Enjoying Texas

I thought I'd do another blog update for ya'll who are following our adventure. We've finally been able to get out and do a little bit of the "tourist" thing. Last weekend we rented a car from Lost Pine's Toyota after having a frustrating attempt at renting one from Enterprise. You know how the Enterprise commercials say they are making it simple and easy to rent a car… Don’t believe it! They lie!

We went to enterprise to rent a car on their $9.99 per day weekend special that they have after reserving it the day before. We get there and they ask for a "major credit card." We give them our Visa debit card. No that won't work - they have to have a "Credit Card." So I give them my Mastercard. They try to run a $200.00 charge on it after I had told them it would not go through. They tell us they cannot rent us a car without it. I ask why. Their reply is that they have to have a major credit card to ensure we won't bring the car to Mexico and sell it. I say how's that different from a debit card. They tell me that they have to be able to track us down in the event we don't return the card.

The damn address on the major credit card is the SAME as the address on the debit card! Anyway, we went up the road to the Toyota Dealership and they rented us a car without any deposit, used our debit card and were very helpful and easy to deal with. Point here is that Enterprise SUCKS! End of Rant…

So last Saturday we went to San Antonio to visit the Alamo. The weather was wet and rainy but at least we got a chance to get out for awhile.

Fish in the pond at the Alamo…

Church at the Alamo

History of the Alamo (If you increase the view you should be able to read it)

More pics of the Alamo…

My pretty wife Tonya - I think she's happy to get out of the camper for awhile…

I don't know who those other people are.

Tonya was trying hard to get out of the frame but it didn't work…

No explanation needed…

"Remember the Alamo!..."

Front View of the Alamo…

Another Front View of the Alamo…

View from across the street from the Alamo. This shows some of the walls surrounding the garden…

This is actually not part of the Alamo, but is a hotel that has been part of the geography for many years. I thought it was a grand building so I thought I'd get a picture of it…

We were unable to take any pictures inside of the Alamo as photography is forbidden. It is hallowed ground there and Tonya was moved by some of the inside. It really didn't have much impact on me other than this is part of Texas history which helps to explain the independent spirit of Texans even to this day.

After our visit to the Alamo we went to a place they call the "River Walk." As is typical for me, I forgot to get any pictures of the River Walk, but Tonya got a few. It is an area where there are restaurants and bars and little shops for people to visit and spend their money. It was interesting but obviously was a tourist trap type of place so we didn't really stay long. If the weather had been better we would have enjoyed it more.

The other reason we didn't spend a lot of time on the River Walk is that we were planning on meeting up with some friends who we had met in the State of Maine many years ago who live in San Antonio. Tony and Debbie had found me on Face Book a few weeks ago and it was great to connect with them again and spend some quality time together. We went and had a late lunch with them at a local restaurant and went back to their home to socialize for a while. They will be visiting us at our campground in Bastrop next weekend. They have reserved a site right next to us so that we can spend the weekend playing some music and having some down time. We can't wait!

After the weekend with Tony and Debbie at the campground we will be preparing to depart Bastrop Texas and begin our journey home. We are excited to be moving on although we will miss having the income that I've been able to have for the past few weeks. On May 1st, we'll be heading out of the campground at 6 am. Tonya will drive my company truck to the Meet up yard, and I'll follow behind in the camper. I'll turn in my truck, my cell phone and say my goodbyes to the "crew" I've been working with and we'll be headed for Dallas / Fort Worth to spend some time with a childhood friend of Tonya's.

The past couple of weeks have been busy at work running the "Strand" from pole to pole for the Google Fiber job that Bird Electric has been doing in Austin. But the paychecks sure have been nice. We are both a little more relaxed with knowing that we will have more than enough money to pay the gas bill for our trip home. I am counting the days until we leave. I have always loved to travel and always enjoy the journey more than the destination. We are looking forward to seeing our friends and family this summer and enjoying the mild weather in the State of Maine.

Until next time…

Soaring Eagle…

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Anticipating our Trip Home!

Good Morning and Happy Easter Everyone!

I thought I should take some time to update the blog so that those who are following know what has been happening in our lives.

As most of you are aware, we have relocated to the Austin Texas area. We've been here about 3 weeks now. I took a job with Bird Electric at a very attractive salary and am working on running the strand wire which is the infrastructure required to run Fiber Optic Cable. That is really all that I can say about it. It is hard, physical work out in the warm Texas sun. While I can't say that I "love" the work, I can say that I've done less pleasant jobs in the past. The money is good however.

Shortly after arriving in Austin, I soon realized that there is a Dunkin Doughnuts about 3 miles away. So one Sunday a couple of weeks ago I decided that I really wanted to have a Dunkin Coffee. Tonya wanted some Boston Crème Doughnuts too. So, off I went. When I got about a mile up the road, the car stalled in traffic. It would not re-start. I pushed it into the breakdown lane and called Tonya. Long story short - We called the Good Sam's Roadside Assistance program that we are members of and had it towed back to the campground. My analyzing computer was showing a code for a bad "cam shaft sensor." I knew it was more than that though. The car sounded different when trying to turn it over.

On Monday Tonya called the Kia dealership and they promptly came over and picked up the car to take it to South Austin to look at it. They told us the Cam Sensor was not covered under the warrantee and that they could not diagnose it until they replaced it at a cost of $230.00. I won't even get started on what my thoughts are about that, but suffice it to say - I was not impressed. They replaced the cam sensor and called us back to tell us that the car still would not start. They said that they'd have to wait until Monday (a whole week after they picked up the car), to further diagnose it. I told them at that point that I felt it was the timing belt that had gone.

The following Monday while I was at work they called Tonya to tell her that the engine was junk because it is designed in such a way that when the timing belt goes, it ruins the valves. It was the timing belt that had gone and that the car was not covered under warrantee because we had not had the timing belt replaced at 60,000 miles. We told them to do nothing more and that we'd be there the following day to tow the car back to the campground.

So… The car is back and will be used for storage and for a "trailer" to bring the items we have with us back to Maine. Then I will work with the dealership where we bought it and see if we can find resolution to this. If no resolution is found - we will let the bank have the P.O.S. back. I hate to do that but will not continue to make payments on something that is designed to cost the owner thousands of dollars to fix when it has a mechanical failure.

I will give the dealership in South Austin credit though, when we went to pick up the car I met with the service manager and explained to him that I should not have to pay for a repair that was not needed. He stated that the old Cam Shaft Sensor was not reading correctly and therefor was part of the problem. But he backed down a little when I said that if the timing belt went that would put the crank shaft and the cam shaft out of time with each other and that would throw a code. So he met me half way - we paid for the part (about $122.00) instead of the whole amount. I figured that was about the best I could get. I am still not sure I should have had to pay for the part either, but at least I didn't have to pay the full amount.

Tonya and I have both been battling a cold or allergies or something since we got here to Austin. While the weather in Texas has been great overall - we've both suffered from more sinus related issues this winter than we ever did in Maine. The weather here in Austin has been fantastic overall. Far less rain than in Coldspring and far warmer. Lots of days out on the job, we hit the mid 80's for temps. I realize that probably sounds like it is great but I'll tell you, this guy from Maine feels it out on the job!

We are looking forward to our trip home. We were looking forward to having the money to finally take some weekend trips around Texas, however that is more difficult now that we don’t have a car to take those trips in. I am fortunate enough to have a company truck to run back and forth to work but we can't take it on the day trips we wanted to take. We will rent a car one of these weekends so that we can do something other than sit at the campground all weekend long, but we have to ensure we've got what we need to get home first.

It won't be long now. We will be leaving Austin on May 1st and headed to Dallas - Fort Worth area for a day or so to visit an old friend of Tonya's. After that we will be making steady progress toward Maryland to see our son Jason for a few days. We expect to be in Maine by May 15th where we will begin the next chapter of our Journey!

Some of the downfalls of this journey have been that nothing feels permanent but that is also the joy of it. Knowing that if things don’t work out the way we hope, we can move on to whatever we decide is next is what freedom is all about. Is there a downside to it? Yeah there is. There have been some tough times financially over the past 6 months and certainly some unexpected issues we've had to deal with. I have to say though, I've dealt with them without becoming overly upset. Even the issue with the car I've been able to just let it roll off my back. There is nothing we can do about it. Therefore there is no point in worrying about it. That is a nice mindset to have about life. You simply move past it and do what you can do.

As stated, we are looking forward to having the summer with family and friends in Maine. We've made friends out here during the past 6 months. We've re-established some old friendships. All in all I feel that we've made the right decision for us. I realize this type of lifestyle is certainly not for the faint of heart and is not for everyone, but for us it has reduced the high levels of stress to a more manageable level of stress.

We have decided to re-vamp our plans for next winter. Instead of going to Arizona, we will be going to Florida. We've not exactly sure what part at this time as we need to do more research into that, but we are going with the intention of both of us finding permanent jobs and making Florida our home. Again, all things are subject to change. If we get to Florida and just don't like it - we'll move on to someplace else and try again until we are happy with the place and the life.

The single most important lesson we've learned so far it that we can live with much less "Stuff" than we did while living in a sticks and bricks home. This 23 foot RV is cramped, it is small, but we've survived without getting on each others nerves. There is a whole movement in this Country where people are downsizing and living in small houses (some with no move square footage than we have), in a slightly different way - that is what we are doing.

With the winter that Maine has had this year, we are confident that if we had not made this decision we would not have survived financially in that State. So while it has not been all the excitement that we first thought it would be we still do not regret the decision to leave. It is too soon to tell what future summers will look like. Too soon to know if we'll get to spend any significant time in Maine in the summers to come. So we will be looking forward to making the most of this summer with family and friends.

Regardless of what the future holds, we are looking forward to seeing what comes next in our lives, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I will update again probably when we are on the road heading for Maine.

Take Care and Happy Easter!

Soaring Eagle…

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