GMC Motor Home, Travel with Teri and Dan

RVing Conservatively

Teri and I have lots of fun out here. As you have seen, we try to take care of things ourselves. Of course, some things we can not take care of, on the coach, so we take it to someone that we can trust. We made a big mistake right before I retired by not doing our homework. Took it to someone that really got to us. Now we make sure that we know sho works on our second home. Last year we took it to Jim Kanomata in San Francisco. He did a few things that I could not. We trust him and are heading back out to his shop in March. I want him to look over a few things that I don't want to mess with myself. In November Teri and I traveled to Atlanta and found a shop there that is good and trustworthy. It is owned by Zeb Frady and his two sons. They specialize in GMC motorhomes but work on all of them.
Teri is not afraid to tackle about anything I will let her. She worked hard today on the kitchen and made a lot of progress. I worked outside and washed the coach and polished the wheels. We do our own tune ups on the engine and change oil, do grease jobs, and any other non major stuff. Teri did the new floor. We will continue to give the inside a complete makeover in the next few months. Our goal is to make the inside look as new as the outside. We got a nice paint job for a fair price in 06, just before I retired. We are making the inside suit us since we live in here several months a year.
With the price of fuel what it is, we try to figure out ways to save. We spent 600 dollars in two days getting out to Az. last month. Is that too much? Sure it is but it does not keep us from enjoying our motorhome. We have been gone from home for 6 weeks. We have spent very little other than the gas money. We did go to a rally the first week of Jan. It was 400 miles round trip. Something over 100.00 in fuel. We were gone a week. Not bad for a week. The fee for the rally was 54 bux. We made the most of our trip and stopped to see our friends. We parked there for three nights. Could we have spent a week in a motel for that? No way. When we move the coach we make the best use of our dollars. We are not cruising in the coach, although if I could afford it I might. It is that much fun to drive. We use it to get to where we are going then we live in it. Our car gets over 30mpg and we do put a lot of miles on it.
We are fortunate to have a daughter and son in law that enjoy us being near so the fixed us full hookups. We are parked next to their house, like neighbors. Some days I do not see them. They also provide us with wifi internet. We do not worry about the hookups because we have prepared our coach to go for extended periods of time on its own. Last year we spent over a month straight with no hookups. I have outfitted the roof with 4 solar panels. 300 watts of solar power. That is more than enough to keep us in electricity and not run the generator as long as the sun shines. Even if we miss a day of sunshine we can make it. If it rains all week we can fire up the generator or we can go to where the sun shines.
What I am saying is that we normally plan our trips so that we use the least amount of money that we need to and still enjoy our freedom. Folks that do not "rv" do not understand how we get by. Most think we have a lot of money. We don't. It does not take a lot of money to do what we do. We put our city utilities on "vacation" so we don't have to pay them at home. OUr fuel and electricity bills are very small when we are gone from home. Actually, if we do not run the coach 1,000 miles we live cheaper on the road than we do at home. We don't pay for rv parks. Don't need to spend 30 dollars each night that we are on the road. If we did I could not afford 60 bux a month for my satellite tv. We get by without internet fees because I have some very good wifi equipment that allows us to get wifi for miles away, sometimes. We don't eat out much because we have our own kitchen, or will have when Teri finishes it. Or refrigerator runs on AC/DC, and propane. It will run for over 6 weeks on 10 gallons of lp. There are lots of free dump stations on the road. I keep track of them on the internet and with a book I have. We can take on water at any gas station. For 2 weeks at a time Teri and I live without needing anything. After that we need to find a dump station and take on water. I am going to increase the black tank so we can last 3 weeks.
I guess what I am saying is that even with high fuel prices folks can continue to enjoy rv'ing. We did not spend our money on this thing based on the price of fuel. We do not like weekend camping at the lake. We want to see the USA and that is what we are going to do until we get tired.
Hope everyone had a great Friday. When I worked, I loved Friday afternoons. It was usually just my secretary and me. Everyone else was gone on home visits or taking the afternoon off. Friday afternoons were my favorite part of the work week.
Will do pictures next time. Dan

posted by Dan & Teri Gregg @ 8:33 PM