Now I Have The Justified Blues

We have now been in the DC area for over ten weeks, which is nine weeks too long, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.... finally!

While our first month was in a less than desirable place to stay, our move to Pohick Bay Regional Park, put us back in our comfort zone.  It is a very nice park with a playground for the kids and plenty of room to walk and ride bikes.  The sites are not too close together and it has a nice wooded type atmosphere.

Avery on top of the World at the playground.

 Gathered around the campfire at Pohick Bay Regional Park.

Getting ready to roast hotdogs and marshmallows.

While here, we also took advantage of a really nice bike trail that runs from our park down to Mason Neck State Park and is close to or just a little over five miles one way.  It was one of the best paved trails we have ridden on with plenty of scenery along its winding path.  This was also the longest bike ride to date, that happen to fall on Misty's birthday, which made it even more special.

It was mostly down hill from our camp site, which made the ride back a little more challenging, but everyone finished it fine with Ethan leading the way.  The picture below shows where we started and finished, but we still had to ride back to the starting point, so we really finished where we started.

Bird's eye view of our bike ride from Pohick Bay to Mason Neck State Park and back.

Paved bike trail in Mason Neck State Park.

Our little flock enjoying their bike ride.

Don pulling the kid buggy on the trip back.

One of the many bridges on the bike trail.

Don still pulling the kid buggy!

Don, Avery, and Chloe taking a break.  All that riding really wore the kids out.

Ian cooling off.

Tia, Little Miss Attitude, taking a break.

Ethan and Courtney styling for us.

So, I should be very happy at the moment, but I'm not.  I have a serious case of depression.  Not the type that disables you from being able to work or function, but the type that makes you down in the dumps.

What is the cause for feeling so down?  Well, I'm glad you asked. As you well know, Misty and I have the addiction of watching series on TV either by buying them on DVD or off Amazon Instant Video.  During one of our binges, we discovered the FX series of Justified.  

Now I'm not in 100% agreement with Misty, but she swears I have a man crush on Raylan, who is a pretty cool character, and if I were going to have one, he would be a good man to have a crush on.

But that is not the problem.  The problem is, now that we have caught up with the current season and have to wait for new episodes to come out, I am having "Justified" withdrawal.   I'm sure one of these days I will find another series that will be as exciting as Justified, but until then, I will not be happy.

When we had three plus seasons of Justified to watch, I could not wait to go to bed at night and watch a couple, three, four, five, or more episodes.  Now I have to wait a whole week, seven days, until I can watch the next episode.  What a bummer!   

I know, I know, such a petty thing to complain about.  I'm just trying to self help and point out my addictions, which is the first step in recovery.  Maybe if I write about my habit, it will help me to get the monkey off my back.

Justified background from the FX series.

Oh well, that is this weeks dilemma, which is really not one, but I had to blog about something, so I thought I would tell you how I feel.

I really hope that we get out of here and start sight seeing more and more now that the weather is getting better, so that I have stuff to write about, that is a little more interesting.

So, the good news is, we are finally going to get away from here and head west.  We all have been itching to see all of the wonders out west and in between.  We are also going to try and link up with some friends for a while too.

God bless and we hope your problems are few and far between!

Thanks!

Don, Misty, and Kids...

Addicted

We have a confession that we need to get off our chests and so it is about time we tell all.

Misty and I have an addiction that like all addictions, is not healthy.     We acquired or discovered it a couple years ago while living in the house and were hoping that we could shake it once we hit the road.

Unfortunately, though, just like any type of monkey on your back, it will not let go.  It may settle down for a while and take a nap, but sooner or later it rears its ugly head and takes control again and again.

What is this terrible addiction that Misty and I are afflicted with?  Well it is something that has been around for a very long time and has taken many victims in its lifetime.  It will make you feel like you are on top of the world then throw you down, like yesterday's newspaper, and wipe its feet on you.

I would guess that just about every house has it in one form or another.  Sometimes it will stand out and other times it will blend into the background.  Most of us first experience it as infants but its draw or appeal only grows stronger as we grow bigger.

Some reading this will be very surprised while others will say, "I knew they had a problem!"  Well whatever the outcome, it is about time we came clean.

Misty and I are addicted to ....... TV series!  Yes that is correct, we will buy season after season of TV series and watch them for hours, sometimes all night long, until morning, especially on the weekends.

"No!", you say, but it is all true.  Just last night after finishing seasons one and two of Life, using Amazon Instant Video, along with other on-line movie/TV services, we started watching the series Justified and did not quit until around 4 am.

We try to stop only after one or two episodes, but just can not seem to do it.  They always end in such a suspenseful way that you just have to watch the next one, thinking that this is the last, but knowing deep inside that it is not.

You watch with anticipation of the hero winning in the end and can not wait until that final show when they are triumphant, but when that show comes, if it comes, you are left with that empty feeling deep in your gut, and know that you must now find another series to fill the void.

So that is our addiction that we must live with.   They say that the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.  I guess Misty and I are taking that first step.

Well we need to go now.  We want to finish up season one of Justified and then probably season two.

Thanks!
Don, Misty, and Kids...

On a serious note, please pray for all of those in need and suffering through hard times.  May God bless us all.

No More Trailer Parks

As I have mentioned a couple times before, we had to come to VA for my job, to provide on-site support for a month or so.

When we first arrived we stayed at Harmony Place Trailer Park in Alexandria, VA.  It was a tight, typical trailer park with narrow roads which were not only used by the trailer park occupants, but by individuals from a neighboring apartment complex as well.

Google Map View Of Harmony Place Trailer Park

It did not offer the friendly RV Park atmosphere that we are used to and like.  That is not to say that the neighbors were not friendly, because they were, but with everyone walking in front of the RV all day and night, it just did not feel safe.

One morning while I was at work and everyone else was still sleeping in the RV, Ethan was woke up by someone trying to open the front door.  Thinking it was me coming back for something, he ran over to the door, opened the curtains, and saw a strange man walking away from the door.

This was when we decided to move to a RV park and get the heck out of the trailer park.  Who knows what the man wanted or his intentions and it still scares me to think, what would have happened if I would not have locked the door that morning?

So we slid in the slides, pulled up the jacks, unhooked the lines, and drove to a local RV park not too far away.

The LivelyRV Crew minus Misty (Mom).

The LivelyRV Crew minus Don (Dad).

The park we moved to is close and has plenty of trails to hike and places to ride our bikes.  Today we went for a short walk and let the kids play on the playground some, just before the sun was ready to set.

Tia in the rings.

Ian and Avery on the chain ladder.

Avery, with is big blue eyes, climbing the screw while Misty watches.

Misty showing Ethan how to do leg lifts.  Ethan not paying attention to Mom doing leg lifts.

Avery and Mom looking through the rings.

Ethan saying that he is an owl?????

Tia gets ready.

Tia gets set.

Tia goes!  (No teeth were lost while taking this picture.)

Courtney showing off her climbing skills.

Chloe debating about coming down the slide.  The debate ended with the slide winning and Chloe not sliding.

Courtney playing on the slide.

Courtney sliding into Ethan while playing on the slide.

 It is nice to be in an actual RV park rather than the trailer park we were in.  Misty and I have both vowed that we will never stay in another trailer park, no matter what.

We all feel more relaxed and seem happier since moving to the RV park.  Just this morning I was awakened by the sound of crows rather than the sound of sirens, which was the norm at the trailer park.

Now when I have to leave the RV to go to work, I will feel a lot better knowing that the family is in a safer place than before.

We pray that God keeps you safe and watches over you and your family, like he does us.

Thanks!

Don, Misty, and Kids...

 

  
  

The RV Blues

You know how sometimes you get the blues, well LivelyRV has them now.

There are many challenges to living in an RV, especially when doing it fulltime, but one of the worst for me is figuring out all of the systems on the coach, to include the electrical.

The control panel on the RV is where you see what's going on with most of its components such as the electrical system, generator, holding tanks, and other items.

2011 Fleetwood Discovery 40G control panel.

The first time I was introduced to it was when we had our sixty second briefing on its use the day we took delivery of the RV from the dealership.

It can seem a little intimidating  but really it is not and once you get used to it, you will probably wish it had more gauges, indicators, and meters on it to give you better information for everything in your RV.

All of the gauges or meters are important, but probably the most important or used will be the ones for the holding tanks.  On our coach you push a button and it will show you the levels for the black tank, grey tank, fresh water tank, and LP gas tank.  

This way you know when you have to drain the holding tanks or fill the fresh water or LP gas tanks.  You can also tell when your black and grey holding tanks are full when they start backing up into the RV, but that method is not recommended.

Pressing switch to view the RV's tanks statuses.

 I'm not going to go into detail about anything here since this is not a technical blog, but knowing where everything is on your RV such as breakers and switches is a must.

Unfortunately this is easier said than done and the unknown far out weighs the known, for me anyway.

When we first picked up our RV it was July and about 90 degrees outside.  We stayed on the dealerships's RV lot so that we could try it out before we drove it home.

We hook it up and turn on the air conditioner, but there was no air.  I rechecked everything making sure it was hooked up properly, but no air.  It was a Friday night and the dealership was closed by the time we realized we had a problem.

I looked at the user's manual for the RV, but it was so generic, it was no help at all.  I called our salesman who came out at 10 PM to help us and he could not get the air to work either.  So we end up sleeping in the RV with the temperature close to 100 degrees inside.

Well long story short, the thermostat went bad and once it was replaced, we had air, which was the next day.

Thermostat on the control panel in our RV.

The following winter while we were staying in the RV I joked to Misty about how the first time we stayed in it overnight, we roasted and so now watch us freeze to death since this was the first time we were staying in it while it was cold.

Well you know sometimes you need to be carful what you say, because it just might happen and in our case it did.  The heaters would not stay on and we shivered all night in 28 degree temperatures.

The next day I got a service rep out to the RV and they figured out that the new thermostat, that was replaced last July, had not been programmed for heat, so the fix was simple, but at the time, I did not know what to do.

It also seems anytime we lose power, the circuit breaker box is not the source of the problem, but it is something like fluctuating power coming from the service line or the switch is not working properly that switches the power from the generator or shore power or the inverters.

So far, the breaker box is rarely the culprit when we lose power.

 So this morning when I woke up, we had no power and the house batteries were down to 10 volts, which is not good.  Even though I showed 220 volts coming in from the pole, it was not getting into the RV.  I checked all the breakers, fuses, resets, ground faults, and anything else I could find, but no luck.

I had to run our generator all day, but it still seemed our batteries where not charging until I started the engine and the only way I could get 110v to the outlets inside the RV was to turn on the inverter, which is not right.

So tomorrow a friend and I will embark on a fact finding misson to see if we can determine what the problem is with the power or lack of.  Wish us luck and say a prayer please.

I did get the power from the pole to be recognized once again and the batteries seem to be charging, but if we lose power again tonight, then not only will we feel blue, but will be blue from the cold.

Until next time, we hope God keeps your power on.

Thanks!
Don, Misty, and Kids...

Solar Sailing

My work has required me to come to the DC area for some on-site support, so for the next month or so we will be here.

Yesterday we decided to head towards the National Mall and get some geocaches in the DC area.  I found one named Solar Sailing that is a virtual cache which means there is no log to sign, just some questions to answer.

Solar Sailing cache located at the National Mall in DC.

This cache is based on a display that is in scale with our solar system.  It is pretty neat, especially when you see how close Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are to the Sun with the rest of the planets so much further away.

The starting place for our trip through our solar system.

 It was a nice day to be out walking around even though the temperature was a little nippy.  As long as you were moving and had some type of jacket on, it was enjoyable.

Courtney, Ethan, Ian, Tia, Avery, Chloe, and Don standing at the Sun.

 We wanted to tour some of the Smithsonians while we were at the National Mall today, but time got the best of us and my main thing was to get some DC caches, so the only one we actually went into was the National Air and Space Museum. 

Courtney, Ethan, Ian, Tia, Misty, Avery, and Chloe standing at the Sun.

The questions for the cache are below which helped us all learn some neat facts about the planets in our solar system while doing this cache.

#1 What state would you be in if you walked to the closest star using this solar system scale ? 
#2 The Golden Orb is what scale of the Sun's size ?

#3 The Earth's image was created using what ?

#4a What is in the foreground of the picture of Jupiter ?

#4b How many Earth?s would fit in the "Red Spot" Storm ?

#5a The image of Uranus was made from what data ?

#5b How tilted is Uranus ?

#6a What kind of image is used of Pluto ( The left Image )

#6b If you weighed 100lbs on Earth, How much would you weigh on Pluto ?

So with us at the ending point of the cache, we decided to walk back to the car, which was about a mile and a half away.

Ian, Ethan, Courtney, Tia, Misty, Avery and Chloe at the end of our solar system journey.

While walking back to the car and with it getting dark I noticed that a man was following us.  To check out my suspensions,  I paused at a corner on the street, for about five minutes and the individual walked down a path a little ways and then stopped like he was waiting on something.

Once we started to walk towards our car again, he walked back up onto the sidewalk and started to trail us again.  At this point there was no doubt that he was following us and since we were walking away from the populated area, Misty and I started to get really concerned.

I called 911 and reported the incident by telling them we were being followed and gave a description of the man.  I made sure he knew that I knew he was following us and that he saw me on the phone.

I guess he decided that it was not worth his risk and so he turned around and went the other direction.  We still had to walk close to a mile to get to the car, so I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure he was not still trailing us and also kept an eye of where we were in case I had to call the police back in a hurry.

Luckily we never saw him again and made it back to the car and home safe.  We have no idea why he was following us and are happy it did not become a bad situation.

I'm sure the Lord was watching out for us and kept us safe.

So needless to say, I do not think we will be going back to the National Mall for a while and when we do, make sure we leave while there is plenty of daylight to walk back to the vehicle.  We probably will not park so far away either.

Until next time may God keep you safe too!

Thanks!

Don, Misty, and kids...

Home Made Laundry Detergent

For this blog we wanted to share a simple way to make your own laundry detergent that is very easy to do and saves you a bunch of money.

If you Google "home made laundry detergent", you will find a bunch of recipes for both liquid and powdered detergent.  We prefer the powdered version, because it is easier to make and you make it in smaller batches.

The ingredients are simple:

1 bar of any castile soap, Ivory, or Fels-Naptha laundry soap.
1 cup of washing soda.
1 cup of Borax detergent booster.
Measuring cup.
Food processer or something to grind up and mix the ingredients.

That is all you need in the above quantity to make one batch of powdered laundry detergent.

Everything to make a batch of powdered laundry detergent.

Once you have all of your ingredients, proceed to cut up your bar of soap so that it will be easier to grind up in a food processor. 

You can grate it with a hand grater, but that is hard and takes too long for me.

Fels-Naptha soap cut into chunks ready to be ground up.

I then give it five or six bursts to chop up the soap into little particles.  At this point it is still way too corse to use yet.

Fels-Naptha soap after its first run through the food processor.

I add in a little bit of either the soda or Borax and then run it in the food processor some more until it is ground into much smaller particles.

Ground up Fels-Naptha soap with some Borax mixed in to help make it grind up better.

The below is all the finer our food processor will grind up the soap.  A bigger food processor would probably do a better job, but we have not had any problems with the soap in our washing machine and it seems to dissolve fine.

What your soap should look like after it is ground up.

 At this point, it is now ready to add in the remaining washing soda and Borax.  I do this all in the food processor in order to mix it all up so that it is evenly distributed.  

Borax and washing soda added into ground up soap.

 This is what you should have after mixing all of the ingredients together in the food processor.

Finished laundry detergent.

We then put it in a zip lock bag to store it until it is used.  We use 2 tablespoons to a load of laundry even though most of the recipes call for only 1 tablespoon.

The finished product.

Since we have started using it, we have noticed that our laundry looks and smells cleaner.  Of course, the bar soap you use will dictate what fragrance your laundry detergent has.

I have not done the math to see how much it costs us to make this, but the Fels-Naptha soap is around $.97 at Wal-Mart.  The Borax detergent booster is around $4.50 for a 76 oz box and the Arm & Hammer Washing Soda is around $3.25 for a 55 oz box.

So to add it up for one batch the soap is $.97 cents with the Borax and washing soda both costing $.47 cents a cup for a grand total of $1.91 a batch which is about 3 cups of powdered washing detergent.

Using 2 tablespoons of the washing powder per load will get you around 48 loads with the cost being $.04 cents a load.  That is pretty cheap for a washing powder that does a great job.

Also I guess I just did the math.

If you are interested in the liquid version, here is a recipe for that off of The Thrifty Mama web site.

We also use white vinegar in place of fabric softener which also helps keep the washing machine clear of soap residues.

Well after making the last batch of washing detergent, we forgot to turn on the water while washing the food processor in the dishwasher and needless to say, it did not survive the high heat wash.

Food processer after being exposed to a high heat wash without water in the dishwasher.

Our tablespoon was melted too in the dishwasher disaster.  I will not say who forgot to turn the water on, but it was not me.

Melted tablespoon.

Speaking of disasters, our Yukon mirror was torn of when it was hit by a mailbox.  I will not say who hit the mailbox but it wasn't Misty.  I guess we both have something to tease each other about!

Anyway, we hope you try this for yourself and see whether it is as good as we think it is, but of course, this is at your own risk and we do not take any responsibility if it messes anything up.

Everything we have read on the internet says it is OK to use in High Efficiency washers and we have not noticed any harm to ours, but in case it would cause you problems, remember, you can not always believe everything you read on the internet.

With that, we will call this a blog and post another one, later on in the future.

God bless and hopefully you and everyone around you are kept safe and out of harms way.

Thanks!
Don, Misty, and Kids...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from LivelyRV!

Holiday greetings from Ian, Avery, Tia, Don, Chloe, Misty, Ethan, & Courtney who are LivelyRV.

 We pray that you are blessed this holiday season and if you are traveling, your drive is a safe and an uneventful one.

Top: Ethan, Don, Misty, & Ian.  Bottom: Avery, Courtney, Tia, & Chloe.

We also want to thank everyone that we have met this past year traveling America and consider ourselves blessed that we crossed paths with you.  

Even though many of the places we have visited have been great, making new friends is even greater.  We hope to see you all again in the near future.

We especially want to thank Araya Rieck aka Mink who took our Christmas picture for us this year.  While eating at a local restaurant, she was our waitress and while commenting on how well behaved our kids were, one thing led to another.

During our discussion we told her about our mobile lifestyle and she volunteered to take our pictures.  She is starting to build up clientele for her photo business and so wanted to take our pictures for her portfolio.  Once she gets her web site up and running, we will be sure to post the link on our blog.

May God bless you this holiday season!

Thanks!
Don, Misty, and Kids...