2.5 Years Of Silence. So, What’s Changed? Do I Still Own An RV?

My gosh, how time flies!

It has been well over 2 years since I posted anything to this blog. The last thing I posted was after I installed the new cooling unit from JC Refrigeration into my old Norcold 1200.

(BTW, yes, the cooling unit it still working great. Cools much faster. No worries about overheating. More on that, perhaps, a little later on a future post.)

As for the RV…

Yes, I still own the old girl. 🙂 She’s doing well.

In fact, she has a new home…

Covered storage right in my backyard!

In very late 2021, we purchased a new home. It was a home that required a fair amount of renovation to reach our standards, but one of the major selling points of this home to me was the covered storage on the property for the RV.

It is a nice, metal building. Full cover. At first, it was not long enough to fully cover our 36-foot Vacationer, but the fact that I was able to park the RV there without fighting an HOA was definitely favorable. The previous owner had built this metal building for his boat, but I had designs for it to park the RV.

As part of the renovation of the property before we moved in, I had the building extended so that it was able to cover the entire length of the RV. I had to remove a tree in the process, but that’s no problem. I also had to modify a storage area on the other end of the building. 36 feet is a lot longer than it looks at first!

I had to modify the storage room on one end and extend the building just to fit it.

Being able to keep tools right next to the RV is handy. It isn’t big, but it works.

In the end, however, I was able to get the rig in there and close the gate behind it. Just barely! Which means…

I can now store the RV right at my house. Yay!

I no longer have to pay the roughly $300/month I was paying before to store it off-site and under a roof. Of course, inflation has driven that price even higher and the same spot I used to use would now cost me $375/month!

It makes a real difference. Not only the difference of not spending an additional $4,500/year, but also the convenience (and peace of mind) of having the rig right next to my house.

Being able to store the RV under cover right in my back yard is something I always wanted. And in our area, finding such a thing in a real neighborhood is rather hard because so many have deed restrictions about it and HOAs breathing down your neck.

In addition to extending the building, I also had to give it “full hookups”. ???? 

50 amp power as well as a dump station on site.

So, I had 50 amp power installed so I could keep the rig plugged in on-site.

A few months later, I had a dump station hole installed and tied into the home’s main drain field. I have to run a couple sewer hoses daisy-chained to traverse the distance and dump, but the point is… I can. ???? 

So now I am able to have full hookups on site. If I’m unable to do a proper dump and tank flush of the black tank before coming home, I can now dump and flush right at home.

No complaints.

We’re still using the rig, but I will say not quite as much as we used to because my wife decided to go back to work full time. But, we use it enough. And it works. We actually just got back from Tennessee and North Carolina about 3 weeks ago. ???? 

As for this blog…

I started it as a hobby. The idea was simply to have an outlet for my RV interest. And to perhaps add some value to the RV owner community. I’ve never proclaimed to be an expert on RVs and I am not. Just a DIY owner. But, I have quite a background in content curation and know how to create articles of value.

But, I have not been consistent.

This blog is not a business. And surely isn’t responsible for any income to me. So, frankly, it has always been a back burner hobby.

But, as I was sitting in my campsite up in Boone, NC recently and happened to look in on the site, I saw it was averaging about 100 visits per day. And I have an email list of about 2,000 people. It just sits here and does it’s thing even without me writing anything new or spending any time on it whatsoever.

As I sat there in Boone, I thought, “I really should do something with this site”. After all, if it purrs along like that without me even trying… then imagine what could happen if I actually put effort into it. ???? 

And so…

To continue or not to continue? 🙂

Of course, I will. And in fact, I’m making a big change to it.

I have decided to convert this to primarily an email newsletter. I’m doing this on a platform known as Beehiiv.

My goal is to create a newsletter geared toward everyday, normal RV owners. Not something put out by some big corporation and stocked with ads for brand new expensive RVs you’re not likely to buy. Owning an RV isn’t just about buying things… it is also about what you DO with it. Plus, anybody who owns one knows you have to fix things, do maintenance, perhaps do some upgrades.

So, that’s the plan.

Are you in? Have any suggestions for me?