This is a blog about two baby boomers who are retired and living full time in their Class A motorhome. We stay mostly at Thousand Trails campgrounds. We use a drone to film our adventures and share the video on the blog
My wife drives our 42 ft Class A motorhome, I fly the Drone and we are having a blast in our new liftstyle.
We have just moved into South Texas in the Rio Grande Valley and are parked at the age restricted park "Country Sunshine" must be over 55 so there lots of gray headed folks walking around here but everyone is very friendly and active.
There is always something going on from what we have seen, Volley Ball games, Pickle Ball, Line Dancing, Radio Control Race Car track and we have only been here 2 days. We are about 10 miles from Harlingen Texas, 10 miles from McAllen Texas and 10 miles from the Mexico boarder. It will be in the mid 70's all week this week. NICE
It is not like any of the other Thousand Trails/Encore campgrounds we have stayed at previously, there are no lakes, rivers or oceans that we can walk along but the Gulf of Mexico (South Padre Island) is only 50 miles away. I am sure we will make that drive a few times in the 3 months we will be down in this area.
We have really gotten a lot of folks watching our videos on the internet and subscribing to the the YouTube channel
www.YouTube.com/justpassingthru
and the videos have had over 5,000 views in the last 2 weeks, that is more than the previous 6 months. I received a notice from YouTube that they are reviewing our channel for advertisers and we will most likely monetize our YouTube channel before the end of the year. I doubt that we will make enough money to go out to dinner but it kind of fun going through the process with YouTube. Thanks to all of you that have watched the videos and allowed us to make this journey.
Anyway back to the title of this blog post, I have received several additional request for info on our drone and that is mostly what is included in this video. It is the same video that we posted over on YouTube a couple of days ago, but I know there are several folks that don't do YouTube so I am posting here in addition.
Hopefully you enjoy the video and thanks for watching and supporting us in our adventure.
Well, it may not be as delicious as Steve's BBQ Ribs, but Pearl decided to do a cooking video and her first shot at it was her "Zesty Grilled Vegetables". Not a real attention get'ter for a true Texan but trust me, they are pretty dawg gone good viddels.
I didn't expect the video to get much attention on YouTube but she is my wife and I like to keep her happy and I definitely enjoy her cooking just about anything, so I grabbed the camera and off we went. Well it has gotten more video views and thumbs up than any video we have posted on YouTube in the first day (really less than half a day) so I figured I better put a link over here on the blog.
Every thing I have read about YouTube says you have to have what they call "Click Bait". I don't know if it is featuring Pearl instead of me or the actual "Healthy Vegetables" but what ever it is, if we want to monetize our videos on YouTube, we need more of it.....
OK, all kidding aside, you just might want to try the Zesty Grilled Vegetables featured in the cooking video. Adjust the seasoning as you see fit, but after viewing the video, I think you will see how you might be able to add a little Zest in your healthy diet menu.
Hope you enjoy the video and give us a thumbs up over on YouTube if you enjoy the vegetables.
We arrived at Medina Lake on Monday and lucked out with getting one of the best sites in the campground. Our front window looks out over the lake and although it has been raining all day Wednesday and Thursday we have enjoyed sitting in the RV and surfing the internet, playing with the dog and cat while they go crazy watching the deer walking around outside.
If you look hard, you can find a deer either hiding in the trees or often just walking around. They are semi tame and apparently some eat corn right out of your hand or at least from the ground right beside you. None have come close to us while we were out walking around, but they definitely don't run away either. I am sure it will get old before we leave but they have been a fun diversion today.
We are looking forward to going to San Antonio in a couple of days. We had a great time the last time we were here about 10 years ago and look forward to another couple of fun day trips. I think it is about 30 or 40 miles so not too bad of a drive.
This is our last Lake campground before heading down about 300 miles to the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas for 3 months. We have really enjoyed all the campsites as well as friends and family that we have got to visit with in Texas, but we are already starting to look forward to heading out this spring. That will be a whole new adventure. We are just starting to try and figure out our route for 2018
The rain is supposed to end tonight, so we will probably post another video in a few days once it dries out a bit but here is the video of leaving our last campsite on the Colorado River and setting up here at Medina Lake.
Hope you enjoy it and maybe it puts a smile on your face.
It's hard to believe that December is already here. I entered our expenses into the spreadsheet last night and posted it on YouTube as there are quite a few folks over there anticipating it. It appears there are several fulltime RVing folks working on fairly tight budgets and looking for ways to save money and with their lifestyle. I think the Thousand Trails membership is something that a lot of our fellow RV'ers are looking at along with Coast to Coast and a few campground memberships that I am not aware of.
I know Steve, Jinxi and Tonya all view all the videos over on YouTube and I am not sure just how many folks still view them here but I will continue to post many of the videos here just in case some of you don't do YouTube.
Bottom line is, we didn't have to purchase any diesel fuel this month and spent every night in a Thousand Trails campground and that along with a few other items; our expenses are down over a thousand bucks for November. I think we will probably mimic these expenses for the next 4 months or so then all those savings will get spent as we head up through Mid-America and the North East coast.
We were there 7 or 8 years ago but only had a month to circle the entire country so we didn't get to do and see a lot of extra stuff. We will have plenty of time (and hopefully money) to do and see most everything we feel like and maybe a few that one or the other of us don't really care about. :-)
The video is below for you to view at your leisure. If you haven't checked out our YouTube Channel how about clicking on the button on the bottom right side of the video (it looks like this one)
I have taken it as a challenge to get at least one check for a dollar or two from You Tube for my videos and that isn't even the best part. We have gotten a lot of satisfaction from some of our YouTube videos from different subscribers asking questions ranging from a sweet lady who is confused about her Medicare Insurance to a couple living in their RV on Social Security wanting to learn more how to save money on RV Campsites. We don't have all the answers as we are just starting out ourselves, but we enjoy sharing what we have learned and hope some of our videos over there help someone out just a little bit. It will no doubt help us as we all learn together.
I need at least 100 subscribers and we just about have that already but then I need 10,000 views and we are just under 5,000 now so it will take a while, but every time you view one of the videos over there, it puts us one view closer to 10,000. So don't wish me luck, get busy and help an old man out.
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I posted this video over on YouTube and wasn't planning to post it here since I assumed it would be more appropriate over there on YouTube.
But Pearl has been on the phone with a friend of hers all morning and she wasn't sure how to tell her how to get to the YouTube site so she gave the Blog address here. Her friend mostly wanted to see pictures of Tinker and this interview with Pearl is probably the best one so I was instructed to put that video here and do it right away.
So here it is, hope you enjoy it, and there is a subscription button on the video somewhere that you can click and subscribe to the YouTube videos if your so inclined.
Well here it is the middle of November and we have been to 5 or 6 campgrounds since arriving in this Large but Lovely state. That isn't even counting the free camping we have done at some of your homes, cities and businesses (Thank You).
Every few days I ask Pearl if she is ready to consider Texas for our next home so we can start looking but so far I haven't made much progress. It seems the humidity and distance from Melissa and the rest of the family are the two main reasons. I'm not giving up yet but it appears it will be an uphill battle.
After leaving the cousins reunion at Lake Buchanan, we headed over to Lake Conroe for 3 weeks. This is one of Thousand Trails best campgrounds and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We did take one day and go into town to visit with our cousin Paul Ray and he took us out to lunch at one of our favorite places "Sweet Tomato" and it was ever bit as good as they are in Nevada. Thanks Paul
We have now moved on to the Colorado River Thousand Trails campground. It is much smaller and a little more rustic but nice. We have a good site with full hook-ups and 50 amp electric service which always makes it nice. The door on the cloths washer broke off yesterday so I spend the afternoon getting the old broken latch off and locating a replacement. I was able to find what I needed and it should be here Monday so we should be able to do laundry by Tuesday with a little luck.
We were able to drive up to Pfluggerville (Austin) a couple of days ago to visit with Clint and Laura. It was a great visit and Clint and I really enjoyed discussing different perspectives on how some management personnel may be lacking in recognizing and appreciating some of the talents their employees might possess as well as the value of those talents. I was able to see that some of my prior misconceptions may have been a little off base in this area. Luckily, I don't have to resolve this issue as I am out of the game and no one really cares what I think anymore and that makes us all happy!
Clint did show me some of his video talent as well as his knowledge of social media, boy do I wish I had some of those talents (I am guessing he picked up a few hints from Laura) to help me with my youtube videos. His stuff really looks great.
We still have another week here and then we head out to San Antonio for a couple of weeks before going down to South Texas for the winter. It has been a ton of fun and we have enjoyed visiting with family and friends along the way. We actually hooked up with a couple that we met up in Birch Bay Washington last summer here at Colorado River. Hopefully we will meet a few more down in South Texas but if not, I sure we will find some new friends along the way.
Here is the video for Lake Conroe and Colorado River but if you click on the subscribe link to our youtube channel, there are a couple of extra videos over there focusing completely on RV living, Retirement and other subjects that may not be as appropriate here on this blog.
October has been chocked full of events and interesting campsites. I am still trying to convince Pearl that Texas would be the perfect place for us to settle down and purchase a nice lake front home. We have seen many of them that look perfect, but I am not getting the feeling that I am making any headway in persuading her. That being said, we both are very much enjoying our time there in the Great State of Texas!
We have been here in Texas since October 1st, and our expenses are back in line with the previous month (excluding September) which is nice. We are still running several hundred dollars above our initial predictions, but still within acceptable limits. We were hoping our annual expenses might be under $40,000 from reading and watching other full time rvers reports, but it certainly doesn't look like that is going to happen from our 5 months of living the full time RV lifestyle.
Although, our next 5 months will be fairly economical since we will not be traveling many miles at all, and it looks like we will be staying in Thousand Trails campgrounds exclusively through March so that eliminates approximately a Thousand dollars a month from our historical average expense of approximately $3,800. While we may not be buying Diesel, I am guessing our entertainment expenses may increase since we are so stationary. But, I don't know just what type of entertainment we may find in Southern Texas at the Age Restricted campsites we will be in (55 or Over) It doesn't cost a lot to play Dominoes or Shuffle Board.........
No need to redo the entire expense spreadsheet here since you can simply watch the video.
If you have any interest in how Thousand Trails works you can watch the section at the end of the October Expense video for a 5 minute walk through of how Thousand Trails works for us and might work for you if you are thinking about living full time in an RV. In a nutshell, we have spent $4,607 on thousand trails this year, and it will only be $607 per year indefinitely until we sell our membership.
We have currently spent 114 nights in a thousand trails campsite for free, so at a conservative value of $40 per night that would mean we have saved over $4,500 in campsite fees already with two months to go in 2017. Our Savings next year will very substantial since we only pay the $607 for the entire year.
Enough of all that, here is the video and I hope you find it somewhat insightful in what it cost to live this lifestyle.
We have had a great time in Texas so far, once we left Britney and Cody's home in Dumas, we went to the Thousand Trails Bridgeport campground. This is a really nice campground and it's right on the lake. While we were here, we contacted Shannon and George and were able to go have lunch with them and picked up the kids after choir practice. We had a great day and it was quite enjoyable visiting with them and learning all the interesting things the kids are up to. Plus we got to ride on the Zip Line they have in their back yard. Thanks for a fun day.
After a week at Bridgeport we headed to Lake Texhoma for a week. We really did enjoy this campground and it is one of our favorite in the Thousand trails list of campgrounds. After talking to Tonya, we decided to leave a day early so we could stop at Natalie and Jon's "Hole in the Wall" restaurant in Rochester, which is about half way to Snyder. We met Tonya at a little one horse town and she left her car and rode the rest of the way with us in the motorhome to Rochester. We are so proud of the job they have done in building their business. The food was great and I am so glad we were able to make this stop as it has been a while since I have got to visit with Natalie and Jon. Thanks for lunch and a really nice afternoon.
Once we made it to Snyder, we had several days of visiting and Britt took us to make a couple of clay pots at the college and even cut up Geode Rocks for Pearl and made her a pendant from a pretty rock he had in his collection. You will enjoy watching Pearl make her pot, but I won't spoil the ending, you will have to watch the video.
The final couple of days were spend at our Cousins Reunion. Tonya, Connie and Paul all brought some of their families that were available and we had dinner at the campground then breakfast, lunch and dinner at Connie's the next day. It has been 50 years since I have seen Connie and several years since I have seen Paul plus there were kids, spouses and nephews that all joined in the event.
We have had a great October and hope you can get a feel of how much fun it is from the video, but just in case it doesn't come through clearly. WE ARE HAVING THE TIME OF OUR LIVES, retirement and family go well together.
We left southern California just a few days ago and met up with a couple of friends in Kingman Arizona. We met Pete and Debbie several years ago in Zion national park and have met with them several times since. They are great people and we enjoy their company a lot, I think you will agree once you meet them on the video.
We then headed to Plainview Texas to spend a couple of days with my step mom and youngest brother. Beverly and Wynn seem to be doing great and we enjoyed visiting and catching up with them. It is always good to spend a couple of days in my home town, lots of memories here.
We stopped in at Palo Duro Canyon overnight on the way to Dumas to visit with our niece Britney and her husband Cody along with their two children Ashlyn and Braxton. Both Cody and Britney are such a pleasure to visit with as they seem to enjoy life and live it to its fullest. I didn't have a memory card in the camera when we were over looking at their new 40 foot, 5th wheel toy hauler/camper, trust me it is Big and Awesome! They have owned it for a year now but it has "FUN" radiating out of every inch of it. I can't even imagine all the good times and memories their family will have traveling around the country in this rig. I think I can say that family is very much living the American Dream at least from my perspective. Thanks Britney and Cody for a very nice afternoon/evening.
It was raining about as hard as it can when we left the Dumas Campground around 6:30 am and I had to suit up in my yellow raincoat and pants so I could hook up the car and then drive through 3 or 4 inches water to get to the dump station to dump our sewer/gray water before heading out to Bridgeport Lake. I don't know why we don't think of filming during these times as that would have been a funny video now that it's over and I am all dry. I will try to remember next time though.
We were hosted at several locations on our drive from southern California to northern Texas and it sure made the travel much more enjoyable and less expensive. Thank you all and I hope you enjoy viewing the video as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
We are camped out at Bay Landing campground located on the shores of Bridgeport lake in Texas. It has been a nice quiet day so I decided to get the September numbers together and post them on the blog. Then Pearl gave me a list of chores that needed doing, so it has taken all day, but I finally got it done (as well as the chores)
We covered a lot of miles is September and a couple of extra maintenance items which when combined, blew our estimates out of the water. Our average monthly expense went over $5,000 this month but hopefully it will come back down over the next few months to balance it all out , so hopefully we can keep the projected average a little under $50,000 per year.
We are planning to review the medicare supplemental insurance plans that are available to folks that travel around the country using doctors in different states. If we can find something that we can afford that provides some acceptable coverages we will most likely purchase it. If so, that will most likely put us well over the target of $50,000 so we will most likely have to realistically raise our target to around $60,000 from that point on.
Hopefully the video will help anyone thinking about doing something similar, so here are our September Expenses broken out by line item.
We are leaving Wilderness Lakes rv park in the morning, and will post some drone footage of the park in a few days. It is a nice enough park but we spent most of our time visiting with Steve, Jinxi and Aidan so don't have a lot of comments about the park other than we got lost several times walking the dog.
We are kind of sad to be leaving all of our kids and grand kids for the next year or so to travel the south and eastern part of America, but the last 3 months have been great and we won't be forgetting these experiences for quite a while and if we do we can always look back at the blog.
We are so impressed with all of our grand kids it is hard to put into words but the word "Proud" pretty much sums it up. We don't have a lot to give, but our last name is being done proud with the next two generations (even though some of them actually have a different last name or will soon) we are so very proud of each and every one.
The video with Steve and Jinxi is a little short as we got so busy visiting, I forgot to shoot much video. Steve and I went out for a run Saturday morning and Aidan and Jinxi caught a little bit of video of that with a regular camera as well as the drone so that will have to serve as most of the video along with some Vegan Treats that Brynn brought back from Europe last week. Brynn said that everyone would be excited about the treats, so we promised we would film their reaction and she was correct about these Vegan Treats being the hit of the party.
We received a text from our friends in Kingman Arizona that there is going to be a fish fry at their home tomorrow night but they need someone to bring some desert and that fit our "Can Do" list nicely so we are heading out a day early to make sure we get there in time.
Hopefully everyone enjoys the video and in the spirit of full disclosure, Steve does run 10 miles 4 or 5 times a week and Jinxi swims for a couple of hours in the Olympic size lap pool at the gym while he is running. They do this at 5:00am until 7:00am and they seem to love it. I think Shea even goes to the pool on a regular bases, so if you hear something in the video below that sounds like I think I am in better shape than anyone in that family you obviously heard wrong or I mis-spoke.
Well it has been a great couple of weeks in Nevada and Northern California. Elko was a whole lot of fun and it continued through Winnemucca, Reno South Lake Tahoe and Sacramento.
We stayed a couple of days in Winnemucca visiting with Brian and Kan, two of our best friends and shared a lot of stories on what we all have been up to in the last year. Brian is trying to talk Kan into riding on their Harley all the way to Florida to visit with us when we winter there in 2018. We hope they can make that happen.
Lake Tahoe was very pleasant and our evening with Steve, Diane and Brian was great, not to mention the food. We miss seeing them regularly since we moved to Vegas and it was a fun time catching up. Tinker seem to think she had found her big brother in Chewy.
Pearls sister "Helen" and her daughter Bobbi went to breakfast with us in Jackson, just outside of Sacramento and we spent the day catching up on what is going on in our lives. I really enjoy spending time with Helen but wish I could have gotten to know her husband better before he passed away several years back. They traveled full time in a 5th wheel RV for 5 years back in the day. He had lots of stories from those times that I really enjoyed hearing him tell along with a beer or two back when he was still alive. Helen can tell some pretty good stories too so it must run in the family.
We also got to meet Brynns new boyfriend Christopher for lunch at a Mediterrian restaurant close to where they go to school at UC Davis. They just returned from 5 weeks in Europe visiting Christopher's family and seeing the sights. We simply can not put into words how proud of Brynn we both are.
We have travelled down I-5 to Southern California for a week to visit with Steve and Jinxi for a couple days before heading out to Texas for the winter. The weather has been great, but rumor has it there is a heat wave headed our way so we need to check that out and figure out just how we are going to miss any triple digit weather which simply isn't acceptable.
It has been a wonderful 3 months up here in Oregon, Washington and Canada. Lance, Lisa and the grandkids were so much fun although it was hard to keep up with them. Thanks so much for taking the time to visit and show us around your great part of the country. We had perfect weather with almost no wind, consistent 75 to 85 degree temps and only a hint of rain once or twice.
This video covers Thousand Trails campgrounds "Pacific City", "South Jetty" & "Bend/Sunriver". We only had a few days at each location but they may be the top one or two thousand trails parks we have visited. Mainly due to being so close to the ocean and privacy in each site at both Pacific City and South Jetty.
I am getting much more comfortable with flying the drone, but the trees are so high and thick that I lost sight of the drone almost immediately and it was hard getting it back to land in the campground so I able to get much usable drone footage of the campsites.
As most of you know we have already posted the next video for the Elko Car Show, so this one is sort of out of order, but I wanted to get it posted anyway because of the great ocean locations and fun we had at these parks. It is going to be a big change from where we are headed for winter in South Texas. First we have to travel down to southern California then through Arizona and New Mexico before we get there.
We get to have lunch with our Gran-daughter "Brynn" tomorrow and that will finish up our I-80 leg of the trip from Elko Nevada to Sacramento California. It has been a really fun time visiting with friends and family and will post that video in a day or two.
Thanks for taking the time to watch the video and I hope you enjoy it half as much as I did making it.
We still need to edit the video for Pacific City and Bend Oregon, but we have been having so much fun at our daughter and son-in-laws home (Ronnie & Melissa's) in Spring Creek (Just outside of Elko) that I couldn't help but to edit this video first.
As most of you know Ronnie is a master mechanic and has built and restored several classic cars in his shop over the years, so naturally we took a couple of them to the Elko Car Show this week-end. I got to drive the Camero again and I was a little braver this week. It's been a long time since loud exhaust pipes and shifting gears was something I cared much about but that all changed this week. It may look mild in the video but for a 70 year old man, it was a real blast (Thanks Ronnie)
Ronnie was partners with one of his friends on a Monster Truck and although he sold his instrest to his partner Rick several years ago, he still helps him out with it at different car shows if he has some free time. This week-end Rick needed Ron to help him take the hugh tires off and put the regular sized tires on so he could load it into the truck to take to the next show. So Ronnie asked if I would be able to help, of course I was just in the way, but Ron figured I would like to see how it was done and it was pretty fun. I wore gloves but I barley got them dirty as I mainly just shot video and talked on the phone, but the video is fun to watch if you haven't ever seen it done before. Rick almost knocked the Roll Bars off, but luckily for Rick, Ronnie noticed it and stopped him just before he hit the top of the trailer. It would have made great video though.
We went to a sushi place so Ronnie, Melissa, Alex and his girl friend Nicole could all eat sushi. Pearl and I just ate some chicken and watched Ronnie eat Wasabi. We always love to watch him since he just keeps putting more on until it pretty much burns a hole in his nasal cavity. A little video is included so you get a feel for what I'm talking about.
The bottom line is, we had a really great time and hope you enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed making it.
Well, we have finished dinner and are all packed up to head out tomorrow morning from
South Jetty Oregon over the hump to Bend/Sunriver for a day before we cut loose from this beautiful country and head through Idaho en-route to Nevada.
I had already imported the numbers from our quicken account into the excel spreadsheet for our August expenses and since I have some free time, I decided to do a little video with the numbers and explain a couple of items so it might be easier to follow.
The numbers for August are a little better than the two preceding months, mainly due to not having any diesel purchases, but that will change in September and October, plus I need to purchase a couple of tires for the car soon, which are close to $300 each if I remember correctly so I expect the numbers to go up for a couple of months until we get settled down in south Texas for the winter.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask them in the comments section.
We extended our stay at La Conner several days (Aug. 15-27) as we had a pretty nice site at the campground and met some really nice folks. It has been a great summer and the weather here in the Pacific Northwest has been absolutely perfect, No Wind, No Rain, the Temps have been in the mid 70's the entire time. I never knew they had such weather and it is supposed to generally last through September like this. Sweet!
The La Conner Thousand Trails campground is located on an Indian Reservation right on the Skagit Bay shoreline. We made several trips to Anacortes Washington, just a few miles away but never took one of the Ferries over to any of the San Juan Islands or Vancouver Island which we have already realized was a big missed opportunity.
We weren't sure just how we would like the Thousand Trails campgrounds when we first purchased our membership a couple of months back, but it has proven to be a great investment and we really enjoy the campgrounds. The fellow Thousand Trails members we have met seem to have been cut from the same cloth as both Pearl and I come from. Pretty much middle of the road folks, that for the most part are quite friendly and busy enjoying their personal adventures just as we are. Looking forward to our stays in the upcoming campgrounds to see how they compare to the ones here in Oregon and Washington but it will be hard to beat what we have experienced so far.
We have were able to hook up with the kids and grandkids several times over the last two months and will see them all again for the last time (until 2019) in a few days when we all meet just outside of Portland Oregon for Pizza. It has been fun visiting with them and it is kind of hard to believe we won't see them again for 2 years while we tour the southern and eastern parts of the country in 2017 & 2018.
The campground here at La Conner is secluded in the trees so much, we didn't even attempt to try and use the drone to film the campground, although I took several flights out into the bay and filmed the salmon fish farm anchored there. If you watch the video on a full sized screen, you can see some of the fish jumping and splashing at the surface, but not so much on smaller screens. Just a couple of months ago one of the fish farms came apart just a few miles away and the media said there were thousands of Atlantic Salmon that escaped into the ocean and streams which caused considerable concern from the environmentalist. They are a totally different species of Salmon than those that naturally live here so the new ones are considered a threat to the native species. They had a free fishing period to try and catch as many as they could and one article I read said over 20,000 of the Atlantic Salmon were caught by local fishermen.
I was kind of nervous about flying the drone over the fish farm barge figuring they would think I was snooping on them and they might try to shoot the drone or somehow knock it out of the air, so I didn't get real close. I never saw anyone on the barges so I may have been overly concerned.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video and I will post the Pacific City and South Jetty videos pretty soon as well as the August Expense Comparison spreadsheet. The RV is getting pretty dirty, so I plan to try and clean it up a bit before we head to Nevada in a few days, hopefully we don't hit as much rain heading into Nevada as we did when we headed out of it back in June.
Looking forward to seeing more of you over the next two months as we meander down through Nevada, California, Arizona and finally Texas.
We have reservations here at Birch Bay for 3 weeks and we are currently 2 weeks into it. We like the location (close to Canada) but the campsite is just so/so. While the sites are all full hook-ups and they have the usual swimming pool, spa and play grounds, there isn't much for hiking trails and the beach on the ocean isn't really all that enticing. It is more like a lake than the ocean. We changed camp sites today as a couple that we met (that had about the best site in the campground in our opinion) left today and we moved in as they moved out. Nice little secluded site that will probably be in the next video. it is the site just behind us in a couple of the shots in the video below.
Lisa, Josh and Jared drove up to spend a couple of days with us last week-end. We took a day trip into Canada with them and it was a pretty cool adventure. Pearl and I plan to go back again next week, not too sure why, but I am guessing it is just so Pearl can get a T-Shirt that says CANADA AND what the heck, we're here already. Lisa and Lance have since departed up to Alaska with Lisa's parents and siblings for a 10 day adventure that I am sure will be pretty fun and exciting for them all.
This is obviously our most Northern point in our travels so far, and in a week we will turn south and head back down the coast then over to Elko, Reno, Sacramento, Riverside, Kingman and a big jump over to Texas for the winter. Our next step is LaConner which could be the best Thousand Trails campgrounds so far but it has limited sites that can accept rigs our size, so it pretty much depends on if we can get a good site. Wish us luck.....
I keep comparing our Thousand Trails locations to Cody and Britney's pictures from "FUN VALLEY" in Colorado and while it appears Thousand Trails may have had the same type of vision somewhere in the past and they are probably still trying to be a player, they are running a very distant 2nd 3rd or 4th. If we still had kids at home and could afford it, we would definitely be doing some serious time at Fun Valley in Colorado. Too Cool, I never knew places like that even existed before Pearl showed me some of the pictures on Facebook.
So far, the full time RV'ing has been as good or better than we had hoped for, at least for a couple of old Baby Boomers like us. The expenses are right in line and assuming nothing big breaks or one of us doesn't get a nasty case of what ever, it will be a great year with no regrets.
I hope you enjoy the video we posted this week. Aidan has shared a link to some Royalty Free music that he uses and I plugged in a couple of the songs into this video for a little variety (your welcome). I think there are several more songs that I will use in the future. I would still love to get something from one of our musically inclined grand-kids to use just because it would be something special.
We don't want to wish away anytime between now and then, but we are anxious to start heading south so we can see and visit with everyone along the way. See you all on the trip down to Texas.
We have been on the road since June 12th, almost 2 months so I decided to plug in some numbers into our spreadsheet just to be able to start comparing how we are doing and start making some projection of future cost and comparisons.
I have backed out any expense related to our home in Las Vegas from both months (we just received a final water bill for the Vegas property, but hopefully all those expenses are paid now). It looks like the expenses are a little more than I had expected but not by a whole lot.
I have costed out the cost of the Drone over the rest of the year ($214 for 7 months) and moved some RV camping fees we paid in advance to the actual month we will be in the site. I have also amortized our auto and rv insurance ($2100) as well as the Thousand Trails annual dues ($607) out over 12 months.
I am sure there will be new expenses popping up each month that we haven't planned for, but hopefully we will be able to keep the total monthly cost down to under $4,000, at least on average as some months will be up and hopefully some will be equally down.
If you scroll down below the budget, you will see our 2017 Itinerary along with the mileage and that is where the RV mileage numbers come from in the top section of the expense line items. I also entered the times we have (or plan to) move to a new location. Below that, the number of nights we will be staying in a Thousand Trails (TT) campsite (read FREE) along with nights we will be in a regular RV park, Walmart parking lot, or someones driveway. Some of these nights will be free and some will be expensive but on the whole, campsite expense should be fairly low with our TT membership. As you can see, for the 18 days in June it averaged $19.45 but July was only $1.63. Hopefully we can stay well under $10 average per night over the span of the year ($8.40 for June & July).
The Diesel expense can't be used to compute miles per gallon as we use a system called Aqua Hot that burns our diesel fuel to heat up hot water for showers and dish washing as well as heats the motor-home when necessary, although we will more often use electric heaters or the electric heat pump when we get free electricity which is most of the time so it is close but not exact. We also have a 10K generator that burns our diesel fuel when we use it, but that is mostly when we are boon-docking or traveling down the road and need the Air Conditioners running and now that we are trying to stay in milder climates that doesn't happen as often as previously.
We paid for the registration on the Lincoln prior to leaving Vegas so it isn't included but the RV registration is most of the June RV: repair-tags-etc $452 expense. If I am still doing the expense report next year, I will probably amortize those items out also.
If you have any questions or comments please leave them as we are definitely open to improving our budget and/or saving money. We are also open to any great places to go and check out that you may know of along out travel route even if we have to add another line item to account for it.
We were in town running some errands when Pearl spotted this Mexican restaurant so we stopped for Lunch. I ordered a salad but Pearl decided to get a Grilled Chicken Burrito. It didn't sound too healthy but we have been doing good for quite a while and we both jump off the wagon at least once a week.
Well, I had to apologize for my snap judgement. I have never heard of a burrito like this one, it had all the normal burrito stuff, but was chocked full of Cauliflower, broccoli, squash, jalapeno and I don't even know what else. She even gave me a couple of bites (broccoli and jalapenos) and they were pretty good.
The burrito was so big, she didn't even eat a fourth of it so we took it home and for dinner she heated up a couple tortillas and put the leftover burrito stuffing into them and it was a really good burrito. I don't know if we can duplicate the flavors but I am sure Pearl will give it a good try.
It has rained a little the last couple of days, so I washed the RV in the rain and it worked out pretty good. I have some dry wash stuff that I use to clean it when we don't have access to water (which most parks don't allow washing rv) and I used that today to polish it up and it worked well. You couldn't help noticing in the videos that it was pretty dirty ant had streaks all over it. Looking good now though.
I had a lot of extra video so decided to put together another video last night. I need Brynn and Jared to do some guitar numbers that I can use as background music as I have heard both of them play and they do as good and probably better that the stuff I get off the internet. I may have to look harder or start purchasing some canned music if I can find a good site, assuming I don't anything from either of my musical talented grandkids.
We are getting closer to that Canadian border each week. We are just about a week away from our 3 week stay at Birch Bay which is right on the border. The best part of all this is we are staying in 70 degree weather the whole time. I don't think we have seen anything above 70 degrees since we got to Elko, Nevada. It is our wish we stay in the 70's for the next year or longer simply by chasing the sun but not getting too close.
This video is of both Chehalis and Mt. Vernon. We like them both, but so far it appears Mt Vernon is our favorite of all the thousand trails we have stayed in to date. We were out on a hike today and found a really neat trail that cut through the forest and ended up at the pool, park, community area. It really looks to be in great shape and we will get some video of the trail and the community area soon. Every Thousand Trails has an area like this but Mt Vernon seems to be the nicest and biggest so far.
Our site has full hook-ups which is great because we can do laundry and use all the hot water we want for showers, dishes or what ever and that really makes life flow along smoothly. All the sites have electricity and water but probably less than 25% have sewer at a lot of the Thousand Trails campgrounds. I guess that for a lot of folks that only stay a few days that is fine, but when you are in the campground a week or you have to have sewer or take your camper to the sewer dump site and dump your tanks then to back to the campsite and set it up again.
I have found the secret to being able to fly the drone at the different campgrounds is to read the rules and if it doesn't say "No Drones" and none of them say that, then simply assume it if fine and fly away. No one has said a word, and lots of folks seem to enjoy watching and asking questions. So I plan to get lots more practice here. In this video, there is lots of drone footage, but I talk talk quite a bit about our thoughts so far in our adventure, including some basic financial information on expenses as well as how we like the overall RV experience. Spoiler Alert "We Like It" and like it a lot.
Steve and Jinxi mentioned they would like to know more about how the cost of living in an RV compare to living in a house, as well as the specifics of shopping, preparing meals and overall rv lifestyle. While I do address several of those items briefly, Pearl and I plan to do a more detailed blog centered around those items in the near future. Stay Tuned
Enjoy the Video and I think it is almost time to take Tinker for another walk, so we are off down the trail.
We have moved on to Chehalis Washington (40 mi north of Kelso) and pretty much kicking back and relaxing. The campsites are all in the trees so a little more privacy but still fairly close together. It has been in the 50's in the mornings but warms up to the low 70's by mid afternoon. All in All, a pretty nice campground to spend a week or so.
On Tuesday, we drove into Kelo to have lunch with everyone that was available (Lance and Joey had to work) and we fell off the diet a bit with sweet potato fries and hamburgers (I had bacon cheese burger) and it was pretty darn good. We also went to the park and let everyone fly the drone. Jordan only had an hour lunch break so she didn't make the flying time so maybe next time.
Here is about 13 minutes of drone flights (spoiler alert "No One Crashed") and there are quite a few shots of everyone but a lot of flying around the park type shots that maybe too much, but the good news is it doesn't take too long before the drone comes back around and gets a little more
footage of everyone.
We haven't done much the last week or so but I am sure we will get out and about here pretty soon and assuming I don't forget to take pictures we will post some video of what we are up to other than flying the drone. With all the trees around, often we don't receive a satellite signal and our day consist of walking the dog and reading a book. Not a bad day, but not room for a lot of video or photo shoots.
If there is anything anyone would like us to include more video of be sure to let us know, other wise you will have to choose between simply watching what I like to video, which may get pretty old to everyone except for me, or end up skipping the blog altogether.
Lettuce Wraps for dinner last night (Good Stuff)
Friday, July 7, 2017
Paradise RV Resort
We have been here for almost a week now and although it was really full up and crowded when we arrived last Sunday, it got even fuller by the 4th of July. The good news is probably 50 or more campers left Wednesday morning and it has really been nice since then.
You can tell it's Friday though as it is starting to fill up again for the week-end. We have driven around the area in several directions and I could see myself living here pretty easy. There is a really nice lake and it if full of houses right on the shore line with docks and piers out into the lake. It looks so peaceful. Pearl still doesn't like all the small windy roads and overcast weather although it has been pretty nice weather since we have been here.
The truth is we both are really loving the RV lifestyle, we will be leaving in a couple of days for another campsite just up the road a bit. We have put together our agenda from now through the first of November and it is posted at the end of the video. It is a little blurry as I couldn't format the blog page correctly so I just took a picture of a picture and used that. If it is unreadable due to the blurriness, post something in the comments and I will email you a copy that is much crisper.
Unfortunately the FAA test center postponed my drone test as no one would be in the office Wednesday due to the holiday but I did get to go in on Thursday. One thing is for sure, I need a lot more practice actually flying the drone. I am just so scared of all these trees (not to mention that big ocean). I keep thinking I am getting more confidant but as soon as it get a couple hundred yards away and I see trees all around I start getting nervous all over again until I land and my confidence suddenly comes back once it is safely on the ground. I was just the opposite when I actually flew real airplanes. In fact when I went in to take my test, the computer still shows I have a Commercial Pilots License and a Aircraft Mechanics License and they treated we with a lot more respect than I actually deserved, but I didn't mention anything about not flying in over 40 years. We all have our little secrets.
Well, it is cocktail hour here so I will post the video and I am headed to the bar. Enjoy and I will see everyone once we get to Chehalis Thousand Trails RV resort this Sunday.
Monday, July 3, 2017
Long Beach - Oceana - Paradise
We only had a couple of days each at long Beach and Oceana, mainly due to just getting our Thousand Trails membership finalized and most campsites are booked up on the week-ends. Now that we are members and can book out several months in advance we have been able to get camp sites several weeks ahead of the crowds, arriving on Sunday or Monday as everyone else is leaving and hopefully we will start getting our pick of the sites and staying for a couple of weeks at a time so we have time to explore the areas a little more.
Still loving the RV lifestyle and enjoying every minute. I really like the fact it doesn't cost anything to stay at any of the campsites and (so far) I can see our budget really holding up just fine. It helps to not have a mortgage and those extremely high summer electric and water bills. That allows for much more entertainment and dining out adventures, and we both like that. It feels like we are in the Sweet Spot of life and although it may only last a short time, it sure feels good.
As you will see in the Video, both Long Beach and Oceana were about the same type of campground with Oceana having much smaller campsites. Both are an easy 10 minute walk to the beach and we enjoyed out stays at each location. We are currently at Paradise RV park and it is much bigger (and full) but it is in a forest and not on the Ocean. We aren't too far from the swimming pool and we can hear kids playing all day long but there are lots of walking trails around as well as canoes to take out on the little lake if we so choose. I plan to do some studying up and get ready to drive up about 60 miles to a FAA office to take my test drone test on Wednesday. It will be nice to get that behind me and be able to fly in a lot more places without having to call the different airports to let them know I am flying in their area.
Diane sent an email saying she and Steve might check in occasionally and we hope they do. They once mentioned they might be interested in getting back into owning a 5th wheel RV. If that does work its way up to the top of their list of things to do, maybe we can have another family reunion at some central location somewhere, sometime, somehow. It's easy for us to vote for it as we don't have much else to do, and we plan to come drifting by each of your homes over the next year, so either way we will be seeing you soon. Count On It.
I was just watching the video prior to posting it and admiring Pearl's hair. She was getting tired of it being so long while we were in Vegas in 100 plus temperatures so she asked Melissa if she would cut and style it while we were at their home in Spring Creek. I didn't expect to really like it short but I think Melissa really did a great job and I like it a lot. Makes me pretty proud to be escorting such a lovely lady as we walk around the campground. I sometimes even put on a clean shirt and comb my hair (might even have to shave soon) so people won't think i'm a knucklehead harassing her instead of her husband (harassing her). Thanks Melissa!
Enjoy the Video, I sure enjoyed making it.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Maybe a Little too Confident a Little Too Soon!
I have been practicing with the Drone for a week or two now and have been doing a lot of studying on the computer to learn the rules and regulations, but I just discovered that if I don't want to crash it in the Ocean, the Forest or anywhere else I need to do a lot more flying.
A couple of days ago, I took the drone down to the ocean to fly it on the beach and get some neat pictures and video. All went well until the wind started picking up and I realized the battery was running down a little faster than normal fighting the wind.
The video covers it pretty well, and although it makes me look a little foolish, I learned a good lesson and realized I need a lot more practice flying and learning all of the features of the drone. While I work on learning some of these things, you can enjoy the video.
It looks pretty easy on video, but even though it is a drone and it has lots of features, you can still loose it or crash it if you aren't paying attention.
ENJOY
Monday, June 26, 2017
Practicing with the Drone
I have had the drone for almost a week now and it really is fun. I have discovered that there are a lot of restrictions flying the drone though. The main one is that if I am within 5 miles of an airport, I have to contact the airport manager or control tower to let them know I will be flying my drone in their air space. That is a big pain in the backside. as there are airports everywhere.
If I get a commercial drone pilot license, then I don't have to do a lot of these things as I can simply check the aviation charts and locate the restricted or controlled airspace and stay out of that area. That is much easier as most restricted airspace is above the 400 foot ceiling that drones are allowed to fly in, so except for airports in really big and busy areas, I can fly most places. There are still quite a few other restrictions, but I should be able to figure them out and follow the rules without too much trouble.
It will take a month or two to get certified but hopefully I can get it done and keep flying the drone as it is a lot of fun and as I get a little better at flying it and operating the camera, I can film some really nice video since we are in such a pretty part of america.
Enjoy the video, and I will work on getting my license and more video while we are here in the Pacific North West.
We have really been enjoying life in the Pacific Northwest. The temp has been perfect and the rain stopped once we arrived. I heard it is in the 110 degree range back in Las Vegas area and the folks are really suffering but not here.
Lance smoked up some Salmon for dinner a couple of days ago and it was great, he even cooked the corn on the cob on the smoker and it was excellent. I couldn't be more proud of that young man even if most of the credit should go to Lisa and those 5 kids. The grandkids got a fathers day card for Lance and one for me and each one of them wrote something personal on my card and it caught me off guard a bit and really made me feel good to read it. I am not a big card type guy but that is one I will save along with a couple from Pearl and some notes from the kids when they were young.
We have learned a new game called "Spike Ball", and if it doesn't kill us (Pearl has a broken or at least bent toe from it) it will definitely help burn up some of the calories we have been indulging in. You can't really tell how much fun it is with Pearl and I playing, but there is a couple of videos with the kids playing where you can kind of see how it works and how much effort it takes to win.
I got my drone a couple of days ago and finally got a little video with it. I only fly it up about 20 feet so far and just in our camp site but once I get to a clear spot and get a little more courage, we should be able to start getting some impressive video. It is definitely a lot of fun to fly but my old flying experience didn't help a bit.
We were talking about the house we sold in Vegas and asking each other if we missed it and we both agreed it is a non issue and we are loving this RV lifestyle where we can go and see the kids more regular. I asked Alex to try and get a couple of his buddies and come visit us in Oregon and we would rent one of the cabins for him for a day or two or three. He seemed to have an interest and if he can get some free time, I am thinking we just might see him up here in the next month or so. We sure hope so.
Steve and Jinxi own a condo in Eugene (or somewhere around there) so I am thinking we might be able to see them or maybe a kid or two or three sometime over the summer up here somewhere. The plan is to go down the coast and stop in to see Pearl's sister and other family around Sacramento this fall as the temps start falling as we head to South Texas for the winter. We are planning to hook up with lots of Texas family also in the November December time frame with just a little luck.
Enjoy the Video and feel free to leave your comments
Saturday, June 17, 2017
We made it to Spring Creek without many issues except for a rain shower. The trailers were tarped down pretty good so no water damage in Nevada, but by the time we got to Bend Oregon it was raining hard and the tarps had started to loosen up causing things to get pretty wet and a little dirty. Hopefully things will clean up pretty good though.
Melissa had a great dinner made when we got to her house and it was delicious (we were starving) and plentiful. Pearl and I went to bed early since we have been on the go for several days to get moved out, and loaded up for the trip.
The second day in Spring Creek was pretty relaxing, and we got to go out to dinner at Ronnie & Melissa's favorite restaurant (a sushi restaurant) and we all had a delicious meal. Alex wanted to go to McDonald's but changed his mind after tasting how good the food was, I wish I had thought to take some pictures of it as it was that good.
Unloaded some stuff in Spring Creek and headed out to Oregon. The video shows part of the trip up to the Thousand Trails campground we stayed in (Bend/Sunriver RV Campground). It was a great trip and the campground was very roomy and nice but the next leg up and over the mountain on highway 22 to Salem Oregon was really magnificent. It rained and rained hard, but the road through the mountains was simply Outstanding. I haven't checked the video yet but it has to be really good. I will post it in a couple of days.
If I can remember, I will also get some video the kids and grandkids while we are here. I totally forgot when we all met and unloaded the trailers. I have totally forgotten every time someone has come over to visit and Sunday we are all meeting at Lance and Lisa's for a home cooked Salomon feast that Lance is preparing for Father's Day. Hopefully I won't forget again but it is certainly possible.
Until next time, enjoy the video and just remember that I am just learning how to do this stuff so it is still pretty rough around the edges. Hopefully I will get a little better at it and Pearl will still approve the drone purchase and I can have a really fun time flying the drone with the camera and editing my aerial photography....
Sunday, June 11, 2017
We are getting real close to being moved out of the house and this afternoon I am hoping we can finish up moving into the RV and hitting the road about the time the sun comes up tomorrow.
Our application for the Thousand Trails camping pass is almost finished and we were able to make a couple of reservations up in the Pacific Northwest. It appears that it is just about the peak of the season up there (which is a good time to be in Oregon or Washington) but we may have some trouble getting into the parks we want as they are full.
Now that we have the pass we can make reservations up to 180 days in advance so I am thinking we may be able to stay ahead of the crowd for most reservations in July, August and September if we get started planning out our route.
Hope to post an update on our location and what all is going on in Spring Creek after we have had a day or two to visit with Ron, Melissa and Alex. My understanding is they may have some interesting news to share so stay tuned to see just what is going on up in Northern Nevada.
We are hoping the third time is a charm, as we have entered into contract for a 3rd time with a couple to purchase our home. The Professor and his wife seem to really love the house and have spent over a thousand bucks in appraisals, inspections even installed an upgrade on the septic system. But they asked to back up the transfer date a week just a couple of days ago so who knows what is going on with them.
Anyway, we are going on the assumption that they will be able to get act together and follow through with the purchase on the 15th of June and we will need to be moved out of the house and into the RV. We have given the RV the name "Mosey" partly in honor of her older Sister "Cozy" and partly to the fact that that is how we get 'er done as we "Mosey" on down the road.
I have started trying to learn how to edit videos a little bit so as we are traveling around, we can take lots of pictures and videos and share them. If you watch them, you may have to put up with some pretty goofey editing and transitioning effects but hopefully the content will be interesting. I may have to hook up with Aiden and get some pointers from a trained professional. I am sure he will be able to give me some tips and techniques to help it go a little more smoother.
I hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day Week-end.
We are getting closer to having the sale on the house finalized and trying to figure out just how and where we will be traveling the next year or two before settling down in a new home and new retirement location.
Some of the main areas we will want to travel to are:
Pacific Northwest to view the the beautiful country and the Northwest Caddels
Southern California to get some time in the beautiful weather, ocean beaches and the California Caddels
Texas to check out south Texas winter weather and stay away from the cold and the Texas Caddels & Canadas
New England just because we haven't been there and want to see it
Florida to winter in the nice warm weather in 2018 or 2019 (most likely)
Northern Nevada to visit with friends and Family every chance we get in Reno and Spring Creek (our new official address will be Ronnie & Melissa's ) to do a little maintenance and pick up the mail. Ronnie and Melissa are checking out locations to retire to in a few years, but until then we are hoping to be able to drop in for a few days on occasion to catch up with their projects and simply decompress a bit.
We have decided to join the Thousand Trails campground group. We purchased a membership and should get all the paperwork in a couple of weeks, but the main highlight on how it works is that now that we are members, we pay $600 a year and get to camp free all year at any of their 80 plus rv parks scattered around the country (in exactly the areas we want to travel to). I have attached a map of their locations (hopefully the link works)
There are a lot of additional benefits that allow our immediate family to also camp for FREE as well as rent their cabins, yurts for about 50% off. Once we get all the paperwork and understand it better we will be able to post more specifics on the family benefits.
Many of the Thousand Trails campground are older and dated but many if not most are in the places we want to be and even though we won't be camping there exclusively, we will be able to save a hugh amount of money by staying free in these parks and not paying for RV sites when we can. WE love FREE
All good things must end, we had to leave Ventura (and the beach) this morning and it was a bit of a problem. When we parked there was about 8 or 10 feet empty in the camp site behind us so it wasn't too hard to maneuver into place. But a different camper had set up and was less than a foot from the line, so we had about 3 feet total to try and get out of our spot.
I don't know if we could have made it or not, but luckily the folks behind us came out just as we were about start maneuvering and I asked it they could move their tow vehicle so we could try and get out without damaging anything and they happily accommodated us. Took less than 20 seconds once they moved their pickup.
We had our windshield replaced last (2016) January. It had a 1 year warranty so naturally it popped out from one of the corners a couple of days ago after the warranty had expired. I made several phone calls but no luck, so we have a windshield technician coming the house tomorrow morning to put it back in place. It juggles but doesn't seem to be in danger of popping out completely and we are staying on the interstate highway hoping it will be a smooth and uneventful drive.
We are 100 miles from Las Vegas and the traffic is backed up for miles going the opposite direction because there is a Motor home burned completely to the the ground with nothing but the metal frame smoldering. The firemen are still squirting water on it. WOW that is a eye opener.. We have now driven probably 5 miles and can't see the end of the traffic jam. Hope the individuals are ok as it was completely burned down. (the traffic was backed up for 9 miles before we got to the end of it)
Here is the view of the Burned Down RV we passed on the way home today. If you view the short video in Full Screen Mode, you can clearly see the fire trucks and look behind the white car going the opposite direction as us and you will see the metal frame of the RV sitting on the wheels and that is all that remains of someones dream. Hopefully they were able to pull over and get out in time and since it is sitting on the road, I am pretty sure they probably just stopped and got out asap once they discovered their vehicle was on fire.
We left Riverside CA. this morning and was thinking we would be headed back to Las Vegas with a couple of stop off on the way, but the weather man said to expect High Winds all day today and peaking tonight at over 50 mph (gust to 80) in the high desert area between Riverside and Vegas.
I have heard about this campground (parking lot) right on the beach in Ventura for a while and we decided to drive the 100 miles down the coast to see if we could find a spot. As it turned out we got the very last spot out of about 125 total. I didn't think there were any but as we drove down the highway, we found one and unhooked the car, did a little maneuvering and here we are.
Will be windy today, it's currently High Tide, but I think we have quite a bit of beach once the wind dies down and Low Tide arrives. We are planning to stay 4 days, we have our bikes and a bike path 5 feet from the coach to Ventura so let the fun begin.
Pearl always wants to collect rocks from different places we go. I thought she had overloaded herself this time as she had about 6 of them and we still had to climb up to our campsite. It is fairly easy with both hands free but I had my doubts with 6 rocks. As usual she came through with flying colors.
The link above is to a movie Aidan made for a class he took last year at Riverside Community College. He had to do the script, acting, filming, music & editing and I think he did one heck of a job. This year he is assigned to a team that will be using professional equipment and doing the same thing.
Very Impressive Aidan.
We had a fun day visiting with Steve & Jinxi catching up on their plans for the future. Lots going on in the Southern (and Central) California Caddel family.
I know several of you have asked what the California Caddel Clan (CCC) has on their agenda for the future so I thought I would try and do a short synopsis of some of their Plans and Dreams that they shared with us. I will undoubtedly get some of it wrong and confused so take what I write here with that in mind and forgive me if I get some of it wrong. Maybe we will get some updates and corrections in the comments section from some of the members of the CCC
The ladies seem to have the biggest agendas so here is what I remember about Jinxi and Brynn
Jinxi just received her master's degree in psychology and and plans to continue with her studies specializing in Drug & Alcohol Abuse, Addiction, Counseling and Education. I think there are another couple of years of schooling left for her Doctoral Program, with the last year being in Portland Oregon. Both Steve and Jinxi love the Portland area and it seems there is a pretty good chance they will end up permanently relocating in the Portland area. Jinxi will be licensed and certified in this area of psychology and wants to do work in this field. I think her dream job would be with helping elite athletes. Jinxi herself is a pretty hi-level swimmer and still regularly competes at a pretty strong level with both men and women competitions.
Brynn is finishing up her Degree at UC Davis but instead of graduating this spring she is taking another semester to participate in a couple of more advanced classes. If I understand it correctly she is majoring in Advanced Mathematics and Physics. She plans to continue her education several more years but not sure which institute she will go to next. I think Brynn is wanting to focus on research and I have heard Canada has some select institutes that she is interested in, so stand by for more info on her next stage of learning.
Steve finished his law degree many years ago and didn't plan on sitting in any more classrooms, but you can see he is getting a taste for some higher education also. He is thinking about following along in Jinxi's direction and taking some of the same classes for Drug and Alcohol abuse and counseling as he said "She is studying all the time and I am surrounded by all this information so I am getting the education anyway" so I think he figured he just as well make it official and get his licensing and certifications also. My guess is they may very well open their own business along these lines sometime in the next few years up in the Portland area.
Shea is completing his 2 years at Riverside Community College and he is following in some of the same general areas as his mom. We didn't get to see Aidan or Shea as they were in school so I didn't get as much info as I would have liked, but my understanding he is wanting to be a Physical Therapist. He is wanting to work with patients who are recovering from surgery, or other injuries and disabilities. After he receives his bachelor's degree in kinesiology, he will start working on his master degree, and then eventually his PhD which is necessary to be a licensed physical therapist. The last time I talked to him, I think he even mentioned he thought it would be fun if he and his mom had their own business; with Shea training the physical body and Jinxi helping with the mental portion of the athlete. Sounds like a full service training facility.
Aidan is taking classes centered around the film industry. As you can tell from the movie that I posted the link to above that he is really learning a lot. That movie was done with his cell phone. As Jinxi told us, you can see how he sets the scenes up, and the different filming techniques he used that most of us don't really think of when we make our home videos. Aidan has been trained in the use of the expensive professional cameras and now he can check them out from the college to use in making more films as he advances to higher levels and projects.
I hope I got most of my facts correct and if nothing else at least by typing it out it helps me keep it a little more clear in my own mind.
