Here’s a question for the web-savvy full-timers:

Would you rather rely on spotty campground wireless service for your internet connection, or have your own more reliable yet much more expensive satellite dish service such as MotoSat? This may be irrelevant to the weekend warriors but for those of us on the road full-time, who need to remain connected for either business or pleasure it is a serious consideration. So consider this…

We have a top of the line .98 meter F2 satellite dish from Datastorm with MotoSat internet service and a Linksys 300N wireless router. Yet I have spent most of this morning trying to publish these posts and get pages to load with a very weak connection to this campground’s 802.11b network. Why you ask?

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The coziness of campgrounds like this definitely has its pros and cons…

Awoke this morning to hear our neighboring campers reading the graphics on the side of our rig that advertise our blog sites. They sounded interested in RVBlogz.com where we will create free Wordpress blogs at subdomains (i.e.; yourname.rvblogz.com) for people to easily write about their travels and keep in touch with friends and family while on the road. We are still in the early development stage of this venture, with the hope of launching later this summer. The idea will be to syndicate our Google Adsense campaigns through these free sites, and/or charge nominal fees for enhanced services.

Went for a walk a bit later with Jerry and another camper mentioned he knew someone with a three legged dog they re-named Tripod. We couldn’t pass that opportunity to hand off one of Jerry’s cards with information about tripawds.com – his site full of information and resources about canine cancer and caring for a three-legged dog.

Stay tuned for more details about our free travel blog service or look into setting up your own blog with Wordpress or through an affordable website hosting provider. You can then set up your own Adsense account through Google to help supplement your income. And be sure to check out Jerry’s three legged dog blog to see movies of him swimming at Lake Francis.

The reality of this trip still hasn’t sunk in yet. With today’s news from the mortgage folks, we are one step closer to being free but not quite yet clear.

I felt a bit strange today telling one of my campground neighbors, “have a good weekend” knowing very well that he was indeed out for a weekend adventure with the kids while I was off on a new adventure that may last a year. Or years.

While camper dad will return to work on Monday, I will be dealing with the repair of our new trailer’s refrigerator at the nearest RV service center to Lake Francis in Dobbins, CA. Unfortunately that’s in Marysville or Yuba City.

But as Whitman said, “These are the things that must happen to you.”

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While camped out at kid-centric Lake Francis Resort in Dobbins, CA, riding out the busy Father’s Day weekend, our fridge crapped out. Brand spankin’ new. One would think that when you pay good money for something . . .

Jim’s been on the phone all day with Norcold Manufacturing I’ve been dealing with our extended warranty people. Looks like we may need to take it to the nearest dealer in Yuba City, back down the mountain. Yuba City? It’s soooooo hot there.

Dad, an experienced RVer, says don’t panic, it’s par for the course and the first of many mechanical challenges. Thanks Dad, I felt better after hearing that. But still, we keep asking . . .

Will this journey EVER begin?

Stick Home Vs. RV Home
There’s so much to learn, it’s hard to pick where to begin.

Everything’s a lot smaller in the RV versus the house. It’s Simple Living at it’s finest. Organizing our things so they’re easy to grab but not in the way is a puzzle, and figuring out how to make the most use of limited space requires some doing. Downsizing from 3700 sq. ft. down to about 200 is a huge challenge, and it takes a little mental work to get the comparisons between a stick house and a RV out of my head.

It’s one thing to travel for a week or two on motorcycles or with backpacks. What a novelty! But when everything you own is all in one place and you need to make sure it’s organized and neat, well, that’s certainly a different kind of reality.

And…we’re….off!

Petaluma, CA
After a long time of waiting and creating positive thoughts to make our dream a reality, we did it. We moved out of our “stick home” and into the RV last Saturday. We got all misty-eyed saying goodbye to our Eureka friends, who came to our “Trailer Warming” party on Saturday.

Now, it’s Week One, and we are camped out in Petaluma, CA, at our brother-in-law’s homestead, where our other BIL, owner of O’Connell Solar, is getting ready to install a kick-butt solar system for the RV. With this killer system, we’ll be boondockin’ all over the outback of the U.S.A. But you’ll still be able to find us thanks to our MotoSAT Internet setup.