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Last Minute Road Trip Changes

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I was looking forward to going to the blogger meetup in St. Louis today to begin my latest road trip. My plans changed after receiving an email Thursday afternoon offering me a chance to be a movie extra for a couple weeks. The only catch was that I had to be in Atlanta by 11am the next day. It is a 12 hour drive to Atlanta from where I live. I decided it was doable, tied up a few loose ends, and hit the road.

I did manage to make it there on time. If everything goes right I should be working four days next week and another four days the week after that. The movie I’m going to be working in is “Devil’s Knot” and stars Reese Witherspoon. It is based on a true story and looks like it should be a good movie.

I was extremely tired by the time I was done with the 11am meeting. Since temperatures were over 100 degrees sleeping in the back of my van wasn’t much of an option. My brother lives just 2 1/2 hours away, but as tired as I was I didn’t think it was smart to drive even that far. I broke down and got a motel room for the night. I will be staying at my brother’s this weekend at least. I’m not sure where I’ll stay while doing the movie. If I have to add lodging expenses to my gas expense working on the movie won’t be a very profitable venture. It should be a fun experience at least.

Van Customization Progress

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van interior I haven’t had an update on my van customization for a while.  That is mainly because I haven’t done much to it due to a lack of funds.  From the picture you should be able to see that in addition to removing the back two captains chairs I have also removed the back bench seat.  Since I wasn’t using that seat it was just taking up room and adding weight.  Removing it  has opened up a lot more room in the van.  The Safari is a minivan so I need all the room I can get.

The other customization that I have finished is making panels for the windows.  I made some of the panels out of Reflectix insulation, which is basically bubble wrap covered in aluminum foil. Since I didn’t want the shiny surface showing I taped black plastic over the insulation. Then I just tucked the panels into the windows. It fits in snugly and is tucked into the crevices around the window.  From the outside it just looks like a darkly tinted window.  In certain lighting conditions you can see the wrinkles in the plastic since I didn’t do a great job of taping the plastic over the insulation. I have a picture below which makes my taping job look even worse than it is.  The insulation does fit the window tightly even though it looks loose.

I also used white foam board covered in black plastic for one of the windows.  It works well for blocking the sun, but it probably doesn’t insulate as well as the Reflectix.  After I had made all of the panels I found out that they make black foam board.  If I were to do it all over again I would probably make the panels from the black foam board so I could skip having to cover them in black plastic and I wouldn’t have to worry about any wrinkles in the plastic. It would be a much easier process although it would be more expensive.

van reflectix

I’m using a black tablecloth from the dollar store as a divider between the cab of the van and the back.  It works ok but it won’t hold up for too long.  I will eventually get some black fabric or possibly a tarp to hang up behind the seats, but that will have to wait until I have more money.  I also need to get something to hang over the window of the sliding door.  Since the window in the door opens I can’t put a panel in it.

I’d like to build a bed for the van.  It would be more comfortable than the cot and since it would be affixed to the van it wouldn’t slide around like the cot sometimes does.  The materials required to build the bed wouldn’t cost that much.  The bigger expense would be buying a mattress for the bed.  I’m planing to tackle this project sometime next month if I have the funds.

The only other thing I might do is buy a cooler for the van.  Since it would allow me to buy fresh foods it might save me some money compared to eating out all the time.  I’d also have to buy ice though so I’m not sure how much money it would actually save me.  Whether it saves me money or not I will eventually get a cooler just so I’ll have more food options.

Farther into the future I’d like to buy a Fan-Tastic Fan for the van. It is getting way too hot and I think a fan would make a lot of difference. I’d also like to add another battery to run 12v devices. Both of those things require more expertise and money than I currently have so they will have to wait a while.

 

First Road Trip – Part Two

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Appalachian Trail viewThe main purpose of this road trip was to do a little hiking and that is what I did. The first couple of days I was able to hike out on the Appalachian Trail and then return on a connecting trail. The days after that I had to hike out and back on the same trail. That wasn’t bad though since you get a bit of a different perspective when you hike in both directions. I do like the out and back hiking and may use this method to eventually complete the Appalachian Trail.

The highlight of my hikes was seeing a bear. I saw a black blob about ten yards off the trail and at first I thought it was a dog but after watching it a few seconds I realized it was a small bear. The bear was licking itself and completely oblivious to my presence. I suppose if I could lick myself I’d be oblivious too. After deciding that it wouldn’t be too smart to startle the bear when I was in such close proximity I backed up a bit on the trail. Then I loudly clapped my hands which sent the bear running off into the woods. I have to start carrying my camera so I can get a picture if anything like that happens again.

I mostly parked at trail heads which were off of lightly traveled roads. This was nice for sleeping since it was dark and quiet. It was also convenient when I needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. All I had to do was get out of the van, find a tree, and go. I wish I could park somewhere like that every night.

Parking in somewhat remote locations almost backfired on me though. I managed to forget my keys in the van when I left for one of my hikes. When I was returning to the van from the hike it started to rain and since it was a shorter hike and it didn’t look like rain I hadn’t brought my rain gear. I was thinking the rain was no big deal since I’d be back to my van in a few minutes. Then I had an Oh,Shit! moment and realized I didn’t remember to bring my keys. I searched for them anyway but they were not to be found. I was hoping that maybe I forgot to lock the van but all the doors were locked and the windows were all the way up. The prospect of getting a ride back to town on this road on a Sunday morning seemed dim. Luckily, after less than a minute a truck came down the road. I waved it down and the gentleman was kind enough to stop. He was on his way back home after an early morning church service. He didn’t know who could unlock my van but offered to take me to the sheriff’s office in town as they might be able to unlock the van. When I got to the sheriff’s office they told me they couldn’t unlock the van but they would call someone. I had to wait a little over a half hour since it was Sunday morning and the company that offered the unlocking service was closed but I was happy they would come at all. They guy didn’t have any trouble unlocking my van and only charged me $35 for the unlocking service. When I initially realized I had locked my keys in my van I thought my day was going to be ruined but thanks to the kind people of Bland, Va it turned out to just be a minor inconvenience and I was able to get a good day of hiking in.

Another interesting thing that happened during the hike was running into a chicken. I was driving down a dirt road to get to a trail head and noticed a chicken on the side of the road. I don’t know why the chicken crossed the road but he decided at the last second to cross right in front of my van. Although I was going pretty slow there was no way I could avoid the chicken. I heard a thump and then a Bok! Boooook! as the chicken hit the van. When I looked in the rear-view mirror I could see feathers in the air. I pulled over a little way down the road to see what happened to the chicken. A woman drove up and told me not to worry about the chicken. It was alive and ok, although it would probably be laying scrambled eggs for a while. I guess that is part of the danger of being a free-range chicken.

It will probably be a little while before I go on my next road trip because I need to save up some money. I was happy with how this trip went and it did prove to me that I can live in my van on the road. I’m hoping to start my next road trip by August. I may relocate before then though because it is starting to get hot. At any rate I will have my road trip started by the time of the Financial Blogger’s Conference in September.

Wealth Watchers : Book Review

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I was recently given a copy of Wealth Watchers: A Simple Program to Help You Spend Less and Save More for review. This is a fairly slender volume and about half the book is journal pages to log your expenses so I am actually posting this review on a fairly timely basis.

As you might have guessed from the title the premise of Wealth Watchers is applying the concepts of Weight Watchers to personal finance. Since personal finance and weight control are often compared the premise does seem reasonable. Instead of having daily points of how much you can eat you have a daily amount of how much you can spend. This is figured by subtracting your fixed monthly expenses from your monthly income and then dividing by the number of days. I kind of like this idea since I already keep track of my expenses but my income is too unpredictable to easily implement the daily spending amount. I could see this working for most people though.

The idea of this book is pretty simple. That isn’t a knock against the book since personal finance is pretty simple when you get down to the basics. The drawback is that you are not getting a lot of information for your money. The author does share her personal story in the first part of the book and that might be interesting enough for some to justify spending the money but for others you can get the basic idea of the book from reading a few review and probably won’t see any real need to actually buy the book.

Organize Now! : Book Review

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A couple of months ago I was given a copy of Organize Now!: A Week-by-Week Guide to Simplify Your Space and Your Life and a copy of Organize Now! Your Money, Business & Career: A Week-by-Week Guide to Reach Your Goals for review. Since I’m just now getting around to doing the review you can probably tell that I haven’t actually implemented advice in the books. That isn’t the book’s fault though.

I never did get to look through the business book because my wife took that one for herself and used it. I know she really liked the book and you can take the fact that she is actually using it as an endorsement. I could use a time management book but I’ve never implemented the ones I’ve read so this one probably wouldn’t have been any different.

The other book is more focused on organizing clutter than time management although it does touch upon that as well. As the book description says this updated and expanded edition of the bestselling Organize Now! features even more quick, effective organizing ideas. Easy-to-follow checklists show you how to organize any part of your life in less than one week. You spend more time organizing and less time reading—a perfect fit for your busy lifestyle. Long-term goals help keep the clutter away for the months and years to follow, so you can maintain the order you create. It looked like it would actually deliver what it promises but since I don’t really have a problem with clutter I haven’t used the book. If either or these books are of interest to you there are more reviews and further description of the books at Amazon.