Surgery update and Maine life

Hey guys!  How is everyone doing?

I thought I'd check in with everyone and see how things are going!?!

Everyone getting their water in? How about steps?  Even with the rain most days are nice enough to get some walking in here.  It's been 1013 days since my surgery.  I'm currently holding at 16 lbs below my original goal and 6 lbs below my adjusted goal.  Do I still love my sleeve?  You bet I do!!

So, I get asked what I can eat now.  I can eat anything I want (in small quantities).  I still don't really do carbonation.  I can, but it doesn't really sit well, and since it's not good for me I don't miss it.  I actually drink quite a bit of cran-apple juice.  It's a great mixer ;)   I can now eat about a cup of food at a time but it still depends on the texture how much I do eat.  I love steak and really have to be careful not to over due with that.  It is so much denser than other foods I can fill up fast.  I do find if I forget to eat (can you believe I just said that??) for more than 5 or 6 hours I can start getting hangry without realizing it.  If I have protein every 4 hours or so it's ideal.

How does the RV world figure into this?  Actually pretty well.  The RVing  life encourages movement. Maine has had a rainy and cold spring.  It is finally starting to warm up now in June.

 We just had a great father's day weekend.  Took two of our grandchildren up to Jay's mom's farm.  We parked the RV at the end of the field - glad it had dried out enough for our big rig- and we had nosy horses checking us out all weekend! The kids loved that since we parked right next to the fence the horses were just outside the window when we woke up in the morning.

It was a really nice visit.  We came home through Farmington and it was nice scenery.  I wanted to talk about our style of travel a little.  I think most people, when they dream of this lifestyle, fall mostly into two categories.   One, being the people that want to see everything but they also want to live minimally.  They picture boon-docking (dry camping) with solar everywhere.  And then there's the second,  where they want to see everything but want electric hook ups and the security of a campground everywhere they go.

We have, up to this point, kind of fallen in the middle.  Jay tends to be cautious.  This is a good thing because I tend to jump into things with both feet. ;)  Going across the country twice (well, across and then back) helped us to  get the hang of the unexpected.  Working at the park for 6 months taught us to appreciate full hook-ups ;).  We are learning our rig still.  Yes, I know, it's been almost a year, but really! It takes a while to learn what you can do and what isn't a good idea.  We were able to go 15 days without dumping our black tank recently. (Yeah, that's the pooh tank).  Then when we had the kids for 4 days and our daughter Jasmine for a couple of those as well, we needed to dump after 10.  Part of the reason for that is the dump station here is not open on the weekend and we didn't want to push it until Monday.

So, what have we found?  Do we need solar?
Well, I'd love to find someone to help us rearrange what we do have first.  We currently have 6 batteries and they could do a lot more for us than they do now.  We need the outlets in the bedroom to run off the batteries.  The TV and the fan.  We could get by with a fraction of the time we run the generator now with that little change.  Solar always sounds wonderful and it is.  But most people think of it as the energy source.  Solar panels are really just the chargers.  You still run on batteries.  We have an excellent generator.  It's a 7500 Onan.  It loses a little bit if we are at really high elevation, but mostly when it's running it's like we're plugged into 50 AMP electric. (Everything works at once). It can easily charge our batteries in not much time.  Plus it has safeguards built in so we can't run our diesel dry. (We never let our tank go below half of it's 150 gallons anyway)

We can get by and run almost everything on 30AMPS except the second A/C.  (This is not a big deal for me since most of the time I'd rather open windows but Jay gets hot)  :)

Campgrounds are everywhere and you can almost always find one, if you are willing to pay.  We are Passport America members and they have great deals but we have found that many of their parks are a distance from the major highways.The real score of course is when we can come across a beautiful spot to park for free.

We are starting to feel more comfortable moving off those highways and checking out the local roads.  FBG is still a big rig at just over 40' and then we tow a car on a dolly so, understandably , Jay was cautious about getting into tight spots.  He has a pretty decent idea now of where he can get her into and out of.  I am not a good judge of this because watching him, I'd say he could do anything.  The fact that he can back her up between two tight fence poles first try without even batting an eye impresses the heck out of me.  Of course, I don't really back a car well let alone 40' of machine! ;)


So, really for us we are still beginners!  We love our FBG.  She got a great bill of health when we took her in for service.  Just a couple hoses that had loosened up in our travels.  Maintenance cost is something everyone should prepare for.  An oil change (for engine and generator) does not come cheap, but it's really important to keep our home healthy.

While we won't have a huge amount of time to head back to Quartzsite in the fall - we have our grandkids the last week in September and want to be back at the park by October 8th or 9th to get things in shape - I'm still hopeful that we will have time to enjoy a little more exploring on the way. ;)

How are other things going? Jay is back working part time at Riverview.  They seemed happy to have him back if only for a few months. He's doing 24 hours a week which is about perfect for us.  Me? Well, I don't seem to be having as much luck.  I have interviewed a couple places, I tend to lose them when I am honest about us leaving at the end of September.  I always thought if you were willing to work, there would be jobs available.  Of course, I don't want full time either which might effect things.  If you know of any part time jobs in the Augusta area looking for short term help let me know. ;)  I'd be happy to cover someone's vacation week, or do a couple days somewhere to help out during the busy season.  I'll just put that out to the universe and see what it brings.  Oh! I did start a book!  I'm only 9 chapters in but it's a fun adventure to take on!

Dobby and Paris are enjoying being back in Maine and being able to roll in the grass - especially if they can find stinky stuff to roll in- their baths have increased.

It's pretty perfect for me at 83 degrees out and 78 degrees in the rig at this moment.  Life is good!  We still feel blessed to be able to do this.  I hope you all are having a good weekend also - and as always, thanks for following along!!

~Mikki