Fortnight in Texas

Fortnight in Texas. We now have two complete weeks under our belts as full time RV’ers.  The days go quickly and we are starting to get more comfortable as we figure out how to build our routines on the road.  Forming our new routines has been the most difficult adjustment for us, crazy as it sounds, there is just not enough time in the day.  We have been adjusting well to our new surroundings, and learning how to live in our new environment.  Everything just takes a bit longer to execute: drive time, parking, fueling/price shopping diesel, converting our sofa to our bed, adding the 10 layers of linens to make bed, disassembling the bed in the morning, padding dishware with bubble layers before driving, taking turns to occupy different areas of the van and shuffling spaces, and waiting for hot water to wash dishes… These are all mindless and simple delays, solved by patience.

Aaron has been keeping busy being a handy-man, once again.  He has enjoyed his 5-year break since we sold our home and utilized the maintenance amenities that come along with apartment renting.  Generally speaking, RV components are expected to need repairs because of the extra wear and tear of “driving your home through an earthquake between destinations”, so it was no surprise to him as we got into ours, we found some areas that needed his love.  Aaron has a knack for making sure things function as intended, and he will not rest until they do. He will expand more on his projects in detail, but here’s a summary of what he’s touched (mentally and physically) these two weeks:

1. Cleaned/tightened the two bathroom waterlines he discovered dripping while looking inside of access panel for extra storage.
2. Diagnosed and replaced the black/grey water macerator pump. This sprung a leak the first time we dumped our tanks since taking on the road again in January, after de-winterizing.  This was our first major issue that was time-sensitive to fix.  This was also our first need to call Amazon Prime to the rescue.  The locker-pick up system proved to be quite convenient.
3. Our city-water inlet line leaks inside the interior wall. This is currently unresolved.
4. Leak in bathroom ceiling through fan opening causes slow-water drip during heavy rain storms. Repair has started.
5. One solar panel has a loose connection causing intermittent readings. This is unresolved until we have access to ladder, warehouse, and soldering.
6. LED headlamps (we put these in) causing error code on message display, unresolved and a time-consuming diagnostic
7. Changed out the air filter (this was planned for).
8. Installed cell-phone booster (this was planned for).
9. Helped me by finding replacement laptop charger when I dropped my brand-new laptop and dismantled the power cord jack. This was the second time Amazon Prime came to the rescue.  Not really a maintenance issue, but me being clumsy and him having to save me while I was beating myself up over it.

We have a good balance bouncing back and forth between campsites and city-dwelling.  The cities are exciting, and I get my city-fix.  We grocery shop, hit up planet fitness locations, sightsee, and act as tourists.  We eat out once a week while we are in the city, and I enjoy this moment so much.  I spend so much time cooking in the van, and I honestly love cooking and the cleaning that comes with it, but let’s be real, everyone needs and enjoys a break once in a while.  I also use these dining out moments as market research for recipe ideas for Irene Iron recipes.  While in the cities we are limited on using electricity freely (though we have solar we still need to upgrade our coach batteries, which is in progress), and we limit our water usage.  Our freshwater tank holds 33 gallons, our grey tank holds 27 gallons, and our black tank holds 15 gallons.  These amounts are really comfortable for a Class-B RV, and we haven’t had any issues yet, we just stay cognizant of it while away from dump and fill stations.  Sleep suffers a little while city-sleeping.  Part of our approach is pulling in late to park and leaving early before the sun comes up.  Add in some road noise, heavy security lights (we need our eye-masks in the city), and the unknown of what’s going on in the parking lot, and you end up with a solid 5 hours on average.  City parking during the day is slightly challenging as our van is 10 feet tall so we can’t clear parking ramps, we’re a few feet too long for metered spaces (we come in at 23 feet), and small/tight lots are asking for trouble.  On the flip side, I am so happy we went with the Sprinter because we ARE able to get in and park and do things, we just have some limitations that take time to work around.

We are members of two subscriptions that we use for camp sites and other attraction sites (wineries/farms/breweries), that we will detail out later.  We are really happy with our experiences using both of these so far.  Being parked at a campsite offers many benefits: getting work done as we launch our business, mental relaxation as we don’t have to hop around and think about where we will sleep on a given night, deep sleeps,  recipe testing with unlimited water and electricity, Aarons gets haircuts by me (a weekly event), space for Aaron to work on repairs, laundry facilities, connecting with nature, and meeting all of the other RV’ers out there as they make their loop around.

We have used Texas well to wrap our arms around everything, and we are ready to move on.  It is colder here than expected, and we are craving some sunshine and high temps.  This week we will move into New Orleans, around the Gulf of Mexico, and into the Sunshine State, where we will flutter like snowbirds.

To sum it all up we are having the time of our lives, despite hitting our heads 42 times a day on something while inside the van.