Stuff

I find myself looking around the house and thinking about what it would really be like to take off. TVs, stereo equipment, framed photographs, shelves and shelves of books and memorobilia. Old clothes, not so old clothes. How do you get rid of it all? What would it feel like to not have it?

Motosat Datastorm

While researching the ways that RVers are connecting to the internet I don't want to forget about Joline's sattellite connection. She uses www.motosat.com. $5500 for purchase and installation, $80/month for internet service is what she says she paid.

First RV Park - Wi-Fi

Yesterday I registered the website: CampgroundComputerHeroes.com! We've recently been promoting our image as Computer Heroes with a great little cartoon image. See www.guldsystems.com. And people love it - I got a call for MS Access help from a client the other day - she had to give a report to her boss that afternoon and she couldn't figure out how to do it. "Here I come to save the day!" She said she'd get me a cape. This morning we visited a local RV campground to check out what they offered for fast internet connection. Interesting. Each camper who wants DSL has to sign up with BellSouth individually. They can contract on a month to month basis, but obviously this doesn't work for the one or two night visitor.

Vagabond Heart

I'm a vagabond at heart. As an only child I learned to be self-sufficient. My family traveled a lot and I grew accustomed to a life of change and challenge. I continued to travel after I left home. At my 10 year high school reunion I got the prize for coming the furthest and for having moved the most times since High School! At my 20 year reunion I got the prize for traveling the shortest distance to attend the party. You see, I had since moved 'back home', started a business and become a very stable, workaholic, 'pillar of the business community'. That lasted about 14 years till I got burnt out and sold the business. Then I got married, inherited a stepson and became an even more stable 'pillar of the home'. Was the vagabond life just a figment of my past? Is there any way to scratch that itch on my feet? My husband and I often speak of our 'someday' plan of buying an RV and living on the road. We've rented one a few times and just love the way it feels to go wherever we want and have our home with us wherever we go. We are both computer consultants and know that there are multiple ways to make a living these days using your computer - and it doesn't matter where you are as long as you have a good connection to the internet. So we spend some time honing our web-development skills in between visits to clients putting in our billable hours. And we browse the RV websites and dream about our 'someday' plan. A week or so ago, my husband casually mentioned that maybe he could help campgrounds with installing DSL connections and making them available to individual campsites using powerline technology. That sounds great! Don't figure out how to make enough money to support a life on the road. Use the fact of being on the road to make money. Boy! Did this start something in my head. A paradigm shift. I had been thinking that I was just joining the evergrowing crowd of people who were taking to the road in their RVs. We were going to face overcrowding and rising costs of a fad. Now I'm thinking - "Find a need and Fill it" - People taking off in RVs IS a growing trend. And lots of them take computers with them. Jim and I have 20 years experience supporting computer users. I'm sure we can capitalize on this if we just do it. An RV show came to Fort Lauderdale last weekend and we eagerly attended. We had always been partial to the Roadtrek camper van. We thought that we wanted something small. The Roadtrek still looked good but when we walked inside an Itasca 24 ft. class C RV - we felt at home. This is something we could live in, not just go on trips with. When Jim mentioned that the bed in the back could be taken out and put desks, computers and an office back there, I was hooked! Last Wednesday we met with our 2 friends we call our "Board of Directors" and told them a little of our 'someday' plan. They asked, "what is your timeframe?". hmmmmm .... well let's say 2 years. But, I've been thinking about that question almost hourly ever since. What are we waiting for? If we sell the house, we could pay for the RV and have some cushion for living for a while. We could even just live in the RV at a local campground while we still service our local customers and learn about the campground market. My little vagabond heart is just racing with the possibilities.

Before Blog - Annual Letters

I started this blog in 2003 with the beginning of our RVing lifestyle. For a few years before that, after selling Computer Savvy, I wrote an annual letter. I've stored those in Google Drive. Here they are

2002 Annual Letter

2001 Annual Letter

2000 Annual Letter

1999 Annual Letter

1998 Annual Letter

1997 Annual Letter

Before that was Computer Savvy and I wrote a monthly newsletter. I'll try to scan at least a few of them to include here.

May 1994

Spring 1989

July 1986

Sep 1984 - 2 year anniversary issue

Our very first Newsletter: November 1983