Class of 2015

[Luv2pik]

I highly recommend joining Escapees! The magazine is wonderful and you will learn so much about the lifestyle. We are at Escapade right now, the first event we have been able to attend. We are having a blast! We have learned so much and the people are so warm and friendly you don't feel like a newcomer for long! We have been picking peoples brains about domicile and health insurance and South Dakota vs. Texas. We have learned so much in this few days that I highly recommend it!

 

Just an aside.......how many of you have actually opened your escape exit and tried going out it? We all need a plan!

[livelaughlovejs]

We just bought our RV in California.

 

We bought a 2014 Tiffin Allegro Open Road 31SA. There are so many things to find out about now.

 

Were bringing it home in 3 weeks.

[outwestbound]

Contrats on the coach!!! I'm in the same boat with a (new to me) 2011 fifth wheel & truck. I've got a long list of "stuff" I'd like to have and/or questions to research grouped by NEED vs. WANT, LIFE SAFTY vs. CONVENIANCE, then numerically ranked. A truck/trailer isn't a coach, but I may defer some comforts to get the highest initial safety in my rig, given I can't do everything at once. An endless array of goodies may be had. I know this will be a long three weeks. Have fun with it.

[Luv2pik]

We plan to be on the road full time June 1, 2015 and can't wait! One very good book that we have is "So You Want to be a Full Timer" by John and Cathy Huggins. I got it for my Kindle app so I could always have it with me without the weight of a physical book!

 

We sold our home last year, so have crossed the biggest hurdle. Downsizing continues along with scanning 42 years of photos. Any more

helpful hints?

[Bill and Jodee]

It's crazy how many photos we have stashed, stored and tucked away! Going through them all first, tossing those that we didn't identify or duplicates or just bad shots reduced the load a lot but we will be scanning for weeks with what's still left. We're also adding pictures of mementos like trophies and collectables that give us good memories but that we won't have room for. We're scanning documents we might need. Put together a binder with plastic sleeves of legal documents we will need originals of. It's small enough to slip in a cupboard or drawer. Made sure the kids all have certified copies of their birth certificates and current social security cards and told them we are not keeping copies ourselves.

 

Once the house is sold we will invite the kids over to take what they want, then Craigslist, garage sale and Goodwill (in that order).

 

The youngest graduates from high school next June and we will be on the road as soon as that cap is tossed in the air!!!

 

Jodee

 

[Luv2pik]

We too have taken pictures of items we want to remember! Antiques from my Grandparents before they were sold, as well as momentous. We were kind of surprised at how little the kids wanted, especially of those boxes of things they wanted us to keep! I have one chair that my great grandma brought over from Germany that the kids don't want responsibility for. That one I can't sell. Thank goodness it is pretty small. We are planning to keep birth crest, ss cards and passports in a small fire retarder safe. What else should be protected?

[Bill and Jodee]

We will take our dog shot and license papers - some campgrounds required them. We registered her with the PetsMart vet program so they will have her records on file nationwide.

 

Yep, have stored the kids' "stuff" for years. Now they're "oh we don't need it, go ahead and sell it...." geezz!!

[Luv2pik]

Lost our dog a few months ago so won't have that at least for now. We have a permanent RV lot in Michigan so we will store a few totes in the shed here. Other than that it will be gone! It was freeing just to get out of the house, I can only imagine how freeing it will be to just have the motorhome to think about! We will never forget to bring anything!

[skp51443]

Grab a box of high quality CDs and burn your digital copies to them, use the lowest speed your drive supports and check them for errors after burning. If you see high error rates try another CD burner, I went through several until I found one that I liked from Plexstor. Label the cases, not the CDs to avoid any issues with the ink or pen/pencil pressure damaging the CD.

 

Keep a set with you and give another set to one of the kids along with copies of any other stuff you'd want a backup of if the fireproof box with you failed. Putting all of it in another fireproof box before giving it to them is a good idea, makes it easy on them as there is only one thing to store and that can be stuffed out of the way and forgotten.

 

 

These are what I use:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Ritek-Ridata-80min-700MB-Finish/dp/B002ROCSC0/ref=sr_1_2

 

I put them in thin CD cases since they take up little room and provide more protection than paper ones.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-Slim-DVD-Storage-Cases/dp/B000067S60/ref=sr_1_1

[Bill and Jodee]

CDs work too but we keep docs and information on duplicated flash drives. As with your CDs, we keep one and our "mail person" will have the other. Our music and photos are on an external hard drive and we will save movies, etc. on another one in lieu of dvr. Technology is certainly helpful for the RV life!

 

Jodee

[skp51443]

Flash drive data retention is a real iffy thing, even the same model and brand can vary greatly in how long they hold your data. They are great for short term stuff, but since they depend on an electrical charge stored in a semi-conductor device long life isn't usually a priority for the makers. Higher density drives tend have shorter storage lifetimes and elevated temps shorten lifetimes from my research.

 

Reading about long term data storage is a bit depressing as it doesn't look like there is a great solution, hard drives can fail in storage, Flash can drop the charge, CDs can fail, DVDs fail, mag tape can fail and all of them do it silently and invisibly while sitting on the shelf. From what I've read careful shopping and reading of data sheets will help you pick something with a longer lifetime. A 10 year data retention warranty doesn't help if all it gets you is a new blank replacement drive and your stuff is gone.

 

http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/temp-opmedia-faq.html

 

Important stuff should be backed up in multiple places and the storage medium tested on a regular basis to make sure it hasn't died. If it has you can grab one of the other copies and make a replacement for the failed copy and maybe think about replacing the ones that haven't failed yet in the near future.

 

 

I did run across this article, I may need to do some more reading and if this is confirmed by other sources I may be re-recording some of my CD backups on DVD or maybe even Blu-Ray disks.

 

http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/how-to-store-your-data-forever-38190.html

[outwestbound]

I pushed a bunch of stuff up to Carbonite. Carbonite or some other host may be a good second source, but I agree with Stan; multiple sources make sense. I have a bookkeeper person to whom I mail a flash drive every quarter and she returns a drive every third drive in rotation. I use Carbonite also plus I have a couple external Seagate drives. I'm still working in my RV so my business records must be retained; guess it depends on what it is.

 

A simple thing would be to create a web site like with JustHost, then use an FTP program like Filezilla to push stuff up to your own web site, which would be a site only you would use, unless you're a blogger. In any event, it's unlikely that the host would loose your data and this is pretty simple.

 

I maintain three reliable sources.

[Luv2pik]

We have all photos and documents backed up to Carbonite, have had for several years. We lost a hard drive once and had to recover it all and it worked just fine! Well worth the $50 per year! Not so sure how well it will work on the road when we don't have a fast connection all the time. We do have a fast connection for the summer months. We also have an external drive that automatically backs up the entire computer.

[VallAndMo]

Hello folks,

 

I work in IT, so I've had a backup plan for my important files for a long time now. Here's a brief description, in case it proves useful for anyone:

 

1) I have my home desktop, and my notebook; both have enough disk space to hold all my important files, which I sync between them every weekend.

 

2) Also, both have more than one disk working in tandem (eg, RAID), so in case a single disk goes bust, I lose nothing: replace the failed disk and everything just keeps working, no need even to restore a backup or copy anything from the other machine.

 

3) I have a set of 4 old/retired HDs (see below) which I monthly mount on an external dock like this one connected to my desktop, and then I copy everything into them.

 

4) For "archive" files (ie, large things which I don't need online all the time, like scans of old documents, 10 year old tax returns, etc), I store them in duplicate in a set of retired/old disks which I also mount on the external dock.

 

5) As every HD eventually dies (usually after the warranty is over), I preventively replace them with newer/larger (and usually cheaper) ones once they are out-of-warranty: this way I avoid a lot of failures due to old age. I do not throw these disks away: I use the newest/largest of them as an off-line backup for my desktop computer (see #3 above), and the oldest/smallest for "archive" storage (see #4 above). These old disks are usually more than up to the task of being used once in a while, and when they fail, it's no big deal: as things are all stored in duplicate, in case a disk fails I will very probably be able to restore its files from the duplicate.

 

There's more to it, but the above is the basics. Feel free to ask if you want to know more.

 

Cheers,

--

Vall.

[outwestbound]

VallanMoe,

 

Good info. How long would you keep a typical seagate external drive before playing it safe and replacing it? I need to start doing this.

[VallAndMo]

Hi Luv2pik,

 

We have all photos and documents backed up to Carbonite, have had for several years. We lost a hard drive once and had to recover it all and it worked just fine! Well worth the $50 per year! Not so sure how well it will work on the road when we don't have a fast connection all the time. We do have a fast connection for the summer months. We also have an external drive that automatically backs up the entire computer.

 

I've considered Carbonite and their many competitors for off-site/on-line/"in the cloud" backups, but decided it wouldn't cut it for me: everything considered, I have a lot of files (about 5.5TB as of now), which would mean a long time over my relatively slow 1Mbps ADSL; also, a large fraction of it is "archive" data (ie, not currently on my computer), which isn't very well supported in most of these platforms.

 

Right now, all my disks (offline backups and archives) fit easily inside two shoeboxes, and will even undergo a large reduction early next year (when the three 1.5TB HDs I have in my desktop will be retired, and then will move to them my archives currently residing in a dozen or so of old 250GB disks), so everything will most probably fit within a single shoebox. Currently I store half of these disks at home, and the other haf off-site, at my office (to take care of real catastrophes like a fire, robbery/burglary, etc); not sure yet how I will adapt this once we move into an RV, will probably just mail half of it to a "mail person", and/or invest in a larger fireproof safe box to be installed in the RV.

 

Regarding "mail persons": what if I email the shoebox with the HDs to my own Escapee mail address and have them hold it for me for a few months, and then have them mail it back to me when I ship the other shoebox to them? Don't know whether that would be acceptable, or if it would be considered an abuse of their mail service... would be great if acceptable.

 

Cheers,

--

Vall.

[Luv2pik]

Wow, that is a good idea to mail it to your Escapees mailbox! Let me know if it works! Once you get the first backup done on Carbonite it is pretty fast. Of course I don't have nearly the number of files you have! I'm not all that tech savvy so I need it to be easy and painless. Both Carbonite and my computer backup work effortlessly, without me telling them to work. I may need to do something different when we get on the road in a year.

[VallAndMo]

Hi Outwestbound,

 

Good info. How long would you keep a typical seagate external drive before playing it safe and replacing it? I need to start doing this.

 

I try to retire them just after their warranty is over, on the rationale that if the manufacturer doesn't trust its product after that date, neither should I.

 

That said, the warranty situation for each particular disk depends on its generation. Until about 4-5 years ago, all Seagates had 5-year warranties (the ones I have expiring early next year are of this generation). Lately Seagate has been selling many disks with 1-year warranties (which I refuse to buy) and some, a little more expensive, with 3-year warranties. I have purchased some of the these. Note that some Seagate disks are still sold with 5-year warranties, but unfortunately they are all "Enterprise" disks, which is a fancy way for Seagate to say that you should pay a lot for them (which of course I don't).

Cheers,

--

Vall.

[VallAndMo]

Hi Luv2pik,

 

Wow, that is a good idea to mail it to your Escapees mailbox! Let me know if it works!

 

Will do. Unfortunately it will have to wait until we move to the US, late next year... Escapees mail service can't send parcels to Brazil, or so I was told. Of course, if you are starting earlier, you can try it first and then let us know how it went :-)

 

 

Once you get the first backup done on Carbonite it is pretty fast. Of course I don't have nearly the number of files you have! I'm not all that tech savvy so I need it to be easy and painless. Both Carbonite and my computer backup work effortlessly, without me telling them to work. I may need to do something different when we get on the road in a year.

 

Yeah, this is my worry also: how would one of these programs work on an intermittent connection. I'm also very reticent to trust anyone with my data... call me paranoid, but after many years working with IT security, I've been called more than once to clean up after data breaches and the like... I really like to have the data under my control. And a service like Carbonite would be a prime target for any id-theft hackers, just think of the treasure trove of personal data most people have on their computers (and back up to such servers).

 

Cheers,

--

Vall.

[VallAndMo]

Hi Stanley,

 

Grab a box of high quality CDs and burn your digital copies to them, use the lowest speed your drive supports and check them for errors after burning. If you see high error rates try another CD burner, I went through several until I found one that I liked from Plexstor. Label the cases, not the CDs to avoid any issues with the ink or pen/pencil pressure damaging the CD.

 

Keep a set with you and give another set to one of the kids along with copies of any other stuff you'd want a backup of if the fireproof box with you failed. Putting all of it in another fireproof box before giving it to them is a good idea, makes it easy on them as there is only one thing to store and that can be stuffed out of the way and forgotten.

 

These are what I use:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Ritek-Ridata-80min-700MB-Finish/dp/B002ROCSC0/ref=sr_1_2

 

I put them in thin CD cases since they take up little room and provide more protection than paper ones.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-Slim-DVD-Storage-Cases/dp/B000067S60/ref=sr_1_1

 

CDs are good, DVDs are even better (more density, and faster access to boot). I have about 120 DVDs with archive data, which I recorded from 2004 to 2009. I've needed a couple of files from them over the years and I've always succeeded in recovering them, but of course the big test will be early next year when I plan on moving everything in my archive DVDs to HDs before trashing the original media as part of our downsizing plans.

 

A few recommendations:

 

1) Use good quality media. The very best is Taiyo Yuden: they are the original manufacturers in Japan, and produce media for other vendors which then rebrand it. Not something you can walk up to Staples and purchase, but you can find it for sale reasonably easy after a little googlin', and it doesn't cost much more than "regular" media if you purchase it in bulk, like 50 or 100-unit spindles.

 

2) Store it in a case where nothing touches the recording side of the media: paper envelopes are definitely out. Also, try to avoid stacking them one on top of another after recording, as this tends to reduce the media life. Better also not to put stress in the central ring, as most jewel cases do. What I've used is a "mass-storage" case with a "pick index" mechanism for easily retrieving a particular media, and which grabs each disc by its border, very similar to this one, which has the added benefit of keeping the media in a vertical position which is also the best for preserving it.

 

3) Don't store the recorded media in a humid place nor on a hot one or in one where it could experience large temperature variations. Don't let it exposed to direct sunlight either, of course.

 

4) Use a program like DVDisaster to add "error recovery" discs to your collection. I've used it to add an eleventh "error recovery disk" to every 10 discs I recorded, and if any of these discs develops any errors (or even fails completely), then I can use DVDisaster plus the other discs plus the 11th disc to recover all data.

 

Following the above precepts, I have had good experiences with DVD media.

 

In the end I've only stopped using it because using HDs once I started retiring them doesn't cost me a penny, and they are *so* much faster and more convenient.

 

Cheers,

--

Vall.

[Luv2pik]

OK, I'll start something new, are DVDs more reliable than a thumb drive for saving photos, etc?

[Bill and Jodee]

I'm loving this information but thinking it might garner some more good input if it is moved to it's own thread on the main forum? Of course I selfishly appreciate that "we" are getting all this good education .

[Luv2pik]

Bill and Jodee, that is a great idea, there could be some knowledge from people who aren't in the Class of 2015! In looking at the different forums, I can't decide where it should go. If you start something, let us know where you go, please!

[skp51443]

A lot of folks aren't even aware what forum posts appear in! That sounds strange but this silly forum software doesn't make it obvious where a post is or even what the title of it is. If you use the "view new content" button to find all new posts since your last visit both the forum and topic title are not shown on the opened page. I didn't even realize where this topic was when I made my earlier posts or I'd have likely made them to the computer forum and just put a link here.

 

 

On starting a new discussion, maybe in Computers and Software?

 

http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showforum=17

 

 

The link back in post 111 is the best article I found, they lean towards DVD and Blu-Ray.

 

http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/how-to-store-your-data-forever-38190.html

[scouserl41]

Barbara and I are planning for some time after June 2015 depending when the S&B sells. We've been planning for the last 10 years! We knew we wanted to travel around with a motorhome but originally wanted to bring along our motorcycle. After researching all the alternatives we decided that in practice it would not fit in with our plans and decided to rent one when we get the urge. We bought Barbara a new Ford Fiesta for a toad that she can use for work until we head on out and we've had it set up for towing. We researched motorhomes and decided a good well maintained unit between 35 and 40 ft would be nice. After many RV shows and a lot of used rig shopping we found what we hope is our dream rig that fits our budget. It's a 361/2 foot 99 rexhall that has the layout we like and is a 1 owner rig that has been maintained to the n'th degree. Paid for it up front so no payments, the car will be paid off by the time we leave. Right now we're camping as often as we can and keeping a list of all the stuff we need and don't need, we're trying "Casino Camping" this weekend for a dry camping experience, later in the year we're going to be doing 1 and 2 week trips with more miles between stops.

We just started keeping notes on our spending so we can get a budget together for when we start FTing and we're working on collecting pension details, and getting SS benefits tied down as part of that.

I'm a pretty competent mechanic so I'll be doing the maintenance on the rig as we go unless it's something I don't feel confident doing. I changed the generator oil and filter this weekend (What a pain that was!) and will do at least one engine oil change and chassis lube before we set off.

This week is a big one for us - we're cutting the cable TV/internet cord!! We decided that for $200 a month we don't get much to watch that we're really interested in! We're going to a COSTCO amplified antenna and we've got a Millenicom WIFI jetpack with a wireless router that can be either in the house or coach. I work from home right now and there's no reason I can't work on the road too. We'll try it now so we know the good and bad and learn some tricks before we're too committed. We couldn't get a Verizon signal at our last campground so a Wilson antenna is getting installed this week then we can see how that works.

The closer we get, the more things we discover we need! We just talked about mail forwarding and paying bills online after I read another post here on the forum, we'll start mail forwarding service a couple of months before we depart so we can figure out delay times and notify people of our new "address".

We're enjoing all the planning! I'm sure there will be lots of stuff we didn't anticipate but that's what makes life fun.

Looking forward to meeting our classmates on the road.

BnB