November 28, 2013
I am thankful for many things but right now, I am thankful to be leaving the DFW area on Saturday!!! I haven’t posted anything since we left Corpus Christi, because to be perfectly honest, the most fun and exciting things we did this late summer/fall was to watch Meghan play volleyball. And that was maybe twice a week! So, here is our latest blog update to get you up to speed before we hit the road. We have hitch itch something fierce!
First, I just want to bitch a bit about the weather here. We got back to the area mid/late August and it was hot as hell and humid. This went on until October sometime. Oh, we had a nice day here and there but they were brief and far between. Then one day, as we had the air blasting, the temperature dropped and we shut the air off! Woohoo!! We opened our windows and welcomed the cool breeze…..then within less then 12 hours, we had to shut the windows and about 8 hours later we had to turn the heater on!!! Yes our fall lasted about 24 hours. To be honest, we did eventually shut the heat off for a week or two but then we hit more cold and the heaters have been on non-stop for at least a week. Needless to say, I am not a fan. So because of this horrid weather, Sean and I spent a lot of time in our RV, running the air, or going somewhere there was air conditioning. We joined a gym so we could exercise but other then that and a few adventures here or there, we just tried not to sweat….profusely. And poor Sean! He sweats like know one you can imagine! He couldn’t get through the day without changing his clothes because they would be drenched. And he is also extremely appetizing to mosquitos. So, besides sweating all the time, he was always trying to get away from biting bugs. I don’t sweat near as much and mostly mosquitos do not find me very appetizing so it wasn’t as miserable for me. I could be fairly comfortable outside once the sun set.
Haunted House
Meg’s season was up and down. They have a new coach who everyone likes much better but they still seem to be either hot or cold. The ended up in the middle of the pack and did not advance to the NAIA finals. The last tournament that would have seated them was the best I have ever seen Meghan play. However, it was just not enough. So far, her shoulder has held but they still want to do an MRI to make sure she does not have a tear. She made second team all conference but if the votes had been cast based on that tournament, I know she would have been first team without question.
Birthday girl! 21!!!
I continued working a few days a week for the marketing company that I have been working for about a year. Sean looked for something temporary that paid a little better then awful but that is not easy. He was getting a bit frustrated when we saw a job in workamper.com that was looking for someone short term near us. They would provide a camping spot with full hook ups and pay $10 an hour. Not a fortune but when you are sitting around twirling your thumbs, it all works. The employer is called Allegro Plaques. They make plaques and t-shirts for various secondary high school band competitions. We called the owner and went out to visit the site in Midlothian. Midlothian is about 25 minutes from where we were in Arlington. He was re-opening up his business after having sold it five years before. He had a non-compete when he sold it five years before and the five years was up. In his heyday, he had dozens of employees and about 10 work camper couples. He is in his late 60’s but decided to open the business again but at a smaller level. Who would know that a business making t-shirts and plaques could be so profitable?! He didn’t tell us what he sold it for but did say that the broker who handled the deal made $125,000 off the deal. That tells me he must have sold it for a million or more. Plaques and t-shirts…..who knew? He said he had a few jobs that could keep us busy for about 6 weeks if we were interested. It fit perfectly into our schedule of leaving and we said we would do it. So, we have been making plaques and t-shirts for the past six weeks!
Sean working the press for plaques
Sample plaque
Susan and Simon working in the t-shirt area
He also hired another work camper couple, Simon and Susan. They actually like to do security site jobs but were waiting to be placed somewhere so they came out to join us in Midlothian until there security job became available. They were a really fun, experienced work camping couple and we learned much from them. They were placed in a security job after about a month and we said our good byes.
Now the jobs are complete and Sean and I can add plaque makers, t-shirt folder and whatever else is needed experts to our resume! It was actually pretty laborious work and we were both glad to be done at the end of the day. Neither of our backs is great and standing mostly all day can be a bit painful. We were both glad that it wasn’t our careers.
We will be enjoying our Thanksgiving feast with Meghan, getting the rig ready, and then heading out on Saturday. We will head towards Tucson where we will see some doctors, friends and family. Then we will head to Sedona for a week or so where we can park for free at our resort. We will visit more family and make a day trip or two to Phoenix and see more friends and family. Then we head to Blythe where we will park the rig at our next work camping job. We will drive onto Alpine/San Diego where we will spend the holidays with our children and grand children. Then we will stay at the Blythe job until we feel like leaving and heading towards Colorado. We have another work camping job at a campground called Chalk Creek where we will spend the summer then back to DFW for Meghan’s final year of college volleyball!
Cute grandkids!
