It’s Friday Already?

I can’t say that this week since Monday (and my last post) has been exciting, but it has been busy.  We’ve been settling in more and more . . . so many little things to be done.  I did our first two loads of laundry, and that was sure a relief.  I hope to get caught up entirely this weekend.

Our macerator is working fine, even after being packed away and unused since October 2010, when we used it the first and only time for two months at this same site.  That, too, was a relief.  Not the optimal way to dump the tanks on one’s RV, but there are worse/more inconvenient methods and it works.

Our shower and toilet rooms here in the office area are set up, and that’s working out fine.  It’s a bit of a nuisance showering in one building and then going back to our RV, but I can certainly live with that wee inconvenience.  Having these facilities available is a tremendous help; because of that, we don’t have to dump our tanks nearly as often.

My hotspot is working out fine, too, and I’m glad I bumped up the monthly data.  I’m able to work my virtual assistant job at night when I’m on duty by myself.  Well, not really by myself, because Maggie is crashed on her bed right behind me.

My little office is just about set up; I brought over my printer today and it found the wireless connection just fine.  Yay!  We got our first packet of forwarded mail from Escapees and the chaos that was my desktop has been cleared away considerably after I took care of the mail and some personal paperwork. 

I’ve mentioned the Walmart is a bit farther away here than in NJ, but the redeeming thing is that there is a Dollar General store just down the road.  A bit more down the road is a station with diesel at the lowest price I’ve seen in the immediate area, and a wee market if we need basics like bread and milk in between major runs for groceries.

Researched online and hopefully found a hair salon for me and a veterinarian for Maggie.  I don’t mind getting a haircut at chain places for a one-off like when we’re traveling, but if I’m going to be in one spot for a spell, it’s nice to have the same person cut my hair all the time. Maggie is on special dog food only available via veterinarians, so I can check them out when it’s time to restock her.  I made sure she had plenty before we left NJ.

It’s still strange to be having breakfast around noon, and it feels a bit decadent to be sleeping until 10:30 or 11 AM, but I keep reminding myself that I’m up until about 3 AM.  Dave gets up about 2 AM, but by the time I have my shower, walk Maggs, get my clothes ready for the next day . . . well, later in the day . . .  and actually hit the sheets it’s right around 3 AM.

The tire covers we had were really too small for the tires on our current RV; we bought them originally for our popup and then used them on our bumper pull, both of which had smaller tires.  We figured we would order new covers when we arrived here, but turns out the tires are actually in the shade throughout the day.  So . . .

Instead of covers, I’ll be ordering a platform step to supplement the entry steps on our rig.  It’s quite a big step-up to the first one.  In NJ, we had a nice shipping pallet that Dave had covered with a piece of plywood.  This made an excellent porch and served us well, but we did not bring it with us.  I’ve been looking at different platform steps and have narrowed down the choices to two, both of which have favorable reviews.   I’ll think about it a bit more and then order one.

Okay, enough rambling for tonight.  Hope you’re having a good one!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Out and About on a Monday

 

Arising around 10 AM today, we had some breakfast and headed out with a goal of hitting up Walmart for a week’s worth of groceries and a few odds and ends.  Passing by the Pee Dee State Farmers Market, we decided we would go there first.  I turned us around and we headed back. 

We patronized this farmers market back in 2010, too.  That’s Dave to the far right in jeans and blue t-shirt.

The nice thing about this farmers market is that it is open year-round and it is really quite close to our location. 

There’s just about a little bit of everything at this market.

After selecting some good-looking produce, we headed off to Walmart.  As we settle in, I bet we’ll locate some regular grocery stores in the area; however, I must confess that this Walmart is huge and it is convenient to be able to get everything we need in one spot.

One thing we are both noticing is that food prices are much lower here compared to New Jersey.  That is a really good thing!

Maggie enjoying her new bed in the office

Maggie is adjusting to the new life schedule, too.   She stays up with me until 2 AM, when Dave comes on duty, and then she and I go to bed.  When midnight rolls around and it’s time for us girls to go on patrol, she’ll look at me as if to say, “Why are the lights still on and why are we not in bed?”  She is indeed a trouper, gets up, does a few yoga poses/stretches and goes with me on rounds in the truck.

Maggie on patrol in the golf cart the other afternoon

The Internet here is less than stellar, but we are grateful for what there is.  It is great at times but then floats in and out, so is not stable.  Needing a secure, reliable connection for our personal business and for my virtual assistant job, I jumped on AT&T’s offer of getting double the gigs per month at the same price.  Upped my data to 30 gigs and can use my phone as a hotspot, so we’ll see how that goes.  Dave can get by with the facility connection and I switch between the facility and my hotspot, depending on what I’m doing.

Thanks to fellow full-timer Jeff for turning me on to that deal from AT&T.  Jeff and his wife are oilfield gate guards down in Texas.  Jeff’s better half was catching up on sleep the other night while Jeff pulled a solo shift.  He and I ended up messaging back and forth in the wee hours, chatting about our jobs and the full-time lifestyle in general.  I enjoyed the company and appreciate the tip about the data special offer.

Dave headed off to bed a few minutes ago, so here Maggie and I are until 2 AM or thereabouts.  It’s not a rigid schedule and one that we set for ourselves.  If I need to crash before 2 AM, I’ll go get Dave.  Conversely, if I’m cruising along, I’ll let him sleep in a bit.

That’s it for today . . . or tonight . . . or whatever.  I’ll put on some music, and Maggie and I will get our evening started.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sleep Is A Good Thing

Hard to believe it’s after 8:30 PM already.  Today was another full day, but I have felt more rested.  Yes, I managed a good six hours of slumber from a bit before 3 AM until 9 AM.  Even when Dave came into the rig after his shift around 7 AM or so, I heard him but didn’t totally wake up.  Sweet. 

No naps for this gal today again.  Before I knew it, 11 AM rolled around and it was time for a teleconference meeting relating to my virtual assistant job.  I haven’t worked on that in a few weeks, what with it being slow and then, just as a new project came up, we were moving.  Now I have work waiting and hope to get started tonight.  Yay!

After that, I headed out to Walmart for a few things to set up our bath/shower rooms.  I had mapped the route and knew what street I was looking for off I-95 North.  Well . . . guess what?  The exit didn’t say the street name but was also Interstate 20 running East and West.  Not knowing that, I cruised right on by for about five miles until the signs for Savannah assured me I had gone too far.  Ha!  Now I know where the local Honda plant is.

Turned around, found Wallyword and wowsers!  It’s a huge one.  It’s the same one we shopped at four years ago, but I had forgotten how big it is.  Of course, it is laid out completely different from the one in NJ, so it took me a while to find what I was after.  Picked up a few groceries, too, just to keep us ahead of the game in meals. 

It was well after 3 PM by the time I got back here and then Dave took off for a wee bike ride.  Of course, it started raining shortly after he left.  Got something to eat and, well, here it is almost 9 PM already.  The days have been speeding by because I’ve just been goin’ and blowin’.

I’m hoping to catch up on some snooze time this weekend, get our bath/shower rooms set up, finish unpacking and arranging in our home (putting things back on the walls, etc.), catch up on paperwork and get in some virtual assistant time.

I forgot to mention that yesterday Maggie had her first play time with another dog since we’ve had her!  The previous guard has a dog named Scout (girl dog) and she came bounding up to us as I was walking Maggie.  Scout immediately went into the “let’s play crouch” that dogs do and Maggie responded accordingly.  It was so freakin’ cute!  I feel bad that Maggie doesn’t get to socialize with other dogs due to our solitary lifestyle, but so tickled Scout was such a friendly spirit and engaged Maggie.

I took the first patrol and Dave did the second.  Since it’s Friday night, he’ll go to bed a little later at around 10 PM.  I’ll do one round after he hits the hay and then he’ll have a round to do after he gets up at 2 AM.  Then it’s patrols round the clock over the weekend.

I’m just so pleased I don’t have to go anywhere for at least two days.  That should give me time to get some things done and to chill out a bit.  Haven’t really slowed down since we hit the road a week ago today.

The rain is supposed to be bringing cooler temperatures starting tomorrow, and that’s a welcome relief. 

Hey!  Who’s looking forward to the Harvest/Blood Moon and lunar eclipse coming up this week?

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Coming Up on Night #2 . . .

. . . and I feel jet-lagged.  Being still a bit wired even after a shower when Dave came on duty this morning around 2 AM, I didn’t really fall asleep until 3:30 or so, awoke when Dave came in about 7 AM to snooze and then was up for good around 9 AM.

We spent the day settling in a bit more and becoming more oriented with our responsibilities here.  I did manage to cook some chicken this afternoon and then kick back and snooze a bit in my recliner afterwards.  The fact that it was in the upper 80s outside today also caused me to feel a bit draggy.  We’re expecting a cool front with rain tomorrow night with temperatures in a much nicer range starting Saturday.

There is still much to do with our site . . . tidying it up a bit and making it “ours,” but all things in due time.  I’m focusing on the essentials right now . . . working, settin up the basics (our office and restroom/shower area), unpacking things in the RV (where am I going to set up our printers), resting and eating.

The suite and restroom/shower area we are using has not been utilized in a while, so there is a bit of cleaning to be done.  Not having had to deal with insects per se in NJ, we are now back in the land of ants and cockroaches (have only seen both those pests outside).  Since we are really only using our kitchen tank in the RV, we are experimenting with running off the fresh tank with our water pump and not leaving a water hose hooked up.  You know how ants love hoses; we saw some exploring the water hose already this morning.

Our washer is ready to be used and the dryer should be early next week.  We have a list of items for a Walmart run.  I want the bath area set up so we don’t have to cart toiletries back and forth every time we use the shower.  I am so not gonna do that.

We have our outdoor recliner chairs set up behind the rig.  They are under the portico of the building and it’s almost like a breezeway – very pleasant in the shade.  My office plants are undergoing some recuperative therapy there in the shade near the chairs.  They’ll need some “surgery” in the coming days, but I’m hopeful they will ultimately survive. 

Well, I’ve had a cup of java, made my first evening patrol and think it’s time to change shorts for jeans.

Life is guid!

Thanks for stopping by!

Landed!

We arrived safely at our new assignment today after traveling just about 30 miles from Dillon, SC.  Arriving just before noon, we could not get our RV into its parking place until some low-hanging branches were trimmed.  The guys here at the facility got right on that.

It took them a little while to clear a path for us, as they had to get a man-lift and then a chainsaw, but they got the job done nicely.  Then it took us a while to set up the rig just right.  The outside is basically done – leveled, chocked, water and power hooked up, etc. – but we have a lot of fine tuning to do – more branches to clear so we can deploy our awning, get my plants out of the truck, etc.  The inside is still somewhat of a disaster area in that I have the basics done – kitchen set up, rugs down and so forth – but still have to arrange things and put things away.  Read that as find things.  Hahaha!

The really good news is that, yes, we have a suite in the “guard building” to use.  This building is right across a small street on the compound from our RV.  This has a small office we will use (where I am right now), a place for our dorm-sized fridge, sink and counter area for our Keurig, another room for storage, a restroom with toilet and sink and then a shower room.  Yes, the shower itself is larger than our RV.  I will be able to fix both those rooms up nicely for us to use the majority of the time instead of our RV. 

Why would I do that?  Well, you may remember we can only dump our RV tanks via a macerator and that, my friends, is a pain in the patooie.  As it stands, looks like the only tank we will have to empty with any frequency is our kitchen tank.  I can live with that.

Our washer, dryer and grill arrived the other day.  Yay!

They were here waiting for us!  Thank you, Tony!

The facility manager has already pretty much figured out how they will plumb and vent the washer and dryer.  They will tackle that next week.  Glad I did laundry yesterday, so we should be good until these get hooked up.  We so appreciate the company shipping these down for us.  Truly, we really appreciate them.  I told ya they are good folks.

Seeing the guys who work here again today and they being so welcoming and helpful was really nice.  One of them said good-naturedly, “Don’t ya’ll have anything else to do?”  Haha! 

Would you believe I have lost almost five pounds on this trip?  Guess that’s what happens when you got for about 27 hours without eating.  I’m actually okay with that.  I hope to get some cooking done tomorrow.

We have done two patrol rounds together this evening.  Dave has had a shower and has gone to bed over in the rig.  I’ve had my first cup of coffee since . . . gee, a week ago Wednesday.  Let me tell you, it was good!

I’ve already started a Walmart list, including a Wi-Fi extender for here in the office.  The signal keeps fading in an out, even though we’re in the same building as the router.  Haven’t tried the connection in the RV yet.  We have an extender in there we used in NJ and it worked great, so hopefully one in here will, too. 

My next patrol around the property is in about an hour.  Maggie is here in a chair with me, and she’ll go along for the ride, just like we used to do.  She has a ball and is such good company.

Okay, I have some things I can do to stay awake until 2 AM, when Dave will take over.  I’ll see if I can get this to post . . .

Thanks for stopping by!