Ok, so catch up...back in January, we had a broken water pipe! That is why we went through so much water! One of our residents was walking his dog and noticed water coming up from the ground. Wohoo! It stinks that a pipe broke but was amazing it came up instead of down and Jay and Phil were able to fix it! We have had NO problem with water since that fix. I think it probably had been leaking for awhile and this was finally a fix for it.
How do I explain this winter at the park? Well, it's been building slowly. My tasty Tuesday meals have taken off. We now have a rec hall budget. Also, we are at 50% yearly residents. We were at roughly 20% when we started. The owners have invited us back for next winter and when we had our residents meeting they clapped when they heard we had accepted coming back next year.
It is extremely satisfying to think we made a difference here. When we came in they warned us this was an independent group and we wouldn't make much headway with them. It means a lot of to me that we have got almost all of them to come and contribute to our meals and activities. (You know I always love a challenge) And now we have the word out that it is an extremely friendly park. Word spreads like wild fire here!
I started writing this in April and most people had headed out. Wow, what an amazing winter we had. People were putting deposits on sites for next year already. We can't understand why most people started back north so soon.. It was beautiful in AZ in April! Really! 80s in the day and 50s at night . The sleeping weather was perfect! We had to head out to make it to Maine for our youngest daughter's graduation from college or we would have stayed a few weeks longer!
How do I explain the lure of this life? Well, for those of you experiencing the arctic snow this year, you probably get it, (We made it back to Maine around May 1st and let me tell you, we were freezing!) but for those that are content with their geography, what makes Quartzsite special? It really is a community. We could live in a neighborhood the same size as the park and not know anyone, but there we take the time to do things together. We've encouraged everyone to join in the activities. It's not everyone's' cup of tea, but most have joined at least some of the fun.
For those of you wondering about how we like living in the RV, I can tell you we love it. It really has become our home. I love that even though the small space can get messy quickly, it also cleans up just as quickly. It encourages us to get outside and enjoy nature and it really is cool to have your whole house with you where ever you go.
Now, the big question...can we continue to afford it? Well, that is not as quickly or easily answered. We don't want to make it sound like it's all roses. We have heard that many people get into this life and feel they have been mislead by no one mentioning the challenges. Any of you that know us personally know that we are not independently wealthy. We have made many choices that a lot of people would cringe at. One of those choices was to take a big chunk of my retirement money early so that we could be debt free. I don't regret being debt free at all but it does create some extra stress in other ways. Since we are a long way from 59.5 we took a huge penalty for taking the money early. I had under estimated how much we would get hit. In 2016 we paid more in taxes than we've made for income some years. This carved a big chunk out of our safety net that we had in savings. Why is that such a worry?
Well, besides the obvious need to have money for repairs or emergencies, we also need to make more to cover our costs. The winter months at the park are great in many ways. It covers our basic costs of living, provides a warm place to live and is a fun place to work that doesn't enlist much heavy lifting. It does not, however, cover the "extras". For instance the cost of diesel to travel from Maine to Arizona or back. ( One way, with tolls runs about $1200. ) Nor the cost of insurance on the rig to full-time, (quite reasonable at $900 yr). We are about to find out the cost of maintenance as it's been 7000 miles and we have an appointment next week to have both the engine and the generator serviced, ~ and it does NOT cover the summer months.
Without some type of part time income this summer we will quickly bleed too far into savings. So, we are looking for some part time work. Originally we knew we would have to take this step. We just had planned to take this summer and spend it enjoying Maine and the grand kids. So we need to be a bit more proactive. Our budget is moderate and we have yet to keep to it. This is not unusual in the first year, in fact everything I've read said "it's highly unlikely to be achieved" but we are getting closer! My R+F business covers my health insurance and hopefully will continue to grow.
We are also seriously considering gate guarding which pays much better than the park and appeals to us with the descriptions of being remote. We kind of like the idea of being away from everything for jobs. Of course, that is a long term plan for next summer. We are in Maine for the season and will return to the park for the winter. This is one of the challenges I mentioned. You need to think about things long term to be able to find work ahead of time, usually 6 months before the job starts, but still be flexible because life still happens and things can change quickly.
Other things we've discovered living in a rolling home? Well, some of the roads in the US are in really deplorable condition! We literally had the back splash shake off the wall! We can last about 10-14 days of dry camping. Sometimes it's tricky to find places to park for the night when traveling. Yes, Walmart and some other places let you stay overnight there...but.... one of the things no one talks about is that Walmarts are often in heavily populated areas. We are 41 feet and then additional tow length and though Jay is an excellent driver, he doesn't love getting into congested areas that he's not familiar with. While the parking lots themselves are usually big enough, the ways to get in and out of them are not always big rig friendly! We have actually found some very nice parking places (free) that are away from the beaten path, but it's not something that is guaranteed and probably not something everyone would be willing to look for. Staying someplace unexpected for free not only helps the budget, it's one of those cool things about this life. ;)
So, we will be looking for some part time work, and enjoying the family and Maine for a few months. If you know of someone hiring in the Augusta area for a part-time, temporary job let me know! :) We will be continuing to carry on as long as we can. Please feel free to add us to any prayer chains, and of course, if any of you out there win powerball and want to donate to us, we'd be happy to accept! ;)
Talk with you again soon! Don't forget to hydrate!
...and as always, thank for following along!
~Mikki
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