Umm, a lightning strike and a bolt of lightning - about got me flying out of bed this morning.  The power flickered and then - the lights dimmed, the appliances quit working including my window ac unit and that was my introduction to today : )

I got the generator going, I wanted coffee and that was the only way I was going to get it, run an extension cord to my Keurig machine and be done with it. After that, I got the refrigerator plugged in, the power was still out and the refrigerator was being opened and closed. 

My intent today? To go to the property, take the dogs with me and go for a hike.  See if the surveyors were going to show up, yes but hiking as well. Well that didn't happen, the rain went on almost the entire day and now I'm done.  

My going away run for my weekend off?  A trip - again - to Oklahoma.  Dispatcher apologized - and the run doesn't load until 2:30.  Meaning other people got a better run and she didn't want me to see that.  Yeah, sorry, I know what's going on. 

_________________________________

Tuesday, late morning.  I never went back over there yesterday, seemed like it would be a waste of time even tho it's not that far away.

I did go over earlier this morning.  What I saw was a bit disconcerting.  A tractor-trailer rig, the entire thing this time replete with 53' long van trailer parked in the driveway - that clearly does not belong to them.  Further, the driver went up on the grass, tearing it up and leaving nothing but muddy ruts in it's wake.  That type of thing will end if I ever get my name on that land title. They have plenty of room on the other side of their house to build a driveway for that truck.  I do mean ample room, the truck could turn around in the rear.  They'd have to build a driveway of course, but that isn't my problem. I"m not going to do anything about that truck until this deal is over and done with. 

What I have also subsequently found out is that the ATT line in the ground does not supply internet, but it does supply cable tv.  Weird.  Fortunately, I saw the communications lines on the telephone poles - there are 2 power lines and 1 thick communication line and there is a local internet provider that basically has the market on internet.  That doesn't bother me, we already have it here in the house, I just wanted to be sure I had the accessibility.  If you have ever checked out satellite internet, you know it doesn't get good reviews.

I think Mr Tesla is allegedly building a network of satellites that will eventually cover the world and offer internet access anywhere.  That's when you say okay, I can offer wifi, but if it's so important to these people, why not just buy it themselves?  As it stands I can hook my computer up to the mobile hotspot anywhere.  

Whatever the case, these surveyors may yet still show up today, who knows, there is no rain, the weather is muggy but tolerable.  Which in their line of work, shouldn't really matter how hot it is out there, to make any money they have to undoubtedly brave all kinds of weather.

Walking out into the kitchen this morning - after being extremely rudely awakened by noisy kids, it was rather warm.  Did you turn the AC off? Nope, it hasn't worked since the brownout yesterday.  The power company came and fixed that yesterday afternoon, something with one of the transformers.  I had checked the circuit breakers tho, it was all good.  

So, I figured it was the capacitor. Those are very far more often the culprits over anything else.  So Taylor found a place locally that sells them. But, I had a wild hair, went outside, checked the unit, then checked the AC circuit breaker. It was flipped off.  Ouch. Back on again, the AC compressor came on and it hasn't gone off since?

Hopefully that was all it was, situation due to the power outage and now fixed ...... there isn't a lot of money around this house to be fixing AC systems if you have to call out a pro to fix it...my room, however, is nice and cool regardless for the window unit keeps it nice in here.  

Okay, well, late load today, definitely not getting home "tonight", it would be around 6 am tomorrow morning to make it a one day trip, no thanks.

The problem? They have permanently shut down and closed off access to the parking lot I used to use, noticed that 2 days ago.  That was disconcerting, for there is nothing else around to park at.  2 truck stops down the main highway are always filled up at night, not even worth trying.  Truckstops in Tulsa, I'll have to try for I have no desire to have to drive til 3 am to find a guaranteed truck parking space, that would be at the casino near the state line. I would literally have to drive until around 3 am tonight to get there. 

Anyways, this property deal is still dragging along, it is what it is.

G'day. 

Long day.  These Oklahoma runs are always very long days on any of them where I am trying to do the whole thing in one day versus spilling over into 2 days worth.  But, it was a 7:30 load and I was determined to get this done today, get it over with and have all day tomorrow for personal stuff.

The highest thing on that personal stuff list would be to go over to the property and see if the surveyors show up.  This is the week of the 19th and they are showing up sometime this coming week.  There was no guarantee of which day, but rest assured I'll be going there  - a lot - until I see some stakes and ribbons on those stakes depicting property lines.  

Potentially this whole scenario is changing with these surveyors coming and getting the job done.  That will usher in the end of this deal where I can close on the property and start doing other things.  

I have finally determined that meters are not necessary but perhaps at a few sites.  Most people want their stay all inclusive, one fee and no separated electric bill. The only caveat is if people are living there on a monthly basis  That would facilitate the need for the renter to pay lot rent and a separate electricity bill.  I was glad to be able to make that determination, meters add hundreds of dollars extra per site. 

But the list of things I came up with for ongoing expenditures was not a small one.

Employees, power bill, water bill, septic upkeep, insurance, cable, wifi, repairs/maintenance, accounting, credit card fees, etc etc etc.  No overhead tho, that's a good thing. I don't own the RV's or pay for their repairs, it's just a place to park it.  

I'm thinking around 60 pads. Full hookups at each one.  Nightly rates will start at $30 and go as high as $65.  C store won't really be necessary with the city close enough by that people can drive a short distance to a grocery store.  But I will offer firewood and ice at least.  

And I have definitely determined that the park will have to have a bath house.  Whether I can afford such a thing or not is irrelevant, too many people demand it and it's a deal breaker - you either have one or lose business.  I'm thinking a 4 room bath house with hot water, AC and heating will cost minimum 25k, probably more.  Which is why I didn't want to build one, but it's become glaringly obvious that without it, I have lost the game before the game ever started.  

That revelation pretty much changed the scope of the beginning of this project and amount of debt I'll have to incur to get this thing rolling.  

I literally have no idea how I am going to overcome that obstacle, I just know that I will somehow find a way,.  A  home equity loan would be great.  An SBA loan would have to just do it all at once - 200k will cover the initial start up costs including that bath house.  

Well it's getting late. Not going to lose sleep over bath houses and money issues.  Just pray, ask the Lord, do whatever I can and hope for the best outcome.

G'nite.   

I was sitting there racking my brains attempting to figure out how to simply put 2 pads in one very long space.  Instead of say, one 65 or 70 foot long pull through, simply go say 110 feet and have two of them.  But I couldn't think how you could get 2 pull throughs on the same site. What if the one in the rear wants to leave before the one in the front?

See, I saw someone post something about this but I couldn't think how you could possibly  make that work.  Well, what just hit me is that you don't have 2 pull throughs.  You have one pull through that goes all the way up and then you have a back in site set up behind it.  

The problem with that scenario, at least in my mind?  What if the pull through leaves and the back in wants to stay for several days or even longer?  Some of these people stay in parks for weeks at a time before moving on.  I guess that pull through site could be temporarily turned into 2 back in sites once the pull through leaves.  Instead of pulling through, the space where the pull through left, the new occupant backs into it.  

I'm not really sure that's such a great idea, but maybe it helps utilize the land more efficiently.  

I dunno about that setup.  Not there yet, but definitely thinking about such things.  It would be impossible to have 2 pull throughs in the same lane unless you knew for sure the front one is leaving before the one behind it. That's just a bad idea in my mind.  If the rear pull through decided to leave earlier than they said, then what? Well aren't exactly stuck, but they are going to have to try to back that rig usually with a trailer out of there. Many of these people are not skilled enough to do any of that, hence the reason they want pull throughs. Or, they have the skill but they don't want to have to unhitch their trailer, hence the other reason to want a pull through spot.  

____________

2 days later, lol.  Down to Brownsville, plenty of empty trailers - they are trying once again to do away with detention pay - and back up today.  Met James, Taylor and the boys at a restaurant in Longview, had some din din, came home and about to go to bed.  I was going to just sleep in the truck, but I was encouraged to come home lol.  See the doggies.

However, I"m off to Oklahoma and I'm going to try and make it a one day trip tomorrow. It's going to be Sunday, usually in and out of the loading plant quicker than normal and the roads and traffic are always much lighter.  

It's "usually" the best day to drive anywhere, not just Oklahoma. But I"m going on mini vacation coming up Friday so they can't send me too far off right now.  

As for the property?  I drove by there again today - in the hopes that maybe they could have gotten an early start - no sign of that.  I suppose that is a hope in vain, but I had to try. It was only a couple miles out of the way going home.  

I'd get into other things, but it's bedtime and try to get some good sleep for along day tomorrow.  

 So I am assigned a run for today - not loading until 2:30 pm :(

That means I won't be out of the plant until 4:30 at the earliest,  which gets me up to the plant at around 11/11:30 tonight.  Yeah, this won't be a one day trip this time.  It'd be 6 or 7 am before I got back, no thanks.  Just seems like a day is wasted sitting around waiting to load and get it over with.

No news about property on my front. But a lot of insight about how to build a park from people that already own them and giving me some correction on what I was proposing to do with it.  A lot of things I hadn't thought of - I haven't lived or stayed in an RV in quite a long time, some of it had escaped me.

I'm definitely going to want some expert input into the layout/design of the thing, even if it costs a bit more than I'd like to pay out. 

I do qualify for a 45k personal loan, that may be all I need on top of the 401k to get this enterprise going.  I'm also going to again try and look into home equity line of credit off of my house in Arizona.  Why not? The best thing would be to sell the place and dump all of that into my business venture, but alas, I can't just throw my friends out into the streets.  They've helped me too much and I just couldn't do that with a clear conscience.  

Other than that there is the SBA loan to look into. After that? I don't know of anything.  The lack of money won't deter me, I will find a way to make this work even if it's only a few lots to start out with with few amenities besides the serenity and the beauty of nature.  

Well, enough of this. Get a large glass of ice water and get out of here.

Have a pleasant day. 

 Blood pressure way high today, by my standards anyway.  The last time I checked it about 2 months ago, it was much lower than what it was today. It was so high I freaked out to be honest. Even after hydrating and aspiring....I'm going to start monitoring it, if it remains that high I'm heading to a doc and get the medicine if necessary to bring it down.  

The doc? thought nothing of it. Oh, it's nothing out of the ordinary, you're good to go for another 2 years! Gag. He was listening to my heart for a while.  I mean, what's with that? How does my heart souud? Good, he said.  Man, I want the truth dammit. If there's something wrong please tell me, don't just get me through this medical without the truth.  But he insisted it sounded healthy and lungs good.  I'm pretty sure my lungs are good, I can still go hiking. I get winded easier than I used to, but that's easily explained away with being way out of shape compared to what I used to be and climbing hills does me in far faster than it used to.  

I intend on more hiking more frequently. Would have today, in fact, if it weren't the trip to get the med card dealt with and then rain. Rain, it's always raininig around here.  

Oh, well I don't know how accurate those blood pressure machines are at the pharmacies, but I'm going to start using them frequently to see.  Admittedly, I get nervous in doctors offices and my blood pressure and pulse always goes up.  

Oh, can I say also that I hate getting my blood pressure taken? It makes me feel funny when the thing starts releasing the pressure on the arm.  Like, really weird feeling.  I'm not a fan of it.  

And the speeding ticket - in my personal vehicle not in the truck? Well, that's a done deal.  Go to the court house in a few days, plead not-guilty - which I can do with a clear conscience actually - and the rest will be taken care of.  Maybe a slight fee I am told.  I was facing thousands of dollars for a lawyer. 

I've slowed way down on the Interstate, that's what I can say about that.  I won't have to report this to my employer at all and I will be watching my speed all the time now, I don't need to repeat that.  

Anyway, I have a fresh 2 year lease on driving a truck after getting the med card today.  I can only  hope that in 2 years, I will have a business fully functioning and the only reason I would want to stay in the trucking industry is for the health insurance.  

So, I was sitting in the exam room, waiting for the doctor to come in. Yes, they use assistants for all the data, but a real doctor actually has to examine you. I wanted that, actually, what do you think doc?  

My manager calls.  Hey benjamin, what are you doing?  In a very relaxed, nonchalant voice. Lol, I know that approach well.  Not just from him, but from anyone in a company that wants you to do something out of the ordinary,.  I'm just chilling in the exam room waiting for the doc.  Oh, well is there any chance you can go to Oklahoma today? It loads in an hour. 

I'm thinking, c'mon dude.  An hour? I'm not even out of here yet  I want the day off, that's what that is.  But I'm not going to get pissy with him.  I kind of thought it - shitty - that they want me to go on an Oklahoma run after almost 2 days off, but it's whatever.  Uhh, yea, I don't have anything with me, I replied. My clothes, my toiletries and my food, none of that, I just came over here to get this done. Do you have someone else that can do this?  

He was pushing it and then said, well, you can load it today and take it tonight or tomorrow morning, doesn't matter. He wasn't letting it go so I just agreed to go load the trailer and - yes I would have left tomorrow morning.  He calls me back 5 minutes later, forget it, I didn't know the dispatcher had already found someone.  So, let off the hook, the dispatcher contacts me a little later sending me a run for tomorrow: Oklahoma. 2:30 pm load time : (

Leave the plant at 4:30 or later?  I'll get up to the receiving plant, drop and hook and drive the 25 miles to the nearest place to park.  It will be a 2 day run.  It'll be Wednesday late afternoon before I get back, meaning I"ll need something else to round out the week's pay period.  

I contacted the gas company today.  The surveyors will be going out there and they aren't going to be able to access the property unless we have the gate code. Or I cut the lock.  Yes, if they weren't going to supply it, I would gladly cut the lock and cut the next lock and so on and so forth.  But, this time after asking?  The man sent me the gate code.  He obviously wasn't interested in dealing with me, he just replied with the 4 numbers an nothing else.  I sent him a thank you note anyway.  

But now I can also get my 4 wheeler over there and to the back of the property.  No, it's not running, I tried yesterday, the battery is dead. I'm going to try and recharge it but it likely is going to need a new battery in it.  They don't last long, 2 years at max.  

11 days til mini vacation. Totally looking forward to it.  I should have asked for 4 days off.  3 days is nice but it's always nice to have an extra day off after you get back home.  

Some people in the RV business gave me some sage advice today.  Just business people who are looking out for a business person's best interests. I mean, I'm open to any advice. Whether I take it or not depends on whether it's sound advice.  Anything anyone says I can cross examine against what others might have to say about the same subject.  But this dude really broke it down into segments that made a lot of sense. 

I think I can't get by without a bath house. The reasoning went well beyond anything I was thinking. People use their showers in their RV's as store rooms and don't want to have to move everything out to take a shower.  Some people want to take a long shower - I can relate to that - the water heaterss in RV's are usually 5 gallon things.  People want room to do their bathing or they want to bath with their partners, something they can't do in a tiny shower stall.  

After he said that stuff, I started remembering living in an RV. Short showers sucked.  You want a nice 20-30 minute shower?  You ain't getting one in one of those things, the hot water will run out long before you get to that amount of time.  And yes, they are small. I never thought about them being used as storage spaces, but a lot of people said the same thing over and over. The finality was - if you want people to come, you are going to alienate a bunch of them without a bath house.

But how can I afford such a thing?  I can't see less than a 4 unit bath house being worth the money to build.  It's something I'm going to need and an expense I'm going to have to figure out, somehow. 

This isn't going to make me rethink whether I want to get into this business, it's going to drive me to figure out how to pay for all of this.  I just can't see any other way around getting a large loan.  I don't know how to build a bath house?  

Complications were expected.  This isn't the biggest hindrance on earth but we're talking 20 grand at least to build something decent.  It doesn't have to be huge but it needs to be nice.  People don't want to go into shower in a trashy bathroom. It also would necessitate either me getting full time in the business - which I would love to do if the income is there - or have part time help to go in and clean the thing on a daily, maybe several times daily basis.  

I am not deterred. Maybe a bit hindered, but I'm moving on with this land deal. It's become glaringly obvious my 401k isn't going to cover the costs. I"ll need 3 time that amount at least now that I have determined this bath house is a mandatory necessity.  So, I'll just have to try to get the SBA loan and get it all done at once.  Unless something comes along to give me another avenue to get to the same destination.  

I dunno, but I'll take one step at a time.  The land is the first step. After that? Who knows.  But I remain optimistic.  

If there's nothing to report, there's nothing to write about.

Okay, there's plenty I just haven't felt like delving into other subjects.  Mostly this blog is reserved for the daily events in my life.  

It's Sunday, I'm home and will not be going back out on the road until after I get my medical card renewed.  That will happen, likely tomorrow morning.  Plenty of things I can do over in that town, including taking my AR to the store and getting a scope mounted on it and hopefully finding some ammo and maybe firing off some rounds.  

However, I'd rather do the target practice on the - 2 acres turned into a fraction of an acre.  No one goes on that property, the nearest house is - half a mile? and there is already a place set up where I can shoot off rounds without possibility of a stray bullet hitting someone, somewhere.  

The new property will be even better.  Simply hike down into the basin and there is no possibility of bullets going anywhere near humans, since it's down below the surrounding properties.  I'll be going over there as much as possible the week of the 19th and seeing if the surveyors show up and watching their progress.  

I've been doing more reading about RV park construction.  I've spent a lot of time doing that, lol.  But people keep referring to TCEQ regulations - Texas Commission on Environmental Quality - and how "hard it is" to deal with it, but I've read the portions that refer to RV parks and I don't see what they're talking about.  I won't have my own water supply, I won't have to deal with them on that.  I won't charge separately for water, that will be included in the cost of  the stay, I won't have to deal with that either.  

Wastewater I already knew about.  I won't be dealing with that, a licensed, bonded, insured company will do that for me.  In fact the storm water permit is the only thing I can see that may be an issue, and that is only during construction.  

I've discussed this here before, but unless there is something I am missing, I don't foresee that big of a deal.  

___________________

The recurring them in all of these RV forums is "if you build it, they will come".  I post about my intentions on various forums to see what people have to say about the particular type of setup I am proposing.  I haven't had a single person tell me that the layout of the park is somehow - wrong or bad.  Most of them say you really need a bath house with good water pressure and hot water.  

I dunno about that, it would cost a small fortune to have a contractor come in and build even a 2 room structure like that.  That's "I need to get a large loan" territory.  But so many people want that in a park.....I've got the room for one, that's about all I can say about that.  Maybe something for further down the road?  Or get that big loan right off the bat and get these operation rolling.  

Whatever the case, it's Monday morning and I am fixing to head over to the bigger town to the west and get my medical certificate renewed.  Do I expect any problems? No, but then again, getting older, you never know. Usually it's blood pressure that jinxes people, but I have been doing stuff the last several days to make sure I pass that at least.  

Just need to drink a few more large glasses of water and I'm out of here.

Have a great day!

 Friday, late.

Brownsville, just pulled in here maybe 25 minutes ago.  It's been raining so much the street is flooded coming in here.  I'm talking over a foot and a half deep of flooding, probably closer to 2 feet.  The first step on my tractor was submerged in water.  It was kind of a let down to find an empty trailer in here, more so knowing the driver coming in behind me? No empty, he'll get the detention pay, I'll be driving back starting mid morning.  

I was a bit surprised coming down here - cause' it's Friday - that there wasn't a ton of traffic coming down to the beach.  I guess the rain scared them all away.  Fine by me, and tomorrow driving back at least it will be Saturday, I won't be dealing with any rush hour traffic junk in Houston.

So yesterday, I started asking about this survey for the property.  We can't wait until the second of never for these people to produce it, if they can't, they need to pay for a new one. My realtor had been giving them time to produce it, but it's been what, over two weeks now?   The contract says if they don't produce a survey, a new one will be ordered at  their expense.

Further exacerbating the situation, the lender informed me today that the appraisal is being held up because there is no complete survey.  I did not know that the appraisal would be contingent upon the survey, I thought the two things were separate.  No one told me about the survey needing to be done to complete the appraisal, that was news to me.

Again, I'm new to this.  I don't have intrinsic knowledge of how these land deals work.  I do have a pretty good understanding now tho. Anyway, my realtor ordered a new survey today.  It will be completed the week of the 19th of this month.  The cost? $1,800.  I had no idea it was going to cost so much and I'm going to need a fresh survey to show the property lines with vlarity, especially to the neighbors out front.  

What they do with their property is of no concern to me.  There is a bit of junk piled up - on my property - and there is a large propane tank - on my property - and there is a garage, which appears to also be partially - on my property. When the surveyors come and start driving stakes into the ground out there with the pink ribbons and they see them doing it well into what they apparently consider their land, there may be some fussing going on.  I dunno, I don't intend on making them tear down the garage, I guess, as long as they aren't going to start any trouble.

That's all I really want, peace with the neighbors, but bearing in mind that any portion of that land over there that is mine? Highly likely to be used for some RV Park purpose.  Or more than one purpose, more likely.  The situation may require the need to put in some sort of fencing to block the views of their setup and have something like a dog park or the setpic system installed there.  

Regardless, I am very happy that there is, indeed, going to be a new survey, the entire property lines will be freshly evaluated and I will be looking at all the corners and along fence lines and such to see if what presently exists is accurate.  The entire west side is pretty clearly marked, I'm just curious to see if what the surveyors come up with is right there, right along that line. 

After an extreme amount of bouncing the SBA loan idea around in my head, I have decided it would be in my best interests to at least check into it and see if I could, indeed, get a large loan, what they repayment terms are and for how long.  It's a question I'll have to have answered for me to have any peace about whether I should or should not have gone that route, I'd never know unless I checked into it.  Checking into it does not necessarily equate into going that route, tho if it's possible, the temptation will surely be there.

Have the entire park built in one, fell swoop, get it over with - but also be stuck with probably a pretty pricey monthly payment.  A loan calculator for SBA loans gave me back $1,750 per month payments at 20 years, 5.5 percent interest.  10% down minimum amount they require for down payment, some require 20% or even more.  $250,000 would cover the entire project plus give some operation capital to start out with.  

Piece mealing it - going to still probably cost more than what I will be able to get out of my 401k.  I'd probably need another 25k or so to get things rolling.  I do qualify for a personal loan of that amount, but the interest rate is high and the payments are similar to the SBA loan, excepting for 5 years instead of 20.  It is going to be a tough decision, I do believe, of how to go about this. My friends say just do it as you can afford it.  Yes, I'd like to go that route but I still need to be able to get at least some lots up and running to do it that way.  10 minimum, 20 preferably.  

Well it's getting late. Just wanted to publish that fact that a new survey - what I wanted all along anyway - has been ordered and in about 2 weeks it will be completed.

G'nite.

 My mother texted me today telling me that my cousin who lives in Australia died yesterday of a massive heart attack.  She was only in her 40's.  It is a sad and tragic loss, for not only wasn't she that old, she also has a son that is less than 10 years old.  Married, I have never spoken to the husband.  My mother said that several people from that side of the family have had heart problems.  It makes me consider going to see a cardiologist to have my heart checked out.  I'm seriously considering seeing if I can make an appointment to see one.  

We were not close, no.  But we did speak occasionally on Facebook.  I was sent an email address for the man so I sent a letter of condolence and prayer for him and his son in this time of grief and anguish.  It was short, I didn't know what else to say.  I feel like so many of our namesake have been dying off in the last several years, there aren't a lot of us left.  

I decided not to post anything about it - yet anyway - on my Facebook for as I said, I wasn't close to her and I don't want to come off acting like we were best friends or something or just the allusion of putting on some kind of charade. 

 I hope she was saved and I hope she is reunited with her dad in heaven.

I just got home from Oklahoma. I left this morning intent on doing a day trip and getting this over with.  I'll have tomorrow off for sure and I don't know about Friday, but I was almost out of hours so they had to give me a 34 hour reset. This was a one day run.  The only odd thing that happened was the scalemaster in Oklahoma informing me that I was to go back without a trailer.  He explained that they only had one empty up there and they needed that and the one I brought up for shuttling back and forth between a railyard about 40 miles away.  They go through a lot of ethylene.  2 of our truckloads a day plus rail cars that are unloaded into one of our trailers and a guy that lives up there that does the shuttling back and forth.  

News came today from the realtor that the title company had gotten back to her - there are a couple of minor, easily fixable issues the seller has to rectify, otherwise it's all good.  That was really great news.  I asked her if the survey issue had been worked out, she said she had been giving them time to find the field notes but that it's getting to the point in time where they are going to have to order a fresh survey and they will have to pay for it, per the contract.  I'm attempting to patiently wait this thing out.  

Once the property is in my name, I will have a difficult decision to make.  Do I finance the entire park in one fell swoop, or do I piece-meal it together over time as finances afford it?  To make an informed decision, I'll have to get quotes on the power company running the 7,000 volt lines to a transformer and then down to a panel with at least a 400 amp circuit breaker.  That's all they have to do, the rest I can either do myself or pay someone to do it, depending on finances.  The water main tap another company will have to give an estimate and yet another company for the septic installation.  

Once I get those figures, I'll still have to figure out how much the water pipe will cost to plumb the park, sewer line for the septic coming from the individual lots and the electric line running to each pedestal.  On top of that, will be the cost of having the driveways made and the pads, plus the cost of the gravel - I'm currently investigating slag as an option.  

You see, today, I was making the eternal wait in the scale house for my paperwork, an older gentleman - older than me anyways- was discussing something with another driver sitting next to him. I overheard him talking about hauling loads of slag for $400 per load.  I had never heard of slag being used for driveways so I was asking him a lot of questions, he seemed to know what he was talking about.  After that, he started discussing how to build a pond, I was all ears. I won't go into that tonight, I am a bit tired and it's almost midnight.  

The only other thing of interest, at least for me, is that I found a comprehensive website hosted by a man that knows how to wire up an RV park and has diagrams along with pictures posted.  It was what I have been looking for for a while now.  I can figure out how much I will need for all of the electrical stuff and get a ball park estimate. 

The pond thing was interesting. He stated that the water table is unique in our region and that if you dig down to the clay in building a pond, you don't even have to have a water source, the water will seep in from the ground and eventually fill it up.  That explains the numerous ponds I have seen that have no streams running in and out of them.  He also said that if you build a pond, it will eventually fill up with fish without putting any in there.  He stated that birds get fish eggs on their bodies and that some of it will drop into the pond and viola! You have fish.  Yea, I'd stock it to begin with but it was an interesting conversation.  

I can't go on any longer with this post, I am exhausted, and almost 16 hour day is done and I'm going to bed.

G'nite.  

 Not much new going on here.  Was in Brownsville this morning, no detention pay, they're trying - again - to stop all of that. It never lasts forever.  But, I've made 2 trips down there in the last 4 days plus I have an Oklahoma going out tomorrow.  Still a good paycheck without detention.  Detention just  means you get to sit around getting paid for doing nothing but waiting. It's easy  money, I can make the same money driving - and y'all know what I think about driving at this point in my life.

The decision is made. If this property becomes mine, I'm contacting the owner of the land/house next door and informing him I need my property. All of my property.  I've looked at that portion of the land several times.  It's perfect for a doggy park, a playground or a septic system.  Or a combination of 2 of them.  Save me room in the back for more pads.

I did contact my agent today.  Any word on the title company?  What about the survey?  

She seemed annoyed. I haven't been texting her at all, for about a week now.  But she was not happy that the survey hadn't been sent yet. The full survey.  Apparently she gave them time to come up with the full version of it, they haven't done that yet.  So she said she would ask them to order a survey - at their expense as provided in the contract they signed.  You know these sellers can opt out of this sale the same as I can?  Let's not get too pushy. At the same time, a completed survey will be required by any lender.  I just don't want to lose yet another property.  

Addler is grumpy. I haven't been home much lately and out again tomorrow. But it's an early load, I'm going to try and get home tomorrow night.  Just depends on how the day goes.  Or how I feel - I don't always want to do that.  Sleeping in the truck isn't the end of my world.  

Oh, 4th.  We had fireworks.  A pretty good show for just us lol.  It was fun. I got home from Brownsville, they had some fireworks out on display for the night.  I offered some money to go get more - we gonna do it, let's do it right. The guys took me up on that offer and went to the next town to get some. Me? I sat on the chair. I had no desire to drive or be a passenger in any vehicle after driving literally all day long. 

I have this growing dilemma of not want to drive anything at all. Offroad vehicles or boats excepted lol.  

It really needs to go back into the shop.  I need them to find out why it will run great, turn it off and then it doesn't want to start back up again. I'm going to bring it over here first and put a new battery in it and probably install a trolling motor.  Everyone wants to go boating, I'll say that lol. I just got fed up with it and parked it.

Well enough of this. It's getting late and 5:00 am - comes early.

G'nite.

 Home. No work for tomorrow.  

Of course, likely meaning work another entire weekend.

No worries, we are taking the 23-25 off and that is - an entire weekend. If I want one off, I have to ask for it in advance.  I don't really ask for much time off, this shouldn't be an issue unless others have already asked for it. 

The interim dispatcher for the normal one - who is on vacation - is also the really cool one that used to deal us out the runs before she got promoted to manager.  So, she said no problem, but let me check tomorrow when I'm at work the schedule?

Ohhhh, I didn't even realize how late it was.  

Moving on.  Interesting but perplexing.  Uhh, ok.  Here's the situation. This property?  I measured 197 feet from the driveway on the east side to the edge of the property on the west at the front.

But I was looking at the surveyor's notes, it says the width of the entire front portion is 233.5 feet wide.

HOW? 

So I pulled up the county tax assessor's appraisal site again, found the property and answered the question.  The property line is going through a good portion of what the next door neighbor is calling their front lawn.  It is also literally right up against a garage they have built there.  From all appearances, it's actually encroaching on "my" property probably a foot or so.  

Would I make them tear down their garage? No.  But I'm looking at all this space on the east side of the driveway at the front that if I just let it go, I can't use.  

On the left,  you can see how much space is to the right of the driveway.  It's literally right up against that garage.  Those maps are accurate on that site and hence the confusion of where this "extra" property is at, property I could use.  In fact, the whole front portion to the right could be used as a fenced in doggy park.  Or a kiddy playground.  Or, perhaps, install the septic system there.  I added the dark lines (not perfect just did it quick to show the line more clearly)  I'm not sure how they could build like that without checking property lines first and understand what belongs to who?  

 I looked up every property showing up behind that front one. It's all owned by the same person, there is no reason that person should have put that garage right on the very line of his property.  Further, he doesn't live there. He lives in a ritzy house in a pricey neighborhood south of Fort Worth. I know this because I looked it up lol. I dunno if he rents that place out or what.  The rest of the property I have no idea why he owns it since he's done nothing with it. Not that that's any of my business, but perhaps at some future point he'd be interested in selling some of it.  

In my view, now that I think of it,  that entire driveway could be moved over to the edge of the property and free up some space.  I'm pretty sure the neighbors wouldn't like that, but property lines are property lines.  Now before you jump down my throat, even in the Bible property lines are pretty important stuff, if you look it up in the Old Testament.  I really could use the land for something. 

Okay, so let's say I leave this dude alone, but I want that area circled in black. They aren't using that property tho they apparently mow it or brush hog it.  Either way, that could be septic system or doggy park there.  Doggy park doesn't need to be huge.  Why? Because of the following picture. 

The useable rear of the property minus the well and easement junk.  Still a lot of property back there, around 14 acres I'm guessing. The blue line approximates where that stream is, running right through the center of it coming from the right near the top.  The center is a perfect place to build a medium sized pond.  The rest of it I can build walking trails and possibly even put in primitive or not so primitive cabins.  Walking trails are easy, the headache with cabins would be trying to figure out how to build a driveway back in there.  The satellite view doesn't show the steep down grade near the edges of the well pad.  I could see building a drive way vehicles can go in there with, I can't see how I could incorporate it with RV trailers. Perhaps I don't need to, just advertise these cabins as non RV units that only cars/pickups can get to. Regardless, that is where I want to put in a network of walking trails. If I want to do something else with some of it at a later date, walking trails can be easily altered.  

Okay, that easement all the way down the left side could be used as a road to get back there - possibly. But to be honest? I haven't actually found a way back in there on foot yet. It is so incredibly thick with underbrush and those evil thorn vines and thorn bushes, it's just impossible - so far anyway.  I haven't given up, I might even go out tomorrow and try again. I can go all the way to the back of the property on the right side of that pic, but finding a way across?  Just haven't been able to do it. But I might attempt to find a way yet once again going to the right, all the way back and see what I can do.  I really need to see if I could access the rear of the property with that easement.  There is nothing saying I can't put a road on that easement, they just restrict you from putting any structures or even a fence on it.  

Well it's getting late and I want to get a good night's sleep. That dilemma at the front with the neighbor using that property, I'll just have to think about it. Possibly contact the owner and get their thoughts on it.  I don't want to start neighbor wars just like I didn't want to start a war with the gas well operator.  At least try an amiable agreement.  Although I'm really thinking that pic with the property in the rear of that house would be a perfect place for a septic system.  Out of the way and off to the side.  

Look, I intended on using every inch of usable space in the front. My concession could be to go 35 foot wide lots instead of 40, 65 long pull throughs instead of 70 and somewhere around 40 foot for the rest of the lots.  I'd really like around 70 lots in the end of this setup.

 Several loads later since the last entry, I'm sitting in a very small town in Oklahoma waiting on an empty trailer.  Got here around 1:15 am last night. Yesterday was a we-didn't-have-any-fun day.  

Besides taking forever at the loading plant just to get weighed in, then I had to wait for an iso tanker that had showed up 1 hour and 50 minutes late for his appointment time.  Yea, that's late.  So, it was 45 minutes before they even started loading me.  

Then, I drove to the scales again, another wait and then an hour and 45 minute wait for paperwork, gag. After that? I was walking out to the truck. It was hot outside, something told me to go check the pressure.  When I left the loading rack, it was at 18 pounds, they always get it down low before they let you leave with it. But when I left the scale house? 46 pounds!  That's very high in such a short period of time. At 94 pounds on that particular tanker, the safety valves pop off and then you have a very serious problem.  They don't necessarily shut off even after the pressure is brought back down, you get into trouble with the company, EPA can get involved, etc etc etc.

So, a series of phone calls and then my manager had to consult with upper level management. The decision was made to take it to the yard and sit on it and see what happens. The loading rack crew had gone home, there wasn't anyone there to offload the product.  So, I got back to the yard. The sloshing around in the tanker caused the pressure to plummet down to 28 pounds and I was informed to "take it".  

Uhh, ok.  I stopped many times on the trip up here checking the pressure. It was going back up - abornally fast btw - but not near as fast as it took for it to shoot up to 46 pounds. So, I made it up here at 42 pounds, informed the personnel here of the issue - you might want to keep your eye on it overnight.  We just drop the trailers at their offload rack and then it's all on them.  

If you think there's any word on the property, you thought wrong lol. I am not even contacting the lender or the realtor at this point. It's just an eternally long waiting game.  Today is the first of July and there is still a month left to wait.  There is a possibility they will get to it sooner than expected, but not that much sooner.  I've taken a little break from doing any research on RV parks just to get my mind off of it.  

Now, I did see a new property come up yesterday - an amazing piece of land. 127 acres for only 330k.  That's really cheap price per acre.  The things I could do with that much property.....but I don't have 60k down payment money and the monthly payments would be twice as much as my house payment.  Maybe some day I can get a much larger piece of land, for now, I'll be content with this 25 acres - if it goes through.  Give it a couple more weeks to see if the title agency finds any problems.  It's really only that - if there are no problems, that property will be mine. The only other thing that could happen is if the seller decided to bow out of it.  The option was extended for both parties until well into August.  

The option to bow out of it, of course.  

The munchkins are going to grandma's later this month, we are planning a mini vacation - go to a hotel somewhere nearby with a swimming pool and a hot tub and act as if we're a long way from home and nothing to worry about lol.  It's the idea of taking advantage of the kids being gone and being able to do stuff without the constant whining, fighting, complaining, etc.  That's what kids that age do.  Well, the older one is learning that whining about things mostly means he isn't going to get whatever he is whining about. The younger one, however, is defiant, stubborn and wants his way, every single time. Which inclines us to not give him his way, pretty much, every...single...time.  "I want" are the most commons words that come out of his mouth.  How many times have we told him to say please? A thousand? 5 thousand? 

I haven't been on vacation in quite a while, btw and I wouldn't mind just getting away even close by.  Something that doesn't remind me of home, work and this attempted business venture.  Ok, I'll have ot backtrack a bit, I am going to up my research on business loans.  It's not a matter of temptation - to get a loan and get this over with. It's more a matter of - what if I don't have enough money in that 401k to get this thing going?  

Here's the thing, I did the math on just one driveway at 20 feet wide for the gravel. It's around 300 plus tons.  At 20 tons per truckload (not sure how much they hold, just a guess on average empty truck weight) that's at least 15 truckloads.  That's a lot of material. Couple that with another driveway plus all the pads?  Could easily be at 900 tons or more.  It could easily cost 20 grand or more just in crushed concrete or whatever material I decide on.  I like iron ore better, but apparently there is high demand on it, raising the price to ridiculous levels/. 

Regardless, even just starting out with say 20 spots, I can see near 100k to get everything in place. The structure would be laid out for adding additional pads at the get go.  I won't have 100k is the point.  I can't really get a solid grasp on costs until I have companies come out and give estimates on the utilities to get them to the property.  The septic system for example could cost far more or less than what I'm guessing which is around 20k.  

I've read so much conflicting information about septic systems that I don't trust any of it.  Only having a local professional come out and give me a real life bid and tell me how it's going to be will I trust.  But I'm not going to succumb to the negative stuff that some of them post.  I can't let myself get dragged down into the depths of despair because a few people on the internet tell you you shouldn't even try doing it.  People always degrade others in business ventures - I've seen that my entire life.  There are alternatives if a septic system was really that much to install, such as putting in a 5,000 gallon tank and just having a dump station. Then you have the expense of having a truck come out and emptying it, but it's better than nothing (and much cheaper actually).

However, the trend is to have sewer hookups at every single site. And I would like to follow the trends, because that's what RV'ers are following and you can read some extremely negative reviews from hoards of RV'ers who are definitely not in love with any particular RV park for a host of reasons. 

Regardless, they are finally done with an empty and are about to pull it out. I must be off of here and get driving on down the highway. 

G'day

 Getting up early - 76 miles out, I decided to get this over with early, get home and just relax or do whatever and have a whole day to do it in - I got home around 7:45 am.  I decided to take Addler over to the property and take a look at the rear where the turn around will be.  There is much more open space - relatively tree-less- in there than I had previously anticipated.  But that's okay.

The playground and the dog park can go back there.  They will be small affairs, fenced and gated and won't take up a lot of space.  The middle driveway can go in between them and still have ample room for both.  I don't really think I need to build a huge doggy park since I intend on making a rather large amount of walking trails in the rear of the property for taking dogs for a walk.

However, there are people that don't want to go for walks, they just want to take their dog/s to a fenced in area, let them run around for a while and then go back to their RV.  I will happily accommodate both since the doggy park is nothing more than 4 foot chain link fence and 2 gates.  The playground will be nothing more than one of those house things with slides and perhaps some other - safe - stuff.  I don't want a lot of liability/people potentially getting hurt type of thing, but RV'ers with families demand some sort of area for their kids to play in.  Playground area could also include horseshoes and other family-friendly games that have limited amount of potential for accidents.  

I've also located picnic tables for around $100 a piece.  Not bad considering the price of wood right now.  This is another thing many of them want: a picnic table, a BBQ grill and a fire ring.  Many of them say they like to cook outdoors to keep the heat out of the RV during the summer time. Makes sense and will help to keep electric bills down. There will be a market for Lighter fluid and charcoal and I will gladly sell it to them at a small markup.  

None of that is in the initial phase. The initial phase is getting the whole thing mapped out and marked for construction.  That will take some time, I do believe I may just build the west side driveway right off the bat - I have to have it and it's pretty simply stuff.  20 feet wide all the way to the back, clear a turn around back there, clear out the already existing clearing - getting rid of underbrush and perhaps building the middle driveway.  With the driveways in place, I can then go to the task of marking out the individual pads.

But recall, I am not doing all the pads at the get go.  The existing driveway pads can wait til a future date, the pads behind those will also wait, I will only focus on pull through pads on the west side at first.  I am only looking to put up 20-25 pads to begin with.  It will be costly enough as it stands with renting a dozer and then having trucks dump gravel all the way up and down the newly fashioned driveways, I can easily see a few hundred tons of that if not much more.  No, I don't know how much the material costs per ton, I haven't even decided what kind of gravel to put down - there is a lot to choose from. I need to lo

Yes, I am currently planning on doing all of that myself - with some paid labor of course to help me, but no contractors besides the water, electric and septic installation only and that only on the installation that is required to have professional installation - from the street to the property, in other words, the rest is going t be my installation, including electrical, I only want to have a licensed electrician inspect it after the fact and ensure it's correct and not going to electrocute people and burn down RV's.  

Why am I going on about something that I don't currently own? Because it's in my mind and I can't stop it.  It just flows in there and trying to distract myself, at least so far, hasn't worked.  

Anyway,, it was good to take a closer look at the trees.  I had before but not really noted anything specific in my mind for certain, now I'm sure that plowing the ones down that need to be plowed down will be a piece of cake for a bulldozer or even a smaller rental until could take much of that stuff down.  Addler wasn't too particularly pleased with having to climb through barbed wire fence - but I wasn't trying to get him to do that.  I was trying to get him to go around it, which he refused. Okay doggy, have it your way, cuts in your flesh will feel good?

But he enjoyed the walk.

As for now? I'm going to go out and get a few things, including stuff to replace all of the food I had to throw out yesterday at the truck stop.  I have a portable, plug in refrigerator I will have to use in the interim.  It's not so much fun because it's pretty big and going to take up some space on the floor of the already small sleeper. But it's that? Or nothing at all.

G'day. 

 So here I sit, 689 miles after leaving my starting point this morning, at a Love's in Domino, Texas. It's 76 miles from the yard.  I will have to sit here for 10 hours.  Why? Because the Federal Government finds it necessary to impose the same one-size-fits-all hours of service regulations on millions of truck drivers nationwide.  

I could easily drive this route out, not fatigued, not going to crash into people and kill them, and be done with this trip  

Would you like some wine with that whine? Why yes! Yes, I most definitely would! 

There isn't going to be much to write about the property, at least in it's acquisition, for some time now.  This is the lull period and it's going to go on for quite a while, until the appraisal comes in and I can close on this property.  

Now, there are plenty of things that I still need to get dialed in on, such as credit card payments, a website, an official name for the park, an online registration system - lots still to research.  

And I'm still trying to wrap my mind around how I want to set everything up. IE: how many pull throughs to install, how many driveways - tho I'm definitely sold on 3 at this point, I would actually need 4 driveways to set up another row of drive throughs.  

Anyway, there is plenty of research left to be done and so, that will attract my attention for the next - 5 weeks.  I will likely still go back to the property between now and then, I did with the Finklea property and took the dogs.  It's pretty hot out now but a shortened version of a walk/run will work. Oh, I can get the dogs in without cutting the lock on the gate.  I've asked 3 or 4 times for that code now, the senior manager avoids answering that question every time.  

The house....the grandmother left this morning with the oldest boy and now things are sort of returning to normal.  It takes those kids a while to "readjust" to the normal way of things where they don't get their way with grandma. 

The dispastcher attempted to send me out on a run for tomorrow morning.  I had to remind her that this run is going into 4 days because of the 9 hour hold up at the receiving plant and ensuing erosion of my 14 hour on duty hours.  I didn't want to turn the run down, it's a Brownsville run, but to be honest, I want to go home for at least a little while after being out this long.  And, my refrigerator quit working - I just threw out everything.  Meats, cheeses, dips, condiments, chicken wings, whatever else, it all went into the trash behind my truck. Loves is good about that, they literally put trash cans everywhere.  

I'm going to Decatur, Alabama on Sunday.  It's a little more miles than the Brownsville run - and the Brownsville run isn't getting any detention pay right now. It's go down there and come back up. This run? You get about 3 hours of detention pay.  

Anyway, I have a portable refrigerator I'll bring for Sunday's run, I'm not a fan of just heading out on the road without food to eat.  Sure, you might be able to find food everywhere, but what kind and what quality? Junk/garbage/filth mostly.  Might taste good, not good for your system.  

Okay I don't really have much else here.  Posts may not be flowing in on a daily basis for a while, here and there if something is going on or something to report on the land.  

Verizon reception here is terrible and the Love's free customer wifi is equally as bad. No vidoes/movies for me tonight, I'm going to call it an early bed and get up - really early and get home.  

G'day

 Ok. Im sitting in Morris, Illinois - It's 3:02 pm.  I got here at 10:23 am.  It was 3 hours and 40 minutes before they even let me bring the trailer into the plant.  Why? Because they had too much product in their system and couldn't handle another entire truckload.  One wonders why they are ordering more product when they already have too much?  The only reason it's concerning to me is because in about ....ohhhh......2 hours and 15 minutes from now, I will be at the point of no return.

That meaning I won't be able to make it home tomorrow and will have to spend another night on the road for this trip.  The operator said he wasn't going to save the vapors - they reuse them - he was just going to burn them off in the flare so perhaps I still have a chance to get down to St. Louis area and get home tomorrow.  Maybe.  It's great for detention pay, but detention pay that costs you another day? You better be getting at least 10 hours of it to make it worth it - I will be around 7 hours.  The point is I could go on another run and make much more money than sitting around this plant - making less.  

Or, just be home, which would also be fine with me : )

On the property front?  Well, there is contention with the survey. The seller had until 2 days ago to send it.  They sent pictures of it without the field notes. The field notes are required and is written into the contract.  Apparently any lender selling land will require those field notes, it's nothing specific with my lender.  I have no idea where we are with that, my agent is dealing with them and I trust she will ensure that this issue is resolved in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, we have plenty of time for that, lol.  My lender emailed me today with an update on the appraisal: It is due by "August 2".  Today is June 24th.  Yeah, that long.  He said it would be 4 to 6 weeks and he certainly wasn't lying. Same as last property, there is a backlog of appraisals with every company that does them, it doesn't matter which one you pick. My lender tried that route and came up with nothing.  

The Bible says to be anxious for nothing, this is a test for me in that particular department. Kick back and chill is the name of the game, but time keeps moving forward.  I was looking at the survey, their measurement shows it 233 feet wide at the front.  My wheel measurer showed it at 197 feet.  Yes I'll take an extra 36 feet I just don't know if my measurer is inaccurate or what I might have done wrong, if anything?  If it really is 233 feet, that makes it an easy choice to install a 3rd driveway in the middle of it.  Because those driveways have to be around 20 feet wide.  I also saw that there is a 30 foot easement from the middle of the existing driveway - not a big deal going 15 feet towards the east, but now I have ample room to do what I need to do.  

But I guess I don't have anything until this deal closes. So, I pretty much have all the information I need to put to rest any ideas of things not being available such as water or access, that's all been dealt with as far as it can go without starting actual construction.  I haven't contacted ATT, I won't do that until I'm ready to lay electrical lines and that will be quite a while.  I'll have to pay an electrician or someone to lay all of that out - specifically, everything from the power pole to each pad's pedestal.  I am not going to try to figure that stuff out, that's something for the pro's to do and yes, I'll pay to get it blue printed.  I may do the work myself, I haven't determined that yet.

So what do I do for the next 5 plus weeks waiting for the appraisal? Nothing.  Look for other properties in case this one falls through.  Find other things to do. Try to take my mind off of it as much as possible.  That's probably not going to happen tho, lol.  

So what else is going on - well, the same thing with grandma, wearing out her welcome, doing things that are not really in line with house rules and basically, she needs to go home.  Hence, I'm happy I'm on the road until Friday - that's when they are leaving - I just want to be home Friday night, which is tomorrow, if at all possible.  

Umm, well one of my plants arrived for the pond. The pond is semi-set up.  I just got the thing filled up with water and the pump, UV filter and waterfall filter going on it.  Conditioning the water. There is still plenty to go before I put any fish in there.  Just it's hot outside and that setup is in the direct sunlight.  I"m getting a canopy to put over it to keep too much sun and junk falling from trees out of it as well.  The water warmed up a bit too much, I doubt my Koi will like that too much.  

The refrigerator stopped working yesterday in this truck.  I have probably $75 worth of food and condiments in there. I checked the fuse, it's fine but switched it out anyway - still nothing. Turned the truck off and then turned the batteries off to reset everything, nothing. So, all of that food and condiments will end up in the trash.  Which sucks, I'm not a fan of throwing food and condiments in the trash can, but, the stuff is already starting to smell. I'd do it now but there are no trash cans here to chuck it all in.  The mechanic claimed he would order a new one for it.  That's more likely a "when pigs fly" scenario.  

There's really nothing else going on.  I'm getting bored, either take a nice nap or watch something on tv.

G'day.  

 So, I made a trip to Magnolia, Arkansas today.  Deliver a Brownsville contracted trailer for an annual inspection and pick up a trailer that - I have no idea why it was there.  I hadn't forgotten small town hatred of large trucks coming through them, but it was presented fresh after hadn't having gone through these towns in a long, long time.  Back to my old job, actually.  Just haven't done these towns in almost 4 years. Magnolia, especially, doesn't want trucks going through there. I was within half mile of the yard I was going to? I had to go nearly 10 miles around a loop to come back around to it.  

I suppose I could have just gone straight there, but these towns have a passion for writing tickets to truckers that don't follow the truck route signs.  Whatever the case, I got back to the yard where the lead mechanic came running out just after I started backing up to park in a hole.  ??? He wants this trailer backed in to the shop instead of a parking space.

???This thing just came back from a shop and they want to - work on it some more.  Okkkkkk. I backed it in there, finished my paperwork, turned the truck off and - went home, actually, lol.  They can move it to wherever, unhook my truck and have it parked.  

I'm off to Illinois tomorrow. My lucky streak for overnight only trips is over. Tho I have to say, if I must do a 3 day trip, this is one of the ones I highly prefer.  I started thinking about the bridge in Memphis over the Mississippi - good Lord, I have to go through there? No, I usually take 67 up through Pocahontas and that region to get to where I'm going, it's other drivers that take that route - they want more miles.  It's 830 mile the route I take, that's sufficient.  

My mind is admittedly distracted with property stuff atm.  That should subside soon as I go into a lull period of waiting for the appraisal and apparently a fresh new survey.  I particularly like the new survey part - I have no idea what the property lines actually are of the east side of the property since it's not marked in any way, shape or form.  

Concerning the property, the only thing of interest today was the lender asking me for screenshots of proof I still have the finances available for the cash down payment.  Proof sent 3 fold and accepted.  And informed that today is the last day for the seller to send the existing survey to the lender.  After today, if they don't send it? They pay for a new survey, as written into the contract.  I'd like thank my - female - realtor of whom male realtors have bashed and made fun of.  She has done due diligence, has consulted with her mentor when necessary and has stuff written into the contract I wouldn't even have thought of - but was quite grateful after the fact when I found those things out. 

Well I'm tired and it's going to be a long day tomorrow.  The next day - a bit easier since you sit up there waiting for hours to get unloaded - time that can be spent sleeping if necessary - the final is spent driving back from the end point I was at the first day.  Or sometimes I can make it back further than that.  Whatever the case, sleep is needed, lol. 

G'nite. 

Wrote this yesterday, forgot to post it, got distracted lol.  

 So this dude from the gas company tried to call me at 8:30 am this morning and then left an email asking me to call him back in the next 30 minutes.  Well I'm sorry, but I wasn't even fully awake and in no frame of mind to discuss this situation with this individual, I didn't answer the phone and emailed him back later.  He's allegedly going to call me - any time now actually - this afternoon.  

Meanwhile, my realtor has asked the seller to obtain counsel to attempt to rectify and issues that may arise from this gas company player.  Well the issues are already arisen, I'm going to try my best to solve these issues without need of paying for lawyers.  That's getting a bit ridiculous, in my mind, to have to do that before I even have ownership of the property?  

Whatever the case, I'm fully awakened, caffeinated and ready for come what may from this gentleman, whether he wants to compromise or not remains to be seen.  I invoked logic and for some reason it doesn't seem to register with this guy.  I think explaining it over the phone versus attempting to write it out might work better.  He asks questions and answers none of mine, which is what my main concern is.  I remain hopeful perhaps we can come to an understanding today of 

So, while I was awaiting that phone call, I decided to visit the city hall and talk to the man with all of the plans.  He basically gets to decide what goes where or who gets what when they make requests.  If you don't agree with his decisions, the only remedy is to take it up with the city council.  Anyway, I told him about this property on Cooks road, are you familiar with that road? Yes, of course he is, I figured that. Okay, is that in the city or county territory? County.  Ahh, ok, I replied, well I was curious because the Texas PUC map overlay shows that the city provides water service there.

Yes, we do and without hesitation or even asking what I intended to do with the property (thankfully) he gave me a list of contractors the city has pre-approved to tap the main underground line and install a meter.  That's all I need.  I don't need them to do any other work, that will likely cost me several thousand dollars as it stands. I can tell you right now that a saddle for the main line is at least $600 just for that.  Then there is a special tool they use to place over the main line that seals to it.  They can drill into the line without having to shut off the water to anyone.  

So that one was easy enough. Swepco is the power company and lines running right cross the front of the land, I don't need to ask them, I have already discussed this before, they do the work and bill you.  That is also merely an act of putting up a smaller pole, running a line to the pole that goes into a box and there it ends.  After that, you do whatever you need with it. 

So left is sewer and whatever objections this gas company is going to tell me about that particular setup.  I would like to hear in detail what their concerns are.  I'm trying to sound as tho I have their interests in mind - which I do to some extent but not to the exclusion of my interests - and what we can do to meet in the middle.  Again, I'm sure these people would rather I just go away, but unless this problem with them becomes untenable, my plans are to move ahead with this project regardless.  An RV park is not going to work without a sewer system, whether city supplied or a septic system.  There's just no way around it, I have to have it. A modern RV park requires it, very few will want to come if they don't have any reasonable expectation that they can dump their tanks.  I suppose I could install a several thousand gallon holding tank in the ground and have a dump station, but then I incur recurring costs to have a truck come out and pump it out.

That isn't really a good answer. It is an answer, but the costs to have a truck coming every week or even more to empty it out would eat into profit.  

Regardless, I do have answers to my question about the diameter of the mainline pipe going into an RV park.  One person stated he had 2 inch main on a 100 site park and had 65 psi all around it.  That's great, the smaller the diameter the less cost both for the access to the mainline - they make the saddles in sizes starting at 1 inch and going up from there, the bigger, the more expensive, obviously.  CPVC is not cheap piping, either, tho I think I can get it cheaper with my connections to the waterworks industry.

___________________________

Update.  The gas company man called and we discussed this situation at length.  The compromise is that I can use "their" road but they don't want the gate to be moved.  I countered that gate would be an obstacle to me being able to run my business. I can't have a padlocked gate that people have to somehow open everytime they want to leave.  Although I don't want to spend the extra money, I didn't want to argue with this dude and open up potential legal issues that will cost even more in court.  So I offered an automatic gate with a keypad.  You push a code in to open it, you simply pull up to it go get out.  RV's would not go in that way, I already planned they come in through the road I will have to build on the west and exit out that way.  

That keeps them from heading directly towards the gas well operation.  They will loop around at the rear of the property and onto the existing driveway and off the property.  

The thing that took me by surprise is that the man told me that that other setup on the pad? Is a different operator! They have an easement coming from the east and then going south.  It rises above ground for unknown reasons - but it is not a gas well operation. It's just a pipe running through the property. 

Things appear to slowly be coming together here.  I make no assumptions about anything, but the other gas operator shouldn't be telling me anything beyond a 25 foot easement. That works. the rear of the RV park will be a turn around.  Their operation is on the pad behind there, then a row of trees to keep people from running into an exposed gas line (or even seeing it there for that matter) and then at least 15 feet width for turning around larger rigs.  Maybe 20 feet.  I lose some area for that but it's just the nature of the beast. 

Now, I'm nowhere near doing much of anything even when I sign on the dotted line and put the money down. These are things I had to know about before sinking any money into this project.  Build a park and have it contested in court after the fact? No thanks.  I dunno what the next door neighbors are going to think, if they don't like it they can put up a fence along the driveway is all I can say about that.  It's county territory and the county has few restrictions on much of anything.  Only the state rules do I need concern myself with and that's not much.  

 I was 7.2 miles from the yard before I ran out of driving hours to get back to the yard. Obviously I'm not stopping that close to the yard, I took care of that business and now am at home.  Of course, everyone was asleep by the time I got here, such is my life as a truck driver with highly irregular hours and shifts that make no rhyme or reason to the average person that has a set schedule and gets to go home every  day.  

To that end - the being home every day part - I am contacting the city tomorrow to ensure that I am going to be able to get water to the property without - bs problems.  This property doesn't have existing water service so I'm guessing it may take a bit to find the right person to talk to.  The line will have to be dug up and a saddle or a sleeve - depending on how the city wants it done - will have to be installed.  

I don't know which type they want and I don't know how big a line I will need yet.  I'm not sure a 2 inch line will be sufficient. I'm thinking a 4 inch line to service as many RV's as I eventually want to have there in terms of numbers of pads.

I really don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow beyond attempting to get answers from the City.  I almost dread even contacting them, I know how they feel about their government positions.  But it must be done.  Can I get water without some sort of legal hassle?  Based on my experience attempting to get an answer about getting water at another Oh, well yes, I also want to get a septic system installer out there and see about getting an estimate.  That, after contacting the city and inquiring if they also installed sewer lines along side the water lines?  

BTW, I did check to see if there are any new listings today. A few - highly overpriced - properties that aren't anywhere near the acreage I'm looking for.  75 grand per acre? Are these people insane? 

Whatever the case, I was get into some things here, but I have decided the time spent in bed sleeping a better idea.

G'nite.  

Texas Mineral Estate V Surface rights

This guy running this gas operation is a real peach.  Considering himself a "real Christian" and thereby insinuating that I am not, he went off on how I am attempting to intimidate his company.  I literally laughed out loud reading that. This guy is setting terms, telling me I cannot  drive on "their" drive way and that "the gate will not be moved" and other such things.

What other things? Well, they want to know if I'm going to be running electricity and installing a septic system, they want to know if it will "interfere with our operations".  I dunno dude, you tell me?  How is underground electric and a septic system located well away from the well going to affect you? And what do you tell the neighbors about their septic systems, sitting right next door in one case. 

He wasn't answering my questions so I stopped answering his.  Instead of a cordial reply to my queries, he just ignored all of that and went straight to "their" interests.  Greed is a nasty thing.  It drives you internally and causes you to think in ways you otherwise would not. They act as if they own the property, but I am slowly coming to an understanding of mineral rights versus surface/property rights.  

Yes, they are given wide latitude to do what they need to do, they are not given latitude to do anything beyond that.  I don't think the dude was too happy that I had done some research and had identified the Accommodation Doctrine (Texas).  I am not claiming any level of expertise here, but the rule is pretty self explanatory. Whatever the case, they are the bullies, not me.  I was trying to be nice, courteous, respectful - all of those types of adjectives - they were going to the throat, ignoring most of my verbiage and demanding information instead of giving any.  

So now, I think I best get a septic install company out there to give me an estimate - and more to the point - what type of system they can install and where it will go.  They won't charge for that and I need the info. Not for them, for me - is there a possibility that they would have to install it closer to this well and even if so, how would that possibly mess with their operation?  

\

And how could electric going to pads affect their operation?  Those lines aren't even dug that deep into the ground, maybe a couple of feet down?  I would love to hear his logic on all of this, but I also would love him to start acting civilly.  Again, I have read that these gas/oil operators speak and act with impunity, difficult to deal with and don't care.  I even heard this from my realtor's husband today, describing his experiences working with gas well operations.  Horror stories abound all over the internet, in great detail I might add.  

Fortunately, most of that is referring to drilling operations.  Still, it is apparent that it drags on after the drilling is done and over with.  

The saga continues. But it was left with - let's cool things off and start back up on Monday.  

Yes, well I wasn't the party starting the trouble - until he went way too far with his demanding, aggressive attitude and then I started dishing a plate full of his medicine back to him. He didn't much care for that which is when he accused me of attempting to intimidate him and his company.  Whatever dude, grow a set, stop acting like god and come back down to earth with the rest of us.  

You'll like it here, trust me, just get rid of the god-complex.  

____________________________

End of that, onto other things. They all had a great time today at the zoo, pictures abound.  They went back to the hotel afterwards and played in the pool.  This is what I miss living on the road, everything that is fun and with people I like to hang out with.  They are going to the Science museum tomorrow and I suspect they will spend a good portion of time at the pool again before heading home.

I, meanwhile, am in the truck for the night at the yard.  I got back here around 8:40 pm, by the time I was done with paperwork, unhooking the truck and then backing under another trailer? It was far too late to be thinking about driving home and then turning around 7 hours later and coming back here.  

I'm definitely going to try to make this Oklahoma run a one day trip.   It's been happening a lot lately and I like it. If not one day, then I'll stop at the new truckstop in Pittsburgh and spend the night there. It looks like a nice place.  But yes, I will be on the road tomorrow and was informed by a friend that tomorrow is Father's Day and wished me a happy day.

Tomorrow is also Sunday, but it's whatever.  I do what I have to do until I can get out of this industry and go full time RV park stuff. If that ever even happens?  I don't know, lol, but whatever the case, it's time to go to sleep.

 This little deal I'm involved with now could very well be a too-good-to-be-true situation.  

Yesterday, after the man at the gas company said they were refusing to move the gate? I started doing research.  It took a few hours to finally come across the information I was looking for. The info I was searching out was property rights for the person that owns the land versus the person that retains the mineral rights to the land. The names are mineral rights holders and surface holders.  Surface holders are the people that own the land, mineral rights are the people that owned the land at one time, sold it off but held the rights to the underground minerals.

It turns out? The mineral rights owners have far more "dominance" than surface rights and are able to basically do whatever the hell they please.  At least, so it read on sites that were clearly on the side of the mineral rights holders. 

Trust me folks, I spent many hours researching this yesterday, I wanted to get to the bottom of this and find out whether I should even be trying to do this with that gas well there and these gas company people getting "confrontational" - their words and their increasingly aggressive behavior in the language they are using with me.  

I kept looking. I wanted to find anything that says anywhere that the mineral rights holder has the right to stop the surface right holder from accessing any part of his land.  I failed in that mission - as I hoped I would, but you can bet it wasn't because I wasn't trying. Google can be finnicky and you have to put the right words in the search field to find what you want. But if you don't know the terminology associated with whatever you are looking for, you may never find it. 

Still, my reading continued and I finally found sites that appeared to be more neutral - they weren't biased towards either side and were simply stating the facts as Texas law currently exists and a long standing history of Texas courts siding with mineral rights holders.

However, much of that - actually almost all of it - is referring to drilling operations and the rights the mineral owners have in bringing in vast amounts of equipment in order to search for the Texas T they are looking for.  The sob stories of landowners having their senses assailed with all of that equipment and the ensuing 24 hour per day noise, the lights, the odors, the dust, the amount of people they bring into those projects is actually shocking to people that didn't do any research whatsoever and weren't prepared for the vast intrusion into their daily lives that such operations invoke.

If you know me, you will know I don't get into much of anything without doing some sort of research first. In this case, it's been much more than other things I have gotten myself into - or got out of before I got into it after finding out certain information that led me to believe whatever it was/is isn't worth the hassle.

You see, in Texas, there is also an "Accommodation Doctrine". This is a synopsis I found of the doctrine, copied and pasted: "In 1971, Texas adopted the modern Accommodation Doctrine in an attempt to balance the scales between mineral and surface estates.³ It requires that owners of mineral estates reasonably accommodate the use of the surface estate.⁴ The doctrine is violated when the surface activities of the owners of the mineral estate are not “reasonably necessary” to extract the oil or gas if the mineral owner has other reasonable means of production available that will not interfere with the surface owner’s use. Simply put, if reasonable alternative drilling methods protecting the surface owner’s existing use are available, the mineral owner must make reasonable accommodations.^5"

 Is it reasonable for this company to have a gate over 900 feet from the entrance to their operation?  Your guess is as good as mine, but I would come to the distinct conclusion that it is not and hinders the ability for me to be able to use the "surface estate" in the manner I need to. It will cause me to have to use more land than I want to use for building driveways that are completely unnecessary.  

So, I wrote yet another letter - not having had received a reply from yesterday tho I didn't necessarily expect one - and informed him that, tho being no authority on the subject - it becomes clear to even the casual reader that mineral rights does not include barring land owners from their land.  And so on and so forth. Not worth going into all of it, I simply made my intentions clear and that I would use that road and that gate will be moved.  I offered no more ideas of spending more money to make them happy. They are filthy rich from these endeavors but they are also obviously quite greedy, as my readings have suggested.  

My intentions from all of this is to see how far they are willing to take this before I sign on the dotted lines and hand over almost 17 grand in down payment money.  If it appears that it's going to be too filled with threats, legal action and the like, I will rethink all of this and potentially move on.  I lose $100 in option money, my earnest money remains intact.  I think there is a short period on that earnest money tho, like 7 days or something, I need to re-read that contract, for I will have to make up my  mind about it before that option period ends. If the option period expires, I will not lose that earnest money, I will simply move on with the purchase and come-what-may.  

Whatever the case, I'm at the yard in Brownsville, got down here at almost 1:00 am, have about 25 more minutes before I can leave here - there were two empty trailers when I arrived and 2 empty trailers were sitting at the loves last night when I drove through there. I always drive through the Loves parking lot to see if any drivers are waiting in their tractors for empties before I go to the yard to drop the loaded trailer.  Of course, a driver might be elsewhere waiting, that's just the most common place they go to for the night.

However, upon arrival, there were two empties sitting here and after my trailer was dropped, 3 full ones.  So, I'm hooking up to one in a few minutes, get it ready to go and get out of here post haste. She has me scheduled for another load going to Oklahoma tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. I can make it if all goes well and I get out of here when I can/should leave.

G'day

The youngest woke me up this morning with death curdling screaming at the top of his lungs. I was in dream land, haven't a pleasant dream at that, sleeping in - or trying to anyway - for the long day ahead of me. I'll be driving until at least midnight tonight in trying to get down to Brownsville.  

That's a wake-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-bed moment.  Like, pissed me off type of thing. Whatever happened, did he have to scream like that? Turns out? He was screaming because he wasn't allowed to have a waffle.

THAT kind of unbelievable screaming over a waffle.  

Onto other things. 

I found a site where RV parks advertise their parks - for free I might add - including numerous pictures of each site.  I typed in my area and started looking at some of the places.  I couldn't believe how junky and plain all of them looked. Not a few of them, all of them.  There was one place, I take that back, that had gone way overboard.  It looked too aesthetic.  I mean, just a turn off. There is a mix of finesse and nature to be had in any of these parks.

It is  considered camping after all.  But, having said that, some of them do really well. 

One of them, down by a town called Diboll -it's the road going down to Brownsville along 59 - built a new park last year and I wanted to definitely see that one.  He has that place 2/3rds filled up all the time.  Location is the only thing I could determine and after looking at the pics - location is the only thing he has going for him at that place. Or her, no offense to anyone's gender.  

I can see why campers are always complaining about being set in so close to the next camper on either side. I may waste some space in leaving up small stands of trees between site, but the loss is the gain.  People will have 70 foot long pads, 40 feet wide.  

 I have determined my pad angles to go in at 45 degree angles.  Some advocate for 30, 35, 40 and at max 45 degrees.  Personally I'd put them all in at 90 degrees to the driveway the same as truck stop parking lots but people apparently don't much care for that.  I think too much of an angle looks tacky.  45 degrees is the consensus for the higher end - less of an angle.  I simply don't like 30 or 35 degrees and 40 is just a tad much as well.  If you can't back an RV into a 45 degree angle, you probably need to take some backing lessons.  

I've read countless forums with these people who have never driven much less backed an giant, 42 foot RV, they don't want to learn and they want pull throughs.  Oh, I'll give them a few pull throughs.  They'll pay $65 per night for the privilege of me wasting that much space.  Actually, I may not do pull throughs.  The width of that area is almost 200 feet, I cannot possibly fathom wasting almost 200 feet for one pad.  That's a bit ridiculous.  

I'm going to have to think how I can do that.  I want a few pull throughs I just don't want to waste so much space!  Yup, I'm just going to have to dwell on that for a while and ask some questions from someone with a different perspective and just try to think of an answer to that. 

Because now, I'm thinking that there can be a huge amount of space between RV's parked on one side to the RV's parked on the other side.  Buildings could be put up in between in the future if the operation ever takes off and upgrades are desirable.  Bath houses are very popular.  A pool - very popular.  Yes, I could fit a pool in between pads with 60 feet of space.  We ain't talking a huge pool, too expensive and maintenance also expensive the bigger they get.  

It was what I was thinking about today after everything else I have contemplated.  A 60 foot wide space leaves room for a party room, a bath house, a pool, a playground, a dog run, all of that and more. You are talking about almost 1,400 feet of length by 60 feet wide.  That's a lot of room!  It never really dawned on me until a little while ago how much space I will have in there.  It would be a totally unique setup as well.  

See, some people don't care for walking trails for dogs. They want a fenced off dog run.  I'm like, wow, the possibilities here!  What kind of appeal is that? A dog run and a huge walking trail for people and dogs to walk.  

Think gondolas with picnic tables and a rentable party barn.  No, that party barn would have to go in the front away from the RV's. Strike that one.  That's another thing I don't know, is there a minimum setback from the roadway before you can put anything in? Like in Phoenix, it's 25 feet.  But this is county land and I couldn't determine whether that's mandatory or not.  Not from looking at other properties anyway.  

Oh well. My mind is wandering with this one.  Far more possibilities with this particular setup than Finklea.  

My realtor today?  Said she had "NOT" prayed for patience with everything we have gone through lmao.  I think she is near done with this.  She has stuck through this and put up with a lot of crap. NOT from ME, thank you, I have been very grateful for all of her help for which she has received nothing as of yet.  

This property isn't being divided, there is nothing "new" here as far as the title and the property goes, aside from the mandatory appraisal and possibly needing a current survey, this deal should go through.  I am confident I can work out the issues with this gas well dude, he seems to be open to working with me.  He claimed he was anyway and has toned well down from his initial "barking" about access and that gate. HAVE YOUR GATE, JUST NOT THERE, thank you. I don't get the damned resistance abou that ...... gate.  PLEASE. I do not want anyone messing with your operation any more than you do! I have attempted to fill this guy's head with that fact, I have no interest, whatsoever, in disturbing their operation.  The only way that could occur is if someone ran into something there or if some malicious act with intent to damage or destroy.  IF someone has malicious intent, that isn't me and that person could easily get to that property from other properties to the south, east or west.  

I am ending this, for I will fill my head up with so much stuff to ponder that I will never go to sleep.  I have to go to Brownsville tomorrow - thankfully now that I think about it - a later load time at noon.  Thankfully because I  know that on the night before a Brownsville run? I usually don't sleep well. I have NO idea why that almost always happens, but it does. And now that I have filled my head with all kinds of fresh ideas that I can do nothing about right now but will dwell on it anyway? LOL.  Literally just started thinking about some of the stuff I wrote in this entry and now I will have to engage myself in looking up even more info.  I won't do that tonight but I know I will sit lay in bed pondering it, going down endless rabbit trails of thought and attempting to figure things out.  Especially that pull through dilemma.  

Hmm, Brownsville trip will give me plenty of time to think.  There ya go, BB, think about it tomorrow, not tonight when you are supposed to be sleeping!

G'nite.