We travel in our Keystone 29 ft Travel Trailer with our two cats Ellie and Abby. We started our RV adventure Oct 31, 2021. While traveling we are doing major projects on our travel trailer. So it's a learn as we go adventure. We have name our RV ME GONE RVING ADVENTURES
RV Wife Demands Mirror to be Fixed ASAP as Part of Honey Do List
Oh yes, how Gorilla Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive saves the day and gets Mark back on my good side. Our 2001 Keystone Travel Trailer has a mile long of items that need to be updated or replaced. And I could cry because this morning, I woke up to a new leak in the rv. So one item fixed just for another to jump on the list.
Our 21 year old travel trailer - glues and adhesives placed everywhere needs to come out and new goop needs to go on. On this special occasion we will be doing the mirror that had fallen off and shockingly did not break. RV Blessing was that we are not going to add 7 years of bad luck to the timeframe from the last mirror broken. So happy to not have more time sentences added on.
Missing Mirror - while getting the mirror back in place, I need to clean and reorganize the area.
Mark here, needs to scrape off the 21 year old adhesive first, now that can get tricky, gentle and slow or otherwise the mirror will break.
Now it's time to get the tools ready for the projects and get to fixing and reapplying our mirror which also acts as a barrier to keeping things from falling out.
Gorilla Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive - 9 oz cartridge white
The gorilla glue was given to us from a former friend, but you can buy this at most places for under $9
Scrapping the old adhesive did take some time. Like we said slow and steady to ensure that the mirror wouldn't break. Then the goop went on.
Mamma here is getting excited. BUT, I was warned not to go in medicine cabinet for at least 24 hrs to allow it to bond.
I so made fun of Mark from bringing these along - I mean really we need to have room for stuff. I am now a fan of tools even though I have no idea how to use most of them.
Overall a super easy project to do and something we won't have to worry about for a very long time.
And to boot, I get to make a red line through on the honey do list. This wife is a HAPPY CAMPER!!
Mark had built the shelves, which I love, love, love. And I did my part and cleaned and reorganized.
LOL.. The cow here has a name... PADDY - sick humor (I Know)
If you are new to RVing and happen to purchase an older RV like we did. Please add the Gorilla brand to your inventory. It's top of the line and it works. Watch along as we tackle the millions of other things we have to rip apart and replace. Here is a video Mark did in his own words about the bathroom mirror project:
I'm not going to hesitate to answer this at all. YES, and for so many reasons. But let's introduce you to who they are...
Meet Ellie she is our QUEEN BEE 5 year OLD
Ellie,
When I got sick "ER". We had made a decision to keep me home to fight my health battles by resting as much as I could back when we lived in Spokane, Wa. Mark suggested we get a kitten to keep me company. And so we did. She was so attached to me especially, when I was at my worst. When I was having a good day, she was all about her hooman daddy, but when I was having treatments or just being super sick, she wouldn't leave my side. Mark was even able to gage my days. So when Ellie became attached, he was on high alert making sure my needs were being met.
It took here 3 weeks to get comfortable with her new surroundings.
Ellie and why her name is Ellie. During our time in Spokane, Wa we owned and operated a cleaning company. And, (MY) very first client Sarah and her wonderful family had two dogs. Ellie and Abby, (I'm sure by now your figuring out the story-line, but let me continue for the sake of perhaps one day forgetting or my other half having to live his life without me here on earth, could reflect on this memory). Ellie our client's dog had passed on and so the name became even more meaningful to us.
Ellis is such an independent cat. She's not afraid of anything. When we lived in Oldtown, Idaho we lived on land and had an open range of wild animals. They all loved her, it was weird. The deer and turkey seriously hung out with her.
What you don't see is the 16 other deer nearby. Every day we also had about 18-24 deer that came by for the nightly dinner given to from our awesome neighbor (we miss him greatly).
We had Smokey (I don't want to talk about her, I still cry about her)... I am looking for a kitten that is gray just like my beautiful girl to completely fulfill our family.
Isn't she beautiful - she was 100% ferrell (she the clip on her ear) we were shocked that she became a lovie dovie cat.
Shy... But loved her station all to herself.
And now for our BABY BRAT, Abby
Little Abby with Smokey who was such an accepting cat. She Mothered Abby like her own.
Abby:
She is the epitome of a SPOILED BRAT... Abby is a comical cat to every degree... And we blame Sarah (MY) first client lol. It's because of her, that we even have Abby. One day Sarah contacted me asking for help looking for some female kittens (she wanted 3 of them for her 3 boys). And so the search went on. We found Abby from the side of the road sign saying "FREE KITTENS" - and if you ever saw the true fashion of what a hillbilly house would look like - well, it was worse... I was more than happy to take the last female from the scary box. The lady was super nice and told us that she was the first to climb out of the box and completely acted differently from the others. There were 6 females and no one wanted our Abby.
We took Abby to our training center office we had at the time to keep her there because we didn't want to cause issues with our two cats. That lasted a couple of days. We took her home. It wasn't long when Sarah said she was going to take 3 females from a relative litter if they were 3 females. Mark said NAME HER!! So I seriously put a lot of thought into it. And my favorite dog in the whole wide world just happens to be Sarah dog Abby. I knew her health was going and prayed she would hold on to the end of our stay in Idaho. Man I cried for a week, when I got the news. Abby was just so fitting and my way of keeping Abby in my memory.
Abby has been a blessing to us, in every way. She's had a taste for the outdoor life and now we had to force her and Ellie into an indoor RV cat only. That was hard but amazingly, they have done so well. I bribe them with a new toy OFTEN and we have had subscribers send them presents, (which has been cool) and the girls love them but Abby is our major toy player of the family - she even fetches.
Her beautiful harness was a gift from one of our subscribers, Carolynn from Spirit Lake, Idaho
It's FREE entertainment and such therapy after long days.
As far as the expenses go. We hope to grow their instagram account to where enough is being made to help with their medical and food cost. We found vet bills to be through the roof. I don't want to talk about that. But if you decide to go on the road as RV fulltimers, make sure you budget $1000 emergency fund per pet.
Amazon gift cards online can be sent to megonerving@gmail.com in honor of the girls and I'll always post about gifts given to Abby and Ellie
So things to think about when traveling with cats is
Budget per pet - we recommend a $1000 per pet to cover surgeries if needed
Vaccination records (we lost Ellies and completely freaked out about it
We opt to have harnesses on our cats just in case they got out - that way people knew upon site that they were pets. And it would be easier for us to find them by their bright colors.
We don't feed them on the mornings of travel days. And I refuse to drive more than 3 hours at a time for them. They do so well, they nap and they ride in the car with me.
We do have a kitty first aid kit - however I need to update and add some items - I keep everything in a fishing box (I have one for us too)
I am always changing out their blankets for them, they love new stuff and it keeps them calm - they are such blanket cats. And of course Abby with her toys, (they never get bored because of that).
I always keep their food storage bin full to the top in case we hit hard times. You just never know.
Research cat litter and DON'T go cheap. That's a part of the budget we have no choice about.
Why don't we have a dog? We are too active and feel it wouldn't be fair to a dog. Since being a RV Park camp host here at Holiday Hills RV Park in Coalville, Utah nope, nope, nope way too much barking for my liking. That's where cats are so much easier. We have decided we are more cat people than dog people. We love dogs but taking care of our girls brings us such great joy.
Yep even Ellie has her rare moments - she's mostly a serious cat so we stop and watch when she gets goofy.
Keep sending those toys, she loves them. Thank you subscriber, Jodi for sending this. Abby playing within a minute of taking this out of the package.
They love their cat window perch. BEST thing we purchased for our girls. The view at this location was beautiful.
This was on travel day. We drove 3 hours and then we brought them back into the rv where they are surrounded by their home to keep them calm between driving breaks.
Like we said Abby is a weird cat. We are NOT kidding. She fits like a glove in our home.
Abby with all of her energy is extremely lovable to us. But she is VERY afraid of other humans.
They are both so very loved!! We always want the best for them. Taking on a 3rd cat will just add more adventure for the girls.
Amazon gift cards online can be sent to megonerving@gmail.com in honor of the girls and I'll always post about gifts given to Abby and Ellie
One day we hope a company will sponsor a product for them to test it out. They certainly will give it a whirl. We hope that you think about getting a cat for your traveling adventures. They are awesome about keeping mice away and eating flies when they sneak in the rv. On cold nights they nestle up to keep them warm but end up warming us. They take the stress out of life a little bit more and they are everything to us.
For all those folks who have no idea what Bountiful Baskets are and what in the world does it have to do with RVers? Great question. In a nutshell it's produce purchased by a group of people (and the more people who participate the more goodies we get in our baskets) in big quantities and divided up. 50% Fruit and 50% Vegetables. We never know what we are going to get (no you cannot pick and choose - but we've seen people offer up their "don't likes" to others or people will trade off).
As RV folk who have to be careful with budgets, this is an excellent way to do so. It's not in all areas unfortunately. So we do get excited when we are in an area that offers it. It's saved us a ton of time, money and it is a great way to meet others of that area.
This week's Bountiful Basket pick up!
TIPS: IF you show up at volunteer time, you'll get to pick one item as a thank you for helping. It's not much but when you and your family do, it does make a difference. #FoodForThought
The Bountiful Basket site is pretty cool - you can see what states offer it and what towns host it. The more we support the better the deal is. Just keep in mind, the Spring season tends to lack a bit but once that growing season hits, the boxes expand. You still save money and time. For instance, the Kamas Utah area, we just pull up at the designated time and the box is ready and off we go. The more we stay out of the store the more money and food we save. I don't like wasting food.
TIPS. I take all the vegetables and fruit left over on Saturdays and then I go to town on cooking them up and either serving for that day for lunch and or dinners, and freeze the rest for meals later in the week. WIN WIN and NO food wastage.
Today's Lunch with the vegetables, I wasn't able to use during the week...
And we make homemade salad dressing (another money saver for us)
This one is our FAST FAVORITE Lemon Honey with a twist dressing.
Recipe (Disclaimer, there are many like this and this is how we personally make it)
1/2 Fresh Lemon Juice (I'll use lemon bottle if I don't have Fresh)
1/2 Olive Oil
Crushed Garlic (depends on how much you like garlic)
2 Tsp Honey (you can use maple)
2 Tsp Mustard
2 Tsp Maille Whole Grain Old Style Mustard (gosh I love this stuff)
1-2 Tsp of Apple Vinegar
2 tsp of any spice (we go with Rosemary or Oregano
1/4 Cup of Hemp Seed (I use a 1/2 cup)
You should definitely look into doing Bountiful Baskets. BUT here is the most important awesome part of Bountiful Baskets, you can order and don't show up. Wait, WHAT? When baskets get ordered and no one shows up, they donate the basket to the local Fire Department. So this is a great way to give back. This is also a great way to keep the program going. If any host falls below a certain number, they'll get shut down. And this is such an important program for those that are trying to get quality food for less. They also have sides you can order and that always changes (the holiday packs saved our butts a time or two).
Do you do Bountiful Baskets? Or what other food programs do you do or recommend.
Yesterday, I LOST it... As I may have mentioned a couple of blog articles ago, we have an RV Maintenance list longer than my leg with a budget the length of my arm. Baby step reminders are in order here. While Mark was out and about, working in the RV Park, that we are at for this summer workamping, the Holiday Hills RV Park in Coalville, Utah. I took full advantage of his departure of the day. I went and ripped these ugly buggers OUT.
Before and please excuse the mess!!
So the above picture is the UGLY I was talking about. Not our color scheme and it's over 20+ years old, which comes with smell, wear and tear and just plain UGLY. Oh, lets really dive into it. See the blinds next to the open window? Sun damage warped blinds, (no fault to the previous owners at all, it's just time worked against these buggers, as well as the heat damage from constant sun bleeking on them).
Wow, more light coming in now?
I could feel my heart racing as I was beating the clock. I wanted to see if Mark, when he arrived home, would notice right away the differences. I've got to say, two different screws were used to install them and some of them were damaged and most difficult to remove, (plus, I stole hubs tools lol). But golly joe, I started making progress as you can see from the picture.
Now we can can compare before and after now!
There is a tinge of excitement going on - however running the old, yucky, UGLY material out the door was a funny challenge. Strings hanging everywhere and just awkwardly stumbling down the stairs like a child who is afraid of getting caught doing something naughty. But it's all gone. And now, I have to wait to get the paint (black for the window frames) and peelable wallpaper for the walls and definitely touch ups on the frames of the slide-out. So much to do, with so little budget to go towards this yet. But the DEMO was FREE!!
Ellie here LOVES it, she can take to her perch and window watch without the distractions of the blings and its ever nasty string everywhere
So the deed is done and now that it's been 24 hours, I am screaming inside to wallpaper or paint. I already have in mind the window treatment I am going with. Creative and easy to change out whenever I want to change them, (and I will). But sitting here typing this out, looking to the right and I see WHAT? A dirty window... Yup, now I need to log off so that I can wash all the inside windows. All that ugliness was hiding dirty windows. Can I ever win? Well, off to "window" dream shop. I'm hoping Mark will be pumping extra propane here at the park to pay for my upcoming improvements. Slow and Steady wins the race.
Who ever said owning a second hand RV was going to be easy? Actually, it hasn't been too bad. We know what we have to do but we just need to pace and steady it out.
It's official the start of the RVing and Camping summer season here at Holiday Hills RV Park. I was in hopes that our new business cards would be here by now to hand out to our guest. But sadly they are not.
We absolutely love connecting with other full-time RVers. Surprisingly enough we haven't met many since being in Coalville. 80% are weekend campers, 10% long term and 10% here for summer work.
Weeknd Campers are great - they are here for that vacation mode of their stay here with us. Those are the ones who laugh the most and make it a point to let the rv park host know how much they are appreciated (it's great being on that end).
Workers - they are so flipping tired by the time they get back to their RV's that we keep our space to give them less to have to deal with.
Long Terms - ummmmmmmmm.... Trying to be nice BUT, they tend to be territorial about the park. They forget that it's an RV park and 90% about being on vacation. I have to bite my tongue a lot. Barking at someone for having fun, it's just WRONG. Mark is great at making things peaceful. Thankfully it hasn't been too big of an issue. It's about education and friendly reminders and examples of how you should be treating people.
Dogs - I don't want one. It's not fun hearing the dogs bark when owners are gone for a big chunk of the day. FOLKS, hire a dog sitter. There is a kid in that town who could use a couple of dollars and lord knows I'll do it if it helps them to quiet down. I'd love a few extra bucks too! I have a RV wish list longer than my arm with an additional list of FIX ME UP NOW longer than my leg.
Well, enough for today! Mark is out there checking RV's all day long and watering the grass as fast as he can to keep the GREEN going. Here are some fun pictures with our video of the day.
The video is just a snippet of what needs to be done. I'm scared to share the complete list with you. But it's baby steps we are taking. It's my job to worry about the finances and scheduling the time to get these millions of items done. RV maintenance can be a scary word but it truly isn't. It's just in our case, we live on a tight budget so that we can volunteer 6 months out of the year and be able to eat/and pay bills during this time. To end this post, we are Living Our Best Life. No regrets and it's been truly a blessing. Just trying to fine tune some areas.
RVing this weekend? Travel safe, make lots of memories, and please partake in the services being provided in the town you are visiting, to honor all that have served in that area. Do you part and help the town out but represent our giving hearts as full time RV folk. Donate, your time, your food/items/ or money to the food banks or those agencies that are hurting. And take lots of pictures.
May 1st was the official start date for our 2022 workamping season. And this summer we choose to work for the Holiday Hills RV Park located in Coalville, Utah.
Holiday Hills RV Park is located in Coalville, Utah just off I-80 at exit 162. Our RV Park is rated with both the Family Motor Coach Association and The Good Sam Club. We are 40 miles east of Salt Lake City. If you are coming from the east, we are 38 miles west of Evanston, Wyoming on I-80.
A river runs past us with some of the best fly fishing in Utah. The nearby Union Pacific rail trail provides hiking and biking through the valley and into neighboring Park City (host to the 2002 winter olympics).
Our Host Position Spot in the RV Park
It's been great so far. But it feels like fall/winter still. We'll have a relatively warm day and then a couple of wicked cold days. So summer temps are NOT here yet. It's beautiful for sure here. We are 3 hours in each direction from destination locations (which is perfect for our days off).
What do you see Mark?
The mountains in Utah are AMAZING
Observatory Park is the newest addition to Weber County’s parks portfolio. Observatory Park is an ongoing reclamation project, transforming 72 acres of open space
We are getting formula with the area, and slowly meeting the locals and truly have fallen in love with our campers. There is definitely enough work to keep us busy all summer (for sure). We each have our responsibilities to ensure a successful summer. Mark takes care of the landscaping by doing all the water systems, cutting grass (that itself takes 2 days), escorting our campers to their sites, fills up propane tanks (today alone he did 100 gallons - woot), light maintenance when needed, helps folks with their rv's (and that is most appreciated by them), showerhouses/laundry room/and cabin upkeep. Now I get the fun stuff, l work the reservations end of the job and help Mark with what I can.
So we are saving the best for last. MARK SAVES A 3 DAY OLD CALF.... Check out this video:
The date is May 4, 2022. But first let's take a journey backwards a bit so that we can get all caught up. On Oct 31, 2021 we left Oldtown, Idaho for a life of "QUALITY" and not for "QUANTITY" as new RV full timers who travel in an RV. Why? Because 1/2 of this marriage is sick. Sick with Cancer. But together we suffered. We suffered for so many reasons. We were running a business that was sucking the left over life we managed to hold on to. NOT being allowed to fight the fight as we needed to, but covering staff work shifts (yeah say that 3 times outloud to truly understand the sickness of that statement). Don't get me wrong, we are NOT lazy but 10-14 hour days were getting old quickly and killing 1/2 us more quickly. SO WE ENDED the struggle and GAVE UP!!
It was HALLOWEEN that we left. Why that day? We figured it would be easier to remember our Anniversary date. Plus it gave Mark a chance to do his very first video to commence the big grand event.
Our plan for the first leg of the trip is to head to QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA. At first it was to learn from other RV folks who have done this for years. But it ended up being a life lesson in so many areas. But as life would command. Our first major lesson was in PROVO, UTAH when we broke down a couple of feet from our actual camping spot.
Did we cry? 1/2 of us did, but I'm not going to tattle.
CRAZY TIMES but memorable for sure. We have documented them on so many formats. I'll share the links here so we only add one or two per post. This blog is more for the story telling of our adventures. We have a 1/2 year to catch up on here. It's been beautiful, ugly, fun and hard all rolled up into our life story. So welcome to us....
The ME Gone RVing Adventures is improper English - yes we know. But in this case we went for a play on words. ME ='s Mark/Evielynne ahhhhh now that makes sense right? Here we are and we are happy and peaceful for the choices that we have made.
We are currently in Coalville, Utah for the summer workamping for an RV park called Holiday Hills RV Park. Mark makes $7.25 an hour and it's a 40 hour position. There are ZERO perks except that he'll make an additional .25 per gallon of propane he pumps for the park. It cost us a little over $600 to get here so it's gonna take the first month to put that GAS investment back into our account. We do not get our spot for FREE - $400 taken from our check to cover the cost. We'll talk more about our feelings on that later on as we progress in the summer. Counting and praying that our YouTube will be our summer miracle we are praying for. But that takes 1 - 1.5 years to get really going according to the advanced YouTubers.
Let's end this post sharing our online stalking you are most welcomed to do and be a part of!
ME Gone RVing Adventures:
YouTube We have to have 1000 subscribers (currently at 38)
Instagram Woot we are creeping up to 1000 followers (834 right now - this makes us SMILE BIG)
TikTok We don't care - this is our fun outlet place where we get to be corkie and just WEIRD
Pinterest ahhhh we really need to learn how to make this work for us
Twitter I half expected just 50 and would have been happy with that - so SCREAMING excited that we are at 170 followers.
We will blog as a journey day to day and bring up past stories from our first 6 months on the road. One day when one of us are able to be a part of this journey, the other can come back to relive the memories we chose to make for ourselves.
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