I mentioned at the end of my last post that I had some repairs done to my truck after arriving here in MS. It’s an area that I believe needs to be stressed for people who are considering a fulltime RV lifestyle, or workamping as a career. Unless you’re already independently wealthy, you’ll need some emergency funds. When I started in 2006, I was able to pay cash for a 5th wheel and pickup truck after the sale of a house. That was great, from a financial standpoint, for several years. Now I have a new 5th wheel, along with monthly payments and the truck is 14 years old. I suspected that the motor would last a very long time and it has. But there are other components that wear out and need to be repaired or replaced. Just in the last 5 months, I’ve spent about $5k in truck repairs. The first big ticket item was a clutch replacement. I’ve owned manual transmission vehicles before but never had clutch repairs. It failed on I-29 heading to Fargo ND. I have roadside assistance for both the truck and the RV so that saved me a lot of towing fees. I was already planning to get the clutch replaced so I had a transmission shop in mind. They completed the repairs for about half the cost quoted to me previously by a Dodge dealer and in a fraction of the time.

Fast forward to my next job in TN. It was starting to get very cold at night. One morning the truck just wouldn’t start. My neighbor was heading in to work at the same time so I caught a ride with him. That night I walked to a nearby auto parts store and bought a battery charger. After 2 days of charging, the truck would still not start. I had jumper cables and a neighbor with a big truck so I was able to start the truck and drive back to the auto parts store for testing and 2 new batteries. Yep, my 1 ton diesel engine requires 2 batteries. With the cold weather in TN I made sure that my ventilation system in the truck stayed in the position to route some air towards the windshield and some on the floor. This was not as simple as it sounds since that system has been getting a little wonky the last few years.

On the drive to MS, it became impossible to change airflow and very difficult to change temperature so that was the next visit to a dealer. Sounds like a fairly simple fix but they had to remove the entire dash to complete the repairs. And of course, the parts were all make and model specific from Dodge. Translate to expensive.

Even through all this, I consider myself very lucky. For the last 4 months of 2019, I was working at high paying, seasonal, temp jobs (sugar beet harvest and Amazon) so I had the money to cover the repairs. The breakdowns happened either before I started work or when I was able to carpool with a coworker. In other circumstances, either of the first 2 incidents could have been disastrous. I did NOT miss any work due to the repairs. I did NOT have to pay high rates to camp while repairs were being made. I did NOT have to run a credit card balance or take out a loan for the repairs. I was able to get repairs done in a timely manner and stay safe on the road. Those last few sentences are for the folks who think fulltiming and workamping are cheap ways to live. It can be for a time but expenses WILL jump out at you when least expected. Please be prepared.

In my last post, I was bragging about getting out of Washington before their record snowfall. Just a few days after that, Tennessee got record amounts of rainfall. I had a day off and planned to visit a local Chinese buffet for lunch. My phone had been giving me flash flood warnings for several hours. There is a small creek (10-12 feet wide and typically very shallow) running on the back end of the RV park. I checked it before leaving for lunch and there was nothing to be concerned about. I had one errand to run at the post office, then showed up at the buffet a few minutes before they opened. While I was sitting in the car reading, I got a call from one of my coworkers at the park. That creek that looked so peaceful when I left that morning had come out of its banks and was flooding my site. Since I was at least 30 minutes away and probably wouldn’t be able to save the RV if it started floating, I ate a rushed lunch, then headed back. By that time the rain had slacked off and the water had receded significantly. After looking at the high water marks near the creek and the lines on my tires, I now understand the meaning of flash flood. There was still quite a bit of standing water on my site and more rain in the forecast, so I hitched up and moved to a higher spot. In the future, I’ll take the local weather alerts more seriously.

Glad it didn’t go any higher

It’s a good thing I have plenty of time to prepare for my next trip. Summers in central FL are just grueling – temps in the 90s, humidity at least that high. Just walking out the door, I start sweating almost immediately. This afternoon I just needed to air up the 5er and truck tires. It’s not like I was using a bicycle pump to do it either. Some thunderstorms were in the area so there was no sun beating down on me. Nevertheless, just moving the air compressor from tire to tire had me dripping sweat in minutes. Those daily thunderstorms have also presented a problem. I’m still working full time so I’d planned on doing stuff after 6 PM, when it should’ve been a little cooler. Many days it was, cuz it was raining buckets.

Fortunately, I’ll be heading north in just 4 days. Probably not getting to much cooler weather for at least a week after that but at least it will be in the right direction.

Will I come back to Florida at some point in the future? Hard telling, not knowing. I know if it’s a summer trip it will be very short duration. Winter maybe, if I hit the lottery or find a decent workamping job. That leaves shoulder seasons. Fall doesn’t work since that’s still prime time for hurricanes. Maybe springtime when all the snowbirds are heading back home.

When I first started this blog, it was supposed to be a chronicle of my full-time, traveling RV adventures around the country. The traveling part came to a screeching halt a few years ago for various reasons. In the interim, although stationary, I’ve been through a few different jobs and bought a new 5th wheel (2017 Open Range 3X388RKS). And now I can see the light at the end of the stationary tunnel. This past weekend I picked up an updated copy of The  Next Exit. It’s amazing how that book can make a gypsy RVer smile.

I plan to be back on the road at the beginning of August. My application to work the sugar beet harvest in the Red River valley has already been accepted. Holy cow! An outside job again where I don’t need to worry about ringing phones or balky computers.

I really look forward to traveling again, workamping again (although being more selective this time) and seeing more of what this great country has to offer.

Every time I thought about posting, something else seemed to come up. So, now that I’m back at the keyboard we’ll see if I can catch up.

I managed to survive the summer somehow. At one point I discovered that the corner of my large slide floor had rotted out. That was not a pleasant day. I had to tear out almost 2 sq ft of flooring. Then I had to buy a sheet of 1″ thick marine plywood and cut a piece as close to fitting as I could. Since the rotted area didn’t follow straight lines, it was a very poor fit. On the brighter side, it was in a corner so I was able to screw those edges into the frame, then use wood scraps and epoxy filler to complete the ragged edges. I can highly recommend the sealer and filler products from http://www.rotdoctor.com/index.html To finish the project I used that spray on waterproofing material (the stuff in the commercials that they spray on a screen door in the bottom of a boat) on the underside of the repaired area to prevent further water damage. As of now, it all seems to be holding well.

The next project involved moving the RV for the first time in a year. As you may recall, I arrived with a broken ankle and very tired after 3 days of non-stop towing. When I set up, it wasn’t quite as good as it should have been. There were 2 concrete strips to back on to but I didn’t get the tires centered well on those strips. As a result, the RV was slightly off level. In October I decided to remedy that situation. It’s just amazing how much has to be done inside and outside the RV even though it wouldn’t be moved more than 20 ft forward or back. It would also be great if someone invented a device that would move a heavy RV sideways just a few inches. The actual movement took less than 30 minutes but it was a 4 or 5 hour total effort. I’m very glad that all the landing gear and slides worked as advertised even though they’d been immobile so long.

Since the weather was cooling off and I didn’t need the AC anymore, I decided to put the water heater back on electric to see if that would be cheaper than propane. Well, it turned out to be very cheap because the electric was no longer heating. After checking a few things on my Suburban water heater, I narrowed it down to an on/off rocker switch at the water heater. This is an additional safety feature to make sure you don’t accidentally burn out a heating element with an empty tank. I found a replacement switch at a local RV repair shop for under $12 and got it swapped out without trouble.

On the job front, I decided to take a tax preparation course with Liberty Tax Service which I just finished. I’ll start working for them in January. Boy will it feel good to have a paycheck again. I’m not expecting anything more than seasonal this year but as long as it works out well for both sides, it should be reliable future work regardless of my location.

Even though things were looking good at the end of last month, they certainly did a 360 this month.

That job I applied for? And had such high hopes for? Well, weeks went by and I heard absolutely nothing. I finally emailed them requesting an update and that was ignored. So I composed another email, detailing all the actions/effort I’d put in to get this job and how their silence was just plain rude. I did get an answer to that one. Apparently I struck a nerve. One of the things they mentioned in that email was that 2 of my most recent employers refrained from answering the question about whether they would rehire me. I have to blame lawyers and litigious job applicants on that one. When you only do seasonal work you’re really not there long enough to make a major impression. Anyway, as far as jobs are concerned, I’m starting to feel like a couple of guys in the movie “Mr. Mom”. It was shortly after Michael Keaton got laid off and there were 3 of them in the waiting area, ready to interview but the 2 other guys were busily exchanging recipes. One of their names was called and they graciously allowed Michael Keaton to go in first, knowing that their chances of getting the job were virtually nil. The tough part about all this is that I don’t even qualify for unemployment here in FL.

Next, the 3G Stepper. I was blazing around the park for a few weeks when I noticed a strange noise. I flipped the bike upside down and found one of the roller pedals was completely worn through. So, I ordered 2 new roller pedals and while I was waiting for them to arrive, studied the design of the bike. The roller pedals are 1.5 inches wide but they make contact with a square metal tube that’s only 1″ wide. I headed to the local department store for some 1/8″ thick, 2″ wide metal stock and cut sections to fit. I originally used JB Weld to hold them in place but that failed. Fortunately, one of the guys in the park is a welder and he tack welded the pieces in place at no charge. While I was waiting for the roller pedals to arrive, I noticed that cord was showing on the rear tire. I found a source on eBay that was about $10 cheaper than the manufacturer and replaced that easily. After all this, I feel like they had a great concept for this product but under-engineered the final product. It’s great if you’re just showing off a little at the beach but really needs to be stronger for serious workouts. I’m currently riding mine 13 miles/day, 3 times a week.

On the health front, I diagnosed myself with ‘wallet sciatica’. You can look that up for yourself but the end result was less jogging. Just starting to jog slowly again during my morning walks and seems to be getting better. The worse incident was another trip to the ER. As I expected, another kidney stone. Fortunately, this one seemed to be smaller than my last one. The pain subsided while I was in the ER, without benefit of puking 🙂 I’m fairly certain that I passed it completely a few days later.

Hoping for a better June!!

I happen to be a perfectionist in an imperfect world. I just can’t seem to help it. When the judge on People’s Court made an incorrect statement about rules of the road for bicyclists, I emailed the show’s website to set them straight. I may have gotten an automated reply but that was about it. When I saw a misspelled word on a vocational college’s TV commercial (neurodiagostic instead of neurodiagnostic), I did the same thing. As near as I can remember, they tried to sign me up for courses (but eventually corrected the commercial).

Recently, I visited a website for a manufacturer of RV repair diagnostic equipment (said company to remain anonymous). The home page had a narrative that looked like it was written by a brain-damaged chimpanzee. Just to be clear, this wasn’t a business run out of someone’s garage. It’s a company selling equipment throughout the US and Canada. Well, you know what I had to do. They had a contact form on the website and I used it. The owner and I exchanged a couple of emails. I didn’t make any specific change recommendations but told him that it certainly didn’t make a very good first impression. Here comes the amazed and astounded part. A few hours after I sent the last email (about 2 days after this saga started), I checked the website again, thinking I might count the actual errors. To my surprise, it had been cleaned up already. Most of the previous narrative was simply deleted and the remainder didn’t have any glaring grammar or spelling errors (although I would still take exception to their use of the ellipsis). It’s really nice when a complete stranger takes your advice 🙂

Time to play ‘catch up’ again. First, the ankle. I’m now able to jog, roller blade and swim without any problems. There still seems to be a problem with 2 of the toes on that foot though. I can’t move them independently. Now, I never really paid a whole lot of attention to that before but I don’t have that problem on the other foot. The only thing I can think of is that when the bone shifted slightly, it got in the way of a ligament or tendon or whatever the hell controls toe movements. Or maybe it just needs more time. I’ll worry about it again next year.

One of the other physical activities I’ve been able to resume is riding my 3G Stepper. It’s a hybrid bicycle/stepper/elliptical that’s designed from the ground up for a maximum workout. I’ve had mine for several years and on one of my recent rides through the park I felt something slipping, then failing. It’s a good thing I was still close to the RV. I walked it back (after picking up a broken part) and started examining it. The crank failed from metal fatigue. So I called the company, sent them a pic of the broken part and they referred me to a bicycle shop in Cocoa Beach. 2 weeks and $47 later I was riding again. I’m once again the talk of the park as I ride around in the early morning. My neighbor from Alaska who just pulled out used to refer to it as my ‘torture machine’.

There’s even news on the work front. My original plan when I got down here was to get a stocking job at the local Walmart on the night shift. This would allow me to make some extra money, yet still be available for my granddaughter during the day. Well, things have changed quite a bit. I filled out the online application and heard absolutely nothing. I filled out several other online applications without any feedback at all. And then a miracle happened. I was browsing the county employment website and found a description that sounded amazingly like my previous workamper jobs. It’s a 55+ mobile home park which has most of the same activities as an RV park and it’s only about 1.5 miles away. I could have registered with yet another agency and followed their procedures but since they also posted the name of the employer, I took a shortcut and sent my resume and cover letter directly to the employer. They called me the very next day and 2 days later I was taking a drug test. They also have to do a background check so I still have maybe a week or 2 of freedom remaining. Even when all that is finished, this job will only occupy 2 days of the week so it should work out well.

I’d like to welcome all the fine folks who are visiting my blog due to the link published by The Camping Dad. While we have different viewpoints, you should still be able to find useful information on both sites. As we were exchanging emails to set up the link exchange, spappy mentioned how envious he was that I was already fulltiming and he was still a ‘weekend warrior’ with young children.

Well, I thought about that for a few minutes and decided that I’m the one that should be envious. If I could turn back the calendar quite a few years, I would spend a lot more time in the woods with my (now grown) kids. And I would probably start that tradition at a much younger age, preferably before they got hooked on all the consumer electronics that are so prevalent today. I’ve seen teenagers and young adults at campgrounds lighting their way at night by using smart phones instead of flashlights. It worked for them but it certainly wasn’t traditional!

Maybe if more of us started that tradition early we could instill the respect for nature and other campers that is sorely lacking in so many campers today.

ON EDIT: There are some families out there who are fulltiming with school age children. The children are home-schooled wherever they happen to be. I think it’s great that the kids can actually see a civil war battlefield while they’re learning history but I would worry that they can’t make the lifelong friends that many children do while staying in one place. Please, no hate mail about this. It’s just my opinion.

For the most part, central Florida winter weather is great. Unfortunately, there will be a few times during the season when the temperatures drop below freezing, or even a little above that for several days. I was going to refer to this as ‘cold’ weather but I was raised in Chicago and I watch the national weather to see sub-zero weather with feet of snow piling up.

So, it’s not a major threat to survival when the temps drop below 70 but I did discover something recently. Normally, I’m very frugal when it comes to running the furnace or electric heaters (when I’m paying for my own utilities). If the temps drop into the 30s or even high 20s overnight, I usually deal with it by wearing extra layers inside the RV and throwing an extra blanket on the bed at night. In the morning, I’ll run the furnace for 15-20 minutes just to take the chill off, then wait for the temps to rise to a comfortable level. This has worked fine in the past but in the last few weeks we were getting the low temps at night and not going above 50 during the day.

In my eBook, Home Is Where The Wheels Stop, I mention that fatigue is cumulative. Well, it looks like cold is also. Going into the second night of cold temps, I actually set the thermostat so the furnace would kick in periodically during the night and, perhaps more amazingly, left the furnace on during the day. I had the thermostat set low so I wasn’t burning a lot of propane. But as the cool weather continued I found myself adjusting the thermostat up each day even though the outside temps were still in the same range. Maybe the cold is cumulative, or maybe I’m just getting older and not able to handle it as well. One of my neighbors is significantly older and I can still hear their furnace running, even on nights when I leave my windows open.