Life on the Road

While traveling on the road there are those little mishaps from time to time. We had a time a few weeks ago when we were driving cross-country.

At the eastern Oklahoma state line we had a flat tire. Actually, this was a classic “blow out”. The tire exploded and the only thing left was a thin ring of rubber on the rim. As rubber shards were launched into the air, the sewage valve was busted and needed to be replaced. I think we were lucky that that was the only thing we lost. We found a shop further down the road and scheduled a stop for the following afternoon.

Needless to say, we had lost time because of the blow out and then stopping for new tires (replacing the other 3). Now we had to make up time. We stopped in at Motley RV Service in Oklahoma City about 2pm. We figured a short stop for repairs and on the road again. We try to keep a short drive schedule, but being behind, we were pushing on a little longer.

The service manager came in and told us the parts were in stock and the total job would cost about $250. But, they had some other things to finish in the shop and our repairs would be done by 5pm. 5 PM … I can’t loose that much time … They were in no mood to put me ahead on the schedule, but he assured me they would get to it by 5pm because that was what time they closed.

Aargh!

OK … just give me the parts. The total for two valves (black water and grey water) and a new cap for the line was $50. So, quickly doing the math in my head I figured out that they were going to charge $200 for labor. Wow that’s a lot. But it must be a tough job. The service manager asked, “Do you know anything about RV repair?” To which I said, “I think I can figure it out, I’m pretty good at turning a screw.” I finally convinced him to sell me the parts and let me go.

We stopped in Texas for the night and the storm was getting worse. In the freezing rain I got out the few tools I had with me and went to work on the valve. (Remember that the motley crew at Motley RV - who knew what they were doing - were going to charge me $200 to do the work, in their shop, with the right tools, in the warmth, out of the rain.)

After 10 minutes of work the job was done. *** $200 ***

So, if you can turn a screw, just buy the parts. They charge enough markup at that without having to pay those outrageous labor charges. At least shop around for the best deal. It’ll probably be worth your time and effort.

Let go and let God.

I really do my best to obey the laws of the road. I’m a good Christian and I believe in obeying the laws. I don’t steal, or murder, or speed. (That’s actually a pet peeve of mine. They aren’t traffic suggestions, they are traffic laws. If you wouldn’t murder or steal, you shouldn’t speed… let’s put that soap box away.)

In early February of this year we were going to Chicago to pick up our RV. (Remind me to tell you more details later.) Driving thru some small town in Illinois we had to stop for gas. I was in the turn lane at a traffic signal and there were no signs for no u-turn, so I flipped around to go to a service station on the other side of the road. The officer (we now lovingly call him Deputy Dory) two cars behind me followed me around and pulled me over.
Have you ever seen Disney’s “Finding Nemo”? Well, Deputy Dory walked up to the car and asked, “Are you lost?”
“No,” I replied, “I’m just stopping for gas.”
“Are you lost?”, responded Deputy Dory. (Dory, … remember the fish that had no short term memory.)
“No,” again, “I’m just stopping for gas.”
“Where are you going?”
Yes, this is a true story.
“I’m going to get some gas.” At this point you start to wonder if you took that exit marked “the Twilight Zone”.

And the details are kinda’ lost from here as the conversation was a bit dizzying. It does appear that the law in Illinois, and a few other states, is no u-turn unless posted. In the other forty something states, it’s the other way round. You can make a u-turn unless it is posted no u-turn.
Deputy Dory said, “You made a u-turn back at that light.”
“Yea, I didn’t see any signs indicating no u-turn” I responded.
“You didn’t have your turn signal on.”
“I was in the turn only lane, I’m sorry.”
“I’m going to write you a warning for not using your signal.”
I guess it would have been OK if I had made an illegal u-turn with my signal on.

I then detailed the story of selling our house, going on the road to Chicago to get an RV, and going to visit my dad in Mississippi.
To which Deputy Dory said, “So, you’re going to Mississippi?”
Imagine the hands swinging in a circle and my index fingers pointing in the direction we were travelling. With slow and exaggerated enunciation, I replied, “No, I’m headed to Chicago to get an RV.”
“Did you buy it on eBay?”

“I’m miles from home, and I’m stuck with a fish who can’t even remember her own name…!”
“Boy, I’ll bet that’s frustrating.”

Deputy Dory will live on in infamy. Whenever anything happens that is strange we all ring out with “Are you lost?”

We have had lots of strange little incidents like this over the past few months on the road. Like the time we went … oh, I’ll tell you later.

Take comfort in the Lord.

Well, today doesn’t have a lot to recommend it as an exciting blog day…  Back to the storage unit to sort some more.  Wheee!

So let me tell you about Friday evening.

A little Class C motorhome pulled in to the space across the way, and as they started fixing dinner we noticed that they had two kids around Nick’s age (Nicole is 12 and JT is 10).  They quickly struck up a friendship and went climbing in the surrounding boulders.

Later, Wolf and Nick caravaned with their family down to the lake below our campground for Starry Nights.  Northern Arizona University and the Prescott Astronomy Club were there with information, big telescopes, and video monitors, and a good time was had by all.  Wolf enjoyed seeing galaxies, as well as a spectacular view of Saturn. 

Once he knew what to look for, he was even able to see Saturn - rings and all - with the little telescope we have in the RV.  Maybe this will reignite the boys’ interest in stargazing, which hasn’t been getting much attention in the last few months.

Maybe I need a good school lesson on Astronomy now…

I should know by now that everything is learned gradually. I guess I had hoped we would have most of the information we needed to hit the road in our RV. We read books and articles about storage needs and batteries and everything else under the heavens. In all things RV, I have much to learn.

We had decided early on that we would be “boondocking” at times. You know, parking in the middle of nowhere with no sewage, water, or electric hookups. We wanted to have a generator, two batteries, and solar charging. Now that I have more experience and knowledge about the whole thing, it could have been done better. But we’re getting there.

If you’re out in the middle of nowhere and want a semi-normal existance, you will need power. So the lights and water pump and some other things run on 12 vdc (like your car). We upgraded to two type 24 batteries. IT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE BETTER. We are now wondering if we should upgrade to two (or more) type 27 batteries.

Now, if you want to keep your power, you will need a way to replenish it. We figured out that solar panels would be a great thing to have. I must say in our defense that we didn’t exactly choose what we ended up with. The dealer we bought from sold us a cheesy 1 amp panel. Really not good for much of anything except maybe an extreme emergency. IT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE BETTER. Yea… We are now thinking that we need a system that will deliver around 10 amps.

Of course, there are devices that need more power, like a computer. Also there is the microwave, the A/C, and a hair dryer. A generator was added to our list of needed equipment. We looked at the best first … and gagged. $1200 for a 2000 watt gennerator. The same dealer that got us the solar also recommended buying a 4000 watt generator at Home Depot or someplace. That would only be $500 bucks. We looked and found a 5000 watt generator for $800. We bought it. And we took it back. It would keep you up nights. It was LOUD. We looked around at all the rest, and guess what … we went back to the best. We bought the $1200 Honda. But … IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER. We are finding that 2000 watts isn’t quite enough. Really, 2000 watts will do about everything except run the A/C. We had actually planned from the beginning to upgrade to two 2000 watt generators. Honda has a cool dual generator setup. 

And we just keep learning more.

All By God’s Grace

We had the idea that we would set up a reasonable schedule for travelling, to keep everyone sane.  Not only have circumstances conspired to keep us from following it all the time, but we’re also always running up againts new “needs,” and it’s tought to fit them all together.

In our preparations to go on the road, we read some words of wisdom from Bill & Jan Moeller in “Full-Time Rving: A Complete Guide to Life on the Open Road.”  Some people miss the whole point of full-timing, they warned.  You don’t HAVE to rush.  It’s not about getting somewhere to do something - the “getting there” is just as important.

So we decided to set our absolute maximum travel day as four hours on the road.  Two hours in the morning, then a break of 2-3 hours over lunch (and Jewel’s nap), then another two hours’ driving.

It’s not a bad plan, all in all.  We also planned to avoid driving more than a day or two in a row.  We’d find a nice place to stop for at least a day or two in between - typically this would be a place where there are good opportunities for us to put out flyers and build our business.

So this trip plan went something like this:

We’re driving from the Beach in Playa del Rey to our storage unit in Prescott, AZ.  We used to drive it in one day in the car, but YUCK!  On our drive schedule, we could do it in two reasonable days.  Instead we set up a 3-day trek.

Today we drove from the beach to Victorville, CA.  We took our time getting on the road, and it was after 11 am when we were finally underway.  After a stop for gas and lunch (but not a long rest) in the middle, and arrived here around 3 pm.   As we often do, we’re parked in a WalMart parking lot.  Their corporate policy is that they allow RVs to park overnight - VERY handy.

Tomorrow we will probably make it to the WalMart in Kingman, AZ, and we have our reservation at the RV park in Prescott starting Wednesday night.

The big scheduling issue turns out to be making business phone calls.  People who pick up our flyers or business cards, or even visit our web site, typically want to talk to someone in person.  We have toll-free numbers with voicemail, so we accumulate a list of people that need to be called back.

The lunch break is of course the best time for us, but it doesn’t do any good to call when the people aren’t home.  And by the time we get settled for the evening and have dinner it’s often too late - especially when we are on the West Coast, and at least some of the people we need to call are on the East Coast.

Darkness and kids’ bedtimes prohibit just shifting the evening activities later.  Mostly, for now, this has meant that calls only get returned on non-driving days, which hardly seems ideal.

We’re still working on this one…

I’ve put a patch over one eye and am bound for the open sea … I mean road.

We found our home business that can be taken across the nation. We have the kids home for school. Now we’ve packed our lives into a 240 square foot box on wheels and the adventure has begun. Our plan is to travel full time around the country. Is it going to be a pleasure cruise or will we be heading into a storm?

We are customizing the RV for storage and comfort. I’m a true jack of all trades. We took out the old cheap mattress, built a new bed frame and put in a nice queen size bed. I’ve built several little flat bookshelves and hung them around the walls. Lots of other little things here and there. I don’t think we’ll ever have enough storage space.

We’re trying to get ourselves digital, but that has been a bit slow. We bought a Dlink wireless router. After a week of blood, sweat and tears, I can’t really say it is working. It connects, but we keep dropping the connection and have to reconnect every few minutes. The next thing I’m gonna’ try is putting the router in a new location. Wish me luck.

All and all, I have enjoyed being with my family full time. We are sitting on the beach in southern California soaking up some rays. When we travel, we can stop after six hours of driving or after two hours of driving and walk ten feet back to our house. (Lovingly called the shell, like a turtle or a snail.)

All By God’s Grace

We were supposed to leave today.  Actually, we were supposed to leave yesterday.  We had even made reservations that the park in Prescott where we stayed last time we were there… 

But none of us felt up to packing it in and driving.  So we stayed.  We had to move over a few spots here, since someone had already reserved our spot this weekend, but now we’re scheduled to depart on Monday.

Hopefully this will give us a chance to relax a little, since our original departure was based on allowing enough time to do all the things we HAD to do while we were here.  Whew! 

I just found out, amazingly, that I’m “this close” to qualifying for incentives from Tupperware!  I joined on a lark, to get a discount on all the compact storage stuff we need for the RV.  Things sure have changed from the way I remember my mom buying Tupperware… 

Sure, some people still do “Tupperware Parties,” and for a certain personality type I’m sure that’s a lot of fun. ;) But they also have cool e-commerce websites (mine’s http://www.tupperwareblitz.com) where people can order securely online, and the company ships the product directly to them — I don’t ever have to get in the middle of it!

Someone back in Mississippi started a “catalog party” while we were there (she collects orders by having her friends look at a catalog, rather that getting everyone together), but had some things come up and it took a while to wrap it up.  It finally got entered this week, and looks pretty good on my sales record!  May is Tupperware’s birthday month, so they’re having a bunch of great sales and promotions for customers and consultants alike.  Who knows what I might stumble into with this…

It turns out that there is a “big dog show this weekend” in Orange County, so all the RV parks near my sister’s house were booked solid.  One of the disadvantages of not having firm travel plan ahead of time, of course.

While searching for an alternative, we were surprised to find out that we could park right on the beach at Dockweiler, for less than the campsites we had been looking at inland!  And Grandma is delighted that we’ll be closer to her, and she can spend more time with the kids.

Okay, so there’s one little downside…  LAX.  Yep, those bad boys fly right out over the ocean (and us) on their way out. 

We’re happily parked here for a few days, though, to catch our breath and “catch some rays.”  The kids love playing on the beach - Nick would spend all day out there if we’d let him, and it’s Jewel’s first time.

It’s always fun when someone walking by stops to talk to us about our business.  I guess those magnets on the car really do work!  ;) 

“What car magnets,” I can already hear you asking…  Well, we have several things going.  The first is two sets of large magnets (many thanks to Michelle at http://mrcandywrapper.com/) that say:

Want to Earn Money Money?  866.210.5586

Save 80% on Dental!  888.832.3508

Then we have a bunch of business card magnets in both varieties, so people can “swipe” one to take home.  Those also list the websites on them, of course.

Today looks to be another beautiful day in paradise, perfect for our BBQ lunch and family party for J’s second birthday.  I guess it’s time to turn off the computer (gasp) and go pick up the “Blue’s Clues” cake…