Inventory

I am intent on having things inventoried with where we have them stored on the rig. We've both downsized and left things behind, so keeping track of what we do have and where it is stored is necessary to ensure that we know where to find the items when we need them. Carl appreciates having the items inventoried and helps me do it...

While at Lynchburg, we worked on inventorying the items that are in the storage bays underneath the rig.

One of the big jobs was to inventory the tools that are stored on the Joey bed.

We were able to re-purpose some containers that were on Miss Doozie - the red containers with white tops just perfectly fit in the Joey bed and don't get hung up on things (like the frame rails of the chassis!) that hang down from the ceiling when we pull out the Joey bed. We had 3, and got 3 more. Unfortunately, they all look exactly the same - but we put labels on them with a summary of what each one contains.

After inventorying, we put everything back - with the plan to come back later and label.

Later we had time to get the labels printed and put them in place too!

That's the first container back in the Joey bed with the detailed label under the top and its bin number on the side and top.

Here's an example of box #3 with its detailed list of contents.

The first 4 bins in place in the Joey bed

All the bins in place and the Joey bed pushed back into place - you may be able to see that the bins just fit under the frame of the rig...

Another view - there's only an inch or two of clearance under the frame there.

We've finished the inventory of everything stored in the bays underneath - still have the storage inside Gracie to inventory!

Budgeting

I was thinking about how frequently we are budgeting in the RV... not so much financially, but in many ways of living.

• Sometimes we have full hookups - like this week at Indian Lakes. We have 50A power, water, and sewer hookups - everything we need! We can run every electrical appliance in the motorhome, we can use as much water as we want, we can dump when we want. But... even with this, we keep the black tank closed, so we have to watch to make sure that it is not getting full. Carl will leave the gray tank open when we're hooked up to sewer so I can do laundry or we can take long showers without needing to be concerned about the grey tank filling up. Dwayne and I didn't do that -- we would keep both the grey and black tank closed and just be careful to check, knowing we could dump at any time. The thought process is that it is better to let the black tank (and some would also say, the grey tank) get pretty full before dumping so it is more likely to sweep everything out when you dump.
• Sometimes we have full hookups, but only 30A power. This was the case when we were at Lynchburg. Now, you might think that 30A would mean that we would have 3/5 of the power that we have at 50A, but... that isn't the case. I can't explain how it works, but when we have a 50A hookup, we actually have two lines that are 50A, or 100A of available power, but when we're on 30A, we only have 30A, so we have less than 1/3 of the available power that we would have at 50A (30 versus 100). I generally figure every major appliance (particularly every 'heating' type appliance) on the rig takes 10A, so, if the electric water heater is on, one air conditioner, and I'm warming something up in the microwave, then I'm using 30A. The air conditioners actually take a bit over 10A (certainly when the compressor turns on), so it is chancey whether we can run two air conditioners on 30A, and we certainly cannot run anything else if we are running two air conditioners on 30A. There are always additional loads that may pop up - like the refrigerator cuts on (and since it is a frost free, it also has a heating cycle that runs once a day and takes more power), and the water heater can come on at any time, momentarily sending us beyond 30A and causing the breaker at the post to trip.
• Sometimes we have electric/water or electric only hookups -- the first site we had at Indian Lakes was electric/water, and often at RV service centers, and some county or state parks, the sites are electric only.
  
• With electric/water or electric only, we need to watch how much we are putting into our grey and black tanks. I probably won't do laundry, or will only do it on the day that we're planning to dump. I did some calculations with our new SeeLevel monitor and I think that a normal load of laundry fills about 20% of the grey tank. So, if we're planning to dump tomorrow morning, I might feel confident to do two loads of laundry -- but I'd be watching the grey tank monitor carefully to make sure I don't have it overflow.
• Overflowing the grey tank usually comes up in the shower -- we actually don't know for sure what will happen in Gracie as we've never had a grey tank overflow, but I overflowed the grey tank in Miss Daisy and in Miss Doozie, and they both came up in the shower. You would think that the grey tank water -- just what goes down from the sinks, shower, and washing machine -- wouldn't be all that smelly, but... you'd be wrong! Ugh!
• I've never overflowed the black tank, but I think it backs up into the toilet. Let's just say that I want to avoid that happening!
• If we don't have sewer hookups, then we have to go to a dump station. Campgrounds that do not have full hookups (even campgrounds that do) generally have a dump station. The dump station can become very crowded on days when lots of folks are checking out (like Sunday) with lines of RVs waiting to dump.
  
• If we're on electric only (no water hookup), we also need to watch our fresh tank usage. Again, with the SeeLevel monitor, I was watching while I did laundry and it appeared to take about 10-13% of the fresh tank to do a normal load. The fresh tank holds 105 gallons, the grey tank 65 gallons, and the black tank 45 gallons.
• Carl has a RO (reverse osmosis) system that hooks up to the water from the campground and filters the water. We can get this filtered water through the refrigerator ice and water dispenser. If we are not hooked up to water, there is a reservoir of water - about 3-3.5 gallons - that we can draw from for drinking water and cooking - but we need to hook the RO system back up to a supply of water to refill the reservoir. Carl also has a 7 gallon container that he fills with RO water when we're leaving a campground and not positive about whether we will have fresh water hookups at our next location.
• If we don't have water hookups, there is usually somewhere in the campground that we can use to fill our fresh tank. Depending on how empty the fresh tank has gotten, it can take several minutes to fill the 105 gallon fresh tank. At some campgrounds, the fresh water fill is near the dump station - so you may be filling your fresh tank while you're dumping. Again, if there is a line due to a lot of people checking out, you kind of want to move along. A couple of campgrounds that we've been to don't have water spigots at the sites, but they are randomly available around the campground -- I remember one in Ohio where they were along the campground road every 10 sites or so... and you had to stop along the road and hook up to it to fill your fresh tank - pretty much blocking the road through the campground as you did!
• Note however, that getting RO water is really not possible when we just have temporary access to a water spigot (it takes a while to "make" RO water). In those cases, we can take our 7 gallon container to a water dispenser (like Primo or Glacier - often located at grocery stores or Walmart) and get drinking/cooking water. We can also purchase gallons of distilled water (that's what Dwayne and I did in Miss Doozie). You might wonder why we don't just use tap water but... the water quality varies greatly from one location to another, and we just are more comfortable with knowing that we've done what we can to get clean water.
• Finally, we may be boondocking, or staying with no hookups at all. We use fresh water from our fresh tank, and use our grey and black tanks -- we've figured that we can go 7-10 days without having to have hookups to dump and/or fill (but, of course, I don't do laundry in the rig when we're boondocking). We have house batteries that we use for electricity - many things in the rig run on 12V power off the batteries directly (lights, water pump, blowers for the diesel heating system, slide motors, exhaust/attic fans), and then we have an inverter that provides 120V power to many of the appliances (refrigerator, all appliances plugged into power outlets -- our computers, coffee maker, Instant Pot, blender) -- but anything pulling 120V power will use up our batteries more quickly than 12V items - both because they need more power, and because the conversion of 12V to 120V by the inverter is not "free". So, we need to be cognizant of our power usage, and watch our batteries to be sure that they are not pulled down to too low a value. We can recharge the batteries in several ways: when we are driving, the alternator for the engine also charges the house batteries; we have a generator that we can start that will not only charge the batteries but will also give us power for all the appliances on board (if we're boondocking and it is hot, we run the generator to be able to run the air conditioners); and we have solar panels (though they are not currently hooked up) that can charge the batteries. Obviously, when we're boondocking, we have to be the most aware of all of the systems we're using and make sure that we're doing good budgeting of our limited resources.
  

It is interesting to realize how our mind changes from day to day or week to week as *what* we need to budget varies. This week that we have been at Indian Lakes, with full hookups and 50A, has been like being on vacation - no need to economize when using water or electricity - Whoo-Hoo! How exciting! But, it is also "fun" to work together to figure out how we can stay longer by using less at times - using a dishpan in the kitchen sink to collect rinse water and then dumping it outside, taking "navy" showers (turning the water off as much as possible) -- and then it makes us appreciate full hookups so much more!

There's always something...

Carl has commented that if there is ever a day in an RV when *everything* is working, you should take a picture and remember it because it will never happen again! I remember saying when we (Dwayne and I) first had Miss Daisy that something was going to break every day, and I was happy when the thing that broke was relatively minor. We were new to RVing and still surprised by how complex and poorly made these vehicles were.

You really need to be handy, or minor repairs will become major issues.

Carl fixing the latch on one of the bay doors on Tuesday.

Of course, this isn't really any different from any other home ownership.... but sometimes it seems that people may think that we are on a never-ending vacation - and it is true that we get to travel around and see a lot of places -- but, as Carl also says, "we're not lying in hammocks between palm trees every day!"

Around the campground

We try to go walking a couple of times a day. On Monday, we walked through some of the areas where private sites are located -- most of the sites are very nicely kept. We also saw several of the lakes that give the RV park its name: "Indian Lakes".

The beach area on one of the lakes

Looking down the lake -- there was a slide into the lake from the pier/dock.

Carl in the Gazebo by the lake

Indian Lakes Thousand Trails RV Park

After arriving on Saturday and finding the rather muddy site that at least provided us with electricity for the night, we walked around on Sunday morning looking for sites where the occupants would be leaving on Sunday. Our goals were to find a site with 50A service (so we could run both air conditioners and other things too) and with sewer hookups so we could do laundry and not need to worry about driving to dump our tanks.

We found one that was available, but it was very close to another site, and though we talked to the people in the "paired" site and they seemed to be nice, they were also leaving on Sunday, and we weren't sure who might move in there next. Regardless, I went back to get the Jeep to park it in the site until we could get Gracie there, but on my way, I saw another guy packing up to leave and thought his site would be better - not only was there not another site right on top of it, but it also had lots of shade on the west side - and 50A and sewer connection too!

I talked to the fellow who was packing up - he said that he just needed to get his golf cart over to his daughter's place (I guess she has a unit in one of the permanent sites) and he offered to wait until we could come over to move his rig. I suggested that I would park my Jeep behind his 5th wheel and we would just watch until he moved, and that's what we did.

After he left, Carl disconnected Gracie and drove other - I took a picture to show the dust that she kicks up from the rear radiator even on asphalt - when we were in Lynchburg on their dirt roads in the campground, it was like a huge cloud of dust followed Gracie around!

All parked in our new site - a very long pull through with shade on the west side.

We've already done a couple of loads of laundry! We have also walked around a little of the campground. We're enjoying our stay at this Thousand Trails park.

Selecting an RV Site

We have stopped for a few days at a Thousand Trails park in southeastern Indiana, near Batesville, between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, Ohio. It is a huge park - somewhere I read that there are 800 sites, but I think a lot of the sites are for permanent site-holders.

Thousand Trails parks are unique in that you can make a reservation, but there is not a specific site reserved for your use. So, they know that we are arriving on a specific day, have a 40' long motorhome and a towed vehicle (the Jeep), but it is possible that, if other campers with smaller rigs have taken all the large sites before we arrive, that we may not find a site that we actually can fit into.

We knew that arriving on Saturday was not a great idea, but, that's the day that it worked out for us to arrive. I had called before driving all the way here because there were a couple of casinos that allow RVers to park for free in their lots that were not too far out of the way. The ranger I talked with said that we probably wouldn't get exactly the kind of site that we might want (ideally we want to have 50A electric with water and sewer), but that they would definitely have a site that we could fit in. We would at least have 30A electric, and with that, we could run one air conditioner at a time, and we figured that was better than boondocking at a casino and having to run the generator to have air conditioning.

When we arrived Saturday just before 7pm, the ranger was very apologetic, saying that we would not find a very good site, but that a lot of folks would be leaving on Sunday and we could move to a better site. I assured her that we understood and it wasn't a problem. She had checked with another ranger and knew that our best chance to find a site would be in Phase 2, so she gave us directions to get there, suggesting that we disconnect the Jeep and drive it around to find a site.

We did disconnect, and drove around a little - we couldn't exactly tell where there might be sites available in some cases, but we came across a pullthrough site at the end of a row, knew that we would fit it in (with the Jeep too) and decided that it was a good choice at least for the night, and probably okay for a couple of nights if we didn't find a site on Sunday.

There was a reason why the site was available...

It was pretty wet and muddy on both sides of the exit of the pullthrough...

We parked Gracie so her steps were out on the patio, and were careful getting in/out of the Jeep to avoid the mud.

But Carl made an interesting observation... if the site had not had the mud, it most likely would not have been available for us arriving late on a Saturday.

It made us think: we wouldn't have each other if we hadn't gone through the "mud" of last year, the sorrow for each of us losing our beloved spouses. It wasn't a site that we would have chosen, it wasn't a part of life that we would have chosen, but, because of the challenges that we've gone through, we have the joy of being together.

So... there are learning experiences even in the selection of an RV site!

And even more visiting!

We visited with Lynette and Nick on Saturday morning...

We went for a walk and saw Town Hall for Ansonia.

We got some pictures as we were preparing to leave...

Carl with Linette and Nick...

Carl and Patti on Linette and Nick's front porch.

Patti with Linette and Nick

A picture of Linette and Nick's house from the lot where we boondocked overnight.

It was so nice to visit family!

We drove pretty much due west into Indiana and stopped in Albany to visit Patti's former co-worker Jerry and his wife, Rose.

We had such a nice visit with Jerry and Rose on their front porch!

Jerry and Rose live on a cul-de-sac - we parked along the street coming in and walked up to their house visit them, then decided to try making the U-turn in the cul-de-sac with keeping Gracie and the Jeep hooked up (we knew that we could unhook if necessary). I stayed outside to make sure that the Jeep was not at risk of hitting the back of the rig or the ladder - I took a picture to show Carl that it was at least a foot away from the back of the rig even though he was turning the rig at the tightest possible radius and the tow bar was at as tight an angle as possible.

We've driven further south into Indiana and are stopped at a Thousand Trails RV park for the night.

More visiting

Some pictures from Thursday at the Linnabary farm:

Carl just "hanging around"...

... talking with Keith - or maybe Keith is talking to someone else on the phone!

We went for an evening walk along the "ditch"...

... there was a creek between the fields, and, since it flows into the water supply for the city of Columbus, they keep the land for some number of feet (I think 50--90') on each side not cultivated so they minimize agricultural runoff into the creek.

Keith and Ruth Ann's son keeps a path mowed which makes it a nice place to walk!

Friday morning, Ruth Ann was looking at some of the herbs she has growing and I asked her what it was -- it was thyme, so I took a picture of her with "free thyme on her hands".

We left a bit after noon, and drove to Ansonia, Ohio, on the very western edge of the state, to visit Carl's cousins, Linette and Nick.

Gracie with two of the Ansonia water towers...

Another view of the water tower from our walk around the block.

We are enjoying our visit with Linette and Nick! They arranged permission for us to park in a paved lot across the street from their home, so that makes it very nice and convenient!

Group picture

Keith and Ruth Ann's granddaughter took a picture of the four of us on Wednesday evening:

We have had such a nice time here visiting them!

On Wednesday night, we tried to see the NEOWISE comet... we were outside for a few minutes before we decided that it was too cloudy for success in seeing the comet. In addition, Carl gave as his opinion that that the mosquitoes have created the NEOWISE comet as fake news to get humans outside in the evening so they can feed on them!

Around and about near Mt Gilead, Ohio

Tuesday night, a rain storm moved in about 6:45pm:

It looks pretty threatening, doesn't it?

It was a good rain - I think on and off through the night - which is needed here as they've had some very dry weather.

On Wednesday morning, we drove to the Owl Creek Produce Auction.

They have sales on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11am. Their daily market report can be found at http://owlcreeknews.blogspot.com/

Keith and Ruth Ann had gotten some delicious blueberries there which we enjoyed on Tuesday - we were hoping to find some to purchase, but no blueberries today.

Two auctions go on at the same time, one is for large lots:

... but we were there for the "small" lots out on the back porch / building overhang area:

For many of these lots - they might have, say, 10 quarts of blackberries. The high bidder could take as many as he or she wanted. The next highest bidder could take what they wanted for the high bid price. Then anyone else could claim what they wanted until the 10 quarts were all sold.

I think that most of the folks who brought things to sell were Amish (there were wagons out the other end of the building that I didn't get pictures of)...

I think some of the buyers, especially of the big lots, may have been local grocery stores.

A good reminder!

After we finished our purchases (Keith got two quarts of blackberries that we helped eat later in the afternoon - they were very good!), we headed back to the farm and picked up Ruth Ann who had been on a different morning errand.

We picked up sandwiches for lunch and went to Mt Gilead State Park to eat and hike.

The day was much cooler than the last few days have been, and overcast with rain threatening, but it was such a pleasant hike.

We hiked out and back on the green trail and then out and around the red loop.

 

There were pretty white ball flowers (about 1.5-2" in diameter) - no leaves on the stalks of the flowers.

We saw this interesting fungus / growth on the side of a fallen tree... it was up the hill a little from the path... it looked like a bird bath or vase of some kind...

... Carl climbed up the hill to see what it looked like from the top. It was quite large around - probably about a foot in diameter.

Beautiful big trees...

... and no one else was enjoying the woods with us - we didn't see anyone else except some who were sitting in their cars at the parking area.

The "red" trail was also known as "Fern Ridge Trail"

It was fun to get out, even though we thought we might end up getting rained upon, the rain held off and we enjoyed the cooler and overcast afternoon.