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Solo18

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Everything posted by Solo18

  1. The problem occurs when electricity is down and/or businesses cannot access the internet or databases with their electric cash registers. Sometimes, they will have a generator and will be able to run gas pumps, but don't have a way to put a credit card through, so they will sell gas or food as a cash purchase only. That's why it is always a good idea to have some extra cash tucked away, preferably in small bills. In Napa, the small neighborhood grocery store I mentioned sold food by keeping paper tabs and using a calculator to add up prices for customers who could pay cash.
  2. I keep enough cash hidden to get gas and drive enough miles to get out of the way of a natural disaster such as a hurricane or earthquake were to occur and it was difficult to buy gas or food. One tip i learned from someone in Napa, however, after the last earthquake there a few years ago, is to carry your emergency cash in a combination of large and many small bills. She owned a storage business and had been tossing extra ones and fives in a drawer. After the earthquake, a nearby small grocery store was having problems because everyone was coming in with big bills to buy a gallon of milk or some bread, and he could not make change, so she went home and gave him all her stash of small bills.
  3. When I started out 12 years ago, my younger son said I would die in a fiery crash 200 miles down the freeway. I told him I could keep my condo and sit in my chair watching TV for the next 20 years, and I would probably die in my chair, but that I would much prefer to actually do something with the rest of my life, so I'd take the chance of that crash.
  4. Great to hear from you!!! I was next to you at the fairgrounds in TC. Also, saw you head over Big Mac as I was parking in the lot just below it at the Fort visitor center. Not only did I enjoy the jam you gave me, but I started to make my own version of cherry jam and have been giving it away to fellow campers, so if I bump into you again, I'll share it with you and ask for a review of my "recipe." Yours was very good and inspired me. I'm in Florida for the winter, but I'll be heading North through the Soo in August and then west on the TransCanada Highway to Banff and Lake Louise, then south to WA and OR and my son's house in CA for Christmas. Judy
  5. I am an older woman who has been full-timing for over 11 years, and while I started out staying at KOAs, I gave them up very quickly. Unless you are traveling with a bunch of young kids, they are noisy, expensive, crowded, and really set up for families who need kids activities and a pool, none of which I enjoy as I travel. Did I mention expensive??? Since you said "I am traveling" I am assuming you are also a single woman. If so, you will not appreciate the noisy and crowded atmosphere of a KOA at the end of a long day. First, you are planning on driving far too many miles too fast. You will find you have to drive any RV more slowly to avoid winds and other things. You will be exhausted driving just that many miles as you have to focus more driving or pulling any RV. I normally plan on driving no more than 225 miles each day, and then not even every day. First, are you over 62, and if so, do you have a federal senior pass? That will save you 50% on federal campgrounds, the best of which are COE or Corps of Engineers. There are several along your route and will cost you anywhere from $8 to $15 per night. They all have electric hookups and are very safe. You can find federal campgrounds at recreation.gov, and you can get a federal senior pass at any national park. They cost $80 for a lifetime pass or $20 for an annual pass, but you can trade-in 4 annual passes for a lifetime pass. Hard to know where to start to advise you, so I will send you a private message with my email and personal phone number. You have a lot of learning to do, and I wish you well. For me, it has been a great life, and at age 80, I am still chugging onwards. I will be in SoCal late next fall, FYI. I have a son in Napa, and will also be visiting someone near Dana Pointe probably in December.
  6. I met a couple in Michigan who had a custom-built 5th wheel, pulled by an enormous semi truck with a large cab on the back. (I believe they had more than just sleeping space in the cab.) In the space between the cab and the 5th wheel hookup, they had a tiny electric car parked. He said he had registered the truck as a motorhome, and pointed out to me that he had the words "Private Vehicle" painted on both the driver's and the passenger's door. This made it clear it was not a commercial vehicle and did not have to go through weigh stations, inspections, and such things. You can easily spot this very fancy rig if it is in your area because the whole thing is painted with red, white, and blue swirls and streaks! They are very nice people, so say Hi! to them.
  7. If food odors are a concern, look for an RV that has a fan in the kitchen. I have one over my stove, but it is useless because it does not vent outside. However, I DO have a vent with a fan in the ceiling almost directly over my stove. If I were to cook something smelly, i would open that vent and turn on the fan. Much easier than cooking outdoors in the rain and bugs. The outdoor kitchens seldom have more than a grill and maybe an electric hotplate. Cooking hot dogs and hamburgers, and occasionally a steak or some chicken gets old quickly when you are full-timing, and you will want to bake stuff and cook things like casseroles that have to be cooked in an oven. In fact, a lot of us like to cook ahead and freeze extra portions so we can just reheat stuff at the end of a tiring day or driving or sightseeing. Gives you a lot more variety to your diet.
  8. Negative to the outdoor kitchens is that they take up a lot of closet space inside. Most of us who travel full-time do a lot of cooking inside because of weather and because it is just easier.
  9. I get 8-10 MPG on my 32' 2012 motorhome with the v10 engine.
  10. I am a 79 year old woman who has traveled alone in a 32' Motorhome for the past 10 years, driving 183,000 miles in that time. Obviously, I have to do grocery and other kinds of shopping, and I have never had my rig broken into or had anything stolen while in a campground or in a parking lot. I do not spend the night in parking lots of highway rest areas, but instead almost always stay in county, state, and federal campgrounds. I would not feel safe sleeping at night in a parking lot, though some people do it. But, I have never felt unsafe parking there during the day to do my shopping, so you should feel comfortable parking in a grocery store parking lot during the day. Be careful of overhanging branches in parking lots, however. One once grabbed my TV antenna and damaged it. And more recently, I hit some overhead branches in a parking lot that broke the plastic cover on my refrigerator vent fan.
  11. Also, you are going to be subjected to many different allergens than the ones handled by the allergy shots. I do a lot of traveling as I full-time, and I found that southeast US allergens are worse for me--mostly pine and other plants that thrive in warm, moist places. These change when I go to the Northwest, where the climate is cold and moist. Deserts are usually good, but depends on time of year. Just telling you this so you will not be surprised when place and time of year affect your wife's allergies. Medications such as Singular are a big help in those cases. Don't give up traveling, but do keep in touch with your allergist.
  12. Solo18

    No Vacancy

    Be careful about signing up with one or more of the commercial "camping" groups such as Thousand Trails until you have stayed at a couple of their parks and have read the fine print about when and for how long you can stay somewhere. Sometimes they limit you to off season times in places you do not want to go, and also limit you to a specific number of days in specific weeks. I have known a few people who spent thousands of dollars on such plans, thinking it would save them money in the long run only to discover that they did not like the "resorts" and that they could not stay when they wanted to stay. Note: Escapees are excepted from this comment!
  13. Solo18

    No Vacancy

    I've been full-timing for almost 10 years, and prefer state, national, and county parks, so i make my reservations as soon as sites open. I know not everyone likes to do this, but I have specific campgrounds and specific sites I like to get, so early reservations are what I do. Right now, I am working on national parks in July. I already made reservations for several weeks in Washington State, but those sites are pretty much booked up already. Some exceptions might be if you have a very small RV or don't care where you stay. There may also be cancellations a couple of weeks before you want to go somewhere. What you need to do is make a list of when sites open in each state you might want to visit and plan that way.
  14. This is an old posting, but updated. Just want to add that I did not want full body paint when I bought my rig almost 10 years ago because I thought the cost was silly. However, I still get people who think my rig is 2 or 3 years old instead of 10! Well worth the price because I think it will be easier to sell someday.
  15. Just an important point--some of us live full time in our RVs without husbands or significant others to do maintenance stuff. It is not always easy, but it is doable and at least for many of us, worth the trouble. I also have age, being only 5 feet tall, and not being able to kneel against me. So, I use a stool to reach inside the utility compartment to hook up my sewage hose, and I use a wrench to tighten the water hose onto my motorhome because I do not have good hand strength. I also drive with a booster seat so I can see out better! Anyway, don't give up. It may well be that your husband and you will be able to work together once you get on the road. Also, if you sell your house, won't you be able to afford hiring people to do some RV maintenance?? Also, know that many of your neighbors will be more than willing to answer questions or make suggestions if you cannot figure things out. They probably will not want to do the work, but they can be very helpful with suggestions because of their experience.
  16. I read the book and did not see the movie. It was certainly sad, but what I did like was the portrayal of the sense of community these "nomads" had. They were not loaners completely escaping from society, but created one of their own making and to the best of their ability took care of one another. However, it says something about our society that older people do not have more resources to live their lives. Working at Amazon or sugar beet harvests can be good job for some older people, but a lot of people are working in those hard, physical jobs who should not be. And I do love the desert and its long vistas. It is not empty, as many people see it--you just have to look closely at it to see the beauty.
  17. I have not had water coming in my slides, but I do notice wind blowing in through the slides in colder weather and suspect that my one-moth-per-night has been coming in that way. Ditto for a few flies. My two slides have a wide piece of trim on the inside that has a thin piece of rubber or sealing on it. I bought some rubber sealing tape intended for home windows or doors, and my son helped me add it to what was already there. (Next to, not on top of old material.) It is very soft stuff and compresses easily, but has made a difference in terms of wind blowing in when slides are open. I also have fewer moths visiting me at night. My son is taller and a lot younger than me, so he also checked the outside seals on the slides. He replaced some, but could not reach the stuff on top because of the slide topper. I am waiting for new slide toppers to arrive, so will get the service people to do that part when the remove the old material.
  18. Be aware that most of the "clubs" like Passport America can only be used in commercial campgrounds, and most limit the specific days you can stay. Personally, I am a full-timer who almost entirely stays in national, state, and county campgrounds because I like to have a larger space and be out in nature instead of packed into a campground where I can hear their TV and conversations, even inside their rigs. At least wait until you know what your camping style is before you invest money in one of these plans. The only card I use on those rare times where i stay at a commercial campground is AARP and I have that because of my Medicare supplement insurance. When I first started out 9 years ago, I did join the KOA discount, but then got tired of the noise and crowded conditions in most of them.
  19. Part of the problem is knowing how you plan to use your rig while you are full-timing. The bigger the RV, the more of a pain it is to move it and find a camping spot big enough to hold it. Also more of a pain to drive it. Need to ask yourself the following: Are you planning to stay several months at a time in a commercial campground? Or are you planning to keep on the move and stay only a few days at a time in each place you visit? If your answer is positive to the first item, then a super-big RV makes sense. I could see you leaving such a rig in an RV resort for several months. However, if you plan to do a lot of moving around, you probably ought to consider a lot smaller rig. Just getting into and out of gas stations is going to be very difficult. And a lot of campgrounds or even "RV resorts" are not going to have spaces big enough for you with such a large rig. Pulling it through a large, or even a small city, is going to be really difficult. One thing you do not mention is how many people will be traveling with you. Do you need all that sleeping space for a large family? A lot of us make the mistake of assuming we will be taking along grandkids and company a lot of the time, and then find out that does not really happen that often. (That is how my aunt and uncle, who had no children, ended up with a house with five bedrooms and three full and two partial bathrooms!) I also agree about the steps up to the kitchen. You are going to be going up and down every time you want something from the refrigerator. That could get old quickly.
  20. The other interesting place in the Detroit area is Belle Isle. It is on the opposite side of the city from Dearborn, but it is basically an island in the middle of the Detroit River. It is now a state park and has an entrance fee, but once you are on it, you can visit the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, the Scripps Conservatory, an aquarium, and the Nature Center. You can also picnic there and just park along the river and watch the big lake freighters go by. Best to go on a weekday, by the way, to avoid crowds. Turn right as soon as you go over the bridge and drive all the way around the island on the outside circle drive. Also, the island was in horrible shape until the state leased it for a state park in 2014. Thousands of Detroiters got involved, and volunteers did most of the cleanup to make this place shine again!! https://www2.dnr.state.mi.us/parksandtrails/Details.aspx?type=SPRK&id=736 The island was settled by French colonists and has a great, long history, which is described here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Isle_Park_(Michigan) And, yes, I admit to being born in Detroit and lived in the area almost all of my life. Other great places to visit are the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Motown Museum, Eastern Market near downtown, and the downtown riverfront parks, especially if there is an ethnic festival going on. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g42139-Activities-Detroit_Michigan.html
  21. If you visit Greenfield Village and The Henry Ford museum, you might also want to take the assembly plant tour offered at the Henry Ford Museum. These are three separate places and three separate charges, but all are worth the money. One of my favorite things in the museum is the "camper" that Henry Ford used when he and his friends, Thomas Edison, John Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone took when they went camping. They called themselves the Vagabonds, but what is often left out is the detail that the group also took along several heavy vehicles containing camping equipment, a full kitchen, and several servants to cook and manage the trip! They also took a team of photographers, of course!! https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-resources/popular-topics/the-vagabonds The best tour is the Rouge tour where you can see F-150s being made. https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/ford-rouge-factory-tour/ (Check ahead to make sure the factory is working on the day you want to tour.)
  22. Just spent March - early May in NM. First, the northern part is indeed VERY cold in winter--think skiing on snow! So you will have to spent the coldest part of the winter in the very southern part of NM. Daytimes had highs of 60-70 and nights were downright cold--close to freezing many nights. One advantage is that there is a non-resident annual camping pass that costs about $225. With that, you only have to pay $4 per night for electric sites. However, a warning that most NM state parks have dirt roads and can be dusty. There are some wonderful exceptions, however, among them is Oliver Lee and some of the camping areas around Elephant Butte. One of my favorite places is Cochiti Lake, but it is COE and a little too far north for most of the winter.
  23. I drive anywhere from 10,000 to 18,000 miles per year, but that does not count a quick flight to visit grandkids the week after Christmas. They live in a snowy climate, so I would not want to drive my motorhome there anyway. Total miles over last 9 years is 158,000.
  24. You are writing about "campgrounds" to be used as full-time, permanent locations near big cities. That is a very narrow use of that term and limits the places that are open to you to commercial RV parks that squeeze in as many units as possible because real estate is expensive. And you are right that that kind of living tends to be expensive and not very pleasant. However, most of us who are retired or who work online jobs do not stay for months and years in a single place, nor do we stay in "campgrounds" close to big cities. I hope that if you choose to live full time in an RV that you can find a job where you can truly work remotely and thus can travel and choose places that are far away from cities and offer you more privacy and better scenery. You are lucky to work in IT, so if you possibly can, maybe you can be looking for that job that allows you to choose where you live that isn't nearby where you work.
  25. There is a big difference between people who are staying in a commercial campground and using their internet or have cable at their sites, and people like me who travel and use mobile hotspots for internet connections. It would cost me a fortune to buy enough gigs of data to stream TV as much as I wanted to. So for me, satellite TV is much more cost-effective and reliable, especially since i stay almost entirely in state and national parks.
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