First major solo trip with the 40ft motorhome and F150 as a toad- 6/23/2020

I can’t believe it has been a month since my last post. Wow. 

On Monday, June 22nd I had my final post op for my cataract surgery and the next day, Tuesday,  I pulled the motorhome out of my site, hooked up the truck and drove over to the Escapees Smart Weigh site for my weighing appointment. For $55 I got each wheel of the motorhome and the truck weighed independently. The motorhome was fine, the passenger side was slightly heavier than the driver’s side but overall each wheel, each axle and the total weight were well below the manufacturer’s specs. The truck on the other hand was a bit over GVWR. Side to side was fine, front axle was within spec, but the rear axle was over. Of course I had a bunch of stuff stored in it that was being taken to CORA. On hind site, I should have just pulled it all out while they were weighing the motorhome. I will be removing the truck’s rear seat , unnecessary items and having a set of custom leafs springs with additional capacity made this summer to supplement the current airbags.

My first stop on this trip was a little city self pay RV park in Heinretta, TX called Hapgood RV Park for $15. The sites are all full hookups, 30 amp service pull thru sites. There was only one other rig there. The next day I had planned to stop at the city park in Dumas, TX, which is free, but I arrived in Dumas at 1pm, so I continued on to Capulin RV Park IN CAPULIN, NM, which is just south of Raton, NM. With the time zone change I arrived around 4pm. This set me up to arrive at CORA on Thursday at 1pm.

Overall the drive was pleasant except the Fort Worth, TX area. I setup the motorhome with some additional USB ports on the dashboard so that any electronics needed were plugged in and within my view and reach. I decided to use my iPhone rather than my 5 year old Garmin GPS. Garmin was not able to find all my stops. I listened to an audio book, alternating with music. I also spent a couple of hours each day in silence. This gave me time to let my mind wonder in freeform mode. I had read an article that the mind is most creative when it is bored. So I thought I would give it a try. 

The only hassle, was not having a navigator to locate good diesel fuel stops along the way. Nancy always had Gas Buddy up and running while we were driving. I decided that I would not concern myself with finding the cheapest diesel and just fuel at truck stops anytime I was under a half tank. That worked well except when I needed to top of my tank in Canon City, CO. Canon City is the last major town before CORA. Diesel was not readily available, and I finally pulled into a very small convenience store and pretty much blocked half the pumps.

During my 2 1/2 days of travel I had minimal contact with people. One truck stop required payment at the fuel desk, and when I checked in at Capulin RV Park, I did not go into the office, but handed my cash through the door and then was escorted by golf cart to my site. So I had a total of 3 encounters with people and I wore a mask and used hand sanitizer for each. If all truck stops would accept normal credit cards at the pump, if would have eliminated two encounters. RV travel is a very safe way to travel during this Covid pandemic. I don’t understand why some jurisdictions have insisted RV parks close. If a RV is self contained and the RV Park takes your payment through a window or by phone, then there is zero person to person contact. RV Parks could easily close their restrooms and showers and only accept RVs with their own facilities.

Overall, I think I managed pretty well to get into the solo travel mode with the motorhome/truck combination. Things like hooking up the toad, buying fuel, setting up and tearing down, took a little longer, but it wasn’t that significant. I did miss having someone to talk to, but that is just my new normal anyway, even when I’m not traveling. I chose not to talk on the phone while driving. The motorhome takes much more concentration than a car or a truck to drive. I didn’t want to be distracted. Studies have shown that even hands free phone conversations are mentally distractive.

I’m settled in at CORA. The motorhome is probably not moving until mid October. I will be taking some short solo camping trips in Enzo, my F150/FWC Hawk truck camper combination.

Until next time, tight lines and safe travels. 

Back to Basics

This week I had to get four tires installed on the motorhome. Whether I move the motorhome 1 mile or 350 miles, the preparation for travel remains the same. Of course when Nancy was alive, she had her “pink” jobs and I had my “blue” jobs. After being on the road for 22 years, neither of us needed a checklist. Now, not only must I do everything myself, I need to also be the person double checking to ensure that everything has been done before pulling out of the site. I decided to go back to the proverbial checklist system. I was actually amazed at the total number of tasks that we always completed prior to each trip.

My new process is that I go about all the tasks and then go through the checklist to make sure I remembered each task, then I double check the very important items physically. Things like making sure all the cabinets are secured and locked, the wheel chocks are removed, the antenna is down, the electric cord is stored and nothing is under the motorhome. The new process was successful as I was able to leave and return to my site without any damage.

The other major change for me as a new solo RVer, was backing into my site. My current site has a number of trees on each side of the front and back of the site. In the past, Nancy would guide me in using standard hand signals while talking to me via our cellphones. We were experts at this and were able to get safely into any RV site, regardless of trees or other obstacles. Now my challenge is to do it solo. 

Rvers are very friendly and helpful. I could easily ask a neighbor to assist me, but then I’m putting the safety of my rig in the hands of a person of unknown skill. We have all seen couples struggle to back into a site, even though in most cases they may have been doing it many times. I happen to carry four small orange “traffic” cones. I placed one cone at each front corner of the site and then a third cone where I wanted the driver’s side rear corner to end up. These sites are in the woods, covered with pine needles, with no real boundary lines to guide a person in, except for the electric pedestal  which happens to be located behind one of those trees. I lined the motorhome up with my inside rear tire close to the front corner of the site and confirmed I was in the correct spot by physically getting out of the motorhome. The rest was pretty easy because the cones gave me confidence that I wasn’t looking at an incorrect landmark. I did also get out of the motorhome two more times just to make sure everything was okay, once after I made the turn to ensure I was at the correct angle and then again as I approached one of the trees at the rear of the site. I was pretty proud of myself, as I was able to do it in one try.

I’m sure that if a site has more delineation, such as a gravel pad with grass on each side, I won’t use the cones, but I’ll keep them accessible in my tool compartment for sites without clear delineation.

In two weeks, I will leave Livingston and begin my 1,100 mile journey to my summer location in the Colorado mountains.

Until next time

Tight lines and safe travels

Covid testing and medical transport for surgery

I was very impressed with Baylor College of Medicine's process for Covid 19 testing. Initially, I was concerned that I would arrive in my F150 and truck camper requiring more than 8' 4" of clearance and it would create a fuss. Not so.

I arrived as instructed 15 minutes early, at 12:30 pm on 6/1/2020, for my 12:45 pm appointment, to discover a line of cars and a locked gate, with a sign that said "Closed until 1pm".

I pulled in behind the last car and walked up to the gate where a nice young women instructed me to bring my truck to the front of the line and informed me that they would take the oversized vehicles first and that I would not go through the parking garage, but rather part way in, where there was plenty of clearance and then get turned around and exit the same way I entered.

A couple of minutes before 1pm, a security guard checked my driver's license and order number though my closed window and waved me through the gate. Another staff member directed me into the beginning of the parking garage and turned me around before getting anywhere near the low ceiling. A few minutes later a nurse in full PPE, checked my ID,  had me lower my window stuck a swab a mile up each of my nostrils and sent me on my way. As I approached the closed gate again, the security gate opened it and waved me through. I checked my watch and it was 1:05pm. Not bad.

The next day I received a phone call from my surgeon informing me that my  Covid 19 test was negative and surgery was a GO!

My experience with Amerasolutions was just as impressive. The day before my scheduled pickup,  I received a phone call confirming all the details, twelve hours and two hours before my pickup I received reminder emails. The day of my surgery, the Amerasolutions' driver arrived ten minutes early and called my cell phone to tell me she had arrived. She took me to surgery clinic, I checked in, she left and then the nurse called the company when I was ready for discharge.  About 20 minutes later my driver came back to the clinic, picked me up and took me back to the RV park.

My cataract surgery was a success, I had my first post-op MD appointment the next day at 8:15 am and was told I can legally drive without glasses. That was good because I had driven myself to the appointment, LOL.

So I am one more step closer to getting back on the road and truly becoming a solo full-time RV.

Stay tuned, my next blog will be about purchasing and installing four new golf cart batteries in the motorhome and buying four 275/70R 22.5 tires online via Simpletire.com and getting them installed at my "local" tire shop.


Tight Lines and safe travels

Medical Transport Services

In this new world of Covid-19 restrictions, those involved with making arrangements for medical procedures, don’t always take in to account every possible situation nor can they, so one needs to asks lots of questions if you don’t fit the usual and customary model, that being a person living with close family, driving a typical car.

For example I am having my second cataract done next week, as per the usual procedure, they require I have a responsible adult with me during the surgery and the patient can’t drive. No problem, Nancy & I would Uber to the clinic. But now I don’t have Nancy to accompany me.

I had a couple of good friends offer to drive me to my surgery. But they are about 30 miles away and my surgery is at 7:30 am. I really didn’t want them to have to get up early, fight Houston traffic and then not be able to even wait in the clinic, because they don’t allow anyone but patients now inside. Luckily, I had looked into this as a back up plan even before the Covid stuff and Nancy’s passing, just in case she was admitted to the hospital just prior to my surgery, or if she just was to weak to go with me to the surgery as the responsible adult.

I was given the name of a medical transport company, AmeraSolutions, this is the take away for any solo travelers. They are an International Medical Coordination and Transportation company. They have CNAs who are licensed to pick you up, transport you, sign you in and out of surgery and then drive you home. A round trip Uber, which the surgery clinic won’t release me to, is $20, this service is $100, so it’s pretty reasonable. They will keep in touch with the clinic and come back and pick me up when I’m ready to go home. Amerasolutions was very easy to work with, they asked all the questions and took care of all the details over the phone. Then I made a reservation back at So Main RV Park in Houston for the night before and the day of surgery. I have a post-op appointment the morning after surgery and then I’ll head back to Livingston in the truck camper.  

I appreciate Bob & Judy's offer, but I'm all set and instead we'll get together another time socially instead.

So I thought I had handled all the details when I received a phone call from the clinic and was informed that I would need to be tested for Covid three days before my surgery and then remain quarantined until my surgery. Okay that sounds pretty simple, until they told me the test would be done at a drive through testing site and I told them that my everyday driver is a truck with a camper and I need over 8 feet 4 inches of clearance. Hold please, was the response. A few minutes later the person came back and said, no problem we have a location for oversize vehicles and we think it has enough clearance for your truck, just get there a little early in case there is a problem. They may have to bring the testing supplies out to you. So Monday should be interesting.

Here is the info for the transport company:

Amerasolutions

855-263-7215

www.amerasolutions.com

I'll let you know how the testing, transport and surgery went next time. 

Tight Lines and Safe Travels,

Larry

A Little History and a peek into the future

In 1998 at age 43, we quit our jobs in healthcare and hit the road. We traveled and camped in  46 of the 48  lower United States, the west coast & Baja of Mexico as well as Eastern and Central Canada. We earned a living as workampers, selling Christmas trees, Wagon Masters for a Caravan company and independent sales representatives for a Campground site map company called AGS.

We began our adventure in a 21 foot class C motorhome, gradually moving to a 27 foot class A, then a 32 foot class A and finally a 40 foot diesel pusher towing a F150, 4x4, with a small pop-up truck camper installed in the truck's bed. We were living our dream. Like anyone we had minor hurdles which we either went over or around. In 2006 my wife was diagnosed with her first of three blood cancers, but did not require treatment. In 2015 she required treatment so we lived in our motorhome while she went through 7 1/2 months of treatment and eventually remission in 2016. We continued our work and travels and finally retired in the winter of 2018 when she was diagnosed with her second blood cancer. We continued to live in our motorhome as she went through treatment again, until she finally lost her cancer battle with a third blood cancer in the spring of 2020, when she passed away from leukemia at MD Anderson. She was an hiker, rock climber, canoeist, fly fisherwoman, artist and my best friend.

My story begins here, as I transition to a solo full-time RVer. I left Houston about a month after she passed, but the Covid-19 restrictions limited my travel. So, like many full-time RVers I decided to find a place to hunker down, and settled in about 90 miles north of Houston. I need to complete some dental work as well as get my second cataract surgery done, the first eye was done before the Cover-19 restrictions, and then I will leave Texas.

I am keeping my current setup, the diesel pusher and the F150 with the pop up truck camper. I am slowly making changes to each rig to better accommodate my new solo life. I donated much of my wife's clothing to a shelter, but I kept a number of her things which I plan to give to friends, family and some will become keepsakes.

The diesel pusher tows the F150 with the truck camper very easily, and will be my home. The truck camper, which we named Enzo, is my camper and overland vehicle. My current plan is to use the motorhome as my base and Enzo as my Trout Bum camper. The motorhome doesn't leave the pavement, while Enzo is equipped to travel off-road to each and every Trout stream, river, or alpine lake I can find. My goal once I leave Texas is to become a first class Trout Bum. Secondary activities will be hiking, visiting friends & family as well as the usual RV sightseeing activities. At times I will live in the motorhome and other times I may park it or store it and take off in Enzo for weeks or even months at a time. I'm very comfortable in either setup.

So follow my journey both as I become more adept at being a solo RVer and as I travel this great country of ours.

Tight lines