Busy, Busy, Busy

I can't believe it has been since April when I last blogged!  Well, yeah, I can...that's me.  Anyway we have been quite busy.

Starting with Dr Appts at home and visiting with family and friends.  We've made some changes in the motorhome.  Removed a free standing table and added cabinets and table top, removed a chair and added a couch.  Added insulation and cedar walls to our bedroom closet, repairs were made and everything cleaned more thoroughly.  That all made May slip by quite quickly and festival season is fully on us.

We started at Burlington Steamboat Days as we did last year.  Left there June 16th and headed right back home to get started on Country Stampede.  This one is a little different as I still work for the Stampede while Dave works for the ticketing company.  I run the Camp Check In and start the Saturday before so by the end of the week I was exhausted.  We had to leave at noon on Sunday, June 29th in order to be in Varysburg NY for Jam in the Valley by Tuesday mid afternoon.

Most of our travels involve 250 to 300 miles a day and we had to do more like 600! Whew!  We were so tired at our first stop Sunday night I think an earthquake wouldn't have awakened us.

Jam in the Valley ended on Saturday night with a fantastic fireworks show and then we were off and running to Common Ground Music Festival in Lansing MI Sunday morning.  It was shorter to cut through Canada and reenter the States at Sarnia, but we ended up wasting the time we saved by spending almost 2 hours in line for the bridge toll and then in line for re-entry.  Besides that the view from the highway through that part of Canada was pretty boring.  Not a cow to be seen, no billboards to play the alphabet game and the towns and truck stops were removed way off the highway.  Most of the farm houses were also pretty far from the road.

That pretty much brings us up to date.  I am presently sitting at my new table typing this, listening to Justin Moore and the excited noise from the crowd.  We love this job and the travel that goes with it but with 4 more festivals to go before August 10th we will definitely need a vacation.  :)  And that will also include more changes on the motorhome and more Dr's appts.  We need a month of nothing I think.

More to come and some pictures but haven't had time to download them.  Sorry.

Talk to you soon.

OK Bob,here it is.

“You'll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.” 
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

I find that there are no two RVers alike.  We come from all walks of life and many different lifestyles.  We can't be put into any category except the one that says "go".  It always seems to be whats around the next bend that interests us, be it a new place, new friends, a new experience or a new job.

We keep ourselves going by the sheer adventure of it all.  Most of us left our homes and families to see what exactly is out there.  A new front yard wherever we go.  New friends to be found and old friends to run in to.

We do get "...mixed  up with many strange birds" (that's the part for you Bob)  :)  and most of them become friends whether we see each other once a year or once a lifetime.  That's my favorite part of RVing, the road friends.  In our gate guard adventure we've made some good ones...Mary and Jack, Bob and Gaby, Katie and Tim, Mike and Diana, Susan and Bob, Patty and Rich and the best gate boss ever, Cheryl McCollum.  Our festival life has brought us people we see every year at every festival and hugs are always a requirement and heartfelt.

This year of gate guarding was a little more challenging than the first two but we enjoyed it just as much.  We wish we could have spent more time with the Cotulla area guards and made even more friends but being too busy is just one of the downsides of being a gate guard.

We recouped in South Padre at a very nice county park on the beach with our good friends Cindy and Ernie and are almost ourselves again (whatever that is and always evolving).  We are now on our way home, slowly, and look forward to seeing our kids, grand kids and friends.  As we work through the summer and fall we will be looking forward to returning to the oil patch and the friends we have made there.  Be safe, try to stay cool and above all "...never mix up your right foot with your left.”


The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for. Louis L'Amour, Ride the Dark Trail

Laundrymats

My new favorite place is the laundrymat (or is it laundromat).  Why, you ask?  Because I like surprises and when you live on the road or are in the oilfields you never know what surprises await you there.

Dirty or clean?  Equipment works or doesn't work? Water hard or soft?  What happened to all the folding tables?  WHERE are the folding tables? Nice people or not so nice people? Lock your car or don't?  Staffed or not?  Who washed their oily clothes in that washer before me?  Bebe's kids?  $1.25 or $2.50 a wash?  Clothes dry in one quarter, two or six? Oops, dropped my underwear on the floor.  Rewash or not?
Come back here or not?

See what I mean.  Lots of surprises.

Happy Monday!

Outta Here!

Tonight is our last night in the oilfields surrounding Cotulla.  We have enjoyed our Winter here, met some new people, made some new friends.  Did some of that re-connecting with our good friends Mary and Jack.  We go our separate ways this summer but will see each other next Winter I'm sure.

Our new neighbors, Tim and Katy are terrific people and helped in our decision to trade in the 5er for a motorhome.  Thanks guys!

Also enjoyed the gate guard ladies lunch every other week.  Made some new friends there too and also met some fellow bloggers.

We are off to San Antonio until Friday.  We'll be cleaning the dust and dirt out of the motorhome as well as get the dirt and dust off the dogs.  A little shopping, one very nice dinner out, errands and seeing a few people.

Our good friends, Cindy and Ernie are meeting us at the RV park on Wednesday and then we are travelling together back to Kansas.  Spend a month with the kids and grandkids, visit with our friends, take care of Dr's appts and prepare to head out for our Festival season.

All you gate guards working through the Summer....be careful out there.  All you other gate guards taking off for parts unknown for the summer...be careful out there also. May the roads be smooth and dry and your adventures all you hope them to be.

And to our kids.......HERE WE COME!!!

A Community All It's Own

Three of the worst things that can happen in this fulltiming lifestyle happened over our winter.  Not to us but to people we know and like.

A hail storm and a totaled motorhome.

A flood and extensive damage.

A fire and a death.

I have sympathy and empathy for each of the victims of these capricious acts of nature.  I wish I could do more than offer that little bit.  One I have helped monetarily, one is too far away to help and one the only offer I can extend IS my sympathy.

One of them I have never met in person, one I have only met once and the other was a neighbor for a short time.

Such is the lifestyle we lead.  Fulltimers are a special neighborhood all it's own and encompasses the world.  You make friends you have only met once but keep in touch through your travels.  You make friends with other bloggers and keep in touch through each other's adventures and some come into and out of your life for a short time but make a big impact.

Just like in a static neighborhood there are a myriad of different personalities, ages, types of homes, income levels, political and religious affiliations. They just don't all seem as important as the experience of the travels and meeting new people.  All of them are a special breed.  Each with their own lives and each connected to you by the lifestyle we all lead.  You exchange phone numbers, email addresses and blog URL's and somewhere down the road you meet again, catch up and both hit the road once more.  I think we all connect on a much different level than any physical neighbors we all once had.

We keep in touch with our friends from our sticks and bricks life.  We miss them, we love them and see them whenever we're home.  We KNOW where to find them.  And we NEED that re-connection, but the new friends we meet on the road share the reasons, the understanding, the troubles and all the things that come with this life we have chosen.  They KNOW what the attraction to this lifestyle is and what it entails, whereas some of the ones we hold dear back home still want to know why.

And that's OK.  They know we're doing what we've dreamed about and even without understanding they're happy for us.

What the Fuck?!

I love this phrase.  Sure, I know, I could find other phrases that say the same thing, but there is just nothing that says it quite as clearly.  And it can be changed to Where the fuck, who the fuck, when the fuck and why the fuck.

Wickepedia says about the word fuck:  "By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed and may also be used as an intensive."  "In "what the fuck?!", it serves merely as an intensive."

Of course anyone who knows me well knows I have no reservations saying fuck.  I try to hold back in the company of people I do not know well, but once in awhile I'll let it slip.  I don't think I've chased anyone off yet.

I'm still sorting out exactly why there can be a negative reaction to swear words. I don't think it shows that anyone is any less intelligent or that it would make someone appear trashy.  Some of the smartest or well thought of people I know use them quite frequently.  And, we go back to the first paragraph.  There is more than one way to get the point across, but those usually aren't as satisfying as a good old "what the fuck" accompanied by a look of total bafflement.

"That's fucking bullshit" is another good one.  Short, to the point and no one misinterprets that.  Of course you could say "you're lying" or "you're crazy" but it just doesn't have the same impact.

They are great for quick succinct clarification.  They are great for blowing off steam.  They are great for getting people out of your face.

Some people are funny about the swear words they use.  My mother said she didn't like the word piss because her grandmother (on the farm) never said she was going to the bathroom, she said "I'm going to piss".  My mother only said two swear words, "shit" and "damn", and she rarely used those.  When those words could be heard around the house you knew someone's ass was in DEEP shit!

A New Year a New Me

Not!
I gave up making New Year resolutions a long time ago.  The last time I made one to lose weight I ended up pregnant!  (a whole nother story).

I think a more realistic thing to do is to set a series of small goals throughout the year.  Small things, one at a time can sure add up over that time.  Start with just one small thing tomorrow.  I'll be nicer to just one person.  I'll smile at that grumpy looking woman in the grocery store.  I'll eat just one less sweet this week.  Whatever.  Doesn't matter.  Once you feel good about that first one, do another one.  Doesn't have to be everyday or even every week but it could be.  Before you know it those small things have become a new you!

Some studies say it takes 21 days to make a new habit stick or to get rid of a bad one, so maybe every 21 days.  That's 17 changes in a year.  Not bad.  My challenge to myself, one small thing at a time.  Today's small thing?  I bet regular readers could guess.

I'll Pray For You....

When I first started this blog I was determined that I wouldn't talk politics or religion.  I'm about to cut that determination to the quick.  Mostly because it just pisses me off!

I'll pray for you....
I read in another blog (http://whattotelltheneighbors.blogspot.com) a statement that pretty much sums up how I feel - "When people go out to their way to say , "I'm praying for you," to an atheist, do they realize it sounds pretty much like "F*** you," only with more syllables?"

There have been more than a few studies, some of them with an effort towards double blind, that have all been mostly inconclusive.  Inconclusive because depending on who you talk to they either prove it works or prove it doesn't work.   It's either "God knows he's being tested" or "He works in mysterious ways" or the best one "He must need them in Heaven"! To me it just proves it's all wishing on a star.

I find it neither a happy event nor a proof of prayer working that God has provided you with anything that you have asked for.  Why on earth would he provide you with a new job, a car, more money, happiness, food, etc., if he can't even alleviate the suffering of so much of the world.  This only shows me that prayer is a selfish device.  Two reasons.  The obvious, you're praying for yourself. The other not so obvious.  Even if you are praying for the poor starving children in Africa or that cute little boy that has cancer the only thing it's doing is making YOU feel better.  In actuality you are doing the same as nothing.

If you really want to help the poor starving children in Africa, then find an organization that is actually DOING something and donate.  Better yet, go there yourself and donate your time.  If you really want to help the cute little boy that has cancer, then donate to cancer research or donate your time to a children's hospital or offer to help the family.  Prayer, no matter how many people are doing it, has not curbed hunger or cured cancer or righted any of the myriad of other wrongs in the world that God has so graciously given you a "blessed" corner in.

The Little Woman

I joined the Army in 1974.  I thought I wanted to get as far away from home as possible and I did.  I flew from Seattle, Washington to Fort Jackson, South Carolina!  For wanting to get away from home I sure did a lot of crying on those flights.

Anyway, lots of good things happened to me in the Army.  I learned to be self sufficient and that I was capable of things I never thought I would be.  I learned confidence and leadership.  I met Dave, got married and had my first child.  Which brings me to one of the reasons I left the Army.  I really thought I wanted to be a housewife.  I didn't.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed being a wife and a mother.  HATED taking care of the house.  It bored me to tears.  I so admire women that can make a whole career out of house and home.  But I do not envy them.

So, I worked at whatever I could find at first.  Fast food, janitorial and then went to Dental Assistant school and worked at that for a few years.  Since Dave stayed in the Army we moved about every three years.  After the 3 kids got a little older and we would hit a new duty station the job search would take 2 or 3 months.  As a working out of the home mom I did pretty well.  No, we can't have it all or do it all, but like anything else we give it our best shot.  The only problem was the kids.  They didn't LIKE having me home.  Mom, didn't you find a job yet?  Sheesh!

Anyway, the point is I worked very hard to make a place for myself as DORIS Arnold and even though I love my husband I preferred that to being known as MRS. Arnold or "The Little Woman".

The kids grow up, move out and bless us with grandchildren.  We still worked at our respective careers and did well at them.  Well then, what is this all about?  I'm back to being "The Little Woman".

We stopped working, sold the house, moved into our 5th Wheel and most of the time I AM Doris, but down here in Texas working on the ranch as hands or managers or whatever you want to call it, we have reverted to traditional roles.
Dave's out riding the fence, running the tractors, BSing with the good ol boys and here I sit cooking 2 meals a day, cleaning house, watching TV and taking care of all the little things in the house.   ARRGGHHHH!  BUT, I'm enjoying it.

Damn!

Noise, Crowds, Peace and Quiet and Family

We survived the 7 days of Common Ground and moved on to Country Thunder in Twin Lakes, WI.

Some of my favorite Common Ground people!

Common Ground Office Staff

Matt, one of the East Gate Managers

Gayle and Emily, East Gate Managers

Gayle is a teacher at the local college, teaching Event Planning.  Emily and Matt are two of her students who got VERY practical experience running the east entrance gate.   They were fun to work with and did a GREAT job!

Stevie Ray Bacon, Chachi, Buster and Boris manning the EMU
The names are a story for another time!

Common Ground's last day was Sunday with Sublime With Rome as the last act. 

Monday morning, we picked up the girls at the boarding place, hooked up the trailer, said goodbye to all our new festival friends and headed west to Twin Lakes, WI to get started on Country Thunder.  We drove through Chicago on our way...always a pleasure (not).  Bad roads, high tolls, lousy traffic.  At least it was a bright sunny day.

This is one of our favorite festivals because we get to see some of our favorite festival friends from Country Stampede.  Laurie, Butch and Joanne, Johnny B and then our new festival friends who also work the Country Thunder in Arizona.  Marty and Dick, who run traffic and parking are always a hoot!  Made some new friends..Joe, Mike and Connie with the gate services company. Sorry, no pictures with them...and not many pictures at all.  Guess I took too many last year! :)

Field of Port a Potties....View out our back window before the
all the campers arrived.

This is an additional stage on the grounds for something called "Electric Thunder".  VERY loud.  Our trailer was close enough that we could feel the thump thump of the music as movement.

After almost 3 weeks of noise and crowds we just wanted some peace and quiet.  We found a little, quite nice RV park in Sycamore, IL with a couple of ponds.  Monday we took the looonnnnggg drive of 53 miles to Sycamore, checked in, parked, set up and started the relaxing.  Aaaaahhhhh.....

We were pretty near Dave's sisters, Judy and Janet so they came to spend some time with us both days.  We really enjoyed their visit and have decided that this should be a post Country Thunder stop each year.

We left Sycamore on Thursday and headed for southern Illinois.  Since we have about a week before we meet the kids in Lake of the Ozarks we decided to find an RV park near Dave's sister Frankie.  We haven't seen her and her husband since her daughter Stacey got married 3 years ago.  To top it off Stacey and Eric gave Frankie and Dave their first grandchild this year and we were anxious to meet him.

Edward David Kreher

We always say that the Arnold's may not do much else well, but we sure make beautiful babies!!  Stacey and Eric are no exception.  He is one handsome guy!

Fridays for Frankie are Eddie day, so we arrived at the perfect time to spend the afternoon with him and Grandma.  Then she and Dave came out to visit us at the trailer on Saturday and we went over to Stacey and Eric's for dinner on Sunday.  We have taken the last two days to get things ship shape around here and will go over to say our goodbyes to the Yuill and Kreher clan tomorrow.  We sure have enjoyed spending time with them after so long.  We will probably have to make this an annual stop too!

Thursday morning we leave to meet ALL of our kids and grand kids for a long weekend at Lake of the Ozarks.  We are looking VERY forward to that.  Then a week at Kathy's and Tim's and then make our way north to Rockford for On the Waterfront at the end of the month.

So, now you are all caught up.  It seems that I have really gotten out of the habit of keeping my blog.  Need to change that.  Again.  I may or may not get anything blogged while we are enjoying our grand kids but will try to keep motivated to keep you informed.  Stayed tuned for pictures of our family vacation and other things.  I can see the thrill in your eyes already. :)

Day 5 at Common Ground

Here we are on day 5 of Common Ground on what promises to be the busiest night.  Eric Church is here tonight and they are expecting to be sold out.  For those of you in our festival family, sold out here means 12,000.
Here's a few pictures from the last few days.

Festival crowd Tuesday evening for Foghat and Joe Walsh

Taken from the bridge looking towards the backstage catering area.
You can see our 5er to the left in the background

Also taken from the bridge looking backstage at the artist bus and trailer area
towards the crowd

Since the venue is on the river boats congregate, for free.  

Looking across the river at downtown Lansing.  It's a beautiful area.

This is a new festival for us and we are pretty much enjoying it, but like all festivals sleep is lacking.  At least this festival doesn't start until 5:00 each evening, so we're getting just a little more than usual.

OK, fun over...here's something I received yesterday, along with a cookie, that really bothers me.

Why in the world would this bother me?  Because of what is on the reverse.

Click to make larger

Why is it that some people (quite a few actually) believe that if you don't believe in God and the Bible you are not a "good American" or patriotic?

I'm pretty sure the Preamble to the Constitution says "We The People", not "We the Christian People".

I guess serving in the Army, my father, brother and Uncles serving in the military, paying my taxes, exercising my right to vote, supporting other Americans in their rights and living by the laws of our Constitution don't count.

OK, off the box now.

And....Here we are.....

Parked on a city street in Lansing Michigan!  This is by far the least "it" campsite we have had to date.  Don't think I can even call it a campsite, really it's just a parking spot and in a bus zone at that!

But, it will still be an interesting spot. We are actually just on the other side of the backstage fence. We are in Lansing to work at the Common Ground Music Festival.  This is a long one for us, the longest being the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque.  This one is 7 days.  Each night has a different genre of music so should be interesting.  Click on the festival name to link to what it's all about.

We travelled two looonnnggg days to get here from Kansas.  Well, long for us.  About 400+ miles a day and after all that time closed up in 100+ heat it took the house quite awhile to cool off....yuck!

I started this post 4 hours ago.  At that time Kevin and Josh showed up with our credentials and a note from Jennifer (our contact here) that we would need to board the dogs.  She was even nice enough to do the research for us and the girls ended up at Lake Lansing Road Animal Clinic and Pet Resort. The staff are very nice and looks like they will be well taken care of for 10 days.  Not sure they will be talking to us when we pick them up, but they should be just fine.

I made a quick stop at Meier's grocery store and we headed out to lunch.  Now Dave is trying to get the Dish up and running...there's a race on tonight ya know.  I'm just hangin in the very cool house.  It's in the high 90's today but humidity is 58% and dew point is 71.  One hot mofo.  Cold front supposed to come in tonight and we will be back down in the 80's here and that will be quite a relief!

We at least have some trees here as we are on the edge of a city park.  Here's the view out our window by the door.

OK, I'm outta here for now....More later....I hope.  Sorry to be a stranger, I'll try to keep up this time!

All Right Already!

So, here it is May 30th and I just realized it's been a whole month since I blogged!  Since I had the 5th person email, call, post a note wondering what's up with us and is everything all right, I figured I'd better fill you in.

Allrightythen!

We stayed in Abilene, KS visiting with our son and his family for a week.  We were in a little bitty RV park on the outskirts of town just 4 houses down from their house.  Every day after school, the kids hurried through their chores so they could run down to Nana's and Papa's!  Honestly, I'm not sure what they find so interesting at our home.  We have no toys, the pool wasn't open, only a couple of swings at the rv park.  Hmmmm, must be Nana and Papa!  We sure enjoyed that week near them, but it was time to move over to the COE park at Tuttle Creek.

With Dave's America the Beautiful pass it was $9 a night and the name of the game this year is cheap, cheap, cheap.  It's a beautiful park right on the lake and except for the weekend we had the place to ourselves.  The dogs always enjoy that as we rarely put them on the cables unless there are other people around.

As with most COE's there was no sewer so I had to watch the water output, particularly the grey water.  Also, there was a hill behind us to the south so Dave had to use the long cable to get Dish TV.  Now, boondocking has appealed to me because you can go so many more places, but I guess I have been spoiled.  All winter long at the oilfield gate having constant electric, water AND a large exterior black tank I just took it all for granted.  But now I have to save output.  Dishes in tubs and dump it outside, short showers and oh how I love my showers, black tank not so bad.  We can go about 9 days on our black tank without being too careful.  ANYway, after a week we moved over to Tuttle Creek State Park below the dam.

We had driven over earlier in the week and picked our spot.  Number 47.  So we slowly packed up and made the long drive of 4 miles over to our new spot.  With our Kansas annual camp pass it's $9.50 a night.  As we get backed into our beautiful shady spot and Dave goes to plug in the electric cord he notices it's only 30 amps.  "Don't get mad" he says.  I just look at him and say "for a week I've had to watch the water, now I'm going to have to watch the electric too!  We're moving."

Of course we stayed.  It's a beautiful spot.  It's been pretty damn hot around here so, I do have to turn off the AC to run the oven/microwave and we run the living room AC during the day and switch over to the bedroom AC at night but, believe it or not, don't have to turn the AC off to run my hair dryer.  Whoo hoo!  It's worse on Dave though, he's had to dump the tanks about every 4 days using the grey tote we borrow from a friend of ours here.  Takes him about 4 trips.

On Sunday we are moving to a full hookup site which will cost us $15 a day, but it's only for a week as we leave for our first festival, Nebraskaland Days Rodeo on the 11th.  It will be nice to have a nice looonnnnggg hot shower!

Our EmmaRae

Since we've been in Kansas with our kids, we have enjoyed a dance recital, a piano recital, a couple of soccer games and coming up is a t-ball game and another recital!  We've enjoyed a few picnics and outings with our kids, breakfast out with friends, Doctors appointments, a clean Laundromat and shopping at big box stores.  I have pictures of the games and other kid stuff, but haven't downloaded them yet.  They'll get in the next post.

And, Bob, NO snakes!  Unfortunately, can't say the same for mosquitoes and gnats.

We've sold our couch and replaced it with a comfy chair and a padded storage bench, bought a stained glass window for the door window and Dave has replaced our white lights under the kitchen island and above the window in the bedroom with blue lights.  He added blue lights above the kitchen slide.  Looks wonderful!  We saw these blue lights on slides in a brand new Elite Suites at the RV-Dreams Rally we were at in Kerrville.

LOVE it!

OK, I'm off to bed now.  I've been working for my daughter at the Country Stampede office and need my beauty rest.  I'd promise to blog more often, but we all know how well I follow that!

Zoom Zoom

That's how I feel today.  We traveled 380 miles.  I know, doesn't seem like a lot to you, but we usually only go about 200 maybe 250 in a day, but we are anxious to get home and see the kiddos.

We went from the Hill Country of Texas to the Wichita Mountains of South Oklahoma.  Really the only difference is there are more trees in the Hill Country.

All along the way while we were still in Texas we saw all manner of entrance gates to ranches.  From the fairly simple wire fence gates to the elaborate stone and iron gates.  Most of them we could see the houses from the road and while some houses seemed to match their gates, others had gates that were a bit pretentious for the size of the mobile home.  Some quite stately homes had the simplest gates.

Betty, I thought of you today as we were driving through Scotland, Texas.  What a great combo for you!  I tried to get a picture of the sign as Dave zoomed through, but I totally missed it.  Maybe next time.  Have you ever been there?  Scotland Texas, not Scotland or Texas.  :)

We will continue on our Zoom Zoom course tomorrow until we arrive in Abilene KS sometime in the afternoon.  Another 360 miles.

This brings me to the close of the A to Z Challenge.  I sure have enjoyed it and I hope it has encouraged me enough to keep going regularly on my own.  Thanks to all the great bloggers who organized the challenge this year.  I loved visiting all the other blogging participants enabling me to add more to my list of interesting things to read.

Yippee Ky Yay

Bruce Willis.  Die Hard.  I like Bruce Willis and I liked this movie.  Just enough plot to support the action and of course things blowing up.  What more could you ask for?

That word, yippee, isn't used much anymore.  Although I don't remember using it much, even as a child.  You do see it in old movies, usually from children getting something they REALLY wanted.

I do remember using it as a teenager.  Usually in reply to something my parents were planning for ALL of us and our response was a sarcastic "yippee" most often accompanied by a twirl of the index finger into the air.

But I found myself thinking this word enthusiastically today as I felt elation at the realization that I would see my kids in 3 short days!

What more could you ask for?

x]

OK, I had to look for this one.  It's Internet slang for happy.  You  know, like :) is a happy face X] means just happy.  See here

Since I am X] I figured I could expound on this little Internet slang symbol.

Just living this fulltime RV lifestyle makes me X].  We are more relaxed, we have much, much less stress, we travel the country seeing things we haven't seen before and we have a fun job.  This all makes us X].

I wonder if this little symbol and all the other Internet and chat slang symbols is an indication of what our written conversations will all look like in 20 years or more?  Doesn't do well for those of us that can't ever remember all those little symbols.  Especially as we get older and our memories get worse!  Oh boy!

Here's a x] picture for you.

Erica and Papa

Way Too Long

We are in our second year of fulltiming and our 1st year of traveling fulltime and we love this lifestyle.  We wouldn't go back to a sticks and bricks home even if we had to.  There are a few things we would change this 2nd year on the road though.

Financially speaking we will be eating out a whole lot less.  We won't be traveling as far to save on fuel and we definitely WON'T be going to Vegas this year.

We'd like to explore more of our surroundings at each stop than we did this year and we'd like to make it home more often.  That's where the "Way Too Long" comes in.

Except for our youngest daughter visiting at the holidays, we haven't seen our kids or grandkids in 8 months.  That's way too long!  It seems from their pictures that the grands have grown soooo much and they have all turned a year older.  That's a long time to miss them when at their ages things change so rapidly.

Their ages you ask?  Eleven, nine, nine, six and six.  We've missed the Holiday programs and the end of year programs.  We've missed some baseball games, dance recitals, soccer games, Anniversaries and family get togethers.  And we will still miss some of those things, but maybe we'll be at more family gatherings and we have decided we will go home for the Holidays this year.  That was a tough one to miss.

So, as we make our way down the road on Monday we will be happier and happier as we get closer and closer to home.

Good night!

Kids - 4 days and a wake up!!

Very Good Day

You know, we have a lot of these now that we are living fulltime in our RV. Life is slower, easier and we meet such nice people.

Day one of the RV-Dreams Rally seminars was fun and informative.  Tonight after dinner there there were quite a few people who showed us things gadgets they use in their RV's.  A PVC pole to measure the height of underpasses.  Walkie Talkies, clothes hangers, chair umbrella, torque wrench, and some other interesting things I can't remember.

At each seminar and at dinner we sit with different people each time so we meet more people each day.  I'm horrible with names and faces so it's a good thing everyone is wearing name tags!

At lunch break I had to run into town to pick up some prescriptions and took a back road rather than the highway.  It was winding and pretty.  I finally saw lots of Bluebonnets and there were several farms with lots of little goats on them.  Before I knew it I was in town and had no trouble finding the Walmart.  After I was done I hit the Mickey D's drive thru and headed back for the afternoon seminars.

We had a good dinner of pizza, salad and cinnamon rolls for dessert.  After show and tell it was time for the girls to get a walk.  Took a little more time tonight because we had to stop and talk to people we have met and the girls had to say hi to everyone too.

Well, that's the first day down and another packed day tomorrow.  I'm sending Dave to the morning seminar on weight and tire maintenance while I clean up the house, then we'll hit the afternoon seminars.  Potluck for dinner tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that!

Goodnight all!

To my kids:  5 days and a wake up!!

Under the Twilight Sky

I rarely had time to sit outside at night when we lived in the sticks and bricks and worked 9 to 5 jobs and had a myriad of things to take care of, but I always loved the time of night just after the sun goes down and the stars are popping out.  Now that we live a life where we have time to smell the roses (instead of running them over) I enjoy this time even more.

We sit outside rocking and talking, or not talking, and watch the sky and the world go by.  It's relaxing and puts things in perspective for me.  We are a tiny speck in the sky.  The earth and planets revolve around our sun and our little system moves around our galaxy and the galaxy wanders around the universe.  And here we are wandering around our little piece of the world as if that's the way it should be.  As it should be.  It feels right.

Nuff said.  Goodnight.

Travel Day Today

For those of you reading my blog that are not fulltime RVers, we have a lot of travel days.  Last summer we traveled to 12 states in 7 months.  Some of those states twice!

Hmmm, I just noticed this map includes North Dakota.  That's a mistake, we haven't been there yet.  Oooops.  But the rest are correct.

Anyway, we try not to travel more than 300 miles a day and most travel days we are right between 250 and 300.  Today we went a whopping 70 miles.  We were staying at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio for the last week cleaning out all the dust from the oilfield.  Cleaned the inside and outside of the 5er, cleaned inside and outside the truck, dogs had a beauty parlor day and I finally got my much anticipated pedi/mani!  It is so nice to have a clean home that stays clean for more than an hour!

We traveled to Kerrville, TX where we are attending the RV Dreams Rally at Buckhorn Lake Resort.  I found this website and forum about 3 years ago when we were first talking about going fulltime in our RV.  GREAT bunch of people.  Be sure and check it out.

When we are on a travel day it takes us about 1 hour to get everything ready to go.  That's if we have set an early departure time.  If we haven't and we aren't going far, like today, then we take our time and take about 2 hours to get ready to go.

We get everything put away inside that is breakable, would move or is in the way of the slides being brought in.  On the outside Dave gets all our patio and yard stuff put away, empties and flushes the black tank, unhooks the water hose and makes sure the truck is ready to go.

When all is ready inside and out we bring the slides in and raise the jacks.  Dave backs the truck up to the hitch, I raise the front of the 5er and he slides the truck under the tongue and into the hitch in the bed of the truck.  He plugs in the cord for the running/brake lights and trailer brakes and then I raise the jacks on the front end and the truck now has the load.  

As he is winding up the electrical cord and putting it away I am making sure we both have drinks and my purse, nook and our phones are in the truck.  He does a final walk around locking all the storage doors and making sure the lights all work.

By this time the dogs are already in the back seat area of the truck.  They know the routine and as soon as we start it they are anxious not to be left behind!  We bring along a bowl and bottles of water for the trip for them.  We have a crew cab on the truck and with the seats folded up there is plenty of room for them.  We bought cushions at Petco that makes that whole floor area comfy for them.

We hit the road at about 1045 and had a very easy drive once we got out of San Antonio.  We arrived here about 1230, got all set up and are enjoying the evening.

See you tomorrow for "U"!

Snickers

Skittles