[whatsnewell]

Tonight at the Tiki Bar dock...tasting 16 craft beers from all over the USA. Serendipity strikes when you least expect it. Brian Devine and Maria Scarpello travel around the USA visiting micro breweries and tasting beer. They have a website you can visit: The Roaming Pint

A great evening watching another fabulous sunset......Cedar Key may not be heaven, but it's darn close.

[whatsnewell]

I was surfing YouTube last night and found tons of videos by a producer who goes by clarkehock. Pretty entertaining stuff. I highly recommend it if you have not viewed the traveling vignettes of our friends Clarke and Elaine. Good stuff.

Todd....haha....I had forgotten about those videos I posted on our way to a Newell Mini Rally in Austin, TX in April of 2009......good times....glad you liked them.

[prairieschooner]

I always got a kick when Clarke would try to sing!

[encantotom]

clarke can sing?

tom

[Flick]

I for one am not sure. A couple of times I heard Elaine laughing and i was not sure if it was a nervous/imbarrassed laugh or perhaps maybe a swooning female fan laugh. Jury is still out but I am sure Clarke will solve the riddle for us all in Spearfish.

[whatsnewell]

I think I would describe the laugh you heard from Elaine as "bemused".....bemused that I am singing while the video recorder is running, and that at some point people will hear it in the future. I like to sing along with the songs.....it gives me pleasure, but no one would ever accuse me of being talented.......I guess one could say I make a joyful noise......

[whatsnewell]

Forest and Cindy are in the house! They arrived this afternoon while we were out on a pontoon boat tour of the local islands. We went out to dinner at a local restaurant called Blue Desert Cafe......they have a wonderful chef, and the food is amazing. So glad to spend time talking with good friends.....friends we have because of what J.K. Newell started in 1967 when I was still in high school.

[whatsnewell]

Today is Wednesday, January 30th.......exactly one year ago today Elaine and I rolled the Newell wheels out of Rancho Jurupa Regional Park and began our fulltime adventure. This morning we are on the opposite side of the country in Cedar Key, Florida, where we have been since December 29th. In just a few days, February 4th, we will again roll the wheels and continue south toward Key West. In some respects it seems longer than one year, because we have seen and done so much, but then I realize how much there is to see yet, it feels like a drop in a bucket. Either way, the first year has been an amazing journey which has exceeded our expectations (which were high to begin with) by a mile. Enjoying our time here in Cedar Key with Forest and Cindy, who will roll their wheels again this Saturday.

[tuga]

Clarke,

After one full year of fulltiming, how close to your budget have the financial expenses been?

Is everything working out as you and Elaine planned?

I think that most of us who dream about fulltiming are concerned about the costs, I know I am.

If you could, elaborate on any "unexpected" expenses.

[whatsnewell]

The only unexpected expenses we have had were on the T-Bird.....we've only driven it 3,000 miles in the past year, but it has been in the shop once in Elizabethtown, KY to have the alternator replaced ($600), and just recently here in Chiefland, FL to have 2 coils replaced ($400). On the Newell I budgeted $1500, but have spent around $800.....$350 (approximately) to replace the water pump and coolant back in Tyler, TX last February, and then the service at Choo Choo Express Garage for $428. We have actually found we can live for much less on the road than at home. Our major recurring expense is diesel, but we can control how much we spend each month by how many miles we move each month. We have utilized a lot of "courtesy parking" (free) at the homes of friends and relatives, and our 11 week stay at Amazon.com was free.....they pay for the camping spot. We haven't filled up our diesel tank since October 3rd, and only put in about $200 a month ago on our way down to Cedar Key.....we don't expect to have to fuel up again until after the Keys....so sometime in mid to late February. All that being said, we have probably averaged about $600 in diesel per month, but that will go down this year by about 1/2. We only fill up with propane every 3, or 4 months, and it is usually under $150. We have to eat whether, or not we are in a sticks and bricks home, or on the road. The main difference is we do eat out a little more than we used to, and we have eaten out a lot here in Cedar Key....there are just so many great places here serving food at a very reasonable price. The nice thing about working at Amazon is that now our diesel fuel is outside our normal budget for the next two years.

Basically, everyone who goes on the road has to decide what kind of lifestyle they want to live, and figure out how that will fit into their budget....we live very comfortably on between $3500 and $4000 per month.

ADDED: We have no debt, other than the mortgage on our home in Ontario, CA, but it is being leased out, and the lease payment covers the mortgage payment (interest, principle, insurance, taxes). Our other expenses (DirecTV, XM-Radio, Cell phone, auto insurance, life insurance, health insurance) we would have whether we lived in our sticks and bricks, or on the road, so I have not included those expenses. What we don't have anymore is a gas, water, sewer, trash, or electric bill anymore.....where we lived that amounted to $400-500/month.