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Merry Christmas Eve!

I took pics while we were packing up and the view of the lake.

Yes, Todd actually parallel parked the camper! That's our new (to us) car.

The owner told us we could try to get into this spot but no one else had been able to. She had a couple of spots up front too. It took Todd a little while but, dang, he's good, huh? He did move the neighbors swing. It was cold and raining at the time and when he was leveling it the front post slid a few inches! Was a little scary but he kept leveling. By this time I was in the camper setting up and it slid again about 6 inches or so, really scary! I almost hit Todd with the door to see if he was OK or under the thing! He was OK and surprisingly calm because you know he had to hitch back up and parallel park all over!

I thought it'd be a good idea to keep the truck until we moved so we could pull the trailer right up to the apartment but T didn't want to and since he does all the heavy lifting I had no need to bicker.

This was the view out our front door.

There are several turtles sunning on a log in the lake.

If anyone is interested in staying in this campground it's called "Lakeshore Campground" in Hendersonville, TN 37075. It's not online at all so if you need the phone number contact us and we'll get it for you. I think the only way she has campers is by word of mouth.

This is just one of the pics Todd took of the camper for the ad to sell it.

I love how men don't care that there are dishes in the sink and our ugliest kitchen towel is hanging there, lol. I did love the cute little kitchen. When I saw the kitchen in this apartment I thought it was ginormous!

Can you say Steelers fan?

When the lady bought the truck she said "I don't do baseball". Football either apparently.  :D  I can understand though how you could see "Steelers" and think "stealing bases". She called a week or so later to ask what kind of oil T used and said she loves the truck so we're happy she got it! The guys who bought the camper never called with any questions. Even when I told them really, call anytime with any questions one of the guys said "oh I think we can handle it".

There she goes!

The new owners of Serenity are hunters so they're probably parked in some woods now. They were running behind the day they came for the trailer due to some truck problems so they must've been in a hurry. They pulled through this super slanted bumpy parking lot like a bat out of hell. Hopefully all is well with them. :)

In other news, We've been locked out of our Facebook account for months but got an email for a friend request. I'm sorry, friend, we aren't ignoring you, we just can't get in. The message from Facebook for why we're locked out is funny! "We've locked your account because someone recently tried to log in from an unfamiliar location. Please help us confirm that it was you who tried to log in." Like we were ever in a familiar location! To confirm it's us they ask for our birthday and we have no idea what we used so I finally took our Facebook badge off of the sidebar.

We love this apartment and are doing well. Todd likes his new job and I'm working on my second responsive Blogger theme. This one is really versatile and customizable in Template Designer. So, you can see the new one if you want - Shabby Chic Pub. I just have to finish spacing gadgets correctly so if you see something way off or with a silly looking background color I'm working on it!

(Little update) speaking of Todd's new job, he ran into his friends from Salt Lake City... here in Tennessee! His friend Kevin put it so well here in his blog post. I didn't know he was a blogger too! Hi Kevin and Don!

For anyone who had our phone number it has recently changed (we got a better deal being stationary) and we accidentally lost our phone numbers stored in Todd's phone months ago. Please contact us through email or the contact form in the left sidebar, thanks!

This is probably my last post here. Take care out there and happy trails! :)

The End of the Road

While we were in Indiana deciding where to go for the winter, we thought we could just go home for a while. Todd has a class he'd like to take and we both have some business to finish in Tennessee. So we thought about just coming home for maybe a few months. Then agreed we'd be very cold, the trailer is falling apart, and mostly - this traveling / camping thing would be really fun if we got to go where we want and do what we wanted to do. We both just work, we go where the job takes us. It was fun still! We agree we wouldn't trade the memory for anything but decided to come home and sell the truck and camper.

On our way home, a short eight hour trip, Todd was a little upset that we left later than we planned and was worried we'd hit some bad traffic. I said "don't be mad Baby, it's our last trip so let's have fun"! He quickly obliged, we didn't hit any traffic, and made a reservation (and paid) for one night at a campground we knew we could get into but had to come see if our first campground here had a spot big enough. The owner told us she really didn't know. We sang and had a great time. We like to wait until we need gas before we stop for food but I got so hungry. Though the gas gauge said keep going my stomach was growling and while still laughing and joking around I told Toddy-Bear he's got to go ahead and stop for food. We pulled into the Love's Truck stop in Horse Cave Kentucky and I pranced my happy self inside while Todd filled the tank. He came inside and said "we have a problem". "Oh, what's wrong." (Paraphrased) "we lost a grease cap on one of the axles of the trailer and grease from it has come out, it's smoking pretty bad. I'll move it to a parking spot". Metal on metal for we don't know how long. Another, who knows, ten miles we would've been pulling an inferno. We asked inside if they knew a good mechanic. "We have some phone numbers here." We called but it was fairly late. They'd send someone out around 7:00 am. Alright, so we're here for the night. We ate, chatted for a few, and it was time for bed. Todd insisted on sleeping in the truck 'cause we had quite a bit in the truck bed. He pulled out the slide for me (it's a push button but sort of like opening a door, he always does it). "Goodnight."

Must've been two minutes after I got into bed I heard a roar of a diesel. Well plenty, of course, we were at a truck stop. OK, someone is parking next to us, surely they'll turn that thing off. Surely, they will, just a few more minutes right? NO! All night long that stupid thing vibrated this unmovable trailer. I guess it was movable in a way, lol. It was so loud and not even rhythmic. I figured it was bothering Todd too as I could feel every time he tossed and turned as if he were in the trailer with me. I thought OK, this diesel driver needs heat, it's pretty chilly. Why didn't he park it the big truck lot? We were in the campers lot.

In the morning I heard that thing move and instantly went to sleep, it was about 6:00 am. I asked Todd to wake me at 6:45 and he did. He told me a gas pump filling truck driver told our diesel driving clinger to move his truck. Clinger moved his truck from one side of our camper to the other, not even in a parking spot with his engine right next to my bedroom but turned it off. Todd got out and told him not to turn his engine back on, that I was sleeping right there, and he didn't. Thankfully we both got a little sleep.

The mechanic had to brake the hub off. Everything was fused together. It was ugly. Everything burned up. The axle was fried too. The "Axle Doctor" wouldn't even try on an RV. The shop owner said he would look in the surrounding cities and try to find an axle. None to be found. Todd got on the phone and I got on the internet trying to find an axle. None to be found... in this whole country! Really? Are you kidding!?! Nope. Todd on the phone with Coachmen. They can have one for us in two weeks. Todd asks who the manufacturer is. It starts with a "P" but we can't remember the name now. He got on with them and a wonderful lady named Tara helped us out! She could get us an axle, or have one made, but shipping... we're coming back up to South Bend Indiana! We had to leave the trailer in the parking lot, stayed in a motel, then drove 6.5 hours back up to pick up the axle and all components (hub). While we were up there Todd was trying to get an advance on his bond for the job he was doing, was still going to work for them from TN. That didn't turn out well and Todd terminated his contract with them. Gawd, that's another story. Tense, frustrating, grueling hours pass and we get to the manufacturer with little time to spare though we hit the road before sunrise. "Here're your parts!" Looking at it Todd noticed what they gave us was for six lugs, not five. On the phone with the angel named Tara again, she says "you're kidding". Nope. People stayed a little late, and we got it. Called the mechanic and it's going to cost $95 more on top of the $190 we already paid the shop. The axle was just under $500, not to mention the $200 or so for fuel. We were out of money. We thought thrice about having them do it but we didn't have money for anyone else to do it either. All we could do was see if they'd come down. Todd said we have $82 in the bank and $7 cash, can you do it for $85? The mechanic was really nice. He and the shop owner might have been playing "good cop bad cop" but after that he managed to fix it for nothing! He said his boss would let him fix it as long as he didn't have any other calls. I ran in to get food again, was so hungry. He fixed it in cold, rain, and dark. We like the mechanic a lot, to say the least. We plan to keep in touch because if there's anything we can do for him, we will. After we got back we sold the CB and had a little cash. Went to get fuel and our card was denied. We thought there was a mistake but checked and something hadn't cleared yet. We didn't have $82 in the bank, we had $.01, yes one penny in the bank. I usually keep up really good but well, boogers, I dropped the ball. Thank God we didn't know at the time.

We were basically in that parking lot for four days. I can not tell you all how nice the people are at the Love's Truck Stop in Horse Cave, KY. They are amazing! Everyone went above and beyond what they were required to do!

We sold the truck, bought a beautiful car. We sold the camper and rented a super cool apartment. Tonight is our last night in the trailer. There is so much I left out like when we were packing up Todd found the clippings from our dream / vision board and there was a dog that looked so much like our Jesse.

We'll always love this lifestyle. We'd like to do it again with freedom.

Finishing My Year Long Project

I kept toying with the idea of getting a cat. I just don't ever want to deal with the loss of another pet and the best way I can think of to do that is to never have another pet.

Anyway, I've given myself about three more weeks to finish my year long project. The World's greatest Blogger theme. Putting some finishing touches on it. For example I just added some code to the emoticons panel to keep it from translating. People all over the world can use this theme if they want. It's responsive and I took a lot of care to make sure every widget and everything you can put under posts works great. OK, you can see it - Glowing Dark Forest. I'm retesting all the widgets and often put weird colored backgrounds on temporarily to help me see spacing and things so you know it's just temporary if you see something like that. I'm also writing very clear instructions from how to upload to using the slider.

Hope all's well out there! :)

In Elkhart

We got to meet Chris and Cherie! They are so nice! They were going for a walk and we were unloading Walmart bags from the truck. I said "hey Chris and Cherie"! I wouldn't have done that but commented on their blog and they're good with that so I did. Yay! Super nice!

Later, We got to meet Carla from CozyBeGone! But only for a second, there were people behind us pulling in. She wrote me via RVillage that she was concerned, never seeing me out and the rig is closed up. I wrote her back saying I'm good just working a lot. I don't know if she got the message. I did go over that evening that I said I would but it was 9:15pm, looked like they were out or in for the night.

Later still, Todd wants a pet but I never, ever want to go through that again. He wants a cat now, says they're low maintenance. Noooooo.

Oh yeah, the water in Elkhart is horrific! If you're coming here be ready to put some money down on a filter. We were talking about it here on RV.Net.

Oh my gosh, other than that I love it here! There are serious cool spurts and then it gets back to pretty hot, but not near what we're used to!

G'Night All :-)

I'm just sitting here watchin' the wheels go round and round...

We made it up here to Elkhart, IN on May 3rd! Can't believe it's taken me this long to update here. We thought we might be stuck in TN for a while to save up money as Todd's new job required quite a bit of equipment. Todd's Mom and Step Dad came to the rescue (loan)! Todd is working and doing great and I've been working hard to get my first responsive Blogger template done. I always think I'm almost done then there's something else I want to improve. I have too much fun geekin' out!

I got up early this morning, sitting here at the computer by the window working (if you can call it that) and watching a parade of RVs roll by. I couldn't believe how many! I saw a really cool old bus and said "Todd, look at that! Oh my gosh that's Chris and Cherie from Technomadia!" (And Kiki!) So I checked their blog and they're here for the Escapees RV Club's annual rally. Nice! I've been meaning to say hi to them on their blog for over a year now I think!

I can barely get online at the moment. This campground is full and it's too chilly at 55° for a lot of people to be outside so there ya go.

Hope ya'll are having a great weekend!

Partying Monkeys Raised the Roof

We left Salt Lake City Thursday heading back to Tennessee to take care of some personal business before going to the new job in Elkhart, Indiana. We knew we'd probably drive into bad weather and thought we might need to hunker down somewhere in between for a day. While in Nebraska we saw a couple of guys who were obviously in the same line of work as Todd so we pulled up and enjoyed a conversation with them. They said too "sometimes you just have to stop, it's not worth it (tippin' a trailer)". They were so nice and we think we'll see at least one of them again. We saw a turned over tractor trailer earlier in Wyoming.

Salt Lake City

Strange back yard ornament in Salt Lake City!

Elk Mountain, Wyoming

The weather was getting worse and worse with very strong wind. In Iowa, stopping for fuel and a bathroom break, Todd noticed the roof of the trailer was catching air and was bubbled up. "On no! I think we should find a campground (and a storm shelter I was thinking), we didn't think we'd get too far today", I said. T said he was going to get the ladder out to evaluate the situation. "NO, you'll get blown off the roof!" We pulled in behind the gas station where the crazy man took a look. "The glue that holds the top liner to the wood is giving out" (or something like that) he said. What wood, I silently wondered, but right now who cares? He checked the weather from his phone, said the wind will be dying down in a couple of hours, calm overnight and picking back up in the morning. We'll be heading into it instead of crosswinds soon. "I think we should drive all night, stay ahead of it". "Oh crap! We started this day tired!" We had listened to the weather on the radio before and there was a good chance of tornadoes. Hmm, drive tired all night or sleep in a tornado magnet after we'd been warned. Looks like driving all night. The worst part is my eyesight is bad so T doesn't trust me to drive though I think I can keep it between the lines on the interstate but nooooo, Todd has to do it all himself.

He sang with the radio, had the windows down some for the cool air and kept going. We figured we could make it to TN around 8:00am, before the storms get there.

I figured he'd give up and find a campground around 12 or 1 in the morning... nope. "Go to sleep", he says. "Na, I don't want to leave you alone." "I'm fine." "OK, I'll try to take a lil naaaa... zzzz." There were about three little naps. Todd was completely determined to make it and couldn't be talked out of it. The last hour or two were the worst. He told me he almost couldn't go anymore but pulling off now would defeat the purpose of getting to town before the storms. This is when the ability to babble works in our favor, ha! Keep talking!

Sunrise in Kentucky

We called a campground about thirty minutes out and rolled in about 8:30am, Goodlettesville, TN. Todd slept a lot Sunday and I got about four more hours in. Monday we got some things including laundry done. The storms weren't too bad at all here luckily. Thoughts and prayers go out to the ones who weren't so lucky.

4/29/14
T said he can't do anything to secure the roof better in the time we have but we think it'll be fine for the short 7½ hour drive to Indiana. We watched it carefully on the way down here and thankfully it stayed the same, bad, but the same. With all the rain we did get we don't see any inside the camper, again, thankfully!

T's Mom took us out to dinner and T's brother came too. It was really nice. I sure do like them!

Our internet connection here is sketchy at best. Not sure how long we'll need to be here, hopefully just a couple more days.

Oh yeah, the title... I've always said, since the first trip, "it's like invisible monkeys are having a big ol' party in the trailer while we're driving". Sometimes things aren't near where we left them.

Today, April 30^th, is a beautiful day!

What It's Like to Live in a Small Space

I think of this game often while living in this camper! Heheee. I've always liked this game though! Enjoy!

RV Living sliding puzzle game » sliding block puzzles