Stowing

My only vacuum cleaner is a dust buster and it takes me all of 15 minutes to do my whole home! Our 30 foot Safari Class C motorhome has everything we need and nothing more. It's so cozy and practical and life in the RV park is a social experience ... a real community. We are settling in to the RV life. 'Settling in' wasn't exactly our plan ... the idea is to go on the road ... but, we take life as it comes. Right now, while the house is still on the market (see it here then click on the listing for Royal Palm Acres) it's best to stay put and keep servicing computer clients in our current business. So, we live in an RV park in the middle of Fort Lauderdale. I want to write a little about what life is like: Yes, we have less space than we did in the house! That's an absolute. But, what did we do with all that space we had? We cluttered it up! I'm actually looking to the RV to teach me the concept of 'a place for everything and everything in it's place'. I have never learned that. In fact, I had a philosophy that everything should be out and in sight. I preferred filing systems that were bins hanging on the walls rather than filing cabinets. If I put something where I couldn't see it - I lost it - plain and simple. Out of sight, out of mind. In the RV it is essential that everything have a place and things be kept in their place. We still leave a few dishes in the sink, and I leave the toothpast and makeup on the small counter around the bathroom sink but, when we start driving, everything MUST be put away. So, we vow to drive the camper at least once each month even while we are 'settled' so that we keep in practice of stowing everything. Hopefully, we will drive somewhere for at least an overnight jaunt, but any kind of driving counts. This month we drove to the workshop of our friend who built our custom cabinetry for the computer, printer, and entertainment system. We would have taken at least a weekend trip except this month we had a weeklong dive trip. We were on a boat in the Bahamas with our dive club Kayuba. The weather was perfect and we had 3-5 beautiful dives every day. You can see photos here.

Road Trip

Hey! August 1 and we're taking our first road-trip. Well, the first road trip for me and Jim. I took the camper the last weekend in June with Mom, Chris and Emily and went to Jonathon Dickinson park. Before I got too comfortable with Jim doing all the driving and setting up, I wanted to do it all myself, just to know I can. It was great. There wasn't anything I couldn't do, although I'm sure I was more tense than Jim is driving it. After no more than 2 hours, I felt pretty exhausted. When Mom asked me, "Well, what are you going to tell Jim? Are you going to tell him that this is piece of cake and you'll do all the driving now?" I said .... actually, I think I'll say "Been there done that, don't need to do it again ... here's the keys." So, this is really the first time doing real vagabonding!! We have been living in the RV full time for the entire month. So, when I would think about what we needed to go away for the weekend, I had to keep reminding myself "Everything will be with us! We're taking the whole house AND the kitchen sink." It is SO comfortable riding and it is SO comfortable living in. We just LOVE our RV. We're going to visit my Dad in Dunnellon, and we wanted to check out another internet option for RV parks. We found an RV park in Ft. Myers - Shady Acres - and we're using their wireless connection - Linkspot - right now. Left Ft. Lauderdale at 1pm on Friday - got into Shady Acres at 4:15 - 132 miles and we stopped at a rest stop on Alligator Alley for lunch and to wait out a storm. So, not surprisingly, the internet connection didn't work last night. So, we used the cell phone. Hooked it up to the USB port and dialed into the internet piece of cake. Cool! Of course, it was connected at 14,400 - pretty painful, but at least we could get our email. We went to the office this morning to see if anyone could help us. We said, 'just check that the internet is up on your computers here'. Linda replied "Oh, I don't have access to the Internet, just the owners have that. whew! Jim got the Linkspot guy (Mark Kaplan) on the phone and he told him some IP address to type in manually and got us on. Meanwhile, Jim asked for literature to be sent to Paradise Island - and inquired as to job opportunities. He was told that they're looking for someone in Florida!

Downsizing

Another new experience! Cooking dinner and trying my damndest to only cook what we're going to eat! We're spending our second night in "OhBoy" in the RV park. Our first night we shared a cookout with the other 'workcampers'. Fun. Tonight I went to the grocery store. (It is very obvious that we want to have a car for this adventure - so, gotta tow) I only bought a few things - no more full carts - two rolls of toilet paper, not the economy 8 pack. Then I came home (to OhBoy) and only put as much linguine in the pot that I thought we would actually eat. I did a pretty good job actually - no left overs. I even made the salad in our individual bowls instead of a big salad bowl ... less to wash too! Jim spent all day working on the wireless network for the campground. All is going great! I'm typing this on the laptop in the RV. Not only does the internet connection work ... it's really fast. Works good. There are a couple other workcampers that we've met and look forward to seeing more. Cool. I spent much of the day back at the old house cleaning up some more. We listed the house on Thursday for 209,000. Other houses in the neighborhood are up for 259, 269 and 213 - so we have a pretty good chance of selling quick. Some people came by unexpectedly today tho ... it was embarrassing how messy/dirty it was. Yep! Time to move!

Setting up Wi-Fi

Here at Paradise Island Resort on High Speed Internet in our RV. I put a Belkin WAP in the trailer connected to their Netopia router. On this end, I have a Linksys Wireless Ethernet Bridge WET11. Configuration was simple. I had trouble configuring the WAP11. I will put the full configuration on Consultants Companion. Posted by Jim

RV Ready

Oh boy!! The RV is in our driveway. It's been there for a week now. I put photos on our web photo album. Go to JimandChris and click on 'most recent photo albums'. What a luxury to have the time to sit and dream and plan what we want in it. Ray came over yesterday to discuss custom cabinetry for the overhead area and the office area. I hate to lose the couch, but we HAVE to have a stationary, always-on computer area. After several iterations in Jim's and my dreaming, I think we've come up with some pretty good solutions. We realized the computer chair was going to be a problem. If you put a regular office chair in there and had the desk against the window - you'd roll over the edge of the cockpit any time you backed up. hmmmm Ok, get one of those 'knee' chairs. Ugh, they really aren't very comfortable. Ok, put the desk against the back of the driver's seat. Now there's not enough room for a regular chair and have the 2 filing drawer/bench. Ok, just sit on the bench. hmmm not very comfortable. Ok, put a stadium seat on the bench. kinda tacky How about a seat made for boats? We went to Outdoor world and looked. Hey, this could work. Then we still have loveseat size bench AND good comfy chair for computer work all in the alloted space! Then I realize, 'who needs a boat chair?' Just take the wheel aparatus off of my current office chair (which I love) and voila! All this thought process took several days and several times just sitting and dreaming in the RV. We're going to end up with something pretty cool! Now we have to sell the house. I had some cleaning people come help for a couple hours, then I continued for the rest of the day and part of the next. It's pretty clean now. And landscape people are coming today to clean up the outside (for $500!!) Then we can call the realtor tomorrow and get going. Emotions have still been running pretty high. Afraid that we're not doing a smart thing. How are we going to make a living?! Jim's been real busy lately with clients that have computer and network emergencies. We can't leave them! So, that means living in the RV in a local park. Is that really what we want to do? What good is having an RV if we can't take the time to travel? Well, I have 2 chargeable website jobs now. But how am I going to get more? I still need my quotes to give me the pep talks. Here's one: "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength." And : "To be scared out of your senses is sensible. To be comfortable is suicidal." Tom Peters Alrighty then ... Let's Go!!