Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Casita

I remember a while back the CAR GUYS on NPR did a show about ladies who name their cars. I've never named my car, but I really wanted to come up with a name for the motor home, and I think its going to be Casita and her decor' will either be southwestern or Mexican.
She needs a decor. She looks somewhat like a sterile hotel room now without personality and warmth, so a great Navajo blanket on the couch, rugs on the floor, pictures on the walls will spice her up and give her some personality.
She needs more than decor. She has been sitting for a couple of years and every working part will need to be upgraded and maintained, oiled or lubed, shined, polished or buffed. Tires might be on the menu as while they look good they have been sitting. And one of the biggest expense, we are going to add is more batteries and a solar panels so we don't have to use our noisy generator or be stuck needing to park in those parking lot campgrounds, just to get electricity.
Because of this and because our house is going to become vacant the end of September, Roy has decided to go home early, so he can get the house ready for the furniture that we have accumulated here and do the maintenance on Casita so we can take off as soon as possible after I get home. (Do we sound anxious)?
I've learned a lot by joining some great boards; RV.net and Escapee are two of my favorites and I have gotten some great advice and have learned so much from folks who are living my dream. They have taught me a new language. Boondocking is a favorite. To boondock is to dry camp at sites that do not offer electricity or water or even sanitation. They also call it boondocking when parking free at Wal-Mart, but I don't like the sound of that at all. I would rather not have to do that. I've also learned from folks who live and sometimes work in their RV full time. My new best online friend is George who is living his own dream and letting us share his daily life via his own blog. I love his pictures and his adventures and I so want to follow him and his adventures. He does give nightly GPS listings so we could actually do that. He mostly boondocks and always takes some great pictures of this travels.
LISTS
Oh yes, I have become a list maker. Let me see, I have a list of the required maintenance on Casita. I have a list of free campgrounds. I have a list of places in every state where I want to go. I have lists of what to pack in the RV. I have lists of things to do before pulling away from each campsite, as that’s important to remember. I have lists of things we would love to have and things we would like to have. I have, don’t faint, a budget list so we can keep to our financial plan, spends mine, bank his.
The budget is important, as traveling isn’t going to be cheap. Gas is going to be very expensive, and the more we travel during the day, the more gas we will use. Since we will be under no time constraints at all, I might do as friend George and limit our day to under a hundred miles, hell under fifty miles. Are we in a hurry to get anywhere? I don’t think so. Another expense is going to be campgrounds. If we have one with full service, electricity, water, dump and Internet, we can plan on spending up to .00 a night. If we do that every night that will add up at the end of the month to way more than I want to spend. A better plan is to boondock for 2 or 3 nights and the stay where we can get recharged and filled up for one night. Food shouldn’t be much of an expense as there will not be a lot of eating out and we can save money by careful planning.
So, now all I need is a map and a yellow highlighter so I can trace our trip. It might come right down to nothing more than a flip of the coin, heads we go left and tails we go right.

No comments: