Today is departure date. After all our company left yesterday we spent time getting the last minute items packed. We'll be heading west along highway 54 toward Ft. Scott, Kansas first. I thought since we have time we might just stop and see the historical spot there. We will try and find a city park in Kansas to spend the night at. There are a lot of small towns in Kansas that are very RV friendly and allow people to park overnight. We spent the night in one on the way to Colorado last summer. It was a pretty little park, completely free, and quiet, no one else was there. Of course they don't have hookups so it is dry camping.
Side note: Shelby and I were sitting on the front porch of the treehouse yesterday (Monday) morning and two bucks came walking by. Their antlers were still growing and covered in velvet. It was very neat.
Bob McCoy called last night at 10:00. We had just turned the lights out to go to bed. We're still not out of the routine of early to bed early to rise. Bob just wanted to remind me that I didn't have to go to work this morning so I didn't need to go to bed so early. Thanks Bob, but my sleep clock tells me otherwise.
More down the road.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Had quite a crowd today. Barbequed some ribs on the stone fireplace out by the shelter, and some chicken on the grill. Combined that with potato salad, baked beans, cole slaw, three bean salad, and other assorted goodies for one fantastic feast. Most of the family just came for the day and the crowd started breaking up about mid afternoon. It was good to see everyone. We figured we would have this get together since we will be gone the rest of the summer and wouldn't see everyone for awhile. Carol's mom and dad, Don and Helen were here, as were all our kids and, of course, Annabelle. My brother and his family, Mike, Teresa, Katy, and Amy, were here also. Our neice Kristen and her husband Brian came with their kids, Abbey and Aaron. Abbey and Annabelle are close to the same age and enjoy playing together. Rob' mom and dad, Dennis and Sharon were here also. It was great to see everyone and catch up again. It was a hot day and there were lots of waterguns and water ballons, not to mention the old wading pool.
Here are the girls by the wading pool.
Here is a photo of great grandma and grandpa, Don and Helen, with Annabelle (left) and Abbey (right).
Here are the girls by the wading pool.
Here is a photo of great grandma and grandpa, Don and Helen, with Annabelle (left) and Abbey (right).
Friday, May 26, 2006
The first thing I noticed when I walked into my now drab office (since I had removed all my mountain photos) was a large vase of lovely flowers and a gift basket. Renee, Mike and family had sent it to me. What a great surprise. When I called Renee she said this was really a special occassion since we had been planning for it twenty years ago when we were both at Springfield Workshop. Had a great retirement party at work today. The workshop staff gave me a Walmart card and the rest of the Special Ed staff gave me a visa gift card. What a great send off. Right after my retirement party they had the first interview for my replacement. Everything is a cycle, and the cycle continues. The boss was kind enough to let me go early Friday. The first thing I did when I got home was to cut the grass. I really don't like cutting grass, but had to get it done before the weekend crowd began to arrive. Also there was some satisfaction in knowing that this would be the last time to cut it this summer. Finally Friday night I docked the life support system to the command module. "Beam us west Scotty".
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Preparations for our extended trip
I am now about 2 days away from saying goodbye to work entirely. It is an exciting time. I feel like a school kid anticipating summer vacation. I have never had more than two weeks off since I was in high school. Even during the summers I had jobs so I had little time to play. Even the few times I have been between jobs those were for less than a month and I was busy looking for other work when that was the case and not free to travel.
I thought I would take a little time here to discuss what we have done to prepare for an extended trip (5 months) away from home. I will break this up into categories, the camper, the truck, and the house, and discuss what we have done for each.
The camper:
In anticipation of spending quite a bit of time ‘living’ in a very small area we have looked at one of the main concerns with a truck camper – storage space. We have done what we possibly can to expand our storage space in the camper. Thank goodness we have an extended cab on our truck. We will be able to use the back seat for storage of a lot of gear.
Last summer and this spring we put up numerous shelves and racks in the camper to provide additional and more convenient storage. We have also put up some hooks for clothes lines and hanging of outer wraps and other clothes overnight. We depend heavily on our single 12V battery for power to operate the camper when we are on the road so in order to help in case of battery problems or to recharge the battery we purchased a Honda EU2000i compact generator. This 2000 watt generator is both compact and very quiet and will be more than sufficient for our purposes. I also found an ice chest that it fits in like a glove and this fits snuggly below the microwave. The ice chest is a safety precaution in case of a gas leak.
Since we will be in some pretty desolate places we did purchase an XM radio and a year’s subscription. I’m hoping this will keep us informed about what is happening in the rest of the world while we are gone, although sometimes I may not want to know.
I noticed that my converter was not charging my battery. Therefore I had to order a new converter and installed this as well. I replaced the original 6300 series Magnatek converter with an Inteli-Power PD9145A converter and installed a Charge Wizard as well. There are some excellent websites that discuss this conversion. Even though I know nothing about electricity everything seems to be working fine and it was a relatively easy install.
This winter I made some base supports out of 5/8” plywood that fit together in an ‘x’ and position under the camper when it is taken off the truck to offer support besides the jacks. When traveling the supports come apart and lay between the truck bed and the camper floor.
The truck:
Not a lot will be done to the truck, other than a good check up at the local Dodge dealer. I was, however, concerned about spare tires, so a few weeks ago I put a receiver hitch on the front of the truck and bought a spare tire carrier for the hitch on eBay. I then spent a considerable amount of time finding another wheel to put another spare tire on. A local tire dealer finally found the right size wheel so I will have two spare tires for the trip. I have read in some of the travelogues about a couple of the roads we intend on exploring having a tendency to eat tires, most notably the Dempster Highway and the road to McCarthy and the Kennicott Mines.
The house:
This has been the most difficult to deal with. There are a number of issues that need to be addressed when leaving for an extended period of time. These issues include:
Grass mowing
House monitoring
Hot tub
Water
Trash collection
Phones/internet
Insurance
Bill paying
Mail delivery
We have a neighbor to do the grass mowing and occasionally monitor the house, although we also have a person house sitting so the monitoring is being covered well. Drained the hot tub and covered the electric switches with tape so no one will turn them on. The water bill was prepaid for the next five months and a note sent to the water company. The trash service was paid for six month (two quarters) ahead and a note was sent. Phones and internet were put on vacation service. This will lower my bill significantly but maintain my phone number. All bills have been converted over to paperless/on line format. Most are automatically paid. The exception being my gas and regular credit cards which the amounts vary so much each month I wanted to maintain control of those. I can pay them electronically by accessing my bank account on line however. Another neighbor has kindly agreed to receive our mail and sort out the important items to be forwarded to us. We had to take a letter up to the postmaster and they agreed to deliver our mail to the neighbor until notified. I provided some prepaid priority mail envelops that can be filled and mailed to a general delivery address at a future date. I will email the neighbor the town and zip code for them to mail to a few days ahead of being there. I will pick smaller towns where general delivery mail is not likely to be lost in the shuffle.
Next week at this time we should be heading across Kansas on our way to Denver to take Shelby home. More later.
I thought I would take a little time here to discuss what we have done to prepare for an extended trip (5 months) away from home. I will break this up into categories, the camper, the truck, and the house, and discuss what we have done for each.
The camper:
In anticipation of spending quite a bit of time ‘living’ in a very small area we have looked at one of the main concerns with a truck camper – storage space. We have done what we possibly can to expand our storage space in the camper. Thank goodness we have an extended cab on our truck. We will be able to use the back seat for storage of a lot of gear.
Last summer and this spring we put up numerous shelves and racks in the camper to provide additional and more convenient storage. We have also put up some hooks for clothes lines and hanging of outer wraps and other clothes overnight. We depend heavily on our single 12V battery for power to operate the camper when we are on the road so in order to help in case of battery problems or to recharge the battery we purchased a Honda EU2000i compact generator. This 2000 watt generator is both compact and very quiet and will be more than sufficient for our purposes. I also found an ice chest that it fits in like a glove and this fits snuggly below the microwave. The ice chest is a safety precaution in case of a gas leak.
Since we will be in some pretty desolate places we did purchase an XM radio and a year’s subscription. I’m hoping this will keep us informed about what is happening in the rest of the world while we are gone, although sometimes I may not want to know.
I noticed that my converter was not charging my battery. Therefore I had to order a new converter and installed this as well. I replaced the original 6300 series Magnatek converter with an Inteli-Power PD9145A converter and installed a Charge Wizard as well. There are some excellent websites that discuss this conversion. Even though I know nothing about electricity everything seems to be working fine and it was a relatively easy install.
This winter I made some base supports out of 5/8” plywood that fit together in an ‘x’ and position under the camper when it is taken off the truck to offer support besides the jacks. When traveling the supports come apart and lay between the truck bed and the camper floor.
The truck:
Not a lot will be done to the truck, other than a good check up at the local Dodge dealer. I was, however, concerned about spare tires, so a few weeks ago I put a receiver hitch on the front of the truck and bought a spare tire carrier for the hitch on eBay. I then spent a considerable amount of time finding another wheel to put another spare tire on. A local tire dealer finally found the right size wheel so I will have two spare tires for the trip. I have read in some of the travelogues about a couple of the roads we intend on exploring having a tendency to eat tires, most notably the Dempster Highway and the road to McCarthy and the Kennicott Mines.
The house:
This has been the most difficult to deal with. There are a number of issues that need to be addressed when leaving for an extended period of time. These issues include:
Grass mowing
House monitoring
Hot tub
Water
Trash collection
Phones/internet
Insurance
Bill paying
Mail delivery
We have a neighbor to do the grass mowing and occasionally monitor the house, although we also have a person house sitting so the monitoring is being covered well. Drained the hot tub and covered the electric switches with tape so no one will turn them on. The water bill was prepaid for the next five months and a note sent to the water company. The trash service was paid for six month (two quarters) ahead and a note was sent. Phones and internet were put on vacation service. This will lower my bill significantly but maintain my phone number. All bills have been converted over to paperless/on line format. Most are automatically paid. The exception being my gas and regular credit cards which the amounts vary so much each month I wanted to maintain control of those. I can pay them electronically by accessing my bank account on line however. Another neighbor has kindly agreed to receive our mail and sort out the important items to be forwarded to us. We had to take a letter up to the postmaster and they agreed to deliver our mail to the neighbor until notified. I provided some prepaid priority mail envelops that can be filled and mailed to a general delivery address at a future date. I will email the neighbor the town and zip code for them to mail to a few days ahead of being there. I will pick smaller towns where general delivery mail is not likely to be lost in the shuffle.
Next week at this time we should be heading across Kansas on our way to Denver to take Shelby home. More later.
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