Martin's Venture West - Start of an adVenture

MartinsVentureWest - Start of an adVenture

There is an old joke about a preacher calling for confessions in a revival.  After several admissions of guilt, the punchline has the preacher saying, “Damn, brother! I don’t think I’da told that!.  My hope is to not ramble too deep into my thoughts or to embarrass myself.  When Mary Jane and I embarked on this adventure, several people expressed an interest in keeping up with us.  The purpose of this blog is to record images, thoughts and experiences from our trip. 

In 2016 Mary Jane and I, along with friends Bill and Susan Baum, borrowed my sister, Mary Ann’s, 36’ International Class C RV and drove from Minnesota to Yellowstone, to the Tetons, to Denver over a ten-day period.  We have been toying with the idea of buying a RV or live aboard boat since then.  In December, we bought a 32’, bumper hitch travel trailer. 

Our Mar-Mac road warrior sales staff has been incredibly stable.  Roy Guild and Tom Porcelli have a combined 50+ years with Mar-Mac.  We have not had the same luck with keeping a salesperson in Texas.  Jarret has been president since January 2018 and running most of the Mar-Mac operations.  Mary Jane and I are still figuring out what to do when we grow up.  Making sales calls in Texas and surrounding states seemed to be a good opportunity to change our routine, see more of the country, and still have a job and a reason to get out of bed in the morning.  And we are off.

I met Jeff Rochler in Jamaica in October. He was reading a book titled Nomadland by Jessica Bruder.  It introduced me to the culture/community/lifestyle of people that live in campers, RVs, travel trailers, converted buses, box trucks, cars, and other mobile structures either on or off the grid.

As an old friend, Leon Banks (a public defender lawyer at the time) told me, “John, you have no clue how the other half lives”.  Although we have spent a limited amount of time at this effort, I am convinced that the RV community is probably only one of many groups that live largely under the radar of what most of us regard “mainstream society”. 

December 24, 2018, Monday, Christmas Eve – Started packing the trailer and preparing the house to be gone.  Did this for three days and left Beaufort on Thursday December 27. 

It looks much worse than it is!

Drove to Helen, GA, and met Nora and John and their kids Emma and Cate.  It rained solid for twelve hours and then on and off for another 12.   We all stayed in the trailer the first night and John slept in his tent the second night.

Saturday, December 29, 2018 – John and Nora headed for home and we headed for Atlanta to see Martin, Kristin, Will and Brecker.  We stored the trailer at Kristin’s parent’s home.  It was no small trick getting it into an Atlanta neighborhood and into the driveway without tearing it up.  Thank you Rick and Brenda!

Monday, December 31, 2018, New Year’s Eve – Left Atlanta and drove to Newton, Mississippi, Turkey Creek State Park.  Stopped in Birmingham for coffee with an old friend, Mac Sauls.   Picture of Mac in his "rat rod".  '53 Chevy Truck on the outside, Corvette underneath.  

Tuesday, January 1, 2019, New Year’s Day – Left Turkey Creek and headed for Longview, Texas.  We did not realize that most campground personnel do not respond to emails or phone calls during holidays.  We ran out of daylight and had no campground confirmation.  We ducked into a roadside park (Hitching Post RV Park) in Hallsville, TX.  While it was no state park and no resort, the people were nice and helpful, the bathrooms were warm, and the showers were not.  None of these is a given in any particular situation.  Although we were forty miles or so short of where we wanted to be, we opted to stay where we were for the two nights we planned to stay (just drove a little further to see friends and work).  Mar-Mac has customers in this area and we have friends in Kilgore.  I guess it is fair to assume that all our friends are old friends rather than saying we were here to see our old friends Bobby and Jacki Beane.  I made sales calls in the area. 

Thursday, January 3, 2019 – Headed for the Dallas area and drove to Lake Ray Roberts, Isle du Bois State Park.  We started too late, drove farther than we should have, and dallied along the way (replenishing groceries and buying stuff we should have brought from home).  We had to check ourselves in, find a site, and set up in the dark and cold.  That part was no fun.  Nevertheless, it is a very pretty, very spacious wild life preserve that was a pleasure to stay in.  We stayed for five nights, which seemed to be a luxury.  We are learning that we will drive some extra miles with no trailer in order to stay set up longer in one place. On Friday, we picked up the salesman car from the warehouse and worked in that office for the afternoon.  We had a fun lunch in the office with Oren, Tony and Jordan.

Fort Worth Stock Yards - For the tourists (us), but great fun! Longhorns, history, and the best steak I ever had at Cattlemen's.  Professional Bull Riders competition Saturday night and honoring the flag that would make you cry.

   

                    

Wednesday, January 9, 2019 – We had not realized that Isle du Bois had no sewer hookups.  After five days, our black and grey water tanks were filling up.  You have to break back down just like you are leaving in order to move to the sewer dump to empty your tanks.  We would have stayed there, but figured we could get a little closer both to the warehouse in Denison, and to Oklahoma City by moving north to Lake Texoma to the Thousand Trails Campground.  We had a short trip, and plenty of time to select a site and set up. 

Reflection:  If you consider your everyday life living at home or as you normally do, as being at a speed of 100%, you will find that life in a travel trailer can only move at 75% (at best).  Otherwise, it will get very stressful.  We may find this to be less true if this becomes the new normal. 

Reflection: I thought there would be all the time in the word when we got on the road and in campgrounds without all the distractions and projects of home.  I was wrong.  I am not sure it is any different.  You must still be focused and purpose to no let time slip away with distractions.  Our natural inclination is to seek comfort.  Comfort is the enemy of purposefulness.  I find that it requires a higher level of energy, time,  and effort to do this. 

Reflection: Generally, people are pretty nice and want to be helpful.  Sometimes it takes a little extra effort to break through on the crusty ones.