Well, we finally did it and applied for an Amazon Affiliate status and have started to insert links into the video descriptions on Youtube, so I thought I would try one here to see just how it works.
Link to our Amazon Affiliate Account
We haven't got to test it as yet, but if anyone is thinking about purchasing something from Amazon in the next few days, would you consider clicking the link above to take you to amazon web site. It should take you to the doggie poop bag page and from there you can go anywhere you want to make your purchase and we should get some kind of kick back from Amazon and you will simply pay what ever the regular price is for your purchase.
Easy Peeze, and we get some cash, not sure what we will do with the cash, I think you have to have a $100 balance to get a check so it may a year or two before we get anything. If our account starts getting credits we will post it here so you will kind of know how it works.
Thanks for trying the link, if it is too cumbersome no problem just do your amazon normally and don't worry about it as it's just for fun to see if it will work. I don't think it will work for me to use it myself but you can bet I am going to give it a try. :-)
Bob and Pearl
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.
Saturday, February 17, 2018
January Expense Report
I am a little late posting the January Expense report over here on the Blog this month. We had a pretty inexpensive month since we didn't have to purchase any Diesel Fuel or Campsite expenses. We aren't really too compatible with the South Texas weather or terrain. It has been cool and windy almost the total time we have been down here. The good news is we only have 3 weeks left before we head north.
We are actually thinking about leaving a week early and going to Big Bend National Park and maybe even staying at the Hol-I-Day rv park where daddy and Beverly always wintered back when they had COZY. We tried to get their exact site (36) but it is a popular site and unavailable. It will pretty much depend on my trip to the dentist if we get to leave early and go to Del Rio and Big Bend.
I need to just get my teeth cleaned and a general dental checkup and I am going to do it in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. We have gotten a lot of positive feed back on this dentist (Dr. Dan :-) and depending on what he says I may or may not have some implants put in. But if it is too costly or I am not comfortable with his skill set, tenderness and cleanliness then I will settle for a cleaning and we will head to Del Rio. We both want to go there so we just might make it.
Our luck has ran out as far as inexpensive as far as February goes. Pearl decided she wanted a new Ipad, and the car is making a funny noise (its in the shop as I write this) and we have been going out for lunch and dinner like there is no tomorrow. I am guessing we will be over budget in several areas this month but we have been pretty lucky all year and nothing too expensive has popped up so far to chew up the maintenance part of the budget so it was a little due.
That just about covers our month on January and a big part of February, wish me luck at the dentist and hopefully we will make it to Big Bend National Park for some good weather and vibes that daddy and Beverly may have left down here for us to connect up with.
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We met up with a couple that follows our Youtube channel a couple of weeks ago. They live up north of Dallas and came down to South Padre Island for a vacation and emailed us asking if we would like to meet up with them and visit about RVs. We did and decided to do a video about their trip to Alaska they plan to take in May. Here is that video, we had a lot of fun making it.
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The General Manager of one of the RV parks down here saw the above interview with Charles and Cande and contacted us to see if we would like to come to their customer appreciation day and interview the full time RV'ers there and post it on our Youtube Channel. We think it might be a lot of fun so next Tuesday we will be doing several more of these type videos. Hopefully we will get a little better with practice and make it a kind of regular event at different campgrounds, as long as we can find volunteers to do the videos with us.
If you have any ideas for questions to ask these seasoned full time rv'ers please leave them in the comments section here or on Youtube and we will try to get you an answer.
We are actually thinking about leaving a week early and going to Big Bend National Park and maybe even staying at the Hol-I-Day rv park where daddy and Beverly always wintered back when they had COZY. We tried to get their exact site (36) but it is a popular site and unavailable. It will pretty much depend on my trip to the dentist if we get to leave early and go to Del Rio and Big Bend.
I need to just get my teeth cleaned and a general dental checkup and I am going to do it in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. We have gotten a lot of positive feed back on this dentist (Dr. Dan :-) and depending on what he says I may or may not have some implants put in. But if it is too costly or I am not comfortable with his skill set, tenderness and cleanliness then I will settle for a cleaning and we will head to Del Rio. We both want to go there so we just might make it.
Our luck has ran out as far as inexpensive as far as February goes. Pearl decided she wanted a new Ipad, and the car is making a funny noise (its in the shop as I write this) and we have been going out for lunch and dinner like there is no tomorrow. I am guessing we will be over budget in several areas this month but we have been pretty lucky all year and nothing too expensive has popped up so far to chew up the maintenance part of the budget so it was a little due.
That just about covers our month on January and a big part of February, wish me luck at the dentist and hopefully we will make it to Big Bend National Park for some good weather and vibes that daddy and Beverly may have left down here for us to connect up with.
=================================================================
We met up with a couple that follows our Youtube channel a couple of weeks ago. They live up north of Dallas and came down to South Padre Island for a vacation and emailed us asking if we would like to meet up with them and visit about RVs. We did and decided to do a video about their trip to Alaska they plan to take in May. Here is that video, we had a lot of fun making it.
===================================================================
The General Manager of one of the RV parks down here saw the above interview with Charles and Cande and contacted us to see if we would like to come to their customer appreciation day and interview the full time RV'ers there and post it on our Youtube Channel. We think it might be a lot of fun so next Tuesday we will be doing several more of these type videos. Hopefully we will get a little better with practice and make it a kind of regular event at different campgrounds, as long as we can find volunteers to do the videos with us.
If you have any ideas for questions to ask these seasoned full time rv'ers please leave them in the comments section here or on Youtube and we will try to get you an answer.
Monday, February 12, 2018
Anyone considering traveling to Alaska ?
We have been down here in south Texas for a couple of months now and we are ready to hit the road just as soon as it looks like the cold weather is warming up. The sad part is I am guessing we still have a month or so to go.
We had dinner with a couple that lives down here locally and I asked them about the dentist in Mexico and if they had use them. It appears most everyone has confidence in going across the border and having their dental work done. It cost me almost a thousand buck the last time I had a crown put in back in Nevada, The going rate here in Mexico is about $200 and potentially one day service if your lucky...
I made an appointment to have my teeth cleaned and maybe some more work if there is a comfort level, but I am a little bit concerned about sanitation and catching something that doesn't wash off in the process. I am not above walking out it it doesn't look right, but hopefully I get in and out with no permanent damage. Might even get some good video for the Youtube channel or maybe not now that I think about it.
We received a letter from one of the couples that follow the Youtube Channel saying they were coming down to South Padre Island and would like to meet up with us while they were here and of course we jumped at the chance. Their campsite was right on the Bay so that is where we met up with them to go and have some lunch. We had breaded shrimp and margaritas overlooking the Gulf and it was great. Not too healthy but delicious.
South Padre Island is a beautiful area and we need to go there more often. We shot a video of us visiting and discussing their plans to travel to Alaska this summer. We got so caught up in it that we have moved our plans to RV up through Alaska to next year (2019). East Coast this year and Alaska next year. Sounds Great to Us.
Here is the interview we did with Charles and Cande, Hope you enjoy it and if your up for it, start making some plans to join us.
We had dinner with a couple that lives down here locally and I asked them about the dentist in Mexico and if they had use them. It appears most everyone has confidence in going across the border and having their dental work done. It cost me almost a thousand buck the last time I had a crown put in back in Nevada, The going rate here in Mexico is about $200 and potentially one day service if your lucky...
I made an appointment to have my teeth cleaned and maybe some more work if there is a comfort level, but I am a little bit concerned about sanitation and catching something that doesn't wash off in the process. I am not above walking out it it doesn't look right, but hopefully I get in and out with no permanent damage. Might even get some good video for the Youtube channel or maybe not now that I think about it.
We received a letter from one of the couples that follow the Youtube Channel saying they were coming down to South Padre Island and would like to meet up with us while they were here and of course we jumped at the chance. Their campsite was right on the Bay so that is where we met up with them to go and have some lunch. We had breaded shrimp and margaritas overlooking the Gulf and it was great. Not too healthy but delicious.
South Padre Island is a beautiful area and we need to go there more often. We shot a video of us visiting and discussing their plans to travel to Alaska this summer. We got so caught up in it that we have moved our plans to RV up through Alaska to next year (2019). East Coast this year and Alaska next year. Sounds Great to Us.
Here is the interview we did with Charles and Cande, Hope you enjoy it and if your up for it, start making some plans to join us.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Discussion with Pearl on some of her Concerns
Today we sat down to discuss some of the major concerns we feel many folks may have concerning the decision to live full time in an RV. We are staying at Tropic Winds campground which is located on the Gulf of Mexico in South Texas. While there are definitely constant Tropical Winds blowing, we have had considerable rain over the last few days. I feel it should be called TROPIC RAIN campground.
We didn't close several of the windows and we had rain coming inside the camper from several windows and vents but we were too focused on our discussion in making the video, that we didn't notice the rain pouring in right behind us. I doubt you will be as focused on the discussion as we obviously were, but maybe you will get a chuckle out it or the crazy rain storm. One of our neighbors said their rain gauge showed 5 inches in just over an hour.
Stay tuned for the ending, or just skip to the ending if you get bored to see what happens when Pearl leaves early in the car to secure our next campsite,about 20 miles away, leaving me to finish packing up and drive the RV to meet up with her. Obviously I was a little late in meeting her.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the video and hopefully everyone is nice and dry as you are watching.
We didn't close several of the windows and we had rain coming inside the camper from several windows and vents but we were too focused on our discussion in making the video, that we didn't notice the rain pouring in right behind us. I doubt you will be as focused on the discussion as we obviously were, but maybe you will get a chuckle out it or the crazy rain storm. One of our neighbors said their rain gauge showed 5 inches in just over an hour.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the video and hopefully everyone is nice and dry as you are watching.
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Califlower Pizza Crust
As many of you know, we are trying to maintain a healthy diet (most of the time). Yesterday, Pearl asked for suggestions for dinner and I requested a Pizza (it was my birthday). In her effort to keep it a more healthy choice, Pearl looked up a Califlower Pizza Crust pizza recipe and found one.
She was going to make it a vegetable pizza but since it was my birthday I asked for a little meat on it (its a guy thing). Anyway, to make a long story short. It was Great and we will be doing it again, I am sure.
The only issue, and it was a minor one, was the Califlower had a little too much moisture left in it and the pizza slices were hard to pick up. We ate the first bite off the point of each pizza slice with a fork then were able to pick up the rest.
A viewer from our YouTube channel gave us her solution to the recipe which is almost identical to the one she uses. (wrap the Califlower rice in a paper towel and squeeze out any excess moisture prior to mixing into batter)
The pizza is super healthy (vegetarian version) and very good, if you are courageous enough to try it, I am sure you will like it. If you do try it, please give your comments below to let us know how you liked it and if the paper towel suggestion worked.
She was going to make it a vegetable pizza but since it was my birthday I asked for a little meat on it (its a guy thing). Anyway, to make a long story short. It was Great and we will be doing it again, I am sure.
The only issue, and it was a minor one, was the Califlower had a little too much moisture left in it and the pizza slices were hard to pick up. We ate the first bite off the point of each pizza slice with a fork then were able to pick up the rest.
A viewer from our YouTube channel gave us her solution to the recipe which is almost identical to the one she uses. (wrap the Califlower rice in a paper towel and squeeze out any excess moisture prior to mixing into batter)
The pizza is super healthy (vegetarian version) and very good, if you are courageous enough to try it, I am sure you will like it. If you do try it, please give your comments below to let us know how you liked it and if the paper towel suggestion worked.
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Medina Lake then down to the Rio Grande Valley
We are down in the Rio Grande Valley now and the weather is nice. It has been windy, but I think that is normal down here. It hasn't hit freezing yet but has gone into the 30's a couple of times at night. We often use the heater in the morning and the air conditioner just a couple of hours later. The saying here is that this is the only place where you can get Frost Bite and Sun Burn in the same week. That pretty much covers the winter weather situation in just a couple of words.
That being said, overall the weather has been great. We get to walk the dog everyday and usually in shorts and t-shirt. The only downside for me is the RV Parks are all pretty much asphalt, cement and a little grass. Unfortunately there are not situated on lakes, forest or anything like that, which would be much more to our liking. We do get to meet lots of friendly people and there plenty of activities going on in each park, but we have to venture out of the park a lot more to keep entertained, as shuffleboard, pickleball, dances and pot-luck dinners are nice but not exactly what we enjoy doing a lot of.
Luckily, we have found quite a few places to go to and things to do, so it has worked out pretty well. We briefly showcased a couple of the places we have visited in this video and as we find more and varied interesting things to do, we will probably be able to add some fun and color to the our activity videos.
We will be in the Rio Grande Valley until the middle of March, when we head back North. We have our route and schedule planned out from here up to North Eastern Missouri arriving there in late May for the Escapees RV Rally which we like to go to (usually in Tucson AZ). From there, we are hoping to meet up with Robert and Esme in Indianapolis, checking out Niagara Falls, New England, several Civil War sites and Canada before heading down toward Florida for next winter.
Without much more adieu, I give you our next video as it paints a much better picture of where we're at and what we have been up to. Hope you enjoy and hopefully the weather stays nice and we get to do lots of fun stuff which we will definitely try to get some pictures/video to post. Thanks for watching and Stay Warm, where ever you at.
Bob & Pearl
That being said, overall the weather has been great. We get to walk the dog everyday and usually in shorts and t-shirt. The only downside for me is the RV Parks are all pretty much asphalt, cement and a little grass. Unfortunately there are not situated on lakes, forest or anything like that, which would be much more to our liking. We do get to meet lots of friendly people and there plenty of activities going on in each park, but we have to venture out of the park a lot more to keep entertained, as shuffleboard, pickleball, dances and pot-luck dinners are nice but not exactly what we enjoy doing a lot of.
Luckily, we have found quite a few places to go to and things to do, so it has worked out pretty well. We briefly showcased a couple of the places we have visited in this video and as we find more and varied interesting things to do, we will probably be able to add some fun and color to the our activity videos.
We will be in the Rio Grande Valley until the middle of March, when we head back North. We have our route and schedule planned out from here up to North Eastern Missouri arriving there in late May for the Escapees RV Rally which we like to go to (usually in Tucson AZ). From there, we are hoping to meet up with Robert and Esme in Indianapolis, checking out Niagara Falls, New England, several Civil War sites and Canada before heading down toward Florida for next winter.
Without much more adieu, I give you our next video as it paints a much better picture of where we're at and what we have been up to. Hope you enjoy and hopefully the weather stays nice and we get to do lots of fun stuff which we will definitely try to get some pictures/video to post. Thanks for watching and Stay Warm, where ever you at.
Saturday, January 6, 2018
December Expenses and Starting a New Year
It's really hard to comprehend that we have been living full time in the RV for 7 months now. Traveling up and down the Pacific Coast seems so long ago now and we are a little sad that it will be more than a year before we get back into the western part of the USA to visit the kids and grand-kids again. We definitely enjoyed all the family time we had up and down the coast visiting everyone and hot-rodding Ronnie's Camero was a blast. Thanks to all and look forward to seeing everyone in 2019.
Special thanks to all of our friends and family that read, comment and follow our adventure here on the blog. We very much enjoy it when someone leaves a question or comment so don't hesitate to say hi so what ever is on your mind, down in the comments section below if your so inclined.
Currently we are down in Weslaco Texas bouncing between a couple of different parks, staying 3 weeks at each one then moving. We spent the day at Padre Island a few days ago and it is pretty nice, as Steve and Lance will vouch for as we spent a month on Padre Island in our 24' motorhome back in 1978 that we all really enjoyed.
There is a beach RV parking area that Pearl and I are thinking about staying at for a few days but haven't decided for sure yet. When we parked on the Beach in California for a week last spring, it really covered everything in salt and was a pain to get clean again.
The campsites are all fairly standard in the Thousand Trails, Encore Parks here and while there is plenty of room and lots of activities, I don't really enjoy them all that much, as I much prefer being nearer the ocean, lake, forest or river. It's fine for spending the winter I guess, but we will definitely be ready to get back on the road this spring and explore new and different campsites.
We are scheduled to get to Branson Missouri this Spring then go to a RV rally in upper Missouri later in the month before heading across to Indianapolis to visit Robert and Family. We will head up to Niagara Falls and the New England area during the summer and head down to Florida for the winter. I am sure I will way too soon be sitting in Florida writing the same thing that it is hard to believe that 2018 went by so fast.
I plan to do a short video or two showing a little bit of the Medina Lake campground where we were camped at in late November/December and where we will stop back at in the Spring, along with some drone footage I shot here at Country Sunshine where we are at currently.
There are lots of RV'ers here now, the drone footage shows the park fairly empty 2 weeks ago, but our neighbors said just wait until after Christmas and all the Canadians will start showing up and they have showed up in droves. It is really filling up fast as I write this the first week in January.
Our most viewed videos seem be the ones that show or discuss finances, so even though I was thinking about ending the expense videos fairly soon, I have received numerous request to continue them over on YouTube. I see they are constantly the top viewed videos even here on the blog so here is the latest spreadsheet on what it cost actually us to live full time in the RV for December 2017
At the end of the video, I added a section where I back out all of the expenses that are not absolutely mandatory and leave room for some personal adjusting up or down depending your personal situation. According to those numbers, a couple could possibly live this lifestyle on $25,000 a year assuming they were debt free and didn't spend a lot of money on extras (really no money on extras)
Hopefully, we will have a video of us and the more recent campgrounds we have stayed at pretty soon, but for now here is the December Expense Spreadsheet for those that haven't seen it already on YouTube.
Thanks for Visiting
Special thanks to all of our friends and family that read, comment and follow our adventure here on the blog. We very much enjoy it when someone leaves a question or comment so don't hesitate to say hi so what ever is on your mind, down in the comments section below if your so inclined.
Currently we are down in Weslaco Texas bouncing between a couple of different parks, staying 3 weeks at each one then moving. We spent the day at Padre Island a few days ago and it is pretty nice, as Steve and Lance will vouch for as we spent a month on Padre Island in our 24' motorhome back in 1978 that we all really enjoyed.
There is a beach RV parking area that Pearl and I are thinking about staying at for a few days but haven't decided for sure yet. When we parked on the Beach in California for a week last spring, it really covered everything in salt and was a pain to get clean again.
The campsites are all fairly standard in the Thousand Trails, Encore Parks here and while there is plenty of room and lots of activities, I don't really enjoy them all that much, as I much prefer being nearer the ocean, lake, forest or river. It's fine for spending the winter I guess, but we will definitely be ready to get back on the road this spring and explore new and different campsites.
We are scheduled to get to Branson Missouri this Spring then go to a RV rally in upper Missouri later in the month before heading across to Indianapolis to visit Robert and Family. We will head up to Niagara Falls and the New England area during the summer and head down to Florida for the winter. I am sure I will way too soon be sitting in Florida writing the same thing that it is hard to believe that 2018 went by so fast.
I plan to do a short video or two showing a little bit of the Medina Lake campground where we were camped at in late November/December and where we will stop back at in the Spring, along with some drone footage I shot here at Country Sunshine where we are at currently.
There are lots of RV'ers here now, the drone footage shows the park fairly empty 2 weeks ago, but our neighbors said just wait until after Christmas and all the Canadians will start showing up and they have showed up in droves. It is really filling up fast as I write this the first week in January.
Our most viewed videos seem be the ones that show or discuss finances, so even though I was thinking about ending the expense videos fairly soon, I have received numerous request to continue them over on YouTube. I see they are constantly the top viewed videos even here on the blog so here is the latest spreadsheet on what it cost actually us to live full time in the RV for December 2017
At the end of the video, I added a section where I back out all of the expenses that are not absolutely mandatory and leave room for some personal adjusting up or down depending your personal situation. According to those numbers, a couple could possibly live this lifestyle on $25,000 a year assuming they were debt free and didn't spend a lot of money on extras (really no money on extras)
Hopefully, we will have a video of us and the more recent campgrounds we have stayed at pretty soon, but for now here is the December Expense Spreadsheet for those that haven't seen it already on YouTube.
Thanks for Visiting
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