Georgetown, TX – August 22nd to Sept 1st 2016

2016-08-22 12.15.07

So traveling by RV is different than going on a road trip. A road trip you can drive a long way because you don’t have to worry too much about being tired and then having to stop and spend 30 – 45 minutes unhooking a trailer and setting up for the night. You can just go into the hotel or wherever you are staying and just crash.  Plus on a road trip you can stop at all the road side attractions and check out what ever kitsch they are selling.  But most roadside attractions don’t have the parking for 60 feet of truck and trailer so you can’t stop.

Which brings me to how I’ll have to make notes of places I’ve seen that I would like to stop at down the road. One of those places is in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. As I was driving to Georgetown and went through here and saw the Billy the Kid museum. Wanted to stop but just didn’t think I could get turned around and back on the road. Also was running short on time because I left late in the day. I don’t seem to get on the road til 10 or 11am. But I figure I’ll be driving back and forth between Denver and Austin enough that I’ll get another chance to come through here. I’ll just have to find a place to stay.

It was nice to get to Georgetown and spend 10 days there with my parents. He and my mom had driven around to the local RV parks and recommended that I stay at New Life RV park. It was very nice to be able to go over to their house for dinner every night. I’m blessed that I get to spend as much time with them as I do. I played golf with my dad on Thursday at Berry Creek and shot 96. Which isn’t bad considering it’s only my 2nd golf outing of the year. I did just join Golf RV club so that will hopefully change in the coming year. My sister from Denver came into town on Thursday as well so got to show her my new home.

Surprisingly both my dad and sister seem to like my new digs. Both of them were telling me before hand that I should test out living in an RV before actually purchasing one. But renting an RV seems to run about $3,000/week from what I was finding. Plus the rentals aren’t going to be nearly as nice as what I bought so it wouldn’t be an apples to apples comparison.

Most of the rest of the time was unpacking things I had picked up in Denver the previous week. Plus figuring out where and how I was going to insure my new home. A lot of companies won’t cover you living in an RV full time. No liability coverage, they want you to have a permanent address. Well I’ve setup a Traveling Mailbox so that I can have mail forwarded to me no matter where I am. That will let me live my Gypsy lifestyle. But there are only a handful of companies that will cover you.

Progressive

Good Sams underwritten through National General

Blue Sky

Farmers underwritten through Foremost

National Interstate sold via RVExplorer

At least these were the 5 companies that I was able to find during my two day search.  I know there are more but had a hard time getting information on whether they covered Full Timers. I got quotes back from all but Blue Sky not sure why. Went to purchase from Good Sams and the automated system when I put in my drivers license flagged me as being the responsible party when my car was hit when I was inside working on a computer at the time and wasn’t responsible. Since that increased my premium by $300 I went with Farmers through a local agent my dad plays golf with.

All this so that I could get my truck and car registered in Texas. I didn’t want to be driving around the country in a truck and trailer registered in Colorado. I’ve heard some horror stories and I don’t want to give anyone an excuse to pull me over. But to get registered you have to have the truck and the trailer inspected. Also, the bill of sale since I purchased the truck and trailer in Oklahoma I needed to pay the sales tax in the county I’m registering it in. But got it all done.

I also think I got some of my technology issues resolved. I had purchased a Wirie to get long distance 4G service. Well unfortunately with the SIM I got from 4G Antenna shop it was constantly disconnecting rendering it unusable for 30 minutes at a time. So I went to Fry’s and got a Netgear AT&T Unite Express. That seems to have improved my internet access tremendously. Because a lot of these campsites, which say they have wireless internet, doesn’t work very well.

On an interesting side note the trailer has a very good digital antenna. This allows me to pick up a lot of local stations. And the sub channels on the digital stations are showing old game and TV shows. There’s Comet for Science Fiction, Me TV, Retro TV, Cozi TV, and Buzzr for Game Shows. I find it interesting to watch the games shows from the 70’s and 80’s now.

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Plus I got to watch some old Roy Rogers shows and the Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. Great opportunity to see how Television and the United States has evolved. Interesting note, Hugh O’Brien who played Wyatt Earp passed away yesterday.

So the end of this trip official marks my first month of RVing. Haven’t really traveled too far off the beaten path but getting to see parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas I haven’t seen before.

August 2016

And my first months of RV campsite expenses ran $1,038.07. I’m sure that I can pull this number down by learning how to back into some parking spaces rather than just use pull through’s. The other factor is that I’m not doing any boondocking yet. Not sure the battery will run my Bipap machine so I’m been making sure that I’m always at a camp ground with electricity. I can get a generator or solar panels but haven’t gotten there yet. I also need to get in the habit that some places I just need to reserve the spot for whole weeks at a time. There can be a significant discount by spending a whole week as opposed to staying a week and 3 days.  Example is for New Life it’s $175 for a week. But each individual night is $39. Difference of $14/night.

Place Campground Nights Cost
Copan, OK Copan State Lake 6 120
Waynoka, OK Little Sahara State Park 2 40
Guymon, OK Corral Drive In 2 75
Raton, NM KOA 5 188.4
Central City, CO KOA 3 201.87
Las Vegas, NM KOA 3 131.85
Lubbock, TX KOA 1 35.95
Georgetown, TX New Life RV Park 9 245
31 1038.07 $33.49

Average cost $33.49/night

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