You bet! That book is called The Mountain Directory West (they also have a east edition) and is published by R&R Publishing. Says here that you can order one by calling 785-594-2489.
What kind
of health insurance do you have, being a fulltimer and retiring young?The first 18 months after I quit working, I was covered by my work supplied Aetna full coverage plan as provided under Cobra, but it ran out. I could have extended it by paying the full premium, but it amounted to more than $400 a month. There was just no way that I could afford it. Finding health insurance is very difficult for the younger fulltimer. The big problem is that when you are traveling all over, you can't take advantage of HMOs and such, as they are always tied to a specific area. Full up insurance plans are terribly pricey. If you are over a certain age, then lots of options are available to you, but if you are under 65, you are going to have to foot the bill entirely on your own. Currently, I am taking advantage of my Veterans benefits and getting my health care through the V. A. This works reasonably well if you happen to be a vet, but isn't available to most folks out there. To date, I can offer no better suggestions. If any of you out there discover any worthwhile plans in your search, I'd sure like to hear about them! Good luck finding something that will work for you.
Why, sure! I got that tank in Florida and it's required to be installed on all water heaters there by ordinance. There may not be such an ordinance where you live, hence no tanks at the Home Despot. Here's the info from the tank... perhaps a web search will turn one up. Good luck!!
Therm-x-spand model G5
Water heater safety tank
Amtrol, inc.
Ashland, OH 44805
I sort of inherited the short box... however, I like the fact that the wheelbase is a little shorter and I find that I have had no problems with it . I am using a RBW lil-rocker hitch and the hitch center point is about 6" behind the rear axle. I actually had no choice on where to mount it. If I had positioned it directly over the axle, I'd have had to relocate BOTH fuel tank fillers... no small job! It haven't noticed any handling or towing problems with the hitch mounted in this manner and due to the shape of the front of the trailer, I can cramp it fully without the trailer hitting the cab of the truck. The only possible problem that I can see is in the weight distribution. When I had the rig on the scale, it appeared that all the pin weight of the rig is on the rear axle rather than spread between the rear axle and the front. In fact, the front axle of the truck is slightly lighter loaded with the rig on than it is when the truck is weighed solo. That's not so good, but there's still 3000 lb. on the front axle, so it's not floating or anything. It's running a bit over 4000 lb. on the rear with the rig on. This weight distribution hasn't been a problem for me, and the rig tows and handles well. A lot of folks will tell you that you can't do a short bed with a 5ver, but I see a lot of folks towing with them. Some use a sliding hitch arrangement, but those I've talked to say they never actually use the slider... lets face it... how many times are you actually going to jackknife the rig that much? Almost never, in my experience. Some trailers will accept an extended pin box on the front that will give you more clearance for a short bed. The bottom line is that it's OK to tow a 5ver with a short bed, provided you use a properly set-up hitch and pay attention to the clearances between the truck cab and the front of the trailer when turning tightly or backing at tight angles.
Do you belong
to any camping clubs?I have been with Passport America for about a year, and it has been a very good deal for me! It's very inexpensive to join, and you get 1/2 off at participating parks. Definitely worth looking into. I also recently joined Happy Camper club. They are another 50% off club and are quite similar to Passport. These clubs are a good value with annual dues under $50. You have to be careful not to plan your whole life around finding member parks, though.... it would be easy to miss neat stuff along the way just because there were no "member parks" close by. I tend to plan my direction first and then see if there are any member parks along the way. I belong to the Escapees, which I personally consider a "must" for anyone planning to fulltime. They offer a lot of unique support capabilities designed for the fulltimer, and are a real friendly bunch. The Escapees club has their own voice mail and mail forwarding services, Discount camping directory, special deals on insurance, a number of member campgrounds, a bi-monthly magazine, free lifetime email address and a real support organization for their members. I highly recommend that you go have a look at them! See http://www.escapees.com for more info! And, of course, I am a Good Sam, mostly for the monthly magazine.
On occasion.... Many lodges have area to park your RV and some even have partial or full hookups. I tend to stay at an available lodge when there is no reasonably priced campground near where I want to be. Some lodges are more friendly than others, but it has been very handy at times to park with the Elks! Although there are few lodges in the eastern US that offer RV parking, a fair number of the lodges in the central and western US do. You need to be a member, and it's worthwhile to buy the Carmichael Elks Travel guides. For info on the guides, write the Carmichael Trav'l'n Elks, PO Box 765, Carmichael, CA 95609.
I do most of it myself. Some camping situations lend themselves to working on your rig and some do not. When it seems acceptable to do so, I work on my equipment and am very careful not to make a mess or a lot of noise. A little discretion goes a long way! For large jobs, I take the vehicle to someone else and have the work done.
A lot of people wonder about this.... in my experience, campgrounds tend to be very safe and crime almost non-existent. I don't park in dark Walmart parking lots in big cities... nor do I camp in major tourist locals on 3 day weekends, so maybe I am avoiding some of the potential. I have a cell phone and the means to defend myself, but so far I have not had any bad incidents. I tend to stay clear of major population centers for the most part, but the times I have stayed within the boundaries of big cities, I have had no problems. It seems that fellow campers look out for each other as a rule, and there's always someone around to help when you need it.
The ability to go where you like and do what you like when you want. The chance to see all the things that you have always wanted to see. The fact that where ever you go, you're still home.... the front yard just changes! And the great people you meet along the way!
Sure... on occasion... doesn't everyone? For the most part, the ability to go somewhere else at will helps undermine the boredom problem... there's an awful lot to see and do out there, and there's always something that needs doing "around the house" as well. RVs tend to be sort of high maintenance when you live and travel in them fulltime. As to being lonely, well there are always folks around and most of them tend to be real friendly. I have met a lot of really great people traveling! I do miss my old friends back in California, but the lifestyle has enabled me to go and see a lot of old friends who are scattered all over the country... it sort of evens out. Still, 4 or 5 days of shitty weather and I'm starting to get cabin fever. It helps to have reading material around, and I have a few computer games for when I get desperate!
The bike is a 1982 Honda CT110. Same as a Trail 90, but with a slightly bigger engine. It gets about 100 MPG and will go just about anywhere. I have taken it places out in the boonies that would surprise you! Top speed is about 50 mph, but it cruises nicely at 45. It weighs about 200 lb.. so you can even pick it up and manhandle it around when necessary. The light weight makes it a perfect bike to hang on the back of your RV. I designed a simple rack for the rear of the 5ver and had a local welding shop fabricate it and attach it for me. It's basically a piece of 4" steel c-channel that the bike rides on, and some supports to keep it snug against the back of the rig. The c-channel is attached to the frame of the RV using a couple of pieces of 1" angle iron. I use a couple of nylon ratchet straps to secure the bike for traveling. There's a lot of up and down movement back there, so I also have a couple straps to secure the wheels in the c-channel. I use a short ramp to load and unload it. The ramp stows in the bed of the truck when not in use. Unfortunately, Honda has mot made these bikes since the mid-80s, but you can usually find them for sale used. Parts are still available from Honda.
For all the logs before June 1999, the pictures were taken with a Olympus D-200L digital camera. The pix are 640X480 JPEGs, 24 bit color, and the quality is quite good.... The pix were downloaded directly to my laptop through a serial cable. All the pictures starting with the June 1999 travel log have been taken with a Olympus D400Z digital camera. This camera has a number of excellent features that the D200L lacked. It takes SmartMedia cards, so the picture capacity is much higher. It also has a zoom lens and the pix are 1200X960 JPEGs. The pix are then resampled down to 640X480 for use on the webpage. The picture quality is much better with the D400Z but I still think that the D200L had much better color purity and white balance. I have taken a LOT of pictures 'cause there's no added cost for developing, etc. These cameras have all the standard features of a good point-and-shoot film camera plus a small preview screen that you can use to look at and delete pictures in memory.
I have a MegaImage Megabook 911 laptop. It has a Pentium 133 TCP processor, 32Mb ram, 6X cd and the 12.1" active screen. It's a really nice unit and has performed very well so far. I have had no problems with it. I'm running Windoze95 and using Netscape as my browser.
I designed and currently build my website using Netscape Communicator 4.7, and the page is hosted by Cal City Internet Services in California. Many thanks to Mark and Tammy at CCIS for donating the space for the page and for taking care of the updates each month! I complete the travel logs and updates on my system and then put the files on disc and mail them to Mark at CCIS. That's actually a lot cheaper and easier than FTPing them across the net.
How do you
get access to the net while fulltiming?To manage Internet on the road you almost have to have a laptop! One with some battery life, as phone jacks and a/c power seem to be mutually exclusive! I wouldn't recommend spending money on an acoustic coupler... most pay phones use a carbon mic element that will limit your connect rates to 4800 or less. This is so slow as to be strictly unusable for just about anything you need to do, including email. Here are some of the places I find to hook up:
1. Most truck stop cafes have phones on the tables or at the counter. These phones allow only 800 numbers. This is a good way to hook up, as you can sit back and surf. I always order something to eat and make sure to plug everything back in and test it after I'm done.
2. Mail boxes, etc. or other copy/fax stores will often allow you to use one of their lines for a nominal charge... usually $2.50 per 15 min. This is great for doing email, but not so hot for surfing, as you usually have to stand at the counter.
3. There are some campgrounds with phone hookups at the sites, and most of them aren't live when you pull in.... the idea is that you can have a phone if you stay for more than a month, just send the local phone co. money and they'll hook you up. Not much help for me, as I like to move around more than that. There are also more and more Modem Friendly parks out there that offer instant phone hookups right at the site. These are still more the exception than the rule, but as time goes by, more campgrounds are jumping on the internet bandwagon. The good news is that it's getting easier to get connected! Most campgrounds now recognize that internet access is desired by more RVers all the time and usually provide a dedicated phone jack for internet access... just ask at the office when you check in.
For campgrounds that don't advertise a dedicated internet connection, sometimes I can still beg the use of a phone line at the campground office where I'm staying.... This really depends on the manager being receptive to the idea. I never push. I will usually say something like this while checking in: "By the way, I was wondering if you know of anyplace nearby where I can hook up my laptop to a phone line and get my email? It's a 800 number that I have to dial to get online and it usually only takes a couple of minutes." Sometimes, upon hearing that it's a 800 number, they will allow me to do it on their business or fax line. Some folks will tell you about someplace nearby where you can hook up .... it never hurts to ask. If they don't offer, I let the subject drop. I have had pretty good luck at campgrounds by asking... sometimes when folks find out that I understand computers, they will ask for help on their systems. Sometimes, I can even fix them! 8-)
4. Friend's houses. Self explanatory.
Never miss a chance to plug in! It could be a long while before the
next opportunity presents itself! In general, I'm doing good to hook up
once a week.
I have a mail box through Mail boxes, etc. in Rapid city. I pay $120/yr for the box and forwarding service and pay actual postage costs for the mail that I have forwarded to me. I just call up and tell them where to send it... I use general delivery at post offices a lot.
I use a debit card for almost every purchase I make, and most of my
bills I either pre-pay a year or so in advance, or utilize auto-billing
to that same debit card. You will be surprised at how many businesses will
auto-bill your credit card and that saves you the stamps and hassle of
mailing checks.
Several reasons... They have no state income tax, no vehicle inspection requirements and very reasonable registration costs. Also, insurance costs are a lot lower for my vehicle and "homeowner's" insurance.
If you maintain a residence or a job in your current state, then it would be best to seek legal advice about changing your state of residence. It may not be possible to do so legally. However, if you have sold off your home and quit your job then you can register in any state you like... all you need to do is establish a mailing address there. Then, you can contact the state's DMV and get your vehicles registered by using that address. One easy way would be to join the Escapees club. Then, you are eligible to use Texas as your home state and they offer a mail forwarding service and can assist you with vehicle registrations, etc. If you want to do it on your own, you can contact a remailer business like Mailboxes, etc. and set up a mailbox through them and then contact the DMV, etc. yourself. That's what I did.
I have a mail box through Mail boxes, etc. in Rapid city. This gives me a "street address" and that's enough for the DMV. I pay $120/yr for the box and forwarding service and pay actual postage costs for the mail that I have forwarded to me. I just call up and tell them where to send it... The folks at this MBE are extra great! They've been a real asset! If you like, I can turn you on to their phone # and the Rapid City offices of the DMV as well if you're interested in becoming a South Dakotan. I have had great luck dealing with the DMV in Rapid City. It would be best if you were to eventually go to SD so you could get a SD drivers license... it's best to have everything match up.
MBE: 877-461-8361 Please tell 'em Mark Nemeth sent you ...
DMV: 605-394-2161
If you want to check out the Escapees and get more info on registering
in Texas, go to www.escapees.com
or call 888-757-2582. They can assist you with info and membership application,
etc. It's a good club for fulltimers and they offer a lot of services at
very good prices.
I am using Earthlink and they have been a good provider... I don't think I have EVER gotten a busy signal! They are nationwide and have local access numbers in most larger cities. Earthlink bought out Mindspring shortly after Mindspring bought out Netcom, so they now have a huge list of local access numbers all over the country. I have a standard, unlimited account ($19.95/mo) and use their 800 number most of the time. There's a $5/hr surcharge for the 800 number use. Most of the places that I hook up will only accept a 800 dial-out, so you need to have that capability. I use Eudora for my email and Netscape for my web browser, both outstanding (and free!) programs.
I've got a bunch of books.... I use the Good Sam directory a lot, and I am an Elk, so I have a set of the Carmichael elk's guides. For boondocking, I have the "save a buck" and "free campgrounds" guides sold by TL. I also get a lot of use from my "exit authority" book when I'm on or near interstates. Of course, the Trailer Life guide is a must-have, and my Escapees discount directory has been handy as well. My latest new book is the "Mountain Directory" western edition. It's basically a listing of all the steep grades on roads on a state-by-state basis. It's a really great book, well laid out and VERY useful when traveling in and around the Rockies! The thing that I find most handy is the mapping software from DeLorme. I have street atlas 7.0, the phone books and map-n-go. Coupled with the tripmate GPS, I never get lost. Delorme has a web site where you can check these excellent products out.
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