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.

                

The perils of gate guarding/Easter storm damage.

One of the perils of doing this kind of work is the rapidly changing weather conditions. Andy Jones from My Old RV suffered significant damage late Easter due to a storm over in the Millet/Los Angeles area. He has posted pictures on his blog as well as a description of events during the storm.

Andy has been a guiding light to many a gate guard and unfortunately is unable to financially absorb all the costs of the damage incurred to his RV.  I want to ask all of my readers in the gate guard community to please head over to Andy's blog and make use of the donate button there.

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.

Time "March"es on.

I've been spending quite a bit of time on ham radio lately and really enjoying it. I was worked by a station in Northern Ireland the other day, seemed fitting as we are close to the St. Patrick holiday.

We have been picked up by the drilling rig we took over when we moved over to the Yorktown/Cuero area. We have followed them back into the Karnes City area and after a few hectic days of a rig move things are finally settling down into a normal flow of traffic.

It's definitely springtime here in South Texas, temperatures are rising into the 70's and 80's daily and the weather has been beautiful.  The big floppy hat has been pressed back into service as well as copious amounts of sunscreen. We have heard reports from other gate guards that the rattlesnakes are getting quite active and are counting ourselves lucky so far by not having any incidents.

Its been awhile.

Just taking some time to sit outside and enjoy the day before it starts to storm.  I find that it makes it easier to deal with the traffic and Toie isn't disturbed so much.  We have been here in the Yorktown area for a couple weeks now and it seems to be a nice area.  We aren't far from Cuero and Victoria is only about 40 miles away.
As I wrote earlier, I got my ham license last month and have been really enjoying the hobby thus far.  We are a little remote to be able to access some of the repeaters with the handi-talkie so I have been playing with a program called Echo link.  I can "dial-in" to repeaters all over the country and world using my android devices and internet and not need a bulky HF radio and miles of wire for antennae.
Toie and I have started going through the RV and cleaning out some of the items we thought we would use but haven't done so yet. Taking our time doing so gives us something to do when traffic gets slow.
We have also made a conscious decision to change our approach to food in our lives.  We have become much pickier about the products we buy and are incorporating more fresh foods into our diet.  We have both become heavier since starting this adventure and don't wish to continue doing so.

The wind turbine has been working pretty well. I had to order an Any volt 3 to stabilize the output so that the charge entering the batteries would be a bit more consistent, especially at slow wind speeds. I shouldn't need to use the battery charger when we are sitting for long periods time to top off the starting battery as much/anymore. I set the turbine up the other day and it immediately garnered a bit of attention from people entering and exiting. I even managed to score a few more stickers for the tail fin on it.