A little bit has transpired since last post and discussing finding a property.  

I asked for $25k versus the 35K they're asking for. Reason being 5 acres of it - full half of it - is non-accessible. The properties are separate, but near one another, yet private land is between them.  The weird thing tho, is that both of them are right up against public roadways. One of them is a  highway.  It doesn't make any sense that either of them aren't accessible from the road?  There must be more to this story than I am seeing, because I sent the link to Taylor and she thought the same thing.  Maybe they just don't have a driveway built into it?  

I also asked about zoning, seems that it's inside the city limits, something I am really trying to avoid.  This may be a small city out in the middle of nowhere but it has it's on planning/development department and the entire city has zoning in it.  However, this property is well outside the major portion of the city and in the woods, basically. Both properties are entirely wooded and it would take some work to clear out an entrance, driveway and spots for RV's.  Either road would be good for RV's, the 2 lane highway being the best.  

Am I sold on it? NO.  I haven't even gone to look at it yet, the realtor was like, well I'm going to write up the papers and offer it to the owner.  Not so fast, please, I need the zoning info and I really need to go take a look at it first.   She didn't try to use any pressure tactics such as "someone else is looking at it", the 5 acres unusable is highly likely a turnoff to most people.  Again, I need eyeballs on both properties.  Which one is accessible and would it make a good candidate? Which one isn't and why if it's literally up against a public roadway?  But yes, I offered 10k less.  

It's only been on the market a month.  I look at how long properties have been on the market. The outrageously priced ones are on there 100, 200, 300 plus days.  

This property has owner financing available.  20% down, payments I'm not sure  of yet.  Well I take that back, doing the math.  With 5k down, the payments would be $208.33 per month plus interest.  8% interest for the loan life, not sure how that would calculate to payments, but I'd guess no more than $250 per month. That's easily doable.  This gives me more confidence that this property isn't going to sell anytime soon, giving 8 years at such low monthly rate.  Well I'm wrong, it's $282.73 per month.  Should have known there is a calculator online. That's still quite doable.  That makes the property payment a non-issue at that kind of money.  

Property just isn't selling in my area.  That's why I'm also going to be looking at putting mobile homes on the other properties I purchased at the tax sale. If I were to go through with this, my tax sale purchasing would be done for now.  It will be enough to get all of this going without having to buy more and be saddled with more property taxes on land I am not using.  I could put one of them up for sale, I guess, and see if it sells, take that money and buy more tax sale land.  The one by the railroad I definitely want to do something with if possible.  It's right near everything.  Kroger's, CVS, Walgreens, an entire strip mall with all kinds of shops including a Super 8 are within walking distance.  Walmart is a quarter mile up the road.  The only drawback is it IS - right - next to the railroad tracks.  I don't know where the nearest crossing is so I don't know if horns will be an issue. There is a trellis going over Highway 59 so they aren't using horns there.  I personally wouldn't mind the sound of a train rolling by - but horns blaring are a different story.  

A little excited? Yes, a little.  I can't get overly hyped about it until I have more details and if/when the signing actually occurs and suddenly I am a land owner and have some property. 5 acres is big enough for an RV lot.  I could put a lot of lots on a 5 acre property and have room left over for an office, a picnic area, a playground for kids and whatever else my mind can think up of to attract people to come live there. Note that I am looking for people to move their RV's in there and live there, overnighters welcome by that isn't the main goal for the property is a bit off the Interstate and but not too bad from the main highway 59.  There are other RV parks in contention for the business, tho.  The thought also crossed my mind to buy old RV's cheap, fix them up and rent the RV with the lot.  Probably more of a rent to own thing - I don't want to be maintaining rv's forever.  Let the renter pay for the RV with minimal interest, get it paid for and then they are responsible for repairs.  

Throwing this in at random: I am still at the Brownsville yard, it's 7:00 pm. They are just now hooking up to one of the loaded trailers, meaning they won't be back until 9:00 pm. I am not leaving out of here tonight and I will be claiming another night's worth of detention pay. That's how they have structured it and that's fine by me.  There is absolutely no good reason to leave out of here at 9 at night. I would just stop at midnight and only make it a few hundred miles up the road. I'm good with driving straight through tomorrow - as is my custom to drive straight through anyway.  That will make this trip worth almost $1,500, so yea, thanks for the extra night.  Oh, now I'm seeing they've hooked up to both trailers.  The first person down here from Longview will not get any detention time.  Well take that back. If they get in here before they return with empty trailers, then he can legitimately say nope, no empty trailers "upon arrival". That's the deal, that's what I'm going by as well. We all know that if we come in here and no empties, we either leave - which many do and go up to the truck stop - or close the curtains and stay out of sight.  +

In fact, I expect to see another loaded trailer pulling in here at any time now.  They have trucks coming down here every single day, usually two of them, sometimes only one and sometimes 3.  I'm not going to answer the door if that dude comes pounding on it again.  I don't care if a trailer showed up at 9 pm and I already told the dispatcher that I won't be back until tomorrow afternoon. Note: My manager is not doing dispatch now, a dispatcher in Amarillo Texas is doing it. I only write all the details because I don't want it sounding like I am stealing from any of the companies involved here - which there are 3 of them.  They made the agreement, it's their deal, I get to stay another night, I'll leave early morning and I will bank the money and say thank you!  

Back to property.  My head starts going off in all kinds of directions once a possibility for something shows up.  I wish I were home, tho, I would have gone out and looked at both properties today.  And stopped at the city of Marshall asking about zoning - that is really the ultimate decider if I take it or not.  No RV parks! No thanks. Nothing else I need it for.  

I dunno, but everything today has sparked in me tells me that -whether on the right track or not, whether it succeeds or fails - I am doing something that actually intrigues me.  Trucking is not intriguing.  It has no great magic. The roads are filled with selfish, stupid people.  I'm tired of having to be on edge for 10 plus hours every day I drive because of idiots either intentionally doing stupid stuff or morons that have no more business driving than they do operating a space shuttle.  I was literally brake check a few days ago by a little, bitty car. I had pulled out into the passing lane to pass a very slow moving vehicle. That car was at least 400 feet behind me when I pulled out, I didn't cut them off. 

I immediately got the phone out and turned video recording on.  They brake checked me several times but it's whatever to me, I'm used to these people playing these games out here.  I just wanted proof in case they actually caused an accident.  

I'll be.  They actually brought in a trailer without having had taken the full ones over first.  I don't care, it's 7:30 pm, I'm not going anywhere. I'll set the alarm for 4:00 am, get out of here by 4:30 am, get back to the yard by 3:00 pm and be quite happy with that.  And yes, still get my detention pay for today.  It's based on when they get here with it.  After any time when a truck could have legitimately made it from Longview to here, yup, it's a done deal.  Well, I've made it here as early as 5:30 pm.  7:00 ish frequently.  Just depends on the load time. 

That's it, I think.  I'm loosely following the news - have cut back on it 90%ish - TV version hardly watching at all.  Just don't need that kind of stress. I know what Biden is doing, it doesn't take much to see he's creating chaos at the border, wanting to implement a mileage tax, totally backtracked on his declarations that he'd have the virus handled quickly and has said a lot of other - garbage - that frankly I don't need to dwell on. Particularly now that I'm out of that debate group - what a refreshing thing that has turned out to be. The admin - ugly person, toxic, needs Jesus, but the outcome?  Not consumed by irrelevance.  There are far more important things to focus on in this life than a president who doesn't seem to care about tens of thousands of people losing their jobs over a pipeline, strained relations with Canada because of it, China doing shows of force - they apparently think Biden is weak and I'm inclined to agree with that.   And lots more, actually, but who cares? Well actually, I do! I just know I can't do anything about it. 

Okay, I made a lot of internet style relationships in that group.  Good people, fun to chat with.  And my inbox is proof that I am both missed and people aren't exactly happy with her - the other admin's - decisions.  Shrugs shoulders.  She'd have to profusely apologize to me for the way she talked to me and then return me to admin status and even then? I would back way off.  My absence has already created a huge hold that she is trying to fill.  Good luck! to a person that has almost no involvement, whatsoever, in the group for a couple of years now.  

Well enough for now, the trailer is here so I am getting up early morning to get this trip over with. 

Nite. 

 Didn't finish last post, but decided to post it anyway and just start a fresh one. It's now Tuesday.  I left the plant yesterday morning, drove down here without incident - Brownsville Texas that is - and now am waiting for an empty to show up.  There is a driver ahead of me also waiting, but they usually show up with 2 empties on any given day they're bringing them here, I"ll just end up having to leave later than whoever it is that is in the other truck waiting.

Some of the other drivers are not friendly and do not talk to anyone.  It's the nature of trucking, it fits perfectly with people who are loners, don't like to be around other people and are = not necessarily pleasant folks to be around. Some truckers virtually live in their trucks, meaning they don't have a place called home beyond it. No house, no apartment, nothing.  That is an unfathomable idea to me, I couldn't deal with that.  I only say that because the other driver isn't getting out of his truck, didn't wave at me when doing the same and was highly annoyed when a driver from the company whose yard we are in gave a light honk on the horn asking him to move so the driver could access a trailer he was parked in front of. 

That shouldn't happen, but I'm not a tattle tale so I'll just let that person live in their misery alone.  I need no part of it.  

Meanwhile, I have 2 brownsville trips with about $1,400 in detention pay the company owes me, plus they didn't give any of us that worked on Christmas our Holiday pay. You work on a national holiday, you get an extra $140.  It used to be $170, but I guess the company that took over decided that was too much.  So they owe me over $1,500 in back pay and I had to ask my manager again to look into it.  He had, indeed, sent an email to whoever in payroll, the person in payroll - did nothing about it.  If I don't get the pay this week, I will simply bring it up to my manager again.  Note that my trip shits have huge lettered words I inscribe on them: "DETENTION PAY" with arrows points at the dates and times.

I also write it at the bottom of the sheet - with the words they want us to use: "No empty trailers available when I arrived".  Our manager basically told the company in Alta MIra that if there isn't an empty when we arrive, it's automatic 14 hours of detention pay, since we arrive at night and we shouldn't be expected to have to look out the door/windshield all night long seeing if any empty has arrived.  

I did a quick sweep of available properties, nothing has changed, no new properties added to any lists and now it's easy to find where the new ones are added instead of having to go through the entire lists.  It may very well be that I can only find a decent property on one that has been left to rot with unpaid property taxes.  I mean, there are some good properties that I have watched fall out of my hands as people with a lot more money than me bid it up and up. The most desireable ones  are also the ones that they are also interested in.  Actually, one dude bids on all the properties worth bidding on.  I watched him last time, I figured he wouldn't bid on those Deerwood Estate properties - too much risk - and I was right. And other properties I had researched - he also didn't bid on. Such as ones condemned by the city or have existing - falling apart structures.  

The one by the railroad tracks he didn't bid on, which was a curiosity to me.  Perfect place for a small house or a mobile home - I'm hoping to put a mobile on it but the 6 months hasn't elapsed and I'm not going to waste my time for now until the 6 months passes.  The hunting property is a different deal.  It's something I can use now, even if to just take the dogs for unfettered running around without having to have leashes on them. They get to enjoy nature and I get to dream of having my own property someday that has no - other owners - involved with it.  I was informed that you can only hunt deer during Texas prescribed hunting season and you have to have a permit, even on your own property.  

I thought that strange - in Arizona they sort of have the same laws but forest officials won't do anything about you hunting them on  your own property as long as you live/spend a lot of time up there.  It may be true here as well, but it isn't worth taking chances on.  I found an animal trail going into the property, it's heavily wooded and there is a stream going through it.  Perfect for deer. I need to find what I did with my motion activated camera and set it up out there and see what's roaming it during the day and night.  

Deer season ended earlier this month and no more until November.  Pigs I think you can kill whenever, they are considered a nuisance. They destroy farmland and are generally giant rat type creatures that serve very little useful purpose to wildlife.  I saw no indication of pigs on the property, but again, a camera would reveal what's going through there.  

Oh, and for the fun of it I did look up dozer rental. It's the piece of equipment they use to clear land.  I've watched contractors doing it for years - I used to deliver to construction sites all the time - they take down trees and clear brush with them.  Stack it up in a big pile and burn it.  Not big trees tho, lol, small ones. The big ones you don't fool with or if you want to take it down you need to get a chainsaw and cut it.  Anyway it's $700 per day for one of them things, that's a bit pricey.  Not alot of options tho and hiring someone to do it is much more expensive.  

The property by the railroad would need cleared as well. I'd say half a day or less to clear that one out and built a driveway into it. Well not build one, just make one with the dozer.  No, I don't know how to operate a dozer but it can't be any harder than a scraper, I've operated all kinds of heavy

I've operated all kinds of heavy equipment, just not a dozer, but it looks to be one of the easier pieces of equipment to run.  

Okay, well, allegedly people coming to rip up the floors and replace them today.  But allegedly only, looking at the security camera, there is no crew there. In fact, there is no one home at all.  The delivery of the flooring materials must have been delayed.  The entire house is getting new flooring including my room. They decided to go ahead and do that as well, tho it wasn't part of the damage done by the central AC unit.  That thing needs replaced badly - but that isn't my house. The thing is, it could easily get backed up again and start leaking again and destroy the new flooring - again.  It's old, it's full of crud and that crud comes out with the condensation and clogs up the pipe that drains it out.  

And the kitchen sink drain is clogging up again.  Old house = problems.  I paid for the plumber to come out last time, last year.  It'll be their turn this time.  But, it was a pleasant surprise when they announced they would be having my room done as well.  I will have to clear everything out of there which means a forced project: going through old papers and throwing out as much as I can.  I tend to keep receipts, contracts and the like around for a while.  

So Ill start plugging away at that until it's ready.  Otherwise I'd have to dump it all into boxes, I'd rather deal with it and trim down the amount of papers that I have instead of attempting to move it around.  

Okay, my best guess:not going to be out of here until late afternoon or even night time.  It's almost noon and they haven't hooked up to the full trailers, so I am going to be prepared to - not get home today.  And that's fine. Get paid for 3 days work but drive only 2 days.  

Oh and the group where the bossy admin threw me out of admin position? Lol, members not happy.  They are already missing me.  Which is interesting, but now that I've been out for a bit I don't know that I want to go back in there.  I didn't realize how much time it was consuming. It's a facebook group and there is no good reason to be spending that kind of time dealing with people on the internet.  Not to mention the cusswords she was leveling at me - of which I did not respond in kind.  But, she'll spite the group to "get at me" and that's her choice.  It was all about control - of everyone.  She's power hungry and I really want no part of it.  Now that I know what kind of person she is - I knew that before but she hadn't done any of it to me - I would throw her right back out of the group just as she has done to me if I were in an admin position there now. It is not her group, the founder left and she was the only admin at the time.  She literally had nothing to do with the group for over 2 years and baam, comes back out of nowhere, take-over mode.  

Okay enough of that.  I am actively keeping my mind off of that group - albeit old habits have been hard to break, such as clicking on the link to go in there. I let myself out of the group so all I go to is a join group tab.  I was looking at my old 401k - it's going up and up.  I am at the - reluctant point - of wanting to cash it out.  But  will the stock market crash?  And if it does, will it come back up? And if so, how long will it take?  Lots of questions.  Even more so, if I did cash it out, get a business going - would I be able to replace that money in a relatively short period of time?  

No answers.  So I'll probably just wait until the next tax lien auction and see what's available.  The list will come out sometime next month and I can start doing the research and see if there's anything that will work.  

Ohhh myy. I just found 2 properties being sold for one price, owner financing.  Right outside of town, definitely would have water and electric, maybe even sewer.  That would work depending on down payment money.  I put in a request to the realtor for more information - specifically: zoning. I can't tell whether that's in town or outside.  This would really work out well considering the location.  

 Addler was a happy doggy today.  He got to sniff around all 12 acres of that land.  I posted 2 videos on my Facebook, he's on a lot of it.  So while he was doing his thing, I was walking around with my gun in my pocket, wondering if I was going to run into anyone, whether I would have problems and whether things would go - south.  

About halfway through I became convinced that this property hadn't been used in years - despite a large amount of trash laying all over the place.  The trash was old, rusted out and had been there for a long, long time.  There was a road through it - overgrown with trees and shrubs. I walked clear to the other side of the property - I knew there was ranchland there but wanted to see for myself.  On my way back - almost back to the railroad tracks, I found the remnants of a house. It has been built out of railroad ties.  

The roof was completely caved in, there hadn't been anyone living thee in probably decades.  It was amazing to see a phone company pedestal replete with the wires hanging out.  I have no idea what the other people that own this property's interest in it is.  Some relic they inherited?  I can see where a road/driveway could be plowed into the land without going on anyone else's property. Just across the railroad tracks.  A bulldozer could clear the land nicely. get rid of the shrub, made a road into the property and have it looking nice.

But, I only own a portion of it and without consent from the others, I don't see any reason to make improvements. I'll be researching this for a while - but the only thing I really see is a hunting property. No improvements needed and I found an animal trail that is obviously well used going into the property.  I motion activated camera will tell what is going in there - I have one somewhere, just need to dig it out and get it up and going.  

Oh, there is apparently electricity running onto the property, judging from the remnants of the house.  There are electrical outlets in the walls Again, it's nothing I would really get delved into.  Maybe, tho, an RV trailer pulled onto the land with electric hookup.  Water - comes from a creek that feeds into a large pond in the next property over.  If there is septic, it would be useless now.  I would imagine anyway.  

That was mine and Addler's excitement for the day.  After that it was over to Chili's.  It is 50 degrees out and Addler was happily laying down in the back of the SUV so I didn't take him home first.  I mean, if it was hot summer I would have dumped off at home and then came back up.  

I am enjoying a day off, tho I am helping with getting stuff moved. The floors are being replaced. When I say the floors, I mean the wood beneath them as well as the flooring.  That may happen on Tuesday - the flooring is on backorder but supposed to be in tomorrow- Monday.  

I'm off to Brownsville - late load tomorrow. Noon.  Crazy.  I'll be out til' midnight getting down there.  If that means 3 loads going out Monday, then I'll be guaranteed detention time.  

___________

Well the day wasn't over.  We were all invited over to Maria's for dinner. So we went lol. The boys were over there anyway, they took them there last night so we could work on painting the living room.  And getting the house ready for the flooring people to come in and do the floors. Kids would have gotten in the way.  So 2 hours of that and finally home.

And during the interval, the dispatcher sent me a text changing my load time from noon to 9:00 am.  Well I dunno if that means no detention pay, but regardless, I'm happier with a bit earlier loading time than noon. 

I dunno, but Maria has no plans on moving to Oregon after asking her today.  Well, she was but that fell through and she is happy to help with an RV park.  So that gets me a bit back on track, sans the fact I can't find a suitable property anywhere nearby that fits the bill.  

No, I haven't looked in days. I have scoured the land for anything that would work.  I've searched both on the internet and looking around while driving everywhere.  It needs to be in a relatively easily accessible area preferably next to a major highway. Plenty of those around, just not anyone selling any land along those roads.