Working the dream life for 17+ years.
All about life on the road full-time in our 24′ Arctic Fox fifth wheel trailer, from the beginning.
There is one good thing about visiting Los Angeles.
Aside from seeing La Familia, that is. OK two things … Oh, and the food. I guess that makes three things.
Anyway, access to the right tools makes working on your rig easy. And that can help you save a lot of money.
And believe me, El Jefe has all the right tools … and the shop, and the brain, which I picked to learn how to to pack the wheel bearings on our fifth wheel trailer.
When you’re camped out in the middle of a wild desolate landscape, without a cell signal and a silence so deafening that its roar squeezes your brain like a vise, it’s tempting to believe that you’ve fallen off the radar. You look around for miles and see nothing but desert landscape, imagining that there are no rules, laws or entities that have power over you.
But the truth is, you can’t escape. Ever. Because it doesn’t matter if you hightail it to Patagonia, or just hide out in the woods; the Man will find you.
In our case, the Man was the California Department of Motor Vehicles, and the Houston Police Department.
Well, our Workamping savings are a thing of the past, and February gave us a current reality check of what our expenses look like when we just play tourist and go out looking for all of the cool music, food and entertainment we want to experience.
Our biggest expense last month: fuel. We went over our budgeted amount for the first time ever. This is mostly because we went 1600 miles out of our way (round trip) for a quick trip back to California to visit my family. More on our L.A. experience later.
I’m not one to join another RV club for the sake of getting a sticker to put on my rig. But I sure wish we had joined Passport America months ago!
We had seen the Passport America club signs at campgrounds but didn’t think twice about it until recently.
A fellow fulltimer explained how much we could save, so we went for it.
Younger fulltimers are workamping in parks across America while seeing the country in their RV
When our freshwater fill spout started coughing up water when we filled the tank, there was no need to call a doctor. I knew I could handle this one. But I did wonder why it started happening all of the sudden.
While filling up our freshwater tank a few times, we noticed water backing up and burping out of the fill hose. Upon closer inspection – which any good RVer should always undertake in circumstances like this – I noticed the freshwater tank expanding with air whenever this happened.
Out of everything we have in storage, one of the biggest things I miss is our home gym. We had a lot of workout equipment, which actually got used for workouts and not as clothes hangers. We used to work out at least four mornings a week, running and lifting weights. So when we hit the road and all that went away, it was hard for me to observe any hard-earned muscle tone I had turn soft and pudgy. Now, even though we alternate between running and bicycling, without the gym equipment, gravity takes its toll, fast.
What not to do if your RV tow vehicle gets stuck in mud and sand.
An interesting debate came up while troubleshooting and fixing our RV slide out leak.
El Jefe suggested that whenever dry-camping, we should turn off our water pump at night and when we leave the rig unattended for a long time. I didn’t like the idea of doing this because the water heater needs to remain pressurized or the element could burn out.
Jim describes how they investigated and fixed a leak that caused the carpet to get wet inside their Arctic Fox fifth wheel.
By attending the Workamper Expo in Lakeland Florida we learned so much about the workamper lifestyle, finding a job, and making a living while on the road. Includes video interviews of workamper employers.
Jim milks Fanny the goat as one of his workamping duties at White Rabbit Acres organic farm. Includes video.
When we lived just blocks away from the boardwalk in Old Town Eureka, we would enjoy the summer concert series when we could stroll along the waterfront listening to live music in the cool evening breeze. If it wasn’t raining.
Here in Florida, these type of concerts go on year-round. We attended one the week before Christmas at the Vero Beach Library. I wore shorts.
A couple weeks later, on New Year’s Eve, we had the air conditioner blasting during dinner. We were getting pretty heated. Literally! Just a few nights later, we had to run the heater and get out the wool blanket.
A vegetarian fulltime RVer gets used to life and death while work camping on an organic farm in Vero Beach, Florida.
Whew, what a relief. I just crunched our trip expenses from June to December, and found that we actually came in under budget by almost $12,000! How did we do it? By over budgeting, being ultra careful about things we chose to see and do, and Workamping. Now, this nice little savings is going to allow us to continue our journey even longer than we originally planned, by at least 6 months or so.
Now, let’s talk money. Pay attention; here are some important lessons we learned: