Snook, Solitude, and Solar

So this last week I took the Beast down to Snook, Texas to do the Solar work at my Uncle's farm. Since he was away on vacation, it was pretty much The Beast, some donkeys, a dog named Fritz, and myself.

First things first, I needed water. I didn't feel like driving the 200 miles with the extra 800 lbs of aqua in my tank.

Filling the 100 gallon tank up water

The front yard.

Since this was taking forever, I took some pictures of where I would be doing my working and sleeping the next few days.

Pretty sure I'm the first one to ever sleep in the workshop

Nestled in among the tractors and tools

Had to unfurl this mighty satellite one more time before removing it to make room.  As well as the HD antenna behind it and the fan vent to the back right.

Over the next few days, my cousin Jason and I got to work on the solar install. We managed to get most of the panels installed before the weekend hit and he had to run off to some fairs and such showing some old tractors. But we did finish the seven hardest to place ones, leaving just a few for me to finish.

First 4 panels on front glued and screwed on

Framework for 2 of the panels in the back right

I took to the road back to Plano Texas early Saturday morning and subjected the build to a 80 mph wind test on I-45. Happy to report that none of the panels blew off! I stopped and checked at a couple rest areas along the way to make sure nothing was amiss as well.

This Sunday I completed the Solar install, building a platform for one panel in which the cords all connect and go down into the electronics cabinet below. I also hooked up five of the panels to test out the supply to the batteries. They were putting in about 5 amps at 95+ volts.  Once I connect the second set, it should be up to about 10 amps. I may have to juggle this around a bit to optimize my amps to the batteries.
The OCD among you might want to just ignore the panel in the lower left...there was just no other way.

Late today some MC4 connectors I had ordered arrived which allowed me to create the cables I needed to connect the 2nd set of five panels. Unfortunately the sun had gone down so I had no way of testing if they were working as I planned or not. I have to wait until tomorrow. Once the test is complete I'll do the wire management and secure some of the hanging wires.

In other news, the interior of the RV got a bit of an upgrade. The uncomfortable leather got replaced, though we did save the old covers. Here's the transformation:

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!

                                   

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!

On the other hand...

As soon as we thought that we had made the decision on what kind of  the rig we were looking for, we are now backing out of that decision. Lee started to get a little hesitant about the cost of the toy hauler, it being about $30k more expensive, it really needed to be worth the expense. I agree. And I started to think also that the living space definitely did shrink from the added garage, we really need all the living space we can have with 2 young greyhounds. If I wanted to take the glass studio with me, that would be on the expense of the other space. And I think I would love to enjoy living comfortably also outside the work.  So it looks like we are back to the square one.

This is most likely going to be a long and winding road of decisions that will be exciting and at times little consuming too. And once we make the decision and we have time to absorb it for a while, we will most likely find out that we need to look for something else. But it is all good, luckily we do have time, and nothing would be worse than spending our savings on an RV that is nothing we wanted it to be.

Changing our minds about the basics on this life changing event can be rather disappointing, since it does not feel like removing one of the options is taking you actually any closer to the big moment. I was a bit worried about the loft bed in the toy hauler, knowing our crazy dogs, they will sneak in there to sleep with us, and maybe not have so safe exit. I feel that it would be cruel to crate two almost hairless dogs in an RV, especially if they were allowed to bunk in with us before. And Nelli, the old fart, she has only ever been crated once, on the flight from Europe to here, so I don't think it would go too well with her either. We are not willing to add the expenses of our trip with any vet visits due to the layout of the RV, safety of our pups is important for us.

So we are going to look for a regular RV once again. We will be focusing on one with nice kitchen and enough space to store our clothes and what not. I might be able to find a way to work with the glass on a small scale, but right now it looks like I will be concentrating on other things. It is kinda disappointing to realize that the glass studio is not going to make it onto this adventure, at least not on the grand scale. But I am sure I will be glad that I can finally concentrate on other things. I always wanted, but there was never enough time left.

One of the things I need to concentrate on is exercising, and it shouldn't be difficult, since the dogs will need to go for long walks at least 3 times a day, especially if there isn't any dog parks for them to run in. But I am not really talking about just walking, I need to really exercise, and that might take some serious getting used to. Seems like last years have passed by and I have done absolutely nothing, this will have to change. I am sure Lee will be looking into something too, since he has been playing hockey for years now, and that has kept him in shape, but when there is no hockey, things can get a bit hairy on the fitness section. We need to find something that we can do together, and preferably include the dogs too. I bet the next door boon dockers will find a giggle or two when we bust out the exercise video and our 80's gym outfits in front of the RV. Unforgettable memories are must on a journey like this, but I bet they weren't expecting that. Heh!

Practicing the RV Living in the Kitchen

I am so confident that we need an RV with an oven. Lee is not quite convinced that I would actually use it, since we have now 2 ovens, and they don't get used as often as I thought when we bought the house. But if we lived in an RV, I think we need to actually cook more, and eat less out. Especially while boon docking, there really isn't always any place to go to eat, and if you plan on saving money on your journey, then you might as well live according to it. Now it isn't that I can't cook, I sure can, but I learned to cook everything from scratch, so it takes an eternity to do anything. My mission is to learn to take short cuts, so I have time to enjoy the life too.

Met these guys at the Canton swap meet. Bet they know about
Southern foods

Today I am going to make sopapilla cheesecake, something that I have done before, but decided to make it  again, since it is very tasty and so easy to make. I also decided that I have to learn to cook some of the Southern foods, main dishes and desserts, and I am hoping that the bananas that I bought the day before yesterday will be ripe enough before I have to go back to work next week, so I can make banana bread or banana pudding.

Bluebell ice cream was not on sale, so no vanilla
 ice cream for us! Just sopapilla cheesecake.

Sopapilla cheesecake is ready now... and smells good. I am also hooked up on Pinterest, that is where I got this recipe from, and I think it would be perfect for RV baking, fast and doesn't take much to throw it together.

Sopapilla cheesecake:

Ingredients:

2 cans of butter Crescent rolls

2 packages (8 oz. each) of cream cheese

1 cup of sugar

1tsp of vanilla sugar (if you are a Viking) or vanilla extract

2 to 3 tbs butter

some sugar and cinnamon to sprinkle on the top

Just line the bottom of a 9x13 pan with one can of rolls. Mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla and spread the mixture on top of the dough. Add another can of rolls on top (if you have the ones with seams, pinch them shut). Melt butter and brush it on the top of the cake and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. The original recipe calls for 1/2 of butter, and 1/4 cup of sugar cinnamon mixture, but that is just diabetes waiting to happen, and tastes just as good without the ton of sweetness and grease. Now just shove it into the oven for 350F for about 20 to 30 minutes and enjoy warm or room temperature once done. And it really doesn't even need the ice cream, even though it would look better that way. Hah!

One thing that kind of worries me about the toy haulers kitchen is, that it does not have much room to store anything, but I am thinking that since we have the garage, I could store some items there. The only problem is that I seem to think that about everything, clothes, kitchen items, art supplies and of course the toys that the hauler is meant for. I would be happy with just some fishing gear and canoe, and maybe mountain bikes, but I have a feeling that it is too much stuff to be shoved into one toy hauler.

We

We are looking for a diesel rig for now, but we are worried that our budget is not big enough to afford one that we like. Often the diesel versions of these toy haulers are more difficult to find and they are pricier. The advantages of a diesel seem to be that they are longer lasting motors, and if taken care of, can last forever. They also are capable of carrying a heavier load, which would mean, that we could take more of our things with us. So much for pairing down. But to be honest, just moving from a 3000 square foot house into a 36 foot RV does require more slimming down than I know how to do. I guess I will find out how to...

Some Thoughts of Full Time RV'ing

So today is the day, I for the first time dared to share the blog with anyone. So I posted it on my Facebook wall, so that our friends and family can follow the journey too. I was very hesitant to do this, cause I didn't want the people from work to think that I am about to quit on them any time soon. This process has no dead line, we have no idea if it will ever even happen, but so far we are thinking it has to at some point. The sooner the better, but a few months will definitely pass by before that.

Full time RV'ers don't clean pools!

So my dreams have started to be flooded with RV's. In my dreams I always find the most spacious rigs with all kinds of amenities for almost no money at all. And then I wake up. But even the crazy dreams will give some great ideas for the future. The only limit to our imagination is actually the budget that we work with, but with some hard work and dedication, you can get quite a bit accomplished.

My work has started to feel like a grind, which is unusual, cause I really love my job. Maybe it is just that we have been so busy lately, that I feel like I can not get everything done. Could be also that my mind is just shifting into the possibility of relaxed life with my family, where ever we want to be. Could be on any of the thousands of possible beaches, or on a mountain overlooking the valleys or by the lake typing away onto my blog. No waking up at 5am... Oh boy, I need to stop dreaming, or life will feel really hard.

Just kick back and enjoy for a change

This full time RV'ing has started to feel more and more like actually something that can be an extremely enjoyable experience. I don't even understand anymore why did I ever think that it would be miserable, not fun, and I would have to give up everything? Probably just because I thought that all the material things were what mattered, now I am little more geared towards thinking that the quality of life might actually matter a bit more.

There is no room for arguments in an RV, we will be very close to each other all the time, even when we would like to get a bit distance. We need to learn how to compromise, how to read the other person, and how to share the same space and at the same time be all by ourselves. Of course there is always the great outdoors, but even if we plan on following the nice weather, we might be in the middle of unexpected down pour, and taking your distance is not necessarily always possible.

And have your family with you

We will sincerely miss all our friends and family, but with the internet, facebook, and the blog we will still be in contact.  Since we are on wheels, we may actually see a lot of you in person more often as we travel around. We will also miss the convenience of suburban living, when you are boon docking the convenience store is not always there next to you, you have to think about all shopping needs ahead of time. And of course we will miss some things that we won't be able to take with us, like my husbands hockey team. I will be on the other hand very pleased that the sweaty hockey gear (no matter how well it was washed) is no longer stinking up the garage.

"Are You CRAZY??"

So it seems it's about time I chime in here to give my perspective.  As the story goes my job will be outsourced to India in a number of months, at which point my wife and I have decided we want to try full-time RVing for a while.  I've told many of my friends about this, and amazingly enough I haven't heard 'Are you Crazy??' once.  Most seem to reply with comments like, 'I wish I had done that', or 'I wish I could do that.'  Maybe if I blaze a trail among my crew, others will follow.  I have to give kudos to Glenn at ToSimplify.net for blazing the way for me and opening my eyes to what is out there to see and do as well as a whole new lifestyle.

Pixie trying to figure out RV travelling

As was mentioned before, we have a zoo that will be tagging along. 3 small dogs and a cat in an RV seems to be a huge challenge and way more than what our current RV can support.  The Chinook has been a great RV for the short time I've owned it, easy to drive, easy to get anywhere, and very comfortable, and oddly enough for a house on wheels it gets almost the same gas mileage as our Jeep Grand Cherokee 4x4 with a V-8 Hemi.  I don't have to worry about driving in the city streets with it as it's about the same length as our Chevy truck at 21 feet.

With that said, we will have to sell it soon enough in order to find what we hope will be our next Home.  The only thing that will work will be a Class A of some kind.  For my wife to do work on the road we would need a Toy Hauler Class A rig, it's the kind that actually has a garage in the back that we can convert to a Glass Studio.  As to what I'll be doing for a job remains a mystery, so having my wife with a work space to support us sounds like a necessary component.

So..a Class A rig..
I have never driven anything near that big.  I imagine it only takes practice and most forums say driving them is pretty easy.  My concern is when we get into a small 2 lane town and I need to make a turn without hitting stop signs, children, cars, and houses.  Again, I guess practice will make perfect and I'll just have to be careful about keeping the gas tank full at any Truck Stop I can find. Which brings up another point..
Gas vs Diesel?  The kind of rigs we are looking at seem to be mostly gas, but the Diesel ones actually can carry a lot more and seem to get slightly better gas mileage.  None of them are Diesel pushers though (guess that garage in the back gets in the way of a motor) so you don't gain all the storage a normal Class A Diesel Pusher would have.  No idea if the diesel mpg difference overcomes the extra cost per gallon or the extra maintenance they seem to require.

This is just a small glimpse of things tumbling thru my mind.  We still have to sell off tons of excess stuff, figure out what we want to store and where, fix up the house, sell it, and so many other things. Thankfully my job has given me a few months notice about this, so I think we can make a big dent in these chores and hopefully hit the road in time for Spring next year.

Eureka!!!

Well, this is finally the day we have decided what would fit best our needs. We were just about ready to go buy beautifully restored Airstream. Oh my it was so pretty, and so well restored, but we realized that it is not the right one for full time RV'ing. At least with the amount of baggage that we come with, it would be impossible to fit all that into one of those. If you could only hear us sigh from the disappointment. I still love those rigs, they are so pretty, and the feeling when you drive one must be all flower power and fun. Exactly like it was to drive my old beetle bug. Those times... You feel like hippies and like listening to the Beach Boys or Mamas and Papas.



Lee, hard at work thinking how to accomodate us all, and all the stuff

Anyway, if you read the earlier rants, you well know our dilemma about not being able to take with us all that we wanted, since my art needs an actual studio. We could haul a little trailer, or we forget my art for the time being, and haul a car, so we can actually get around a bit easier while running errands. But I think we finally figured it out. Class A toy hauler! That way we can have a car and a studio/office/storage/laundry room/what not with us. I saw some toy haulers before, but did not like their layouts, but Lee found today some that were exactly what I wanted. Yay, I am so excited now.

The most amazing thing is, that we can actually find a used one that we might be able justify vs having to buy a brand new, that would kind of turn the whole thing of affordable living and travelling upside down. We would also be able to accomodate all our critters easier, and maybe even have some extra stuff in the storage that we didn't think we had room to take along at all.

It is all starting to look clear... once all the hassle with the house is done, it is going to be smooth sailings. Oh wait, no, that was for the next blog of ours... the one we write from our house boat.

Z.

Back And Forth... Back And Forth

I have been torturing myself all morning with potential rigs that we could buy, and with the thought, that we should go cheaper first, and see if we even like full time RV'ing. And if it seems like it is our kinda thing, then go ahead with a little more expensive. It is easier said than done, I keep going back to oohing and aaahing those ones that are almost the same value as our house. Which would equal pretty much something like: unrealistic! Sucky! Champagne taste and beer budget is what I got.

The problem is that as an artist I do like pretty things, and I don't mean decorative things, I mean designs. I do not understand how RV's ever sold when some of them have so ugly upholstery and carpeting, and I am not talking about the one that are from the decades ago, like you would think looking at some sofas and curtains, no, some of those are just from few years back, and even the brand new ones have some pretty hideous fabric choices. But looking at them, it looks like the outside of the RV's are from this millenia, the inside is straight from That 70's Show. Maybe I am just too picky. Could totally be the case.

I have really fallen in love with Monaco Vesta, but unfortunately it is brand new model, and there aren't any used ones in our budget range yet. Maybe in couple years, if we are lucky some will be little cheaper, and still in nice condition. But finding the right RV can be tricky. I don't think my wish list is that unreasonable, but it is not easy to meet with the fact that one of my requirements is: no butt ugly couches!!! And once again, the rest of my requirements are maybe a bit superficial, however, they are somewhat important to me, and I wish to have as many of them as possible. No carpet in bathroom, spacious kitchen with oven, washer/dryer, and separate bathroom... at least the toilet seat should be behind the doors even when all the doors between the bedroom and living area are open. And I would love to have side by side fridge.

I would love to have an old Airstream, but finding one in our price range and with all the bells and whistles that we want, is pretty unlikely. We might have to just get one that is not in perfect shape and restore it ourselves. It will be lots of work, and it worries me that we might not be actually prepared to all the work that it will take to make sure everything will work and be the way we like it. Could be lots of money, and most likely some of the things will be learnt the hard way. I'd love to say that we are ready for it, but I am not sure we understand the size of the project it would be.

While I struggle with the decision making about the RV, I realize that I am way ahead of myself. I need to be concentrating on the house right now. We need to organize everything room by room , so all can be either sold, donated, destroyed or packed away, or saved to be taken into the RV. While I realize that the latest category is the smallest, it is really difficult to let go of certain items. I believe that the stored items group will be much bigger than we realize. It will also be sad to let go of some things that have more than just monetary value. And I am afraid that most of those things that I brought with me from Europe will end up in that category. I also suspect that the entire insides of my studio will end up either in storage or in the RV. I won't be able to work with glass (like I can now), without proper space, but I can perhaps concentrate on other aspects of my creativity.

There has been talk about mobile studio, but if we are driving a bit bigger rig, we really need to haul a car or SUV. If that wasn't necessary, we could possibly haul a tiny trailer that could be transformed into a studio. Mobile studio wouldn't come without any issues, I would still have difficulties storing my glass on the road so that it wouldn't break, but I bet there could be solutions for that. But it would take lots of special attention to several things, some maybe not worth the trouble. I have come to the terms with my glass, and I could agree taking a break from it. It would be too selfish to think that we would survive in a small space with dogs and a cat, just so that I could justify haulingl my studio around.

This weekends agenda will be to organize my studio, and find out how to move my gigantic storage units to be stored. I will not be selling anything from my studio, at least right now I feel that it will be just a break. But maybe I can compromise a little more with other stuff. At least I am still keeping the hope alive.

Z.