Roadrunner Financials - August 2009

We had a busy month in August.  We spent a lot of time in Canada with visits to Tobermory (near Meghan's cottage) and to Talon Lake to see good friends Jeff and Tiffany.  From there we made our way over to Mackinaw Island which was quite a treat.  Then we headed farther west to South Dakota where we saw Sioux Falls and then the Black Hills.

Here is what our expenses looked for the month of August:

Overall for the month - 

$1600 over budget is quite a ways over budget.   It was not easy to save money when we drove a lot of miles (spending money on diesel fuel) and also hit some higher cost campsites.

Good news are areas where we are under budget- 

Still - we were $429 under budget on our fuel and we spent no money on our propane ($80).

Biggest expenses for the month - 

- $50 over on gas and bridge tolls.
- $455 over on RV maintenance.  We had the air bags checked out and took the Roadrunner in to the dealer in Rapid City.  They did some work on the satellite and TV and DVD connections.

Large 'One Time Cost Item(s)' - 

Gladly, no specific big ticket items this month.

Monthly average since we started tracking in June 2009 - 

At this rate, we are not doing too well on the budget.  After three months at this we are going to have to cut down on some things and maybe park the RV for a while.  It will help a lot when we volunteer later in the year.  We tend to spend a lot less money on diesel fuel, camping and those things.

We will see how we do next month.

Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles today.

Roadrunner Reflections: 3 months as Full Timers

After three months as full-timers I thought I give some thoughts on what has been like for us by posting a 'Top 10' List:

The Highlights:
1. RVing with Pam - She is the best! It is a real blessing to share new friends, experiences and places together. If I didn't know better I'd say we were on our honeymoon (30 years and counting).

2. Seeing friends and family - We have had a wonderful time in Tennessee, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Illinois, Michigan, Canada and South Dakota. We have been able to see relatives and old friends and meet a lot of new people.

3. Seeing America and places we would never have been able to see - (and parts of Canada). It gives us a whole new perspective on places we have never been. We have learned a lot of history and have seen some fantastic places in the Midwest (IL, MI, MN, WI and SD)

4. Sense of accomplishment - this is one of the larger, more risky projects we have researched, designed, planned and executed. We have still believe we are on the right track and feel good about our decision.

5. People - It is great meeting new people and seeing people we haven't seen for a long, long time. We could never afford to go to all these places and take time off to see friends and relatives. The lifestyle allows us to do that.

6. Volunteering - we feel as if this is our niche. The three weeks we spent working with other NOMADS opened our eyes. It gives us a very good sense of purpose.

7. Adventure - We needed something to give us some excitement. The idea that my life IS NOT winding down is refreshing at age 56.

8. Simple lifestyle - we are learning that we don't need a whole lot of things. Getting rid of a lot of stuff and living within our means is gratifying.

9. Becoming more frugal - There have been a few times in our life when we pinched pennies, but now we think about every purchase. We track all our expenses and have a monthly goal we know we can afford.

10. The coach - this RV is nice. It has a nicer interior (ceramic tile, corian counter tops, Select Comfort King Size bed, etc) than we are accustomed to. I love driving this RV. With the air bags, independent front wheel suspension -- it is fun to drive!

Another Great Weekend in Sioux Falls

We rolled into town from Rapid City on Thursday. It was a fairly long day (336 miles) but we got to the Sioux Falls Empire/W.H.Lyon Fairground mid afternoon. We missed all the rain and had three days of beautiful sunshine.The next morning I met Steve and others (Friday Guys) for a breakfast and Bible Study at Frying Pan restuarant. It was a good time seeing new friends from two weeks ago when we came through. The intern pastor, Don, did a nice job with the message.

When I returned to the Roadrunner, Pam finished taking a shower and we found a leak in our bathroom. The water was oozing onto the ceramic tile floor and the baseboard was wet. O man...one thing I learned in all our research is that water on floors and walls in an RV is bad news!

I called a couple of RV dealers in the area and they were booked and/or were trying to get their technicians out of the shop early for the long holiday. Then I called the Tiffin Factory and talked with one of the guys in the service department. He suggested the drain on the shower might need to be tightened. How do I do that?

I found another leak in the basement, cleared out all the stuff nearby and chipped away at the foam insulation so I could track down the leak. A little later I found an access point and reached up into the area between the floor and the shower.

Then I came inside and removed kitchen drawers and pulled out a long skinny drawer we use for a spice rack. To my surprise, there was an entire panel that popped out and it was right behind the shower. There was the leak! I hand tightened the cold shower connection and the problem solved! We put two fans on the wet areas and got it all dried out.
Later that morning our neighbor who has been full timing for four years, showed us how to get Direct TV working and also how to set up our digital antenna so we could get local (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox) channels. We have never used the antenna so that was a big deal.

On Friday night we went over to Steve and Therressa's for a great dinner of pork tenderloin and potato salad. Steve out did himself on that one. It was great. We toured the city after dinner and it was a beautiful drive in his convertible.We cruised the downtown area where there were lots of sidewalk cafes and then we went over to the Sioux Falls Park.

On Saturday, we ran some errands, watched some of the US Open and went for a ride on the bike trail along the river. After dinner, we went to church with Steve and Therressa and went out to LifeLight - the largest outdoor Christian concert in the country.It is held every year over Labor Day weekend near Sioux Falls on a big farm. It is like Woodstock (sort of..) where there were thousands of people heard music, messages and hang out. There were vendors and booths and a lot of people.

We got there in time to hear Will Graham (Billy's grandson) finish up and then waited to hear Remedy Drive on the main stage (there are five stages). It was an interesting phenomenon. I don't get it, (loud music, screaming and yelling, dancing/hopping around)--- but then I am not under 30 years old either.

On Sunday we returned for the outdoor worship service and it was great. There were a lot more people there then. The music was good and the preaching was very evangelistic and it was a great way to spend Sunday morning. They were hoping to get 300 thousand for the weekend.We left mid-afternoon, went back to the Roadrunner and packed up. Then we went out to dinner with Steve and Therressa and went by her office. She is an award winning Travel Agent and it was nice to see where she works (Travel Partners). Nice place and 10 minutes from their house.

Next we ran by Menards (like a Wal-Mart/Home Depot) and went over to their beautiful home for a while. We chatted some more and talked about their travels and their church (Holy Cross Lutheran Church). They are very involved and have been for years.
We called it a day and chalked up another great Labor Day Weekend. Today we point the Roadrunner to Omaha Nebraska where we will be for a couple of days.

That's all for this take of the Roadrunner Chronicles. Be safe and thanks for checking in.

Crazy Horse, Custer and New Friends

We are currently in Rapid City SD, but a few days ago went a short distance from Mt Rushmore to see the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is the site of the world's largest granite carving. It is HUGE. Mt Rushmore is big but all four of the president's faces could fit into the area the current size of the Crazy Horse head!The 20 minute film at the Visitor Center was very informative. It shows some early film of the sculptor, Korczak Wiolkowski, started the project (at the invitation of Chief Henry Standing Bear) in 1948. Then it was a one man operation. It still has a long ways to go but it was inspiring and worth the trip.

The Visitor Center has some great displays and is co-located with the Native American Cultural Center and the Indian Museum of North American. All are very well done! In fact, we like this better than the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.After that, we went over to Custer State Park. It has lots of live buffalo which we stopped for along the highway.
We made our way to State Game Lodge Campground and met Fred and Jo Wishnie. We have been following Jo's award winning blog for over a year now and it was a treat to meet up with them. They were very gracious and spent some time telling us about how it has been for them after four years on the road.They are avid bird watchers and a few golden finches were busy at Jo's birdfeed stand. We also were greeted by some lady big horn sheep who jumped the fence and wandered nearby.

It was another great day of seeing beautiful places, meeting new friends and enjoying life in the Roadrunner.

Evening Program at Mt Rushmore

We we were told the evening program at Mt Rushmore was good so we left our campground at about 6:30. We were there by 7:15 and the program started at 8:00 PM.

The visitors were thinned out compared to the crowd we saw there last week in the middle of the day. Still there were probably 300 people.

The Park Ranger began the program with a short presentatin on the importance of remembering the history of the United States and its key figures.

She also gave an explanation of why the four Presidents were chosen to have their 60 foot face sculptured on the granite mountain. After her very well done talk, we viewed a short movie with some information on the sculptor, actual footage of the construction, and a piece on each of the four presidents: George Washingon, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Rooselvelt and Abraham Lincoln.
I took some of the same shots as I did last time but this time it was during a another time of the day and the lighting was quite different.
After the video, the Park Ranger invited all veterans down on the stage. Four lowered the flag and folded it. The Ranger then proceeded to move along the three lines of veterans and asked each person to put their hand on the flage, state their name and branch of Service.

It was quite moving to hear 75 men and 1 woman (Pam) and to honor their service to our country.

Pam and I met and served together in the US Air Force. She served four years, then got out to have Adam and Kelly. I made it a career, retiring in 1995.After the flag ceremony and honoring the veterans, many stopped by and thanked the Ranger for conducting such a terrific program. I was among them.

As we left, I took one more picture. It was quite an evening.

Custer State Park & the Needles Cathedral

We took another drive up to Custer State Park last week while we were in the area. We once we got there we saw a lot of buffalo. Maybe a couple hundred. I hear there are thousands that roam this part of the country but we only saw a few herds.

Some of those herds were small and the buffalo take their sweet time crossing the road. It was a great chance to take a few closeups. These animals are quite majestic.

After seeing our fill of buffalo for a while, we went over to the Visitor Center. The neat thing about that was meeting Geneve who is a volunteer with the State Park.

She got us to thinking about what it would be like to be a volunteer. We may have to check that out for future workamping opportunities.

From there we took a drive through Needles Canyon and took a bunch of photos. What breathtaking views and neat rock formations!

Needles Canyon

Our drive through the scenic canyon was another view of some spectacular sights in South Dakota.

That's about it this time, but thanks for checking out the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Cold War, the Badlands and Wall Drug Store

On Wednesday we to the Minuteman National Historic Site. My dad was in the Air Force during the early days of the Cold War and I remember the bomb shelter in our basement in case there was a missile attack. The small Vistor Center was quite adequate.

We watched the 12 minute film and learned a little bit about the history. South Dakota no longer has any active Minuteman Missile sites due to the signing of the 1991 START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) with the Soviet Union.

The Soviets launched Sputnik in the late 1950's and the US began construction on the Missileman sites on 9/11 (interesting date) 1961. It only took the US two years to get the first network of missile sites operational.

From there we drove into the Badlands National Park. Wow - what a strange and beautiful place. Every turn through the scenic park produced an array of new vistas and overlooks.

We had a picnic lunch at the Visitor Center in the Badlands.

Then we continued our drive to a scenic overview along the way and met a couple from Tennesee. Jim and Marilyn are also RVing full time so we had a nice chat. Maybe we will be fortunate enough to see them in Texas later during the winter.

During a stop, we met Jim and ..... from Tennesse. That generated some good conversation. Very friendly people whom I hope we can see again in our travels as we both spend some time in Texas during some of the winter months.

Next (and last) stop for the day was Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD. It is right on I-90. I think we saw 221 bill board signs advertising Wall as we headed west on our drive from Sioux Falls last week. After our drive along the Spearfish Canyon scenic byway a few days ago, we saw another 47 more signs. We had to go see it.

Wall reminded me a little of Deadwood. It is a remade western town with one large tourist and sovenir shop. A very LARGE sovenir shop. That was no surprise and actually pretty well done. Not too cheezy.

The most interesting thing was the large amount of old (1880's) pictures and newpaper acticles on the back wall of Wall Store. If you go there you have to see it.

Good times in the Black Hills country. A fascinating state and providing plenty of material for the Roadrunner Chronicles. Until next time, thanks for checking us out. (If you haven't left a comment in a while -- please do so. We'd love to hear from you.)

Air Bags, Wills and Bikes

Today we had an appointment at Eddies Truck Center in Rapid City, got our wills updated at Ellsworth AFB, cooked steaks on the grill and went for a nice bike ride around the base.

Yesterday before we could move from our Three Flags campsite in Black Hawk to the FamCamp here at Ellsworth AFB-- we had trouble with the airbags filling. A couple of weeks ago we had a similar issue when we left our campsite at St Ignace. Once we raise the jacks the airbags are supposed to fill up again. After calls to Tiffin Service department, we went through the steps a few times and they finally filled up.

We decided to take the RR in to Freightliner shop in Rapid City and have the experts look at it. Result: it all worked fine. They could not duplicate the problem. They raised and lowered the HWH jacks a and could not find a leak or any other related issue.
We will keep an eye on them and track it until we take the Roadrunner into the factory for a scheduled appointment in December at Red Bay, AL.

While that was being looked at, we got our wills updated at the Ellsworth AFB Legal Office. The office is located in the Rushmore Center and a very nice facility. Among other things, Ellsworth flies B-1 bombers and there was a cool shot of one passing by Mt Rushmore. I had to take a picture of the picture.

It took us about an hour to go through some questions and have the Captain and his staff help us complete new wills and get them all signed.
Ellsworth AFB is a few miles outside of Rapid City SD. This is the first time we have stated at an Air Force RV campground (aka FamCamp) and we like it.

This evening we had a quiet time cooking steaks with baked potato and iced tea. Then we took a ride around the neighborhood on our bikes for about 30 minutes.Pam said of all the campgrounds we have been to thus far, this is here favorite (in the summer time anyway...). For $18 we have full hookups (50 amp service, sewer and water), concrete hardstand, nice shower house with laundromat and it is quiet.

Tomorrow we will head east for about 60 miles and visit the Badlands and Wall, SD. Until then, thanks for checking in on this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Deadwood City, Spearfish Canyon and Wyoming

Yesterday was a full day.

After listening to one of our favorite preachers/teachers (Mike Minter) we headed out to the old western city of Deadwood SD. The whole city is registered as a historical national city.

We got there about the time they were about to hand out trophies for the classic car show. There were hundreds of great looking cars.
The Adam's museum was nearby and we took a self guided tour. Deadwood City was definitely a mining town and at the center of the Black Hills gold rush back in the 1870's.Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane were here about the same time. Wild Bill was shot in the back by Jack McCall in Aug of 1876 while playing poker. His grave site was eventually moved to Mt Moriah Cemetery. We went up to the top of the hill above the city where the cemetery is located.After Deadwood, we took a very beautiful drive through the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway.
When we connected with I-90 again, we were only a few miles from the Wyoming border. We spent another 30 minutes and went across the border to see the historic site for the Vore Buffalo Jump. The site is preserved and an archeological dig for the Univ of Wyoming. It is a large sink hole that was used by the Prairie Indians over the years to hunt buffalo. The Indians would stampede the buffalo off the edge of the cliffs into the sink hole.
Back home, we tried to cook some fish outside, but it was too windy so we brought it inside the Roadrunner and Pam cooked up some fabulous Canadian Talon Lake bass. (Thanks Jeff!)
After dinner, we settled in for a baseball game and then hit the rack.

Hope to see you next time on the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Errands and Mt Rushmore

We had breakfast and checked out some of the local shopping: Kohls, Cabella's and the commissary at Ellsworth AFB.

While at Kohl's our friend Pete (and Roxanne) called. It was great to talk with them. Pete bought our Tacoma and wanted to get the maintenance records so we gave him the number of our mechanic (Tom at Fix-Your-Toy) in Manassas Park.

Next we checked out Cabella's. It reminded us of Gander Mtn and a smaller version of Bass Pro Shops which is one of our favorites. We didn't find anything we could not live without but did pick up a Christmas present. (Pam always starts about Aug so we are done well before the rush).

We went out to Ellsworth AFB and it is a very nice, well maintained place. We will be moving to the RV campground (FamCamp) on Monday. I read some not-so-favorable reviews which we found out were written by a sales guy for one of the campground memberships.

NOTE to self: read more than one review and don't believe all you read...

We finished our grocery shopping and headed out to Mt Rushmore. Wow! What a magnificant place. The Park Service has done a very nice job with it.
The same guy (Gutzon Borglum) that worked on the granite carving of Robert E. Lee at Stone Mtn GA did Mt Rushmore.We took a walking tour with a park ranger along the Presidential Trail. He gave a bit of history on how the presidents were chosen: Borglum was the decider.
The ranger also indicated that Jefferson was originally on the right side of Washington but a crack developed so they removed what they had started and carved him out of the granite mountain to Washington's left.
We will be here in the Rapid City for almost two weeks so we will be back to see more of Mt Rushmore.

That's it for this production of the Roadrunner Chronicles-thanks for checking in.