Breakdowns

When I read other people's blog usually they only talk about how wonderful life on the road is and it might be if you have a pocketful of money. We on the other hand have no reliable source of income so we were trying workamping which was wonderful until winter. We left Montana heading to the sugar beet harvest when we got a call from home where Chris found out his uncle was at home dying. We immediately headed home and things have been very difficult.  Chris' s uncle did go to be with the Lord not long after we got home but that wasn't the end of our troubles. Next his Nanny (93), great grandma, got sick and died about a week after his uncle. On top of all this our money is slowly dwindling away and Chris is having trouble finding a job. I was blessed to find work at a local restaurant but it was only 2-3 days a week. Chris has been taking me to and from work and last night on the wsy home I had a major breakdown. It was an overwhelming sense that nothing is going right and I just started bawling.  I cried for anything and everything. I cried because I miss my daddy who has been gone now for over 3 years. I know if he were here our situation would be totally different. We have been blessed with different family members and close friends helping us out and I don't know where we would be without them. Luckly, I can feel the winds of change and finally I can breathe a sigh of relief.  We are currently regrouping, purchasing a motorhome and then we will head out again after the first of the year. During this time I have learned a great deal about myself and Chris and I have grown. The thing that I hope everyone takes away from this is that no matter where you are in you full time RV adventure bad luck can still happen. Please say a prayer for us and I will update again soon. There is one thing I know for sure.....we are missing the road and with God's help we will return soon.

We Almost Died........Literally!

Well we traveled almost three days, non-stop, to get home because of a sick loved one, who has now gone to be with the Lord. We left Fort Smith, MT and traveled to north east Texas, so it was a long trip. When we arrived, we were mentally, psychically and emotionally worn out. We set up our travel trailer, in the dark, at 1:30 am and went to sleep. A couple of hours later we heard an alarm going off but I was so tired that I just mumbled a response when Chris asked me what that sound was. He finally got up and noticed that our CO2 detector was going off but he thought it was broken because it has never gone off in the three years we have owned it! He took it outside to see what would happen and when he did it stopped alarming. He then brought it back inside and it started going off again. Long story short, we had our generator running at the front of the camper and the A/C was sucking in CO2! Thank God that our children weren't in the camper! 

This is my advice, have a smoke alarm and CO2 detector in your RV at ALL times! Make sure that you change the batteries ONCE a year! 

The life you save will probably be your own!!!

I thank God that we are here today to write this post and maybe save someone else life in the process!

 

1/2 of Yellowstone

We were finally able to go to Yellowstone yesterday after months of waiting and excitement building everyday. We only had one day so we were only able to see half of the park but we were definitely awe struck. Every pool was a different color, every geyser unique and there was even a lake with a marina.

We were very impressed with every pot and pool but the only part we weren't that impressed with was Old Faithful. Now I know you all are sitting there shaking your heads thinking we've lost our minds but everyone has an opinion. I just had this picture in my mind of water shooting out of the earth's crust with such force that it would shake the earth but it just spewed water out....that's it. Our little Izzy also wasn't allowed on any of the boardwalks so we stole someone else idea and stuck her in our backpack. We walked around every where with her, including the visitor center and all over the park. We were afraid that someone would say something but no one ever did. People only ohh'ed and awe'd over her. She thoroughly enjoyed her ride :) We will go back one day to see everything we missed. As far as wildlife, we saw a chipmunk, elk, deer, raven, bison and mountain goats but we never saw a bear :( Maybe next time!

Boondocking in Montana

It has been awhile since I have written but we were in an area where there was no cell phone or internet service. We spent a couple of weeks working at a campground near Fort Smith, MT but we had to leave early because of the lack of services. I recently started back to college and all my work is done online so I HAVE to have internet service. I have a Verizon prepaid mifi hotspot but while we were working at the campground we had to drive 45ish miles ONE WAY in order to get service. We left and we are currently making our way towards Yellowstone and boondocking along the way. We are currently staying in Columbus, MT at the Itch-Kep-Pe park. It is a city park right on the Yellowstone River and I was quite surprised at how nice it is. I had been dreading boondocking because I was basically terrified of the unknown. We have been here for two days and I am thinking we will definitely be coming back in the future! Now that we aren't virgin boondockers, we are looking forward to future free campsites!!

The first pictures were from when we went through Billings,MT at a Schell's which is a sporting goods store like Bass Pro Shop or Gander Mountain. We had a fun time walking through and taking pictures. They have a huge aquarium that is very cool and they also have a ferris wheel that you can ride inside the building. More to come from our trip to Yellowstone National Park.

1st Rest Stop Overnighter

Anyone who has traveled for any extended period of time knows that something will go wrong before long. Since leaving Cherokee, NC we have been plagued by transmission problems. While we were cruising down the road, an indicator message pops up saying that our transmission is too hot, pull over and idle. Well thank God we were passing a rest stop and were immediately able to pull over in a safe place. Chris checked the transmission fluid and all seemed good and so we waited for the transmission to cool off and start back on our journey. Slowly taking off, the transmission bumped very hard into first gear and then slightly less into second and so we were very concerned. We googled to find the closest dealership that could get us in quickly and were able to find one about 18 miles away. We cautiously watched the transmission temp the whole way there and everything seemed fine. Well long story short.....$237 dollars later we have new transmission fluid and we are off again. We traveled for a whole day without problems but then it started happening again the next day. My brother (a shade tree mechanic) told us that our Suburban doesn't really have a good enough transmission cooler to haul our camper for long distances and that we really need to add an extra cooler but that will have to wait until we get to our next destination. So getting to the night at the rest stop. We were driving along yesterday in the 103 degree heat with four windows down and I was in a very bad mood. I will be honest and say I had a slight breakdown of sorts but I was able to pull myself together after getting into the very back seat, by myself, and praying. Chris must have known what I needed because he instantly turned our satellite radio onto the Joel Osteen channel. After I pulled myself together, I was able to rationally look at the situation and realize that it wasn't as bad as it seemed. Along the way we had to pull over about 5 times in order for the transmission to cool down and after a while it was clear we were not going to make it to our intended KOA stop for the night. We were all so tired and grumpy that Chris and I decided it would be best to stop at the closest rest stop and spend the night. We covered the windows with towels and put a egg crate mattress across the window in the front, left the truck running, took some simply sleep, covered up and went to sleep. Chris said that I snored like a chain saw the whole night and that he was so worried that he couldn't sleep but a few hours. All in all we were able to reschedule our KOA stop for the next night and we made it safely through our first night sleeping in a rest stop and no one got murdered :)

On the move

Sometimes in life things happen that are beyond our control and we just roll with the punches and stay blessed.

Sadly our time at Yogi in the Smokies came to a end and we are now on the road to a new adventure.

Stay tuned for details!

Every Thursday

Every Thursday for about a month there is a Chiropractor that comes to the campground and gives adjustments for $20. Chris never misses a Thursday and he loves it. I am to scared he will break my neck....LOL....I'm not into the bone cracking!

The toliet-mobile

The toliet-mobile, our golf cart, carries us around all day from place to place. Thank goodness to because if we had to walk around all day carrying around our supplies, this would have been a short job.

Here is the breakdown of our day:

7am- sweep & mop the office
7:30- dust, sweep, mop & take out trash in the laundry room.
8:00- clean the ranger bathrooms (1 boys toliet & 1 urinal) (2 girl bathrooms)
8:30- dust & take out game room trash.
9- head to the mega bath houses of doom! On the girls side there 4 toliets, 4 sinks & mirrors & 4 showers. The boys side has 2 urinals, 2 toliets, 4 sinks & 4 showers.
10 (if we're lucky)- We are really breaking a sweat and head to the middles. We are greeted with 4 unisex toliets  on one side and 4 unisex showers on the other.
11- Every curse word imaginable has probably been uttered under our breath because we have most likely unstopped at least 4 toliets (usually on the men's side) and had to tell 99 people that the bathrooms are closed for cleaning. To which the will complain and moan about very loudly.  So now, we are going to the uppers where we are welcomed with 2 unisex full bathroom/shower combinations.
11:30- go back to the mega bath houses of doom & the middles to check one last time before lunch.
12-1- Lunch
1-4- Repeat all above steps and thrown in a few cabins for good measure!
4- Go home and collapse. ...but wait....there are children to feed and we forgot it's laundry day. ....sigh

Tubing down the river

20150728 113452 from Shelby Hudspeth on Vimeo.

Matthew and Benjamin tubing down the Raven Fork River that runs through Yogi in the Smokies campground. The water is very shallow and so the kids get stuck sometimes. Look out for Izzy running across the screen almost at the end of the video....LOL. We had to go rescue her from the bank because she go down but couldn't get back up.

Sugar Beet Harvest

The sugar beet harvest is now officially our next workamping job and will begin at the first of October. We are assigned to go to Fargo, ND and will be staying at the Lindenwood campground. During this job only Chris will be working because it requires that you work 7 days a week and 12 hours a day. I will be homeschooling the boys and attending college online while Chris does this short job. We have read accounts of other people's experience with this job and their opinions vary greatly. Some people absolutely love only working 3 weeks and making around $3-4 thousand dollars and some have said that it was the worst experience of their lives and they will never be back! We think that it is important to take each of their opinions into account but ultimately make our own decisions.

The only thing that I am worried about going into this job is the fact that the Lindenwood campground doesn't provide a sewer hook-up but we were promised that a honey wagon service comes around twice a week to empty the tanks for us.

I am excited for this new adventure and can't wait to get to North Dakota........another state I have never been to.

I know some of you out there would like more information so just follow the link :)

http://www.sugarbeetharvest.com/

Some People

While working at this campground there are some things I have learned about people. This, in no way applies to all people, just a select few. So this is what we have learned.

People are NASTY, they will poop in the showers, leave bloody women product laying in the showers, trash cabins, poop on the floor, poop in trash cans, leave dirty diapers everywhere and pee on every surface imaginable except the toilets. (Thank goodness Chris has a strong stomach because he gets all the nasty jobs...LOL)

People are WASTEFUL,  they throw away brand new items that they bought for one camping trip, leave food (unopened) in the cabinets and fridge of cabins. Leave bundles of wood not used and leave soap, towels, bottles of shampoo, conditioner, soap, shirts, shorts and underwear in the bathrooms.
 

People are RUDE, they think they should get special treatment above and beyond what you have already done. They think they whole world should bow down to them and kiss their toes. They will complain even if you give them EVERYTHING FREE!!

People are FRIENDLY, that old man or woman that you thought was grumpy end up being the salt of the earth people. People will go out of their way to help you fix an electrical problem, climb on top of your camper roof to fix your a/c, change a flat or loan you a BBQ lighter.

People are INTERESTING,  they have stories that will surprise,  frighten or amaze you. Each and every story is different and it is awesome to just sit and talk to people.

Out of all this, the MAIN thing I have learned is never to judge people. I now try and get to know everyone that is willing to talk. I will not like everyone but those that I do will be friends for life!

Museum of the Cherokee Indians

Today we went into Cherokee, NC to use some of our workamping perks and go check out the Museum of the Cherokee Indians. We get this free so we didn't have to pay the normal fee of $11 per adult, which would have cost us $44 in total. Here are a few pictures of the museum.

It was very educational, interactive and I highly recommend that you go!

Boys Being Boys

The boys have been super busy having fun also volunteering around the campground. They get free amenities such as free basketball,  bike rentals, ice cream, smores and so much more.

Benjamin worked everyday for about a week to catch some trout. They are harder to catch than you might think. It took the help of many locals to get him on the path.

Matthew played basketball everyday for about a week before he started to expand his activities. He finally went swimming this week but he was the first one to want to volunteer and help the maintenance men. They have him picking up trash, cleaning out fire pits and teaching him various other maintenance duties.

All in all, they are having a blast and are lucky to get these experiences.

Workamping

Well we have been workamping at Yogi in the Smokies for about 2 weeks now so I can give a good honest review of the pros and cons.

Pros: Our bosses are awesome and don't look over our shoulder at all.

The hours are great (7-4)

The pay and perks are great. We get a full hook-up site, free laundry, free park activities like free ice cream and smores, a 15% store discount, free local attractions, free cable ,wifi at the office and $8 an hour for all hours worked.

Cons: We are on the housekeeping crew which means we are cleaning all the bathrooms and about 6-8 cabins a day. It is hard work but it is easier because we get to work together.

All the other workampers are older couples and then there are a few locals that work here too. There are a few who constantly complain but anywhere you work there are going to be people like that.

All in all it is a hard job but with all the perks and considering we have never been to this area, the pros outweigh the cons.

Will we ever be on a housekeeping crew again?

Never say never :)

Fixin Stuff

Yesterday we spent the day getting things on Ole Betsey (unofficial name for now). We had some cracked brake light lenses that needed to be replaced as well as the small lights on the top. There was also a water leak under the kitchen sink that got repaired.

Today is crunch day because we leave tomorrow.  We are currently sitting at the tire shop getting new tires. Then we still have to go home and decided what goes and what stays. Ugh! That is the only thing that stinks.

Our 1st gig

We started thinking about traveling a while back and it soon grew to a healthy obsession. In order to go and travel we needed to find a way to have jobs that pay money because we are too young to retire and we have bills that have to be paid. After tremendous researching, we decided that workamping would be a very good way to start our adventure. Workaming is where you work in exchange for a free campsite that usually has full hook-ups (water, electric & sewer) and many have other perks as well such as free wifi and cable TV. Most workamping positions are volunteer positions but if you look hard enough you can find ones that offer a salary as well as a free campsite. After an extensive search we got word today we have been selected to work for Yogi in the Smokies campground in Cherokee, NC. The perks of this gig is a free campsite, a nice salary, wifi, cable TV, located in a fabulous destination and fairly easy work. We are excited to go but we have a LONG list of things to do before we go.

*Get new tires on the rv
*Fix a small water leak under the sink
*Clean the house and prepare it to be shut up for months
*Pack
*Get propane tanks filled


These are just a few of the items that need to be completed.

We have an older rv but it is in good condition and the A/C will freeze you out and so that is the most important thing to us!

We spent four days in it so we could work at all the kinks in order to prepare us for a possible future job offer and now I am glad we did.