It's been a year (sort of).

I've been had this rattling around in the old noggin for the last few weeks. 

Its been just a bit over a year since we made the jump into full-time RV living. It was April of last year when our lives were in what seemed a huge amount of turmoil, some of it planned, some not so much.  Everything seemed to have hit us at once, loss of a job, unexpected surgery, making the transition from the stick & bricks to the RV and making arrangements to stay in a friends yard while I recovered, all seemed to be an insurmountable mountain of things to over come.  Some events caused us to accelerate our plans for others and we always didn't accomplish things with as much grace as we may have liked, but we got through it.

The excitement and trepidation felt when we pulled our old 1978 NuWa class C out of the yard in Iowa and pointed it south towards Texas in July was almost overwhelming.  As the miles went by the nervousness went away and I could enjoy the un-folding journey.  Looking back now we made so many choices on that first trip that weren't necessarily mistakes but I wouldn't do them again quite the same way, such as what had seemed like a good first day route on paper was more suited for a smaller vehicle than the 25ft length and top heavy nature of the NuWa. 

This first year has been a huge learning experience of the ins and outs of RV living. Sometimes finding just the right spot for something, that won't allow it to become a projectile while driving down the road, can present a small challenge from time to time. Glamorous chores such as dumping the tanks or checking the batteries has replaced mowing the lawn, although at times I do miss my lawnmower. We tend to keep a closer eye on the weather, being particularly vigilant for severe weather. Upkeep is a bit more intense and at present I have two projects that need completed with a third possibly in the works. We are still learning to slow down and enjoy being in the moment.

We haven't moved very long distances since we became gate guards, mostly moving less than 50 miles at a time but we keep moving.  The scenery still changes every few weeks and that is just fine with us.

                

Time flies when your having... fun?

It has been close to a year since been started fulltime rv'ing in our friends front yard.  From a moving to Texas and becoming oil field gate guards to having to replace the rv unexpectantly in October and the recent birth of our granddaughter Aria, it has been quite the adventure.

Little did we know what challenges awaited, from generator problems to emptying the tanks without making a huge mess. getting sunburnt, freezing temperatures, tire blow outs and the occasional wild animal we have risen to the occasion each and every time.

One of the biggest lessons we have learned is that this lifestyle is definitely not for the weak hearted or the insecure.  This is not a vacation but rather a lifestyle choice, we work just as hard, if not harder than some to be able to enjoy the "perks." 

Another lesson learned was to slow down and enjoy the journey. Society has become so focused on goals and destinations we often forget that the journey itself is part of the adventure and many times we miss out on what happens along the way. We may not move long distances as often as some but in this line of work we move much more often than others.

As we had begin our second year a whole new set of challenges will need to be met.  We hope that the experience we have gained will make these mere speed bumps in our road.

New Gate and New other things

It's been quite a scramble the last few days.  We were recently informed that our next gate will be a long term one, possibly as long as a year.  We are scheduled to be placed on Saturday if everything goes as planned.

Some of you may have noticed that I changed the photo of our RV at the top of the blog. Thats because recent developments have forced us to purchase another coach.  The old coach was traded in towards our new home, a 1997 Fleetwood Flair.

Two things really affected our decision to replace the old beast a few months ahead of schedule, first being the long term potential for our next assigmment and second the old beast had suffered some damage from a recent windstorm and was quickly becoming unlivable.

I was shocked and amazed at the amount of "stuff" we had crammed into that small little space.  We are still scrambling to get it all in its place before we move again.

Its getting late and tomorrow will be another long day.

Be Safe Everyone.

Its that time of year.

Andy over at My Old RV has an excellent blog post today about the availability of Gate Guard jobs this time of year. I won't recreate it, but if you want to read it you can do so by clicking here.

Things have definitely slowed a bit here and we count ourselves lucky by having a gate. We had planned it out to spend a few of the summer months here just for that reason. It's easy to forget that up north it is quickly turning to winter and the "Winter Texans" are on the way south. I guess that we are in the same category this year being as it is one of transition for us.

We are still in our first year of full timing and so far it has been quite an adventure. We realize, now, that this is just the tiniest tip of the iceberg, so to speak and that many more adventures are in our future. We are learning that we really like the San Antonio area, not enough to re-invest into a sticks and bricks lifestyle, but enough to make it one of our winter-time favorites.

Toie and I were discussing satellite TV the other day after she saw a post on Facebook from Edgar Hansen about it being crab season in Alaska. We were weighing the option of doing it now or waiting until we get into a newer coach. She told me about a satellite setup that one of the ladies at a gate guard luncheon had told her about and how she thought that would be the way to go being as there isn't any real setup to it. Place the unit where you want it, turn it on and it does the rest. I've seen what she is talking about and will definitely research it further as an option if our newer coach doesn't have satellite installed.

We are hoping that our next gate is a longer term than the ones we have been on previously. One reason is so we can save more quickly for that newer coach and another is so we can setup mail service.  We still haven't decided if we are going to keep our residency in Iowa or change it to an RV friendlier state next year. 

We are digging the full-time RV lifestyle though.  We may check out options for the northwest soon, the freedom is so exciting.

Texas!!!! but where?

We left Joplin this morning in pretty good spirits.  As the morning shaped up we traveled on 69 south through Oklahoma and got a real treat with some of the views.  As we got closer to our "scheduled" stop we decided to press on a little further. Lo and behold a few minutes later we crossed into Texas.  Toie got a great pic of the welcome to Texas sign on 69/75 South.  I'll let her post that on her own.  The RV ran great today with no issues,  I plan on making a more complete posting of our trip once we are stopped for more than just an overnite.

Have a GREAT DAY!!  (And try to stay cool)

(btw. Just North of Waco)

What not and other things.

One of the challenges about an older motor home is that, well, everything is older. Sometime during the night we lost 12volt.  Luckily there are only a few things that run off the 12 volt system, mostly lights.  I'm thinking that the converter blew a fuse and its not recharging the battery when on shore power. The fun part about this is when Nu Wa built this, they buried the converter with no easy way to get to it.  In the mean time I have attached a battery charger and I'm charging the coach battery that way.

In the course of writing this post I may have figured out the problem.  Some time ago we had a circuit breaker that went bad. While trouble shooting that problem I unplugged everything in the coach, it looks that I also managed to unplug the converter and never plugged it back in.  Which now has me thinking.  I think I would rather have a "computer" controlled battery charger re-charge the battery than have the converter possibly overcharge and cook the battery. After talking it over with Toie I think I will finish slow charging the battery and then remove it from the circuit and see if the converter will provide 12 volts without the battery in place. 

On a completely different note,  Our nephew has decided to bless us with two small pet turtles. From what I'm told they are painted turtles and they are so small.  I guess a quick run into the pet shop for turtle supplies and dog food is now on the agenda. We can really say we are moving like a herd of turtles now.

The Wilson Cell Booster and Cradle Point Router have been working out wonderfully.  I highly recommend them for anyone that lives the "lifestyle".

I am also in the progress (and progress is slow) of collecting owl calls so that I can put them into my fox-pro electronic game caller.  I have heard of people doing this about sundown and getting the owls to come in and even answer back!  I'll let you know what kind of luck I have soon.

Have A Great Day!