Tweaking our dolly

Tweaking our dolly should be a big aid on my back when moving it around on a camp ground when unhooked. Below you can see the extra wheel to hold up the tong to make it easier to move around without the auto on it.  Over time I am sure I will move it up and back as I use it more.

 Under the cloth and wood are my spares to the dolly and tow car.  I have yet to decide on what location they will be when all hocked up.

More on preping for full timeing

Organizing the RV and refining our cooking for the RV is our current mission.

Here I can buy a 10 pound piece of choice meat and cut it up into small roasts, brown and freeze so all we need to do is pop it in the oven or DO and ready to eat:)  So when we stay a few weeks to a month or so we can pre-cook for our next movement when all we need to do is re-heat.  We will also do one pot meals with our pressure cooker.  We also both like soup, salads and sandwiches so all should go well.

 Below we decided we do not need cookie cutters when a tin can will do with the top and bottom removed.

What do we take and leave.  We have tons of tools for the house kitchen we can only take a few and put the rest in storage.

 Limited space under our dinette seats for heaver or little used kitchen tools which do we take and which go to storage.  Also had to cut out a piece under one seat to get the air fryer in.

 We would like to have one spare propane tank on board as a backup.  We added an extend a stay connection to the RV a year ago.  By using a standard BBQ bottle it will be easier to do an exchange then find a propane station in some areas.

Prepping for full time RVing

Prepping for full time RVing.

Several things have have been happening starting in March.

Kathy and I have both tendered our resignations for retirement to start early summer 2018.  We want to travel by RV our first few years of retirement.  Altitude is not my friend I have been on O2 for years and on a CPAP.  When I am below about 4500 feet my breathing improves and at or near sea level it is great compared to 6000 feet and above.  So much of our travel will be below 4500 feet.  During these travels we will be looking at where we will end up retiring to a home or condo.

Our current  RV insurance expires the start of May so we are going back to Good Sam to find a replacement that is set up for full time (365 days a year)  RV'ers. Our current policy only covers us for part time use. Most RV'ers are occasional users so their coverage is only geared to cover them for 60 to 90 days a year. So we will switch by the end of April to the full time option, looks like cost will be around 3 times the part time coverage.

Since Kathy and I are both veterans our primary providers are VA so for the 2.5 years before Medicare the VA will be our primary coverage backed up by our HSA that we funded over the past 10 years.  Once on Medicare the VA will become our secondary coverage.  The VA also provides us our eye classes and we have taken out one of the 2 VA approved group Dental Plans that we do pay a monthly fee.

We have a joint appointment with the social security administration to sign up for retirement starting this summer.  Kathy  has already signed up for her state retirement should start by June.  I can not sign up till the end of April to have mine start by June,  Both states advise if they have not started our retirements by our planned date they will pay us back to our planned date once they complete set-up.  We plan on leaving Kathy's TSA alone for now, may take it in a few years to give ourselves a raise.  I had a small IRA and that has been added to our emergency/future home fund.  Finally I note that Kathy and I have also been receiving early retirement from two previous employers.

We did not buy a home here at my final college, because we did not want to be tire down till it sells so we rented these last 5 years,  We plan to be out by end of summer with some items in storage at our daughters and the rest sold off or donated.

Finally for this post I have dropped off the RV at our mechanics to do a detailed going over and for new tires.  Our tires are 5 to 6 years old so we want to start out with new tires as well.  If they replace any parts do to looking weak I asked them to hold them for us, we will hold most for emergency spares.

Even our overhead bunk is being converted for storage as you can see below.  Chairs and a walker with seat if needed on a long walking tour can also carry my spare O2 tanks.

 

Health Insurance for Veterans as we do it

Health Insurance for veterans as we do it, remember Kathy and I are both veterans.

Medical

As we go into retirement in our early sixties before medicare, and with no employer health insurance for retirees.  The VA will be our primary provider (per VA) once our employer insurance stops.

The VA Medical Centers are easy to locate on line but I also marked them on a new paper atlas as well.  So if we need any scheduled work we can work with VA Travel and go to local location for any scheduled treatment.

If we have a illness we have an H.S.A. to cover any Doc in a Box (urgent cares) costs if not near a VA Center.  If it is an emergency we will go to the nearest E.R. as the V.A. suggests, if not a V.A. we need to notify the V.A as soon as possible.  Check the V.A. web site for specific time frames for this.

We do have a hospital indemnity policy we pay for to cover the cost of an RV park while one of us is in a hospital should it happen.

Eye Glasses

Since we have glasses we can be seen by the V.A. every 2 years for an eye check up and new glasses.  If our vision changes we can be seen before the two years.

Dental

For Dental we use a V.A. approved plan that we pay for and use any public Dentists that is on the VA approved list which is huge.

This is how we are doing it and this is my opinion your situation may very.

Final note when we left the service in the 80's we rarely used the V.A. because we often felt customer service was very poor.  Over the past 20 years they have rebuilt their customer service and  are on par with any hospital chain.  Have there been issues for the V.A.?  Yes!  However, we have only had good service overall and are happy with it.

Veterans Dental approved through the VA

We signed up for one.  The VA re-approved Delta Dental and Met Life Dental as dental plans that all veterans can sign up for.  The plan and cost options are similar to what my state college currently charges us.  Since there is a year waiting period for full benefits to take effect we joined now since we will be retired this summer.

The benefits for year one are good enough for us since we are having all known needed dental work done now while also under the states plan.  We think the VA approved plan will be a good fill in for retirement.  Our son has had it for a few years and has had now problems.  This will let us continue to have free teeth cleanings every year as well.

Here is the link to the VA Fact Sheet https://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/VADIP/vadip_ext_fact_sheet_2017.pdf

Hope this is helpful to all.

Totes and Storage while on the road

Prepping for storage we are buying clear 40 and 70 qrt totes and arranging in our garage so we can see how much room they will take up.

Once we have them all filled we can easily see if we can cut back even more and if not once in storage it will be much easier to find items when we stop in to drop off and pick out/up new items. These totes we hope will also help us keep critters and dust out.

Happy March

Happy March 2018

Was watching a YouTube and saw a big No-No.  A husband and wife were on a hike and the wife was not going as fast as the husband wanted to so he went a head and waited back at the car.  A big rule in hiking is to go the speed of the slowest hiker as well as keep everyone in site.

From the Utah Division of Wildlife

Playing in cougar country

If you recreate in cougar country, here are a few guidelines to make your experience safer:

• Hike with other people and make noise. Cougars usually will not bother groups of people.
• Keep a clean camp and store food and garbage in your vehicle or hang it between two trees where cougars (and bears) cannot reach it.
• When hiking with small children, keep the children in the group or in sight ahead of the group. Remember, cougars ambush from behind, so keeping a child in front of the main group will lessen the possibility of attack.
• Keep away from dead animals, especially deer or elk. This could be a kill that a cougar is guarding or will be returning to. A cougar will defend its food.

• If hiking with pets, keep them close to the group. Roaming pets will be open to cougar attacks or could irritate a cougar that is trying to avoid the group.

 U.S. National Forest Hiking Rules  Only a part

• Stay on marked trails.
• Don’t hike alone. Let the slowest person in your party set the pace. This is especially important when children are a part of your group.
• Leave your itinerary with a friend or family member and check in with them upon your return.

It only takes one slip, fall or taking the wrong trail fork to change a simple walk into a real emergency so please make sure you always stay together while hiking.

Here is a link on attacks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_cougar_attacks_in_North_America

Here is on on rattle snake attacks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_snake_bites_in_the_United_States

Here is a list of bear attacks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America