My own personal drive-in….

Haven't updated since there was nothing much new. They've been working on my suspension but the final hold-up was the air bag system. It's now here and HOPEFULLY all will go well today with the rest of the work and I'll be out of here tomorrow.

The last two nights have been spent nestled in the Lily Pad inside the facility. Upside? Nice and cozy....especially when it dropped to 30 last night. Downside? No satellite television. Sure am glad I have a huge stash of DVDs. The first night I watched Disney's "Cars", "Ice Age" and "Bug's Life".

"Cars" made me nostalgic for the west since it was set on Route 66 and was a play on the old towns of the 1950's and 60's. Diners, neon lit motels and quirky friends....gotta love it. Factor in the beautiful scenery, albeit in cartoon fashion, and it made me yearn for the west.

Last night I watched "Dreamkeeper", a Hallmark made for TV production. I'm not sure when I ordered it or even why, unless I had seen a promo for the show. It was breathtaking, educational, heartbreaking and heartwarming....three hours long, I will watch this again. If you haven't seen it and have any affinity for Native American folklore, this is a must see.

I'm missing my favorite prime time shows, can't TV what the satellite can't "see", but in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter. Just keep your fingers crossed that the Lily Pad is standing firm and tall on all legs come morning. Oh, and that her water pump leak is fixed as well (yeah, I know, it's always something!).

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Froggi/Donna

Lessons along the way....Setting a routine

As most of you know, I have full-timed before.....the difference was that my husband took car of all the maintenance, repair, driving, etc. That means I have a lot to learn and have been doing so since I started researching going full-time and even more so since I picked up The Lily Pad.

So what is today's lesson? Routines and setting them. No, not the routines like getting up and brushing your teeth while the coffee brews or watching/reading the morning news while you eat breakfast. These routines are things you don't encounter in normal house living.

I knew about checklists and have been developing my informal list of things to do before leaving - I have horrors or driving off with my power or water still hooked up, or worse yet with my trailer hookup only partly done or forgotten. I haven't done the setup side yet, instead I seem to do things as they occur to me but will once the final (or somewhat final) departure list is done.

I know there are maintenance things that need to be done on a regular basis and I'm trying to get a handle on that. There are the things we expect with any vehicle - fluid & filter changes, for example. But those also apply to my generator. Toss in checking the water level in my three batteries. Oh, and now I have a motorcycle that is water cooled. There are things that need greasing, packing, spraying, measuring, wiping, waxing, cleaning...you get the idea.

I discovered this weekend that there are things I need to do every day. That may be overkill but I know that this is a case of better safe than sorry. In this case it's my monitor panel...I tend to look at it every couple of days, when I think about it. This is where I can check my tank levels - fresh water, grey & black tanks, battery level and propane. Previously I was pretty good about checking the black & grey tanks but kind of slacked off because the probes don't seem to be really working (not a big surprise since they are notoriously unreliable). Since I am on shore power, I tend to not check the battery level very often either.

I was watching the fresh water level since I don't really know my tank size - I've been guesstimating 20 gallons. I carry fresh water for drinking and it has stretched pretty far. One morning I noticed it was low and got the guys here to fill it for me. I need to watch how quickly I go through it now that I'm traveling (okay, so what if I'm not moving....).

The last light on the panel is for propane, needed for the stove & oven (which you already know I don't use - in fact I have never lit it), my water heater (which I heat up before a shower or around 4pm when it's still warm outside and it takes less time to heat and lasts till time to wash my face & brush my teeth for bed) and my heat. The nightly temps have been down into the 30's for a while now and even though I turned the heat down to low-mid 60's at night and off during the day, Saturday morning when I check the panel......yup, on empty. I went outside and checked the actual propane gauge and it read empty as well.

Panic time? No, I probably still had some propane in the tank but I didn't want to run it completely dry not knowing if that hurt the system in any way. The good news is that I have a great little Honeywell space heater (I had picked it up on sale at Wal-Mart last spring). Saturday was a gorgeous day, warm enough to sit outside and read so I opened up my storage bins and pulled out the heater, still in the box. My neighbor in the RV next door (the one who woke my Sunday morning asking if I had power), brought over another in case I needed it.

Well, I survived the weekend, got my propane refilled and learned another lesson. Check the monitor panel daily - twice a day if something looks like it's getting low.

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Froggi/Donna

Don't sweat the little stuff....

First update, still in Elkhart. I've opted for some suspension upgrades to the Lily Pad that will help the handling. The parts will be here on Monday and I should be on my way by Wed or Thurs. Looking at the weather forecast I've once again changed my plans. Instead of heading to the Escapees park in Hollister, MO, I 'm going directly to the home park in Livingston, TX. Besides the weather there is also an Enterprise rental office within a couple of miles of the park. So once the rig is parked, I will rent a car and BoBo and I will speed northerly to South Dakota to visit my mail forwarding service, pick up my mail and get my drivers license, then back to Livingston for a couple of weeks. That gives me time to decide if I will stay there longer or head over towards the Hill Country for the month of December.

Now, back to the title subject. I follow many blogs (probably too many) but since most folks don't update every day, I manage to keep up (once again thank you to Google Reader which allows me to categorize the type of blog as well as quickly see which ones have updates to read). Today an online friend posting an interesting blog - What Ifs.... It really hit a nerve with me. Anyone who knows me, knows I am an inveterate planner and worrier. I remember telling my husband before we were married that he would never have to worry...that I did enough for both of us.

Over the last year I have gotten better at going with the flow......not letting the little stuff bother me. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason and sometimes that reason may not be apparent to us for quite some time. I've been working hard on trying to simplify my life, working towards a calmer existence where I can truly savor each day and the adventures they bring.

RVing is a huge step in that direction and the What Ifs.... blog got me thinking. I'm having a hard time NOT planning my itinerary, not planning my stops, not managing my life. Why? Why do I have to be so in control? Being a Type A personality is an identity I 'd like to shed but it looks like it will take some time, done in baby steps I think. People tend to see me as adventurous but I know that I'm really not....in my mind I wouldn't be doing all this planning if I were truly adventurous. I'd drive until I wanted to stop, then find a place to do just that. LOL! I worry about power, I worry about water, I worry about gas....yup, there's that word WORRY again.

I need to find a happy medium, get away from X miles a day to X stopping point and move towards a more relaxed pace, enjoying the sites along the way and stopping anytime I see something of interest. Reminds me of when I started my motorcycle trips. I was into day three and realized I hadn't taken a single photograph. While I was enjoying looking at the scenery, I wasn't recording it. Looking back I'm glad I finally started recording it because now, three years later, it all seems surreal until I review those photos. Then every site, every smell, every view, every experience comes flooding back.

In his blog, Michael talks about dreamers. I remember being more of a dreamer until the realities of life, family, responsibilities took precedence. Now I have time to dream again....I just have to let myself. Hopefully reading blogs like his, Ara's "The Oasis of My Soul" and a few others will help me make that transition.

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Froggi/Donna