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Post by jbone on Sept 8, 2019 6:43:29 GMT -5
Since we bought this rig We've been trying to make it more homey. I immediately tore out the crappy furniture and we put our own stuff in, but there were some things that needed rebuilding to alleviate eyesores and make better use of space. In the past 2 weeks I redid the plenum around the furnace and put a counter top over that to extend the limited kitchen counter space, and wall mounted the TV. This weekend I've been priming and painting. Still have painting to do and touch up as well. Then wall treatments.
No rest for the wicked!
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Post by whitefang on Sept 8, 2019 10:08:15 GMT -5
I had a neighbor once who restored and rejuvenated old AIRSTREAM trailers. They can be a lot of work. Good luck with all that. Whitefang
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2019 11:28:57 GMT -5
Good luck with the remodel. Soon you will be able to travel hundreds of miles in a day, and still sleep in your own bed, and eat from your own kitchen at your own dining table. That in itself makes all the work worthwhile, which makes the sights and places you can visit and look at a bonus.... We lived in our travel trailers for about 10 years (actually 4 different travel trailers in those years). When I bought my own deeded RV lot I traded the travel trailer in on a Park Model Mobile home that fits in an RV site. And in the year 2001 I sold my 1997 Ford F 350 4x4 diesel pickup. Been dead in the water ever since.
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Post by jbone on Sept 9, 2019 5:00:33 GMT -5
dbm, we've been full time this time since mid December. When we bought this one we were in an apartment. Before we moved in I did put decent seating in. RV furniture is terrible. We put our big nice king size mattress in too. Previous to this travel trailer we had another and were full time for a good part of 2017. Lost that one and had to start over.
This life has a real appeal to us, see the country and play everyplace we stay for any length of time. Opportunities to work for a site are out there too. 24-30 hours a week usually get you a full hookup. Sometimes a wage to boot! We've been to New Orleans, Zachary Louisiana, Clarksdale Mississippi, Knoxville Tennessee, Carlyle Illinois, Knoxville Iowa, Buffalo Wyoming, Crescent City California, the Florida Panhandle, and now here in Vermont, and this is just the places we played music. Living the dream.
Jolene has an eye for deco and I get to put it all together! We have about 5 weeks left until we head south. I've been in touch with one farmers market in the Rio Grande Valley near where we'll be based and they want us to come in and play. No doubt there are other places within the snowbird population there every winter!
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Post by whitefang on Sept 9, 2019 9:35:40 GMT -5
It's cool you do that. Travel AND make some money along the way. It wasn't until my Uncle John retired that he sold his house and all he owned and bought a Winnebago and he and my Aunt Helen spent most the rest of their lives "living" anywhere they pleased. When he got too old and poor in health to maintain that lifestyle, they settled somewhere in central California. That is, until the first heavy rainy season and a mudslide left half the caskets from a nearby cemetery on their front lawn. He figured it was time to go. They finally settled for Golden, Colorado.
I still really miss those two. Whitefang
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Post by jbone on Sept 9, 2019 10:14:50 GMT -5
Fang, we have a similar idea. Make memories now and worry about savoring them later when we can't travel any more! ADIOS INFINITY TourSo that's the blog I keep of our travels. Lots of pics going back a couple of years from all over the USA. ReverbnationThat's where I post our gigs and we have a few videos etc.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2019 18:57:21 GMT -5
When I had my travel trailer, the wifey and I went all over America and visited every state but one which is Alaska. (We flew to Hawaii 2x, once to Maui and once to Kauai) I worked with my tools all around the country (I was a union bricklayer) We traveled from 1989 till 1997, when I bought an RV Lot (deeded just like regular real estate) so I could have a permanent mailing address. I live in a community called Happy Trails www.happytrailsresort.info/ I bought back when the lots were affordable, they now sell for 5+ times what I paid in 1997.
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Post by jbone on Sept 11, 2019 21:38:45 GMT -5
Looks real nice there! We waited until I retired to head out. Sold house etc. and went full time. 2 years ago a setback and we lost our rig. Tried living in Vegas for 6 weeks and moved to Tulsa, where we took an apartment and saved up to get a fresh rig. I don't consider myself retired, it's more re caREERed.
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Post by whitefang on Sept 12, 2019 9:46:59 GMT -5
I never minded traveling for traveling's sake, but always liked a home to return to, and since I've lived in Mich. all my life( so far) I'll probably never leave here. Love it too much. Whitefang
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2019 12:02:23 GMT -5
I liked traveling in my travel trailer, I lived in Philly and then on Long Beach Island New Jersey for most of my life, I left there in 1989 for Florida and traveled the country off and on until I saw an ad for the community I live in in the Good Sam Magazine selling RV lots deeded. I came here and after a few weeks I bought my RV lot. Truth be told I felt right at home here in Arizona right away. So even though I don't live in New Jersey that is still my home but Arizona is my home away from home.
I was only in Michigan one time. I was traveling to California & was on Interstate 80/90 at about Toledo Ohio. I made a wrong turn and after a hour or so I saw a sign that said Detroit in xx miles. I looked for the nearest exit, did a u turn back onto the I-75 freeway south, and back to 80. That is my only Michigan experience. Can't say as I remember any of it, but it gets chilly up there in winters, I am sure and the water outside and in the lakes does not stay liquid all year long, so it is not the place for me. I draw a straight line from Jacksonville Florida to LA, and I want to live with in 20 miles of that line in the west part of the USA. (Although if I ever hit the big lotto I will buy a property in NJ on the island where I grew up, or near there on the mainland).
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Post by jbone on Sept 12, 2019 19:07:21 GMT -5
Our goal is to be snowbirds pretty much. North summers and south winters. I'd like to never see ice on the roads again but probably will. I'd like to never see 90+ temps again but again probably will.
I began thumbing rides locally when I was a kid. As I got a bit older the distances increased. At 19 I took to the road from NY state to California and back, 14 weeks on the road hitching across the US. It was a true life changing moment. Somehow I ended up back home and trying to get it together to get back out west. Did not happen then. A few years and shorter trips via thumb ensued, and at age 23 I hit the road again with no looks back. Ended up living in Texas for 23 years and then moving to Arkansas for 17. That 40 years saw me holding a job of one kind or another, a total of 2 10 year careers, 1 13 year career, and several shorter efforts to keep a loaf of bread on the table, and a table to put it on, and a roof over the table.
Along the way I settled into a marriage with Jolene, some 15 1/2 years ago. About 8 years ago we realized that we could keep the house but not travel, or we could sell out, take some chances, and see the country, playing as we went. With some setbacks we have been full time for nearly 9 months. I have the next year set up with workamping gigs so we know where we'll be for that long. It's kind of freaky sometimes operating with no net, but we have no chains either. *When* we win the lotto we'll buy a place and have a base from which to tour. Meanwhile we'll do it this way. When it's no longer feasible we'll figure out a place to settle.
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Post by whitefang on Sept 13, 2019 9:55:56 GMT -5
DBM; The only thing that puzzles some folks is my aversion to heat. Can't stand it when the temp gets 80 and over. The puzzling part is everyone trying to tell me that when folks get older, it's the COLD they can't take. Well, the cold didn't bother me much until I started Coumadin therapy. That aggressive blood thinner does make it more cold than other people feel. Bad and disappointing thing is that it doesn't help that much in the hotter weather. Still feels too hot. Wrong turn off I-80? I'll say! I just have to ask------ You can't go a half-mile on I-75 without seeing a sign INFORMING you you're on I-75, so how was it you didn't notice your gaffe until almost to Detroit, 40+ miles from the Ohio border? BONE; 23 YEARS in Texas? OY! I was in Texas once, taking my Father in law to see his oldest brother, 94 at the time and in a nursing home in Laredo(my wife and 3 of her sisters were born there) in July of '91. BIG mistake! Nice state, but when I parked my Silhouette under a tree when we walked over to Nuevo Laredo, well, when I got back to the van and turned the key, the little gauge that read the outside temp read 115! In the SHADE!!!! I always thought that was a figure of speech. And don't try running that "But, it's a DRY heat" shit past me. The oven in my stove provides PLENTY of that. Whitefang
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2019 12:36:59 GMT -5
Wrong turn off I-80? I'll say! I just have to ask------ You can't go a half-mile on I-75 without seeing a sign INFORMING you you're on I-75, so how was it you didn't notice your gaffe until almost to Detroit, 40+ miles from the Ohio border? I smoked a big fatty just before I got to the interchange, that is how..
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Post by jbone on Sept 13, 2019 13:40:23 GMT -5
Summer in Texas is to be avoided at all costs. By me anyway. I'll tell my Laredo story sometime.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2019 16:13:30 GMT -5
We lived in Austin Tx. for a few years, it was hot but livable. Nowhere near as hot as the Sonoran Desert in summers. Texas has clouds in the sky, that don't happen in The Sonoran Desert around Phoenix in summer. I stayed in my travel trailer in the Phoenix area for one summer, that did not happen a second year. I traded my Jayco 32 footer pull behind, in on a Park Model Mobile Home with upgraded insulation and double pane windows. My AC unit keeps it cool at the desired temperature easily. Our 2 cars have excellent AC units also. So for 5 months a year we go from AC unit to AC unit, and spend very little time outside until October, by mid May we are back in to cabin fever till October. We can walk outside after dark or about 5 to 6 AM in the mornings in summer, it is fairly Ok at those times. I built an air conditioned shed, and was working as a masonry estimator in that shed for years and years until my bosses sold their equipment and retired. All in all I don't mind the heat that much. Even at 110*F I can sit outside for a half hour or so under my awning/carport, as long as I am out of the direct sunlight it is doable (once you get used to the heat that is). We can fit both cars under the awning easily.
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