Last day in Garner, packing up - Yr 1, Day 158

Garner, NC

Well, after 2-1/2 months, this is the last entry from North Carolina for a while.  Tomorrow we start our journey southward, heading to Myrtle Beach until Dec. 29th (unless Mitch needs a knee replacement which we'll learn about on Tuesday).  Before leaving, Mother Nature treated us to a beautiful sunset.  Unfortunately, our camera doesn't have the capacity to capture it the way it was seen by our eyes:

Yesterday, after shul, we spent the day with the kids and Doris, just hanging out.  We went to dinner at Ruckus - a really great local eatery with live entertainment (lots of vegetarian choices on the menu).  It was kind of bittersweet saying goodbye; it's been really nice being local to them and seeing them once a week.  Next time we visit, we'll have our new grandpuppy!

Today was spent starting the packing up process.  Since there are a number of things that are very time consuming (such as checking and filling all the tires on both vehicles: total 10, checking the water level in the battery, cleaning the leaves and stuff off the the roof and slide toppers, bringing in the antennas), we try to get as much as the big ticket items done the day before so we only have last minute packing to do in the morning.  That alone takes about 2 hours, including the time it takes to hitch, which is at least an hour for us to get the truck perfectly aligned - both vertically and horizontally!

Tomorrow I will take on some of the driving as well.  I'm much more comfortable driving the Bull.  Mind you, I'm not saying I am comfortable driving it - just that I'm more comfortable (1% is more than 0%!.  Ha ha).  I think I will take the first leg which is mostly highway, and leave the rest of the drive - on a 2 lane state road, to Mitch.  The halfway point is about South of the Border (really corny touristy place).  I expect this time of year to be fairly empty, so hopefully there'll be plenty of space for us to pull over, bring out the slides, make some sandwiches and maybe even for Mitch to take a little nap.

See y'all tomorrow from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina!

Yr 1, Day 155 of the journey - Garner, NC

Overview:  Thanksgiving

This was the first Thanksgiving we spent living on the road.  We have visited with Jessica and Griffin for the past 3 years, but it was always for a long weekend, with a 10 hour drive before and after.  It was so wonderful to  "have house will travel" and just head on down the road to our own place.

The day was very enjoyable.  Doris arrived from NYC yesterday and spent the night with us.  It was the first time we opened the sofa bed in the living room and discovered it was NOT one of the luxury items in the coach!  The mattress was horrendous, that she couldn't sleep on it.  Oh well - next time we hope to have the air mattress.

Thanksgiving day was spent with Jess, Griffin, Doris, and their friend Shannon.  Below are some photos of us and the incredible spread - kudos, as always, to the great chef, my daughter!

The feast (that's Tofurkey at the bottom and the real stuff at the top)

Me and Griffin

Doris & Shannon

Day 153 of the journey - Garner, NC

Overview: another repair not done, weather forecast

Two weeks ago we had someone come to replace the seal on the toilet as it isn't holding water properly and Mitch was uncomfortable removing the toilet from the base.  Guy came and didn't have the part so it had to be ordered.  (At that time we also had him help put the door back on the track, which he did - sort of.  He didn't seem to have a clue what he was doing and Mitch had to help him.  It's still not opening or closing smoothly but it's working, so we'll just leave it for now).  Anyway, it took about a week longer than expected to get the part in (allegedly the person at the distributor was on vacation).  He finally came today and discovered that he ordered the wrong part!  So there's no way he'll be able to do the repair before we leave here.  On the bright side, Mitch was watching and now understands what he needs to do, so he may attempt this himself.  The toilet also does work; we just need to remember to keep the bowl filled with water as the leak is very slow.  We can always find another repair person down the road.

Meanwhile, torrential rains expected here tonight & tomorrow (Wed, day before T'giving), which a huge nor'easter bearing down up north (NY/NJ) bringing several inches of snow.  I'm glad Doris is coming down by train and not driving or flying.  Hopefully it will be an uneventful trip.  And I do hope all this weather passes and it's clear for our drive on Monday.

Day 152 of the journey - Garner, NC

Overview:  warm, weekend, jello plans again?

It's been in the 40s and 50s lately (and 20s and 30s at night).  Today it reached 75 degrees (going back to the 50s for the rest of the week).  Unfortunately, it was very cloudy so I wouldn't say it was a gorgeous day.  In a way that's good because I had a LOT of work -- many deadlines to meet with my 2 steady clients and 1 potential one before the holiday.  I'm taking 1/2 day on Wed to get the place back in shape, and all day Thurs (Thanksgiving) so I only have today, tomorrow, Wed. am and Fri to get all this work done.  Not complaining - work is a good thing.  So I didn't feel too bad looking out the window and wishing I was outside.

On Saturday, we had a guy scheduled (3 weeks ago) to power wash the CoW.   We didn't go to services so that we wouldn't miss him.  He never showed up!  It's kind of my fault for not having called to confirm on Friday.  Today he gave me lots of excuses: every sentence he gave me a different story:  he apologized and said he got very busy and forgot; then he apologized again and said his van was in the shop and he couldn't get here, then he apologized again and said he was planning a trip out of town and had a lot on his plate and couldn't make the time and that he looked and looked and couldn't find where he wrote down my number to call me.  Then after the last apology, he had the gall to say he actually tried to come over but couldn't find my site!!!  After all that, I'm really glad it fell through -- who knows what kind of job he would have done.  Plus, after paying the bills yesterday, I was left with about $35 in the account until we get paid (pension check comes in next week) so it worked out because we couldn't have afforded it anyway.

On a more positive note, I spent Sunday out shopping (mostly for Thanksgiving ingredients, including the kosher turkey at Trader Joe's) with Jessica while Mitch finished working on the wiring job at the house.  Unfortunately, he didn't finish until about 10:00 at night. 

And jello plans -- nothing set in stone yet but it's something we'll need to keep at the front of our minds.  His knee is really bothering him again (it's been almost a year since he's had his shots).  He's already talking about trying to find another occupation as being out in the field is getting a bit taxing.  He's also thinking of having his knee replacement surgery sooner rather than later - mostly because we've already met our out of pocket expenses for the year, so we won't have any copayments.  If it's next year, we'll have a $2500 deductible, then 80% of about $50K in hospital, doctor and rehab bills (to add to all the medical copays I have from my 3 hip problems and surgery this past year).  So financially it makes a lot of sense to do it in December.  He has an appointment with an orthopedist in Myrtle Beach the day after we arrive down there (Dec. 2nd).  I guess we'll see what the doctor has to say.  If he does proceed with the surgery, we'll need to see if he'll be able to do stairs when he gets out, otherwise that will be a huge problem.  I'll also have to do all the driving.  It may mean staying in Myrtle Beach longer than planned, possibly even giving up all our Florida visits in January and the rally in Feb.  Again - just in the thought phase at the moment.  We'll know more and make a better decision when he sees the doctor.

Meanwhile, gotta stay on top of these deadlines, look forward to seeing Doris (Mitch's sister, coming down from NYC) and spending the holiday with the kids (and probably the last time seeing them until we return in the spring).  Next weekend it's packing up and getting ready to hit the road again after 2 1/2 months.  Not sure when I'll have a chance to write again.

Day 149 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Overview:  Still cold & windy -- video of mobile -- Shabbat cabbage soup

Still been pretty cold down here, but as Jessica points out - "it's winter"!  Not quite, but almost. Temps in the low 40s and high 20s at night.  All the leaves from the pecan tree have fallen.  In fact, the manager was outside yesterday blowing the leaves (before mulching them) and the pile was knee deep.  I felt like doing what I used to do as a child and jumping into the pile - but I don't think jumping and falling would be good for my hip!

It's pretty windy, too.  Here is a video of our mobile actively spinning in the wind:

After putting in almost a full day of work, I'm preparing for Shabbat (Mitch is doing a large wiring job today).  I made a first time recipe of cabbage soup.  I'm not sure if the house smells good or bad, but it certainly smells like cabbages (I think it's good).

Day 147 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Overview:  No water or propane, extra work, Ask Me Another

Today is a day of lessons learned:

1)  When the temperatures get below freezing (it was 25 last night), the water in your hose turns to ice! (duh!!!)  So we woke up to no water today to wash with or flush the toilet (thank goodness I still had water in the tea kettle!).  Lesson - always keep a few gallons of water in the fresh water tank so you can put the water pump on and use the internal supply when the city supply isn't available (like when boondocking or when it's frozen).

2)  We have 2 heat sources: heat pump (electric: reverse a/c) and furnace (gas).  We learned that the heat pump doesn't work under 38 degrees but that it automatically switches over to gas.  We were pretty warm during the night, until we ran out of propane in the tank it was using.  Fortunately, we have 2 propane tanks so were able to switch over, even though it meant getting out of bed in the freezing cold.

Otherwise, I got hit with a rush job this morning which took away some time from my other rush project.  We're also going on an outing tonight with the kids (a live taping of one of our favorite NPR trivia shows: "Ask Me Another") so we need to leave somewhat early.  So why am I posting on the blog now?  Back to work.....

Ask Me Another was a lot of fun:

Days 135-145 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Overview:  New client - met Debbie - Donna & sushi - decision on SC

 Sorry I haven't written this past week (or 10 days, wow!).  It's all kind of been a blur, especially last week.

My main client who's been a bit quiet lately, suddenly had an overwhelming amount of RUSH work for me to do early last week.  Then I landed a new client.  Actual work didn't begin until Friday, but the early part of the week was spent landing him, working out the terms of the contract and getting him to sign.  Took a bit of negotiating to get there, but glad for the outcome (I have an interview with another potential lead tomorrow!).  Of course, Mitch hasn't had any work for about 2 full weeks now and he's still waiting for a huge chunk of money from jobs he did in FL back in Aug. and Sept.

The real highlight of last week was meeting my RV-Dreams friend, Debbie (of "Debbie & Steve" but Steve was out of town).  Here we all are at the Raleigh State Farmers Market where we met for lunch and then did a little browsing and picked up a few nice veggies.

Me, Debbie and Mitch

We also got to see Griffin and Jessica twice last week, as Mitch needed to do some work in their house (he's helping with the ethernet and phone wiring).  The highlight of the weekend was that Donna and Lily came down to visit, so we got to see them.  We had a nice sushi dinner out:

There was also another separate plate.  The 6 of us finished this with ease.

Sunday morning, they came to see our home on wheels and had a nice bagel & lox spread before heading back home to VA.

Today was a really horrible miserable weather day.  Last Wednesday (the day we met Debbie) was probably the last warm, gorgeous day we'll have here for a while.  It's been freezing in the morning and no more than the low 40s since then.  Except today - it was close to 70, but either a drenching rain or just non-stop gloomy drizzle, and very windy.  For some reason, Mitch and I just kept getting under each other's skins.  It's the first time since living here that we just couldn't get far enough away from each other (and not being able to go out and take a walk didn't help matters either).   It's supposed to be back in the 30s tomorrow, but probably sunny at least.

This week, also, I signed up for a week's worth of business related webinars.  There were 2 I wanted to attend today, and in line with the rest of the day's negativity, the internet kept dropping on ALL of our backup systems as well.  Must be something in the air.  Even now it is still giving me problems.

We still want to go into the downtown area, but haven't figured out how to get there or where to park if we drive.

We did finally make a decision about our next 2 stops.  We will stay in Myrtle Beach until Dec. 29th and then NYE and probably another week or 2 in Savannah, before heading to St. Augustine for 1-2 weeks.  Now all I have to do is make the reservations!  (the reason for the long stay is 1) they have a very active Jewish community including a kosher restaurant and 24 hr kosher grocery store; and 2) the campground we found has a buy 2 get 2 free promotion which is still a lot less than their monthly rate.  I just hope it's a fairly decent place, as it's a KOA).  Mitch's knee is also bothering him again as it's time for his shots.  Since we'll be in one place for 4 weeks, I need to find an orthopedist in MB who will do it  and is willing to get pre-approval from the insurance co. without seeing him first (or alternatively get an appt the next day after we arrive).

Day 134 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Overview:  No go on workamp job

FLORIDA IT IS.  They did not accept Mitch's terms & conditions; guess they don't like people trying to protect themselves from being taken advantage of in writing!  (Note: it was not a paid job - it was a "workamping" opportunity: trading one's skills in exchange for a free site, part time.  The job was for maintaining the campground's wifi system, and basically Mitch's requirements were that anyone needing IT support had to make an appt: he's not on call 24/7, he would not work Fri nite-Sat. nite, and that since this is part time, the hours would need to be worked around his paid work schedule).  Although this was discussed in a phone interview and the owner had no problem with it, they backed down as soon as we asked them to agree to it in writing.  All for the best I suppose.

Meanwhile, I arranged to have the rig and truck power washed before we leave and will also try to get the bedroom door and toilet fixed before then as well.

Day 132 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Overview: Mitch fixed blinds - workamp?

First, a big KUDOS to Mitch for another repair he tackled on his own:  restringing the day/night shades which fell apart (one of the strings was worn out and broke thus making it impossible to open the shades.  You know how much I need to look out the window!)  It even took him half the time he expected.  Unfortunately, the only string we had on hand is neon pink, so when his order of the matching string arrives, he'll have to do this all over again, unless we can learn to live with this color.  Personally, I don't think it's so terrible.

Mitch's restringing work

This week is really hopping with jobs!  Today Mitch got an assignment that will last at least 16-20 hours, and is an hour and a half away.  If it wasn't such a hassle packing and hitching, it would have been great to drive and stay there overnight.  Plus he has to leave here by 6 am, so no time to do that anyway (still need at least 3 hours).  In addition, I got a call from one of my top clients with THREE major rush jobs, all due by tomorrow.  In the feast or famine area, I also got an invitation from a peer that I know from my online forums (Debbie & Steve) who are in the area and were hoping to meet for lunch.  Our plans originally had been to go to the Farmers Market again (there is someone there on Wed. who sharpens knives and we need more tea, honey and wine, not to mention veggies).  We were hoping to meet them at the market.  We had to tentatively reschedule for next Wed. since Mitch won't be around, I won't have any transportation, and I need to work (and probably will be most of the night - taking a quick break for this blog entry).

Regarding the workamping opportunity in TX, the managers agreed to wait until we can get there.  It was a really hard decision whether to follow our hearts (live for the day and enjoy the travel to FL, to do fun stuff and spend time with family & friends and go to the rally) or our heads (save money rather than spend it, and more chances for work).  The latter won out.  We put a contract together for our protection (such as they won't give the job to someone else while we're in transit, and that anything above and beyond what they explained the job to entail will be negotiable for pay), so now the only step is to make sure they agree to the terms (in writing).  Hopefully that won't be a problem.  I can't say I'm real happy about being parked in a relatively boring place for 5 months, but it's not so terrible for the winter (in the 60's) and there is a very active Chabad only 8 miles away with services on Shabbat as well as Sunday, Monday and Thursdays.  There are also loads of campgrounds there and a good chance to meet a lot of my forum friends who also snowbird in that area for the winter.  Things could definitely be a lot worse so I won't complain.