I'm back! The travel trailer hermit!
I am going start off by saying I am sorry for not writing
everyday like I promised, and the main reason is a lot of things have changed
in my life since my last article. My red 1/2 ton pick-up that I spoke so fondly
of finally laid down for the count about four months ago, the motor was running
fine and the transmission was shifting normal but the frame was rusted and the
starter was out. The odometer read almost 300k miles, and within a week I had
it sold. I was $2,000 richer, and my hunt for another automobile had begun. A
friend at work had a 1984 f-250 for sale, and before I knew it I was a proud
owner of a 3/4 ton. The truck ran good, and the C6 automatic transmission
shifted smooth. In March I cleaned out my bedroom at my mom's house, and I told
her I had planned on pulling a travel trailer into the back yard and living in
it. Long story short, her jaw dropped and for some odd reason she wasn't happy
with her son's ideal of a perfect lifestyle. She said, "Having my son
living in a rickety old trailer in the backyard will bring our property value
down and what will the neighbor's think?" I told her I didn’t care what
the neighbor's thought, and whether she liked it or not, I would live happy
ever after in my 12ft tin box. For a week she didn’t talk to me, and after some
trial and error a friend who lives about 12 minutes down the road said they
would let me park my camper on their property. I jumped on the ideal, and on the
4th of April I drove to my dad's house, hooked up my trailer and towed it almost
40 miles to my friend's property. I leveled it up using three jack stands and
two scissor jacks, I left the tires intact but placed a piece of clear plastic
under each tire to create a moisture barrier between the tire and the ground. I
moved in on April 7th with no running water, no electricity, and no internet.
By the middle part of May, it felt like summer had sit in. Outside temps were
80F+ and inside temps were 90F+. The camper sits about 350 feet from my
friend's home, and after a miserably hot night I asked them if I could run an extension
cord from the camper to the house in order to run a small AC unit and my mini
fridge. They said it sounded like a wonderful ideal, and after a trip to Lowes
I had myself 500 feet of 10/2 Romex and male and female connector ends. On a
lonely Saturday night, I wired myself a homemade heavy duty extension cord and
ran it from my camper to the GFCI outlet on the outside of the house. I buried
the cord underground, and by Monday of the next week I was sitting in front of
my window AC unit sipping on a tall glass of sweet ice tea. I completed my
camper with a new twin size mattress, and my creature comforts were complete! I
pay them $100 a month for electricity usage, washer dryer usage, and for a
shower twice a week. I’m living the life of Riley, and they appreciate the
extra $100 bucks. Everything was going good up until the last part of May. My F-250
started having transmission and carb trouble and it got to where it wouldn’t
shift at the right RPM, and the carb would load up with gas and kill the engine.
The C6 automatic transmission was starting to slip! I parked it, threw a “for
sale” sign on it, and my automobile hunt began again. I live about 30 minutes
from work, and I don’t like to borrow so I really needed a good dependable
truck. I was relying on my Kawasaki Vulcan 800 motorcycle for commuting, and
rainy days were making my ride miserable. I toughed it out, and within a week I
had traded my motorcycle for a 1997 4x4 f-150. I was so happy to have a cab to
sit in on rainy commutes.
Well, that should get everyone up to date on my current endeavors.
I will try and write 1-3 times per week, but no promises. I might start doing a
video blog, I don’t know yet. I am relying on free restaurant Wi-Fi as my only
internet connection, so I gotta see how things work out.
Sincerely--------- TRAVEL TRAILER HERMIT------ signing
off....
