled campers who didn't understand the policy in the first place. Yeah, I'm dreading the weekend.

But on the flip side, we'll be so busy that the weekend will fly by and be over before we realize it!

So happy early 4th to all of you. For those of you still working 9-5, I hope that it is a nice, long relaxing weekend. For those of you who are living the RV dream, I hope that it is a quick and peaceful weekend. And for those of you who are working this weekend, my sympathies are with you, but I'll be right along with you!

Winter Wonderland...And More Eagles

2010-06-24T12:26:00.010-06:00

Current Location: Chester, CA

Another week has flown by and we can't figure out where the time is going! We had a short 'weekend' this past week. One of our coworkers was off for a couple of days on a pre-scheduled vacation so we helped fill her shift on Monday. Even though we each only worked 3 1/2 hours, the day was pretty much shot. That left only one free day to play.

We had a slow start to the morning but finally got out the door about the crack of 11:00 for a hike. We had chosen a trail just outside of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The trail guide was written from the perspective of a snow-shoe/ x-country ski trail, but it did mention that it could also be hiked. It was supposed to go to a lake and have a nice view of both the Sierras and the Cascade mountain ranges. Well, we found neither. The trail followed a forest road and it kept going down hill. Hmm, whatever we go down, we must come back up eventually. We walked for about 2 1/2 miles and never did find a lake. There were several offshooting paths, but none looked especially suitable for hiking. We eventually turned around and started our long trek uphill. Although the trail was nothing special, it was a nice walk and very peaceful. We had it to ourselves.

Upon returning to the car, we decided to take a drive into Lassen Park. The road through the park is still not completely opened (the latest target date is early July), but we thought we'd drive in to see how much progress they made.

Boy, what a difference a few miles can make! This is the road through the park. Notice the car on the road and how much taller the snow is!

This is close to the end of the road, about 6 miles in from the entrance station. It may be hard to tell but there are several feet of snow, probably at least 4 feet.
In the background is Mt Lassen. One of our goals this summer is to climb it, but it looks like it won't be happening anytime soon! We didn't bring our snowshoes with us. :) I guess we'll have plenty of time to get into shape for it.

It's pretty apparent that we won't be doing any hiking within the park for awhile, which Hunter is not too upset about. Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on the trails within the Park and he can't understand why we would ever go hiking without him! So for now, we'll focus on the numerous National Forest trails, on which dogs are allowed!

In my last post, I had mentioned that one of my dislikes was the late shifts. Well, most bads also have a good side and one of the blessings of a late shift is a late start. Often, I don't start my shift until 1 or 2, which frees up all morning. I frequently take Hunter on a long walk along a neighboring forest road, where he can be off leash to run and sniff to his heart's delight. But it's not all for him. This is an area where we've frequently seen eagles. The further we get into summer the more we're seeing of them. First it was just one on occassion. Then there were a couple flying overhead from time to time. Now we see them almost everyday and there are often 3 or 4.

I hadn't been lucky enough to see them stationery very often...until yesterday. To get to the forest road, we have to stumble across the rocks on the shoreline for a short ways. As soon as I reached the point and looked towards our destination, I immediately saw 2 white heads:

We were still pretty far away (all pictures are cropped to provide better views), but I kept my eye on the tree, hoping that they would stay put.

As we drew nearer, the top one flew off. I couldn't spot the other one but hadn't seen him fly off either. So we kept walking and I turned around to look behind me, and there he was! How beautiful!

I stood there quite awhile admiring and taking lots of pictures. After awhile I guess he figured I'd been there long enough and he gave me the stare!
Shortly thereafter, he flew off. If you haven't figured it out yet, I have quite a fascination with eagles, especially bald eagles. And it is always a thrill for me to see them in the wild. So I'm sure you can imagine how excited I am to have them living in my 'backyard'.

We're now back in the thick of our workweek. The summer season is finally upon us. Warm weather and a busy campground. We have close to a full house again this weekend. Between the 2 of us, Tracy and I are doing security rounds 3 nights a week. Those 10:00 drives make for some long days, but we're learning how to sleep in...we're still working on Jasper however!

And speaking of Jasper, I am proud to report that he is continuing to earn his keep. The other day when Tracy returned from walking Hunter, Jasper had left a present just inside the front door. A dead mouse (uh oh, do we have mice in the house now??). It was not mutilated, just dead in a nice obvious place where it would be seen and easily taken to the trash. He earned a special treat for that! :)

Reflections on our first month of workamping

2010-06-15T11:59:00.007-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

Wow, it's hard to believe we've already been here over a month. Our first day of training was on May 15 and here we are at June 15. And yet, it feels like we've just begun.

Before I go much further, some of you may not be familiar with the term 'workamping'. It's not an official word according to Webster, but it is a trademarked and copywrited term. The basic definition is anyone who combines employment and RVing is considered a workamper. The work may or may not include monetary compensation. A workamper may work solely in exchange for their site. Or, like our current gig, a workamper may receive a wage in addition to their site. It's a common misconception that workamping only includes work at campgrounds. There are many employment opportunities outside of campgrounds too. While the majority are seasonal, there are year-round and career opportunities too. We hope to experience a variety of jobs and look forward to sharing each one.

So back to our current gig. Being that this is our first time working outside the traditional workforce, we expected to learn a lot, both about ourselves and campground management. And we have not been disappointed. It's certainly been an eye-opener to be on the side of the campground ownership/management as opposed to being a guest. Like any job, there are parts we really enjoy and a few things we don't really care for. But that is life, right? You have to experience the bad to truly enjoy the good.

Should I start with the good or the bad? I'd rather focus on the positives, so I'll begin there.

Things we like (in no particular order):

1. The diversity of work. We both split our time between the office/store and groundswork. This is what we wanted. We were hoping to experience as many different aspects of the campground as possible. I like the balance between grounds and store. After an 8-hour day of groundswork, it's kind of nice to have a less active day in the store. Likewise, after a hectic day in the store, which occassionally includes grouchy customers, it's nice to be in your own little world on grounds where you can allow your mind to wander. Tracy, on the other hand, prefers the groundswork. Not that she doesn't like the store, but she's always been more of a tinkerer and prefers to stay busy. But, regardless of where we are working, we are both enjoying our work days.

2. Being physically tired instead of mentally tired. As I mentioned above, our grounds days are typically 8 hours long. After working so many years in a sedentary job, it's no secret that we're out of shape. 8 hours of physical work is a lot when you're not used to it. Luckily, there are a lot of different things to do, so we try to spread the work across the different muscle groups. A typical day might include weed whacking for a couple of hours, camp or beach cleanup, painting, bush trimming, and weeding. That may not sound like a lot, but usually by the 8th hour, I'm looking forward to the recliner. We used to come home from our office jobs equally exhausted, but it was all mental. Our muscles may have been sore or tired, but it was all due to tension. I much prefer the physical exhaustion. And being able to work outside, weather it's sunny and hot or cold and rainy is a nice change. It's good to be out in the fresh air. And, of course, an added bonus is slimming down. Although we don't weigh ourselves regularly, we both notice the clothes fitting a little looser and the belts needing to be buckled a little tighter. Hopefully this trend will continue!

3. Lack of sleep aids. Neither of us like to take drugs, but we frequently used melatonin (natural hormone which induces relaxation), or sometimes a nightcap, to help encourage sleep. I'm sure you've all been there (or still are)...you lay in bed thinking about the day's work, looming deadlines, and all of the things yet to be done, wondering how everything is going to be accomplished. And before you know it, the alarm clock is going off. I think there has only been one time since leaving our jobs 3 months ago, that either of us have used melatonin. and that has been more due to aching and spasming muscles than restless minds.

4. No alarm clock necessary. Of course, we still have a feline alarm clock, but he is slowly getting adjusted too. I can't think of one time that we have set the alarm in the past 3 months. We do have some 8am shift starts, but thanks to Jasper, we've never overslept.

5. The commute. I LOVE the commute! 5 minutes from door to door, on foot no less! No rush hour traffic to contend with. Living in the suburbs, we always had a commute. I don't think I ever lived in the same town where I worked. Although our most recent commutes weren't that bad, we both used to drive 30 miles each way (in opposite directions) to work. It was always at least an hour drive, if not more. My latest commute was to downtown Denver and I was able to take public transportation, which I really enjoyed. Even though I didn't have to drive, it still took me about 45 minutes from the time I left the house, waited for the bus, and then walked from the bus stop to the office. It's really nice to have those 2 hours a day back under my control!

6. Living in the mountains. As I think I've mentioned previously, living in the mountains has been a long-time dream of mine and I absolutely love waking up to chirping birds, the smell of pine, and the beautiful views. Although I'm sure all of our locations won't be this serene, one of the beauties of this lifestyle is that we can choose jobs that are in environments that we prefer.

7. Our site. I've said it before, but we are loving our site. It's really nice to be separated from the campground. We actually feel that we can leave the "office" behind when we're off duty, which I think is important when you're living at your workplace. Our co-workers make it a habit to leave the campground for their days-off. We don't feel the necessity to do that. And actually, we find ourselves without motiviation to leave, even though there is so much to do and see. It feels a bit like our own personal oasis. Although I'm sure that will change somewhat when the next-door cabin is rented through most of July and August. But we'll enjoy it while we can.

8. Mondays. OK, I just had to throw this one in for all of you working stiffs. :) Mondays and Tuesdays are now our days off. I no longer have the Sunday night blues. Although our "weekends" still fly by, I don't dread starting the work week.

9. Eagles and Ospreys. I've had a long-time fascination with birds of preys and I get thrilled everytime I see an eagle or osprey fly by. We've seen a lot of ospreys around (presumably, that is why the cabin next to us is named the Osprey cabin). It's been fun watching them fish for dinner. We've seen a couple of eagles too, but they have not been as prevelant...yet. In past years, they have nested around the cabin, but this year it seems like they might have set up home a little ways down the shore (away from the campground). This morning I took Hunter for a walk down that way and saw 2 in the trees. What an awesome sight. I hope as the summer progresses there will be more.

OK, I could probably go on with our 'likes', but this post is already getting long, so I better move on to the dislikes, if you could even call them that.

Things we dislike (again, in no particular order):

1. The late shift. The store is open until 8pm and usually out of the 5 days we work, one of us is on the closing shift 4 of those days. From so many years of 9-5 work, we are used to getting up early and going to bed early. Typically, we're in bed by 10. We like to eat dinner together, so on these late nights, we don't even have dinner until 8:30. Our eating and sleeping patterns have had to be adjusted. We now tend to eat a bigger lunch and just have a light dinner. This is better for you anyway, so I hear. The person who worked grounds that day still typically falls into bed around 10, but we are now tending to sleep in later and stay up later. To throw our schedule off even more, we also have to do a 10:00pm security run 3 nights a week. We don't necessarily have to do these together, and we may not always, but for now we're both doing all 3 nights. Those nights are really long, especially when your next shift starts at 7:45 am!

2. Security rounds. I have mentioned before that this is not a favorite task of mine. I'm not confrontational and I don't like telling people what to do. But we knew coming into this that this would be on our list of duties, so I just suck it up and hope that everyone behaves themselves!

3. Being the newbie. This was one of the things we discussed in depth when contemplating this lifestyle. Neither of us were frequent job changers because we both dislike being the "new kid on the block". We like learning new things and experiencing new adventures, but it's always hard feeling like you know so little. And there is a lot to learn here. Not only are there a lot of rules and policies to learn, but also learning the layout of the campground and trying to learn a little about the area, the fishing conditions, the weather, and anything else that people may ask. I think we've come a long way in a month, but it's a little disappointing to think that just when we'll probably feel like we have the hang of it, our time will be up. And then it will be time to start all over at a new place.

4. Having to look for a new job every 4-6 months. This was another big issue that we pondered when making our decision. Not only did we not switch jobs because we prefered a known routine, but we also don't like job searching. The job search process really tests your self esteem. Generally, there will be a number of rejections before an offer comes along. And so often, it feels like a lot of effort for nothing. But once again, we knew that this is what we signed up for. Right now, we are working on solifying our winter plans. We've done some research and have some ideas, but haven't nailed anything down. The reason being is that we've decided to try and find traditional jobs for the winter (I'll go into why later). It's a bit daunting because we know that we need to reserve our campsite soon, especially if we're going to a snowbird locale, but yet it's too early to apply for jobs, since we won't be available until late September at the earliest. That's one of the advantages of workamping. The site usually comes with the job and the job can be planned several months in advance. There's a certain comfort to knowing where you will go next.

5. Snakes! I'm sure it will come as no surprise that we have snakes here. Well, I wasn't really surprised either, but I was hoping they would remain hidden. I don't like snakes. I never have. I know it's an irrational fear. They're harmless, for the most part, and they serve their purpose in the food chain. But that doesn't change the way I feel. As long as we don't cross paths, I'm fine...they can live their life, I'll live mine. Unforturnately, I've already seen a few too many for my liking. The first day I did beach cleanup I saw 3. I've seen a couple of others throughout the campground. And when we went hiking last week, there was one that was laying on the trail. I know that's one of the hazards of being a nature-lover, but I still don't like them and would prefer not to have to deal with them.

6. The pay. I almost hate to put this one down, but it's true. Once again, we did not go into this adventure blindly. We knew the general pay of workamping positions and we knew what this particular one paid. And let me state that for workamping positions, this one pays pretty well. All of our hours are paid plus we get a free site, a $50 monthly electric allowance, propane at cost and a 30% store discount. But it's still hard to make a living at these wages, which is one of the reasons we feel the necessity to supplement with traditional jobs from time to time. Maybe once we're a little more comfortable with our budget, we'll find the need for traditional jobs unnecessary, but coming from a financial state where we were living below our means to one where we're living paycheck to paycheck takes some getting used to. That's not to say that we don't have a safety net. We do, but it's not something that we want to touch if at all possible. Instead, we hope that our traditional jobs will continue to add to that safety net so that we can enjoy the workamping positions without having to focus on the money side of things.

7. Monday and Tuesday 'weekends'. OK, so I know that I mentioned Mondays as one of my 'likes' because it was my day off, but if I had the option, I wouldn't choose Mondays and Tuesdays for our days off. We find that there are a lot of restaurants and such closed on Mondays. Also, we miss out on a lot of the special events such as fairs, festivals, concerts, etc. Mostly these things happen are on weekends, but occassionally, they start on Wednesday or Thursday. Coming into this we knew that we'd have 2 days off and assumed they would be weekdays. I didn't think it really mattered, as long as they were consecutive and we both had the same days off. The way the schedule works out, it makes the most sense that we're off on Monday and Tuesday. I recognize that and I'm not complaining about it. But this is an observation that in the future, if we have any say at all, I would prefer to work on Mondays and have some other days off.

I see that my list is getting long again. This turned out to be another long post (that's why I can't blog everyday!) I didn't think my dislikes would be as long as my likes, and if I were to list everything, I'm sure the likes would well outnumber the dislikes. Overall, this has been a great experience so far and we're thoroughly enjoying it. We have no regrets with our lifestyle change. We will enjoy this particular experience for as long as we're here and then we'll look forward to the next. There's no looking back!

p.s. just as I was finishing this (sitting outside on the deck), a bald eagle flew overhead with a fish and settled in a nearby tree. Unfortunately, he's a little too far away for a good picture. Yep, I'm loving this life!

Rising Waters

2010-06-13T23:29:00.005-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

Well, once again I'm running behind. I meant to post this a few days ago. This full-time work schedule keeps getting in my way!

But as promised in my last post, I wanted to share a few pictures of how much the lake has risen since we arrived. I wish I had taken more pictures which included specific landmarks a month ago so that I could have taken the same shot this time around. It would have been much easier to compare that way. But I didn't, so we'll just have to work with what I have.

This shot was taken on 5/12. Make note of the sandbar with the bush in the middle. There was a thin piece of land that connected to shore and you could walk all the way out there. Also note the small log in the middle of the beach.

This is from the same area (although slightly different angle), taken on 6/12. Notice that there is no more sandbar and the bush is barely above water. Also notice the log. It is now covered with water.

This picture, taken on 6/11, shows just how close the water is to one of the roads in the campground. Pretty soon that boat will be able to be launched directly from it's campsite. Now that's waterfront property!

Our first week on the job, we each spent several hours cleaning up the shoreline of debris. My section started just to the left of the boom - I remember stepping over it - and I walked the beach up from the tree line all the way out to the weeds. This picture was taken yesterday, 6/12, when I was once again cleaning up the beach. The difference this time is that there was a lot less beach to cover! There were several areas where I couldn't continuously walk the shoreline. I had to go up to the road and back down to get to the other side.

I don't know how much more the lake will rise. The lake is manmade and contained by a dam, so the level can be controlled. I imagine if it gets too much higher, they'll start to release some of the water. But then again, I don't know what impact that would have downstream. If it rises too much more, we'll have several campsites which will be under water. With 4th of July just around the corner, we could have some unhappy campers on our hands!

Visitors...and a day hike

2010-06-08T21:23:00.004-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

I'm a little behind in writing. I've thought about it many times, but having enough time and enough energy never seemed to coincide. So I'll try to be somewhat brief in summarizing the past week.

Last Tuesday, our first visitors of the season rolled in to see us. Tracy's Uncle Jack and Aunt PJ came down from Happy Camp, CA...which is about 250-300 miles northwest of Chester. They spend a couple of months each year there panning (PJ, I'm not sure if this is the correct term?) for gold. Tracy had not seen her uncle in over 30 years and never officially met her aunt (although rumor has it that PJ babysat her when she was a small child). We had exchanged emails over the last couple of months and were excited to meet.

PJ, Jack & Tracy:

They arrived late Tuesday evening...a little later than expected due to a tire blowout. Luckily, no one was hurt and no damage was incurred. We had a quick greeting, got them to their site and then left them alone to get settled. We both had to be at work early the next day. Unfortunately, we had to work during much of their time here, so we couldn't explore with them, but did manage to visit with them almost every night after we got off work. Unfortunately for us, some of those nights were rather late, with too much wine consumed, and the next work day came much too quickly!

Monday arrived before we knew it and although we were glad to for a day off, it also came with some sadness as it was time for them to depart and head home to Washington. They stayed here for 6 nights and we thoroughly enjoyed their company. We are so glad that they made the effort to come down and I know Tracy is very happy to have reunited with her family.

Our farewell moment:

The remainder of Monday was spent catching up. We desparately needed to do laundry and replenish groceries, so we took a trip to Susanville and did chores.

Today, Tuesday, we decided to take Hunter for a hike. The weather has been great lately - 70s and sunny - so we thought we better take advantage of our last day off before returning to work. We hiked the Deer Creek trail in the Lassen National Forest. It was about 4 miles round trip and not terribly steep, although we were all tired by the end. The trail follows the creek, which is running quite fast right now. We like to hike trails that include some type of water. Usually, water means trees, which means at least some shade. And having natural water sources means that we don't have to lug extra water for Hunter.

Deer Creek:

About a mile and a half down the trail, lower Deer Creek Falls can be seen:

Tracy decided to soak her toes. Wow, is that water cold!

Or maybe she's just a wimp. Hunter didn't seem to have a problem with the cold:

OK, that was really an accidental swim. Hunter does not swim. He will usually wade, but does not like to get his belly wet. He did not realize that there was a sharp dropoff.

After we finished hiking, we decided to drive up to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We knew the road through the park was closed due to snow and we had heard several people comment about how much snow there was up there, but we hadn't been up to see it ourselves yet. I was surprised at how much there really was!

OK, it's not really that deep, but there were still several feet in some places.And the ground is still basically covered.

I spotted this marker by the roadside. Apparently, they anticipate accumulating up to 19' of snow some years! I don't know how much they got this year, but I do know they got a lot.

However, I am surprised that there is still this much snow left. I guess it will be awhile until we are able to hike around the park! This part of the road is at about 6000', which is only about 1500' higher than our campground. The snow is long gone from down here. I'm not sure when the road through the park is supposed to open - I did hear mid-June, but I don't know if that's accurate. I find the late opening a surprise too. I know Rocky Mt National Park in Colorado works hard to get Trail Ridge Road open by Memorial Day and I would have thought this park would have had the same goal. Either they don't have the manpower and equipment or they just let mother nature decide.

The snow is melting rapidly which is causing Lake Almanor to rise quickly. We have seen a drastic change in the lake level in the short time that we've been here. If there's all of this snow left to melt, I can't imagine how much more the lake is going to rise. I'll write more about that and include some pictures next time.

We survived our first holiday weekend...but "Chippy" almost didn't

2010-05-31T20:46:00.004-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

Our first holiday experience in our new lifestyle. Boy, do holidays have a different meaning now! We always looked forward to the start of a long 3-day weekend in our past lives. Now we look forward to them ending!

We knew we were in for a busy weekend, but didn't truly know what to expect. Although we feel like we're getting the hang of things, it still takes time to think everything through. And we knew that the pressure would be on with a line of customers waiting. The time was upon us to see how well we were trained.

The campground was not completely booked for the weekend, although close to it. We knew that this weekend would give us a taste of what was to come for the busy summer season, and hopefully prepare us for the Fourth of July. All in all, I think we did ok. I felt like I learned a lot and noted some room for improvement. I'm glad to have a couple of fairly quiet weeks ahead to work on some of those weaknesses.

I started my shift at noon on Friday and the campers started rolling in shortly thereafter. We had a steady stream throughout the afternoon and evening, but never more than 3 or 4 in line at a time. This was much better than last year, when they apparently all came in around 7:00. In between the rushes, we had several lulls which allowed for a bit of a breather and time to catch up. I didn't do as much of the gate duty as was planned. I was needed more inside the store. Unbelievably, we had a bunch of calls from people wanting to make reservations for later in the summer. During one of the busiest camping weekends? C'mon people! I'm sure the holiday got them thinking about camping, but could they not have waited until the weekend was over? These kind of experiences remind me to think twice before calling a business during a busy time or right before closing.

Anyway, I couldn't get away from the counter long enough to go out and greet the arrivals. Tracy came on duty at 6 and took over the gate duties. I was supposed to end my shift at 6, but was asked if I would stay to help through the evening. It was much easier with 3 of us. We closed the store at 9, had a brief rest at home - just long enough to take Hunter out for his evening duties, and then had to go back out for the 10:00 security rounds. Luckily, everyone seemed to be behaving themselves and quieting down, so we had a pretty easy time for our first time out. Admittedly, I think security rounds are going to be a bit of a challenge for me. I'm a bit on the shy side and not very confrontational, so having to ask a group of people (and probably inebriated people at that) to quiet down does not come naturally for me. But it is just something I will have to learn how to do. Every job usually requires some task outside your comfort zone and I guess this is it this time. I try to look at it as an opportunity to learn and grow.

We completed our rounds and were back home by 10:30. Friday was a long day, but it went by quickly. Although hectic at times, it was nice to be busy. Saturday morning came much too early, though. I wasn't on until 10, but since my shift ended less than 12 hours earlier, it seemed like a short night!

We had several arrivals on Saturday, but not near as many as Friday. Saturday was much busier with traffic...people going in and out of the campground all day long. The campground has a chain across the entrance which has to be lowered each time someone goes in or out. There is a self service button, but the driver has to get out of the car to push it. We have remote controls in the office, so we try to let it down for those exiting. For those coming in, they must have a car pass on their rearview mirror for us to allow them to enter and we try to keep a close eye on the traffic. This campground has strict rules about visitors. All visitors must be registered ahead of time by the on-site camper. Visitors are also charged an entrance fee, which must be paid at the time of registration. This doesn't always go over so well, with either the campers or the visitors. There are many reasons for restricting guests. First, on a holiday weekend, it is already very crowded so to have a bunch of additional traffic and parked cars around the campground creates hazards and difficulties. Second, we only have one bathroom building (there are a couple of porta-potties too). Having additional guests use the bathroom, not only costs the campground money but also makes it that much more crowded and uncomfortable for the paying campers. Thirdly, there are a lot of forest campgrounds nearby, so we need to try and prevent those folks from coming into our campground to use the showers. And fourth, it is basic security. It's not only important that we know who is in the campground, but it's also important for the safety of our guests. But I digress.

Saturday and Sunday were both pretty busy with traffic and kids coming in to buy ice cream and candy. But it was certainly calmer than Friday. People seemed to move a little bit slower on Sunday...maybe too much partying on Friday and Saturday?

We finally had some nice weather too. It was sunny most of the weekend and I think we may have even gotten close to 70! Could winter finally be behind us??

Today, Monday, we were off so what did we wake up to? Clouds! What's up with that?? What happened to the sun? At times, it looked like it might rain, but it never did. It was temperate, around 60, so I guess we can't complain too much. We expected the campground to be hectic with everyone packing up and pulling out, so we just decided to lay low. This is one of those times that we're really glad that our site is off by itself. Occassionally, we feel a bit isolated and a little out of touch with what's happening, but overall we really like the peace and quiet where we are. This campground only has water and electric at the sites, so we expected a long line for the dump station. We can see the dump station from our back window and there was a steady stream of rigs, but never more than 2 or 3 lined up at a time. We walked Hunter around the campground shortly before 11 and it seemed like the majority of the people were gone. The few that were left were packing up. From our vantage point, it seemed like a pretty smooth day.

But today brought a different kind of excitement for us. Last night we heard what sounded like scratching on one of our living room windows. We've had several birds bump into the window and that's what we thought it was. Jasper (our cat) seemed especially interested in the window, but again, we didn't think much of it. As we were getting ready to head into bed, he jumped up on the couch. He's not allowed on the furniture, so we thought his behavior was kind of strange, but we shooed him off and he seemed to accept it. This morning, we heard the same thump on the window and once again, Jasper was alert. This time, I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but again thought it was a bird outside. Tracy got up to look and said it was a chipmunk. I thought, "really, that's odd, are they climbing up the side of the rig?" Then she said, he's inside! And I thought, "inside? inside what? between the window and the screen?" Again, she said he's inside with a little more punctuation. And then I understood. Oh, he's inside the rig! Apparently, he was behind the couch trying to get out the window. Then he was on the couch and then disappeared again. We were fearful that he burrowed inside to where the hide-a-bed is, but we found him wedged under the cushion. As soon as we lifted the cushion, he took off and Jasper took off after him. And we took off after Jasper! He ran up the stairs and into the bedroom. My immediate thought was "great, he's going to hide under the top of the bed where we can't reach him". But miraculously, Jasper followed him all the way through and chased him into the bathroom. Now, I say miraculously because Jasper is not a small cat; he's about 20 pounds. We've rarely ever seen him move so fast and certainly didn't think he could fit into the small space behind the bed. Once in the bathroom, Jasper had "Chippy" pinned for a second, but I think he even surprised himself and didn't know what to do so he let him go. Chippy ran for cover behind the toilet and I quickly shut the bathroom door to trap him. I then got Jasper out of the room. Now what do we do? How are we going to catch this speedy little bugger? I didn't want to get bit, nor did I want to hurt the poor thing. After a couple of minutes of thought, Tracy set up a barricade by the outside door so that when I shooed him out of the bathroom, he would have nowhere to go but oustide. Success! Phew, that was an ordeal! As soon as we shut the door, our next thought was "was that the only one?" We looked around but couldn't find anymore so hopefully that's it.

We have no idea how he got inside. We have A LOT (and I mean herds or swarms or whatever you want to call them!) of chipmunks around here. They're cute but quite pesky. And they're really not too bothered by us or by our animals. Hunter is often laying out on the deck but that doesn't stop them from running all around. We generally don't leave the door open, unless we're carrying things in or out, but that's the only way we figure he got in. At least we hope that's the only way. I sure hope there's not another way for them to get in or else we'll be in for a looong summer of battles. We'll certainly be extra careful with the door from now on.

Here's a picture of our "other hunter":

And this is what he usually looks like:

Tomorrow we're expecting our first visitors of the season. I'll write more about that in my next post. Good night!

Gearing Up For The Holiday Weekend....And Maybe A Glimpse Of Spring!

2010-05-28T09:09:00.006-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

Well, there's not a whole lot to write about because we haven't been doing too much. We have continued to battle the wet and cold this week. We've had many days of rain, a few episodes of hail (minor), and even a bit of snow. The temperatures hover between 30 and 50, so we haven't had much inclination to get out and do much.

Monday (our normal day off) we worked for a few hours. I have to admit that I'm a bit frustrated with the groundswork coordination because they don't quite seem to know what to do with us. Each of us was scheduled to do a day's worth of grounds last weekend, but we were both told that with there wasn't anything that absolutely needed to be done and with the weather forecast being poor, our services weren't needed and we'd each have an extra day off. Now I'm all for an extra day off, but we're here to work and quite honestly could use the money. But I also understand that you can't control mother nature. So we accepted it and offered to make up some of the hours on Monday if the weather improved.

Monday morning arrived and it started out fairly dry, so we got dressed and met up with Randy, the head maintenance/groundskeeping guy. He seemed a bit surprised that we were wanting to work, but said we could both do some weed wacking at the tent sites. So we did that for a couple of hours. A couple of hours is about all you can stand at one time due to the vibration and weight of the models they have. And the rain started, so we figured that was a good time for a lunch break. When we followed up with Randy again, he said he didn't have anything else for us to do. Hmmm, so much for making up our hours.

I understand it's early in the season and things haven't gotten into full swing yet, but I have a hard time believing that there's not work to be done. And this was apparent yesterday (Thursday), when I was scheduled for a full-day of groundskeeping. The weather was far worse then it was last weekend, but I was outside working all day in it. I battled rain and a couple of brief hailstorms. And it was cold to boot. I don't think it ever got above 45. Not that I'm complaining. I like being busy. And I like being active. I would much prefer to be outdoors, even in weather like that. And I was busy. I weed wacked, mowed, and pulled weeds between the rain storms. I helped get one of the boats in the water and another one out of storage. I mounted a bunch of signs. I helped get the ice machine running. I bundled some firewood. What I don't comprehend though is why some of this stuff couldn't be done over the weekend? Why wait until the last minute? I'm getting the feeling that Randy doesn't quite know what to do with us, even though "there is more than enough work to be done". I am a bit frustrated by it and I'm hoping that it will work itself out when the owners are on-site for the summer (right now they're only here on select weekends while their daughter finishes up school). We'll just have to see, but I'm hoping that this isn't a problem of overstaffing. Last year they had one less staff person, but they were also experimenting with some different things. They said in years past that they had the same number of people as this year and it worked well. So hopefully the work will pick up as the campground fills.

Our other working days have been spent in the store, which is starting to get a little busier. Compared to past years, we've been told that this year is quite a bit slower, presumably due to the slow start of Spring. But the phones have been busy and reservations are starting to roll in for the summer. We're not completely full this weekend, but I expect that it will still be fairly busy. The forecast is for more rain this afternoon and then it is supposed to clear up for the remainder of the weekend. It is supposed to be partly sunny with temperatures in the high 60's to low 70's. I know that doesn't sound like much to all of you who have been battling the heat already (I see many pictures on blogs with people in shorts and I'm jealous!), but this sounds wonderful to us.

We really haven't done much with our time off. There's no desire to go hiking or exploring in the wet and cold. We have driven around some, just to get out of the house, but even that's not all that enjoyable in the rain. But hopefully Spring is upon us, with Summer not too far off. I'm looking forward to a busy, but hopefully not too chaotic, weekend. It will be interesting to see what's in store. This afternoon, I will be serving as the official greeter. Howard and Linda Payne introduced a system last year to greet each of the RV's as they're waiting in line on the driveway to check-in. (H&L - if you're reading, be pleased to know that they've continued to implement your suggestions!) I will help gather some important information, such as license plate and boat registration numbers, in order to speed the check-in process along. I'm not sure what else is involved - it hasn't really been explained to me yet. But I'll be outside, probably in the rain again!

That's it for now. I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend!

Waiting On Summer To Arrive

2010-05-22T10:12:00.003-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

Last night we had snow...again. It's been a cold, wet Spring so far. For the past week or so, the forecast each day has included a chance of precipitation; sometimes we get it, sometimes we don't. But the clouds usually roll in and the wind whips up every afternoon. Each night, it's been getting down to around freezing, so we've been unhooking our water, just to be on the safe side. Each morning we wake up to find that we probably would have been ok. So that had made us question whether we should continue to go through the trouble. None of our other co-workers are unhooking. Maybe we're just being overly cautious.

Yesterday afternoon, the rain, and then snow started around 3:00. We were thankful that our shift ended at 2:00 and we were back home and inside, warm and dry. I sure do like this commute - off at 2, at home by 2:05! The temperature continued to drop and around 8:00, the thermometer read around 32. If it was already at freezing that early in the evening, we figured that it would get pretty cold overnight. So we listened to our guts and unhooked our water once again. It got down to about 27 last night and from what we've heard, the water spigots in the campground are frozen! Boy, are we glad we are being "overly cautious"!! We haven't checked on any of our neighbors yet (since we're so far away from the rest of them). Hopefully they all made it through the night with no issues. As of 9:30 this morning, it is still only 32 degrees. BRRR.

This weather cycle is supposed to continue most of the next week and into Memorial Day weekend. So I guess we won't see summer for a little while yet. Unfortunately, this weather is playing havok with our work schedule too. Tracy and I were supposed to spend part of the weekend on groundskeeping - first our assignment was painting the dock, then it was moved to mowing and weed wacking - none of which can be done in this kind of weather unfortunately. So we'll each have an unexpected day off this weekend. If we get a break in the weather on Monday or Tuesday (our normal days off), we may work on one of those days to make up for the lost hours this weekend. But we'll just have to wait and see. Until then, we'll stay huddled in front of the fireplace, with our books and computers in hand. It certainly could be much worse!

Settling In and Our First Days of Work

2010-05-16T17:38:00.008-06:00

Current location: Chester, CA

I haven't written much the last few days because we haven't done a whole lot. This site is so beautiful and peaceful, we find that we just want to relax on the deck, watch the fishermen, and have very little desire to do much else.

The view from our deck...why would we ever want to leave?Our site. The lake is in the background. We are away from the main campground and totally secluded, until the cabin (on the left) is rented. We'll enjoy the peace while we can!
Our "beach". This is the lakeshore in front of our site. We're not right on the waterfront, but are separated by a grove of trees.

To give a better perspective, this is the view of our site from the lake. That's us behind that very large dark pine. Very private.

We spent our first few days here just getting to know the lay of the land and our fellow workers. We were the last of the staff to arrive; the others all started when the campground opened on April 30. We've also become somewhat lazy. We're generally up early, thanks to Jasper (his stomach alarm goes off about 6am), but we tend to just hang out for several hours before getting dressed or doing much of anything. Then it takes another hour to have breakfast, get dressed and do the dishes, so before we know it it's 10:00 or later! We rarely had such slow starts in our previous life, but when there's nothing that has to be done, it's easy to just let the time tick on by.

Once dressed, the first order of business is to take Hunter for a walk. He's not a morning dog and usually goes back to sleep after breakfast, so the delayed starts suit him just fine. We've been walking the campground a couple of times a day to familiarize ourselves with the layout. There are roughly 130 sites, and although they are somewhat sequentially laid out, it's a bit of a zig zag route. The sites are also deemed for a specific use - tent sites are for tenters only (no pop-ups, truck campers, vans or RVs allowed); RV sites are for all the rest, but won't allow tents. Some sites have lots of trees and therefore are very shady, but that also limits what size rig can use the site; others are fairly open, so that means sun, but allows for larger RVs. Thankfully, there are good notes on all of this, but it's still helpful to actually view the sites.

A section of the campground. It's hard to tell much through all of the trees, but if you look closely, you will notice picnic tables and fire pits.
Lake Almanor from the campground. There are several lake front sites, but even those that aren't right on the water, have a great view of it.

A different view of the lake. The campground's boat docks are on the left side. There are not many public access points for putting in boats, so we get a lot of day-use boat launchers.

The remainder of our days have been mostly filled with cleaning, reorganizing, restocking, and laundry. Just the general settling in routine. Nothing very exciting to write about, but it feels great to have all of that out of the way.

Our first day of "work" was Saturday. We spent about 4 hours in the store being trained on the reservation system, the cash register, and all of the procedures and policies. Wow, there are a lot of rules here! The owners have tried to develop a fairly strict set of rules to keep the campground quiet and peaceful, but also ensure its profitability. I'm sure there's a very fine line in making the customer happy while still making it enjoyable for all customers. Some of the rules seem a bit excessive, but I know they all came about from previous bad occurrences. Most customers accept them, but there will be a few who complain and question. There's just so much to remember!

It's pretty quiet this time of year, but we did have a couple of phone calls requesting reservations and a few walk-ins for sites that night so it was good to get some real-life experience. All the training seems easy until you have a customer standing in front of you waiting. And then the panic sets in. What do I do first? What if I forget something? But I think we both did pretty well. At least they haven't told us not to come back! Each day will bring a little more confidence. We left our shift on Saturday with the rule book in hand, but ran out of energy before we even made it a quarter of the way through. We have a lot of reading to do. We might have it all down by the end of the season!

Sunday morning, we resumed our training at 8 am! What happened to our leisurely morning?? When Jasper woke us up this morning, we actually had to get up and get moving! We continued our training in the store, mostly just reiterating what we learned yesterday. We also got some training on the management reports. We will both be helping out with the daily income reconciliations.

We worked about 4 1/2 hours yesterday and about 5 1/2 hours today. That doesn't sound like much, but after having 2 months off of working (we both ended our professional careers on March 12, and although we've been hard at work on other things, we haven't had much of a schedule to adhere to) and feeling overwhelmed with so much to learn, it's been tiring. Luckily we have the next 2 days off! Mondays and Tuesdays will be our regular days off so we'll have a little time to let it all sink in.

Other than having set days off, we don't really know what our schedules will be. We do know that we will be spending about 50% of our time in the store; the remainder of the time will be spread out over a little bit of everything else, which is what we requested. Being our first workamping gig, we wanted to experience as much as possible. So we will serve as the rovers, filling in wherever is needed. During the holidays and weekends, I suspect that we'll spend much of our time in the store. The rest of the time, we'll be doing yardwork, helping with boat rentals and launches, cleaning cabins, pumping propane, restocking the bathrooms, running nightly security checks and anything else that comes up. We're excited to get started. Although the leisurely lifestyle was nice for awhile, it will be nice to have a bit more of a routine and a purpose to get up in the morning. Otherwise, I think we would end up becoming slugs!

Our summer in paradise!

2010-05-10T19:55:00.006-06:00

current location: Chester, CA

We arrived at our summer home...amidst a blizzard! The forecast was for rain with possible snow, but I now think that was for lower elevations. Northshore Campground, where we will be workamping for the summer, is at roughly 5000 feet. As we began climbing the mountain from Susanville, CA, the flakes began. First they were mixed with rain, but by the time we came over the pass (I can't remember the name), it was seriously coming down. This morning, we had briefly talked about postponing our arrival until tomorrow based on the forecast, and now we were thinking that maybe we should have listened to ourselves. But we're here now and are thrilled to be here!

It is absolutely beautiful. It reminds me of the Colorado mountains. Back in our previous life, I always wanted to live in the mountains. We spent as much time as we could there on weekends, but could never figure out a way to live there while making a living. So I am now living that dream and it feels great.

The campground is on the shores of Lake Almanor in Chester,CA. Our site is very remote, away from the rest of the campground. We are in the same site that Howard and Linda Payne (RV-Dreams founders) stayed in last year. We knew it was going to be a bit challenging to get in based on what Howard wrote in his journal, but it was a little worse than what I expected. We (or should I say Tracy) had to back down a driveway and then make a 90 degree turn to get into the site. We eventually made it with a lot of back and forths, a little this way, a little that way. Tracy did great; she's always been better at backing up than me, so there was no discussion about who would be attempting this one. It was well worth the effort (easy for me to say!).

Here's a picture out of our front door. The lake is much closer than it looks; the shoreline is just a few feet away!

I'll take more pictures in the next few days once the weather clears up. Even though the picture above shows a little blue sky, the forecast tonight includes about 4 inches of snow and it's supposed to get down to 27 degrees. Brrr. And I thought we were done with winter! But I'm not complaining. That's springtime in the mountains. Luckily, we're used to this kind of weather.

We don't officially start work until next week, but wanted to get here a few days early to get settled and familiarize ourselves with the area. It will be nice to finally have the chance to unpack and we desperately need to do some serious cleaning, both inside and out.

I'll write more about the campground and the area once we figure it out! As I look outside, the snow has started to fall again. Sure glad we decided to get the optional fireplace!

Hualapai Mountain Park

2010-05-05T18:04:00.005-06:00

Current location: Kingman, AZ

Best laid plans...you know the saying. Well, we've had to slightly adjust our plans, again. We had planned for Kingman to be a one night stop, but when we pulled into the Blake Ranch RV Park, the attendant told us we were lucky to get a site without a reservation. Really? Hmmm, we've had no problem thus far. According to her, it's the northern migration of the snowbirds and this park is booked. I would have thought that most snowbirds would have already headed north by now, but I guess not. And that got us thinking about our next stops.

Our next planned stop was to spend a couple of nights at Terrible's Casino in Pahrump, NV. Howard and Linda Payne had stayed there and gave it high marks. We were planning to spend a few days there to replenish groceries, do some laundry, etc before our last push to California. So after the news, I thought I better call to make a reservation. Uh oh. They are sold out! They have three different rallies going on plus are full of migrating snowbirds. OK, plan B.

After some research and some additional calls, we decided to skip Pahrump altogether and extend our stay here in Kingman. The RV park has a very large and modern laundry and the town of Kingman appeared to be sizable enough to have some decent grocery stores and such. Luckily they were able to fit us in, although we had to move sites. So here we are.

One of the other reasons we decided to stay in Kingman was that it's not terribly hot, although getting warmer everyday, and there were some nearby hiking opportunities. So yesterday was our "chore day" and today was play day. Hunter loves to hike and he started getting excited as soon as the pack and the water bottles were set on the counter. He knew it was his day.

We drove to the Hualapai Mountain Park, which is about 15 miles outside of town. I had found what sounded like a nice hike on Trails.com (for those who like to hike, bike, etc, this is an awesome site. It requires a nominal annual membership fee, but it saves having to buy hiking guides everywhere you go). The hike was stated to be 4.3 miles round-trip and about 800 ft elevation gain. That's pretty typical of what we used to do in Colorado, so we headed out about 9am this morning.

I wasn't really sure what to expect. Our campground is typical Arizona - shrubs but no trees - so we were prepared for more of the same. We wanted to get an early start to beat the heat in case it wasn't real shaded. Wow, were we surprised. It is called a mountain park and it actually felt like the mountains. There were lots of big pine trees and lots of shade. It is a beautiful area.

The trail...that's Hunter dodging trees:

When we entered the park, there was a trailhead almost immediately for the Aspen Springs trail. This was the trail that would take us to the one we wanted. So we parked and started hiking. Up and up and up. About a mile later we entered a campground and what did we find? The trailhead that we were supposed to park at! Oops. Oh well, it was a nice hike up to that point so we continued on. Now the guide said that the 800 foot elevation gain would be reached in about 1.5 miles and then it would level off. But keep in mind that we had already hiked a mile and climbed about 500 feet. But we kept going and kept climbing. It was very peaceful, the fresh pine smelled devine (hey, a rhyme!), and the temperature was just about perfect.

An old mine ("Silver Bell Mine"), we found along the trail. I don't know what was mined here, maybe silver? gold?

Rest stop for the weary...

Overlooking the town of Kingman (I think) in the far distance. Notice, a bit to the left of center an image of a dragonfly cut into the trees:

Here's a close up. The dragonfly is "our symbol". Read my post about it's symbolism here. How cool!

We made it to the point where the trail started to level off and we needed to make a decision. We were now on a section that was a 2.5 mile loop. Should we continue around the loop or turn around? If we continued around, the hike would end up being about 6.5 miles, which would really be pushing it for Hunter. And we were feeling a bit weary ourselves. I think we've had too many days sitting behind the wheel or just lounging around the house and we were feeling it. So we stopped for some lunch while we pondered.

While we sat atop a rock enjoying the view and our lunch, Hunter found a nice bed of pine needles under a tree that was perfect for a quick nap.

After sitting for awhile and filling our bellies, we turned around and headed back. And a good decision it was. Hunter started lagging further and further behind and by the time we got to the car, he was just about pooped. We were right there with him.

But it was a great hike. In total, we hiked a little over 5 miles and climbed about 1400 feet. Our legs are tired tonight, but it's a good kind of pain. What a nice little surprise Kingman turned out to be. I guess there was a reason we were meant to linger for a few days.

Tomorrow we'll head on to NV, taking it slow. We plan to arrive in California on Monday and I have to say that we're all looking forward to settling down for awhile. We've learned a lot on our first journey as full-timers. We've become more confident with hitching and towing and we've learned how to relax quite a bit. We are able to sleep well the night before our travel days now and have found it to be quite an easy routine. I'm sure after being stationary for 4 months we'll have to relearn all over again, but that's ok. We have our whole lives.

Petrified Forest National Park

2010-05-02T15:45:00.011-06:00

Current Location: Holbrook, AZ

One down, 63 to go! One of my lifetime goals is to visit every U.S. National Park. I've been to many of the major ones, but there are so many others that I have yet to see. We decided that we would start our new life with a clean slate and not count the parks we had visited previously. So yesterday we knocked off the first one with a visit to the Petrified Forest National Park.

This park is made up of petrified logs which were created over 225 million years ago. They fell into streams and were buried in a mix of silt, mud and volcanic ash, which cut off the oxygen and slowed the logs' decay. Silica-laden groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood tissues with silica deposits. Eventually, the silica crystallized into quartz and the logs were preserved as petrified wood.

From far away, the logs look just like wood logs:

But up close, you can see the beautiful crystals:

This park was first created as a National Monument by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906 and was later elevated to a National Park in 1962. Another interesting fact is that this is the only National Park through which Route 66 ran. This portion of Rte 66 has been replaced by I-40, but the old roadbed is still marked by the weathered telephone poles:

This land was also home to the Peubloan people and some of their remnants are still visible today. The puerco pueblo was thought to be home to as many as 1200 people and consisted of approximately 100 rooms. There are many areas where petroglyphs can still be seen.
It felt good really good to be outside, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying some exercise. We took several short hikes and because this is one of the national parks which allow dogs on the trails, Hunter was able to go too. The weather was cool, which was a blessing since there is no shade in this park. As the day wore on, the wind picked up and by the time we reached the end, we were sick of being blown around and skipped the last couple of short trails.

For the first time in quite awhile, we felt like we were back in our element. Our weekends of our past life frequently included hikes in the Colorado foothills. Many of our vacations included visits to National Parks and Monuments, National Forests, or any scenic place outdoors. It felt good to be back to the familiar. As we were hiking, I had a bit of a revelation. In our past life, whether it was a weekend or a weeklong vacation, our adventures always had to come to an end and before we knew it we were returned to the drudgery of life as if our adventure never occurred. But this time, I realized that our adventure won't end until we are ready for it to end. And that put a smile on my face!

Cochiti Lake Recreation Area, New Mexico

2010-04-29T12:23:00.004-06:00

Current Location: Pena Blanca, New Mexico

We pulled into the Cochiti Lake Recreation Area late yesterday afternoon. It's about 30 miles north of Albuquerque and about 12 miles off the highway. It's very remote once you leave the highway, but the roads getting here are pretty good. It's always a bit nerve-wracking heading into these remote areas for the first time, not knowing what to expect. But the description of the campground stated that it was big-rig friendly so we figured it would be ok.

A lot of campgrounds bill themselves as "big-rig friendly" but we're finding that that is very subjective. Sometimes, they only have one or two sites that we could fit in. Other times, the roads are too narrow or there are too many trees or other obstacles which make it extremely difficult. We are learning that it's good to have one or two backup options just in case our first choice doesn't work. We never had these problems when we were in our 24' motorhome!

But back to this campground. It is managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers so we were pretty confident that the description was fairly accurate. We had never been to a COE campground but had heard good things about them. This campground is pretty nice. There's an older section and a brand new section (just opened this year). We were first assigned a spot in the older section, but after a couple of attempts at getting into the spot we determined that wasn't going to work (too small). The new section had much larger sites, but most are reserved for the weekend. We went back to the office to ask if we could have one of the newer sites as long as we were gone before the reservation date. We weren't sure if we were going to stay 2 or 3 nights here, but I guess that made our decision. We'll only stay 2 nights and pull out on Friday morning.

All of the sites have a nice view of the lake. That's us on the left.

Because there are no trees here, the sites aren't terribly private, but they are reasonably spaced. It sounds like this place gets pretty busy in the summer. There is boating (no wake only) and swimming in the lake.

I think 2 nights will turn out to be just long enough. There aren't many hiking opportunities, as I thought. And as Hunter quickly discovered last night, the ground is full of loose stickers which have blown off nearby bushes. He's pretty much forced to stay on the road. The weather today isn't cooperating for outdoor adventures anyway. It is very windy. The forecast for Albuquerque was for gusts up to 50 mph. With the lack of trees, I suspect it is always somewhat windy around here, but it's downright miserable out there now. So today has ended up being a pretty lazy day, which is ok too. I'm just glad we're not trying to drive in this. I think we learned our lesson on that one already!

That's it for now. Tomorrow we'll continue westward, with our next stop nearby the Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert in Arizona. More on those later...

We PASSED!, on our way to California, and Happy Anniversary to us!

2010-04-27T16:51:00.005-06:00

Current location: Lubbock, TX

I wanted to post the good news yesterday, but we were in an area without internet or cell phone service.

So first an update on our driving tests that we took on Monday...we both passed! Hooray, we're legal!! As with so many things that you fret needlessly over, both the written and driving tests ended up being rather easy. Of course I can say that now that they're behind us. For the written test, they hand you a book and tell you to read Chapter 15. The back of the book contains about 30 sample questions from that chapter. The actual test contained 20 questions, most of which were exact replicas of the sample questions. The driving test took about 10-15 minutes. It followed much the same route that we took to get to the office, so there were no surprises. There were a few right turns and a few left turns. We then went down a side street and had to back straight up for a few feet. No markers or anything to drive between, just straight back. And that's it. Really nothing we hadn't done before. But boy, was it a huge relief to get it over with. I think we were more anxious than we realized because we were both exhausted that night. That was the last of our many "chores" to do before settling down for the summer and we now feel free! After all, that's what this lifestyle is all about. Although we do have a deadline to reach California, we have given ourselves more than enough time to get there, so we can just take the slow and easy route. We can finally follow the advice that so many have shared with us...slow down, relax and enjoy the journey.

So we are now on our way out of Texas, slowly. This is one big state! Of course we are practically going from the southeastern corner to the northwestern corner so no wonder it's taking forever. We planned Monday to be a pretty short day, knowing that we would have a late start due to our driving tests. We spent the night in Meridian, TX, just a bit oustide of Waco. It was about a 4 hour day, covering about 200 miles. We overnighted in the Bosque Bottoms RV Park and were the only ones there, other than the camphost. It was very park-like,serene and peaceful...
...until the trains started rumbling through in the middle of the night and the gunshots (not too close) around 6 am. OK, time to get up! We were back on the road by 8.

Today we made it to Lubbock, which was just over 300 miles. We could have probably gone further but are trying to stick to our 300-mile rule. Besides once we pass Lubbock, there wasn't too many other options for another 100 miles or so and that would be too long. So we pulled into an RV park along the highway around 2 and have had a relaxing afternoon. It's nothing special (not even worthy of a picture), but the rate is good and it's reasonably clean. And hopefully there will be no gunshots tonight!

Tomorrow will be a slightly longer day as we have targeted a Corps of Engineer campground north of Albuquerque. It is more our type of place - on a lake in the woods. We plan to spend 3 nights there, hopefully getting in some good hiking. I think we'll all (Hunter included) be ready for some good exercise by then. We're not sure of our exact route beyond that, but have a general idea. We'll find some other interesting places to spend a day or two along the way.

Lastly, I would like to wish my soul mate a happy anniversary. 8 years ago today we exchanged rings in a very private ceremony (just the 2 of us) on the shores of Shadow Mountain Reservior in Grand Lake, Colorado. If someone had told me back then where we'd be and what we'd be doing in eight years, I never would have believed them. It is still surreal. But one thing I can say without a doubt is that there's no way I would be here without Tracy. No, it's not because she coerced me and is dragging me down the road kicking and screaming. (None of you would believe that anyway, would you?) I'm not even sure I can "blame" her (er, I mean give her credit) for coming up with this idea initially. But one of the most important things that I think we provide to each other is the courage to believe in our dreams. I've never been able to be so open and honest with anyone else and I think we both believe that we can achieve anything, as long as we're together. I can't wait to see what the next 8 years bring!

Setbacks, delays, and a day with friends

2010-04-23T12:57:00.004-06:00

Current location: Livingston, TX

Well, apparently I spoke too soon about the ease of becoming Texans. And unfortunately, we have only ourselves to blame for not doing our homework thoroughly. One thing we thought strange was that they require you to register ALL of your vehicles before you can get a drivers license. Now we understand why. Registering the vehicles went pretty smoothly. The application requested the gross weight of each vehicle. We had read that they will require either a certified weight (meaning you have to take your rig to get it weighed) or the manufacturer's brochure to confirm the weight. So we were honest and filled in the weights accordingly. Once at the registration office they didn't ask for any proof. Why is this important, you ask?

We found out at our next stop, to get our drivers license. Our combined gross weight is over the 26,000 lb limit which means that in the state of Texas we need a class A (non-commercial truck driver's license). In order to get one of those, we needed to take a written and driving test - that is, a driving test with the trailer attached. Uuugh. We left pretty despondent. Mostly because we were just barely over the 26000 lb limit and could have easily fudged the numbers. I can't imagine they have the manpower to follow up on those numbers. But it was too late for that. We thought about going to another office and telling them that we only had the truck so we could get the regular license but were concerned that they might figure that one out after we left the state. Texas initially provides a temporary license and sends you the real one 4 weeks later. I presume this is mostly to check for outstanding warrants and suspensions, but thought that their systems might also check registrations. We didn't want to take the chance since we'd be in California by the time we found out. So we decided we had no other choice but to follow the rules.

We studied Wednesday morning and took the written test that afternoon. We both passed. Phew! They only schedule driving tests for Friday, Monday and Tuesday so we scheduled our driving test for this morning. We woke up to a rainy morning and well, they don't do the tests in the rain. Shoot! So we called right at 8am and rescheduled for Monday. A bit of relief, although it's only temporary. I'm not looking forward to the test. I can't imagine we won't pass. After all, we made it all the way down here, didn't we? But I am a little worried about whether they'll require us to back up. We can both do it, but sometimes it takes several tries to get in just right. I have no idea how strict they'll be or how tight the spots will be. Just something else to worry about!

Our plans were to pull out on Sunday, but now we will have to delay one day (assuming we pass!). We have a lot of flexibility in our travel schedule to California so the delay won't have much effect, but we are ready to get out of Texas! Today it's in the mid-eighties with 100% humidity. Coming from Colorado, I forgot what humidity is like.

We needed some relief from the anxiety of the last couple of days, so on Thursday, we loaded Hunter and headed to Galveston to visit our friends, Rod and Connie Shaut ("RodNReal") whom we met at the RV-Dreams Rally last year. They were gracious enough to invite us to their current stix n brix home - they're not fulltiming yet. They were hit by Hurricane Ike last year and sustained some damage but have fixed up their house beautifully. I can imagine it will be hard for them to part with it when they're ready to hit the road.

We had a great afternoon of catching up, laughing and just generally relaxing in their courtyard. Hunter and Sam (their chocolate lab) got along great. I think Hunter enjoyed having a pal to hang with and I know he enjoyed being able to roam around the yard freely. I'm not so sure he wanted to come "home". When we were saying our good-byes, I asked Hunter if he was ready to go home and he just looked at me and headed toward the stairs to the house!

When Connie asked if we wanted to stay for dinner, we knew we couldn't say no. We had a taste of their cooking at the Rally - Connie made wonderful grilled mango chicken for the potluck and Rod won the chili cookoff - so we knew we were in for a treat. And we were not disappointed. Connie made delicious fish tacos. We both ate until we were stuffed. Connie, we'll come for dinner anytime! :)

It was a nice departure from Livingston and it was great to see our friends again. The drive was a bit long, but it was well worth it. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures. I brought my camera and set it on the table upon arriving. I didn't touch it again until we were ready to leave. I'm really bad about that, but something I will have to work on. Connie didn't want her picture taken so I have none to show this time. I need to get back in the photography mode. I was pretty serious about it in college, but over the years had lost interest. Now I rarely remember to take my camera, but something I vow to get better about.

Our plans for the weekend are pretty laid back. We will meet Edith, Krystal's mom, tomorrow and are planning a hike on Sunday if the weather cooperates. More on that later...

Becoming a Texan

2010-04-19T19:17:00.003-06:00

Current location: Livingston, TX

Coming from Colorado, being a Texan is not something to boast about. Texans are not particularly liked in Colorado. Being liberal democrats, relocating to Texas certainly isn't something to aspire to. After all, it is the home to the Bushes. But for many reasons which I have discussed before, we made a trip to TX specifically to become residents. Call us crazy.

So here we are, in Livingston. Livingston is a small town about an hour north of Houston. We arrived on Sunday afternoon. Contrary to what I wrote in my last post, we did not split up the drive into 2 days. We woke up Saturday and it was raining pretty hard. The forecast was not good for Oklahoma or Texas so we decided to stay put. Unfortunately, the forecast for Sunday was not much better, but we decided that we'd get an early start and give it a shot anyway. If the driving conditions were bad then we'd make it short day. We pulled out of the campground at 8:00 am, very early by most RV standards. We would have been out by 7:30 but had some difficulty getting hitched up. We encountered rain on and off most of the way, but it was not a hard rain and there was very little splashback, with the exception of a couple of places. We were making pretty good time and decided to keep going. We pulled into the campground around 3:30, after 388 miles. OK, so that's a little over our maximum daily recommendation. But we should get some credit for not driving on Saturday, right? :) Adhere to one rule, break another. That's break-even.

Although we had plenty of time to get set up and settled in the daylight, we determined that this was still too long of a day. We were tired, maybe in part due to the fact that neither of us slept particularly well the night before. I think we were both anxious about moving again (does that feeling ever go away?). I think we'll try to be a little stricter on our daily mileage on the next leg.

We are staying at the home base of the Escapees, the Rainbows End campground. The Escapees club has several campgrounds across the country and as members, the rates are pretty cheap. Many members spend the winter, or longer, in these parks. The lady parked across from us has been here 3 years! We weren't expecting this to be a park that would appeal to our tastes. We tend to like the more natural settings, with privacy in between sites. Well, good or bad, we weren't surprised. The sites are very close together with just a few trees scattered throughout. There is another section of the campground which is a little more campground-like, but it does not have sewer hookups. We could have easily stayed over there and dumped on our way out, but this is where they put us and we didn't know any better to ask. Oh well, we won't be here too long. I don't think this will be a place that we visit often.

What was a surprise is the beauty of the area. It borders Sam Houston National Forest and although we aren't in the forest, it is pretty lush. When we think Texas, we think of western Texas, dry and flat. This area isn't anything like that. Although I recognize that we've come at a good time of year. I'm sure in mid-Summer it gets very hot and humid.

Today, we went and got our paperwork for registering the vehicles. Tomorrow we have to go get a safety inspection and then take all that paperwork back to get plates. It won't be a cheap day because we'll also have to pay sales tax on the RV. The dealer didn't charge us sales tax in Colorado since we were registering out of state. The tax rates are cheaper down here so it does save us a little bit of money. And the registration is significantly cheaper than Colorado.

We hope to get our drivers licenses and register to vote on Wednesday and then hopefully we'll be all done with our chores. All in all, it's a pretty easy process, we think, although we haven't completed everything yet!

On Thursday, we will be taking a road trip to Galveston to visit our friends Rod and Connie Shaut, whom we met at last years RV-Dreams Rally. They were our neighbors and we've kept in touch since. It will be nice to see them and will be nice to have a break from our chores. On Saturday morning, we're scheduled to meet up with Edith Muckenfuss, Krystal's mom. She spent several years as a contractor in Iraq so we've never had the opportunity to meet her when visiting Texas previously. I guess it's about time since Ryan and Krystal have been married for several years. And then we are scheduled to pull out on Sunday morning. So our time is pretty well booked, but we've made sure that we still have a lot of down time. After all, we're trying to learn to slow down! :)

We haven't figured our route to California yet, but are giving ourselves 2-3 weeks to get there, so that should allow time for some extended stops along the way. Our tentative plan is to drive 2 days straight and then stop for 2-3 days, but I guess that will really depend on what we find to do along the way. The one thing that we do know is that we don't want to unhitch and unpack every night. We think we'd much rather get some miles behind us while we're packed and then be able to stay unpacked for a couple of days. Not that it takes us that long to pack and unpack; we're getting that part figured out, but it's still a bit of a hassle.

Well, another day of our new life is drawing to a close. Are we still happy with our decision? You betcha! Are there any second thoughts? Nope. Is it always easy? No, but I think it will all pay off once we get this phase behind us and we can just focus on the life we've dreamed of. We recognize that we're still in the transition phase and that we won't always be driven by such a time schedule.

Oklahoma City

2010-04-16T14:47:00.009-06:00

Location: Purcell, OK

Our original plan was to stay in Oklahoma 2 nights, but after talking it over, we decided to stay an extra night. We agreed that we could use a down day to organize a few things (yes, we've organized and re-organized several times already and I'm sure this won't be the last), plan the next leg of our trip, and simply relax. Our campground is in a city park, overlooking a lake and is very quiet. It seemed like the perfect place to just wittle away the day. And if that wasn't enough incentive, when we paid our site fees (at the golf course across the street), the gentleman told us that if we wanted to stay an extra night that would be ok and even future-dated our receipt. So we get 3 nights for the price of 2! We're learning quickly (I hope)...we've slowed down and are taking time to relax!

Now to backtrack slightly. Yesterday, we drove into downtown Oklahoma City to visit the national memorial. This is the site where on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah building, killing 168 people. There is an outdoor memorial and an indoor museum. We had Hunter with us, so we only did the outside part.

The center of the memorial contains a reflecting pool and is framed on either end by walls signifying the minute before (9:01) and the minute after (9:03) the explosion.

Next to the reflecting pool is a field of empty chairs. Each chair symbolizes one of the victims, with the smaller chairs representing the 19 children killed. The base of each chair is engraved with the name of a victim. The chairs are arranged in 9 rows to represent the 9 floors of the building. On the other side of the reflecting pool is the survivor tree. This is a 90+ year old elm which withstood the blast and now symbolizes resiliency.On the outside of the memorial, the fence which was installed immediately after the bombing still stands. Almost immediately, people left momentos and 15 years later, they continue to do so.

It is certainly a somber place to visit, but I'm glad we did. So many innocent lives lost for no reason.

Upon leaving the memorial, we drove around the city a bit and then headed back 'home'. We were expecting visitors. Terry and Jo Miller live just west of the city and offered to come down our way to meet us. Terry is a frequent poster on the RV-Dreams forum ("Terry and Jo") and he's always one of the first to respond to my truck and trailer questions. He has done a lot of research on many aspects of this transition and is more than happy to share his knowledge. He and Jo are not yet fulltiming, but have just purchased their rig and will be living in it until they retire in a few years. It was great to meet another member of the RV-Dreams family and we hope to run into them again down the road.

Today we did exactly what we planned to do. We took Hunter for a 3-mile walk around the lake and then hung around home to prepare for our departure tomorrow. I think Tracy even managed to grab a short nap. Now this is the life we expected! :)

Tomorrow we will head south to Texas. We will break up our travel days into 2 roughly 200-mile days, ultimately arriving in Livingston on Sunday. We will be staying in Livingston for about a week, while we establish residency. We are also hoping for time to visit Krystal's (Tracy's daughter-in-law) mom who doesn't live too far away as well as meet up with another RV-Dreams couple whom we met at the Rally last year.

That's it for now. Have a good one!

Rules were made to be broken

2010-04-15T19:16:00.005-06:00

Location: Purcell, OK

Maybe they're not rules, per se, but more like guidelines. Based on what we've read from other fulltimers, there were a few principles that we wanted to adopt when we ventured out on the road. The first was to not travel during bad weather. The second was to limit the number of miles we drive each day. The third was not to travel at night. After all, we are no longer in a hurry. For the most part, we don't have to be anywhere by any specific date. So we should be able to relax and take our time, right?

Well, on our first 2 days on the road, we broke two of the rules and came close to breaking the third. We left Golden on Tuesday. It was quite windy in Denver and we were headed east through Kansas. We should have known better and should have waited until Wednesday to leave. But for some unknown reason, we felt like we had set a schedule and had to stick to it. I guess old habits die hard.

As soon as we got east of Denver, the wind picked up and it got progressively worse the further we drove. We stopped a couple of times to contemplate, but decided to continue on. Finally, about 7 miles over the Kansas state line, we pulled into a rest stop and decided to wait it out. This was further than we probably should have driven. The high wind advisory was scheduled to end around 7pm. Hmm, what to do? This was only about half as far as we had planned to get, but neither of us wanted to continue. We thought about trying to make it to the next town, about 15 miles away to find an RV park, but decided it wouldn't be worth the money to pay for a site. It was too windy to put the slides out and we wouldn't be spending any time outside anyway. Kansas allows overnight stays in their rest stops so we decided just to stay the night.

We were a little nervous, even though there were a lot of truckers and a couple of other RVs hunkered down for the night. Neither of us slept well and were anxious for morning to arrive. To make things even worse, once the wind let up a thunderstorm rolled in. Hunter hates thunder and lightning so he was stressed out too. I think the only one who slept well was Jasper, and that's only because he meowed the entire time we were on the road and was exhausted.

We were up and on the road by 6:30 Wednesday morning. About 20 miles down the road, we crossed into the Central time zone; we just started and already lost an hour! The weather improved greatly and we were making pretty good time. 5-6 hours, or 300-350 miles was supposed to be our daily limit. But by 3:00 we were still feeling good and didn't really want to stop. Our planned destination for Wednesday night was Oklahoma City, which was still about 200 miles away. For whatever crazy reason, we decided to push on. We hit the outskirts of OKC around 6:00. The campground we had planned to stay at is in Purcell, about 15 miles south of the city. So we just kept going. We finally rolled into the campground at about 7:00 and dusk was rapidly approaching. All 4 of us were happy to get out of the car. It was much too long of a day. We drove about 550 miles. We were able to get electric and water hooked up before dark. We then ate a quick dinner, took Hunter for a short walk, took showers and collapsed into bed.

It would have been nice if we could have learned our lessons from others; after all, isn't that probably why they follow these rules? But sometimes I guess we just have to learn the hard way. From now on, we will check the road conditions before taking off and wait if they're not favorable. And we will never drive for 12 hours unless we absolutely have to.

But the important thing is that we arrived safe and sound. We are staying at the Chandler City Park. It's nothing fancy, but is quiet, relaxed, convenient, and reasonably cheap. Here's a view of our campsite, with Chandler Lake in the background:

Today (Thursday) we will head into Oklahoma City to visit the bombing memorial and then will be meeting up with some fellow RV-Dreamers who live nearby. More on our adventures tomorrow...

Hitting the Road...for real!

2010-04-12T19:05:00.003-06:00

We head out tomorrow for our first real road trip. We are headed to Livingston TX to do all of the logistical chores of setting up residency (registering vehicles, drivers license, etc). We are planning to split it into about 4 days, possibly staying an extra day in OK City, which is about half way. We are excited to get going, but also a bit anxious. I think it will feel good to get a couple of days on the road behind us so that we know it's no big deal. Wish us luck! I'll check back in in a few days!!

The trials and tribulations of living in a small space (Golden, CO)

2010-04-07T12:40:00.006-06:00

When we were considering this lifestyle, the one aspect we were not concerned with was sharing a small space. We've taken many road trips in both cars and RVs, we've done our share of camping, we never fight, and we've never needed space from each other. Until now. The other day we had a bit of a disagreement, which quickly got out of hand. I won't bore you with the details, but will tell you I won, as is obvious by Tracy's face...

OK, just kidding. There was no fight and no punches were thrown. As much as Tracy likes to blame me for this, she did it all herself! She'd been having a pretty bad morning, having bumped her head multiple times on various parts of the RV. The last "bump" was into the side of the king pin, which resulted in blood dribbling down her face. But wait, that's not what caused the black eye. Later that day, when she was up at her mom's, she hit her cheek on the car door. Notice the small scab on her cheek - that's where the door hit. The black eye showed up the next morning and is still present.

I guess we had to christen the RV at some point, but personally I prefer champagne to blood!

Adjusting to our new life (Golden, CO)

2010-04-03T15:33:00.004-06:00

Let me first start with a word of thanks to all of those who provided encouragement, support and reassurances through comments and private messages from my last blog entry. Everything that everyone said was absolutely true. All change is hard and this transition is no different, nor did I expect it to be. Every life style holds its share of problems that need to be dealt with; this lifestyle is no different. Sometimes I simply need a reminder. It seemed like it was all hitting at once and I felt very overwhelmed. We have a limited time here in Colorado and there's still a lot to do, but it all will get done somehow.

We got our power problem fixed on Wednesday. The tech made another housecall, much to my relief, and had it up and running within 30 minutes. The next task of the day was to get the rig moved. We pretty much had the inside ready to go, but I was a little anxious about hitching up. Would we remember everything that needed to be done? Well eventually, we figured it all out. It took awhile, but we just took our time and methodically thought through each step. We had a bit of difficulty getting the hitch locked in place, until we remembered that we needed to lower the front jacks first before locking the hitch. OK, we won't be forgetting that next time. Before we settled in our new spot, we went over to the dump station and emptied our tanks. No problems there.

So now the fun of parellel parking was upon us. We had the camp host and one of the fairgrounds staff members helping us, but to be honest I think we could have figured it out better ourselves. Don't get me wrong, they were helpful but didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know. It was a lot of trial and error, but we finally got it in after several attempts. All in all, it was very good practice.

I think we may practice again next week after the high school rodeo is gone. We want to move back to our original site. I don't like our current site because it's right along the driveway and it seems significantly more noisy than our other space was. Another reason for wanting to move is that we plan on having an open house next weekend for our family, friends, former coworkers, former neighbors and anyone else who is curious about our new home. The original site had a picnic pavilion and parking directly across from it so I think it will work better.

The last couple of days have been quieter and we've been able to relax a bit. Tracy has been able to spend the last couple of nights at home (she was previously staying with her mom helping her heal from her recent health issues) so that has helped calm me also. I feel lost when she's not by my side. We've been able to get some of our lingering errands done and we even had a few free hours this afternoon to watch the rodeo and then grab a quick nap.

We also have one more family member home with us. Both Jasper, our cat, and Hunter, our greyhound, went to stay with my mom when we moved out of our stix n brix. We brought Jasper home on Thursday night. He adjusted quickly and spends most of his time in front of the fireplace. Hunter is still with my mom, but we plan to bring him down in a couple of days. It'll probably take him a little longer to relax, but hopefully he'll be excited to be with us. He's been very confused with us showing up at mom's house and then leaving again without him. I don't think he'll like the steps into the RV, but he'll get used to them eventually. He was the same way with our old RV. We all adjust sooner or later, right?

My mom has been a huge help with the animals. I can't imagine how much more hectic it would have been with them here amongst all of the chaos. They would have been stressed and that would have increased my stress. I already had enough of my own! So thank you mom and Virg!!

It will be nice to have our whole family together once again. And then we can all work on adjusting to our new life and figuring out what the new normal is. And while we're figuring that all out, I will work hard to focus on one day at a time and not worry so much about the tomorrows. It will all work out...it always does.

The First 5 Days (Golden, CO)

2010-03-30T20:13:00.002-06:00

Wow, I think we're really doing this!!

We have officially been full-timers for 5 days! And what a stressful time it has been. I thought we were through the hard part before the house sold, but that roller coaster of emotions is still going strong.

We'll start with day 1. We picked up the rig on Friday and it never really dawned on us that Fridays would be their busy day. We could have easily postponed until Monday if we had known. But anyway, it took us about 5 hours from start to finish to get out of the dealer, with probably half that time waiting in the customer lounge. The closer we got to completion, the more anxious we were getting. I "let" Tracy have the inaugural drive and she handled it like a pro. We made it the 2 miles to the campground with ease. Our reserved spot required parellel parking. We knew this when we made the reservation and expressed concern, making it very clear that we are newbies, but were assured that there would be help. So we tried it (with help), but couldn't quite get it in straight. Of course there were trailers on either side of us. So the fairgrounds staff member offered us a 50 amp site that was a back in. We jumped on it. We got hooked up just before the snow started falling.

The weekend was pretty busy with getting moved in. I really thought we had done a good job purging, but as we started bringing boxes and bins in, it quickly became apparent that not everything was going to fit. Here we go again. What can we live without? It is quite disheartening that we worked so hard to get rid of so much already and then realize that we have to do it again. So the weekend was primarily spent back and forth to storage, exchanging stuff. And for every box we opened, there was at least one or two things that didn't have a place (yet) and ended up in the middle of the floor in the way. I hate living in a disarray and that's what the last several days have been.

Monday afternoon rolls around and we are informed that we have to move back to our original spot. There's a high school rodeo coming in over the weekend and all the spots are resevered. What?? Why did they offer to move us in the first place? If we'd known we were going to have to move, we would have tried harder in the first place. There's no way that we're prepared to move this rig anywhere. With stuff spread everywhere, the slides can't be pulled in. We were just a bit irritated, to say the least. But ultimately, there's nothing we could do about it so we arranged for the fairgrounds staff to help us move it on Tuesday afternoon. In the meantime, we worked tirelessly getting everything into a place, a lot of which was on top of furniture or back in the truck.

So that brings us to today, Tuesday, day #5. I got up early and did some more prepping and then had some appointments to attend. When I returned in early afternoon, I noticed the power was not working in the coach. Hmmm, I know it was working when I left. So we tried some basic stuff, no luck. So we checked to see if the other RVs had power. Yep, no problems there. So I called the dealer and worked with the tech over the phone for probably an hour and a half. Still no luck, so he finally dispatched a tech to come out since we're just down the road. I was very happy about that because they typically don't make house calls and I was afraid they were going to tell us that we needed to bring it in. So the tech finally showed up and quickly determined that the coverter was burned out. He has no idea why it happened but he's certain that a new converter will do the trick. The only problem is that they didn't have one in stock. Figures. The parts guy will hopefully be delivering one in the morning. It's still unclear whether they will make a 2nd house call to install it. The tech said it would be up to the service manager to make that decision. I sure hope so, but I guess ultimately it won't make too much of a difference because we have to move tomorrow anyway. Due to our technical difficulties, we got a reprieve today, but we absolutely have to be out tomorrow.

I know these types of problems happen and this is the exact reason that we chose to stay close by, but I swear someone is testing us. This entire transition has been far more stressful that I even imagined. Selling a house is stressful enough. But it's not just a typical move. And then you add the financial stress. It's not like we didn't know we would be ending our income stream, but when it actually happens, it's a bit of a slap in the face. And then add the anxiety of towing something that you're not quite comfortable with yet. And if that wasn't enough, we've also been dealing with family health issues. I have no doubt that at some point we'll look back on this and say it was all worth it, but right now there are moments when I wonder why we've made the choice to put ourselves through so much. When does it get easier? Please tell me it does...

A Little R & R

2010-03-22T09:30:00.002-06:00

As I discussed in previous posts, the last few weeks have been crazy busy. It's funny that no matter how much advance notice we have of things, I think it must be human nature to procrastinate. Although there was a lot we couldn't do until other things happened, there sure could have been a lot more packing done before the last week! Oh well. We got it done.

We closed on our house last Tuesday, March 16 but didn't officially have to give possession until Friday. We were almost completely moved out by Tuesday evening. We returned on Wednesday to do the final cleaning and the moving of the last few items. We had some pretty long, tiring days but it was worth it. We were able to fit almost everything into a storage unit. The closer we got to the closing date and the more tired we got, we started schlepping some stuff up to my mom's house, with whom we're staying until we get our new home. We didn't want to take too much up there, partially because we didn't want stuff spread around but also because we didn't want to have to move it the 30 or so miles back down to the rig when we get it. Between clothes and boxes, I think we ended up with about 1 full truckload of stuff so it shouldn't be too bad.

On Thursday I left town for a visit to my dad in Florida. Tracy stayed behind to spend some time with her mom who has been dealing with some serious health issues. I was hoping we'd both have a chance for some relaxation before moving on with the next phase of our transition, but I think I'm finding more rest than she is. I feel a bit guilty sitting in the Florida sun (although it hasn't been all that warm) while she is back in Colorado shoveling more than a foot of snow and dealing with family dramas. But I am there in spirit...really!

We will be picking up our rig on Friday, a couple of days after I get back into town. I am excited and nervous. I still have a lot of anxiety about towing something so large, but I know that comes mainly from never having done it before and once I do it a few times, I should be ok. I don't think it will be so bad driving, but I don't look forward to parking and backing in. But I keep telling myself if all of these many thousands of folks can do it, then there's no reason I can't!

I'm excited to start furnishing our new home though. I'm looking forward to organizing and unpacking all of our belongings, but I fear that we'll have way more stuff than will fit and we'll have to do yet another round of purging. This certainly has been an experience unlike no other.

One thing that I find interesting is that our venture always seems to be at the center of discussion, no matter where we are. While we were sitting at the closing table, where the conversation should have been about the new buyers and their excitement, it was all about us and what our plans were. And even here in Florida, each social gathering seems to turn toward our plans. The reactions are mostly positive, at least to my face, although I get the sense that some don't truly understand. And I guess I should expect that since they're not in my shoes. We all come from different backgrounds, have different drives, and find value in different things. It has been said many times that this lifestyle is not for everyone. I think there are a lot of people who couldn't even make it through the transition period. It's been a lot of work, but I know it is all worth it. I'm looking forward to the simple life, because it sure isn't simple getting there!

Where Will We Go First?

2010-03-13T06:21:00.003-07:00

As we approach our D-Day, that is the question we are most often hearing.

This past Thursday, March 11, Tracy and I both completed our final day of 9-5ers! During our farewells, we were frequently asked about our future plans. One of the allures of this lifestyle is to not have too many set plans. This is a bit hard for me as a consummate planner. While I don't generally book every minute of the day, I do like to have a general idea figured out. But the older I get, the less I try to plan. I've often thought a fun road trip would be to hop in the car and choose a direction to head for awhile and then change directions and go that way for awhile and so on until you get tired of driving, ending up wherever you find yourself. No destination in mind, no plans, no schedule. Well, I've never done that...yet!

So it won't come as any surprise to hear that yes, we do have a plan. We pick up our new home on March 26 and will spend a couple of weeks here in Colorado settling in and addressing any issues which may surface. We will be staying about a mile down the road from the dealer and also about a mile from where we currently live, so our first road trip will be very short over well known roads. How's that for hitting the open road??

In early April, we will head to Texas to establish our domicile. We've had many questions about why we are doing this. The short answer is it's cheaper than Colorado. Texas has no state income tax, their vehicle registration fees are signifcantly cheaper than Colorado, and their insurance rates (for both vehicle and health) are cheaper than Colorado. But money is not the only reason. Texas does not require you to own property or spend any specific amount of time in the state to establish residency. As long as you have an address and register your vehicles, you can claim to be a Texan! OK, as a long-time Coloradoan and a Democrat, I'm not exactly proud to be a Texan, but that's just one of the many trade-offs we've had to make. So our first official road trip will be to Texas to do the necessary paperwork. There is still some drudgery and hassle with this lifestyle too!

Once we get that all squared away, we will head to Northern California. We have accepted a position at North Shore Campground for the summer. For those RV-Dreamers out there, this may ring a bell. It is where Howard and Linda worked last summer. Many people are surprised that we are starting out immediately working. Why not take some time to travel? Well, our initial intent was to do that. Since we didn't know how long it would take to sell the house and get the RV, we didn't figure we could commit to anything for the summer, so we were just going to roam. But then this opportunity just kind of fell in our lap. And it was certainly appealing. Although it is a full-time position, we get paid for all hours worked plus our campsite, including electric and water, is provided. We anticipate that we will encounter some unexpected expenses the first few months and having an income stream right off the bat will certainly provide some comfort as we figure things out.

But really, we always planned to "work" anyway. It will just be drastically different than what we've been doing for the past 25 years. The main difference is that these "jobs" will be temporary. We anticipate them lasting anywhere from 1 to 6 months. Some of them will be for pay; others may simply be in exchange for a site. We plan to take time off between commitments to "play". But we really hope that there will be a lot of play within the positions as well. We will be selective about which positions we accept, based largely on location and experiences they provide. So here's a sneak peak of our summer location. We will be living on a large lake (Lake Almanor) in the mountains (where the Sierras meet the Cascades). There are numerous hiking, fishing and boating opportunities. I anticipate it to be very similar to the Colorado mountains. For someone who has been itching to get out of the city for years, what's not to like?

Where will we go after the summer? We have no idea! We will probably start looking for a winter opportunity in early summer and will most likely remain in the western states. Next summer we are planning to go to Alaska! We briefly thought about making that our first destination this summer but were a little concerned that it might be too big of a trip for our first outing. So we'll get ourselves settled, build up our confidence a bit, and then tackle the Alaska wilds next year. It's a dream destination for both of us.

So while we have some short and long term plans, there will still be a lot of room for spontaneity and I'm sure they will change often. There is so much we want to do and see, it's hard to prioritize. We just have to remind ourselves that we have the rest of our lives!

Crunch Time!

2010-03-09T08:40:00.002-07:00

Exactly one week from today we will be signing over our house to it's new owners. Life has been hectic, to say the least. We've been purging, packing and organizing like crazy. Even though we are making good progress, with each week that passes, the pressure increases. Yikes, we only have one more week! I haven't even had enough time to catch up on the blogs that I follow, much less write one! But I'm taking time out today to share our progress.

The house is getting bare and our living conditions are quite humorous. Almost all of our furniture is gone. We now have one chair and one lamp in the living room. They have been sold to a friend of ours but he graciously agreed to let us keep them until we move out. Tracy and I are forced to fight over the chair, because the other option is the dog bed! We bought Hunter a new bed, but will not let him have it yet. We thought we were saving it for the new house, but now it appears that we were really saving it for us. I have used it several times! Are we cruel parents?!

Our bedroom is not much better. We sold the bedroom set but kept the mattress and box springs. That is the only "furniture" left in that room, with clothes piled where the dressers used to be. We have brought the other lamp from the living room (sold to the same friend) upstairs and placed it on a milk crate, which serves as our nightstand. It's very dorm room chic!

All of the area rugs have been sold, so the house really echoes with the bare hardwood floors. The pictures and accessories have been removed from the walls. Oddly enough, we still have both TVs. We thought they would sell this weekend, but they did not, so at least we have entertainment...not that we have time to sit and watch!

We had our final garage sale this past weekend, which proved successful. Garage sale buyers are an interesting bunch. First is their eagerness. We had put a sign out in front of the house on Friday advertising the sale on Saturday. Several people rang the doorbell and asked if they could look early. We told them they would have to wait until Saturday. We also advertised on Craigslist. We had one lady ring the doorbell before 8am on Saturday asking when the sale would begin. The ad clearly stated 9am. So she just waited outside until the doors opened. There were a few others wandering around so we finally opened the doors at 8:30 and the mad rush started. It didn't calm down until about 10:30 and probably 75% of the stuff was gone. Wow! We had a few stragglers throughout the day and finally closed the doors at 2:00, an hour earlier than we had planned. We were exhausted!

It always amazes what people buy. We had a box of free stuff - old paint, fertilizers and stuff we just couldn't figure out how to price. That went quickly. There was also stuff that really wasn't worth anything, some of which we got free, but we put price tags on them and they went! Then there were the things that we didn't even include in the sale. We had a lot of outdoor pots in the backyard. They were pretty weathered and full of dirt so we didn't want to bother hauling them around. We were just going to leave them with the house. One person inquired whether we had any, so Tracy escorted them around to the back yard. As they were walking out with an armful, another lady asked if we had any more. She bought the rest of the pots and was enamored by a rock. Yes, a rock! We have several rocks as part of our landscaping and officially they should stay with the house. But she was adamant about buying this rock. She offered us $10 and made her ex-husband haul it out for her. Well, alright then! What's even funnier is that we had a $20 mirror for sale that she would only pay $15 for. We finally accepted the lower price and then she turns around and pays us more than that $5 difference for a rock that we would have probably given for free!

This weekend we also sold our 2nd car. We thought about keeping it as there are many advantages to having a smaller, more fuel efficient car for day trips. But we didn't really like the idea of having to drive separately and our car was not very practical for Hunter, so we'd probably end up driving the truck most often anyway. We ended up getting a decent price for it. Like everything else, it was a little less than what we would have liked, but we would have easily paid more than the difference in insurance and registration in the first year.

So things have really come together and now we just have to hunker down and figure out what to do with all of the remaining STUFF. Our RV pile continues to grow and I often wonder if it will all fit. I suspect we may be forced to do another round of purging once we realize there isn't enough room for it all. It sure would be easier if we we had the RV now to move items in. Unfortunately, we will not be getting that until later this month, which means that we'll have to move it all to storage temporarily. It's a bit of a hassle to have to do a double move, but that's the way it goes. I guess we can't expect everything to work out perfectly! I best finish this up and get back to working. These things aren't going to pack themselves!

Life's Lessons

2010-03-02T15:47:00.003-07:00

My last post elicited a lot of comments so I feel like I need to post a follow up.

I believe that every experience in life offers the opportunity to learn and to grow. This experience is no different. A day or two after I posted my rant, I decided to contact the blogger directly. I wasn't sure what kind of response I would get, nor did I know if it would make me feel any better, but I figure I had to try. Although I had hoped simply ranting would allow me to move past it, I just couldn't seem to let it go. Maybe because I was receiving so many comments. :)

In my gut, I believed that the offending blogger didn't intend harm. And I didn't want to continue holding ill feelings toward this person. This community is pretty small and if we were ever to cross paths, I didn't want this standing between us. So I gathered up my courage and pressed the Send button.

I received a response fairly quickly, which was full of apology and explanation. While the explanation is not important, I will let you know that it was unintentional. We shared a couple of correspondences back and forth and have put this issue behind us. In addition, the blogger immediately edited their blog.

So what did I learn from this? As part of our transformation full-timing, I am also trying to change my life in many other ways. I am working on being more open minded and less judgmental. I hope to be quicker to give the benefit of the doubt and not take things so personally. I continue to try and focus on the positives and allow the negatives to move on past. I try to spend my energy on those things that I can control and don't get hung up on those that I can't. But this is all a work in progress. In hindsight, I wish that I hadn't let this get to me as much as it had. And maybe next time I'm faced with a similar situation, it won't.

So for all of you that took the time to leave comments, I thank you. I'm sure this type of thing happens more often than we're aware. I just happened to encounter it. Blogging, both writing and reading, is still a very positive experience for me and I won't stop anytime soon! And I wanted all of you to know that there is a happy ending to this story.

The curious world of blogging

2010-02-24T10:19:00.005-07:00

Blogging is commonplace among many current and wannabe fulltimers. Even those that do not write themselves tend to follow others. There are many reasons why fulltimers blog. Some write for others; others write for themselves. Some post lots of pictures; others are far more introspective and share primarily through words. Some write daily; others write only when the mood strikes them. There’s no right or wrong and that’s the beauty of it.

My world of blogging has evolved greatly. I started out wanting to keep a journal of everything we had to go through to become fulltimers. I began writing in a Word document. Being a pretty private person, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to share my thoughts with anyone (except, of course, Tracy). As I started writing, I found it to be very therapeutic and as we became more serious about this lifestyle, I thought it might be helpful to be able to share my thoughts with close family and friends, especially those who I suspected might have difficulty understanding and accepting our decisions. So I created this blog, but initially I didn’t publicize it. It was still just for me.

In October, we attended the RV-Dreams Rally and during check-in, they asked if we had a blog. During a weakened moment, I said yes and provided the address. What was I thinking? I hadn’t written many posts at that point, but I also hadn’t shared my thoughts with anyone. I guess it was the immediate feeling of acceptance that allowed me to let down my guard. The next day Howard included the link in his journal and shortly thereafter, I had several people approach me and offer compliments on my writings. Wow, I didn’t expect that. I’m not sure I even expected anyone to really read it. What a confidence booster. I was glad I decided to share.

So now that I had followers, I felt the pressure to keep writing. I probably would have done so anyway, but this gave me even more incentive. My focus was still on topics for which I anticipated questions. When we would finally find the courage to tell our loved ones about our plans, I wanted it to be very obvious that this was well thought out. None of us has a crystal ball and there’s no way we can plan for everything that might happen, but I believe that if we can at least identify the risks, then we’ll be more prepared to deal with them if they should happen. I hoped that by showing that we weren’t going into this blindly, some comfort would be provided to those who were concerned for us. At least that’s what I was telling myself. I thought I was writing for others, but I really think that I was writing for myself. I was the one that had all of those concerns and I think I needed to convince myself that the ‘what ifs’ weren’t all that bad.

Once we are on the road, I expect our blog to evolve once again. We plan to use our blog as our primary means for keeping everyone updated on where we are and what we’re doing. I think it will be a little less introspective and a little more like a travelogue, with hopefully a lot more pictures. Although, I will still be the one writing most of it so I’m sure it will still contain many contemplative thoughts. We have an awful lot of people who will be living vicariously through us, and who knows, if all goes well, maybe even one or two of them will be converted! But I suspect that even as we grow into experienced fulltimers, I will still be writing primarily for me.

And it is with that that I would like to depart slightly and include a short rant…for me. I knew that when I publicized our blog, that it was open to everyone. And I am humbled by the number of followers that I have and am flattered that people find interest in my ramblings. I understand that nothing I write is copywrited and it is open to anyone to use as they choose. As fulltiimers, we share a lot of common thoughts and I will be the first to admit that I get a lot of ideas from reading other blogs. I’m sure that I have read things and then turned around and written similar viewpoints, but I hope that I at least have the creativity to put them in my own words. I recently ran across a blog that had used some of my writing, word for word. I'm familiar with the saying “imitation is the best form of flattery”, but I have to admit that I am a bit offended. I understand that they may share in the feelings I express; after all I suspect that many of us share in many similar feelings. But to use my words exactly? Am I wrong to feel victimized? I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. Do I share my feelings directly with them? Do I just let it slide and chalk it up to the risks of the world wide web? Well, I guess this is my way of dealing with it. I’m hoping that I can vent and then let it go. After all, there’s really nothing I can do about it and I don’t want to mire in the negative feelings. So I will take the high road and just let it be. Thanks for letting me vent and helping me move on.

Overall, blogging has been a wonderful tool for me and I have never regretted my decision in sharing. I still get tickled at every comment I receive. I read a lot of blogs, but am not very diligent about commenting. I will have to get better about that, knowing what the comments mean to me. For you bloggers out there, know that I am reading and appreciating everything you write. I love the diversity. I have learned so much from all of you and I have gained a lot of confidence in knowing that we share so much. Even though I have never met most of you in person, I feel like we are a community and I look forward to crossing paths with you each of you in the future. Thank you!

Letting go...it's not easy

2010-02-22T10:10:00.002-07:00

We knew that in order to transform our lives, we would have to let go of lot. Not only are we purging excess 'stuff', but we are getting rid of almost everything that has defined our adult lives. Our house, our furniture, our cars, our careers. Many of the things have a lot more emotion attached that you would ever think. We were warned that this would be difficult. We follow a lot of full-time bloggers and they have all gone through it. And I think they all agree that what's waiting on the other side makes it all worth it. So while we knew this wouldn't necessarily be easy, I'm surprised at some of the emotions I've experienced.

First the job. I have mixed emotions about leaving my job. I like what I do for the most part, I believe the company has a good mission, and I work with some really good people, but I've been frustrated and dissatisfied for quite awhile. I kept hoping that things would work themselves out and I tried to persevere, but it became apparent about a year ago that something needed to change. I updated my resume and started looking for a new job. But my heart really wasn't in it. It is obvious to me now that I needed a bigger change than just employment.

So I was really looking forward to the day when I could give my notice. Because of the people I work with, it was important to me to be able to give enough advanced notice to ease the transition. Be careful of what you ask for, right? I gave my notice in late December and had given a tentative end date of late January. Late January pushed into mid February, which has now expanded to mid March. My hours and my role have both been significantly diminished (per my request), but I have found it hard to just walk away. I suppose some of it is out of pride for the work I have accomplished and don't want to see suffer. I know some of it is also due to fear about walking away from a career and a steady paycheck, not knowing if I'll regret it later. But there's also a part of me that likes the feeling that I'm indispensible. I know I'm not and I know they'll be fine without me, but it's nice to be recognized for some of the value that I did provide. When my "final" week arrived a couple of weeks ago, there was a lot of concern expressed about all of my knowledge going with me, even though I had already spent a lot of time trying to share that information. So I agreed to stay on a few more weeks to provide further training.

Furniture has been another love-hate relationship in this process. On the one hand we just want to be rid of all of our furniture so that we can move forward. But most of it is of good quality and I didn't want to just give it away. So our first challenge was pricing, which I'm sure is not uncommon. It's been difficult to find a happy medium where we feel like we're recouping a little of the value while still attracting buyers. But throughout this entire process, I've worked really hard to look beyond the monetary value and instead focus on the value of freedom.

But what I didn't expect is to care so much about where the furniture is going. When we bought our house, which is the first house Tracy and I have owned together, we wanted it to be OUR home. We bought most of the furniture together and painstakingly shopped and shopped until we found just the right pieces. So we feel like all of our furniture says a little bit about us. When we began the purging process, we started with friends and family. Then we started listing the remaining things on Craigslist. We've had good success, but it's been a bit of an eye-opener to have complete strangers taking pieces of your life. Some of the folks seemed to appreciate the quality and recognized the good deals we were offering. Others just seemed to want the cheapest deal they could get and didn't give the sense that they would care for it like we did. I know it shouldn't matter. These are not pieces that were in the family for generations and they are all easily replaceable should we ever find ourselves in a stix n brix again.

So I'm trying to focus on the end goal and not get hung up on the emotions, but it's hard. Even though I know this is the right move for us, I still frequently hear that little devil on my shoulder asking "do you realize what you're doing?" and "are you really sure? ". I just have to remind myself that we are not defined by things or job titles, but rather what we accomplish.

And now the rest of the story

2010-02-12T15:16:00.003-07:00

No, this is not a post about Paul Harvey. I left you all hanging last week and I know your inquiring minds want to know (Rod!), so here it is...

I am elated, excited and relieved to announce...(drum roll)...that we accepted an offer on the house! Just when the doubts and worries were starting to roll in, a decent offer appeared, as if it just fell from the sky. As I mentioned last week, this seems to happen quite often and it still amazes me. Because we hadn't had any activity for a couple of weeks and we had already shut the door on two offers, this was completely unexpected. Who could be submitting an offer? No one has been by to look at the house. Well, as it turned out, it was from one of the couples who had submitted an earlier offer. We had countered their original offer but could not find a common ground so we all walked away. Apparently, they didn't walk too far because they came back with a significantly higher offer. It's still a little lower than what we had hoped for, but we only differed by a few thousand dollars and although that is a lot of money, we didn't feel like it was worth bargaining at the risk of losing it altogether. It still surprises me because they were the first people to look at the house, they only looked at it once, and they didn't even come back for a second showing before deciding to submit a second offer.

We still have to get through the inspection and the loan approval, but needless to say we felt a huge weight lifted off of our shoulders. This was really the only thing left that could have delayed our plans, so it will be nice to have it out of the way. And the timing couldn't have worked out any better. Our closing is scheduled for March 16 and our new home is scheduled to be delivered around the same time. So we are hoping to be rolling down the highway in early April! YIKES!! Can that really be possible??!?

So you're probably wondering why the delay in sharing the good news. Well, when it rains it pours. Just as I was worrying about being jobless with a mortgage, not only did we sell the house, but multiple potential employment opportunities were presented to us, literally within 24 hours of signing the offer. We have been in communications with a campground owner for a workamper position for several months. We were interested in the position but couldn't commit since we didn't know when the house would sell. They were gracious enough to agree to hold the position for a few months in hopes that our timing would work out. So just as we were ready to contact them, these other possibilities showed up. We had some thinking to do and because they follow the blog we didn't feel like we could make the announcement.

Having options is a good thing, but sometimes too many options is just plain overwhelming. While the workamping position would be very different from what we know and certainly the type of change we are looking for, the pay is not great. On the other hand, the other possibilities are opportunities to remain working in the professional world via remote access. This is certainly appealing from a financial standpoint, but it feels a bit like giving in. Although we'd be living in an RV, we really wouldn't be changing our lifestyle much from what it is today. And isn't that really the main goal? It bothers me that even after all of the growth I feel we've experienced during this transition, I would still consider making a decision solely out of fear. The only reason I was considering the professional opportunity was because 6 months worth of work could have provided financial security for the next year. That's pretty appealing. But when I dug deep, I realized that I don't want to sacrifice our life just for security. I know that there may come a time in this journey where I have to rely on my professional skills to make a higher income, but I don't want to start out there. So for now, I have decided to let my opportunity pass. Who knows, maybe it will resurface again someday when I'm more willing. Tracy also has a potential opportunity which is still pending, but we don't believe hers will be as invasive or restrictive, so we'll see how that plays out in the coming weeks. Maybe it will be the best of both worlds - a little financial security while still being able to live the life we've dreamed of.

So after all of those sleepless nights, we are exactly where we hoped we would be at this point. The house is almost sold, we'll be able to afford the new RV, we have a job lined up for the summer, and we are still able to meet our timeline of hitting the road in April. So why did we spend so much time worrying?? Once again, I just need to believe. After all, isn't it obvious that we don't have control over this plan? We're just along for the ride.

Words of inspiration: We have no choice of what color we're born or who our parents are or whether we're rich or poor. What we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we're here. ~ Mildred D. Taylor, author

Slow progress, but is it?

2010-02-05T11:50:00.007-07:00

It’s been a while since I’ve written so I thought I better post a short update. The last few weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions. What else is new? Selling a house is always emotional, but we have so much riding on this one, that it feels doubly so. I haven't written because I didn't feel like I had much to report, but when I stop and look back, I realize all of the things that have been accomplished. Not all of them are note-worthy but they're all a step in the right direction.

First I’ll start with the house. The house has been on the market for about a month. The first couple of weeks were busy. We averaged about 3 showings a week and even had a couple of offers. But the offers were quite low and it was too early in the process to even consider such a drop in price. After all, with as much interest and positive feedback that we were getting, the offers would keep rolling in, right? And then just like that it all seemed to stop. We haven’t had any showings for the last couple of weeks. And that’s when the doubts started. I know this was to be expected. It's not a seller's market, the house has only been listed a short time, it's a typically slow season, blah blah blah. But I couldn't help but wonder if we passed up the only offers we might see. I try to remain positive, telling myself that we never expected to sell the house this soon and our patience will pay off. We are priced competitively and we have a lot to offer. We are at a good price point and the market will pick up as we move into Spring. We just have to continue to have faith that things will work out as they are meant to. After all, we didn’t want to sell the house too fast anyway, right?

But we are so excited to get started on our new life, we just want to be able to move on. Another event that is adding to the doubts is that my job is winding down. Next week is my last scheduled week, although there have been discussions about extending me a couple of more weeks. I knew when I set that date that it was risky because we didn’t know when the house would sell. If the house doesn’t sell for several months, we could be struggling with only one income. So was I premature in leaving? Originally, the reason that Tracy and I decided that I would stop working in February was with the expectation the house would sell in February or March. And we have a lot of things that need to be accomplished before we move out of the house. So we really felt that one of us needed the time to start tackling that ever-growing to-do list. But the unknown is scary and sometimes it’s hard to keep the faith that everything will work out.

This past week, we have made major progress, but I am not prepared to write about it quite yet. Things are still pending and we have some decisions to make, so at risk of jinxing things, I’m going to end here, with a promise to write more next week. But I will leave you with this little teaser –

Throughout this journey, I have often said that it feels like a higher power is leading us. Things seem to happen just at the right times and opportunities magically present themselves. We couldn’t plan it any better. I am not a highly spiritual person, but I truly believe that we are meant to take this journey. I don’t know why and I don’t know what’s waiting for us, but we are meant to do this. And there is something out there that is making sure we stay on track. It seems like anytime I start to have doubts or worries, a sign appears and calms those fears. It is truly magical. And this week was filled with several of those magical moments, but you'll just have to wait to find out. So tune in next week for the rest of the story!

Words of inspiration: Often people attempt to live their lives backward; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. ~Margaret Young, singer

The Denver RV Show And A New Home For Us!

2010-01-16T12:36:00.022-07:00

Now all we have to do is get rid of our old house! But let me back up.

This weekend was the long-awaited Denver RV show. We had been looking forward to the opportunity to compare models from each of our top 5-6 manufacturers. We had been able to see a couple in person, but most of the others we had only seen online. And of course everything looks better in pictures. But as the show got closer we were hearing that many of the local dealers were not participating due to the high cost. The show website, which a few months ago included every manufacturer that we were interested in, now listed only a couple. Needless to say, we were pretty disappointed, especially since we thought about going to the Tampa Supershow. But this is what we had available to us, so we'll make the best of it.

Thursday morning arrived and we were off to the Denver Convention Center. We had our notes, buyer's checklists, measuring tape, camera, and lots of excitement. The show was about what we expected. The selection was relatively small. There were probably only 3 manufacturers with a total of 5-6 models that we were really interested in. It didn't take us long to make our first pass through. We ruled out a couple of the models pretty quickly and a couple of others catapulted to the top of our list. The others were still worthy of consideration, but not really at the top due to cost, quality, or floor plans. Well, that didn't take long to whittle down our list!

The one model which really stood out was the Heartland Bighorn. We had seen one of these at a local dealer about a month ago, but it was a cold day and we didn't spend much time in it. Although we hadn't completely written off this model, it wasn't one of our top contenders either. But today we got a totally different feeling. The craftmanship was what first caught our eye so we looked a little closer and the quality seemed to be on par too. We bounced back and forth between 2 floorplans and finally narrowed it down to the one which seemed to have superior kitchen storage.

After our 3rd or 4th tour, the manufacturer rep recognized us and stopped to talk. We peppered him with questions and were pleased with most of the answers. At this point we were starting to get seriously excited. This one just felt right, but we were determined not to make a rash decision so we left for awhile and discussed it over dinner. When we returned, we went back through some of the other models, mostly looking at their quality. Except for one, which was outside our budget, none of the other manufacturers compared. So we went back to the Bighorn for one last look. We got some numbers from the salesperson and went home to sleep on it.

We knew we were already emotionally sold. This unit had all of our 'must haves' - large kitchen workspace and storage, 4-door refrigerator, rear living, fireplace, desk area, separate washer-dryer closet (to be used for the litter box), a place for the dog bed that we won't be tripping over, and large external storage. And it had most of our 'nice to haves' too - enclosed bath, ceiling fan, central vacuum, hydraulic levelers. But we were really hoping to compare to some of the other manufacturers. What if there was something better out there?

If the other manufacturers were a must-see, we'd have to travel out of state. When would we find time to do that? There's also the issue of our current motorhome that we either need to sell or trade-in. A couple of the local dealers didn't want to accept a trade, so what if we ran into the same thing out of state? The dealer at the show offered us a decent price and they're fine if we sell it outright before delivery of the new rig. Sometimes, convenience is worth a lot!

To make the deal even more attractive, the show dealer was willing to place the order with no money down and if we're not ready for it when it's delivered, they'll hold it for awhile. If the house still isn't sold, we can back out of the deal with no money lost. Sound too good to be true? That's exactly what we thought. We can order a unit to have exactly what we want at a price that we're comfortable with, they'll take our motorhome, and if we change our minds, we can back out? Really???

Well, as you've already guessed, that was just too good to pass up so we signed the papers!

This is what it looks like from the outside. Yikes! It's big (38')
Tracy ready to welcome you into our new home!

Here's the floorplan we chose.

I took some pictures of the interior, but it was hard to get enough of a wide angle to really give you a good view so I copied some pictures from the Bighorn website. Our decor is a little different, but this will give you an idea.

Looking to the back from the front door

Living room

Kitchen

Bedroom

Did we make too quick of a decision. I don't know, but niether of us have buyers remorse (yet!). Did we make a decision without investigating all of our possibilities? Yes, but sometimes if you wait too long, you lose the best. Do we feel comfortable with our decision? Yes! I think that this was the best choice for us under our specific circumstances and we're both happy. Did I mention that because we have to order it, we are getting the 2011 model? Yes, another plus!! The 2011 includes some improvements like hidden hinges on the cabinets and a nicer countertop, more storage in the bathroom, leather sofa and recliners. Like I said above, it just seemed like too good of a deal to pass up!

So back to my first sentence of this post - now we have to get rid of our old hose. Well, the house has been on the market for a week, we've had 3 showings and 1 repeat customer today. That repeat customer took a packet of instructions for submitting a contract so we're hopeful that we might hear something soon. Remember what I said last week about being fearful that the house might sell too quickly????

Words of inspiration: "Coincidences are God's way of remaining anonymous" ~Doris Lessing, Nobel Prize-winning author

A Monumental Step

2010-01-07T18:54:00.002-07:00

Our house is officially for sale! Finally!! It feels like we’ve been waiting for this moment forever, although it’s actually only been a few months. So many steps in this transition are dependent on selling our house. We need the house proceeds to buy the RV. We can’t sell the furniture yet because we need it to stage the house. We can’t commit to a potential work opportunity for the summer until we know that we’ll be able to be there in time. So this has been a long time coming and is a monumental step.

We are excited to finally reach this point, but also a bit anxious. There have been 3 houses which have sold in our neighborhood in the last 6 months. 2 of them sold within a couple of weeks and both during a slow market! Although we have come a long way in purging and organizing our stuff, we still have a lot more to do. If ours should sell that fast, things will get very chaotic very quickly. We are both still working full-time and can’t imagine how we would pull it all together. But I guess that’s a good problem to have and I’m sure we’ll figure it out. Like everything so far, it will all fall into place as it’s meant to be.

So now I guess we sit and wait. Well, not really. We have a lot planned for the next couple of weeks. Most notably is the Denver RV show next week. This is another event that we’ve been anxiously awaiting. The local RV dealers don’t typically carry a large inventory over the winter so we haven’t been able to see several models that we’re interested in. We’re hoping that there will be a good selection at the show. It is billed as the “largest show in the Rocky Mountain region”, although that could be very relative. I’m sure it will be nowhere near the size of the upcoming Tampa show that many RV-Dreamers are attending. I kind of wish we had planned a trip to Florida, but we didn’t so we’ll see what this holds. I’m a little concerned that a couple of our top manufacturers will not be present. They are not on the exhibitor list on the show web site, but I’m hoping that the website is just out of date. If not, then I suppose a road trip out of state, either to their factories or to a dealer who carries a larger inventory, will be in our near future. We really want to be sure of our decision because we don’t expect to be able to afford to trade up in a few years.

Another notable step that I haven’t shared yet is that I told my boss that I would be leaving. Tracy had told hers a couple of months ago, but I was keeping mine quiet, mostly because I was unsure of the reaction I would receive. My company has been struggling for the past year and there have been many rounds of layoffs. I was a little worried that I would be on the top of their list if they knew I was leaving anyway. As much as we’re both ready for a break from our jobs, we know that we need the income stream for as long as we can keep it. I wasn’t really planning on telling my boss until we had a contract on the house, but we came to the conclusion that we really needed one of us at home to start working on the final preparations, especially in the event of an early house sale. So I broke the news and have worked out a pretty favorable transition plan. I will stay on through mid-February and then we’ll reevaluate and may negotiate for me to stay on longer. I’m grateful that I have been able to go out on my own terms.

As we knew, January would really kick start the transition process and it has, but it still doesn’t feel real. So when does it all sink in? When we no longer own a sticks and bricks house? When we buy the RV? When we’re rolling down the road? Or will it always feel like a dream?

2009 Retrospective

2009-12-28T20:57:00.002-07:00

And what a year it has been! It’s really hard to believe all that has transpired over the past 12 months. If someone had told me back in January that we’d be sitting here in late December preparing to quit our jobs, sell most everything we own and planning to hit the road in just a few short months, I would have called them crazy! Even 6 months ago I don’t think I would have truly believed it. But yet here we are – owners of a super duty truck, getting ready to put our house on the market within the next couple of weeks, continually working to reduce our stuff, planning our departures from our employers, and shopping for a new home on wheels. WOW! It’s all very surreal at times.

I’ve been trying to remember back to January and wondering what resolutions we made. I’m sure they were some of the typical – lose weight, work out more, eat healthier, etc. I’m fairly certain there was nothing in there about following our dreams or feeding our souls though. And I wonder why not. Shouldn’t those always be at the top of our lists?

So what did our 2009 look like? Well, it’s really hard to remember. We’ve been so focused, or maybe that should read “obsessed”, with becoming full-timers, it kind of feels like our year started around October. But let me see if I can dig deep and go back a few more months.

Oddly enough, I think our entire year revolved around Rving. 2008 ended with our desire to upgrade from our pop-up camper. We had the pop up for a few years and really disliked it from the beginning. We went from a 30-foot Class C to the pop-up because we wanted something small for weekend camping trips. We had bought the Class C for our 3-month sabbatical several years ago and it was perfect for that use, but it was really too much for just a weekend. We had bought the pop-up in rash decision – we didn’t do our research and it was poorly thought through. It was a mistake and we were ready to right a wrong. So we were narrowing in on the Class B van conversions. We really liked the small size, thinking that it could even function as a second car (I take public transportation to work so a 2nd vehicle wasn’t a daily necessity). But they were quite expensive and just a bit too small for 2 adults and an 80-pound dog. So January and February were spent looking for something that would serve our needs. We eventually stumbled upon a used 24-foot Class C which seemed perfect. By the end of February we were owners of “Libby”, (aka The Liberator). Boy, we sure didn’t have a clue as to how liberating she would end up being!

There’s not much camping to be had in Colorado in February but we were quickly making plans for a trip to Zion National Park in early April. We had tried this trip a couple of times in the past, but were always derailed for one reason or another. This was our inaugural trip in Libby and it was great. We couldn’t wait to do more and managed to get out fairly often throughout the summer. But it never felt like it was enough and dropping Libby off in the storage yard at the end of each trip was always accompanied with a tinge of sadness.

Little did we know that reuniting with the RV life would quickly relight the spark of our full-timing dream. When we were debating the purchase, we had briefly talked about the possibility of eventually using it to begin our full-timing adventures, “5 or more years down the road”. HA! In the meantime, until we were at that point, she would make a great weekender/vacation rig. Well, Libby served her purpose well, albeit a little shorter than we anticipated!

But once that spark was relit, the flame just kept getting brighter and brighter…to the point where we couldn’t ignore it any longer. So I started reading, more just out of curiosity, figuring that whatever I learned would be helpful when we were eventually ready. What I didn’t really count on was the more I read, the more I wanted to know. And the more I knew, the more excited I became. And the more excited I got, the more I researched. And the more I researched, the more certain I became that this was a possibility now. Oh, if only we had a crystal ball to see into the future!

At one point during my research, I ran across the RV-Dreams website…and our lives were transformed. First by Howard and Linda, and then eventually by all of the great people we have come to know through the forum and the Rally. I have no doubt that we would have eventually ended up at this same point, but I think it would have taken much longer. The confidence and support we have gained through this group has given us a huge boost forward. I started by reading Howard’s journals from the beginning, when they were just making their decision, through the most current one. Howard posts almost daily and my day just doesn’t seem complete without a little touch of Howard. Shortly after starting on the journals, I began following the forum. I “lurked” anonymously for awhile and then got the courage to introduce myself. I immediately felt welcomed into the family and fairly soon after, we decided that we needed to attend the Rally and meet these folks. The rest, as they say, is history. This blog was launched just prior to the Rally in October, so I won’t rehash the last few months here.

It’s been a wild ride so far and the amazing part is that it’s just beginning. Almost daily, I have moments when I just stop and say wow! I am amazed at how much we have already accomplished. More so, I am amazed at our courage for even attempting to do this. There are moments when I wonder who we really are because this is not something I thought we had inside us!

So as 2009 comes to an end, I am proud of what we accomplished and am full of excitement and anticipation for what awaits us in 2010. Bring it on!!