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Downsizing Home, empty nesters, freedom, Roadtrips, rv living, travel, usa travel

A QUICK TRIP TO WILMINGTON, NC – Food, Fun and Wonderful People!

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Linsley and I were preparing for our next adventure.  I have landed a workamping position at Jellystone Campground in Warrens, Wisconsin for the summer season 2020, we had bought our car, and now needed a way to take the car with us on our journey to Wisconsin.  We leave South Carolina on February 29, and wend our way north and west over a 5 week period, so lots to see and do along the way……

We had bought our RV from Billy and Ada, a lovely couple who had bought it brand new and lovingly used it for over 20 years.  When we bought the RV, the price included a tow dolly, but at the time we picked the RV up from Billy and Ada, we were unable to take the tow dolly with us, so our friend Janet ( a fellow RVer we met) came with me to Wilmington, NC to pick up the tow dolly.  It was about a 6 hour drive, so it was lovely to have Janet’s company for it.

The drive there and back we made in torrential rain, which really made it much harder than it should have been, but when we arrived in Wilmington, the sun came out and stayed out for the whole time we were there.

Janet met Billy and Ada, and was totally bowled over by this lovely lovely couple.  Billy pulled out the tow dolly and showed me everything I needed to know about it and how to attach and secure the car onto it.  He even gave us the magnetic lights that attach to the car once it is attached onto the tow dolly.  The one thing he did warn me about driving it back to SC was that without a car on the dolly, it could bounce, so drive carefully and at a reasonable speed.

After the tow dolly was all hooked up and ready to be driven down the road, Ada and Billy gave us a huge bag of collard greens from their garden that Billy went and picked while Janet and I were talking with Ada.  I shared pictures of our travels, our grandchildren and our newest great nephew, and then Janet and I were on our way to find some dinner and check into our hotel.

We arrived at the hotel, and had a lovely suite, which we shared, and then went for a walk in search of somewhere nice to eat.  We had thought about going to the canal district, but decided that parking with a tow dolly attached might be a problem.  Luckily, on our walk, we found The Bonefish Grill not too far up the street from our hotel.

Dinner was amazing!  I have always been allergic to zinc, which meant that I was never able to eat shellfish as it tasted like old gun metal to me.  Recently, however, while cooking shrimp, it smelled really good to me (which is a huge change from previously, when shrimp smelled awful to me), so Janet and I went to Bonefish Grill for dinner, and I told our waiter Lucas (who was incredible by the way) about my prior inability to eat shellfish.  He suggested that I try the bang bang shrimp, and if I couldn’t eat it, he would take it away.  I was ok with that, and soon he arrived with a steaming plate of bang bang shrimp that smelled divine!

I tried one of the shrimp and to my surprise, as soon as I put it into my mouth, it tasted so good, like nothing else I had ever tasted.  I couldn’t believe that suddenly, I was able to eat something that for the whole of my life I had not been able to eat, and I was loving it!

What a great start to  dinner that was.  Janet and I shared the bang bang shrimp as there was so much of it, and Lucas, our server, was very happy to hear that it was a big hit.  He brought our drinks and we had another little surprise, no, I wasn’t drunk, but my glass was!

The restaurant was very quiet, it was a Tuesday evening, and there were very few people around, so I think we got his full attention and he had more time to talk to us than he normally would on a busy night at Bonefish Grill.  He was so knowledgeable and helpful, possibly the best server I have ever had (and he was pretty cute too!)

Main course and Janet had Tuna Sushimi, and I had Salmon in a lemon caper sauce, which was delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point, both Janet and I were really full, but when we saw the chocolate lava cake, we couldn’t resist and decided to share a plate between us.  It was well worth it!  OMG it was good!

After dinner, Janet and I walked back to our hotel, and basically both fell into a food coma………..

I was a little worried about the tow dolly being parked outside, and hoped no-one would steal it overnight, we had put a small padlock on it but it would have been easy to break it off…. Fortunately, no-one stole the dolly and the next morning, we were up bright and early and on our way back to South Carolina with the tow dolly in tow.  Again, we drove through torrential rain but actually made pretty good time.

We are now one step closer to heading out on our next adventure. And those collard greens…. we made a huge dinner for all our friends at the South Carolina campground and cooked two huge pots of collards.  Ada and Billy, the collards were delicious, and everyone here enjoyed them.  Some of our friends had never had collards before, but said they will make a point of eating them now they have tried them.

Downsizing Home, empty nesters, freedom, Roadtrips, rv living, travel, Uncategorized, usa travel

A FEW IMPORTANT THINGS WE HAVE LEARNED IN OUR FIRST FEW WEEKS FULL TIME RV’ING – PART THREE

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Linsley and I are so glad that we stayed put in South Carolina for the winter, we have learned so much in this very short time.  We have also had a chance to learn about all the systems on our RV.  The following is part three of a three part insight into the things that Linsley and I have learned over the last 4 months of full time RVing that we didn’t know about before taking on this lifestyle.  We had done a lot of research before we made the leap into full timing, but we have learned so much more than we imagined in the few weeks since we started.  This may be only the tip of the iceberg in our learning curve, but for anyone thinking of starting full-timing, maybe it will be of value:

 

  1. You CAN full time RV without a car, but we have found that it is very inconvenient if you don’t have one. So, we bought a car at a local used car lot.  It is a 2004 Hyundai Sante Fe, and it runs beautifully.  It had some oxidized paint on it when we first bought it, and the hood looked purple rather than the jet black it was supposed to be.  So I searched on the internet to find how I could remove the oxidization, and found that it can be easily wet sanded off with a regular drill and some wet sanding paper (800 grit).  I did get a quote from a local paint shop to have the care re-sprayed, but it was far too expensive, so I decided to spray paint it myself.  I went to Auto Zone and found some black auto paint with a high gloss finish, and after masking up the windows and trim pieces, I sprayed the car with the black paint, and now it looks like a million dollars.  It is a little time consuming, but well worth the investment of time. We now have a pretty darn great car, with no car payment as it was cheap enough to pay cash for it, and no worries should it get chipped or scratched while being towed behind the RV on a tow dolly.

 

  1. Being newly retired, I have found that I’m needing something to do throughout the days. My answer to this is Workamping.  We have made some friends who worked at the campground we were staying at.  They gave me some pointers into Workamping.  There is a whole network (workamper.com) that find jobs for people traveling around in an RV, they provide job listings, training, and lots of resources for anyone who wants to join.  They have a Facebook network too.  They help with building a workamping resume, give employer ratings, allow you to post a position wanted ad in their online newsletter, and make the whole “finding a job on the road” thing relatively easy.  Workamping has other perks which are really great too, many campgrounds provide their workampers with full hook-up sites for the period of time they will be staying to work at the campground, together with laundry allowances, electric allowances,  free or very reduced passes to local events and attractions, and many more perks.  The great thing is that apart from the hours you work to offset the cost of your camp site for the period, many campgrounds also pay an hourly wage, which although is not a career salary, it does help out and pay for those extras you would like.

The one thing I would say about planning your workamping experiences, is to apply early and make sure you can fulfill the commitment you make.  It does mean that you stay in one place for the summer, or the winter, certainly more than a few days/weeks before moving on, but when you full time, sometimes it’s nice to be able to stay somewhere for a season, living in a beautiful place for longer than just a vacation, experiencing everything it has to offer, and getting to know the people you meet there.  I know for us staying here in SC, it has been a truly great experience, and the people we have met here will be friends for life now.

 

  1. Expect to have to clean often. The beauty of this is that cleaning the whole RV only takes about half an hour and it sparkles again.  I store my cleaning fluids in a bin underneath the RV so they don’t take up precious space inside.

 

  1. Our RV has carpet everywhere! Carpet is very hard to keep clean, especially when in an RV there isn’t room for a full size vacuum cleaner.  I have a small Bissell vacuum, which works pretty well, but it never gets the stuff deep in the carpet fibers.  I am going to remove the carpet and replace it with vinyl flooring which will be much easier to keep clean and fresh.  I know this project will be difficult, but it will be worth it.  I already had to remove the carpet from our bathroom, when the toilet overflowed in our first week, so should that ever happen again, it won’t be quite so devastating as it was with the carpet totally soaked in nasty poopy liquids from the black water tank.

 

  1. Whenever you can do it, let an insect bomb off inside your RV, many of our friends here have had a big problem with ants, but as I have made sure to let an insect bomb off regularly, we have not had any problem with insects, at least inside.  Insects can be a huge problem when RVing, as they can get into your heating unit, your hot water unit and your food, clothes, storage bins underneath the RV too.  Prevention is way better than cure and its pretty easy to make sure you don’t get any insect infestation anywhere.  We also spray around the outside of the RV to make sure we don’t have ant hills, or anything else anywhere near us or the RV.

There are many more things that we have learned these past few months, but I would have to write a novel to include everything.  As we continue on our fantastic journey, I will document some of the greatest things we have learned, and should anyone have a question, I am by no means an expert, but I am learning a lot of things that would have made the transition for us a whole lot easier had we known this stuff beforehand.  Please don’t hesitate to ask your questions……….

 

Downsizing Home, empty nesters, freedom, Roadtrips, rv living, travel, usa travel

A FEW IMPORTANT THINGS WE HAVE LEARNED IN THE FIRST FEW WEEKS OF FULL TIME RV’ING – PART ONE

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Linsley and I are so glad that we stayed put in South Carolina for the winter, we have learned so much in this very short time.  We have also had a chance to learn about all the systems on our RV.  The following is part one of a three part insight into the things that Linsley and I have learned over the last 4 months of full time RVing that we didn’t know about before taking on this lifestyle.  We had done a lot of research before we made the leap into full timing, but we have learned so much more than we imagined in the few weeks since we started.  This may be only the tip of the iceberg in our learning curve, but for anyone thinking of starting full-timing, maybe it will be of value:

  1. THE MAIN THING THAT WE HAVE LEARNED IS THAT MAINTENANCE IS PARAMOUNT:

My advice to anyone starting to RV whether full time or part time is this……. Take care of little problems BEFORE they become big problems.  There are many resources out there to learn how to take good care of your RV, I have listed some resources below that have given me a lot of insight into dealing with the routine problems that come up from time to time (and in these first few weeks, with an older RV, we have had our share of those).

YOUTUBE is a great resource, especially for mechanical type issues, you can look up just about anything and it will give you a video how to with step by step instructions and you can watch the repair being done in easy to follow steps.

RV REPAIR CLUB gives solid instruction for routine RV care and maintenance right to your email inbox.  I keep all their emails just in case I need to use them at a later date.

THE INTERNET…. I would never have believed that there are so many people who full time RV, by performing a simple search on whatever topic you need, you can find all kinds of help, blog posts, videos, instructions to solve your problem.

I would also recommend that you talk to the people around you in the campsite and pick their brains on these routine type fixes, they have all had them, gone through them and worked out how to fix them, so become a student to your fellow RVers, you will learn an awful lot from them, it may cost you a campsite meal and a few laughs, but it is invaluable.

  1. LEARN HOW YOUR GREY AND BLACK TANKS WORK

When you arrive at a camping ground, oftentimes you will have a full hook-up site.  This means that you will likely have a sewer connection directly from your RV into a sewer line.  What we didn’t know is that you can leave your grey tank valve open, but you MUST keep your black tank valve closed, emptying it as necessary.  It appears that if you leave the black tank valve open all the time, you risk developing a “pyramid of poo” inside your black tank, which doesn’t get broken down and will eventually stop your black tank from being able to work, causing back-ups into your RV of all the nasty stuff you really don’t want backing up into your RV!  Find a product that you like, to deodorize and help with the breakdown of solid waste and use it in both your black tank and grey tank, if you do this diligently, you should not build up the tell-tale odor that RV toilets and drains are well known for.  If like us, you find that the black tank is not working as it should, you can simply use a toilet snake to break down any solid build up, then flush well with lots of water and use a good product to aid in the breakdown of solids.  I also put a bucket of hot soapy water down the toilet once a month as this helps to clean away any clingons that develop from time to time.  We had a nasty back up from the toilet in our first week, and discovered, from our campsite friends, how to clear the blockage, and once that was done, we have had no further problems.  I KNOW, I KNOW, TALKING ABOUT POO ISN’T GREAT, BUT IT IS VERY NECESSARY!

  1. One really cool thing that our new friends, Doug and Jimmy taught us, is this….

We have a 40lb gas tank built into the RV, that tank doesn’t last too long when you have hot water, cooking and then heating going on inside the RV.  Doug and Jimmy showed us how to hook up a separate gas tank which can be disconnected and filled easily, without having to pack up the RV and drive to the propane fill station.  You can buy propane tanks in all different sizes, and we are using a 40lb extra tank right now, which can easily be disconnected, refilled and reconnected without any hassle.  It definitely takes the worry out of running out of propane for heating, hot water and cooking in the winter months.  We have met some people who have connected up to 100 gallon propane tanks to their RV’s, but as these large tanks are not mobile, it takes the travel out of this RV lifestyle.  With the 40lb tank, we will never run out of Propane, because as soon as that extra tank is empty, we will fill it and still have the built in 40lb tank full at all times.

  1. One other point that I feel needs to be in this list is condensation…. When you have heating on inside the RV and its cold outside, you tend to develop some condensation. This can be a big problem if you don’t take care of it on a daily basis.  Open the cupboards and closets and leave them open for as long as you can during the day and wipe the windows down when they get full of condensation.  This way, the water doesn’t build up and ruin the woodwork, walls, furnishings inside your RV.  I find that condensation from the windows if not dried off ends up running down the walls and soaks into the furnishings, leaving them pretty wet at times.  I do have a dehumidifier insider the RV, but still find that condensation can build up.  Dollar stores carry small dehumidifier packs, and I have put one into each cabinet, which really does help to ward off condensation, especially in the closets where the dampness can ruin your clothes.

I would say that the biggest thing of all that we have learned is that we have an awful lot still to learn.  LOL!  BUT we are getting there and nothing we have encountered in our short time RVing has made us have second thoughts about the whole thing.  We are loving living our lives now and have a new experience each and every day, we have met a lot of truly wonderful people, and our relationship has improved to no end.  We are happy, healthy and lighthearted, having lots of fun times and getting younger every day.  What more could anyone ask for?

freedom, Roadtrips, rv living, travel, Uncategorized, usa travel

SOUTH CAROLINA AWESOMENESS

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            Traveling to South Carolina, we didn’t know what to expect in terms of scenery.  We decided to take a trip to the mountains to see the fall colors, so we went to Ceasars Head State Park. 

            Unfortunately, the colors weren’t at their best when we went, leaves change color here slightly differently than they did where we came from, so we got there at the wrong time to see the full fall color.  That didn’t  detract from the beauty of the scenery we saw.  We could see for miles and miles and we were so lucky with the weather, it was sunny, but not hot which made it easy to walk around and take in the beauty of the whole place.           

Caesars Head State Park

We went with the friends we made here at the campground, and had a wonderful day.  We did a little hiking, took a lot of pictures, and when we went home to the campground, we all sat around a campfire and had a great impromptu dinner.

Caesars Head State Park
Caesars Head State Park
Caesars Head State Park
Caesars Head State Park

We feel so lucky to be able to travel around the country and see such amazing sights. If we didn’t become full time RVers, we would never have the chance to see this amazing beauty.

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OUR FIRST FEW WEEKS AS FULLTIME RVERS

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Lake Hartwell, SC

We headed off on our first adventure in the RV (we still haven’t come up with a good name for her) and we arrived at our first destination which was only 4 hours drive from what used to be home. We were late heading out after it took way longer than I hoped to clean the floors at the house before we left. So we arrived not at 3:00pm as we had aimed for but after 5:30pm to find that the office at the campsite was closed. On the door of the office were envelopes for the people who had reservations, BUT there was no envelope for us! We had made the reservation, so we were totally confused, and worried that our first night on the road was going to have to be spent in Walmart parking lot! NOT OUR HAPPIEST HOUR!

Panic could have set in, but rather than that I went online and found a campsite nearby who had a spot we could take for the night and we booked and paid for that spot, thinking we would go there for the one night and then come back and claim our reservations here at our original destination.

We were about to pull out to head over to the nearby campsite, when a lady came driving up to us in a golf cart and asked if she could help us. We explained the situation and she hurriedly went off to get the lady who worked in the office, who apparently lived at the campsite. A few minutes later, a very nice lady came and opened up the office, and found our reservation and we were set. Her and her husband were very welcoming and escorted us to the appropriate site and helped us make all the hook ups and get settled. They also invited us to dinner the following evening, which was really lovely. We graciously accepted their invitation, after all we knew no-one and had no firm plans.

The campsite

What really impressed us was how everyone we met in those first few hours at this campsite was so friendly, something that you just don’t come across when you first move into a brick and mortar house. You can go months, even years without meeting or knowing your neighbors! It was almost like everyone around us took an interest to make sure we had everything we needed. Very refreshing!

We were bummed that there was the initial mix up about our reservation, and that we had had to pay for the nearby site, which was not refundable.

We found out that the nice lady and her husband who had welcomed us and helped us that first night were Janet and Jimmy. We did have dinner with them the following night and they introduced us to a few other people, also really open and welcoming, and now, after being here for 3 weeks, have all become firm friends.

Although we had planned to stay for just a week and then head west with a final destination for the winter near San Antonio, Texas, we decided to stay at this campsite for a while, at least until our house sold, which over the next few weeks changed to… we will stay here for the winter.

The owner of the campsite has been very accommodating and is happy to have us stay for the winter. Because of prior bookings, we have to move a couple of times, but that really isn’t a problem.

The people we have met here are totally amazing and knowing that we are complete newbies, have helped us by teaching us all kinds of things about our RV and the systems on it, showing us around the area, and as we don’t have a car at the moment, have taken us shopping, and even loaned us their car if we have needed it. We are in awe of their generosity and care.

We have taken it in turns to make dinner for everyone, and often sit after the evening meal as it turns dark and chat, laugh and have a good time with this group of fantastic people. It actually feels like we have known them all for years, not weeks.

We have been to a few great restaurants, one wing place, where on Tuesday evenings, they have 2-fer night, you get double the amount of wings you order for the price of the original order, so if you order and pay for 6 wings, you get 12 wings…… etc. They also have happy hour at the same time, so Tuesday evenings is usually wing night.

Wing Restaurant – awaiting our food!

We also all went to a great Mexican restaurant, the food was amazing and loads of it! A great time, lots of giggles, lots of laughs and actually quite a lot of tequila too!

Great Mexican Restaurant

We have our set up pretty much worked out now, we also discovered something that we had not thought of before we left. We had all kinds of camping and cooking gear, we had a crab boil pot with propane burner, which we let go in the estate sale for literally next to nothing, but now we are wishing that we had brought it with us. We were under the misguided impression that while travelling, everything has to be stashed away in a compartment or cupboard, but we have since found out that most people have lots of equipment that is literally put into the RV while travelling and left outside when set up. There is a sense of trust in RV communities that you don’t find in normal neighborhoods with brick and mortar homes. This discovery is very refreshing, and we will be replacing lots of that camping equipment that we just sold off. We just wish we had realized this before we sold everything.

Our RV set up, I’m sure it will change over time, andwith experience

We are learning a lot in a very short time, and one of the biggest things we have learned is that the people that do RV full time, are some of the most open friendly and honest people you could ever want to meet. That is not to say that anyone should let their natural guard down, but this full time RVing I guess attracts a different kind of person, and the ones we have met have all been very similar in the fact that they have all been very caring, helpful, friendly, giving, outgoing people. I truly believe that everyone should try this for a month, it would restore a lot of people’s belief in humanity!

We are having such a great time, and feel so relaxed already, we have seen huge changes in our health, our outlook, our hopes and dreams and neither one of us can imagine living in a brick and mortar house ever again……..this life is AMAZING! We are loving it.

The best part of all is that there is absolutely no rush to get anywhere and we have a whole huge country to explore at our own pace.

We are looking at maybe doing some workcamping in summer 2020, maybe in Colorado, or Nova Scotia, as it seems to us that even though it is great to be free, having something to get up for in the mornings is quite a good thing, and the added bonus is that if you work where you camp, you usually get some kind of break on the site fees, which makes living very inexpensive.

I have to admit that living full time in the RV, I had thought that we may knock heads a few times, over silly things, but so far, we have been really in tune and at peace with each other in such confined quarters. I think that Linsley and I are closer now than we ever have been before, and we have been together for a very long time!