More firsts.....

Nothing changes more than our schedule! Our cross-country road trip was going to be in October, then December, then November, then possibly Jan, back to Oct and now....probably sometime in November. But, that is subject to change! That is part of the fun of this whole adventure. The reasons are a mixture of jobs, money and time but we are making it all work! Here is what we do know for sure - Christmas in IN, January in Denver and Salt Lake City (trade show season for the outdoor industry) and 99% sure February in Natchez, MS. Everything else changes daily.

So with January in Colorado approaching only months away we have been talking about researching how to live in the the RV in COLD weather. Just talking about thinking about it.

We are now up in Afton, NY about 4 hours north west of NYC. It is beautiful! The leaves are changing and the sun is shining. Oh and it dropped to 37 degrees the first night we were here. Uh...we may want to start doing that research about now!

The first night (no space heater) we just got under all 4 blankets and we were fine...until we had to get up in the morning. Whew! Chilly. I got on the computer to some of my favorite full-timer Blogs and found that using a ceramic space heater was a good idea in the RV for a quick heat fix. Andy went to the local hardware store Horton's (the only friendly people in all of Afton, NY - I am not kidding! More on that latter) and purchased a Pelonis space heater. It heats the RV up quick! We also had some of the silver bubble wrap sheets for the windows - we just put them up - not attached or anything yet.

We have now done a lot of research and have a lot of work to do! We will get a good trial run when we come back up to the lake house the last week of Oct/first week of Nov for more remodeling on the lakehouse. Andy wants to work some different skirting options and insulation. I have noticed the biggest heat suckers are the front chassis, the exit window (by our bed!) and the bathroom. I am sure he will make this place tight and energy efficient. As long as he doesn't take away my space heater I will be happy :)

Up until this week we have been staying at the marina or in front of Leah's house so we have had access to a shower. That all changed two nights ago when we arrived in Afton. A plumber is coming next week to install a shower but until then we have one shower to use on the premise - our own in the RV. We read the manual and it was pretty easy - hit the button that says HTR which is next to the one that says PUMP. Whola - hot shower!

Of course there is where we see how green we really are. How much water is really used when we take an average shower? The average 5 minute shower uses 10 Gallons of water. Well....we only have a 40 Gallon Tank (Marc, is that right) so that is only four 5 minute showers! Plus we need that water to flush the toilet. So....we need to stay well below average. After spending a few weeks up here this summer with only a sun shower we did get pretty quick and efficient.

Andy took the first shower last night - a well deserved one after tearing apart the font deck and pouring concrete for the new one. Whew! I earned mine after a nice beautiful run this morning. The water was so hot it almost burned my scalp - I screamed and added cold to the mix. My shower was probably only 2-3 minutes.

Exciting stuff - showers in the RV and gearing up to live in the Rockies as an RVer. I am stoked!!!