Slowing down: Update on travel plans.

Trent will be your driver for this post.

Our original plan had us coming to Texas (check) and then heading out fairly quickly up into Colorado and toward the Pacific Northwest for the summer and fall and back down south for the winter. Now however we will be in Texas for all of July (Austin and San Antonio) and then only plan to make it to southern or central California by the fall or early winter by taking short hops west from Texas. We plan to head north in the spring and be in the Pacific Northwest for the summer of 2017 - a year later than first planned.

Why the change?

We like Texas a lot. 
We are dealing with the heat better than expected. Our AC unit keeps our living space cooler than our little window AC unit did in the house in Indiana so the summer is actually better so far. Plus we lived in Tennessee for about 10 years in total and the heat and humidity there are not that much different than here in Texas.

Slow travel is more fun and relaxing.
We moved quickly between Tennessee and Livingston, Texas. Moving every few days or every day is not as much fun as staying somewhere for a week or two.  Moving day ends up taking most of the day making getting work or anything else done much harder. Staying longer at each place makes it easy to work and allows us to explore more of the area before moving on.

Money: Instead of making two trips north and and one south we will be taking one trip west and north over the next year. This basically should cost about half as much as doing two trips in terms of gas.  Plus the longer you stay at RV parks - the bigger discount you can get.

All that said, our plans are subject to change. This is one reason we moved into the RV. If we change our minds - it is very easy just to drive in a different direction.

TRUTH REVEALED: Organization

Sam is your driver for this post.

Truth Revealed is a new series that gives an eye opening experience of what really happens in the Nomadic RV, and features interviews from the members of the nomadic family.

Susanne is being organization captain. {No offense} she really is not doing her job great.

I mean like, if you were to open the cabinets up, [in the kitchen in this case] you would

find that the pantry is not organized, AT ALL! Here is a dialog of words that might be said

when one opens the door.

“bang” {Food falling}

Susanne: “****”

Susanne: “I mean… Great.

Sam: “You said a bad word!

{Trent walks in}

Trent: “Do you want help?”

Susanne: “No! I don’t want help!”

Trent: “Fine, geez."

As you can see, in the picture above, the pantry is not organized. Along with that, the fridge is very disorganized as well. 

In my opinion, if we are to survive any longer, the problem needs to be addressed immediately. But it has not been addressed, which I cannot stand. 

But something else I can’t stand, Trent and disorganization. He has his own little places in the rig where he just stuffs pieces and kiblets. That are referred to has the “junk areas”. It was not too long ago that I caught him stuffing stuff into one of his “Palaces of Junk” areas. I said to him that he should organize it. In reply he said “It doesn’t matter, Mom cannot reach up there.” Sure enough, ten minutes later, I see her reach up there. And a box falls on her head. I tell Trent of the incident. He just ignored me. Hm. Hm. Hm. You would expect him to take care of her. I guess not. It is actually kind of depressing. It's sad. {silence} 

Anyway, I gave an interview including all of the members of the Nomadic family!

Q: What do you have to say in defense?

Sam: Personally, I have nothing to say in defense because I am organized, unlike other members of the family.

Biscuit: I HAVE TO stock up party supplies so when I have a million hot boyfriends, I can throw a giant party!

Susanne: It’s true. Something fell on my head. I blame Trent.

Trent: Susanne unleashed the potential energy of the box turning it into kinetic energy. It was for science.

Q: How do you think we can improve?

Sam: By taking the time to take everything out of the fridge and pantry, and put it back in, but organized!

Biscuit: By cluttering! {Yeah, totally going to work.}

Trent: By getting rid of more stuff.

Susanne: By not stacking things on top of each other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next post in series is TRUTH REVEALED: Nightly turndown

Coming next Sunday.

The benefits of living in a small space

As I mentioned to a friend on Instagram this morning, moving into our tiny space has involved a steep learning curve - not so much in terms of figuring out sewer/water/electric hookups or deciding where to travel, but very much so in terms of learning to live together in the smallest place we've ever owned.

Three humans and one cat cohabitating in a relatively modest-sized RV can be fraught with challenges, like when the dishes pile up (happens quickly, and can make the kitchen feel chaotic), or when someone's in a less-than-happy mood and doesn't feel like hanging out with family members, or when I reallllly want to get my yoga workout in but have to wait until Trent and Sam are off at the pool for an hour.

When the slide-out is out, this is where I do my workout. Right next to the kitty litter. Ommmm....

But! Even though it's frustrating sometimes, I see multiple benefits to living together in this little home:

1. We can keep only what we really need and/or want. There's simply no room for extraneous things we won't use or can't appreciate, so we carefully consider every single item we bring into our space. We did this before we moved in, but - because it was difficult to predict what we would actually use - we continue to evaluate our belongings. For example, the pretty serving tray that I carefully stowed into a cabinet for Pinterest-worthy dinner picnics is proving to be worthless, so it's not going to stick around. It needs to give up its home for something that we will actually utilize. 

Along the same lines, until we started preparing for RV life, I didn't realize how much random crap people are constantly trying to pass on to one another, such as the little towels that our campground gave us as a "welcome present" (they're not large enough to dry off with and not absorbent enough to dry dishes with), or the mini-frisbees and beer koozies available as "gifts" in the activity center this morning. It's tempting to take and keep these, but we don't need them and ultimately they're just going to serve as dust-catchers. Not worth it. MUST. RESIST. FREE. STUFF.

2. We have a better appreciation for what we do have. This sounds silly, but every morning I look at my coffee pot and think, "Man, I love this thing." I like its design, I like how easy it is to clean, and I like that it produces my favorite caffeinated beverage. I look at it and I appreciate it, whereas before this journey, I owned a lot of things that I walked by every single day and barely even noticed, much less acknowledged.

Coffee pot and rooster mug: Key players in my morning ritual

3. It's easy to clean and organize. Sam - the most organized person in our family - will tell you that I have a lot of opportunity for growth here, but overall I think we do a good job of keeping Clark tidy. And because Clark is small, it really doesn't take all that much time and effort. We can go from kitchen disaster zone to Instagram-worthy countertops in a matter of minutes. (Not saying that lasts long, but whatever.)

Post-breakfast is always messy, but it takes minutes to clean it up.

4. A small space requires less energy to heat and cool than a traditional home. It's hot here in Texas, so yes, we have our fan or A/C on most of the time. That said, it doesn't take much to cool the place down. Of course, our goal is to eventually "follow the weather" and get solar panels so that we can further minimize the use of fossil fuels for heating and cooling. At the very least, we're more aware now of what it takes to bring our space to a comfortable temperature. It encourages us to think about the resources and processes required.

5. We're forced to deal with interpersonal issues right away. This is a tough one even for a family that generally gets along. Sometimes our RV is like a pressure cooker! Things I've been trying to work on: not getting bent out of shape about the way Trent does the dishes (yes, I realize I'm crazy), being more patient when I need space but can't have it immediately, and talking through problems as they happen instead of letting the issues build up. This was my idea, and yet of anyone in the family, I'm the one who is most attached to the concept of a personal bubble. That part is tough for me, and I'm figuring out how to navigate that particular issue. So... yeah. Definitely a learning experience. 

6. I get to spend more time with my family. I love that. Sometimes it's really nice to hang out for hours in the same tiny room with them. As I write this, Sam is sitting across from me with a pad of paper, a ruler, and a pencil, designing a new hotel for his Minecraft world. I type, he draws, and we share ideas as we go. That kind of experience makes this wild journey totally worth it.

How to become residents of Texas so you can RV full-time!

Trent will be your driver for this post.

We chose to become residents of Texas after a bunch of research. Technomadia has a good blog post about choices and keeps it up-to-date. In summary, people who decide to become full-time RVers generally choose between Texas, Florida, and South Dakota if they don't stick with their home state. We picked Texas because given those three choices we would rather end up in Texas.

This is our step-by-step guide to getting Texas residency. We did steps 2-6 in a day and quarter.

1) Sign up for the Escapees Mail Forwarding Service.
This gives you a Texas address to use on official paperwork.

2) Take your RV to Livingston, TX.
Stay at the Escapees park (where we are right now with a good Verizon signal). You can complete these steps elsewhere in Texas but Livingston is an RV friendly town and state agencies here are used to dealing with full-timers. This makes everything easier.

3) Visit a local insurance agent
Get your insurance transferred to Texas or sign up for Texas insurance for your RV and towed vehicle. We used State Farm* since have been with them for a long time. The important part here is getting the paperwork showing you have the required insurance coverage for Texas on any vehicles you need to get plates for and the insurance paper work showing your Livingston address counts as one of the two pieces of paperwork needed to prove residency.

(*State Farm will not issue new policies for full-time RVers but if you are an existing customer with RV coverage you can transfer to Texas and keep your coverage.)

4) Get your vehicle state inspected. 

Bring your insurance paper work because it's required at the time of inspection.  This costs a total $5 per vehicle. We used Soda Auto at 6709 U.S. 190, Livingston, TX 77351 at the suggestion of the Escapees club and suggest you do, too. A single guy appears to run that somewhat rundown place but he is a member of Escapees and was extremely easy to work with. The inspection takes less than 10 minutes (maybe 5). We didn't even have to take the cat out of the RV. It was super easy and he later installed our plates for free (he needed to drill holes in front of the car) in exchange for a plate for his wall.

5) Know your GVWR and UVWR (or CW). 
The GVWR is probably posted in a plaque inside your driver's side door of your motorhome (I don't know where it would be in a 5th wheel). You will need to print or email a copy of this photo to the tax collection agency (the next step). We didn't know this ahead of time but I had taken pictures of every plaque in/on/under the RV and so was able to email the photo from iCloud as we were in the office.  They don't require proof of the UVWR or CW (I think they used a different abbreviation here - basically they want the unloaded weight).

6) Visit the local Texas Tax office to get your plates (M-F 8:00am - 4:30pm)
In Livingston the office is at 416 N. Washington Ave.  Take your insurance paperwork, state inspection paperwork, a check (or lots of cash - our cost was $438 for the RV and car), a passport, your loan(s) lien holder name and address, and registration paperwork from your old state. You will need to fill out a form. As stated above, you will need to print or email a photo of the GVWR plaque and know the unloaded vehicle weight. Pay your fee and get the plates and texas registration. The registration paper counts as your second proof of residency.

You don't have to have the passport as there are alternatives listed but having that makes it easier.

7) Visit the Driver's License office of the Department of Motor Vehicles (M-F 8:500)
at 1737 N Washington Avenue, Livingston, TX 77351.  It's across a parking lot from the police station. Take your passport, SS card, current driver's license, car/RV registration (1st form of residency and otherwise required to have), and your insurance forms (2nd form of residency and otherwise required to have).  You do not have to take a driver's test - just an easy eye test. I wear glasses for reading and was able to pass it no problem.

8) Have a drink
You are now a Texan - or as Susanne would say, a "Fexan" (a Fake Texan).

Scenes from Texas

We're in Texas now! AND we're Texans! With Texas plates and Texas driver's licenses! (However, a Texan friend tells me - and I believe her, because she seemed very serious about it - that we are  not actually residents until we make our chili without beans and have our photos taken amongst blue bonnets, some sort of flower that Texans apparently really love.) 

Yesterday we established our residency all in one day. It involved a lot of filling out of forms and writing of checks, but it got done and now we're Texans. Or fake Texans. Fexans. That sounds more honest. Trent is going to write a blog post very soon detailing how one obtains Texas residency. You know. Just in case you want to follow in our RV tracks.

As he'll describe, the first step to establishing a Texas residency is obtaining a legit Texas address. You could go whole hog and buy or rent a place, OR you could be cheap like us and get an address through the Escapees RV Club. 

 

That's right: you can get a mailing address that the DMV and tax offices will recognize and honor even though everyone involved knows that you're not a real live Texan. They will even welcome you to the state and do an Oscar-worthy job of acting like they want you here (I don't think that has ever happened to me at the DMV before now).

Escapees also has a campground, and that's where we're currently parked. Despite the heat (shockingly, it's hot), Clark is perfectly comfortable beneath a nice little stand of trees.

 

It's not a swanky RV park, but it's got everything we need and the management is super professional. They've clearly been doing this a while and know what RVers want, like laundry machines and shade.

 

To celebrate our Fexan status, Sam and I drove down to Houston today to visit the children's museum. Can I just say that Houston + heat + lots of children = a really loud museum experience? But that was fine. Sam enjoyed it, clearly:

 

 

 

A coup for us: the museum honored the ASTC reciprocal membership we have through the Kentucky Science Center, so the visit was free! (Parking was not.)

Two weeks in!

Yesterday marked two weeks since we embarked on our RV adventure.

Our route and the highlights so far:

June 1 - 5: Diamond Caverns RV Resort (Park City, KY)

Things we did: Trip to Mammoth Cave, swimming, learning how to cook in the RV

Best parts: Small but clean campground with a nice pool, close to Mammoth Cave National Park, gorgeous hiking/walking/running trails

Worst parts: None? It was a great few days. 

June 5 - 16: Natchez Trace RV Campground (Hohenwald, TN)

Things we did: Visited the grandparents in Nashville, walked through the TINY town of Hohenwald (including the visitor's center located in the old train station), ate at the Loveless Cafe, drove a lot (Hohenwald to Nashville is a 1.5 - 2 hour drive), went to the zoo, spent time with friends, checked out the Warner Park Nature Center, hit up Whole Foods, reading, swimming, running.

Best parts: All of the above! We also appreciated the consistency of the services (water, electricity, sewer) at our campground.

Worst parts: The campground is pretty and the site services are commendable, but it's also really run down. The roads are potholed, the tennis courts look completely dilapidated (not that we would be using them anyway, but other people might want to), the fitness center is closed, and the recreation center needs work. Given the large size of this campground, maintenance must be a major challenge... but it's a little disappointing that even the Recreation Center at the heart of the campground is falling apart. Hopefully, the management will find the funds to keep this place going and get it into better shape.

Next on the agenda: We're heading to Texas! Houston and Austin, here we come!

RV Vegan?

Yes we are! 😜

Get it? 

It was a joke. A bad one. I blame the influence of Trent's side of the family. They have the best bad jokes ever.

Anyway, in a previous post I mentioned that we've adopted a vegan lifestyle. A "plant-based" lifestyle is a more accurate way to describe it, as a) we are currently using honey, b) I'm guessing we have some leather somewhere amongst our belongings, and c) our child is still eating some meat and cheese.

Back in the day - before we moved to the middle of nowhere in Montana and before we had Sam - Trent and I were vegetarians. If I recall correctly, Trent's reasons were primarily ethical, whereas my reasons were... Trent. He identified as vegetarian and so I wanted to do the same. The truth was, I could watch those horrible videos of animals being hurt and tortured and still think, "Hmm, if I weren't vegetarian, I could totally go for a hamburger."

In Montana we went back to eating meat. Finding fresh veggies and fruits in our tiny town was difficult, whereas finding fresh meat was easy. Everyone hunted. Everyone grilled. The meat was usually top quality. It smelled good. I got pregnant and hot dogs tasted divine (whereas vegetables were nausea-inducing). 

So for the past nine years, we've been omnivores, and to be quite honest, we didn't give a lot of thought to it. Sometimes we purchased grass-fed beef; sometimes we purchased whatever was on sale at Kroger. Sometimes we bought organic eggs; sometimes we didn't. It really varied. We ate a fairly healthy diet and had a "We're doing our best" mentality.

So what changed?

People usually adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet for one of three reasons: ethics (by questioning whether we have a right to raise and kill other animals for food), health (because plant based diets have been shown time and time again to be much healthier than meat based diets), or environment. For me, it was the environmental considerations that did it.

During the winter term that started in January of this year, I taught an Environmental Geology class. For every course I facilitate, I try to identify one or two themes that connect key concepts throughout the semester. This time the theme focused on individual actions: what can one person do to help cultivate a healthier planet?

I had my students use the Ecological Footprint Calculator to determine the number of Earths needed to support their habits and lifestyles as well as the tones of CO2 they produced each year. Most of them ended up with 4-5 planet earths and somewhere between 16 and 22 tones of CO2. 

Then we talked about what we could do to narrow the footprint.

Honestly, I thought I knew the answer already. I talked about reducing electricity use, conserving water, recycling, and walking or biking versus driving. I talked about the role that technology has started to play in conserving resources - the development of Energy Star appliances, for example. 

But when I sat down to put numbers to those calculations, I discovered that for kids living in rural mid-America, who don't travel that much and aren't driving enormous distances to work and school, whose water usage is a literal drop in the bucket compared to what's used for agriculture, none of those things made much of a dent. Even if my students were to make massive changes in these areas, their footprints would decrease by only a small percentage. Not to say that the efforts wouldn't be worthwhile... But I felt discouraged. I didn't want them to finish the class feeling hopeless about the future of the planet. 

Then I stumbled upon some articles about vegetarianism and veganism, and in reading them, I found out that adopting a plant-based diet is one of the most effective ways for an individual to ease up on the Earth. So much of our land is used to grow crops for animal agriculture, so much forest is cleared for said animal agriculture, and so much pollution is produced as a result of animal agriculture that I felt like I, especially as an earth scientist who loves and appreciates the earth and its resources and history, had the responsibility to change my own habits.

 

So on Earth day, we did. We officially went plant based (or plant powered, as I like to put it!) Trent has decided to eat vegan at home but will eat whatever strikes his tastebuds when we are out. As for Sam, he's never eaten a whole lot of meat, but he definitely likes cheese and yogurt. He's nine. He's old enough to make his own decisions about what he will and will not eat, and I don't want to force any ideas on him, especially because I don't want him to develop any issues around food. We will set an example and he can follow suit when and if he is ready.

Cooking vegan meals in the RV has been pretty easy so far. Breakfast is usually cereal, fruit, oatmeal, and/or smoothies. For lunch, we have sandwiches, veggies, hummus and carrots, wraps, or leftovers. Dinner has included spicy baked tofu, beans and rice with fixings (avocado, peppers, etc.), roasted eggplant and peppers, stews, veggie burgers, big salads, and stir fry. It's nice not having to worry about making room for and storing meat in our tiny fridge.

I feel really passionate about this issue, so I'll probably write about it periodically. I don't want to be annoying or fanatical. That said, if this issue is of any interest to you, I encourage you to watch the documentary Cowspiracy. It's currently available on Netflix and does a great job of presenting the facts.

Some things we have learned

Biggest lessons learned so far:

(1) In certain places in middle Tennessee, Verizon coverage and wireless Internet are basically nonexistent. 

(2) The Instant Pot is like the best thing ever. I will now take it everywhere with me.

(3) It's... kind of weird to wake up in the morning and realize that you don't have a permanent home. Definitely an adjustment.

A few highlights from the past few days:

From June 1 - 5, we stayed at the Thousand Trails Diamond Caverns RV resort near Mammoth Cave National Park in central Kentucky. We played at the pool, visited the cave, and went for some runs on a beautiful path located right next to the campground:

We'd definitely stay at that park again, and we'd definitely recommend it to others. It's small, and it isn't fancy, but the facilities were clean and there was plenty to do. 

We then headed down to Tennessee, where we're parked for the next several days. The campground is massive and extremely hilly... so much so that my run this morning turned into more of a walk-up-the-hills-try-not-to-fall-down-the hills hike. 

While we're here, we'll be visiting my parents and some of our friends, running, doing yoga (well, I'm trying to practice yoga in the main room of the RV), learning to live with the spotty Internet, and practicing our RV vegan cooking skills.

Yup, we went vegan... Because why make just one major life change when you can make TWO AT ONCE?

On the Road, Day 2

We ended up leaving yesterday after all. Good thing, as most of our stuff was cleaned up, stocked away, and ready to go. We were eager to get on the road.

 

Our first stop on this journey (to nowhere in particular) is a four-day visit to the Mammoth Caves area of central Kentucky. We're at a lovely campground with full hookups (water, sewer, electricity), a swimming pool, laundry, etc. We've already met some of our neighbors, stocked up at the local IGA, run on the roads and trails surrounding the camp, and made some meals in our handy InstantPot (although my first attempt ended with me forgetting about it and leaving it outside in the pouring rain - it was fine, and the meal was delicious!)

 

We're using the next few weeks to learn more about Clark and his quirks - one being that his shower does not work properly - and decompress. I don't know about Trent, but for me, transitioning to this kind of lifestyle is going to take some adjustment. I typically like to have lists full of tasks that I can check off and feel proud of accomplishing. This way of life will also involve many tasks - lots of cleaning, lots of repairing and maintaining, lots of cooking, lots of working with my son - but without a traditional job, I know that I'll likely be a bit lost for a while.

I hope I can give myself the space to make that transition without judging myself. To help myself do that, I plan to do a lot of working out (running and Piyo), journaling, cooking, blogging, Instagramming, and seeing the sights. These are all things I love and that feel familiar and happy to me. 

 

On a totally different note: for the Biscuit fans out there, she seems to be doing really well. She loves all the vertical opportunities in the RV and enjoys climbing from the couch to the bunk and then down to the table and then back to the bed... She was a little freaked out when we first arrived, but now she's in full I Am The Queen Of My Domain mode.

 

"Put the phone down, human. You're embarrassing yourself once again." -Biscuit McDowell in a judgmental moment