Cost Of RV Living Tips – Propane Expenses In Our Motorhome

Posted on May 18, 2012

There are 2 possible sources of energy in a camper or motorhome – propane and electricity. When we decided to winter in Illinois we had to think from a frugal RVer’s point of view about which way to go to keep warm and do other things that require energy. We could depend on our propane furnace, use electric heaters, or use a combination.

No Need To Purchase Additional LP Cylinder (Click Image For Info)

Our motorhome is a relatively small space, and we had some previous experience with small electric heaters in our travel trailer. They seem to do a good job of keeping an area warm, but they do soak up the kilowatts if overused, and the bigger ones can pull too many amps for the system we have (30 amp service only). You also have to have at least 2 of them, one for the front and one for the back. There are many different styles and sizes available, but we found a couple that we really liked and stuck with them.

Our propane furnace is designed to keep important parts of the motor home warm, such as the under-the-sink cabinets in the bathroom and the kitchen, and the water pipes underneath the floor. Unfortunately, it starts to lack real warming ability when the temperature dips into the 20s and lower, so we use it sparingly.

Of course, there are other necessary uses of LP gas. The refrigerator uses gas, but works very efficiently in the colder weather, but the hot water heater takes longer to heat up a batch, and the longer it cooks, the more propane we use. Speaking of cooking, we use our propane kitchen stove every day, and in the cold it’s nice to get something in the oven that warms up the place and smells good too. So the combination of heating, hot water production, and cooking can add up to emptying our tank in a relatively short time. It seemed to last a good month or a little bit more before we had to figure out how to get it refilled.

A motorhome has a disadvantage over a camper in the gas department – the tank is onboard, and it can’t be removed, refilled, and replaced like a trailer tank. This entails one of 2 courses of action when it is empty: drive to a propane source and get it filled, or set up an outboard tank that can be refilled without moving the motorhome. For us thrifty folks the real issue here is cost. A tube and valve setup called an extend-a-stay or extend-a-flow can be bought and installed for around a hundred dollars. It is possible to use a small gas cylinder, but the larger tank itself will cost at least $50 or more depending on how big you want it, so getting an outboard LP source would cost us $150 or so.

We found a relatively inexpensive propane supplier who could fill our onboard tank for around $25 if it was close to empty. But of course we had to unhook everything and drive there (at 8 mpg, $4 a gallon gas has to be figured into the equation too). When we first arrived, we were thinking about putting up skirting to conserve some of our heat, but we finally decided not to bother. We figured we would need to fill up our tank at least 3 times during the winter, so the cost of propane going that route would about $75, plus the gas it would take to drive the 30 mile roundtrip to the supplier. That turns out to be cheaper than buying a hose/outboard tank system, and we wouldn’t have the problem of what to do with that huge tank when we get into warmer weather and head off for other places.

We benefited by having a mild winter temperature-wise, and a low amount of snow, too. So we didn’t have any problem getting out and driving in winter weather, but it was still a pain. Taking down the pictures and nick-knacks and unhooking everything takes less time than you think it will, but it is a bit of a job. After a couple of times though, we streamlined the process and it didn’t seem so bad.

I suppose if you are in a colder climate for a longer period of time and can expect some snow buildup around the RV, an extend-a-stay would be a good investment. After all, you can’t live without propane in an RV, and you need to be able to have the security of a full tank when it starts getting low. For us, the lack of the extra expense and complications made it worthwhile to just use the onboard tank.

By the way, the ideal solution to this problem would be a propane supplier who can drive up, fill your onboard tank, and let us skip the driving out part. If you are in a real fancy RV park for the winter, that service might be available. But for us frugal folks, that’s not likely to happen. We also tried to find a propane deliverer in the area who would fill our tank, but nobody would do it – too expensive to drive here and to keep the necessary equipment on their trucks. So once again, we had to live and learn and make decisions without having a lot to go on. Based on our experience this winter, I think we would do the same thing again, and use the money we save to crank up the electric heaters a little bit more.

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Cheap Prescriptions – The Walmart $4 List – Find Your Rx And Save Big!

Posted on May 12, 2012

We are on a mission to gather any tips we can on our cheap rving blog, to give you ideas on how to be frugal where health care is concerned.

One such tip is how to save money on basic prescriptions, for you or your pets (hint one: ask your vet to write prescriptions to be filled at your pharmacy! If they won’t, find another vet…).

Fortunately, we rarely have need for prescriptions – we are usually successful treating infections with “natural antibiotics” like garlic, maitake mushroom or oregano oil. Having allergies to many antibiotics (or finding myself sicker after taking them) this was a necessary switch for us.

That said, there are times when an rx will be necessary.

***oh, oh…hint two: the key to cheap rv life is to be prepared for the “will be” part, not to panic, overpay and scurry around when you are sick or in need of medications!!

So today’s tip is for you to study this Walmart list. They have a large catalog of discounted generic medications available, which you can see HERE.

You can either type in the name of your current prescription and they will show you the generic they have (or tell you they don’t have it) OR you can just browse their list. Most prescriptions are $4 for a 30 day supply or $10 for 90 days. The download list is very organized, separated by ailment/condition – good to print out and keep on hand if you have to go to a health clinic, so you can ask if any of the medications are appropriate.

I was surprised to see not only antibiotics, there are meds for pain, cholesterol, blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, stomach, skin, eyes, mental health, women’s health and more. So start putting together your “medical plan” for frugal health care on the road…and start with the Walmart four dollar list of medications.

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Chicken One Pot Recipes – Our Favorite When Cooking In An RV

Posted on May 10, 2012

Our Tiny RV Kitchen Demands One Pot Meals And Fewer Dishes

Do you remember when you realized that the fancy word “pasta” really meant macaroni and spaghetti and variations on the same? I must have been in my 20s, sorry to say, before I learned that culinary factoid. There was just never any use of the word at home when I was growing up, and I had no exposure to it until I was able to visit an upscale Italian-style restaurant and see it on a menu. Expecting something exotic, I was disappointed to recognize that whatever form it took, pasta was really all the same stuff.

Now that we are gluten free given Robin’s wheat allergy, we are of course more serious about what goes into the stuff. There are so many great wheatless pastas out there that you don’t need to go without, and it comes in all the favorite forms – lasagna, penne, mostacolli, linguine, fettuccine, spaghetti and macaroni. The trick is to not overcook it, because gluten-free pasta is very sensitive to such treatment.

This is an affordable dish, requiring few ingredients, that is modified from a Chinese entree that one of our favorite buffets always served, made Italian instead. In addition to pasta, it uses bread crumbs which obviously in their ordinary versions are not gluten free. But they are available gluten free, made from rice bread, and they are really very good. Two alternatives to wheat flour, wheat bread crumbs or gluten free bread crumbs are cornstarch and potato chips. Either one works well with chicken using an egg and milk mixture to start with.

basic ingredients: chicken tenders (1 pound or so), 1 green pepper, 1 small white or yellow or red onion, celery (1 stalk), garlic, pasta, parmesan cheese, cream, and lots of butter. BREADING: 1 egg, milk and breadcrumbs

optional ingredients: use asparagus if you don’t like green pepper, use other color peppers if desired, add sliced mushrooms.

how to make it: Start with your Dutch oven size pot. Put in a tablespoon of olive oil, and a good tablespoon of butter and put it on medium heat. Beforehand you have prepared the chicken by dipping each tender in egg and milk, then rolling it in your breading choice. Fry these in the oil and butter, turning once, until they are golden brown. Remove them from the pot and toss in your slices of pepper, onion, and celery with a spoon of minced garlic, and saute the veggies until they just start to soften. Put the chicken back in and cook it all together for a few minutes, then remove from the pot. Fill the pot with water and use the energy saving method of bringing the water to a boil, adding the pasta, stirring until it comes to a boil again, and turning it off and letting it sit for 15 minutes or so.  When it’s done, drain it in a colander and melt some more butter in the pot while it’s draining. Pour in a half cup or so of half and half, some garlic salt and pepper, and a bit more minced garlic. When it’s bubbling, put the pasta back in and toss. Add  a good dose of grated parmesan and stir it in. Then add the chicken and veggie mixture and stir carefully – you don’t want to break all the pasta. There you have it – buttery chicken and pasta, a great dish to serve on a cool evening anywhere in the country.

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Our Old RV Internet Pal, The Verizon Mifi 2200 – Not The 4G LTE!

Posted on May 9, 2012

Our Pal, Verizon Mifi 2200


Honestly, I kid you not…our Verizon MiFi 2200 3G story was as challenging as driving the motorhome with the windshield drapes closed…believe me, we’ve tried it (just kidding, just kidding – Robin, the Jokester…that’s me).

So rv internet on the road? This is the one expense that has always been a must for us, providing communication, income working online and a place for our cat to lie on, when the laptop is closed and lying on the bed. Very important stuff………

So here is the scoop. Back in 2009, we tried tethering our cell phone instead of using a mobile hotspot. It was a nuisance and we just didn’t like it. Plus, if we lost our phone, we lost internet as well. So we made the switch early on to a 3G device, the 2200 mifi.

DISCLAIMER: For those of you who know nothing about wireless internet, nor do you care to, you might still find our story amusing. I know nothing about this stuff except that I need it (which makes me a bit resentful sometimes!). I always thought a “g” meant grams – 3 grams of mifi service, whoopie…see, don’t worry that this is too technical, it isn’t.

Ok…back to the story. I like to work on the bed in the back bedroom, with a little lap tray and windows open wide…a comfy setting. Once upon a time, I placed the little 2200 mifi in the window frame, to get a good signal. Then my adorable spouse came to visit me (awwwww…). He leaned back and we heard a loud “crunch.” The jack on the mifi was dead, fell out, and died instantly.

So what do people do? Of course, call Verizon…to endure a confusing journey through “you are eligible for an upgrade” and “which line do you want to use” and “we’ve changed our plans since you last checked in”…blah, blah, blah.

Ok, so going with the cheapest plan, we had used 3g service, which was apparently hip and cool only 2 years ago…now we were virtually DINOSAURS needing to switch to a 4G LTE IMMEDIATELY to spare us the humiliation of being uncool, I’m guessing. As my teenager would say, “WHATEVER!”

So we took the bait. Now let me tell you, this saga went on for MONTHS, but I will make it brief:

SUMMARY OF PSYCHOSIS:

Told we need new 4g LTE device, to get lightning-fast 4g service (sure.). Would get the device for FREE! (right…they’ll make up the difference somewhere). One problem, our cheap $35 data plan is no longer available…the cheapest is $50 for 5GB (now that isn’t grams, haha…that is gigabytes…and if you go over, you are in BIG TROUBLE mister…and you will pay!). Fine, $15 more a month, but we could use the extra gb’s…plus free device…super. We get the new device, it is AWFUL. First, we are never in an urban area and this new 4g network (if you look on a map, it looks like 3 cities get it in the nation…sarcasm, by the way) does nothing for us. Second, if you read the news, it has been plagued with problems and keeps making customers get zero service. Third, Verizon would not listen to us on one very important point:

They say that if you are in a 3g area, and 4g goes down due to problems (of which there are many), you won’t be affected..only if in a 4g area. BULL. Every time 4g fell on its knees, we lost internet 100% right along with them. We gave it months, as they said that wasn’t possible. Regardless, our old little 2200 mifi was gone, our internet stunk now and we were paying $15 more a month! Ummm…and this is cheap rv living, where we share our secrets on how to spend MORE MONEY? Ugh.

Well, this went on and on until I started going a bit postal – so we went online and bought a NEW, “OLD” 2200 hotspot, 3g device…it arrived and we are all reunited once more. If you care, we always find it cheaper to buy the device elsewhere, and the link in our first sentence is to the exact new device we got for only $35 and free shipping.

I forgot to add that we were told that 3g devices weren’t an option anymore, etc…which is untrue. So if you are considering a mifi hotspot, go with 3 grams, not 4 (haha). Also, because we switched to 4g for a brief time, we lost our $35 month (conveniently, no longer grandfathered in) so got our old device but paying more! Yes, upsetting…but life is too short to waste on battling the “greed cancer” you see everywhere.

A helpful hint: If you need internet and use it a lot, you can’t count on free wifi at rv parks or sitting at McDonald’s. We need rv internet access daily and it is expensive. But fortunately, we have very few bills, so we just accept we need it and pay accordingly. Just take the money out of the cat food fund (just KIDDING!).

 

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A Joey Update – Spring Arrives Suddenly In The RV

Posted on April 22, 2012

G’day, mates – it’s been a long time since I did some good old earbashing, but I haven’t really had the time or the inclination to be chatty Joey. As you know, a lot of sad things have happened the last few months, and my owners have had a long Illinois winter to get through. But Spring came early here on the prairies, and we had a lot of warm temps and sunshine in the beginning of March right through to the end. And crikey, was it nice!

During the brake repair, I decided to eat our friend Bill...

While the weather has been something to skite about to my friends back home, I can’t be a boaster when it comes to my brake problem. My owners took me to Decatur for some maintenance work, and I started causing problems when I got into town. Jim noticed that my front left wheel was sounding as cross as a frog in a sock when he put on the brakes, and the noise just kept getting worse.

Crikey! That Hurts!

As you can see from the pictures, they were lucky to make it back to the RV park. Their friend Bill came over to have a look at me, and after jacking me up (that was fun!) and taking off both of my front wheels (that wasn’t!) he announced that my front left brakes were cactus – sorry, I mean that my brakes were toast, as you Yanks say.  He had to order the new parts and put them back on a week later. When Jim and Robin finally took me to Decatur for a test drive 2 weeks after that, I was still having a problem with my brakes – they were about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike! Turns out that Bill has to replace the brake lines too, and then we hope I’m back in the game.

Well, time to say hooroo for now, I’ll let you know how everything goes in the next chapter. Here’s a little teaser: we might be moving down the road soon!

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April 2012 “RV Site Of The Month” – Cheap or Free RV Campgrounds

Posted on April 22, 2012

Nothing is as important, when living the frugal rv living lifestyle, as finding cheap or free lodging as often as you can. If you plan to stay in one place for a long time, you will usually have to budget for a monthly rate somewhere given most people will eventually need power, water hookups or septic access. However, when we travel long distance, like our normal run from Glacier Nat’l Park, Montana to Illinois, we do all we can to avoid those expensive, nightly rv park rates along the way.

This was $3.00 per night - had water spigot and public restrooms, no electric

That is where freecampgrounds.com comes in. When planning our route, we always go to this site first to make sure that we plan stops in affordable camping areas. How many miles we drive per day depends on where our affordable sites are located. Along our route, once we get further east, the free campgrounds in the direction we’re headed begin to disappear – so we often use a Walmart parking lot for those times or splurge on an rv park the final night, to have access to dumping, hot showers, etc.

Here are the pros and cons we find with this site – even though there are some cons, you simply cannot afford to not take a moment to look because it could save you a bunch of money in the long run!

PROS

  • Most of the sites are $10, less or free
  • They have a search feature which is helpful if you know what town you plan to be in
  • You can just click on a state and run through the entire list at a glance

CONS

  • Wish they had a feature where they put dots on a map for each state to help with locations at a glance. Unsure how far the search feature searches. When searching through unfamiliar areas you become dependent on the names of the towns, which requires looking at a map at the same time.
  • Not a large database for most states – but you can help other rvers by adding sites you discover on your journeys! Because there aren’t scores of cheap or free rv sites, we never click any options in the search feature…just let anything available in the general vicinity appear and then we read the description.
  • Sometimes data is outdated and prices have gone up, so if a phone number is available be sure to call first to make sure they are still in business and/or that their rate is still economical.
  • Don’t expect free rv sites with full hookups or amenities – these are affordable places to stop for the night, but that is all. Read descriptions carefully. Some say “boondocking” meaning there are no hookups whatsoever.

This site, even with some imperfections, is worth the little time it takes to scan an area of the map when searching to save money on your rving journey. We are grateful that the site exists and appreciate having it available. It has saved us money in the past and will do so in the future, too!

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RV Tips For Beginners – RV Cooking Tips

Posted on April 21, 2012

This Is All The Space We Have To Cook In!!!

Cooking in an RV is not the same as cooking at home. It’s also quite different from camp cooking – of course in good weather and nice temperatures you can use a tabletop gas grill just like camping, but we are talking about indoor cooking here. The way you go about the task of cooking in an RV depends a lot on the size of your stove and kitchen. We have a 3-burner stove in Joey, our motorhome, that is sufficient for our needs, and our previous camper had a 4-burner stove that was very small. We have learned to work with our limitations, and there are a number of them that  can affect how you make meals in an RV.

One major limitation is the number and types of cookware you can have in your kitchen. Unlike a house where you can fill up the kitchen storage space and use the basement or garage for overflow, the pots and pans and gadgets you can have in an RV are limited to what is really necessary. We made a list of rv kitchen necessities for your amusement. It differs for everyone, but there are a few basics. You need a couple of good saucepans with glass lids, a couple of different sizes of high-quality skillets with lids, and a good-size pot for soups and pasta. A colander, a cheese grater, and a griddle are nice to have. With those pans, a couple of good spatulas and big spoons, and a propane stove you can really be cooking with gas. Don’t forget that the fewer pans and other kitchen utensils and gadgets you use, the easier your clean-up will be – always a plus in an RV!

Unlike a house where you can fill up the kitchen storage space and use the basement or garage for overflow, the pots and pans and gadgets you can have in an RV are limited to what is really necessary. And that differs for everyone, but there are a few basics. You need a couple of good saucepans with glass lids, a couple of different sizes of high-quality skillets with lids, and a good-size pot for soups and pasta. A colander, a cheese grater, and a griddle are nice to have. With those pans, a couple of good spatulas and big spoons, and a propane stove you can really be cooking with gas. Don’t forget that the fewer pans and other kitchen utensils and gadgets you use, the easier your clean-up will be – always a plus in an RV!

Which is one of the major advantages of RV cooking – no electric stoves. I don’t know how many houses and apartments I have lived in that had electric stoves, but I hated them all. A gas stove gives you instant, adjustable, and intense heat, and when you turn it off, it’s really off, not continuing to cook for several minutes. And an RV gas stove usually has enough space for a large skillet and a couple of saucepans, unlike a camp cook stove, so you get the best of both worlds.

Another limitation, though, is space for cooking. Counter space is usually very small and can be a challenge, but you can always use the dinette table for chopping and preparing or lay a cutting board over the sink. Stovetops do have their limits, and ovens can be on the smallish size. But if you make up your mind to use as few pots and pans as possible you can make some pretty good meals. Your cleanup task will also be a lot easier. While I try to make one-dish meals whenever possible, sometimes you just have to have another pan on the stove. The microwave is also very handy for side-dishes and leftover warmups, and ours gets used quite a bit every day. In an RV it’s much more a part of the whole cooking a meal process than in a house.

Refrigerators in RVs tend to be on the small side as well, unless you live in one of those monster-size motorhomes, so you have to plan meals for shorter periods of time. But that helps you to keep fresher ingredients, and to be more frugal in the long run. You should make a shopping list based on a meal plan for a week or so, and only get what you need. You don’t have space for a lot of unplanned, impulse purchases.

So, with a supply of basic spices and seasonings, the requisite cookware, and some fresh, high-quality ingredients, you’re ready to cook. We are gluten-free now and have been for the last few years, so our recipes are wheatless, but can usually be adapted for wheat users. I try to be creative and improvise as much as I can, but there are some favorites that we’ve come up with over the last couple of years. In future posts I will share some of these favorite recipes for simple RV one-pot cooking, so stay tuned.

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The Frozen RV Sewer Hose Incident – Didn’t Know Those Hoses Could Weigh So Much!

Posted on March 15, 2012

Now that winter here in the great Midwest seems to be over, it’s a good time to reminisce about some of the problems we had because of it. Even though it was a mild winter compared to the norm, we still had to endure intermittent below-freezing temperatures for about 3 months. One of the ways we had prepared for this was to make sure we had a heated water hose for cold-weather camping.

RV Sewer Hose

If you don’t want to spring for a fancy hose with the heat built-in, you can go the cheap and frugal route. Basically, you get some “heat tape” (not really tape at all) which is a long strand of heated plastic-covered elements that plug in to a shore power outlet. This is wrapped onto your water hose with adhesive tape of some kind (yes, duct tape is OK), and then covered with tubes of pre-split foam insulation. It’s guaranteed to keep your water hose from freezing, as long as the heat tape stays on and the electricity is constant.

In addition to having a heated hose for the incoming water, you have to keep the water flowing on the coldest nights, and how do you do that? Simple – you open each tap (bath and kitchen) just a bit so that there is a contstant flow through the system. Of course, as in all things, one thing leads to another. If the taps are open the gray water tank is going to fill up if you don’t leave it open, so we left it open, thinking that the water would just flow along and go down the drain, about 20 feet away at the end of a double length of flexible sewer hose.

One frosty frozen morning, it became apparent that I would not be able to postpone emptying the black water tank any longer, so I put on my parka and snow boots and went out to get it done. To my surprise and dismay, after opening the valve, everything stopped after about 5 seconds. Puzzled, I lifted the sewer drain hose and discovered that it weighed a lot more than it should if it was empty. Which it wasn’t, obviously – it was full of ice, the result of the trickle of water flowing into it and freezing before it could reach the end. And it was completely full, with no room for anything to go through. We had a frozen RV sewer hose on our hands. As I lifted the hose a little farther out, it cracked in 2 right in my hands, putting an end to my hopes for a quick resolution to the problem.

All I could do was go get a new sewer hose and attach it. That worked fine, but my quick and easy black water emptying project turned into a several-hour process, all because of a little stream of water coming from the faucets in the RV. So we learned that it’s better to keep an eye on the waste water tank and dump it when needed than to just let the water run out into the open sewer hose. This is only necessary when it’s very cold, and you have to have a flow to keep the pipes from freezing. At all other times we keep the gray water valve open and there’s no problem. We live this life and learn as we go, and fortunately sewer hoses are relatively cheap – a small price to pay for a valuable lesson.

****Though this is Jim’s very own category on the blog, Robin couldn’t resist creating a poem…****

Let’s grab another Camco sewer hose

Cuz it appears that ours has froze

As all rvers knows (yeah, that’s a stretch)

RVing in the cold really blows

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One Of The Best RV Sites – HitchUpandGo – Our “Site Of The Month” March 2012

Posted on March 14, 2012

Whether you have been rving for years or are just about to set out on your first trip in your camper, you will find everything – and I am not exaggerating when I say everything – you need at one amazing and FREE website devoted to rvers, HitchUpandGo.

We couldn’t believe this site when we stumbled onto it. It is a directory full of articles, information and links to all of the important information, sites and resources you need to discover when traveling in your recreational vehicle. We cannot imagine the work that they put into compiling all of this information in one place, making all of our lives so much easier. It doesn’t matter at all if you are a seasoned full-timer, if you rv part time or if you are just starting to learn the ropes. Everyone will benefit from this site, guaranteed!

Here are just some of the resources you will find:

FREE QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER – These great newsletters began in January 2007 and are available in archive form on their site. Plus you can sign up to receive future newsletters. Just the articles and information you will find reading all of the ones to date is a gift to anyone who is rving.

RV WEBSITE DIRECTORY – Full of tons of easy links in categories such as planning a trip, information, maintenance, online stores, gear, clubs, communication, insurance, sales and even games.

RV BLOG DIRECTORY – RVers love reading about other people living the rv life, and this rv site has found what appears to be the majority of them! In nice, alphabetical order, browse through the countless numbers of rving blogs and start connecting with others living on the road. An amazing, impressive list…

RV ARTICLES – They have many helpful articles that will teach you something new, in addition to articles in their newsletters.

HELPFUL TOOLS – They have an extensive dictionary they’ve built with every rv term you will ever need from basic rv language to weights and measurements and types of rvs. They also have links and information about products such as software, books and gear.

In sum, it is no mystery why we feel this website is our “rv site of the month.” We cannot thank HitchUpandGo enough for putting all of this necessary information in one place – making life so much easier for us all.

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Losing My Mother – My Mom Passed Away

Posted on February 5, 2012

If anyone told me a month ago I would be writing this post, I would have done things differently. I would have hugged my mom tighter, told her I loved her more than usual, laughed more, spent more time with her.

My Mom And Me

The thing is that my mom is someone I thought would always be there. She is the one I called when life presented challenges. She was silly, funny, generous…I just can’t imagine a world without her. Other people lose their parents…not me. I am 43 years old, my mom only 66 – and I have to go through life without a mom to hold my hand. I don’t know how to even imagine ever having the strength to do that.

My mom was an only child, and so am I. Though it is hard for my stepfather to grieve over losing his wife and difficult for my daughter to lose her grandma – all terribly painful losses – I wish I had siblings right now to go through this with. I’m in my mom’s house, helping with her “things” and trying at the same time to cope with the thought of not having my mother’s daily love for the rest of my life.

Though she loved me everyday, my mom never understood our decision to sell everything and live the rv lifestyle. She worked at the same job all of her life, did everything the “right way” according to today’s standards. She retired only 1 1/2 years ago. But I think she understands now…wherever she might be.

Though you cannot escape the pain of life when rving, because life will find you no matter where you are, I cannot imagine only getting one week to grieve, then “back to the office” to pretend everything is ok. My rv is in her driveway right now, as long as necessary, so I can be here for my family and for myself. Conventional life doesn’t allow for such things. I know it seems silly to talk about rving at a time like this, but the point is that I couldn’t cope with this in the traditional life I left behind. I need to take however much time I need to just be in her home and feel her around me.

How do people do it? How do they lose a parent and then have to go back to work and pretend anything they are doing has any importance, in the grand scheme of things? Deadlines, projects, budgets – who the hell cares? All that matters in this world are the people you love…that’s IT. Not even your checkbook means a damn thing. My mom worked all of her life, saving for retirement and never got to enjoy it.

So, mom – though I have always been your unconventional daughter, now you see why I live the life I do. I can spend more time with the people I love. I can spend more of my life feeling alive in the present instead of worrying about financial planners, 401k’s and only planning on the future, if the future ever comes. I could never have gone back to the “office” after losing you. My lifestyle is going to give me the time and freedom to cope with this tremendous loss, instead of having to quicken the grief process so I can get back to work.

My rving decision was because I feel I know what matters most – my family. I never wanted the big house, fancy cars and expensive furniture that would keep me chained to a desk to pay for it all. All I ever wanted was you and the rest of my family. I am so happy I got to come to Illinois in October and spend so much time with you, including this past Thanksgiving and Christmas. And now, as I type this sitting at your dining room table, I am so grateful I can feel your love around me throughout this home – because that is all that matters to me right now.

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