Good morning from Coldspring Texas! It is 6:30 am as I begin to write this. It is currently 57 degrees with an expected high of 87 today. I am really not trying to "rub it in," but rather to share with you the realities of our lives now. Okay, maybe I am rubbing it in just a little.
Today also marks the 1 month that we've been on the road. We continue to get along great (not that we suspected that we'd have troubles there) the smaller space really does not seem to impact us in any discernable way, unless you count the impacts of having to pack everything away each time we want to move the RV any distance. Such as later today when we have to drive it out to empty our tanks. But we've come to accept that is simply life on the road or life as a full timer.
We've settled in here in Texas. I have been working steady with work each day this past week. Not quite full time, but close to it. The town we live in is very small with a population of just over 800 people. The surrounding towns may be slightly larger with Livingston's population coming in at a few thousand. Everything is several miles away, much like it was in Turner Maine. This agrees with us just fine. I haven't picked up the local accent too badly yet, but I suspect by the time I get back to Maine I'll have that Texas southern drawl - so don't be surprised when I get home if I sound a bit different!
Tonya spent most of last week with what she thought was a sinus infection, but I have begun to experience a sore throat which started last night so perhaps it was a cold and now it's my turn. Perhaps I'll sweat it out when at work Monday & Tuesday. I'll be working on Air Conditioning units on the roof of the local prison located in the next town over from us. I am told the roof is very unforgiving and hot. And the temps are expected to stay in the lower to mid 80's all week long. Hey, I said I wanted warmer weather - I guess I've got that! It is okay, I'll take it.
So, we've settled into "regular life" here. There is not much exciting going on. We are simply trying to make some money and put it away to pay bills with and to start building up our funds for our trip home in May 2015. At this time we continue to park at our friends home with water and electric hookups. That itself is a big money saver. We have found a State Park located about 11 miles from where we are that is looking for Volunteer Camp Hosts and we are going to contact them and apply for that position. We would work between 20 and 30 hours a week (mostly late afternoon into evening) in exchange for a full hookup site with water, sewer, electric, and WIFI for up to 6 months. That would remove the need to pack everything up every 10 days to go dump tanks. Plus it would give us a reference for future State and National Parks with experience for applying for some of those other positions.
We battled with trying to get local TV stations to come in here. Our host said they'd be surprised if we were able to pull in the local CBS, NBC and such. Our first night here we were able to get CBS, although the picture would freeze and pixilate. I tried every different angle, location and strategy I could think of to get that channel in, but to no avail. I could sometimes get it in first thing in the morning and catch a little bit of the local news. But in the afternoon or evening - no way I could get it to come in. I finally went to Walmart and bought a signal booster for $16.00 and after a few different locations for the antenna I was able to get CBS to come in with great quality and consistently.
We knew when we began that we may have to live without TV and were both okay with that. But when I got it in one time I just cannot give up on it because I knew it could be done. Maybe that tenacity will serve me well on this journey. I think Tonya thought it was funny that I just could not give up until I beat it.
Because I've been working I have not had a chance to get out with the camera yet. I promise I will get pictures eventually. I am going to take it somewhat easy this weekend and try to head off this cold before it gets too bad. I will update again next week at about the same time / day.
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Soaring Eagle…
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I'm glad that you're working, period! Any money is good money and it's always a necessity. Here's hoping you get that state park job. That will most definitely help not having to do tank runs. I'm so envious of you guys. I know what it's like to just pick up and leave. I sold my "Grape Gremlin" for a one way ticket to Florida with a buddy of mine years ago. He had a friend there so I said sure, why not. His friend, it turned out, was a girl that had 3 room mates. He 'hung out' with his lady friend and I slept on their couch on the evening we arrived in Orlando. The next day, all of the girls were up and showering at the same time to get ready for work. Odd, I thought. I asked them if they all worked at the same place. Yup, they sure did. Disney World. I said that as soon as I got the money that I'd love to go there sometime. She promptly asked me if I'd like to go with them that morning. I apologized restating my financial inability to do so. She said you won't have to pay...it's free! I said WHAT?? She said, yeah...look. She opened the drawer of the small table below their wall phone and low and behold the entire drawer was full of free passes to Disney INCLUDING the at the time NEW Epcot Center!! I was like HELL YEAH!! So my first full day in Florida ever was spent riding all the rides , including the newest attraction...Space Mountain...for FREE!! Sometimes you just have to up and go and take a trip, either by plane, train, bus or R.V. Camper!! Life is a trip, man...experience it all!! Love you both!!
ReplyDeleteSorry - I just saw this comment. Thanks for the good words and sharing with us. It's all good and we are enjoying not always knowing what is coming next and in what way! It keeps life exciting. Keep on reading and sharing your thoughts man.
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