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.

First Road Trip – Part One

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van interior I’m on my way back to Missouri to complete my inaugural road trip in my new van. I spent five days on the Appalachian Trail doing some short hikes. I’ve done most of the AT from Springer to PA but there a few small gaps that I skipped before that I want to hike now so I can complete the AT.

Van Customization

You can see what little I have done to make my van better suited for sleeping and living.  I took out the two captain chairs that were where the front of the cot is now.  The rear bench seat folds down to a bed but it is much too small of a bed for me to be able to comfortably sleep on it. That is why I bought the cot to sleep on.  The cot actually has three legs and the middle leg luckily fits in the gap between the two parts of the rear seat.  The cot is roughly the same height as the rear seat.  The height is close enough to allow me to sleep but it is hard on my back.  I’m going to remove the rear seat as well so I can sleep better and to create more room in the van.

The main other thing I need to do is improve the privacy of the back of the van.  As you can see the van has shades over the windows already but I still need to cover the back window and screen the back of the van from the front windows.  I’ve been using jury-rigged solution for both of those right now but need to come up with a more permanent solution.  Also, the shades on the side windows are fine for providing privacy but they still allow a lot of light in the van.  I’m planning to make panels that will fit in the rear window and side windows which should block all the light and provide even more privacy.  I want to make a privacy curtain or partition to install behind the front seats.  This will be a little complicated because the sliding door is on one side and I have to avoid where the hardware for the door slides and it will be difficult to attach anything to the plastic around the sliding door hardware.  I’m sure I can figure something out though.

Gas Mileage

I have tracked three tanks of gas in the van so far and I have gotten 17.2, 17.5, and 17.9 MPG.  The strange thing is the lowest MPG was the tank that was almost all interstate driving.  This makes me think the van gets worse gas mileage at 70 MPH than driving around town.  The van is rated at 15 MPG combined and 18 MPG highway which means I’m getting about the expected mileage.  I’m going to try to improve that though.  Removing the heavy rear seat should help a little.  Once I have a little extra money I’m going to buy a ScanGauge or similar fuel economy computer. There will be a future post on my efforts to improve gas mileage.

I have spent way too much on gas since buying the van. I’m going to have to get much smarter on planning my daily errands and reduce or eliminate unnecessary trips. Also, any future road trips will be at a much slower pace so the money spent on gas per day will be reduced.

Part two should be up tomorrow.

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.

Ten Ways to Plant a Frugal Garden

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In this neck of the woods (just a bit south of Denver, CO), Memorial Day weekend is the first time we can be reasonably certain it won’t frost again. I say this with tongue firmly in cheek, since I’m talking 6250 feet in elevation here. We’ve had snow on Aug. 1st!

This season, everything has stayed warm and reasonably moist since mid-May. The hummingbirds have also appeared from their annual migration — another good sign. (They leave not long after Labor Day.) I’ve been gradually planting, a little here and there. If you’re starting to put in your garden, as well — or at least thinking about it — here are ten frugal tips that should help you do it better.


*Use up your old seed. Even if it’s an older sell-by date, many of these seed packets are still quite viable. They may not have as high a percentage, though, for germination — so plant them thickly.


*Look for seeds at dollar stores and discount places. Even the ‘fahncy’ brands will cost less at these places…and generic seeds do just fine. In fact:


*Generic seeds are often more reliable than the new types. Why? Because the new ones have only gone through a year or so trial. Generics are usually the old standards, heirlooms that have gone into the ground for generations. They often do better in more difficult conditions, because they’ve had multiple generations to adapt to them.Examples: Blue Lake, Provider and Kentucky Wonder for green beans. Straight Eight and pickling cucumbers. Yellow Bantam for sweet corn. (I’m also hooked on Honey n’ Cream, a newbie that’s been around long enough to know its chops.)

These reliable garden stuffs also make it possible for you to:


*Save good seed for your next garden. Let your last crop of beans ripen until the pods are dry — shell them, and you’ve got next year’s seed. Spent marigold and zinnia blooms contain literally dozens of seeds — and all you have to do is pull them off and throw in an envelope.

 

*Get good equipment. This is one area where truly you save more by spending more. A good brand of shovel or hoe will last for decades. Look at Consumer Reports, or check Amazon for customer comments. Tools do go on sale during the spring — and again at the end of the season. Or look for an estate sale — if they’re an avid gardener, they’ve usually left behind good stuff.


*Keep your ground fertilized, the old-fashioned way. Sure, you can spend extra money and buy planting mix with specialty ingredients, like Miracle-Gro. But you can save a great deal by just adding what our ancestors did: manure. Try a local farmer or rancher…a fairgrounds…or even the local zoo. Just a garbage bag’s worth of horse or cow manure makes a difference. (Let it dry out first, so it won’t ‘burn’ plants — or till it in a few days before you plant.)

 

*Brew up some tea — for your garden. Manure tea, that is. Put a half-shovelful of manure in the bottom of a five-gallon bucket. (Mine used to be full of laundry detergent.) Fill with water, then let ‘mellow’ for a day or so. Water your plants with this — they’ll love it.


*Start a compost pile, posthaste. Your eggshells, banana peels and assorted leftovers can really add to your garden. (They help out with container gardening, too.) Youtube is full of how-tos for constructing your own compost bin, including this one, done with a garbage can:


*Put in a drip system. Drip hoses aren’t that expensive, and they keep the water where it should be — on your plants, instead of spraying into the wind. Even that’s too expensive? Try gallon jugs or tin cans — poke holes in them and place by plants that spread, like cucumbers, zucchini or tomatoes. Fill daily.


*Pick your veggies while they’re young. Not only will they be more tender, they’ll taste better. And the parent plant will have time to make more blossoms — and set fruit. I’ve even had success trimming beans, broccoli, spinach and other greens back — if you do it early enough in the season, they’ll have time to regrow and produce again.

 

It’s not hard to start a garden, but the benefits are terrific: better health, plants that help purify the air, and food that you know is fresh, crunchy and good for you.

 

Cindy Brick grew up in a Michigan gardening family; her grandmother sold fresh eggs and bouquets of Queen Anne’s Lace ‘weeds’ to tourists in Grand Rapids. Cindy writes and gardens in Castle Rock, Colorado, including her own flock of up-and-growing baby chickens. Find out more on her blog: A Brick’s Look At Life.

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.