Struck of Luck and Some Tears Too

Today was a day that we had an engineer that is specialized on foundations come here and check on the house. We were expecting a really expensive fix, since about a year and a half ago we got an estimate for the foundation repair and that estimate was a hefty 5 digit number. As it happens, that estimate was for work that we did not need. We got a report stating that the foundation is not in a need of a repair at all. However we do have some cracked mortar that needs to be fixed but our bill will be about $10 K less than we thought. I wish you could hear the screaming and hollering from here, we are so happy! This means we can either spend longer on the road, or we have a bit more money that we can put to work. Ok, in reality it just means that we don't have to come up with non-existing $10 K.

So right now it looks like we need to kick in the purge gear and get rid of the stuff. Some will be saved for later use, once we are done with our RV'ing. I am being realistic thinking that the day will come that I will have a need to settle down somewhere where I can plant a garden and herd some critters. But I might be fine for several years to come, you never know. I think tomorrow I will start going trough my clothes (once again), pack away what I want to save but not take for the road. Rest will go to some local animal shelter. Looks like the packrat in a bathroom is gonna have to get rid of a bucketful of make up and other stuff that doesn't seem to get used. It is in need of some serious overhaul as well.

My weak spot will be kitchen. I used to work in a factory outlet for a glass factory while studying glass blowing. The company sold silver ware, pots and pans, table ware and glass and most these were high end and collectible and of course I bought bunch of it for a good employee discount. The problem came to be when we got married and we combined our kitchens, so we have lots of my modern stuff and lots of Lee's retro, hand me downs that came down from his parents and has been around the world with him and of course holds a bunch of personal value. None of that stuff is really great in the RV, but I think we are going to have to avoid buying more stuff, so we are either gonna take a risk of getting something broken on the road. I think I would like the retro stuff in the RV. Even a thought of  an old pyrex and stone ware makes me smile. The problem with that stuff is that it is quite heavy, which is a concern when the weight is a matter of an interest.

Today is not full of only happiness and good news, it is also a little bitter sweet. Our beloved cat Zubov will be spending his last night here before getting re-homed. We dearly love our big goofy cat but the relationship between the cat and the dogs has not been all rosy and we can not expect good outcomes if we all cram into the RV. We found him a home with couple other cats where he will not be tormented and where he can live a regular life in a center of attention, without having to worry about being out of the reach when the dogs come around. I am so heart broken about how lonely our cat has become in a house that is full of life. So sad that he feels like he can not take part on anything. It has gotten to a point where we allowed him to hang out on our dining table, just so that he can be closer to us a little more often.

I will be spending tonight with Zubov in a guest room behind the closed doors, so he can have all the attention he ever wants for the last time. Tomorrow he will meet his new buddies and we will sadly say good buy. I am happy for him for finally getting enough attention and a place where he doesn't need to run, but sad for having to make this hard decision of giving up on what I would consider a family member. It will be happier life for him and a little easier for us too, though I wish we never needed to make this decision. It will be weird not having a cat around. I will miss the headbutts and the talks with him, I so love talkative cats. Good luck Zubie, we will dearly miss you!

                                   

Beast, Monster, Cave, Bat Mobile, Zeus, Mad Max???

So we are still on a quest to name our rig, though it looks like the original name is sticking to it pretty tightly. So far she has been called Beast by almost anyone who sees her. I tend to like Monster better, and we got some amazingly good suggestions on Facebook and private emails from people, but so far nothing has gotten stuck enough to replace the Beast. Our friends borrowed it for a tiny road trip and returned it the next day, they were all chuckled about the fact that anywhere they made even a short pit stop, they were surrounded by people asking about it, taking pictures and just generally being really curious about it. I have to say that it is much bigger in person than what it looks in pictures, and when it rolls down towards you, it makes you take couple looks as if your eyes were lying. The first words out of your mouth would likely be: " What the heck?". It truly is a Beast rolling down. But before we close the files on the name search we will be still accepting suggestions. It is not time yet to let this case go cold.

Talking about the cold... We have been battling with her refrigerator for few weeks now. After  fixing the power drainage, it refused to stay on with propane. We take it to the shop to get it fixed, and it comes back with the same problem. We might have to buy a new fridge  but if the problem is not the fridge itself, then that would not do any good either. It is getting rather frustrating. We struggled with this earlier with our Chinook too, but finally that one got resolved. What ever it is, it needs immediate attention. Fridge that doesn't stay on is not a fridge, it is a closet with poor air circulation.

My plans for the interior are very simple: total overhaul. I can't stand the black and white, it is very 80's looking, especially for a rig that was built 2002. Some of the black is going to have to be replaced along with the black and white carpet. I want hardwood floors for easy cleaning and also the golden faucet will need replacing. Lots of the black is in big items like leather couches and counter top. Most items could possibly be changed but would be ridiculously expensive, like the solid black marble counter top. Given that it is probably cast marble, it is still expensive, and I think we just have to make the rest of the changes to work with it. I am trying to make it look a bit less masculine from the inside, since right now it is so "dude". I think that crochet granny square stuff will be boho enough, and make even my husband to feel warm and fuzzy... though I am sure that nothing warm and fuzzy made him to get the Beast in a first place. The leather will be easy to replace in some places and in some not so much but I think it can be also partially a project for the road, something we can get done while already in motion. The flooring needs to be changed first and rest will follow.

We have considered even some constructional changes with our rig, nothing major that could not be changed later, but since we do have the fold down table on the back and our kitchen is pretty much non existing we were thinking of just converting the dinette into one big counter space with storage underneath. would be fairly simple to do, and could be easily removed later on. Not sure yet if we want to do that really, time will show I guess, if we can figure out a way to get one done and stored inside the rig without it being on the way, we could just do it and then use it on as needed basis. I just don't think we could really use the underneath for any storing in that case.

 
                             

Pecans And Baking

Well, we have lived for over 4 years in this house and this Monday our lawn crew came and they asked if they would be allowed to pick a little bit pecans under our huge tree after the mowing. Of course, why not, we never did. I guess we assumed that we got nothing this year since last year the shells were empty due to severe drought. And the year must have been tough for squirrels too, we have much less of them than we used to. We happened to talk with our neighbor about the pecans and he just said that the pecans are beautiful this year, so I decided to go see if there was any left under the tree and I was in luck. I collected about two to three gallons of shells and very few actually were either empty or damaged, they might have been from last year for what we know.

Suddenly I wanted to bake a pecan pie and I had never baked one before. I asked my friends in Facebook for a good recipe and Catie Doman graciously shared her blue ribbon winning recipe. Keep your eyes peeled, I will share it with you with her permission. I went back to get some more pecans and kept jumping up to reach the ones up on the lowest branches too. I just wanted to make sure that I had enough for a pie in case they end up being bad ones. I was in luck again. I think I could bake thirty pies out of them. Better safe than sorry is what I'm thinking.

So I had most of the ingredients at home but wanted to make my baking as RV'ish as possible and I think I would use ready made crust to save time while RV'ing. And since I am trying to learn to take shortcuts, I decided it was good time to start using the half ready products. I am originally from Finland and we make everything from scratch and I need to learn to simplify my cooking a lot in order to enjoy it better. So here is the recipe for the filling, I used Pillsbury pie crust and I still have half of it left, since it has two crusts in it. I can make another one as soon as this one runs out, which is probably later on tonight.

Fresh from the oven, hot and still puffy!

Catie's Blue Ribbon Winning Pecan Pie:

1/2 cup of sugar

1 cup of Karo dark syrup
1 cup of pecans

3 eggs

4 tbs butter (which I forgot, still came out good)

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt

Pillsbury pie crust or home made crust.

Mix the ingredients and pour onto the crust. Bake 10 mins in 400F and then 35 mins in 300F. You can probably make it prettier with nice edge and not forgetting the stuff out of it. But at least I do have a reason to make another pie. It is pretty yummy, make two at the same time so you don't have to be baking all the time.

Just imagine the stick of butter in the picture, I am sure it will be even
 tastier  with it.

YUM!

Serenity

The decision to keep the house has calmed me down. I am not so worried anymore what kind of rig we have, or if we have enough room. Not that having the house will help anything with the fact that we are living small while on the road, but just the knowledge of being able to return here will release some of the pressure of having to sell everything. It might actually be worth keeping the furniture at least some of it, so we don't have to go all crazy spending once we are done roaming around the country.

We also are relieved that we don't have to fix as much right away, since we are not trying to sell for a top dollar. Some changes that we need to do can be done down the road, whenever it seems necessary and we get to keep our nice neighborhood and all our friends and family close. Such a nice feeling. I am already feeling a little sad of missing on all the fun lunches and dinners with one of my closest friends. We usually have dinner in our favorite Indian buffet once a week, or anywhere we feel like, and those will sadly have to be iced until we come back from our Tour de America.

Fresh herbs will be greatly missed, especially the basil that
 took over the whole back yard

I have been following a few RV bloggers and I have to admit that I am pretty anxious to get on the road. Some of the bloggers have absolutely amazing photos on their blogs, and I am sure they would be able to make our dumpster to look like a dream vacation spot, but I can't help but wish I could go to see all those fabulous views and sceneries that they have photographed to their blogs. Looking at those pictures it just makes you think that they are either professional, or they have a camera that has a button "$1M" that makes everything look like million dollars. Maybe you can train your eyes to see the photo in front of you, but the colors look sometimes so surreal, maybe they have more professional gear than my point and shoot.

I have been frustrated with my own photos, since there isn't really anything yet to take pictures of, and when you are trying to blog about the brainstorming it gets a bit difficult to take photos that are actually somehow related to the post itself. I have to use pictures of what ever random stuff  that are not related to anything that I am really talking about, but that have something in them that I like, not necessarily great photos, but images of things that I like. This is one of the reasons you have seen so many pictures of our critters and our home. But this is one of the things I would like to concentrate more once we hit the road. I can't wait for that one.

Another amazing photo of the... vegetation on our yard. 

Moving from 3000 square feet to about 150 will be a huge change. I am sure the lack of storage is not going to be the only issue, one of the things I have been threading is the cooking. We have a pretty big kitchen with all the possible appliances and gadgets and the RV, well, it just doesn't. I have been thinking about toaster oven and maybe a single burner to add little cooking power, but then again storing them will be an issue. I think we will just try to figure out how to use the convection micro as an oven and try to get by with as little as possible. I think my Kitchen Aid might not have a spot in the RV, drats!


                                 

Happy Halloween!

We feel the blues of Chinook being sold. We were supposed to "baby sit" her while the new owner was out of town for the weekend, but his wife seemed to bond with her real fast, and we haven't seen her since the money changed hands. I am glad it went to a good home where it gets used. Now we get to step into the next part of our plan, which is getting the house fixed, so we can rent it out. Time is going by fast, and we need to kick in the next gear, there might only be couple months left for us to get ready.

The Halloween has been really tame this year for us. We usually have a party for Halloween, but this year we sold our awesome margarita machine, and decided to not throw a party after all. We did attend one though, and like usually for this holiday, we were dressed up for the occasion. I love Halloween.

                                

                                

Moving forward

So we are almost done with the Chinook. It is with sad realization that the Chinook will not be with us anymore. We have a sale pending officially, and I am pretty certain that the sale will be finalized on Monday. This will finally get our wheels in motion, since the selling of the Chinook was our ticket to do the foundation repair and some of the other renovations. Then we just have to figure out where to put our junk that will need to be stored for later use, and get it done! I just have a feeling that it is easier said than done. I am pretty persistent when I get my mind into something, but I think we are so different in that matter, that it will take us longer than it needs to. But there is no need to get into any major stress about it, just start early on, so we don't have to panic once the time comes.

I think Chinook will have plenty of interesting adventures ahead of it, the new owner looked like he had very interesting history,  not your average RV buyer. We had lots of interest in the rig, and we got requests about it all the way from Canada, which was kind of surprising. Though we have to admit that we would have gone a long way to get one for us, we just happened to be really lucky to find ours from Houston, so we only had to drive few hundred miles to get it. Now that our beauty is about to leave us and we will have the beast to house us on the road, the urge of finding an appropriate name has become evident. Until we come across suitable one, we will just refer to her as the Beast.

                                 

Naming The Beast

We both agree that the Beast needs a name. So far she has been just the Beast, but I don't think any lady would be impressed if called with a name like that. So it is time to at least entertain other options, and this is where you my dear readers will come into the picture. While our lil' Beastie is resting at the RV repair place getting her refrigerator fixed, I would love to come up with a name for her, so when she comes back we can have a fresh start, sorta... Makes sense, right? I know it doesn't but just play along, it will be fun.

Lee has claimed all the rights for her sweetheart, including the name. But it doesn't mean that we couldn't suggest names that would fit a sporty lady. Ok, I have to admit that the Beast is actually pretty fitting, and lots of people have called her Beast (including me, when I first saw Lee drive her to our cul de sac, that was the only word that came out of my mouth), but it just doesn't feel very ladylike, though I have to admit that she is quite a tomboy, but maybe she just needs some gentle guidance. So let's get all those ideas flowing. What ya think??? The Beast forever or should I keep pushing for another name? I know, our problems are not always so grave. 

                                   

One decision closer

As it often happens, the fall does bring the nice cool weather. And it looks like our chase for the perfect weather of 75F has taken a break. It seems to be perfect enough right here, right now. Few days of occasional slow drizzles and cooler night temperatures, and suddenly this seems to be my Texas in all the possible positive ways. This has brought us to reconsider selling the house, and maybe just rent it out. There are so many pros and cons, it is difficult to make the right decision.

The pros on keeping the house:

• There is always a place to fall back into after we are done with RV dwelling, or if something would happen and we will be forced to get back to "normal life".
• Real estate is always an investment, the house will still be there, and maybe we could sell it later on if we need to, or if we find another place we would like to call home.
• The house is really a unique, we still could be able to make it into our dream home with few changes.
• Lees family lives here, and we would love to be close to them.
• This is a great place to live, very desirable area, and this kind of lots are too difficult to find in neighborhoods like this (the lot is huuuuge).
• We love the house!
• The house could be generating some income for us. Paying the mortgage and leave a bit over for fixes that might be needed, and maybe even leave some money to drive a few more miles on our trip.

The cons on keeping the house:

• It is older house and needs constant maintaining. We either need to pour money into it now, or risk the fixes without our supervision. (costs more, and once you aren't supervising the work, anything is possible)
• Some major repairs are in our future if we keep it.
• The Texas heat is really brutal and can cause some serious damage to our house, especially if it is leased out to someone who doesn't care about it as much as we do.
• We wouldn't have as much money to start with if we didn't sell the house.
• Being absent for years while the house is rented out can destroy the landscaping and pretty much anything else too.
• The fixes on the rental are quite difficult to do on the budget while travelling. 
• The repairs can be costly, especially on the major things like AC units.

The critters won't give a rats patootie where we live,
 and who lives in our house as long as they have a pile
 of blankets to burrow into

It is so easy to make a decision just considering what is happening around us at the decision making time, but the truth is that there are other times too, and things change throughout the year. The problems seem to arise mostly during the summer time when the heat is extreme, but once the weather cools down a bit, it can be pretty dang awesome place to live. But maybe there is a place where we could be happy around the year. For some reason I keep looking towards the East coast thinking that is where our questions get answered. But then on the other hand, I keep wanting to head to the West... makes sense, right?

For now, I think we have made the decision. This post has been a draft for weeks now, and I finally found it more fitting to our situation now, since after listening to our friends who also happen to be experts in real estate or rental properties, we have decided to go forward with the intention of keeping the house and leasing it out instead. I feel happy, since I can still have my dream of fixing it into a perfect place. And if the road is going to claim us, then be it, the option to sell it later on is not going to disappear anywhere.

                               

                              

Private Investigator

Spent some time on the Revcon trying to track down the mysterious power drain.  After a while, my neighbor and I discovered his amp meter only measures A/C current, so our previous readings were all wrong.

So a trip to Home Depot and 150 bucks later I had the only AC/DC Amp meter they had in stock in my hands.  After hooking it up to the DC panel I was getting solidly good readings on everything I turned on, but no phantom power drain.

Glenn saw my wife's posting yesterday and sent me an email with the ingenious idea to hook up the amp meter to the battery itself and then monitor the amp readings.  So I proceeded to do that after checking the amps going through the DC panel and immediately noticed something draining about 16.5 amps, which is next to cataclysmic for someone who would want to spend any length of time in an RV.  That drainage explains why my batteries got killed overnight.  To put it in layman's terms, something draining 16 amps per hour and a battery when fully charged is 125 amp/hours, at best you have 7.5 hours of power.

So, the good news is my purchase of the amp meter was justified.  The good/bad news is now I get to put on my detective hat and trace down the power-sucker.  The adventure continues...

                                   

Electrical mystery

On two occasions already the Revcon has totally gotten drained out of all three batteries. First time happened right after we got it home, and today we noticed that it has happened again. First clue was that the stairs did not retract out when we opened the door, also the automatic locks did not work. There was no charge left what so ever. Our neighbor, super handy guy, who knows everything about plumbing, electrics or building anything (I bet if asked, he could build a space craft, we... not so much) took a look of it with Lee. They went through all the wires, and they seemed to be working just fine, but for some reason the batteries just get drained out.

See the cord running to the Revcon... hope it gets a bit charge from that.

We are suspecting the fridge, since it should not be on at all, but today even after quite cool night, the freezer felt really cold, colder than what I think it has been at any point in the last month. Lee suspects that there is some sort of limping mode that it goes into in some events and will stay there until the batteries are drained. I know nothing about limping modes, or anything else electrical, I just hope that we get it resolved before hitting the road, would be really sucky if we got stuck somewhere cause our batteries unexpectedly died. Limping doesn't help, the food will get spoiled anyhow after the limping ends in few hours, but the trip is spoiled long before that if you are stranded in the middle of the wilderness. Gave us something to think about. Have to come up with some sort of emergency plan for the cases like that.

What is going on here???

We are scratching our heads, me mostly, cause I'm not really good for anything constructive with these matters. Though I have made plans of painting some, and changing the flooring and other grand ideas that will not help at all. But hey, someone has to be the one who thinks about pretty things. :D
Any ideas are welcome! I know that solving this distantly is pretty impossible, but maybe experience will give some possible clues to what might cause this.

                              

Mixed Emotions And Video Intro Of The Beast

While I am excited about the Revcon, I can't help but think how many of my boxes it actually ticked. Well, not too many. However I know that Lee is very excited about it, and I am ready to give it a good try, I will try to get over the fact that the kitchen does not have an oven, and has only two burners, the fridge is one of the smallest possible RV fridges, and the storage is minimal. The fact that the bed is above the cabin will create problems too, but maybe we can adjust to all that. The cab of the truck takes almost half of the space, so I think on top of the one removed seat, we are going to have to remove another one too, and make best use out of that space. But this is where I think my inner interior designer will get a chance to do its magic.

Here is the video intro to the belly of the Beast, it is pretty home quality, and please, don't hold it against us, it will give you maybe a bit better idea of the space and what we have to work with.

This all will be a huge change not only for us two, but also for our pets who have had a run of the huge house and a gigantic yard. They will have to deal with a minimal space with no yard to run around. I see frequent trips to dog parks in our future. The cat who has been indoor/outdoor cat, will have to adjust to live in a small indoor space with 3 dogs and two humans. Right now he has a pet door to go in and out as he wishes, his own room, bathroom and climbing trees on both ends of the house. We are wondering where is the limit for our adjustments, and who is going to actually need to adjust the most. It will definitely be a challenge to stuff the cat with three dogs into a small space, especially since the greyhounds like to chase him, and he does take it as an attack and will defend himself in that situation. At 18 lbs, Zubie is not likely going to take any prisoners, it could get bad if we didn't make sure that he has his own area where the dogs are not allowed.

Zubov, see how vicious he is?

We are tossing all kinds of ideas around, and once we decide on something we are pretty guaranteed to back out as soon as we get a chance. We are reconsidering selling the house, at least to start with we might want to hold on to it, and if we really want to stay on the road, maybe then we will let it go. I am just worried if the life on the road doesn't fit for us and we sold the house, then what? If we were able to rent it, or just rent a room out of it, then nothing would be so permanent that we couldn't change our minds and come back home if we wanted to.

the nightly race around the pool 

We don't seem to make tons of progress, but we have received the title to our other RV and can sell the old faithful Chinook. I bet selling it will be a bit emotional, not because we had it for a long time, no, we have actually had it less than a year, and used it only couple times... drove all together probably less than 1000 miles with it, but because it actually does have all we need, just not enough space on a long run. But in order to get the house fixed, we need to let her go. So I think tomorrow we have to remove all of our belongings out of it and make her ready for a sale. It is perfect for a couple or a single person, but not for couple with tons of junk and 4 pets. Stay tuned if it is something you'd want to consider, it will likely sell fast.



                                   

Into the Belly of the Beast

Now time to share a bit more about the Revcon:

For one, the shell is made of aircraft aluminum and should in theory last damn near forever (think Airstreams).  It is rated at R-20 Insulation as well, so it should keep it cool or warm inside as needed.  Not sure how the black paint will affect the temperature yet.

As you walk into the side door up the automatic steps, you come directly to the dining area, a booth dinette with leather seats.  The TV is mounted on the wall on the left.

To the right is the master bed, which is the king size bed above the truck cab. Doesn't appear to be a California king, but still, not too shabby for an rig of this size.  Kings are hard to find even in huge class A's.  It has sliding screen windows on the left and right as well and the screens and the windows both slide in case you are in an area without bugs.

The 'kitchen' consist of a 2 burner stove, convection microwave, good sized sink with telescoping faucet and a double filtered water dispenser.  It has a standard dometic 2 door fridge/freezer that runs on AC/DC or propane.

Behind this is an electronics rack with the satellite equipment, stereo, DVD, VCR, and hidden behind it somewhere is a wireless router in case you have satellite internet to share. Next to the electronics rack is a full size Maytag stacked washer and dryer. This is something that's even more rare than the king size bed in any sized RV.  Most RVs that do have a washer/dryer, it is normally a very small unit that is both in one, so loads take a really long time to wash (3 hours for a single wash/dry cycle and very small loads.)

The back room has a small futon-like sofa that makes into a single bed or so.

The closet in the back is rather large, doesn't look like much, but they are rather deep, and hopefully sufficient for our needs.

Across from the sofa is the restroom, stand-up shower and restroom area.  Currently there is a curtain instead of a door to the restroom, we plan on putting in a sliding or accordion style door there. And just to make it a bit more pleasing to eye, white toilet seat is in plans.

You can crawl under the main bed into the cab of the truck, where currently there are 3 seats, the 4th removed for extra storage space (we have the 4th seat as in the garage, never been used).  Doubtful we will be replacing it as it does provide a good amount of storage space that we will need. To be honest, we will likely remove the 3rd seat also.

Storage space is about the only thing this RV lacks.  As it only stands 10.5 feet tall, it doesn't have the under storage the bigger RVs have, but those RVs normally sit around 14 feet tall as well. There are a decent number of overhead storage bins though, so I think we'll be able to get by.

A rooftop view shows the self-stowing satellite dish, a solar panel, the 2 A/C units, and the 2 fan vents.  I hope to add more solar to the top eventually to make this unit almost completely independent. We'll still need diesel and propane from time to time.

Here's the main electric awning. That's most of the stuff that is visible.  I'll have to get into some of the inner workings in the future.  Mostly I need time to figure it all out myself.

We will add a video of the insides later on, once we have had a chance to remove extra stuff and do a good clean up in it and maybe add some of our own belongings to make it feel more like ours.

The Beast has Arrived

 After a 700 mile flight and a 780 mile drive, the Beast is here.

Introducing a 2002 Revcon Trailblazer Diesel 4x4 RV!  Practically new at 21,000 miles.

 And a perspective shot, next to my 20 foot long Avalanche, think I waited a bit too late in the day to take the pictures, will post new ones soon.

   
This is one of the Rarest of RV's, one that I've been trying to find for a few months now.  I had all but given up on finding this model of Revcon when a bit of persistence paid off.  This Beast gets what I'm told is @15mpg, I was too tired with learning to drive it and staying awake to pay much attention to the mpg, so I will test it out over the coming weeks. To top off the rare factor of a Revcon 4x4, it's even rarer to find a Diesel one.  It may be a true one-of-a-kind.

So Monday night I flew out to Illinois and after checking out the Beast in person, I plopped down the cash and signed the title, added it to my insurance and hit the road.  The seller was nice enough to give me a Tom-Tom GPS, which I quickly found to be next to useless except for showing my MPH.  I turned to my Iphone 4 Google Maps, and used it all the way home with nice clear cut directions and following my little blue dot. About 220 miles into my trip I pulled into a gas station to fill-er-up, as the reserve tank was empty (was empty to start) and the main tank was at a quarter full.  56 gallons of Diesel later I was back on the road (Swiping my credit card 3 times in the process, $206 dollars or so).  Around the 330 mile mark I was out of gas, so I pulled into a Rest Area and parked behind a Class A Motor home.  I gotta say, the Revcon was about the same Length, but it sure looked a hell of a lot cooler than the rectangle unit.

 I had a nice nights rest at the Welcome to Missouri Rest Area (which by the way is one of the cleanest I've seen) in the King Size bed that is over the cab.  After a delicious dinner of 2 Deli-fresh (uh huh) sandwiches from the gas station mentioned above, I fell asleep a bit after midnight to the peaceful sound of the 18 Wheeler diesel engines about 30 feet away ticking away the night.  Or at least I finally passed out after about 2 hours of listening to that sound anyhow.

 Got up around 6:20am. Treated myself to a delicious hot black coffee from the vending machine at the rest area, grabbed a bottle of colored/flavored water(Power-aid or something) and hit the road.  Saw a few cool sights along the way, but with near 500 miles to cover Tuesday, I didn't stop to admire them.  The St. Louis Arch was pretty cool, I went right by it on I-44 on the worlds crappiest paved bridge in the world.  The pictures and TV don't do it justice, it was HUGE.  So I will do it justice by not showing you the pictures I didn't take of it as I bounced by(again, horribly paved road, I imagine just to make it impossible to take a picture as you drive past.)

 I believe I finally pulled into Plano a bit after 2pm.  My Odometer was only showing around 730 miles covered but I did discover something was up with the Speedometer as I drove.  When it was showing 65mph, GPS was showing 70.  So, that's about 7.5% difference or so. Meaning I had covered the 780 miles or so in which the directions showed, my odometer is just a little off because of the variance.  I guess the monster tires never got synced to the speedometer correctly.  65mph on the speedometer was really the top cruising speed for it anyhow.

 Today I spent a good portion of my day getting it inspected, the title swapped over, and giving it a quick bath.  Cool fact about the Texas State Inspection for a Diesel: it was only 15 bucks instead of the 40 for a gas powered vehicle.  Apparently they don't have to use their emissions equipment on Diesels.  The guy who did the inspection had never seen one like it, to which I told him he never would except mine every year when he re-inspects it.  It definitely gets attention.  Even the mailman stopped my wife to ask her about it.

 For such a big rig, all 32 feet of it, it actually handles pretty much like a large truck.  Has a handy video camera on the back so I can see everything behind in a 180 degree field of view for a good 20 yards or so.  I got put through the ringer on the drive as I went thru at least 50 different construction areas with narrow lanes, single lanes filled with cones, no shoulders, and the concrete barriers and I didn't bump a single one.  And there were some serious hills to climb as well.  The Chinook will beat it in a race any day of the week, but for the slow and steady race, the Revcon wins.  Plus it holds about double the fuel and gets better mileage(in theory)

 Next on the list of to-do's is to go thru it and take inventory (the guy left everything in it, pots, pans, the works).  Also the marine deep cycle battery needs to be replaced, it holds a charge for about 30 minutes with barely anything drawing on it.  Gonna have to beg my electrician neighbor to work thru it as well, I believe it has some minor electrical issues going on that are constantly draining power.  It apparently doesn't have the feature that the Chinook has that protects the main engine batteries from getting draining by the Cabin area, so something else to look into.  Already had a boneheaded moment last night when I tried to crank it up about 5 hours after I arrived to find the main batteries drained.  I may have left something on that drained it, or it could be a mysterious power drain.  Either way it spent last night on a trickle charger and so far today has been fine, though I did turn off the main cabin breakers and the master kill switch.

I'll go thru the features of it over the coming days, some will surprise ya!


 

Our Options

Just wondering what kind of options we have. Lee had the idea of the century, we could make the RV to look like a Mutt Cutts van from the Dumb and Dumber. I loooove that movie, and I would be honored to drive the Mutt van around. So what ya think? Looks pretty, hmmm... plush and maybe it is just lucky that we did not end up with the toy hauler, it would be kind of... inappropriate to ever have to use that ramp.  Just worried about the mildew on it if we ever visit Washington state.

Ok, joking aside. At the moment Lee has just purchased our new RV, and has hit the road to drive it down from Illinois to Texas. We have had very mixed emotions about this rig, Lee absolutely loving it, and me, well, not being sure it had enough room for all of us, big enough kitchen and enough storage. And since my manager did not want to change my work days, so that I could see this rig before us purchasing it, I have to just trust Lees judgement on it. But I believe I will see soon myself what we got ourselves into. Lee should be home in about 15 hours depending what kind of breaks he is going to have to take. All that I know, he might be driving home the Mutt Cutts van. I am so crossing my fingers, legs and eyes!

Hobos???

I was kind of surprised to find out how much my younger brother resisted our plans. I totally understand why he feels like that, I used to think it was absurd too. He thinks we are insane to sell the house, he seems to like it a lot, and I can't blame him, I love our house too, but I know that there are houses that I could love right now, not after we have done this and that kind of renovation for it. He is worried of not having actual home, and I still get a good giggle out of his words when I told him that we can get much cooler house that we like, and his answer to me was: "No you can't, you'll be hobos forever".

The trick to letting go of something you love is to just simply realize that there is something more exciting to gain out of it. I thought first that my husband wanted to sell the house, buy a trailer and live in a trailer park to save money. In that case the only thing to change would have been that we would have been living in cramped space and we continued to work our lives away and do what ever we used to do to stay alive. My answer to this was absolute no, I think I said something like: "Hell no!" But I guess you get the idea, I wasn't too thrilled about it. But once I realized that he is not talking about us just moving into little box parked into the woods next to the high way, he is talking about us quitting our jobs, selling extra stuff (zeesh, there is some of that... tons of it to be a little more specific) and go where ever we wanted to, to all those places we have always dreamed about, but couldn't leave the dogs behind, or didn't have time for. Now we could live in all of them, if that's what we desired, or at least visit them, and then move on to what ever we set our minds to. Sure we would have to figure out a way to create income, but maybe I could finally tap into arts and jewelry design a bit more seriously, and Lee has always been able to work from the road, one way or the other. So this sounded not just almost doable, but rather necessary to do.

We would be even saving some money, and once we feel that we had enough of the travelling, or find a place we would like to call home, we could just settle down there. Once you see openly the possibilities it is almost impossible not to realize how amazing it would be, and how unique experience we'd have ahead of us, and it would be insane to ignore this kind of opportunity. And we want to do this while we are still healthy and are able to do it. And right now we seem to have a place in our life where it is possible to explore a bit, and it wouldn't put anything on hold, rather it seems that everything else is now on hold, just waiting for this to come true. The best part is, if we don't like it, then we will just stop. But it is pretty tough to top living your days exactly the way you want to, and not worry about everything that owning a property and maintaining a competitive career brings to you. I am ready to hit the road today, too bad that it will most likely take still several months.

Hobos or not, I still think it will be so awesome. And maybe once I will be able to start posting about our adventures, and show some images of places where we were, maybe my brother will change his mind about it. Maybe one day he will be taking some time off from work, once he realizes the possibilities, and will make a trip of a lifetime with his wife. 6 months on a road trip across USA and then he could go back to Europe and dream about spending rest of his life like we will. So many dream about this, and not all of them have the way to make it happen, we are blessed with some uncertainty that we are trying to change into a life changing opportunity.

Fanfares for Southern Cooking

The banana pudding ended up on the table of the Southern potluck today. Man, I don't care how unhealthy it is, but I just love Southern food, it is made out of deliciousness and sweet intentions to make people happy. And I sure got happy. On the negative note, I have tomorrow a health screening, where my cholesterol will be checked, and I am not expecting to score as well as I would have before the potluck. And on the other hand, I don't really even care, since I got my belly full of yummies, and that's when I forget the worries. Hah!

I am kinda perfectionist, and it doesn't matter much what is being measured, I would like to be the best possible what ever at any given situation. But the cholesterol... yeah, I made peace with myself before I attacked the crispy chicken, corn casserole, sweet potatoes and Dorito salad. I had never even heard of such, but it was so good, and I will be finding out how to make some myself, maybe I will share the secrets with you too. So you will have to learn to be more forgiving for yourself too, life is too short to worry about the comfort food.

The banana pudding got thumbs up, but I personally think it was quite sweet, and maybe the problem was me substituting the milk to almond milk with vanilla flavor. The pudding had lots of vanilla in it, but that is what I had, and thought that it had to do, it just adds sweetness to it. And maybe unsweetened condensed milk would allow you to add sweetness to your own liking, but I didn't want to risk it with too many changes, since I am no expert with such things. Either way people seemed to like it, I just personally would prefer less sweetness. So if you like less sweet stuff, you might want to consider regular milk and regular condensed milk.

My work, still trying to figure out if I can
continue while RV'ing

But I have gotten for some reason really into trying to figure out RV friendly cooking, which basically just means, easy, no mess stuff, and I will probably start more often blogging about the ones that were successful, and worthy of blogging. Right now we just are chilling out and waiting for dinner to cook. Meanwhile I will try to find out some recipes, that I desperately want to learn, not necessarily cause they'd be RV friendly, but cause they are delicious.

No Bake Banana Pudding

My quest to make the worlds best banana bread was sabotaged by my DH, hungry hubbies can be devastating for a girls baking plans. But I decided to post another recipe that I talked about, banana pudding that does not need baking, and to be honest, since I am not native, I had actually no idea that it would be ever even baked, but this is way faster, and also in a small space of RV will not create too much heat. The recipe that I used was found online, and it was for 20 servings, and I made some changes for it. Maybe I shouldn't have, since I am not used to making banana pudding, but I kinda ran out of the pudding mixture before I had even one third of the bananas used. So my version probably has much more pudding than what you all who know more about the matter would prefer. So maybe renaming the dish would be in place... Some Bananas in Pudding?

No bake banana pudding

I will post the recipe as I should have followed it, but will make notes about the changes to the recipe. This recipe comes together so fast, and especially if you would be RV'ing too, you would appreciate the fact it it takes very little dishes. I love easy, no mess baking and cooking. I prefer recipes that require nothing but throwing whole things out of fridge straight into the pot and get heated. This is one of those, or at least very close to one of them. All dishes to wash that I had were small cutting board, knife, measuring cup and measuring spoon, spatula, beaters and bowl. And next time I don't even need cutting board, bananas are easy to cut in your hand, as long as you use regular knife that you would use with fork. No trips to ER, especially if you're RV'ing. But let's get to business:

Essentials, minus the condensed milk, ooops! 

No Bake Banana Pudding

Ingredients

1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

2 cups cold milk (I used vanilla flavored almond milk)

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 (16 ounce) package vanilla wafers (I didn't use quite all of these)

14 bananas sliced (I only used 4 to 5, don't ask, it is still delicious!)

Just to add here a note I got from one of my glass friends, she thought that there had been typo in the original recipe, that 14 bananas just sounds way too much, she thinks that 4 sounds more about right. Yay me, accidentally might have gotten it right. :D

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the pudding and cold milk for 2 minutes. Mix in condensed milk until smooth. Stir in vanilla and fold in whipped topping. Layer wafers, bananas and pudding mixture into the glass serving bowl. Chill until serving.

I either didn't put thick enough slices of bananas, or I didn't overlap them, or I put too much pudding mixture, either way, I am pretty sure it will be quite delicious, at least what I licked from the spatula was yummy! One more victory to my RV cookbook! I am pretty stoked and can't wait until tomorrow to see what my coworkers will say, I am no expert in any Southern foods, and they are, so this will be quite a test for me. The good thing is that they are probably not expecting much from my Southern cooking, but I hope they will be pleasantly surprised. Even though it is missing most of its bananas. I ain't telling if you won't.

Well, the good thing about not using as many bananas as the recipe called for is, I will now have enough bananas to make my banana bread, assuming that Lee will leave them alone. Wish me luck!

Another Week Goes By

There will be lots of things that are going to be very different, or things that we had to give up totally in order to transfer our lives to living in an RV. Today while I was sitting on the court yard with my husbands cousin, who came to harvest some of my basil, I noticed that there aren't going to be visiting friends and family members anymore. I am sure we will make lots of new friends, but the ones we have are all dear to us, and nothing can of course replace the family.

Morning sun on the courtyard

One thing to be missed for sure is going to be the pool, that will be totally gone from our lives. We had done lots of changes to our pool, including changing it from regular pool to saltwater, and adding a heater to it, so we can extend the season a bit, or continue it through the winter if we wanted to. Not having one seems like a loss, and for some reason I keep thinking that the next house we will own one day will not be as outdoorsy as ours. The Pessimist in me is proud from planting foolish thoughts into my head.

Lee grilling by the pool

Another thing that we will be missing is our courtyard. It is not anything special, just a closed in yard in the middle of the house, but it is nice place to sit down and relax, eat dinner and drink a beer or glass of wine. We live close to a busy street, but in our courtyard you can't hear it almost at all. It is somewhat safe from the hottest sun, and also from strong winds. It also is a place where the greyhounds love to race around the table, the outside turf is a great grip for their feet, since their speed can be very high while they run and turn around the table. We have a had few people just stare at them without blinking an eye, just not believing what they are seeing, the sight is funny when they tear around the courtyard. They also like to go there in the mornings to sun bathe. The courtyard is also perfect place to host parties. We have hosted plenty of crawfish boils and pool parties. We usually haul our kegerator and margarita machine there (two more things to be missed there), and entertain lots of people. And I bet even neighbors agree that it is nice that our courtyard is kinda closed area, the sound doesn't really travel out of there either. Fun memories there. We had big plans for this area, but only few of those got put in action. I am still feeling a bit sad that I will never see the house the way I imagined it to be.

Piece of courtyard

I will also miss being able to just let the dogs run out free, since we have all fenced in yard, well, we actually have two fenced in yards, we live on the cul de sac, and on the other side of the house is a huge area, that was supposed to become the place for dogs to run free, and for me to have a herb and vegetable garden, that never happened, we just got it fenced in totally (which was lots of fence). The plan was to make it into bigger entertainment area, adding gazebos or decks and trellises with some water features to keep the street noise less noticeable. And of course that garden with few fruit trees.

One of our crawfish boils on our bigger yard

And that brings me to another thing I will miss, which is herbs. I always have a bunch of herbs growing and most of the time the Texas summer is too hot, so the potted ones dry too much. I will miss my opportunity to use the oregano, cilantro and thyme before it is too late, but my basil has taken over pretty much the whole pool area. And I love the scent of it when you walk by, yum. It is so nice to go out to harvest the basil and make your own pesto, and I make pretty good one too, no, not really that proud of it, oh heck, yeah, I think I am. It kicks some serious butt! Maybe I will make some tomorrow and let my secrets out.

The end of the diving board is our cats Zubovs favorite hang out spot

Most of the things that I seem to have the attachment to are outside. And I think that is also why this all feels so silly, and at the same time exciting, cause I can have the biggest back yards once we start travelling, on the beach, or on the mountain, where ever we choose it to be. The dogs will be visiting lots of dog parks and will have to learn to walk on the leash several times a day. I have already downloaded an app onto my phone that will tell where the closest dog parks and vet clinics are, and other dog related things, like places to buy their food or get them groomed. Pretty handy if you ask me. 

Lots of fun memories at our house