0024 - Never a Dull Moment

On today's episode of The LeBlanc Travel Diaries...

We got our carrier back, Bruce did an awesome job, and our generator is nice and secure. The RV park was nice enough to let us stay a little late, sort of like a late checkout in a hotel room, and we left around 2:30 pm.

We made it just past Texarkana, into Arkansas, and were pulled over by a State Trooper. I knew he was checking us out... he got in the lane next to us, got even with us then dropped back... and then came the lights. He said we were riding the line and didn't know if it was just the trailer or what, then he proceeded to ask Mike twenty questions - one of which was... ahem... "LeBlanc... what nationality is that?"

I am not joking. I wanted to say "American, dumbass..." but that's inappropriate.

He gave us a warning, so at least there's that. Arkansas is a very welcoming place. *cough*

Our truck has been acting up a little. While Mike is driving, the acceleration suddenly cuts out and he can floor it and maintain about 60-70 mph... starting from a standstill is painful. It doesn't do it all the time, but was happening enough to concern us. So about fifteen minutes from tonight's campsite the truck tells us under no uncertain terms that we need to get to a dealer. Wouldn't let us change the display back to mpg or miles to empty, just kept that message up... find dealer... need immediate service.

So... we may be here for a day or two until we can figure out what's going on. It's a nice place... lots of people here... it's on the water and it's a weekend so I guess I should have expected that. Didn't get to check it out much since it was almost dark when we pulled in and there was a nice storm brewing. We were rushing to get the 5'er ready so we'd be safe inside. I'm not sure it isn't just bluster, but there was a lot of rumbling and some nice wind and lightning. They were nice enough to change last night's reservation to tonight, so we didn't get charged twice. Hopefully if we need to we can stay put tomorrow. I'd like to get to TN... maybe bad luck will stop at the border...

023 - Road Trip

We decided to stay another day in Mansfield. As Mike would say, it's hot as ballz here... This is what I picture when I think of Phoenix in the height of summer. Mind you, I've never been to Phoenix... I just imagine it to be one of the hottest places on earth. To give you an idea, I went outside for about 20 mins and am now a crispy critter. I guess that's not an accurate guide for most people since I burn pretty easily anyway, but I'm feeling almost blistered so I assume 'normal' people would be feeling the heat, too. Despite that, it was nice to stay in one place for a day and relax a bit. We were still on the hunt for a solution to our generator issue, but we got to take our time instead of trying to turn and burn.

In my case, I slept in this morning (8:30)!!! Mike came home about an hour after I woke up, he went to get gas and somehow ended up at WalMart... that's the way it goes I guess. He got some cool stuff though... a wastebasket for the bathroom, which sounds silly, but you miss having one when it's not there... a bath mat... a mat for the entry... towels because ours are all dirty and I haven't been able to do much laundry lately... good homey stuff. And we have similar tastes so I don't have to worry that he'll buy fugly stuff. :) For the rest of the day we tinkered around the house for a bit, looked around for towing baskets and welding shops, and had a late lunch.

We're at the Texan RV Ranch. It's nice here. Quiet. Graveled versus paved, which does make a difference in how our self-leveling jacks behave... but all in all, easy to get to, generous space, some landscaping, and they have a general store which is nice, because there's nothing within walking distance. There is a lot within driving distance though. I would recommend it. Saw some 'parks' on the way in that I wouldn't recommend... they were barely more than parking lots. Depressing.

Our first stay was at Marina Bay RV Resort in Kemah. It was uber convenient, Target, WalMart, Home Depot, tons of restaurants. Really liked it. We used the shower facilities since we were parked at Holiday World for two nights, and they were spacious and sparkling clean. I still wore flip-flops, but if it ain't my shower, I'm not ditching them for anything, so that isn't anything against the park. The people who work there are really friendly, too... so far they all seem to be.

Selecting a restaurant from a list of names on a GPS is hard to do... you don't know what you're getting so it's risky... but we lucked out. We ate lunch at an amazing restaurant, Steven's Garden and Grill... everything was delicious, and the setting was nice. It was kind of out of the way, surrounded by metal buildings which seemed more industrial in nature, but once you turn the corner there is a nice patio with landscaping and tables. Half of what makes a meal memorable is the atmosphere of the restaurant, and this place had a relaxing vibe. I imagine it's packed in the evening, we picked an odd time because we ate a late breakfast.

Because it's so hot we ate inside, which is wood paneled and smelled of barbecue. I had a half of a half rack of baby back ribs, which were delicious even without the sauce, mushrooms, and baked potato salad (basically escalloped). Mike had brisket and sausage with mac and cheese, and the baked potato salad. Some of the food made it home with us... not much. Then we had pecan cobbler for dessert, which was basically pecan pie a la mode... also yummy. I would venture to say there isn't much there that wouldn't make your toes curl.

Just before lunch we decided we liked the more relaxed pace of today, so we are not going to set a deadline to arrive in Gainesboro. Instead we're going to take our time and make this a road trip. We needed to slow down... we've been pushing ourselves for the better part of two years now, and these last couple of months especially, have been monsters. I'm already feeling better about things.

And we found a place that can reinforce our hitch basket (that there is a technical term), Bruce's Welding. The guy had no problem doing a rush job so that we move on tomorrow. I figure we'll head for Little Rock. It's about five hours from here, so even if we get on the road around noon, we still arrive early evening and have time to set up and get dinner.

022 - Maiden Voyage, Rough Seas

Today we struck out for TN...

We spent a second night in the Holiday World parking lot. They fixed our slide yesterday and we made a last minute decision to put an A/C unit in our bedroom because it was stifling in there and sleeping in a pool of your own sweat sucks (I suppose someone else's would be worse...). They needed to get the parts from their Katy store, so we decided to take them up on their offer to stay on premises so that we could be there first thing in the morning.

This morning was, in a word, hectic. Check out time at the RV park is noon, so we needed to clear out. We made it with six minutes to spare. After that we went back to Holiday World. They were just finishing up, so while they printed the paperwork they brought the 5'er out so that we could hook up... Rain was looming... it started falling... then it fell with gusto... perhaps even verve. In the meantime, Mike is moving the tray for the generator from the truck to the RV, I'm moving plants from the back of the truck into the RV, then we had to hook the truck up to the RV. It poured just long enough for us to finish up. Then it stopped... sigh... We changed into fresh clothes, I flashed the salesmen, we settled the bill, and headed out.

Our intention was to overnight in Hot Springs then continue on to TN tomorrow...

First setback was our departure time. We were already two and a half hours behind "schedule" when we finally got on the road around 2:30.

Second setback was when we overestimated our height. Our GPS has a Good Sam app where you can program your height and other information, and it will use that to route your trip. When we estimated 15 ft 6 in, it took us west. We decided to look online to find out what our height is... plus the new A/C unit... and once we input that new number it took us back east but we kind of wasted two hours. We're closer to 14 ft 6 in. Going through small towns with their low power lines and tree limbs is still no fun. And the height of the overpasses is almost in neon to us now... we notice every single sign.

Third setback was that a couple of hours outside of Dallas, we stopped at Buc-ees and noticed that the generator appeared to be sagging a bit. We don't know if we just need to shorten the rail to get a better center of gravity, or whether the basket is a piece of crap. We bought it at Harbour Freight so I'm leaning toward crap...

By then it was after 6 pm, so we decided to change our plans and stay near Dallas instead.

Then came the storm... we're talking the rain drops that fall with a splat. Followed by hail. Followed by me not being able to see anything (didn't have my glasses on but I'm not sure they would have helped much)... to more hail... I was a nervous wreck, but I had Gracie in my lap and she was on the verge of freaking out so I tried to stay calm. Mike was just pissed about the hail.

It's almost 11 pm. I have a load of laundry going and we're watching Letterman. We still haven't tried our carryout satellite... too tired to care. We're getting decent channels by letting the tv scan the airwaves. I will say that the new A/C is WONDERFUL... instead of sweating and being miserable, we may actually pull the comforter up tonight. It's the little things.

Yesterday we left Gracie in a cage with the RV while they worked on it... they kept the air going for her... Thought we were doing her a favor by not subjecting her to the truck, and it was easier on us because we didn't have to the leave the truck running. She went batshit crazy when we let her out... tried to dig her way into the couch... not under it... into it. Today we decided she needed to come with us while we ran errands. Mike has been wanting to let her out of the cage to explore the truck, I've been nervous about it. She mostly sat on the console between us, in my lap, or in the floorboard at my feet. Sometimes she would sit in front of the cage. Before we open the door I put her in the cage so she won't get out of the truck. Anyway, she's wandering around as if nothing happened... I guess she just needs to be with us and she's fine.

Tomorrow... good lord I hope tomorrow is far less interesting than today was... I would be happy with ordinary and uneventful... Guess they call it an adventure for a reason. :)

0021 - I like lemons, but damn

I like lemons, but damn... at the moment I've drunk all the lemonade I can stand. Maybe it's time to start making Limoncello. One of my friends used to sing the HeeHaw theme song a lot... he'd just be walking by my desk and randomly bust out with it... that was when it applied to him and not to me so I always laughed and shook my head. If you don't know the words, here they are:

Doom, despair, and agony on me... deep dark depression, excessive misery... if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all... doom, despair, and agony on me. (thank you Ron)

I'm not laughing anymore when it suddenly pops into my head. In the past year it feels like we've dealt with nothing problems:

• Mike was in Afghanistan for a year, and I was here worrying about him. Both sides of that story sucked. 'Nuff said.
• We believed people were basically honest, bought a truck, it was a stinky turd, so we hired an awesome attorney, got the money back that we paid for the truck, but lost about $3k in other expenses.
• Mike had gallbladder surgery.
• We have been fighting the IRS for almost a year now. They recently levied our accounts. We're paying two attorneys to fight them. That is not cheap and it is not convenient either.
• We bought another truck, that while basically good, had a nav system that didn't work, had rails in the back that were hidden under a drop-in bedliner (luckily that was okay), and now has a cracked oil pan we're having repaired... possibly under warranty. Probably nothing earth shattering, but it's bad timing.
• Whoever replaced the handlebars on Mike's motorcycle basically cut away so much metal that there was no structural integrity left. And the rough edges were cutting through the control wires. It took 3-4 days of working on it to make it functional... there was stress.
• The guy who changed the tires out on Mike's motorcycle has apparently never heard of LocTite, so by the time he arrived in Austin (about 3-1/2 hours of riding)... his brake caliper wasn't bolted to anything and he had no back brakes. When people try to send my husband to an early grave I get annoyed.
• We bought a hitch that our installer told us wouldn't work with our truck, the manufacturer says it will, we were going to attempt to have that installed by an RV shop this week... except the truck is in the shop... see above.
• We need to have our self-leveling jacks looked at because only one of them stays down and there was hydraulic fluid on the pavement, but we can't tow it in for repairs until we get the hitch put in, and we can't put the hitch in until we have the truck back, and the truck won't be back until the oil pan is replaced... shit really does roll downhill.
• We need to be out of our house by June 1st. Today is May 9th. Ask me how that's going.
• Once we're out we will be living in the 5th wheel... would like to be moving things in now, but the battery that works the slides has pooped out and the RV needs repairs... do the whole House That Jack Built thing with the 5th wheel, the hitch, the truck and so on...
• We need to have a place to put our stuff, that means our building needs to be put up. Called the guy that leveled our land and he gave our number to two people he knows... it's been a week, they have yet to call. Business must be good. My cousin is now on the case. My cousin is wonderful. He IS a concrete angel.
• My mother-in-law is a wonderful person. I haven't been part of the family for long, but I know that I am seriously lucky to have her in my life and I fell in love with her very early on. She was recently diagnosed with a serious illness and it is very upsetting to me... as you may imagine, it's even more upsetting to her children. She is a fighter so we're hoping for the best, but it is not going to be easy on anyone.
• We are planning a farewell party... with everything else that is going on it is the least important thing we're doing, but since we didn't have a wedding reception, and we're moving out of state I want to see friends and family and mark the occasion. In some ways it is very important because it's a much needed break. This is easier said than done, partially because we have no house to host it in. Someone has offered, I need to make sure she knows what she's getting into. ;P
• I tried to be proactive and get our mail situation taken care of... can't get a 911 address until we can come in to the office to apply for it. Can't have mail forwarded to our property because we have no 911 address. Can't rent a PO Box from the local post office until we can come in to the office to apply for it in person. Game. Set. Match. We lose.
• Had to replace my roof. Add $5k to my credit card debt. No one wanted to buy my house so we are renting it out. Yes that is positive, but I would have preferred to sell it and be done and have the cash in-hand. That said, our property management company is wonderful, if you have a house in the Houston are to rent out I highly recommend them.
• There are a couple of things that I'm not mentioning. Trust me, they add to the stress.

It's not all bad, there are good things here and there. As usual, when there are bad times I realize we have the best family and friends in the universe. I love my husband to bits. I have most everything I want in the world. Sometimes it just gets to be a little much... even if someone has it worse (and someone always does), that still doesn't mean things don't get to the ones who seemingly have it good. We just need to catch a break.

0020 - It's complicated

There was a time, not too long ago, when a can opener was just a can opener.

The other day I looked at my grungy, yet still functional electric can opener and decided I wanted to replace it with a newer, sleeker (cleaner) model. It's a couple of decades old and has seen better days - and in some respects I'd like to start with a clean slate when we move into the RV. Thus began my odyssey... and my dilemma.

Nowadays we have choices. Lots and lots of choices. Too many. That's the first problem I'm having.

And, if you buy online there are also differing opinions on which is the best. For every "I love it, it's the best ever" type of review, it seems there are an equal number of "Don't waste your money on this crap" reviews. How do you know which to believe? I mean, I'm only trying to buy a friggin' can opener here! Why does that have to be such a leap of faith???

That's just one thing I'm comparison shopping for... so my problem is much, much bigger than just a can opener. I've already said that I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment... so I wanted one thing to be simple, and it wasn't... That's life in 2012 I guess.

19 - The boat is sinking...

It's starting to sink in that my time here is growing very short. Not my time on Earth, sillies... just my time here in Texas. I was born here. I've lived 36 years of my life here. There was that short time warp in Mississippi that I can't seem to wrap my head around... seemed like forever, but couldn't have been more than a couple of years... you'll have to forgive me - I was a kid, it was a long time ago so shuddup. The majority of my life has centered around the same 10 mile radius. This is where most of my friends are, this is where my parents are, this is my comfort zone.... My traffic-infested comfort zone. I'm really starting to hate it here... too many people.

When I started dating Mike I knew I was in for an adventure. I also knew we were in it for the long haul even before we officially started dating. Somehow I knew he was it for me, he was the one... can't explain it, it just works. So at some point early on, when he flat out told me that he was going to get me out of League City, I knew he wasn't joking. And I was ready for a change, had been for a while. It's taken almost three years to get here, but his prophecy is at long last being fulfilled.

At first we thought we were headed for Austin. Austin is a nice place, or it was until it got to be so crowded. Guess too many people saw the allure of it so the property values soared, the traffic snarled, and to be honest it has become something of a headache to navigate. Then we considered a suburb outside of Dallas, but we weren't terribly excited about it... it was a job opportunity, and the area is nice, but it is still suburban, and we were ready for rural. We decided to expand our horizons a bit and open the door to the possibility of living somewhere outside of Texas (gasp! did such a place exist?). We actually went about it somewhat scientifically... we compared taxes, we evaluated gun laws, we looked at what the terrain had to offer and weighed it against the value of the land. We decided on Tennessee because it was a good fit all the way around, so we did something daring (for me anyway) - we hopped on a plane and went for a visit. Then we fell in love... with the people and the land. By the end of that first trip it already felt like home.

So here we are today. We're downsizing from a 4-bedroom house to a fifth wheel (a nice one). We were going to sell my house, now we're renting it out (still not sure how I feel about that). We were going to make the house available on July 1, now it's June 1. I'm quitting my job so that I can travel with Mike. Then there is the 2-5 year plan to start Nashoba, our wolf refuge - daunting to say the least (but thrilling). I am excited about these changes, but they also make me very nervous. We have a lot to do and some days I wonder if we'll get there or if it's all going to fall apart.

NASA seems to be out of fashion lately. The public doesn't seem to give a crap about it anymore, and morale is low with all the layoffs we've suffered since the shuttle program was decommissioned. I've always been irritated that most people don't understand that NASA is about far more than space. The research that is done here has bettered people's lives in so many ways, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Tang or freeze dried ice cream. That said, I don't love my job. I like the people, there is some prestige in saying I work at NASA (even though I am only a contractor... and a budget analyst at that), but a job is a job is a job and very few can honestly say that they enjoy what they do. Over the past few years, the fun has been sucked out of it... too much red tape, budget issues, manpower shortages and so on. Plus, I'm not quite as professional as I probably 'should' be, because I refuse to conform. Still, with the countdown clock ticking away, and even though my leaving is voluntary... it feels like I  grabbed onto a trapeze, forgot to put on the harness, and just found out that the union went on strike just before they hung my net. I've been training my replacement for the past month, I don't know why it's important to me to leave them in capable hands but it is... I've worked with most of these people for thirteen years so they feel a bit like family. It at least makes me happy that we hired someone I feel is capable, and in my opinion, she's going to do nicely.

Everything seems so complicated. We try to get something accomplished and there's always some hassle. Even the mail is complicated... we are so rural that we have to apply for a 911 address... have never heard of such a thing. Was trying to be proactive and get that taken care of before we move, but we have to apply in person. Kinda sucks because I have to figure out where to have our mail forwarded to. We are trying to get most things sent to us electronically, but there are magazines and other things here and there that can't be helped.  Think we can have things sent to general delivery at the local post office until we get it all sorted out.

So now that most everything else has finally fallen into place, we can start to focus our efforts on the process of relocation. We have a truck that seems reliable... we like it a lot, barring some minor issues here and there. We have a hitch that just needs to be installed and that should happen within the next couple of days. There are some repairs to the fifth wheel that need to be seen to (primarily the hydraulics on the self-leveling jacks). "All" that's left now is packing up the house, putting our building up, and moving in (I can't say 'erecting' without giggling so I mostly don't even try to say 'erecting', hahaha... 'erecting'). I scheduled a mover yesterday, U-Pack... so far, so good... which basically means I like their pitch, but beyond that we'll have to see. The building... that is something I'm not looking forward to... we are most likely going to be putting that up ourselves, and we have to fabricate our own end walls. We had the land cleared, water lines are run, septic is in, and my cousin, Jason, is in the process of pouring the foundation. He does amazing work, so we can't wait to see how everything has come together once he's done.

If I don't look at the big picture for too long I don't get (as) overwhelmed. I try to keep things in perspective, break it down into manageable tasks. Some days it's easier said than done. Last night I was all kinds of pouty. Today I'm good. Don't know what tomorrow brings.

18 - Minor Adjustments to the Good

There are things I've always wanted to do... grow a garden (sort of done that), can vegetables (been too chicken to try), make jerky (terrifying!), etc. It's not going to be easy doing that in a fifth wheel, but we seem to be coming across ideas that we think will work for us. It's exciting to be able to adapt and still accomplish some of our goals!

I think I told you that I stumbled upon fermentation when I was reading an article about the benefits of vitamin K2. Natto, or fermented soybeans, are cited as a good source of K2... but I'll be honest - I'm not too excited about that one. But... I realized that sauerkraut is a fermented food. Yogurt is a fermented food. Cheese is a fermented food. You can even make fermented pickles - and I love pickles. All those things appeal to me and have the same benefits.

I probably also told you that given humidity concerns, and the fact that using the stove costs us in propane, canning in a water bath isn't all that enticing a prospect. It's also limiting because you can only can high acid foods; for anything else you need a pressure canner or you risk botulism. So fermentation resolves that problem because you don't need to boil anything, except if you use chlorinated tap water, and then you need to boil the water for 15 mins to boil the chlorine out.

That said, I purchased a pressure canner today. It's actually a pressure canner / cooker. It has two benefits... I can put leftovers, vegetables, broth, etc. into a mason jar and pressure can it to eat another day, and I no longer have to refrigerate it. I can also cook things quickly and they should taste as if they were in a slow cooker all day long. It saves energy... mine and that of the fifth wheel. It also means I don't have to bring along a slow cooker which saves space and weight.

Speaking of broth... Martha Stewart is on my shit list. Because of her I thought broth was a labor intensive recipe involving 50 or so ingredients. Not so. Broth is ridiculously simple - buy a rotisserie chicken or roast your own. Use the meat for sandwiches, chicken tabbouleh salad - whatever. Save the carcass. Make meals using vegetables. Save the scraps... the root end of the onion that you usually throw out... the ends of the celery stalks, etc. Stick all that in the refrigerator until you've accumulated what you need. Then throw it in a pot, cover it with water and cook it down until the flavor starts to develop. Not only do you control the ingredients to suit your taste, to maintain control of your salt intake, to potentially avoid preservatives, but you get the health benefits from the bone marrow and minerals that leach out from the bones of the chicken. Here is a better article on the subject.

The next awesome thing... I have been wanting an AeroGarden... but since I've had a backyard for the past few years it really didn't make much sense to get one. The other thing that held me back was having to choose from their selection of vegetables and herbs... I don't always like what they offer - but now they have kits that allow you to choose what you grow. I love to grow things, and obviously there will be no yard in our fifth wheel. It will also be difficult to maintain a garden at our homestead since we don't know what our schedule will be. An AeroGarden is the perfect solution. I can grow seven vegetables and/or herbs at a time and we can have fresh food at hand which saves us money and is healthier because there are no pesticides to worry about.

Recently I read this blog about growing a never ending supply of green onions and decided that was also perfect, and it reminded me that you can do the same thing with celery. If we do that, we can grow nine vegetables, and as an added bonus plants will purify the air in our home.

Another thing I would like to do, since refrigerator space will be limited, is figure out how to do something like this.

You can also visit her website, it has a couple more ideas. It's ingenius. If you think about it, at farmer's markets and roadside stands sell fresh fruits and veggies, and they aren't refrigerated. We started sticking things in the fridge to lengthen their shelf life, but I really think it has had the opposite effect. Seems like every time I go to retrieve something it's wilted or no longer crisp, or I forgot it was in there and it started to rot. I wish I could buy the system ready made but so far I haven't been successful in locating anything like it so we're going to try to improvise. Improvisation is something that Mike excels at... I'm not bad at it, but he's usually quicker on the draw.

Another thing you don't have to refrigerate: Eggs. Who knew? When eggs are shipped to the grocery stores en masse, their natural protective coating is washed off. Egg shells are porous, so they spoil because they absorb oxygen and bacteria is able to grow. By coating them in mineral oil, you stop the oxygen from getting in and prolong the shelf life of the egg - no refrigeration necessary. You can tell if an egg is still fresh by immersing it in water and seeing if it floats or sinks - if it floats, toss it, if it sinks - it's good. I've heard that they will last around six months if you use this method.

So this weekend I am undertaking a slew of food-related projects:

• Fermented Pickles
• Fermented Rosemary-Lemon-Sage Pickles (cucumbers and zucchini)
• Cultured Squash
• Sauerkraut
• Pickled Okra
• Beef Jerky
• Kale Chips
• Zucchini Chips
• Canning Pineapple
• Pineapple Juice
• Kimchi
• Garlic Confit
• Ginger-Mint-Lime Soda
• Use my juicer to make a Lemony Apple drink
• Cola - Was going to make this but couldn't find cola nut so I have to order it. I found a cola syrup at a local healthfood store, but the ingredients weren't listed and I'm trying to avoid refined sugar and use either honey, stevia or rapadura - and it claimed to make 16 servings at 450 calories per serving! I'm hoping that a serving is 2 liters but I don't remember seeing it specified.

I figure the best way for me to concentrate on healthy foods is not to dip my toe in, but to jump - and the easiest way to make that happen is by only bringing healthy foods into our new home and making unhealthy foods unavailable, or at least harder to access. Perhaps it sounds a bit extreme, but I am tired of being fat, having no energy and feeling like crap most of the time. I don't know if it's gluten, processed foods, refined sugar or all of the above, but something's gotta give. I know Mike and I are both having digestive issues; mine have existed since college, Mike's are due to his recent gallbladder removal. Hopefully these fermented foods and giving up gluten will help with that, and more natural sugars will reduce our cravings and provide more nutritional benefits than regular sugar or artificial sweeteners.

Last week I started some fermented pickles and green beans. I just sampled the pickles and they're good! Not quite the same as what you buy in the store, but I think they're better. Slightly milder, but flavorful. And so easy. That bodes well for the rest of my projects. :)