Category Archives: who the hell are we?

Just where the hell have we been?

Hello!

Yep, it has been a long time. We wanted this blog to be as “positive/happy/joyful” as we could make it. We do have a few post of complaints and negativity of course, but we really tried not to take out our life’s frustrations here.

Which is why we have not posted since June.

Long story short…

Since 1999 we have worked online as independent contractors for various online marketing companies and since 2004 we both worked for the same company.

I was laid off September 30, 2013.

Pauline made enough to keep us going, but not by much, so we weighed our options and decided to stay on the road with the idea of me volunteering for a site with her income paying the bills and maybe getting a few odd jobs here and there. It would be very tight, but we could do it.

That is, until Pauline was laid off on June 3, 2014.

Ouch.

We was very happy to be back in the Northwest when this happened. Had we still been in Arizona or elsewhere, it would be much worse for us personally.

The good news, we had already downsized prior to going on the road. We of course still had expenses, but not like we once had. So while it hurt to lose her job, (And it hurt, A LOT) we was still in a better position for this to happen now then had it happened 2-3 years ago.

We did find some temporary work, which required much more work, with much less pay, but at least we had some income. (And a big THANK YOU to our Doc for the work!) Pauline also did a masterful job of making all our payments on time and in full and we still have a savings account with a good chunk of change in there.

We both have been job hunting since June 6 (When the shock started to wear off). The very first place I applied to was on June 6. I heard nothing from them until mid August at which time I had completely forgotten about them and had already been to a few other interviews and had applied countless applications for other jobs.

In late August I took a test to verify I was qualified for the position, then I had a interview a few weeks later, then a UA test a few weeks after that and finally on September 3 I was offered the job. I started working on October 2.

I was unemployed for 1 year and 3 days.

I now have a job in a completely different field then I have ever been in, and I am about to start week 5 of 5 weeks training and so far, I like this job for many reasons. Mostly, it’s nice to have real leadership again. And to be respected. And to have my opinion and judgment actually listened to and considered. It has been so long since this has happened.

The training has been really good. I’m being trained in multiple fields, and have earned many qualifications since I started with opportunities to earn more qualifications which I will be doing as soon as I am able. (After 90 days, which will be in late December).

Pauline just accepted a new job as well. She starts her training in a few days. She is also going back to school to earn another degree. This will help us in the long term and at some point, help get us back on the road.

Another negative we had to deal with was earlier in 2014, I ended a relationship with someone I cared very much for. But it was for the best and I have no regrets over ending it. I will of course miss this once close relationship, but toxic relationships are good for no one involved.

 

So that is the main reason we have not made any post. We just did not have much things to say that would be positive and now we do.

Our long term goal is to spend the next few years (3-5?) doing what it takes to pay off our Jeep and Admiral Ackbar as well as get everything we wanted to have when we started this full time RV lifestyle.

All the cool toys we didn’t have the income to get a few years ago like better camera’s, bikes, kayaks, maybe take some classes to be better prepared such as backpacking, survival, maps/compass etc. We will now have the financial means to get exactly the equipment and training we want.

We also will have to get another vehicle and have been looking, we are getting closer in making a decision on what to get, and with Pauline’s great money management skills, we have more then enough to make a huge down payment in cash which is something we have never been able to do.

Kermit the Jeep should be paid off in early 2016 as would the new vehicle and Ackbar would have a good chunk paid down as well and then we think we will be looking for a bus, which was originally our choice but we decided to get Ackbar. I can’t say we regret getting Ackbar, we just think a bus is a better choice for us.

We will be redoing the interior of Ackbar as well since we no longer have the need for a large desk area, we will get a new couch and dining table/chairs at some point.

We of course had to make some major sacrifices such as we will be stationary longer then planned, but we have many great friends and my BoyZ are all within a 90 minute drive.

We are already planning a few road trips when we have some vacation time saved up. Of course, we are going to see some National Parks. 🙂

We now live in the Everett, Washington area and I am now a Washington resident as required for my new job. Not saying this is “bad” but honestly, I LOVED being a Oregon resident and when we are able to get back on the road, I plan to get that back.

I also had to give up my favorite “vice” for the job as well, but that is a small sacrifice when compared to the big picture. It will be there when I am once again able to do it.

In short…

Life is good. Life has changed drastically of course, but life is good. Pauline and I are very thankful for what we have, what we have done, and who our friends are, as well as our stupid cats.

We wanted to say thank you to some of the great people we have worked with in the past year and who have helped us in our time of need.

Ranger Zimmerman and Lori and Ranger Terada and Don and Kevin at Fort Flagler State Park.

Ranger Cimmins, Ranger Lease, Ranger Spaulding, Ranger Curt, Ann, Rik, Danny and Amber at South Whidbey State Park.

Thanks to you all, you made our lives much easier in a time of great stress.

Much love to our Doc!

And last but not least, much love to Daphna and Allen. The Best. Friends. Ever.

 

 

 

 

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More on Admiral Ackbar

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The main slide out is 11’8″ long and 33″ wide. We have used a “T” desk for the past 8 years. I am on the left side, Pauline on the right, we have a small HD TV between us and … Continue reading

How Admiral Ackbar come into our lives.

How did this all start?

Around Fall 2010 Pauline and I started discussing the idea of living a “Nomadic lifestyle” and like a spark igniting a fire, it just took off. We love to travel, we love seeing new things and learning new things.

But since 9/11 and the TSA and the insane high cost of airfare’s, flying became just too much of a hassle. Train’s are a option, but take too long at times. Driving is possible, but by the time you get there, you are tired, and you hardly recover when it’s time to drive home and we have also learned that we do not like leaving home for more then 2 day’s, mostly due to wanting to be in our own bed, eat our own food, use our own shower’s and kick our own cats.

Why not just eliminate the bad and keep the good? If you don’t like being away from home, and you love to travel, bring the home with you.

So the question was, can we do it? Yes we can. Ok, now what do we do it in?

This was the hardest question. So we started going to RV dealerships. The first one we looked at was a Class C, and while we liked the setup, we wasn’t so sure it was the right size. So we started to look at Class A’s and going to RV show’s we saw a pretty nice Class A and it was priced within our range.

As the days and week’s passed we thought more and more of this rig and kept asking “Did we just miss a perfect opportunity?” A few months of this thinking we pretty much set in stone, we want this model. A few months after this, we discovered this model was a known maintenance nightmare and fire hazard.

Google is your friend.

Go back to square one.

We found a bus! The biggest reason we had not considered a Bus until this point of the search, was all the Bus’s we had seen started at $180k which was way outside our range of cost.

But this Bus was much cheaper and while 18 year’s old it was in excellent condition and from our experience, it was under priced, so we went to go see it. It was a very nice Bus. However the inside could and was described as “A 1980’s Las Vegas Strip Club”. Neon lights, and mirrors. Lots of mirrors. The wall’s, ceilings, cabinet’s, fridge, all covered in mirrors. We had no time, space, or knowledge to deal with all this so we had to walk away.

Square one.

Once more we started to look at Class C’s. Both used and new and while we know we could do it, it really boiled down to it is just too small for us. Our goal is to spend more time boon docking in BFE then in RV Park’s or Urban areas. And the cat’s were also a huge factor, they need room to run and spazz out like they do now. So for our own comfort level, we need more storage and larger tank’s to live the lifestyle as we envision living it.

Ugh. Square one again.

We found a Super C! It was larger and more powerful then a Class C! We liked it! We spent a few months looking them over online and really fell in love with them. They just worked for us. And as an added bonus, we have yet to see any nomadic lifestyle blogger out there who is driving a Super C, so how unique would it have been to be the only one in a small world? Sadly we only found 3 or 4 West of the Mississippi river in our price range, with the most of them in FL or NY. The logistic’s just could not be worked out.

Square one, we meet again.

For the better part of the last 2 year’s our favorite hobby has been reading the blogs of people currently living the nomadic lifestyle and looking at rigs on RVT.com. We have seen hundred’s if not thousand’s of different models. We have gone to 4 RV show’s, we have gone to 5 or 6 dealership’s and a few private listing’s. Nothing seemed to click with the both of us.

One night we came across the rig that would now forever known to us as Admiral Ackbar.

As I showed the Admiral Ackbar listing to Pauline, I was already thinking of the name so I pointed out the model name was “Admiral” and before I could finish, she blurt’s out “Ackbar!” which I fallowed with “It’s a Trap!”

Good laugh’s!

We gave the listing a look over, we loved the solar panel’s, the setup worked for us, we loved the green color and it was only a 45 min drive from us so a few week’s later we drove down to look it over.

Which turned out to be a good call. We both liked what we saw. It was in excellent condition and was “pimped out” for 2002 and was already w/d ready. We decided to take it for a test drive, it handled wonderfully. Started right up, nothing seem’ed wrong with it. We gave it some time, thought it over, talked it over, and we both realized this was the first rig we have seen that “spoke to us”.

We made a offer and they accepted.

Now the next 3 week’s was not pleasant at all. I won’t get into too many detail’s, just because it was such a negative experience that I do not want to dwell on, but it went from the highest high to a very low low in a very short amount of time.

The short version…

We accepted the loan, the dealer start’s doing what they do regarding paperwork etc and a few day’s after being approved, we was told the bank withdrew the offer. We are still not 100% sure why, the bank claimed the bank did not have the correct information while the bank said they did have it.

So we applied to 4 other’s and got instantly approved to the first, but at a much higher % (Which turned out to be about the average % for RV’s.) After a week plus of this back and forth with the other banks who was going out of their way to slow this process down we said enough and we contacted the offering bank and accepted their term’s.

A few day’s later, our dealership contact’s us telling us current owner’s bank is changing their term’s to current owner, so now the current owner’s bank could stop this whole deal. So we had to wait for that drama to play out. During this time our pickup date was changed 3 times. The original pick up date was Dec 6. We finally got Admiral Ackbar on Dec 21.

STRESSFUL.

But it has all worked out so far, so we are just going to keep going with the flow.

Emotion’s have ran high here for the last month. We have both been stressed and just wanted this to be resolved. Right now we are in recovery. I am still stiff in place’s but I am stretching more and that seem’s to help.

It has been a long 2 years. We did our research, and while we still have much to learn, I am very confident we will love this as much as we thought we would and that we have done the right thing for the right reasons.

For us.

 

 

 

Felling better.

I had a pretty good night of sleep and while I am still tired, I am not dead tired as I was last night.

Today I plan to make some blog post giving more history of who we are and what brought us to this point.

 

 

Introducing… Admiral Ackbar!

2002 Holiday Rambler Admiral "Ackbar"

2002 Holiday Rambler Admiral “Ackbar”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the facts as posted on the site:

2002 Holiday Rambler Admiral “Ackbar” ~ “It’s a Trap!”

Fully integrated 5 solar panel system on the roof
34,816 miles on Ford V10, 310HP
4-spd overdrive transmission
Height with a/c unit is 11 feet 9 inches
75 gallon fuel tank
67 gallon fresh water
45 gallon black
45 gallon grey
Hide-a-bed couch sleeps 1-2 **REMOVED!
Dinette table drops down to sleep 2 **REMOVED!
Queen walk-around bed sleeps 2
Microwave convection oven and 3 burner stove
10 gallon hot water heater
Alumaframe superstructure
Steel cage cockpit construction
Curved aluminum roof with insulation
Smooth aluminum sidewalls
Superior strength and insulation throughout
Fiberglass front and rear caps
Power, heated remote outside mirrors
Back-up camera
Hydraulic leveling jacks
Factory wired for satellite
Factory prepped for washer/dryer **ADDED
5500 watt Onan generator