What is this blog anyway?
When I announced to my friends at work that I was going to sell my house and live in a travel trailer, they accepted the idea more quickly than I had anticipated. Before long, they were behind me 100 percent and seemed happy I had found a way to leave the rat race. They noticed a change in me, a change for the better. I was (and still am) looking to the future with excitement.
Several urged me to write a blog so they could keep up with my travels . . .hence the birth of rvsue and her canine crew, a blog about a fulltime vagabond “living on less and enjoying life more.”
I told you the emphasis would be on frugality.
Instead I’m writing about dogs and van repairs and buying stuff and memories from childhood and coffee pots and shooting a gun and low blood sugar and . . . what the heck? Where are the stories about travels in a Casita with detailed info on daily expenses?
You promised!
I also promised to write every day. I will keep that promise . . . once I get my trailer. I’ll try to post often during this limbo I’m in right now. The heat index today here in Georgia is 101 degrees and tomorrow it will be 105 degrees. Not much to write about. I’m holed up in my house.
I even turned on the air-conditioning!
Gasp!
I don’t want to go into why the house is not sold yet, allowing me to head to Texas. That would be talking about Felix’s finances (not appropriate). Suffice it to say, I will sell my house soon and I will pick up my new trailer and finally become rvsue and her canine crew!
I hope you’ll stay with us.
That happy day will arrive. Check in often or at least bookmark the page so you don’t miss the coming adventure.
[slideshow]Oh no. Not more dog pictures . . .
rvsue
If you’d like to see my 17′ Casita Liberty Deluxe, click on this link: http://www.casitatraveltrailers.com/showroom.html
Sue, we can get details on how much it costs to fulltime lots of places. RVers — from seasonal destination parks with all the amenities to wilderness boondockers — have posted their financial details for us to analyze on blogs and message boards.
What we can’t get anywhere else are the unique, unexpected and totally refreshing vignettes of your life as you move toward a future that many of us dream about and few of us will actually achieve. You make us laugh sometimes and cry other times, and give us the priceless experience of being IN THIS adventure quest with you.
Just keep doing your blog the way you are doing it. It’s the most enjoyable blog I follow!
Dear Sharon,
What a lovely response, absolutely lovely . . . I nearly choked up reading such wonderful compliments about my humble little blog. It is touching to read that you think it’s the most enjoyable one you follow!
I couldn’t help but notice . . . after I had memorized the compliments (LOL) . . . you have a talent with words. Then I remembered your tinycamper blog that I had intended to check into and somehow it slipped by me. I looked very quickly before replying here and saw that you have stopped blogging for a while.
It is difficult, isn’t it, to write when you are in a “limbo” situation, especially during the summer doldrums. I definitely am going to read all your posts as I’m sure they are well written, from what I see above.
Thanks so much.
I love your Casita! It’s just like mine (well, except mine’s a Spirit Deluxe). Did you get all the options? I got “the works” minus the built-in microwave. I’ve been castigating myself over the TV/DVD choice – I know I probably won’t use it and will just end up reading like I do at home.
I know what you mean about blogging and straying away from your intentions. However, in your case it doesn’t matter a bit because you are so good at it. (To my acute embarrassment I started a travel blog and 7 months later, I haven’t left the driveway).
And be assured, we never get tired of Bridget and Spike photos. Personally, I just can’t get enough goofy!
Kim
Hey, Kim!
Remember you said we have so much in common? Well, I did get all the options — “the works” — except for the microwave, just like you. And also, just like you, I ordered the TV/DVD set-up and have been kicking myself ever since because it will probably be obsolete by the time we move in to our Casitas, what with online streaming, etc. It will allow us to pick up local TV if within 100 miles of a city (big deal, right?).
So I’m not the only one embarrassed about a travel blog that goes nowhere! Thanks for the thumbs up on the blog and dog photos . . .
Three comments
1. The blog is interesting and fun just like it is – we appreciate your humor and outlook on life.
2. EVERYONE’s plans get interrupted, changed, delayed, rearranged. The blog wouldn’t be nearly so interesting if everything went as expected. You remind us that life happens so not to be surprised when it does.
3. It will be interesting reading later on when you’re able to look back and see how things worked out for the best. It’s currently 100+ in north Texas right now – that’s temperature, not heat index so waiting a bit may give you a more enjoyable time when you pick up your Casita.
Hi, Reine!
Thank you for your kind comments. I felt the need to apologize for no travel adventures after so much time. I’ll keep on blogging. You’re right… I’m hoping there will be a huge contrast between my mundane life now and the life that I’ll have once I get to Texas.
Speaking of Texas . . . I knew your heat would be “bigger” than Georgia’s. You are Texas, after all!
Sue,
I am no good with words but just keep doing what you are doing and writing and we will take what we get. LOL
As someone else said you do make me laugh except for the 911 call.
Bill Kelleher
Bill,
Actually I had to laugh when all the “drama” at the vet’s was over. I told them they could put me in their computer as one of their patients.
You’ll take what you get and like it? Good.
Seems like a lot of us are going through this Sue. I’ve got a year before I hit my departure date and the Texas summer temps are making this pure agony for me.
In the meantime have you purchased the odds and ends you’ll need for your rig? I don’t recall reading anything about things like the sewer hose and what not. Getting that out of the way now will go a long ways later on.
Hey, Steve,
You have to wait a year? “Pure agony” tells it like it is. If I had another year of waiting …. errhh . . . I don’t even want to think about it! But, then, I’m about at the end of my rope with waiting so many years!
About stuff to buy . . . I do need to get the brake controller in. To be honest, a lot of stuff like a sewer hose . . . I go look to buy and I’m not sure if it comes with the Casita or if I’m buying the right one so I end up not getting one. Take plug adapters for instance. What do I need? 20 amp to 50 amp to 30 amp to 20 amp to . . . I don’t have a clue. When I try to read about amps I develop severe cataracts and the page goes all fuzzy.
Things like wheel chocks I can handle. Pretty hard to mess that up, right? Oh, I do have four rolls of one-ply toilet paper!
I’m sure at some point in the future I will wonder how I could be so dumb to forget something that’s absolutely necessary.
I posted a reply here with a list of things you would absolutely need, but don’t know where it went to.
Casitas probably come with 30amp plugs. I would still call Casita to find out what it comes with, but here’s that list of items.
Sewer hose (rhinoflex is a good one)
Sewer hose stand
Dogbone electrical adapter (30amp female to 15amp male)
Water hose drinking
Water filter
Water pressure regulator (brass)
I did the homework first and am glad I did. I was able to buy quality items at a total cost lower than the package my RV dealer offered. Some of it was online and some at the local Walmart.
Add Linx levelers, and stabilizer pads to that list.
Okay. I’ll do a search so I know what you’re talking about.
(I can hear you groaning, Steve.)
Hey Steve, a lot of us with Casitas urge folks buying one to WAIT to buy stuff till AFTER they pick up the Casita. Casita sells a “convenience package” that includes a lot of the basic stuff and there’s a Wal Mart really close to the factory. What we see more often is folks buy lots of stuff they think they need, only to have to take up space in their garage for several years. Since Sue won’t have a garage, she’s better holding on to her $$$ and doing some shopping the first several weeks when she runs across something that she really needs unstead of trying to guess what she might need. Stuff some folks think is essential we don’t have and wouldn’t use if we had it.
Reine,
This is the first I’ve heard about a convenience pkg. I have heard people say to hold off on buying stuff. I was thinking I needed to get a generator and then I read someone’s blog and they said they bought one and haven’t used it in two years, due to their way of camping. I wish someone who has bought a Casita from the factory would shed some light on the subject.
I do feel, like Steve suggested, that I should be buying stuff for the trailer. Like a hitch lock, but is there a certain kind I should get? I end up not buying because I hit these questions . . . so I’ll wait and see since I don’t need it immediately.
It would be nice to have everything in place so I don’t have a lot of shopping to do while leaving the crew in the trailer in Texas heat. But, as you said, it’s hard to know what I will need and what I won’t need.
I almost bought a trailer hitch lock myself not really knowing much about it. Turns out it locks the hitch ball to the vehicle. It does not lock the trailer to the vehicle as I’d originally thought.
Isn’t there a contraption you can put on the trailer to make it difficult to steal? Something that hangs up the axle? Seems like I heard someone mention that.
I realize that’s something I don’t need while staying in parks, but maybe someday for boondocking.
You mean like a boot? They lock around the wheel making it impossible for someone to drive off with your rig.
Yeah. I think that was it.
BTW, thanks for all your help.
I’m speaking strictly about the basic items needed for trailers. While Walmart does have great prices on some of the stuff she’ll need, they don’t have everything. The convenience packages offered don’t always come with quality items and usually cost more. At least that was the case with some of the places.
If you click on the link above that takes you to the Casita showroom, click on Liberty, then features, and then optional features which I ordered (minus the furnace and microwave).
It lists a lot of stuff, toward the end it says…. water hose, water pressure regulator, and hitch lock!
Gee, I need to learn to read.
Mumsy,
About the heat . . . I was thinking it was me, that I’m not handling the heat as well as I used to . . . Sounds like people are suffering all over. Best thing to do is stay indoors. I tried to do a few things with the PTV and after a few minutes said to myself, “What’s the matter with you? Are you crazy? You could get heat stroke out here!” So I’m reading, watching movies, anything to stay inside.
I’m glad you like the blog. I didn’t intend to stop, just wish I had better material to write about!
Thanks.
lol .. no groaning from me. I’ve been there and had to learn about everything from scratch too. The linx levelers are flat pads that stack on top of each other and you put them under your trailer wheel if the ground is uneven.
I checked out that link and that’s a pretty sweet deal that they include some stuff that you need to start out with.
You’re Welcome … thanks and sorry about hijacking the replies with all this.
No need to apologize! I’m grateful for every bit of help.
Here is my suggestion, it works and keeps the toilet cleaner. :))
http://happybowl.com/
Bill Kelleher
You nut. How in the world you ever came across that little gem . . . LOL
I don’t remember how I came across it, but it is a gem. :))
By chance I received an email from them this morning with a discount coupon.
Anybody can use it. :))
Bill Kelleher
Save 10% and get a FREE HAT Just go to http://www.happybowl.com and and at checkout, enter coupon code “coolhat”. Minimum order of 3 boxes of either Happy Bowl Original or MP required. This coupon code cannot be combined with other offers.
Feel free to “friend us” on Facebook and share this coupon with your friends and family.
Offer Expires: July 17th, 2011
It’s the kind of thing that gets funnier after you watch it a few times . . . the animation of the rv along with the sound effects and music . . . hilarious!
And yes, just what I want to be, a friend of happybowl!
Those pictures of the inside of the son-to-be-yours little trailer look so cozy and secure. It will be an aspect you will certainly appreciate when the weather is not so nice outside at night. Inside, safe, warm, dry, snug as a bug in a rug with a warm cup of tea or hot cocoa and a good book. Let the storm rage on.
Oh, that sound so inviting, John. I’ve pictured that scene a million times. You described it perfectly.
Sue, I think Casita USED to offer a convenience package that included hoses, and adapters and such but looks like they have made those items standard now. FYI, Lynx levelers are great but plain old 12 – 18″ pieces of 2×6 and 1×6 work about as well and cost a whole lot less.
Thanks for reminding me. Another item on my to-do list . . . go to Lowe’s and have them cut up some lumber for me.
I use the plastic blocks, they are lighter and stack in a carry bag.
Bill Kelleher
The plastic ones are easier to see and less likely to be left behind.
To each his own . . .