Picture Window View

This evening I'm watching the kids swing across from us in the playground while Misty bakes a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. 


We are staying at the KOA North Little Rock RV park in  Arkansas, which is pretty nice and close to Camp Robinson, where I'm working this week.  


The only complaint I have with this park is that the power fluctuates enough to make the Power Guard surge protector shut off the coach's power.  I'm sure it is not good for the coach and when it is 90 degrees, you need your air conditioning too.


Of course the first time this happened was about 10 PM our first night here and the park office had already closed.  I checked the breakers in the coach and did not see anything tripped.  I then checked the breaker at the power pole and did not find anything wrong there either. 


I was worried that something was wrong with the RV since the power indicator light on the power pole was always on but we kept losing power.  I could hear a clicking sound inside the RV both when the power went of and then came back on.  Come to find out it was the built in surge protector kicking off and on due to the voltage fluctuating so much.


The next day I asked one of the other campers if they were experiencing the same thing, which they said they were.  That made me feel better that our RV was not messed up, but doing what it was supposed to do.  It was still an inconvenience though.  


I have found that if I do not reset the digital clock on the microwave, the power seems to stay on much longer than when I set it.  


Don

Lazy K Campground

We finally made it to the campground and got hooked up.  This campground is still in its infancy and does not have a shower house or laundry facilities, but for the price and close proximity to the house, it will fit the bill.

We will stay here for three weeks or so until we migrate down to Little Rock, Arkansas for me to attend a course at the Professional Education Center for the Army National Guard.

We are starting to settle in with the RV lifestyle, but have a lot of work still to get all of our stuff out of the house and decide what to do with it.  Some of it is being given away to family while a good portion has ended up at Goodwill.

We also have some of it in storage, but I suspect some of that will end up being given away to either family or Goodwill too.

I feel bad though since I wanted to get some things fixed on the house before leaving, but just could not fit it into my schedule.  The time is going by so fast and we still have so much to do to be ready to leave in a few weeks.

Also, Jered, our sixteen year old, has decided that the RV life is not for him and is wanting to go back to live with his mother in Ohio.  Misty and I feel he is going to miss out on a great adventure, but will not keep him from going back home.

I have decided that we need some type of sign off or saying for our signature.  I think I will use, "Home is where we have the slides out."  Give me some comments on what you think.  I am also sure some other RVer has used this saying, but I did think of it myself and have not come across anyone else using it yet.

One The Road

Well we finally made it on the road on Apr 26 2012.  We still have stuff in the house that has to be moved out, but for all practical purposes we are living in the RV.  Yea!


We will stay at the Lazy K campground in Blue Creek, WV for a few weeks until we drive down to Little Rock, Arkansas to stay for a week. 


After that we will drive down to Houston, Texas to have a driveshaft disconnect installed on our GMC Yukon along with the tow plate, tow bar, and brakes so it can be dingy towed.


Then after that is accomplished we will drive back up to Montgomery, Alabama and stay for a couple of weeks or maybe a month while I do some work.


Once I am finished there, who knows where we will end up.

Two Weeks Later

Well it has been two weeks since the last post.  We have been so busy since then, we just did not have time.  As you can see from the picture, cramming your stuff from a 3100 sq ft house into a 40' RV is no easy matter.


We officially moved out of the house on 26 April 2012 and into the RV, which has had its toll on Misty and myself.  The kids are doing pretty well and have not complained about not having all of their toys, as of yet.


Poor Misty is doing most of the storing of our stuff in the RV, which is very time consuming and challenging.  She has switched items around a couple of time now trying to determine which is best place to store certain items.  Target's and Wal*Mart's stock has had to go up due to all the storage containers we have bought in the past few days.  Just today Misty is running to the store to buy some Space-saver bags to store some more clothes.


We still have a good bit of junk in the house that we need to either store or give away and to complicate matters even more, the new owners have moved in and some of our stuff is intermingled with theirs.  It is also weird walking into your old house, that is no longer yours, and seeing different furniture and decorations that are not yours.


So far it has been quite the shock with our lifestyle change, but we are still optimistic and know we are doing the right thing.


Until next time.


Don

Our New RV

This is the 2011 Fleetwood Discovery 40G RV which we will be living in for the unforeseen future with our seven children.  We are selling our 3000 square foot house and moving into a 41 foot RV to explore America and Canada and supplement our children's homeschool education.


There will be nine of us total starting with myself, Donald Lively, who is retired from the WV Army National Guard with 23 years of Active Duty, my wife Misty, who was in the WV Army National Guard for nine years and is now a full-time mom, our son Jered (Misty's step-son), who just turned sixteen, Ethan who will be nine tomorrow, Courtney who is eight, Tia who is six, Ian who is five, Avery who is three, and Chloe who is one.


Needless to say, it is a full boat, but we have no problem with it and feel the overall experience we have will outweigh the cramped quarters.


We will be leaving Elkview, West Virginia sometime late May or early June 2012 to start our adventure.  We will be moving into the RV early May, staying at a near by camp ground until we pull stakes and start down the road.


I hope to post something every week on our journey and experiences.


Follow along to see how well we do.  Some family members only give us three months while others give us six.  We plan on proving them all wrong.


Don