I know it’s been kinda quiet on here the last few weeks, but not really much has been happening other than work and some exciting personal news.

I got a FaceTime call from Meghan informing me that she is pregnant and is due in December. That was a little surprising! Chelsea is also pregnant (that was another surprise!) and is due in June. Lots of excitement on the family front, and it is so nice to have good news like that for a change!

Things are beginning to ramp up here and I start back to work full time on Monday. I was hired back at a higher position this year so I now have a new job title with more responsibility. I have been pretty busy over the winter so next year I hope to hit the road and travel all winter and take advantage of my time off and my trailer. I’m ready to get back to work and build the bank account back up. It’s gonna be a great summer with some exciting new opportunites! It is going to be a better year than the turdstorm that was the last half of 2016.

I still need to get the trailer ready and do some de-winterizing for the season – mainly flushing out all of the water system and hit it with some chlorine to sanitize it. It looks like I got the water leak stopped and I hope that is the end of that problem. I found this stuff called Lexcel that can be applied to wet surfaces. With the constant rain I wasn’t able to pull the clearance lights off (that’s what was leaking) and seal them like they should be sealed up. I am going to find some gasket material to do it correctly and will work on that pretty soon. I need to go over the whole trailer to do maintenance on window seals, roof vent seals, and seals around all the clearance and taillights. I still need to do a more permanent (and more heavy-duty) repair on the damage from the tire blowout I had in Utah. Heavier metal (🤘) is going to be put into the inner fenders to minimize damage if another blowout should happen, and I need to get another new trailer tire to KEEP it from happening again. I have it at a storage lot for now and will probably bring it here and start doing some things to it soon.

I am finally getting used to the idea of owning the trailer and it is really pretty cool to have something like that to use. To be able to go someplace and not have to spend money on hotel rooms and eating in restaurants constantly is really a big plus and saves a considerable amount of money. I noticed that when I used it to move here from Colorado 5+ years go, but I really noticed it more when I was bringing it back from KS a few months ago. The layover in Grand Junction was probably the one thing that made me really aware of the money saved. Even dry camping was cost-saving since they had showers and I had a 5-gallon jug for drinking. For $20-$40 a night you can have a hook-up site and a familiar bed to sleep in. Winning! I plan on getting out in it often this summer. With the water system being cleaned out I will be able to boondock it in the forest if I want to – no RV park necessary (and I’d rather not be in them anyway unless it is necessary). Fill up the water tank and go!

I got to get away the last few days to take care of some appointments and got to visit several friends while I was in the area. It was good to see them since it had been a while. I will be making another visit soon so hopefully I will get to see a few more the next time. Unfortunately it involves leaving the trailer behind and staying in a hotel, but hey… you gotta pamper yourself sometimes!

I do have to say that all the traveling I have done over the past 8-9 months I stayed in a lot of hotels – probably 60-70 – but most of it was out of necessity with everything that was going on with family stuff back in KS. That certainly does spoil you but it gets expensive even using a budget hotel. Now that I have the trailer, and don’t need to do as many hotels anymore, when I DO stay in a hotel it is not the cheap ones unless I cannot get around that. I would rather spend some real money and get a NICE room in a NICE hotel (except Hilton properties – never again!). I figure why the hell not? It really is not very much more than the cheap ones for a much better place.

It’s good to see the weather getting better and the days are getting longer. Before long we will have those really long days we get here in the northern part of the country. Makes it hard to sleep in! This weather makes me want to get out and I am considering another road trip next weekend but undecided as to where to go for now. That makes me wonder how many miles I traveled bringing the trailer back. UPDATE: I drove 4232 miles.

Well, that’s the update for now. I thought I should post something so everyone knows that I am still around.