Entertainment center

Today, the plan is to rip out the entertainment center that is in the rv right now. It is made for a 19 inch tv........... but we have a large tv that we will be taking w/ us.......... yay, one more step. :)

Welder

So we, (meaning of course, my husband), will meet w/ the welder this week to get the grid underway. He wants to use a grid system on top of the roof, to attach the eight solar panels to, instead of attaching them directly into the roof, creating possible leaks. So, the search was on for a welder who can weld aluminum, and give us a decent quote, and hopefully we've found him. Keep your fingers crossed!

93 chevy silverado

You know, it just seems sometimes, like we just aren't meant to do this. Every time we think we only have a few more things to do........ something comes up. This time it was the truck, luckily it turned out that it was a faulty distributor, which we had replaced in august, so we are only out the tow and diagnostic fee to the first mechanic who came up w/ the diagnosis of the faulty distributor....... and we then had it towed to Goodyear, who replaced it for free........ but man....... is it just me, or is it just impossible to trust mechanics? I don't ever know who to trust....... One mechanic says it's this, then the other mechanic says, no that guy doesn't know what he's talking about, the distributor is fine, you will now owe us for the tow and a new diagnosis since we towed it here and the warrantied part is not the problem....... then he comes back a day later and says, we couldn't figure it out, but to get your business back here, since you had a bad experience w us in the past, we'll just replace it for free, you owe us nothing, and hope that it fixes the problem. I mean, come on, what is that, is this really the case, and he does want our business back, and he is just trying to make it right......... or is he just covering his bases, and did he even really replace the faulty part?!?!! I'm sure there are some great, honest, non-condescending mechanics out there, and I hope I met one this week, but I'm pretty sure there is nothing I hate more than dealing w/ mechanics........ ok, maybe doing the dishes........

Sold the old one

I forgot to update this, but we were able to sell the shell of the rv we had been working on. This was about a month ago, actually, a week after we bought the "new one", and by "new one" I totally mean, new to us. We were hoping for $2000, so that we could buy the charge controller for the solar. We listed it on craigslist for $4000, and got $3500!! Woohoo! Of course, that means we lost $1500, since we bought it for $5000, but it's truly just a shell at this point, and in the long run, we are very happy that we only lost $1500, we were afraid we'd have to pay someone to take it to the junk yard and just sell it for the aluminum in it. It would've ended up costing us several thousands to get that one to the point, that the "new one" is already at. So, now we just have to add the solar, build an entertainment center, and hope we have enough left over for gas to get out of here in July!!

welder

We are now in the process of trying to find a welder who can weld aluminum. We need to build a grid system for the roof that we can attach the solar panels too. This way, we can move them around, w/out putting holes in the roof itself.

Arctic package

So, we figured out that the new rv, (not new, but new to us), already has the arctic package. yay!! So we don't have to be concerned w/ being in the colder parts of the u.s. past October. We also discovered that the previous owners had a new roof put on........... by professionals............ and it comes a 12 yr warranty. again, yay!! :)

ummmm, nevermind........

Ok, so scratch everything we've talked about. We have just purchased a different 5th wheel rv!! :) The luxury by design, ended up being just too much of a project for us. Every time we thought we were making some headway, there would be another problem. When we bought that one, we knew there was a leak, and we'd have to replace the roof. Replacing the rubber, ended up being, replacing the rubber, the wood, the insulation, the wiring, the walls, the floors, and the plumbing...... until finally, we were at the point we were......... just a shell.
So, in comes CRAIGS LIST......... my husband saw a 36ft Cardinal listed for way less than it should have been, we called the woman, after checking out the pics........ She actually listed it for Camping World in St. Augustine, and said that they are not advertising this price on Camping Worlds site, on which it was listed for twice as much. (In fact, when we got there, to check it out, spoke w/ a different sales person, and he asked if that was our price range...... we said, "um, no, the price on craigs list is our price range".) They are trying to get rid of most of their used inventory, and are having great difficulties doing so, because no one can get financed. Even their new $129k units are on sale for $89k.
So, we went down, checked it out...... haggled a bit, told them we had cash, and that was as high as we could go....... got them to take another $1300 off the final price after tax, tags, and title.......... and we have a new home, (and only $25 to our names!)! One that is completely ready to go!! We could move into it today. However, we are going to be waiting about 3 months before we take off............ need to have the solar panels installed....... and save up some moolah....... yay yay yay!!! :)

walls

Alright, we bought walls yesterday........... if only we could get the wiring done, so we could actually get them up! :)

Awning

He took the awning down today. It's been over the rv since august, to protect it while we replaced the roof. The rv looks so much bigger now w/ out the awning on top!

Reactions

It's amazing, the varied reactions we get from ppl when they first hear of our plan to "drop out". It's either, "oh, you'll be back here in 6 months tops!", or "wow, that sounds amazing, I wish I could do that!"
I don't understand the negativity behind the "oh, you'll be back here in 6 months tops!" mentality. Why try to discourage someone from having an adventure in their lives, or even making their lives into an adventure? Why is that such a bad thing?

Zuma 125

In August of 2008, we figured we should buy a ZUMA 125, mind you this was at the height of the $4/gal gas, but still, it was a good idea. We figure we can just hop on the scooter, and go adventuring in places we probably couldn't take a truck.

We went to buy the scooter in August, but since it was the 2009 model, wasn't going to be in the dealerships until the end of September. So we waited, and saved our pennies. September and October came and went, and our dealer still didn't have the ZUMA 125. We had put down a $200 deposit to get the first one in, and it was non-refundable. However, that particular YAMAHA dealer was in the middle of a buy-out, and wasn't getting anymore stock until everything was completed!! We decided to call around to other Yamaha dealers, we found one in Georgia that not only had the ZUMA 125 in stock, but it was $900 cheaper!! I called and asked if they could hold it for us until we could get there, the woman asked how we'd be paying, I said, "cash", she said, "what kind of cash?"....... I was like, "ummmmmmmmm, green cash?" she was very excited then, and said they would hold it all day for us. (how many types of cash are there?) He went and picked it up, and we are the proud owners of a yellow ZUMA 125. I swear, it looks like a bumble bee, it's so cute!

When I called the other dealership and told them that we found one from another dealer, and would it be possible to get our deposit back, he was, of course, very rude. He said that that wouldn't be possible, and that they would be getting the scooter in any day now. Which is what they had been saying for two months at that point. He said that we would not be able to get our deposit back, and tried to use that as a way to keep us from buying the other dealers scooter, I said, "while, it is true, we will be losing $200 from you, we will be saving $900 by purchasing from them", he said, "well, you have to think about the gas you'll use to go and get it, since it's in Georgia", I said, "it's an hour away, definitely not $900 worth of gas"......... in the end, we bought the scooter from the dealer in Georgia, and after speaking w/ the manager of the dealership here, we were able to use the deposit as cash to purchase accessories for the ZUMA 125, everyone is happy. :)

Dreamers

Luckily, we are dreamers.......... we have no notion that this isn't going to happen. Simply a matter of when. :)

Solar

We decided that we are going to make the rv, as self sufficient as possible. This way, we won't HAVE to be plugged in, if we don't want to be. We've purchased 8 solar panels, Sharp nd-167 to be exact, to be mounted on the roof. If you click on the link, you will see that this model has been discontinued, for the newest model to take it's place, because of this they were deeply discounted. (They are still available for purchase here, here, and here, just be sure to request the prices, they should have them much discounted from what is shown there.) When we called to place our order for 6 panels, we were told that since they have been discontinued , they only had 8 left in stock, and that if we would take the additional 2 panels, they would discount our entire order by 30%! We were able to get 8 panels for nearly the price we were planning on paying for 6. (yay) We will have a total of 1336 watts... most ppl in rvs make do w/ around 600watts........ We met a guy that lived in the desert for over a month, in his rv, w/ only 200 watts of solar power. He said he was able to watch tv at night for almost an hour if he was very careful w/ his energy usage during the day. He mentioned the "solar envy" he had when seeing an rv whose roof was covered in solar panels, much like we will have. :) This will allow us to be out in the middle of NOWHERE, and still have all the comfort of being plugged in! yay :)

first step

We decided that we wanted to purchase a used 5th wheel rv, so we could gut it, and make it our own. We found a nice 36 ft, w/ 2 pop outs, but needed some repairs..... exactly what we were looking for.
The first thing we did, was replace the roof. What we thought was going to take 2 weeks, took months. Once we got the old rubber roof off, we saw how bad and thin the wood beneath it was, so we decided to replace it. Once we got that old wood up, saw that we needed to replace the old insulation, since it had gotten wet from the leaks. So, we pulled up all the old insulation, and discovered very thin wiring....... of course this meant we needed to re-wire and add some cat-5 through-out. Also had to run wiring for the solar panels we were planning on installing, and what better time to do that, than when the roof was open? Long story short, now 6 months later, the roof is finished, and we are way behind schedule.

The plan

Almost two years ago, my husband decided we should do this. I wasn't convinced at first, I thought he wanted us to become beggers or something. This, of course, was not the case. He played a video for me, showing me different ppl "workamping", and it simply seems amazing! There are ppl from all walks of life, and workamping jobs all over the country, doing all sorts of things! There was a job posting last september, (of course we weren't ready for that), but it was for a couple to be lighthouse keepers for the month of september, in Washington state! Imagine how beautiful that has to be, plus you stay there for free!
Some ppl work in amusement parks, state parks, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Mt. Rushmore...... the list goes on and on. There is a llama farm in Tx.......... (I COULD BE A LLAMA MAMA!!), an animal rescue resort in New Mexico, and even a nudist resort in Oregon, near the redwood forest! So many interesting places and ppl! Ok, I'll admit, I'm not at all interested in the nudist resort........ but I am excited to see the redwood trees! :)

a little history

Ok, so this is going to be my blog. The title of my blog is "Can we leave now?!", because my husband and I are planning on "dropping out" in the next couple of months. We are in the process of renovating a 5th wheel RV and will be traveling around the country workamping.

What is a workamper? "Workampers are adventuresome individuals, couples and families who have chosen a wonderful lifestyle that combines ANY kind of part-time or full-time work with RV camping. If you work as an employee, operate a business, or donate your time as a volunteer, AND you sleep in an RV (or on-site housing), you are a Workamper!"

Essentially, a workamper is someone who trades work, for a free rv site.

This blog is going to be about the long road to actually leaving, becoming workampers, and our adventures thereafter.