RV travel

2015 is here

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Our new FourWinds 22e

Our new FourWinds 22e

2015 is now officially here. I know because I saw the ball drop. As Sher and I look forward to the new year we are excited about our new RV, a Four Winds 22e motorhome. We have had it a couple of weeks and are still getting things organized the way we want them. Changing from a truck pulling a travel trailer to a self-contained Class C has been a change as you can imagine. The coach will fit into our travel life a lot better than the trailer.

We are planning on heading south from Indiana, maybe towards Florida or maybe towards New Orleans. That is the fun of the RV lifestyle: you can go where ever you want.

My thoughts after returning to Indiana

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We don't see this in Indiana

We don’t see this in Indiana

Sher and I just got back from a fairly quick trip from Seattle to Indiana. We had spent the last three months in the Pacific Northwest, but were wanting to return to Indiana and family for the holiday season. It had been an intersting time, including our trip out to Seattle (mostly on I-90) and the return trip (mostly on I-80).

The trip back to Indiana took us down through Oregon on I-5. We then hooked up to I-80 south of Yuba City, California. Then it was across Nevada, the Utah panhandle, across southern Wyoming, then through Nebraska and on into Iowa, Missouri, finally across Illinois to pick up I-74 to Indiana.

Some musings of mine when we got back home again in Indiana: the Hoosier farm fields seemed so small compared to the ones out West. Where Indiana fields are measured in acres, the open ranges across Wyoming and Nebraska would be measured in sections. A corn stubble field with a few cattle in Indiana would seem like merely strays when compared to the scores of cattle out west. It was also different when you looked out and did not see any mountains, buttes, or foothills.

Another thing about Indiana: no laws saying that you have to have chains with you like Oregon and other states out west. And I really noticed that things look small in the midwest compared to the big sky you see not only in Montana but other states as well.

It is good to be back “home” for a while, but we are looking forward to our next journey.

 

Our new short queen mattress from Mattress Insider

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Ok, how many of you RVers out there still have the mattress that came with your RV? If you do, you sure had a better mattress when you bought your RV than we had in ours. The mattress in our master BR was a five inch thick thing that appeared to be stuffed with the same material in a carnival prize stuffed animal. We both were waking up with backaches after sleepless nights.

innerspring-coil-rv-mattress-park-meadow-sml

This is the mattress we bought from Mattress Insider

Sher began to check around for a different mattress. She found the MattressInsider.com site on the web. Long story short, this site is a gold mine for RV replacement and custom made mattresses.

We looked at the many styles of mattresses and felt that we really would prefer steel coil construction for the firm support. We found the 8″ Park Meadow Pocketed Coil RV Mattress II. We placed our order by phone and received the mattress seven days after it shipped with free shipping.

Wow. This mattress is more comfortable than the one we had in our house. Backaches have gone. We sleep at night. (Now there is a concept!) We just love this mattress and should have ordered it sooner.

Don’t even hesitate to do business with Mattress Insider. They were great to work with on the phone. Delivery was as promised. Set up was easy: simply remove the packaging and the mattress unrolls itself. (The package is about the size of a 30 gallon drum, weighs about 70 pounds.) Let it “expand” for 3 hours and you are good to go.

Guarantee? You bet. If before 100 nights you are not satisfied, simply donate the mattress to a charity, get a receipt for same, and send the receipt to the company for a full refund. No sending the mattress back to the company on your nickel!

Need a new mattress for your RV? Browse the Mattress Insider website and/or call them at 1-888-327-3047. You will not be disappointed working with these great folks.

 

The Route 127 yard sale

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Our set up at the 127 yard sale

Our set up at the 127 yard sale

The Route 127 yard sale starts in Michigan and ends up in Alabama! This four

The site was lovely with trees and good roads.

The site was lovely with trees and good roads.

day, 600 plus mile long event each August sees thousands of “yard sales” set up in the homes of ordinary folks, parking lots and just about anywhere you can find to set up a table or two or even a tarp on the ground. This event has become a huge tradition for thousands of bargain hunters and hopeful sellers as well.

We set up for the 127 at York Woods north of Greenville, Ohio. York Woods is the home of the Darke County Steam Tractor Association. The woods is really a nice camping area for the tractor events, and is perfect for the 127 yard sale. There were close to 100 vendors that set up in the woods, including several food concessions.

We set up here. It was the third event in as many weeks for us. This was a great sale for us. The cost was only $70 for seven nights of camping with water and electric and that included our vendor space rental.

Another cheap camping festival

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Hideout on a level grassy area, sales canopy on the gravel path.

Our Hideout trailer on a level grassy area in back, sales canopy on the gravel path. We paid for 30′ of frontage.

The Annie Oakley Festival was over, and our next event was going to be two weeks away in the same location. Would we travel during that time frame or would we stay and camp at the site? I spoke with a fellow vendor who had a food concession trailer set up at the Annie Oakley Festival. He was going to another festival the following weekend that was very close. I got the phone number from him, called and got a spot reserved.

So off we went to the State Line Heritage Days in Union City Indiana and Ohio. Yes, the town was split by the state line! The great thing was that it was only 11 miles from our current location. Talk about saving on travel costs, this was ideal. We left on Monday and drove to Union City.

We had to drop the trailer a fair distance behind our canopy due to the ground level. This was not a real problem and there was plenty of room to park the truck. This place also had water in addition to 20AMP electric service. And the cost? Would you believe that the total cost for a 30′ space and seven nights of camping was only $60.00?

This was not a huge festival attendance wise, but we still sold a lot of our necklaces. With the low cost of the vendor space factored in this was a very profitable festival for us. We really enjoyed this festival and it is now on our calendar for next year.

Made some money at the Annie Oakley Festival

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One EZ-UP tent, the hideout behind, we paid for one vendor spot.

One EZ-UP display tent, the Hideout behind: we paid for one vendor spot.

Our first festival after we went full time in our RV was the Annie Oakley Festival

Showing the electric and water hook-ups. We could have set up another canopy behind the front one.

Showing the electric and water hook-ups. We could have set up another canopy behind the front one.

in Greenville Ohio. Planning on making some money, we had reserved a vendor spot at this event long before we knew when our house would sell. As it turned out, we closed on the sale of the house on a Tuesday and traveled right to the festival grounds that night! The festival ran Friday through Sunday.

 

 

 

The festival was held at the York Woods, home to an antique steam engine and tractor facility about 12 miles north of Greenville. We fit into one 20′ wide vendor spot because the depth allowed the trailer to be backed in with our canopy as the picture shows.

"Buffalo Bill Cody" put on quite a show and had a nice collection of artifacts on display.

“Buffalo Bill Cody” put on quite a show and had a nice collection of artifacts on display.

We had a great time at this festival. The group running the show was terrific, and the folks who owned the property were also most accommodating.There were several live singing groups, bull whip demonstrations, and the Festival Queen was crowned due to her winning the shooting contest! There was even a fellow portraying Buffalo Bill at the festival.

Our sales were very good as our necklaces were well received. We only paid for booth rental and camping was a mere $10 a night. We will be going back next year, as this is one of our favorite festivals.

 

 

Paying for our full time RV travel

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A 10 day festival with our old Starcraft hybrid. See the two EZ-UP shelters with drop down sides.

A 10 day festival with our old Starcraft hybrid. See the two EZ-UP shelters with drop down sides.

We make money as we travel by setting up as vendors at festivals and selling various items. Our first cross country trek as full timers took us from central Indiana to Seattle. This trip’s money came from the proceeds of a four week circuit of festivals we ran in Ohio and Indiana in July and August. We had just closed on the sale of our house, so this was our first time to really travel in our new Hideout travel trailer.

Sher wrote a post here describing how we got started by setting up at a flea market a couple of years ago. This was back when we had a tiny Starcraft hybrid trailer, but we still had a ball. We do it, you can too!

Set up, 30', at a festival, Hideout behind, two shelters and an open space. This 4 day event had 20 AMP service. It cost $40 for 7 nights.

Set up, 30′, at a festival, Hideout behind, two shelters and an open space. This 4 day event had 20 AMP service. It cost $40 for 7 nights at the fairgrounds.

We soon discovered that we enjoyed festivals more than flea markets. Small town festivals are lots of fun and we began to see the same vendors at each event we went to.

 

HitchUpandGo: A resource for everything RV

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Need to quickly find a campground at a new destination? Looking for a good RV forum? Searching for a DIY video on wiring a second TV in your coach? HitchUpandGo dot com is an incredible all inclusive source for anything RV. I stumbled upon this website while searching for something, I don’t even remember what.

If you have an RV, are planning on buying an RV, or need to see if you even want to consider getting an RV, head over to HitchUpandGo. You will find Directories of RV  blogs, websites, videos, equipment, books and more. The Search Tool on the home page is a little gem. Prepare to spend some time exploring all this site has to offer.