Traveling RV Fools

life in an rv

Mistakes We Made

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We have been home for almost a month now. We actually came home two weeks earlier than we planned. Our plan from the beginning was to spend November at home and decompress, take stock of our lessons learned on the road, and prepare for the last leg of our trip working at Amazon. Plans have a way of changing, so I decided to share our mistakes so if you decide to try living on the road you won’t make the same ones we did.

1. We bought the wrong camper-We couldn’t admit it when we first started out. We love our camper and we have had absolutely no problems with it. Grand Design is a wonderful camper manufacturing company and we love Dixie RV Superstores in Hammond, Louisiana, but we bought a camper based on our life 10 years ago when our boys were little and lived at home. We bought a camper with bunk beds thinking they would need a place to sleep if they ever came to visit us. The both have slept with us in the camper, but two guys over 6 foot 2 inches tall don’t do well in bunk beds (Michael is 6’5”). We should have bought a camper with couches that turned into bed. We will be selling our camper in the spring. If you know of a family that wants a camper with young children hook us up.
2. We owned the wrong truck-This one was a big problem that impacted our budget, you can read about that in this blog, Nightmare. I owned a 1992 Ford F250 with a 7.3 Diesel Motor with very low miles. I thought it would do the job, but it couldn’t pull the weight of the camper, so I had to purchase another truck. I purchased a 2005 Ford F350 with a 6.0 Powerstroke Diesel. It has done a great job up onto this point, but 6.0 Diesels are notorious for having heating issues. Do your homework here. We had to spend 17,500.00 in the beginning we were not prepared to spend. This monthly payment really hurt our budget. Ouch! If you are going to buy a travel trailer or a fifth-wheel camper I highly advise you to do your homework on trucks. Also, you can’t trust dealerships to understand all of the nuisances of towing; they don’t! One of the families we follow did a great video on understanding towing, Roadtrip Images.
3. Multiple Income Streams-This is the biggest mistake we made. We are not independently wealthy. I am fortunate to have two rentals houses, and an apartment that Sandra and I live in, so our mortgages have been paid throughout this trial, but we only had one income stream when we left and that was working the SugarBeet Harvest. We should have made between $6,000.00 and $9,000.00 in a month. We made $600.00. It cost us more than that to get there. They did pay for our site the whole time we were in North Dakota, so it was a nice relaxing vacation, but our goal was to see if it was possible to live full-time at this point in our life. You must have multiple income streams. We are currently working on this issue.
4. Our Budget was not correct-This is the second biggest mistake we made, not all our fault, but a mistake. We figured that we could live in the camper and with all of our expenses we should be around $1,800.00 a month. This is really cheap living, but the truth is we underestimated the fluctuation in fuel prices, food costs and how inconsistent income is for people doing migratory work. We had too much personal debt, so we are back home deciding if we will continue on the road. Sandra has hit the road running with her real estate career. It has been such a blessing for us. She has sold a house, has another two listed and has a few new buyers. I am proud of her. We both quit our jobs when we started this adventure, so it wasn’t going to be long before we started eating up our savings.

I will be headed to Kentucky by myself for the month of December to work at Amazon. This was to be our last leg of the trip. Sandra is staying in Mississippi to work real estate. Too many people this may sound like failure, but for us it was a wonderful experience that we wouldn’t trade for anything. We would have never camped in Watertown, South Dakota or Grafton, North Dakota. We would have never dreamed of visiting Winnipeg, Canada. We would not have hiked the trails holding hands and rekindling our relationship while we enjoyed nature.

Everyone needs to recharge your soul! That is what this has done for me.

Don’t forget to order your Amazon gifts through our website. It costs you nothing and helps us grow a stream!

Thanks for reading our stuff.

Beets a Bust

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When we started this 90-day trial we knew we were taking some huge risks. Sandra and I have worked for other people at 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. jobs our whole lives. It hasn’t really gotten us anywhere. Anybody else have the same sentiments?

You would be surprised how many people in this country do something called work camping. They take seasonal jobs in the winter to make enough money to hold them over for the summer while working at a campgrounds. You have no housing expenses, so if you have additional income producing strategies you can literally live very cheap.

One of the jobs we decided to try was the Sugar Beet Harvest. I want to start by saying the people at American Crystal Sugar Company are some of the best people I have ever had the pleasure to work for. They were courteous and fair, but this was a complete bust for us financially and forced us to come home three weeks early due to uncontrollable weather conditions. We should have made around $9,000.00, we actually made about $600.00.

The job itself was not hard physically, you are working on a piling station with this huge machine that unloads dump trucks of beets that are being harvested from the fields. We would take the ticket from the truck driver, put our site number on the ticket and watch as the machine did its job. Then we would pull the trucks forward and dump the dirt they produced through a conveyor back into their truck and direct them around the piler. It was easy, but it was 12 hours on your feet non-stop work. If I ever do it again, I will invest in some memory foam boots. Also, it gets cold in North Dakota in October, so you are wearing 20 lbs. of extra clothes, it is not a job for the faint of heart. I think I forgot to mention we started at 8:00 p.m. and worked until 8:00 a.m. Ugh!

The weather was the real factor in this being a bust for us. We arrived in North Dakota on September 23, 2019 and attended orientation the next day. We should have started October 1, 2019. It rained for three straight days and flooded the Red River Valley that week. All in all, we worked one full day over the two week period. The day we left, Tuesday, October 8, 2019, I had to make a judgment call. A storm that dropped 24 inches of snow in Montana and Wyoming was making its way towards us camping in North Dakota. I knew if we got that much snow it would destroy the crops and we would be snowed in for two weeks or more. I woke Sandra up after our one and only day to work and told her to start packing we were leaving. She was not happy with me, but I knew this could get bad for us.

It took us a few hours to get everything loaded, after letting American Crystal Sugar Company know we were leaving and would not be working anymore this season, we departed the campground at 5:00 p.m. on a Tuesday. We drove south as fast as we could, and judging by the wind speeds we were facing we made a good decision. Towns in North and South Dakota are few and far between, and If you have ever owned a diesel truck you know that gas gauges are a best guess situation. We were climbing a steep hill in South Dakota only 27 miles from the next gas station when it happened. The truck sputtered, then begin to die. The gauge said I had almost a quarter of a tank, but I knew it was probably running out of diesel. I could see the steam rising off of Sandra’s forehead, then I reminded her that I had a five-gallon gas tank in the back full of diesel, so in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere and freezing to death I poured the last bit of diesel into the truck hoping this was the problem. I hopped into my seat and said a little prayer; the truck cranked and we made it to the next gas station. Thank God!

About two o’clock that morning we stopped at a rest area and climbed into our camper and locked the doors. We slept until we were awoken by a dog fight between our two pups, Smiley and Mac. Mac has a bit of a temper, and apparently Smiley stepped on him in the middle of the night. Nothing like waking up in a rest area too dogs freaking out. After some screaming and whipping dog butts, we started driving around 5:00 a.m. because we weren’t out of the path of the storm yet. We drove until we pulled up in our campground in York, Nebraska about 9:00 a.m. What a night, but we escaped the blizzard.

The next part is the saddest part of the whole ordeal for me. Many of the friends we made stayed, and they were basically stuck. I think they may have worked two more days in the season. The harvest was a big loss for the American Crystal Sugar Company. They had to finally quit harvesting with much of their product still in the ground. This article from the Miami Herald explains the situation, American Sugar Ends Red River Valley Sugar Beet Harvest.

Things that I learned, or was reminded of, during this ordeal were:

  1. We should appreciate farmers in this country more than we do. Every time a kid driving a dump truck, who couldn’t be older than 16, would dump a load at 3:00 a.m. trying to help his parents farm get there crop out before the storm made my heart sank. These people work hard to make sure we have food and products on our tables and in our pantries.
  2. I miss my Father in Law, not many people know this, but I farmed with my father in law, Robert Davis for a few years when Sandra and I first were married. He poured his life into me for a short period and instilled a work ethic and can-do attitude that I still have today.
  3. Life is about making hard decisions, and no decision is actually making a decision. My wife was furious at me for leaving with no notice, but looking back we both laughed this morning about how glad we are we got the hell out of there. The town we were living in, Grafton, North Dakota, received over two feet of snow in the blizzard.
  4. Look for the Silver Linings – When we got to York it dawned on us that we were back in time for Davis’ birthday. We had celebrated in September before we headed North, but we were actually able to stay for two weeks and watch him play soccer. It was awesome!
  5. New Friends – We decided to stop in Bentonville, Arkansas on the way home. I have always wanted to check out the area, so we camped outside of Bentonville. We explored Bentonville and Rogers, that is where we found the Ozark Brewing Company. I love to go to local breweries. We met the most awesome couple there that we will be friends with for life, Pam and Hal from Little Rock.
  6. When you got to an half of a tank in a diesel truck you better stop and get gas.

I am sorry the length of this post, but I needed to catch everyone up on the adventure. We have been home now for three weeks, and we are struggling to adjust, but the Traveling RV Fools will be headed out on our next adventure soon.

Thanks for reading our stuff,

The Fools
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Six Things I Dislike About Living In An RV

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Poop BagI wrote a blog almost a month ago called Six Reasons Living in an RV is Better. Now I am writing the counterpoint to that position, the yin of my yang if you will. Living in a camper definitely has benefits compared to normal 8:00 am to 5:00 p.m. life. Less stress, more exercise and spontaneity are just a few, but there are some big pains in the ass as well. I don’t sugarcoat life, never have, so here we go six things I hate about living in a camper.

  1. Bad Weather-Sitting in your cozy living room in your house when a thunderstorm rolls through is no big deal, a little lightning and thunder maybe, but in a camper, it is an adventure at the least. It literally feels like you are enduring a 7.0 Earthquake on the Richter scale. In one of my first blogs, Shaken, not Stirred, I shared a story about one of these adventures. Allowing yourself to relax during bad weather in a camper is not easy. Our dog, Mac shakes like a leaf on a tree until the event is over.  Sandra won’t let me dump any of the tanks before a storm. I guess she thinks the extra weight of the water serves as a good anchor to keep us on the ground. Probably not my top answer, but in the top three for sure.
  2. Bathroom Duties-Our main bathroom is right beside our living room in our camper. We have used quite a few cans of Lysol trying to spare each other the odors that have fumigated directly into the living room. My wife said she is taking me to the doctor when we get home because something’s dead inside of me. I told her, “I didn’t even know you f_____, and we have been married 35 years.” You can fill in the blank. This could be a flaw in our camper purchasing skills.
  3. Washing Clothes-I hate washing clothes! I despise washing clothes, and now I am having to go to a laundromat or campground washer dryer room. I haven’t had to do this since some time in the eighties. Loading up clothes in a basket and taking detergent, fabric softener and dryer sheets to a laundromat works hard against my masculinity. You tend to wear your clothes much more than at home with the convenience of a washer and dryer. If it passes the sniff test it makes it another day. My next camper will have a washer/dryer combo.
  4. Washing Dishes-I put this one on the list just because of how convenient having a dishwasher would be. It sucks at times, but washing dishes has never really bothered me that bad, but Sandra has said the next camper will have a dishwasher somehow. This is number two on her list.
  5. Need My Space-Sometimes I need to be alone. I didn’t really need to be alone until I got older, but sometimes I need to decompress. Sandra has always needed her space; that is not a secret, so in the camper sometimes this can be a problem with two dogs and two people. I am at the Starbucks writing now just to get away for a minute. I know Sandra needs it today so she won’t kill me. I would hate for you guys to read about my untimely death in the Nebraska news section of the USA Today.
  6. Picking up Poop-Most campgrounds expect you to pick up your dogs’ poop. I get it, no one likes having dog poop on their shoes or where their kids are playing, but for the love of God can’t we have a little place sectioned off for poop to sit where it lies. You try your best not to squish it when you pick it up with your little blue poop bags, but sometimes you just can’t help it. I threw up a little in my mouth as I wrote that sentence. Then comes the worst part, you have to walk around with the bag in your hand like some kind of poop trophy. P.S.: it is kind of nice in your pocket if it is cold outside. This one is my biggest reason for hating life in a camper. Sandra just won’t let me put the dogs to sleep.

If the items above wouldn’t bother you in the least you are ready to hit the open road. I absolutely love living in my camper, but our trial is coming to an end. I hope you have enjoyed our blogs. We scored some Guns and Roses tickets for tonight’s concert, so I wasn’t sure I would be up for writing Wednesday for our normal blog day. We love you guys,

The Fools

I also decided to share a few blogs I found on this subject. The first one is hilarious.

I Hate Camping Especially with Kids by Scary Mom

9 Reasons You’ll Hate Camping-Never by Traveling Mom

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Embracing Minimalism

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We have been on the road now for over thirty days. I quit my job because it was beginning to effect my health. Somehow, I have the ability to embrace change when others would be freaking out. I thought it would be harder; however, I find myself relaxing more, walking more and eating less. I thought I would miss my house more. I thought I would miss my cars more. Hell, I thought I would miss work more. I think I may like living in an RV.

Am I losing it?

Maybe there is something to this minimalistic living.

My mind seems clearer. I know my writing has gotten better in 30 days. I am sleeping eight hours a night, something I haven’t done in years. I get to take a nap when I want too. I have all the modern conveniences of home with very little expense. I am on the internet now as I write.

Is this nomad life possible?

Who could have known that less is more?

Not me!

I have swallowed the more, more, more mentality most of my life. I was never satisfied until I was on top of every thing I did.

Why?

I don’t know at this point, nor do I care.

Our 90-day trial will be over sooner than we know. Then we will have to make real decisions about our lives, but for now I am embracing minimalism.

Thanks for reading our stuff!

P.S.-Don’t forget to order your Amazon stuff through the ad on our webpage. Christmas is coming fast!!

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How Are We Making a Living on the Road?

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I would love to tell everyone we are financially independent and don’t have to make a living on the road, but that would be a lie. I would love to tell you that we are making a living off my writing, but we are not. We need additional income streams to survive while on this adventure, and that is the scary part about RV living.

So how are you making a living then?

      1. Savings-We knew we wanted to give this a 90-day trial. There was never a question about whether we were coming back to Clinton. The real question was when, so we saved enough money to pay our bills until we get back in January.
      2. Our main source of income during our trial is something called the Unbeetable Experience. We are working for the American Crystal Sugar Company harvesting sugar beets. We are working 12-hour shifts from 8:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m. It is not for the faint of heart. It is labor intensive work outside in a wide-open field in North Dakota. Sandra and I are both tough, so we know we can make it through the season which usually only last around three weeks. This is a work camping gig that many have tried, and we wanted to experience it to see if we could do it. If you decide to signup, please put us as a referral.
      3. Affiliate links on our website is another income stream that we are working on as we speak. We have signed affiliate contracts with Amazon, WP Engine, Vintage Trailer Supply, Outdoorsy and Siteground. If you order products from these affiliate companies by clicking the red links in this article or the ads you see on the side of our website, we get paid a commission. We received $148.00 our first month from commission sales. So please when you order something from Amazon click through the ad on our page before you order. It doesn’t cost you anything and it supports our dreams.
      4. Arbonne International is a company that we have loved for a long time. We love their products and their emphasis on healthy living. I am drinking a shake made with their protein mix right now as I write. If you click on this length Sandra McDade-Arbonne my wife gets credit for whatever you buy. Better yet email me at mike@travelingrvfools.com and I will get you the information to sign up and sell the products for yourself, they have great commission plans. We love Arbonne.
      5. We are also selling T-shirts through a company called Sunfrog. We have actually sold two shirts over the last month. You can look at our current collection by clicking this link, Traveling RV Fools T-shirt Collection.
      6. We also highly recommend Harvest Host. We are planning on staying at some wineries on our way home from North Dakota.

     

    Now you know. I am currently working on my first eBook as well. I haven’t decided how I will market it, but I have found a good way to keep me on task while I am on the road. I should be finished with it sometime in the first quarter of next year.

    As you can see it takes a lot of different streams to make a living while on the road. Click on the links in this article and explore the products we are recommending. Many people we have met are retired, so they have pensions and retirement accounts, but if you are willing to step out of your comfort zone you can survive living the RV Life.

    Thanks for all your support We love you guys!

    The Fools

    P.S.-Don’t forget to order your Amazon stuff through the ad on our webpage. Christmas is coming fast!!

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