I had to reconvince myself of the Sweetgum trees after hearing more ridicule of them. Look up pics of them, they aren't bad looking trees!  Yes they drop these things, the same as the oak trees in our back yard do. I'm not leaving up thousands of them, just some here and there.  Something to give the look of trees over nothing.

Yes, there are tall trees on either perimeter of the intended RV park but that wasn't good enough for me and frankly, The few trees I'm leaving up IN the park aren't either. It was just too hard to try to calculate where the trees would need to be left up.  I will plant pines in the future.  

Well actually there is a long list of evergreens that grow well out in these parts, there will be a mix of them.  

_________________

Started this one before I left for Brownsville.  I actually should still be down there, but the driver that left before me yesterday didn't make it down there until today, for unknown reasons.  I would have liked the detention pay, frankly, but it's whatever.  I will guess the other driver had some sort of mechanical or breakdown issue.  They don't want or like us taking more than the same day you get the trailer loaded to get down there.  There has to be a legitimate reason so I'll give the dude a pass on that one.  

I have tomorrow off - I didn't ask for it but I don't have enough hours to go on any trip anywhere.  

I'm guessing the property is done as far as trees go.  Tho I might have something to say about it, it was dark when I got back today. No way to see if everything is done that I want done involving the trees.  There are lots of sticks sticking up out of the ground, things that trackhoe couldn't get out.  I'm assuming they are going to bring a dozer to finish the job.  I haven't heard from the owner of the company about anything yet, so I will wait.  I'm paying a premium to have that land cleared, I want it cleared before the check is written.  I also want a dozer to smooth out the surface and give me some idea whether I need to have any leveling going on.  

But I want it level, or pretty close to it.  I don't need people complaining on the internet that the lots aren't level.  They think it's too much to push a button, apparently, for automatic levelers to do the job for them.  Okay, there are older rigs where you have to get out and use a lug wrench to extend the jacks.  Whatever, I've had RV's, I know the struggle, I never complained about it all over social media.  I just leveled the thing, got it over with and enjoyed my stay.  

I'm not going to worry about it if it's close, but if it's too far off then dirt is going to need to be hauled in and I know just where to get that dirt: the rear of the property and digging a pond.  How much is this going to cost? I have no idea.  Hauling dirt in isn't part of the land clearing.  It might be another 20 grand for all I know.  I'm prepared to take out another loan near the end of this, if need be, to finish everything.  Well when I say 20 grand, I mean digging out a pond and moving the dirt, not just bringing dirt in.  

That much money isn't part of my plan.  But doing the vital parts of the project half-@$$ed would be foolishness in my view.  Sure, I can put up a temporary laundry room and office type thing, but the lots? Those are permanent.  And if they are at some extreme angle, people simply won't want to come. They will write their rancid reviews and if you build it, they won't come.  

Tomorrow morning, I'll load the dogs in the SUV and head over there.  Dogs can run all over the place and I can inspect what's been done.  After that, I have a new desk that needs to be put together.  That was an 8 day fiasco trying to get the thing delivered here....I want to get the thing out of the boxes and make sure nothing is damaged.  

And tonight I booked the hotel for our San Antonio trip.  I spent a good deal of time looking for a hotel that has an indoor pool - we like pools but it's a bit cool to be swimming outdoors even if it's a heated pool.  We also like to hang out next to the pool and have a good time.  Indoor pools aren't that many in San Antonio on the riverwalk, at least not that I found. There are some, but the other criteria was to have a room with a bedroom and a sofa couch.  That way we don't have to get 2 rooms, save money.  

There might be more, but I found 3 places of interest. The Marriott Rivercenter, the Drury Inn and a Home2 Suites by Hilton.  The Home2 suites look - tacky to my anyway, don't like the whole ambience of the rooms or the rest of the hotel. It was a draw between Drury and Marriott. But, I'm a big fan of Marriott's, never been to a Drury and the Marriott has a half inside and half outside pool. Yes, believe it.  It's one big pool that goes underneath the window wall that separates it.  This was of great appeal to Taylor and I thought it nice as well.

So, this morning, I tried to reserve one of the rooms that has the separate bedroom and living room with sofa couch.  Yea, no.  Several sites including the Marriott site itself didn't have any available, whereas they did a few days ago.  I wasn't trying to procrastinate, it was just a tough decision to try and figure out where to stay and hopefully end up with something beyond decent, something nice. I don't get vacations often and spending a bit of money on it isn't of great concern to me, at least not in my current situation. 

So I got home tonight and sat down at the computer and started looking. It's a fact that different booking hotels buy up X amount of rooms. If one booking site doesn't have any, it doesn't mean another won't.  And so it was, Booking.com had one and I jumped on that immediately.  Paid for it with my Bank Of America credit card - I am going to use my accumulated points to pay for part of it.  Around $600 worth of it. We're 3 nights there, it's not exactly cheap and the taxes are unbelievable.  Over $200 just in room taxes?!!All of these major cities add on exorbitant hotel taxes. You're paying for their pet projects.

But whatever, that is nothing new, just that amount was a bit breathtaking.  The 24th-27th, something I'm looking forward to.  

Anyway....I put the desk purchase on a credit card I haven't really been using.  That charged the account a few days ago and then yesterday? My credit score on TransUnion took a 72 point hit. I was like, what?  Why?  I have no clue. I could have put it on another card and nothing like that would have happened.  I don't understand that, at all, I'll just pay the thing back down and see what happens. But what was perplexing is that it was only a few days between putting the charge on the card and the extreme hit.  We're not even close to the end of the month?  

And my new mortgage account hit s well, 10 points tho, not 72.  My old mortgage holder has yet to post that it's paid off.  Maybe that's it, I have far too much credit showing on my accounts because - Midland Mortgage - won't post it paid off for 2 months.  Yes, that has to be it.  I think? lol

What else is going on.  School reunion in May.  Flight, hotel, whatever.  Obviously if I'm going back for whatever reason, I'm going to see friends and family.  Just thoughts floating through my mind.  Wondering where I'll be at with this park project.  Many of us from that school graduation year are already deceased.  I've watched them through the years dying of cancer, murder, car accidents.  I feel rather blessed that I've actually made it this far considering they life I've lead. 

I'm motivated. That's what it is.  To get out of this trucking grind. I find it more and more distasteful as time goes on.  Long, long days and now these cameras that scrutinize your every driving move. Yes, the inward facing camera isn't a factor, but the one facing outward - is.  When someone cuts you off - which is 25/50/100/more times per day, it sends  notification to the company.  Or if you're approaching a green light and it turns yellow - at a point where you won't be stopped in time so you blow the red light or you slam on your brakes and still end up in the middle of the intersection. You get dinged either way.  

I figure the company is going to dump a lot of drivers - even tho they can't afford to get rid of any of them - that's the way this company works.  I'll probably be one of them because I don't give a damn about that thing telling me how to drive.  It doesn't take a LOT of things into consideration which I don't feel like going into here.  Maybe a future post, not this one, it's getting late and I feel blessed that I got the room we wanted done today and we are good to go. A family friend is going to come over and take of the dogs, the boys are also going to be taken care of, we are good to go.   

 I'm totally psyched tho. Not about the vacation, that is going to be good, I'm sure, but no, it's about the property.  It's in the beginning stages, yes, but it has begun.  It might take time, sure, but it's actually started.  And I have the LLC application into the state, the fees all paid.  I just wish I could translate all of this excitement to get this project over and done with into driving the truck and making the money I need to make to cover these smaller expenses without digging into savings.  

It's a thing that truckers understand because we live it.  It's not that we're special, it's just that we are sick of the endless bs thrown at us.  And now, they have made it even more difficult for people to get into the profession. The government must be begging for the new era of self-driving trucks.  Besides highway safety, there will be whole new chains of bureaucracy and politicians and states wanting their piece of the pie.  But they want to get rid of human drivers, that's a fact.  There are always unintended consequences to such broad sweeping reforms, I can predict a few of them but there will be stuff no one saw that will occur and leave these idiots running the show scratching their heads.  

Whatever the case, it's bedtime.  

Up early - 4:00 AM - got out of Brownsville and headed up.  Day kind of dragged on, I wanted to see if they had actually gotten out there and what they had gotten done.  When I arrived at the yard, I figured my manager would have some "words" for me about my driving.  It's impossible ot drive a tractor trailer rig, going 68 mph on highways that are posted at 70 and 75 to not have cars and trucks cutting you off all day long and having this artificial intelligence garbage "tattle-taling" on me.  I can't control other drivers. 

I'm "supposed" to slow down when they cut me off like that, but for what purpose? They are going way faster than me, they may leave little space between vehicles but it doesn't last and they are down the highway.  I did have one guy in Houston who apparently didn't like the lane I was in come zipping around me and brake checking me.  I am pretty sure most people know nothing about these "dash cams" that are more like robotic drivers. I may not like them, but they aren't real good for people playing games in traffic, either.  

After brake-checking me, he put his arm out the window, pointed to me to pull over and then flipped me off.  He then brake-checked me again and then I simply started pointing at the camera.  Note there was very little traffic on the Beltway, like hardly any at all. I wasn't holding up any traffic, at all.  I don't bow to the will of other drivers.  They can call my company and complain if they like, I don't care.  I do care about safety and do not  like going back and forth in lanes on busy freeways with the type of material I'm hauling. Well I don't like doing it whatever I'm hauling.  

Anyway, my manager said nothing about my driving, instead he started talking about his upcoming vacation - starting tomorrow- and how drunk he was going to get. He is going with friends to some destination and he is buying himself a bottle of some high end whiskey that I had never heard of before and the name now escapes me.  Have fun! 

Off and out of the yard - after dropping the trailer and hooking up to another one that I will be taking up to Oklahoma tomorrow - I boogied over to the property.  It was a pleasant view to see a swath of trees that had been uprooted and laying over.  I looked far down there - the giant trackhoe was piling trees up onto a giant pile.  I mean, this pile is 20 feet tall and at least 15 feet wide if not 20.  I marveled at the site of it.  I was glad I had left up some trees along the driveway, now seeing how it actually looks.  They may be Sweetgum trees - people laugh around these parts I can tell ya, the guy operating the trackhoe thought it was funny as well - but this is old growth. I can plant pines and wait until - after I'm passed on - for them to be big enough to actually provide shade and beauty.  

I guess one could pay to have larger trees planted - at quite the premium.  I got back in the SUV and drove down the driveway looking at the progress.  I kind of kicked myself for not leaving some trees at the back in the middle.  There are trees around the perimeter but I didn't know how I was going to set everything up so I just had them take out everything.  It's okay tho, there are plenty of trees around. 

The back portion was almost done.  He didn't do the very rear where I had changed my mind, I think I had originally told the company owner I didn't want that stuff taken down, so this guy - didn't. Kudos for following instructions, but my desires have changed and I want that stuff down. It's not that much and the underbrush stuff I wanted to use as a natural barrier to blocking the view of the gas well stuff - is quite ugly.  There are some trees that can stay up but most of it needs to come on down, please.  

I have pics posted on Facebook.  He said he thinks he can finish on Monday.  Well good, I thought, I am doing Oklahoma tomorrow, back early Saturday I can go out there and check what's been done and see if there's anything I missed that I would rather have down before he is done and the opportunity -and the money along with it - vanishes.  Oh, he isn't working the weekend.  

The only thing I really wasn't happy about is he had nicked some of the trees I want up, including a couple of mature pines.  I'm going to have to look up online and see if I can fix them somehow or if they are eventually doomed.  I'm not going to get mad at them, all of the trees I want up are surrounded by trees I want - down.  It appears there are methods to save the tree, I will check into that soon enough. Tho I did see one method where you simply put the bark back on and duct tape it.  I don't think it was a troll post, lol.  

Anyway, this old guy was going on about these trees.  I asked him about removing the roots, if they don't come out, can these trees grow back? Yes, he replied and then compared them to giant weeds.  Anything left in the ground can regrow. I thought that after seeing new growth on a tree that I had stripped down to the ground. There were several new branches growing out of it.  Yup, just like a weed.  He gave me instructions on how to get the Sweetgums I am leaving up to branch out and have a fuller look to them. Yes, well these trees were all densely packed together and had nothing but the tops - canopies - able to get any of the precious sunlight or even room to grow branches.  This was a thick, dense forest of mostly small trees.  

But the roots are what led me to the conclusion that I had to pay someone to go out there and do the job, versus trying to use that little Bobcat. It had a heck of a time trying to get the roots out.  That giant trackhoe has no problem pulling the entire mess out of the ground.  

This project on this contractor's end is probably going to drag out for a while. They are busier than I even knew and they have crews - but there are spread out and working all over the place.  The best I can do is just keep texting the dude. This guy said he can't even call the owner, he doesn't answer even for his own employees.  I get it, the dude is busy. He is out looking for new work as well as overseeing current projects. I don't know if he's spreading himself too thin. I just know I will have to keep after him to keep things moving along.  

I don't expect this project to be finished by summer. When I say that, I mean everything in place, not just utilities and the things this company is going to do.  But I can see that getting the septic installed and the electric is going to take a while. I may have gotten a bit ahead of myself on water tap installation and electric - but  hey - it's done and it's there.  They aren't charging me anything extra for that power pole installation, it's just there.  I told them what I intend on doing, I guess they expect to make a good profit off of it, win-win.  

I can remain hopeful of a summer opening, of course.  But I'm not going to have a meltdown if it doesn't happen.  I've watched parks being built taking a few years to go up.  And I want things done right, I don't want half-@$$ed anything that is permanent in nature.  But, I can have shed style laundry room, I  no longer see a problem with that since it is temporary, serves the purpose and if someone doesn't like it, oh well. Bathhouse the same. Cabin shed setup at best.  A permanent shower setup will be a cabin appearance, as well as a laundry room. I have lots of plans for the property. Plans are more than goals in my view. They are things that will be done at some point or another.  Not, might be done if I can.  

The money is out there. I just don't want any substantial loans right now.  Let's just get done what I can with what I have - or if I have to get a small personal loan to finish things off, that's fine as well.  But I won't be in a debt-hole to start off with.  Land payment, sure, already paying that. A little more for my house payment in Phoenix, okay.  Anything more than that? Sparingly, like, exactly what I need and no more and make sacrifices if necessary.  

Oh, I spent the entire day at the yard in Brownsville yesterday.  They only brought in one empty at around 11:00 am and the other driver got that one.  I thought another was coming right after - but it didn't show up until around 8:00 pm last night. I did get my LLC application started and paid for.  These are all the steps along the way.  It might take a minute for all of that to get done.  I'm not having power or water turned on until I'm informed they need it to do the install. Cause', after that, there are monthly fees regardless of whether you are using the utility or not.  

I also got approval for a vacation from dispatch for the end of this month. We want to go to the Riverwalk in San Antonio.  I have tens of thousands of points on my credit cards and after consideration, found one property that we want because it has an indoor pool, is close to the river walk and has a separate bedroom and living room.  I just can't sleep in the same room with other people if those other people snore.  It's not a judgment, lol, it just keeps me awake.  I snore, everyone in this house snores. Even the 7 year old snores - not very loud but it's there.    It is what it is, but my sleeping environment has to be "perfect" or sleep just doesn't happen.  Having a separate room should eliminate that problem.  

If I have to be honest about this, my own snoring has awakened me.  Lol.  

Well, it's a quarter of 9, not terribly late and I have a 9:00 am load appointment, but I think this old man is going to crawl into bed, watch a bit of tv and go to sleep.

 By far the worst I've ever seen this yard.  Brownsville, Texas drop yard that is. It has been raining so much down here that the yard is nothing but a giant mud pit.  There are barricades up in the back portion where you have to go to turn around, it's that bad.  Many of the parking spots back there are just feet deep worth of mud, nothing you would want to back a semi trailer into and get that mud all caked up in and around everything under the tandems.  

It was definitely the first time I had ever seen barricades in the middle of the yard, unbelievable. These people need to fix this permanently by paving the entire yard.  They already tried putting gravel down, it worked for a while - but now this. It was dark or I would have taken some pics of that nonsense, maybe tomorrow morning when I have to go back over there to wait.  

Very unwanted situation also hit me when I entered the yard and there were no empties there> I say there because that yard is so horrible I came up to the truck stop to spend the night.  I wanted an empty there this time so I could hook to it and be out of there first thing in the morning after required 10 hour break. Yes I like detention pay money but sometimes going home is better.  

I want to see if they actually started today and see how much they got done.  I would have gotten back to the yard by around 3:30 pm and hoofed it over to the property by 4:10 and see what they have gotten done.  I don't suspect it's going to take them too long to clear that stuff out of there with that giant machine and if they have an experienced operator at the helm.  

And I'd like to get those lots officially marked out for them to start the project of installing the utilities including the septic system.  Well, the septic system is subject to the State of Texas whims and run through the county fire department.  That probably doesn't happen overnight, they have to get permit to do anything and undoubtedly the fire marshall or someone from that department has to come out and inspect the proposed location of the vaults.  

Well, it's getting late. I was looking at resort style hotels in San Antonio. We still want to vacation at the River Walk.  Just that James work was screwing with him and playing games with his hours and they thought he'd have to find another job.  The hours are apparently back on track tho I have no idea how long that is going to last, I had put off vacation until they figured out his job situation. If he was going to change jobs, he wouldn't be able to get off.  As it stands, he has 4 day work week so we are planning a 3 night stay.

Just trying to find a very nice hotel that has a nice indoor pool that is also close to the River Walk that also has one room with a separate bedroom and a sofa bed. No sense in paying for 2 rooms if we don't have to.  I don't know, but I think I found a hotel that has all of that, I need to call the hotel and make sure what I'm seeing is actually what is reality. 

Yawn, tired, g'nite.  

This guy really doesn't communicate too much lol.  I went over to the property today - and it was a really beautiful day, took the dogs with me - to see if they had shown up yet to start this project.  

No one there.  Drove to the back and walked to the west side, to the rear of the place.  There is a nice stand of pine trees over there. There are stands of them in various places but this one I really like.  But that area isn't for me.  It's where I want to put some tent camping sites.  But this time, I was really honing in on how I could get people back there without even using the easement up the hill.

I'd rather not use it because it's a very good drop off there.  Would be a very steep drive for anyone to drive their vehicle back in there.  I don't really envision cars driving back there even on a better road setup, it's got to be pickups only. 

Anyway, I want to start with two of them back there and another one further up, sort of off to the side of the gas well operation, but in another stand of pine trees.  I plan on making a trip to the local state park at Caddo Lake to see what they offer for tent sites.  What I mean is, what do they do for the tents? Just an open area? Some kind of platform?  Like if it rains and water is running through, something that elevates them off the ground? 

I never tent camped like that but I'm taking it campsites put some sort of platform in and some of them put in sand pits.  These will be primitive sites. There will be nothing offered beyond a campfire pit, a picnic table and a place to park the vehicle beyond the tent site.  It's a very beautiful, serene, peaceful area.  

Addler was so happy to be back there that he was tromping around all over the place, making all kinds of noise. I had to call both dogs over and make them sit and be still.  I wanted to hear whatever sounds there were to hear.  Nothing but nature, I was hoping.  The breeze flowing through the trees. This is exactly what my version of tent camping is.  

The property is a real gem and the price tag on it was even better.  My overlooking it at the get go was only because I found places I thought were better.  Well, one of them I still really wish I could have gotten, but I see now that what I have is much better. Much more land, city water, internet is right there, close to the city yet definitely not the city feel at all.

I  tracked what I thought would be a good road to build into that area back to where the well site is and then, found a much better approach to driving back there than anything I had seen before.  I mean, it has to be cleared but it's not that much that has to be moved out of the way.  I plan on spending some time with this contractor back there and showing him what I want done in terms of trails, a road, leveling some camp sites.  I expect at least 5 grand more added to the price tag.  So beit.  These are must haves in my view.

Back to the vehicle, but I was looking at the other above ground pipe setup.  They just repainted all of it.  They don't ask permission, lol, that's all their stuff, I just see it after the fact.  They also completely cleared out the corner that was overgrown the last time I saw it - which was not too long ago.  See, I like them taking care of that stuff. Less for me to do or pay someone else to do.  

Stopped again and listened to the sounds.  The cattle rancher was out there so the cows were howling, that's what I call it anyway. It's beyond mooing, they start making a lot of loud noises when someone they know comes along and they figure they're bringing them food.  That didn't last long.

The only real, annoying noise is the train.  Most trains fly through the tracks, you hear them a couple of minutes at most and that's that.  This trains?  It honks every couple of seconds.  2 short blasts.  Wouldn't be a big deal but it must be traveling really slow because you can hear it for 15 minutes.  I've heard it a couple of times out there and today was one of those times.  It just went on for so long.  

Still, the noise people must be hearing at all of these sites right next to Interstates and major highways is constant and loud.  So a bit of annoyance here and there? I'm not going to worry about it.  The only way to get out of all of the noises altogether is to go well out of town and well off the beaten trail and then? Good luck getting people out there unless it's its own destination spot that has plenty of stuff to do.  

Well, off to make a donation.  A person's mobile home burned down yesterday and they needed help and were asking for donations. I remembered when my house burned down and all the help I got.  I had to do something.  The post was just asking for stuff, I just wanted to give money. Yes, they will need other stuff - there were pictures of the house while it was burning down form the local fire department, total loss.  So I went to the bank and yes, they had an official account set up for it.  

Dollar General, Kroger's, an oil change place and then Chili's later, I texted the contractor.  When is the start up date?  I need to know.  I need a date.  I mean, yes, if weather is bad such as it has been I can see it. But give me a date so I have something to latch onto, not these endless generalities.  It took a while to get an answer.  Tomorrow.  Followed by "wanted to make sure it was dry". 

So, tomorrow, they are going to be out there dealing with all of that stuff.  I will be heading down to Brownsville, unfortunately, I'd rather be home for the beginning of this.  But he understands my ribbons, that's pretty easy, the rest of the stuff comes out and they will put it in huge piles. It will dry out and eventually can burn it. That stuff can go down at the other end where I'm not going to be doing anything for a while with the land.  

The day of reckoning is coming.  I will have to make decisions.  My mind is all over the place.  If I have to sacrifice one thing for another - keeping costs down and trying to make money versus getting into a lot of debt - there are things I think I can compromise on, in my own mind if with no one else.  A simple barn shed that costs a few thousand dollars (or less) can work for laundry.  People want laundry.  I can see it.  They don't want to have to wait at a laundromat, they want to be able to just do it wherever they are staying.  

Perhaps the same setup for a single bathhouse if I can do nothing more.  Just a small shed thing with a full bathroom including shower in it.  

Or no bathhouse to start with and let's get this going.  In my mind, walking trails and a pond are more important. 

I'm going to wait on some of these decisions to see what I have left after the basic stuff is installed, paid for and over with.  Well, I guess just the price tag, whether it's done or not, so I can figure out what I have left over and what I can do without spending anything more than what I have left and leaving some working capital.  What I'm kind of not knowing right now is the cost of the driveways and the pads.  I'm guessing another 20 - 25 grand.  That's going to eat up a lot and I will still have wifi after all of that to install.  

Yes, I will take out another small, personal loan - if I absolutely have to - but right now, my thinking is to get whatever I can get going - going. Save up as much of the income as possible and expand.  After everything is all said and done - whether I get a pool loan or not is unknown at this point, no decision on that yet - the next priority will be to double the number of sites.

I'm not feeble minded, I'm just trying to figure out what I really should have based on the information I have before starting this endeavor up..  14 sites won't be much, but if I can fill them up it will be more than enough.  People will come - I think - if the right amenities are in place.  WiFi is one of the highest if not the highest priorities and I want that to be right regardless of start up expense.  If you have good WiFi, you will get the reviews to back it up.  If you have bad WiFi, you will get those kinds of reviews to cast a pall over your operation.  It's really that important to many of the people that come into those places.

It's rather perplexing to me, because if I were full time RV'ing, I would just have what I have now as a truck driver: unlimited Verizon with unlimited Hotspot.  I wouldn't rely on the campsite for it.  But if there is one complaint that stands out above all the rest of it, its the idea of a campground having bad wifi.  And even worse, if  a campground claims on their website they have good wifi - but you get there and it sucks. 

Okay, I have an early rise tomorrow.  My mind is refilled with thoughts again now that the construction is finally going to begin.  This has been a long road and it's not even half over yet.

 Trip to Oklahoma yesterday? Mixed bad

I forgot that my fuel gauge isn't working and paid a good price for forgetting.  10 miles on the Interstate going to work and the thing started dying. It slowly droned down to zero miles per hour and I knew I was screwed. Sunday, early morning, no one awake, no one answering the phone.  An app to get help? No luck nor tow trucks. 5 miles to the nearest gas station.  Eventually James came and rescued me.  That SUV holds 33 gallons of fuel and yes, it took just short of 33 gallons to fill it up.

Off to work.  Fire up the tractor, get my stuff and - find out the cab heat isn't working. It is cold here, at least my version of it, anything below freezing is cold to me.  

Anyway, the rest of the trip was a nothing-burger.  Snow on the side of the road, no snow on the road and no ice.  Up to the plant, drop and hook, back to the yard. Very possible to do it in a day if the trailer is already loaded and you don't have to waste the time going to the plant and doing all of that.

Birthday - was wonderful.  Fattening, but cool.  My stomach is just popping out too much.  I am on my 38th hour of a water only fast - well there is a little black coffee in there too to keep from getting headaches - but yeah, it's time to get serious about the diet.  I've done enough cheating, the fat is piling on, time to reverse that.  Fasting will get ketosis fired up again quickly, it did the last time I tried it a month or two ago.  

Crypto - mixed results. One of them is up 40% - I dumped $100 into that when I bought it.  That's a good rate of return. Others are up a little and a few are down a little.  I could see how if a person could hit one right and dump a large sum of money into it, you could get some serious gains quickly. Of course, you could also lose it.

No, I'm not dumping my park money into it, this is all money that comes from paychecks.  I'm about $250 cash into it, probably going to do a couple thousand after I get acclimated to how this stuff works.  So far, I am seeing everything I have bought go way up - and then crash way down - and up and down like a roller coaster ride.  I guess you just have to hit it when it goes up and get out of it quickly.  But - none of them stay down lower than what I paid for it, eventually it goes back up again.  I mean, if you had 100k and got a 40% increase 3 days later - well do the math.  

But, like gambling or the stock market, it has risk attached to it and therefore, I'm not jumping in the deep end. It's just something I've been looking at for a while and wondering why I don't at least give it a try.

Property? No idea. The trackhoe is over there, I'm home, going to load up the dogs and go over there ina bit and see if they have actually shown up to commence operations.  That's all I know, everything is is ready for them, the only change I made was moving the park another 75 feet south to the edge of the gas line easement. This creates a huge swath of room for a large dog park that won't interfere with other plans.  People want a large dog park, I'm going to give it to them. The only cost is putting a fence around it, a gate, installing a dog doo post with a trash can and plastic bags and grow some grass.  Probably the cheapest amenity I will have that people really want.  

As for all the other amenities, I am just holding back until the utilities are installed.  My view of it changes with passing time.  Perhaps the park could have a "soft opening" with nothing more than the utilities at each site and the doggy park, advertising it as such in bold print so people are not going to be able to say they were mislead. Well - and the walking trails.  I want those done as well.  That might cost a couple thousand to finish them but the end result will be worth it.  If I limit amenities at the get-go, I also reduce the cost of liability insurance.  It would be nice to have a couple of washers and dryers there, tho.  And I am going to have to have someplace to put the wifi hardware.  

I can simply offer a reduced fee for a soft opening and if I can keep the place filled or mostly filled, I will still turn a nice profit to begin with.  

Am I sold on this line of thinking? No. Just thoughts - wondering how much all of this gravel and pads are going to cost that might eat up whatever I have left in available cash.  It's 56k for the full hook ups and then whatever after that for gravel/pad creation and whatever after that is for the dog park and whatever else I can afford.  I'd like to not have to take out any personal loans.  I have around 120k available to do whatever I can get done.  

I have conflicting thoughts on amenities right now, is my problem. Yes, I can buy a cabin shed - it's just a shed with a porch - and have an office with a couple of showers.  But - is that what I want permanently? No.  I want a log cabin - a real log cabin - setup.  I go back and forth in my mind with this. "If I buy the cabin shed, what will I do with it if I have a cabin built?".  "Use it to start a parking lot style RV park that is just overnighters stopping on their way to somewhere else".  "So, buy more land?". "Yes, you were going to do that anyway, a couple of acres right off the Interstate".  "But I wouldn't be able to do that for years". "So?  You weren't going to upgrade to a building like that for years, either".  

That is my thought process, lmao.  Don't tell me y'all don't get into arguments with yourself over tough decisions lol.  

Yes, I thought about the Google reviews and what might happen with a soft-opening, but if I advertise it truthfully - this is what I have, this is what you are going to get when you arrive here - type of thing, what can they say? Well, they can say anything, that's for sure and some of them will, that's also guaranteed.  Nit pickers and people generally unhappy in life will poop on everyone else's parade regardless of how good a setup it is.  I could have a perfect park and someone will find fault with it and they will publish their discontent. 

The biggest priority on people's list - I have been researching this for a while now - is good wifi, a doggy park, lots of room for the pads. People are sick of tiny parks with small lots that have no room between sites.  My latest post in a giant RV tips group - I didn't see a single person say anything about a bath house. That was kind of odd.  Many wanted a pool or a place to swim, many more said they didn't care about a pool. Some want concrete or paved roads and pads. That's a no-go.  Think gravel is expensive? Try having asphalt roads and pads installed. 

The fact of the matter is, is that I'm coming to the point of a reckoning.  I'll have to decide what I have to have and what I don't have to have and move forward accordingly.  What's going to bring them, what might be appealing to a certain crowd of them, what isn't really that big of a deal that I don't need.  

To that end, I am going to go to a nearby state park with a lake and see how they have their campgrounds set up. Tent camping that is.  I don't know if they put some kind of sand pit or what for the tents or if it's just like the good ole's days, find a level spot on the ground and pitch the tent. I always went tent camping with air mattresses, which I assume a lot of people still do. Still, I'd like to see how the state parks do it just to get an idea since I do want to have a few tent camping spots as well.  

With that, I am out of here, going over to the property and see if anything is going on. If it is, there will be pics or maybe a live video stream on my Fakebook page.

 It dawned on me that they will probably start this project on Monday.  So, if on Sunday I get an early enough start - which I will - I should be able to make it a day trip.  That's because the trailer is already loaded and I won't have to drive to the plant  and in the plant, wasting around 32 minutes of drive time while doing so.  

The roads should be fine by then, they have already cleared up quite a lot since I checked earlier today, looking at GPS and most of the red line stuff is gone.  Getting it done will have me home on Monday unless of course this rather - edgy - dispatcher is looking to get me on the road again.  She claims she is short-handed, we'll see if that rubber actually meets the road.  i don't need to be there for them to start the operation, not at all.  The trees are plainly marked that I want to keep up with bright pink ribbon.  

I went over to the property today to drop off the contract and tried to open the gate lock but the wheels you turn to align the numbers were frozen. I stopped smoking cigars a while back so I didn't have a cigar torch with me, just ended up leaving. It was cold out, I just wanted to see if they had taken any equipment to the back, the owner of the company had asked for the code a few days ago.  

The 7 year old was with me, he wanted to go as long as he could bring his new Nintendo Switch, lol.  We ended up at Applebee's eating lunch and then home for the rest of the day, watching some Disney flick this evening, - the entire family - a movie called Encanto.  James and Taylor went to the local movie house for movie style popcorn, they already had the movie. Anyway, I don't often watch Disney cartoon style movies anymore but this one was entertaining.  

I did by some more crypto currency today.  $100 worth this time.  I'm sort of dipping my toes into these waters and trying to figure out how it works.  I have 6 of them now and they move up and down.  If you could figure out when it's going to move up and buy before it does that, well, like day trading on the stock market seems to me.  I'm going to dabble in it for quite a while before I decide to dump, say, a grand into one of them and watch it on whatever day I would do it on and see if I can dump it at a higher price.  Still trying to figure out how this stuff works.  

I sort of feel like it's a younger generation's platform.  But I see nothing wrong with taking a gamble.  Right now I'm maybe $20 ahead of what I've spent. It was up higher but several of them dropped their value.  

Anyway, in an RV park buy/sell group I'm in, a person posted the results of a question he posed to get the pulse of RV'ers. ""If you could tell RV park and campground owners one thing... what would that be?" He posted pages and pages of answers on a PDF file. So, I decided to ask the same question in an RV Tips group I'm in. That's RV'ers, not RV managers and buyer's sellers The answers were predictable but I wanted to refresh my memory.

:Larger sites - when they say that they mean wider. So many pars are sardine can style. Good wifi. Rules that are enforced. Pool, laundry room, pull-through sites. Large dog park with grass. Lots of other stuff that I have seen over and over. Since this thing appears to be at a starting point, I want to get refocused. I've kind of gotten away from it because this has been dragging out for so long. I do drive by or to the property frequently. It's like, here it is, let's get this going.

I really just want to get this money spent on what it needs to go to. I figure I'll be down 50 grand pretty quick after they get this land clearing up, going and done.

Anyway, that's it, lol, g'nite.

 Finally.

Well, first the work situation today.

I knew it was going to be bad up in Oklahoma, but I didn't know how bad.  The forecast continued to change over night until the point it seemed and untenable undertaking.  But, I showed up at the yard, hooked up the truck, went to the plant and that's - where all the trouble started. 

Not with the plant, but with my dispatcher.  She called me and said that another driver who left for the plant up in Oklahoma yesterday was stuck at a truck stop. I was all gung ho, let's go, come what may.  Then the driver sent her a pic of a snow covered road and commented that no one is moving. There were no tracks in the snow and I couldn't tell if it was iced over, but if this driver said he was stuck, he's stuck.  

This led to me reminding her I have Saturday off and her saying I said "if possible", my replying you said I could after I had asked and then her telling me that she didn't have anyone to replace me.  Well who is going to drive up there? They're going to get 170 miles out and then what?  Sit like the other driver is? What sense does that make?

Back and forth until I just contacted my manager - if anyone will save my day off, it will be him.  

Then the dispatcher called me and told me I am calling to tell you I don't appreciate you being rude, blah blah blah. I wasn't being rude, I was telling what she had told me and that there is no way anyone is going up to the plant today anyway, it's too dangerous.  My manager had told me that national guard had been called out and they were directing people off the highway.  

I then looked on GPS and that told the entire story. The entire span of the Indian Nation Turnpike had various hues of red - meaning stopped or very slow moving traffic.  No thanks. My manager then said something about the roads being bad through Saturday and he didn't have a problem with me taking the load on Sunday. I didn't ask for Sunday, I was just insisting on having my Saturday off.  I'm sorry they can't cover it, I rarely ask for time off and when I do, I want it off. 

What happens if I decide to go to the high school 40 year reunion in may, buy airplane tickets - or drive not sure which - and they tell me no?  Nah, fam, we aren't doing that.  

I dunno, but at the end of it, the dispatcher wasn't talking to me, my manager promised heartily that there wouldn't be any retribution, ie: my on the dispatcher's s*** list because I wanted the day off and that I could just take the load out on Sunday. He probably called up to the plant, told them situation and they just - what are they going to do?  If we can't get up there, there is nothing anyone can do, period.

So, I took the loaded trailer back to the yard, parked it, went into the manager's office. He wanted to show me what he can see on these new cameras - they believe the inward facing cameras aren't even turned on. I don't know, I don't trust them.  But, he showed me on 3 different incidents where - someone cut me off and were directly in front of me - "all they want to see is that when that happens, you hit the brakes or let off the fuel".  I tend to stay up on them so I can pass them since they cut me off and are going slower than me and if I back off, more care will cut me off leaving a net zero differnce.  

He then showed another driver who was riding a car's @$$ in front of him, I mean right up that car's @$$.  That was rather dangerous.  And then another where the light was turning red but he didn't hit the brakes, until the last second and then had a "sudden deceleration event" otherwise known as hard braking.  "He wasn't paying attention, I can tell ya that".  

It's exactly what I thought it would be.  

____________________

Friday morning.  Looking at GPS of the road up to Tulsa - unbelievable!  It's almost ALL red lines, including probably 85% of the Indian Nation Turnpike.  I-40 going through Tulsa area is nothing but solid red.  I would be stuck up there right now, sitting there scratching my head wondering why I agreed to take this load with these conditions?  Because we do not get paid for foul weather conditions where you are forced to sit somewhere and wait for the weather to pass. Now if that were true, I'd be happy to sit in it with full fuel tanks, a refrigerator full of food and enough water and coffee pods to make cups of hot coffee.  Yesterday, I had a refrigerator full of food, I thought about the idea that if I was going to get stuck somewhere, I wasn't going to starve.

Fortunately I went through the ordeal with the dispatcher to get out of it.  That other driver must still be stuck at that truck stop, or, he is going 3 mph or whatever for hundreds of miles.  I don't have to take the load up until Sunday and I'm going to leave early.  I don't have to load, the truck is loaded, if the roads are cleared by then I should be able to make it a day trip.  Well, unless there are no empties up there, I'm not sure what I'm going to run into in that department.  

My crypto experiment is interesting. I'm not doing it like I think these guys making the dough off of it are. I have 5 different versions of it and now I'm almost $50 ahead.  I'm rich!  But I can see how if you dump enough money in to any given currency and IF it goes up, you could make a ton of money in just a single day.  I'm not that brave, but I'll probably put a few hundred more into it and maybe start moving some of it around if it goes up substantially.  

As for today? Well I have to go to the property and drop off the letter I sent to apparently the wrong address that has the signed contract for the land clearing.  With the machinery I saw on my land yesterday, I can see them getting it done in days, definitely not weeks. That track hoe is huge, I'm happy they have equipment like that, this portion of it won't drag on forever.

However, I can easily predict they won't be out there today.  It snowed over night, the ground is probably hard and pulling out the trees will be - harder and maybe not get the roots out.  I want all of those tree roots out of the ground, I want nothing left to start growing again. I have already seen some of the trees I cut down to maybe a few inches out of the ground have shoots coming out of them. They are nothing but giant weeds.  I still insist on leaving some of them up, but not too many.  

Oh, it wasn't that much snow but it stuck and is still there.  

Ugh. I wanted to take the dogs for a walk but there is snow and it's below freezing.  I guess they might still want to go? Addler will freeze, lol.  

Done with this one, g'day. 

 A rare Illinois trip, over and done with, just short of 1,700 miles round trip.  I also dodged a bullet, severe winter weather is heading into Missouri and Illinois.   Another driver allegedly up there today, I don't envy him.  I was very glad when I got up to the plant that they got the thing unloaded and had me out of there in around 4 hours.  I've spent as much as 18 hours waiting at that particular plant.

No rhyme or reason why we got these runs, they only order them through trucks when the rail cars are showing up late and the chemical company that loads our trucks gave those contracts - the 2 Illinois plants - to the competitors out of spite for our company and the actions they took against the previous manager.  

I suppose it's a good thing for them that we don't just say no thanks, you didn't want us to do those loads at all, find someone else. Of course, there is noone else, save a company that has 2 trucks dedicated to that particular product but only haul back and forth to Houston area and another company that hauls it's own product for their company.  

Thinks are slowing down with drivers coming back into the rotation after being out for various reasons.  A good and bad thing for me I guess.  Means I'll likely be going back to having a day off in between runs.  I mean, I made excellent money last year in spite of that so I'm not going to complain.  I did ask for my birthday off which is on Saturday and the only thing I got back was "I'll try my best".  

That isn't good enough. If any of us asks for time off, it's either yes or no, not - gee, it might happen or it might not.  I won't have a cow if I don't get it off but anything important that I must have off? I'll just have to pass that through my manager who will get it done. 

So yes, I have tomorrow off and then they will only be able to give me a 2 day run before Saturday - if she gives me anything at all.  I'd prefer an Oklahoma run since 2 day trips to Brownsville are never guaranteed.  

Considering running for City Council election coming up in May. I have until the 17th of February to file the affidavit.  Why? because the town is run by a bunch of liberals, people who do not understand contracts and construction companies and have no sense of real priorities, such as the city's crumbling infrastructure.  Underground water mains and sewer lines are 50 plus years old. They continue to patch  the problems, the council doesn't even discuss a plan to replace the system.  They're building sidewalks while the roads are falling apart. Literally everyone complains about the streets but the city doesn't even discuss it.  

People bring rogue ideas for consideration - such as putting people into jail for having old, rotting houses on their properties.  They agreed with the state to reduce the speed limit on the Interstate going through town without even asking citizen' input.  The things that matter to citizens doesn't matter to them - at all.  They only meet twice a month and it doesn't cost me anything to file.  I won't be putting up posters or doing much of anything.  The other person in my district running is also a no-name person that no-one knows either.  

What is the city doing to encourage development of housing projects? Apparently nothing since you see none going up. You might see a single house going up here and there, the city's planning and development manager is a person that apparently isn't interested in seeing the city grow.  I've listened to the meetings on zoom while on the road, appalling.  If it's nothing more than filling in some forms and walaah, I"m going to do it.  I can participate Zoom - as they have been doing anyway since covid started. Some have finally come back to City Hall for the meetings, some are still doing Zoom calls.  It's basically a volunteer position, I don't think there's any money involved with it or if there is, it's certainly not enough to live off of.  

They have no vision and the city is paying for it.  There is a huge lack of rental housing and I don't know why developers don't want to come to the city to build housing.  There have been various business projects going up over the few years, the most notable is a new Chick-fil-a that's going up on the main highway - they are dumping some serious money into that thing.  But they keep building and there simply isn't enough population here to sustain it. They rely on highway 59 traffic passing through, but when Interstate 69 is all done, it will go around the city, not through it as it currently does and they will lose a lot of that business.  It needs a modern sports complex for famliies/kids.  I could go on and on......

I asked a while back if they even considered writing grant requests for the infrastructure and received no reply.  The state and the feds will give huge grants to replace water and sewer systems, not sure about roads and streets. Anyway, I intend on going to city hall and getting the application packet.  The worst that can happen is I don't get voted in.  Oh well, not the end of my life, but I have complained about a lot of this stuff, the only answer for me now is to simply do something about it.  I've done plenty of volunteer work in my life time - 5 years on the mission field and 10 years on a Little League board doing just about everything.  Not to mention church service, it's not like I am new to the world of volunteering or understanding how an organization works and what it takes to keep things running.  

But just keeping things running isn't good enough, you have to have a vision and have to want to see it through.  Anyway, the person that is leaving the council is being forced to because they have term limits here.  At this point, I am going to say that term limits would be a very good thing for Congress.....

Well that's enough of this.  I'm going to bed early.  

 There isn't much nice to be said about getting to the plant early - after being asked by plant personnel - and then having to wait an extended period of time for the other personnel in the scale house to actually do their jobs and get drivers out of there in a short amount of time.  Versus sitting on the scale both coming in and out for long periods of time just waiting for them to take the weight and save it and then going in and waiting with other drivers eternally, wasting the clock, wasting the day and generally wondering why am I still doing this job? Well I don't have any choice atm, is the easy answer.  There are plenty of jobs where I live, but they are either all low paying or it's skilled labor - for skills I don't have. 

The days drag on with this profession, some days I'm good, other days I'm not so good with it. Today was a "not so good with it" day.  It just dragged on until after 10:00 pm when I finally got to the Choctaw Travel Plaza - I believe this is Grant, Oklahoma - where I stop frequently for the night.  Just seemed like it took forever to get to the end of the day. It didn't help that a J B Hunt truck was going so slow on a 48 mile stretch of highway that is 2 lanes and only 1, real, passing lane.  There was a very long line of traffic stuck behind him - but when we got to this 4 lane stretch for passing, about a mile long, he suddenly was going something like 75 mph.  And then, back to 2 lanes? Yup.

Doing it on purpose.  

Whatever. 

I was looking at this sheds on both the Home Depot and the Lowe's sites today. It suddenly dawned on me that they sell them as well.  Their prices are much better but they simply don't have the right style.  I guess I don't necessarily care too much about style if affordability rules the roost, but so far I have only found them with barn doors.  I need a regular door on it, like the cabin sheds have.  

This is one I found on another site. It's 14X20, the pic is deceiving, makes it look much smaller. It's 12 grand plus $539 I think to build it if I don't want to build it myself (which I don't, simply don't have the time for it).  That is Wayfair site, which has a large selection of them. The drawback? Those doors.  I do like it tho, other than that and I'm sure the doors will work. It would be a combo small office/laundry/at least one shower/bathroom combo for men's and women's rooms.  

Certainly not sold on that one, still looking atm.  I'll be stopping by both Lowe's and Home Depot in Longview on the way home from work tomorrow - they are conveniently located next to each other lol.  Home Depot has a huge selection of them, but it's something I have only glanced at previously, nothing I took a good hard look at.  There is a place in Shreveport that has a huge selection, I think that was a Home Depot as well (I don't get to Shreveport much anymore since I quit the Ferguson job 4 plus years ago).  

Oh, an RV park I have been watching them build for almost 2 years now has finally opened up.  It's nothing but an RV parking lot.  There are no trees, no picnic tables, no fire rings, pool, laundry room, nothing. It's just lots all crammed together with a very small office - a portable building such as I am musing but very small - and very gaudy looking. Exactly what I'm trying to avoid. Some of these sheds look great, many of them I think are a turn off for anyone approaching a place and saying, what the heck is this?  So far, I've only seen one rv parked there.  Looks like about 50 lots and very small  

People are trying to cash in on the RV boom.  People are buying RV's at staggering rates and parks are filling up.  But I never got into this with the thought of "cashing in" in mind. Yes I want to make a profit, but it wasn't because there is an RV boom. I didn't even know there was any such thing occurring until I started doing research after I had started looking for the land to build one.  

This RV park is directly next to a very busy and noisy 4 lane highway, I mean, right next to it.  It's pathetic looking, just bare bones minimum garbage.  It's on the way down to Brownsville, I'll be watching it to see if it ever gets any units in there.  In no way am I wishing them bad luck, I just wonder how much thought they put into it.  

Whatever the case, it's almost midnight and time to go to sleep. 

 It was a bit disheartening to find out today the contractor isn't coming on Monday. I keep having to contact him for any updates.  This dude comes highly recommended by numerous people and excellent reviews.  No one in this area has anything bad to say about him/company at all. At least not publicly and I've looked.  So, he told me late next week instead of Monday.  I dunno what to think.  Just wait and see I guess.  I also contacted the other electrician of whom I talked to almost 2 months ago.

I frankly told him that it wasn't really all the great that he obviously just blew me off. It's your company, you can do whatever you please but it also might affect your reputation.  Well it didn't take him long to respond to that.  I kept it pretty short and sweet.  He actually profusely apologized and - made a bunch of excuses of which were of no importance to me, I dismissed him in my mind a while back when it became obvious he wasn't going to do anything that he said he was going to do.  I instead went into a few groups full of people that build RV parks and presented the numbers I had been given by this company I am attempting to use and they said it either looked good or was cheap.  

They seriously couldn't see how I was getting off so low on the septic system. Turns out, other states have much higher minimum gallons per day requirements for a system.  Why? I have no clue.  This state is allegedly 40 gallons per day. Other states are 120 and higher per day.  I've spent plenty of time in RV's, I can't imagine going through that much water.  You get pretty sparing with using it - tho that is usually because you are working with a fresh water tank that might hold 50 gallons of fresh water which doesn't last long if you are just using faucets as normal.  

I've spent a lot of time listening to rich people telling either how they got rich or what you should be doing to protect your money and where you should be stashing it.  One of them is off the cuff but quite humorous.  He had a 5 point plan he was giving today - Don't have anything in your name, either put it in an LLC or corporation, have life insurance with long term coverage, 40ks, annuities and I can't remember the last one. All of this is difficult or impossible to subject to lawsuits was his point.  I'm going to follow some advice to put the land in one LLC and the business in another.  I'm still trying to under C corporations.  

These people know things that most of us don't know.  They have knowledge and some of them will impart it freely.  It's certainly worth the time to at least hear them out.  Not that I intend on becoming filthy rich, but I do need some business knowledge and short of going to school, this is at least something that might help me out.  And most of them will tell you that you won't learn the things they learned from any schools.  

Anyway, Brownsville run over, another run in the morning, but I decided to go home anyway. They have me penciled in for 10:30 load, meaning a bit more morning time to get up and get out of here.  Everyone is in bed at this time of night but the dogs are always happy to see me whatever time it is lol.

I'm going to remain optimistic that this guy is going to finally get freed up and get started on my project. Not like there are a lot of options around here. Well, land clearing is endless contactors, but the rest of it, not so much.  

Time for bed. 

 Brownsville, Texas.

This yard is very unpleasant when it's been raining.  There are standing pools of water everywhere, some of them are huge and all of them are in the only places left to park.  Regardless, no empties but allegedly some coming tomorrow morning.  Fine by me, I don't have to get up at 5: 00 am to leave out of here.  More likely not leaving til mid to late morning.

An old friend - way back to the 80's from the mission field days - trying to hook me up with a friend of hers.  I had to think about that for a while. She's a very attractive, beautiful lady who has had 2 husbands that both abused her in some way that I am not sure of the details.  But I'm not really sure I'm wanting any type of relationship like that right now.  My energies are fairly well exhausted between a rather heavy schedule for driving - albeit and thankfully a couple of days off was nice - and attempting to get the project going.

Relationships take time and energy.  I just think it's kind of a bad time to be thinking about starting something like that with all that I've got going on.  Haven't been looking anyway, even before this project came along, 2 failed marriages seems enough for me.  Haven't really decided on it yet,  just thinking right now not a good idea.

Texas charges $300 to file an LLC.  Lol, there is nothing cheap about this entire proposition.  Endless expenses.  Some advice says to separate the land from the business and have 2 LLC's.  They didn't say anything about the costs of filing them tho, lol.  I'm going to get this thing done soon enough, no desire to tonight, I"m going to bed soon. But I want to start up a bank account for this thing in LLC name, not my own.  I'm going to research this idea of putting the land in a separate LLC from the Business.  I'm thinking reducing liability. Whatever the case, I don't want to have it in my name at all. If you want to sue, you'll have to sue the LLC, thanks. 

Nothing else new over there. Just took the dogs out for a nice long walk and got that marking stuff over with.  Well, I could do more but I've had enough of it.  The circumference is done.  Maybe I'll figure out where the building is going to go and see if I can figure out a few trees to leave up near it.  Someone posted in a Facebook group that they bought a 16X32 building for 12 grand.  12k?  I'm seeing 29k for that size around my area, gag.  

G'nite.  

 If you include Friday being off - I was home by 10:30 am - this is day 3 off.  It is probably prudent upon me to get out there and finish this tree marking project.  It's going to rain today and that is supposed to start at 1:00 pm-ish. So, I'm going to go out and mark the rear that hasn't been marked and just leave the rest.  Anything that needs trees I will simply plant them and 20 years from now it will be good to go, lol.

Seriously, tho, the project is 233 feet wide. There are towering pines on the east side and a variety of mature and very tall and large trees on the west.  I'm tired of marking trees and a portion of the property being tree-less isn't going to bother me.  Plus, on that side, the driveway is still marked with numerous trees. I think besides the southern end = which will probably take 30 minutes to mark off, just leaving a natural barrier between the end of the park and a 10", above ground natural pipeline.  I don't really care what all that stuff looks like, it just needs to stay.  

Today I opened a coin base account, added a method of payment, did the extension and bought $25 worth of some unknown crypto currency.  Going to start investing time to attempting to understand the nuances of buying and selling this stuff. The markets are still going down, so I'm not dumping too much into it to start with.  

Meanwhile, we have Russia talking tough, especially against the US if they deploy troops to the Ukraine.  I'm not a big fan of needless wars that do nothing for the US. I can possibly see sending over armament, but do we really need to engage in another war, especially with a superpower that definitely has nuclear capabilities?  NATO can deal with this as it sees fit.  I think there are wars that were necessary, of course, I don't see this potential conflict as one of them. Same with China and Taiwan.  Now, if either country wants to confront, say, Japan, then we are talking about world aggression and attempts to dominate the world, surely we would get involved then.  But I think the cost of human life would be so great, one has to wonder what cost of life is worth all of this bloodshed, misery and suffering?  Whoever engages in wars doesn't come out without wounds - both to life and treasure.  

Sit back and watch the show, I guess.

Whatever the case, I am going to try to get the rear of the property done today, I think, and also go look at portable buildings, costs and some idea - if these places have any such estimates - on how much to finish the interiors.  I could actually do most of that work myself - if I had the time.  Get an insulation company to come in and blow the walls and subfloor with it, get the electrical, water and sewer line in, put up the drywall, install the outlets for the washerss/dryers and only leave the bathrooms for a professional.  Cause that is a bit out of my league.  It's not going to be cheap, that's all I can say and am prepared mentally for.  It will eat up some finances. Don't really like the idea but it's a necessity to have a successful start up.

I am finding it amusing to see all the anti-biden/harris angst in the liberal media.  Apparently "anyone else would be better than Trump" isn't panning out in real life.  

_________________

Decided to get out there before the rain started. Glad I did. An approximately 400 foot long section of the west side hadn't been done yet. I remembered after getting there that I had run out of tape and also desire that particular day to finish it. This is the side with the "disputed" land and so, I just plan on leaving many of the larger trees up. It did alter my plan for the park setup once I heard this from both the surveyor and then the landowner next door. But it's not the end of the world.

I also decided that I would just go all the way back to a back row of trees and gain an extra 75 linear feet to the south.  That's a gain of approximately 15,000 square feet, provides more area for amenities, the dog park will go back there as well as a potential pavilion of some sort - a bit pricey right now in terms of lumber for construction, but it's in the plan at some point.  A swimming pool, there is lots of room at the back for everything I eventually want to get in there.  The point is that after looking at it, the gas line doesn't come up out of the ground until into the portion where my fence line turns to the west.  So there isn't really anything for anyone to potentially run into that whole back section. Just made sense to keep the pines  back there and a few other trees for appearances sake but get rid of the rest of it in front  of it.

I'm trying to make the best use of this money I'm going to have to spend to clear this portion of land. I don't want to have to go back and take down a bunch of trees. I can see having to take down a few that might have been mis-marked - that's fine.  But let's 98% of it done right off the bat and make the best use of the money. I can plant trees and will undoubtedly be planting both them shrubs - that is also not a priority, just a "down the road" thing. Buy a few here and there, plant them and slowly put them in strategic places.  I did find a huge pine tree in the middle of everything I hadn't seen before. I have no idea whether it will be able to stay up or have to go down once the park is designed, but I'd rather error on the side of "yes, gee, it was in a perfect position!" than, gee, I took it down, a big, beautiful tree and then find out - it could have stayed up.  

Well, the day is wasting away. I finished throwing stuff away in my closet.  That was the aftermath of a rat infestation.  I also got a new baseboard to put across the hole they made to be able to get in there.  Last thing I need to do is bleach the floor, make sure it's cleaned up nicely and then put what's left back in there.  It felt good, honestly, to get rid of stuff I am not using and probably won't ever use. I threw all of the clothes away, the thought of wearing clothes that might have had rat poop on them.  Just no, I can buy new clothing.  We can hear no rats moving around in the attic area.  My desire is if it happens again, we are calling an exterminator the day we hear any of that activity. 

Off to a portable building sales lot.  Well, if the rain doesn't get too heavy.  

G'day. 

I went into the office today after dropping the trailer and hooking up to another one, asking about this new Quaalcomm and the fact it took me quite a while to figure the thing out.  The manager eventually changed the subject to that surveillance system that has cameras facing forward and inward.  "Did anyone tell youi about that". 

I was quite blunt about my feelings of inward facing cameras.  He then said "off the record" and said they were trying to figure out how to silence the microphone. "Oh, I already shut off the camera and the microphone", I replied, since we were "off the record".  The lead mechanic across the hall busted out laughing and said yes, with duct tape!  

Well I figured they knew I had the thing covered up with it. I don't take it off now. I did at first, but then I thought: why?  If they don't like it, I don't care!  My manager informed me that the microphone could probably hear me through the tape. Perhaps, I replied, and hence I have been acting like and insane person making noises and speaking gibberish, singing, ,etc etc etc to the thing. 

They all busted out laughing at that.  Yup, well he then said he'd take a look at some of my recordings and see.  Yeah, don't tell me that, I thought, from the way he was talking it was obvious he had already looked.  So, the next thing will be several - and I mean several - layers of Gorilla version of duct tape.  Probably 4 layers and covering the entire rear of the damned thing.  

If you believe that I should have a camera and a microphone viewing me 24 hours a day while I'm in the truck, I invite you to set up a camera in your bedroom, your living room, your workplace and have a body cam - and make sure you don't turn any of it off for personal conversations.  Or while you're eating.  Or drinking.  Or smoking.  Or whatever.  Please do that and then post links to online access. Then I can watch YOUR ass living YOUR life and then come back and tell me about how companies should have access to it.  

I want to hear every conversation.  Mate, work, friends.  All of it. I want to see your face, all day long. 

Yeah, I thought so.  This is communist China bullshit.  Don't tell me it's in the name of "safety". I've been driving trucks since 1985, I don't need your intrusion in to my private life.  

I started looking at videos, one in particular has a guy taking the thing apart and showing the guts of the thing, including the things that show everything in darkness - hidden behind giant blue tabs.  This is all done to make a person think in the darkness, they can't see anything. I didn't believe that for a nano second, but some drivers will.  

I've been looking at driver comments about these inward facing cameras and most of it is in my line of thinking. I have choice words for all of this s*** but I will refrain.  Y'all don't want to read that kind of stuff, I'm sure, keep it to myself.  I flat out told my manager I quit my last job for inward facing cameras.  

I was then informed that they don't review the inward facing stuff. Lol my ASS they don't, but let's hear it.  WHY did they buy units with the inward facing s*** to begin with?  That's not what they want to know.  Oh, I see, they want lily white, perfect little driving angels that never make mistakes. Might as well fire the entire fleet.  It's a foregone conclusion any of us driving through Houston will get "dinged" and I don't want to hear about it.

I'm already looking for new driving jobs. It's inevitable.  Looking local first.  They aren't going to pay as much as I'm making now but if I can make 75k at least I'm good.  Just have to scale back on "recreational" expenditures.  

Y'all can have your autonomous trucks. Then you can blame computer software for killing people instead of truck drivers.  And, you will watch thieves stealing everything inside of those trucks.  Don't even try to tell me that isn't going to happen after watching several news reports of thieves emptying out rail cars and dumping the contents all over the place in the news.  They aren't going to be able to keep up with that many trucks and driverless trucks will become instant targets for far more than your average, every day thief. Organized crime will  get techs involved with it and try to find ways to take over the computers that are driving those trucks. Whatever they do, thievery is high tech now, these thieves have upped their game in tech and thievery.  

Terrorists from foreign nations could also try to figure out how to over a truck and drive it into  into - whatever. A crowd, a nuclear plant, into other vehicles, buildings, etc.  But truck-jackings will definitely become a thing to common thieves.  What's going to stop them from simply getting in front of one of these trucks, slamming on the brakes and stopping it?  A stolen car, license plate numbers won't matter.  The truck isn't the Batmobile, it's going to sit there and obediently have everything lifted off of it.  

A strange new world we live in, indeed. I'm ready for a simple lifestyle and let's get on with it.  

This stuff - companies scrutinizing your every move - irritates me so much that as much as I abhor the thought, I am actually considering trying to get an SBA loan NOW.  God have mercy on my soul. Yes Lord, please do have mercy on me, but also just the idea of going through all of that yet again. 

Yet, it would get me out of this trucking s*** and I could join the ranks of the older generation hanging up the keys permanently - and continuing to screw the trucking industry which in turn screws the nation.  Truckers don't want to screw the nation, they just want to end this bs.  I find it hilarious and outrageous at the same time that people think we should have this kind of scrutiny. Oh really? Why aren't you advocating for everyone driving cars to be put in the same kind of scrutiny? You know, the majority of the accidents - and hellish ones at that - that are their fault? Oh, those evil TRUCKS! But those angelic cars! Bullshit.  I watch what people are doing in their cars and it's a wonder there aren't millions of accidents a day.  But those BIG trucks!  

GOOD, GET RID OF US!! Vote us out of our pathetic existence!  Something like Defund The Police, it will be "GET RID OF TRUCKS, THE DRIVERS ARE DANGEROUS!". Yes!! Yes Yes Yes!! get rid of all of us RIGHT NOW!!! We are so inherently bad and maligned, and stupid!! Shut trucking down now! Advocate for it, right now! Call you senators and representatives! Get on social media! Talk to the media! Start a drive to get rid of truckers!  I beg you to do that! Please do that! INSTEAD OF SITTING ON YOUR HIGH F***** HORSE, LOOKING DOWN YOUR DAMN SNOOTS AT US.  I am SO sick of this bs and so are so many of my fellow drivers.  They won't be able to get autonomous trucks out fast enough to equalize the numbers of drivers that are quitting NOW.  

It's SO bad that Congress is authorizing a pilot program to allow teenagers to drive trucks across state lines. You don't trust me, an old dude that's been driving 37 years but you'll trust a kid? LMAO!!! YES< GET  AS MANY OF THESE 18 YEAR OLD AS YOU CAN, LET THEM TAKE OVER THE INDUSTRY!

Why is there a shortage of truck drivers? It's not only that they have trouble recruiting people into a loner lifestyle, segregated from society.  It's also because long time drivers are quitting in droves. It's either early retirement or they're finding something else to do. I have read countless posts where drivers that own their own trucks have hung up the keys and their truck is sitting at their house, idle and not hauling freight.  

Oh, but it's such an easy job! I'm not even going to try and defend that anymore.  I'll tell you where to stick it rather than attempt to go into the entire detail of what a truckers life is - most of y'all couldn't stand it. Don't tell me about money, either, are you willing to go out there and trade your life for the road?  If you say yes, your ass better be getting into a truck and then come back after you get trained, get with a trainer in a truck and the out on your own for at least 6 months and then come back and tell ME how freaking EASY it is.  

This s*** pisses me off.  

I know the hellish thoughts I had going through these last two loans yet I can't escape the idea of just getting a huge loan, developing it all at once, get it over with and start a new life . The cons of such a proposition in attempting to get such a loan are so high, however, that it's a giant obstacle in my mind to try and get over it.

Yet, I can assure you, that in the next coming days, I'm going to try and overcome that mind jumble and see if I can find it within myself to just go ahead and do it.  

Not going to write too much about that because I certainly haven't convinced myself that I need to do that.  With only 14 lots, however, I can't live off of that.  

SBA is back in my mind again.  
Far from decided on, just in there.  And will be thinking about it - as well as looking at that infinite paperwork that's still there in my email account - and pondering.  

This post started out with the camera crap and I guess digressing into other negativity that has been eating at me.  Disdain for truckers got old long ago.  You hate trucks and truckers but you would have meltdowns and your way of living would come to an abrupt stop if we all just quit and said fine, live your life how you want to live it without our input : )

Whatever the case, I still have work tomorrow - dunno how long that's going to go on with this particular company - but as long as I have the job, I'm going to do with excellence.  

  So, I texted the owner of the construction company again today. It's Wednesday and it's not that far from a potential starting date of Monday. So I simply asked him if he was still going to be tied up in Dekalb next week?  A few hours later, he replied yes and then another text saying he will be finished next week and will be starting work on my project 2 Mondays from now.  

I'm okay with that. Would have preferred to get it started next week, it is what it is.  Oh and there was another few texts about putting in the gravel, it isn't part of the bid and I wanted to see if he does that as well.  He will basically build me an entire park as far as the driveways, lots, electricity, water and sewer/septic system is concerned.  

The office building - if that's the route I go for also installing showers, which it kind of makes sense right now to do so considering the costs of everything - would be hauled over by the seller and presumably set up by them as well.  Of that, I have no actual clue.  That will be a discussion with them. They do sell those things with a down payment and monthly payments after that, which would help keep from draining my bank account completely dry.  

So, a few things in the offing for fact-finding missions is whatever portable building I will buy, how much it's going to cost to do the interior and also getting quotes on building a swimming pool.  These are the major expenses after the contractor completes his work, the rest of it will be minor compared to the costs of these things.  I"d actually like to get under contract with them and get the prices set.  

However, the pool requires financing and tho I believe I can get financed, that's not set in stone. I looked at few pool financing options today, pretty high interest rate, I'll keep looking.  I don't need an $800 per month payment on a pool.  That just sounds like a lot of money for such a thing.  But, those were personal loan rates, I'm going to see about other types of loans with potentially lower interest rate.  

The cash out money was wired into my account today. I have all the money I'm going to get for this venture without having to borrow more money.  If you skip the pool, I have enough to pay for everything, I think, without any more loans.  Beyond the office/bath house/laundry room facility, there's advertising, signs, picnic tables, fire rings, a doggy park, grass seed/install, probably a lot more minutia I'm just not trying to think of right now. It was just encouraging to at least get a date set for the ground breaking and also the money coming in to my account.

The refi ordeal is over. Next is to pay off some debt.

If you're questioning my pool desire, it's an absolute necessity IMO.  If I'm lucky, I'll be opening by summer time. It gets hot here.  If I want people to come year round, it's going to be because I have something for them to do - year round including summer time.  A pool doesn't make your park a destination in and of itself, but it definitely adds to the appeal.  It will suck into my initial opening phase profits, of course.  It will pay off keeping  the place full (I'm hoping) and certainly when the park is expanded.  

Oh, I'm in Brownsville again.  Last 6 out of 7 trips have been to Brownsville. I was pretty annoyed when I showed up to work this morning, got in the truck to fire it up and was greeted with a new Quaalcom ELD.  I didn't know they were even considering replacing them.  No announcement was made and I had no clue how to operate the thing. Much different than the one they replaced it with.

It took a while for it to even get running and then, a lot of stuff was missing and a few things weren't even working, such as the ability to actually get into on-duty mode and log my pre-trip inspection.  It eventually worked.  

After loading this morning and driving down the road, it dawned on me that this thing might just have a camera on it.  It took 2 seconds to locate the camera and the microphone, both of which I covered with 2 layers of duct tape.  This is a non-starter for me.  I don't care what they think about me covering it up and I'm not trying to hide the fact that I'm doing it.  If they don't like it, we can part ways. This is a line they can't cross with me, this makes a total for 4 cameras that have in this truck.  2 front facing and 2 inward facing with 3 separate units.  

It is a given they can't afford to lose any more drivers, but this company will cut off it's nose to spite it's own face type of thing.  They don't care - and therefore, neither do I. I'm not married to this company, I am not under contract to this company, if they want to force their surveillance s*** down my throat, they can have their truck back and I will find employment elsewhere - without the effing cameras.  I don't care what anyone thinks about this, either and I frankly don't want to hear about it.  I have lived without these damned cameras my entire trucking career until this company.  

That particular subject irritates me.  Especially the part about the COO promising that they will only install forward facing cameras.  Liar.  

Enough of this.  I'm a bit cranky, I woke up in the middle of the night and spent 3 hours trying to get back to sleep.  Just the way it is with me, I either sleep like a log or I don't hardly sleep at all.  My afternoon nap when I stopped for my break? I would have probably slept for hours if I hadn't set an alarm on my clock.  I'm hooked up to an empty - no detention pay this time - get up at 4:45 am and get back up to Longview.  

Not to mention other things going on that I cannot - well I will not - go into on the internet.  These are hard times for some people, is what I will say about that.  And my oldest brother - I have no idea how he's faring after he became deathly sick with a Covid booster shot.  My son is feeling better at least.  My mother is doing okay as well.  We can only live one day at a time and thank God for His goodness and mercy that He freely gives us.  If we're looking to the future for "better days", probably a good time to stop and think about that assessment.  You are not guaranteed tomorrow - or months or years beyond that.  I'd like to be alive and in decent health another 30 years, but I face the reality on a daily basis that people are constantly dying all around us - and all different ages - and you could be next. 

I don't dwell on it in a negative sense, I just think how wonderful it is to be alive, even if there are tough times going on in the economy and inflation.  There are always tough times in some sector/aspect of life.  Just have to make the best of whatever is going on and enjoy life.  If you think I'm a completely negative person, think again. This is my blog and I just write the thoughts as they come to me.  The land and house loans were admittedly a pain the ass and I didn't want to deal with it, but it's over and now I can rest easy from it.  I also admittedly don't enjoy having to leave the house all the time and go on the road endlessly.  But every day presents some good things and I'm grateful to still be alive at almost 58 years old, I've live a fairly hard life. That's not a complaint, it's just reality.  

That's all this blog is, really, reality.  I could fluff it up and speak of other things, but I tend to just keep it real here.  This is the place where I write some of my thoughts and then I scrutinize them.  And make adjustments.  Or give considerable thought to what I'm doing and if there is a better or different way.  Fortunately there isn't any drama in my life such as when I was living in Phoenix and dealing with someone else's kids of whom they weren't taking care of, weren't feeding and I did my best to help them out, only to get a lot of threats and eventually carrying a gun with me all the time.  Evil, wicked people that have no conscience and have no regard for life.  

Well, that IS getting negative, thinking of the past sometimes does that for me. Regardless, it's my self imposed bed time and that is what I'm going to do - go to sleep and hopefully stay asleep all or most of the night.

 Somehow I managed - without asking for it - to get a day off.  I can't adequately convey how incredibly worn out I am right now.  I woke up early this morning but I have done nothing but had a few cups of coffee, pet the doggy and nothing else.  There is no way, at least not feeling like - lethargic, groggy - this that Im going out and marking trees today.  Perhaps I'll feel more energized this afternoon? No clue, not going to stress over it if I don't get over there.

Because the price of everything is off the charts right now, the idea of having a bath house built is likely going to go out the window. At least, not the way I intended to do it.  It's just going to cost far too much money and that is nothing I want to get involved with right now.  I am, after giving it some thought, going to likely buy a larger office building than what I was going to. You know, those portable "shell" buildings that you buy and then you have to do the interiors? 

I did check on shower trailers, the prices are absurd. 50, 60, 70k? No thanks.  I can get a larger office building for around 15k and spend around 10k putting in everything needed to have an office and 2 shower rooms.  And renting them is like a grand a month.  There are a couple of places in town that sell the portable buildings - and they have a large selection.  So I will be checking them out and looking at pricing.   

Inflation? Yes. An RV park expert who owns hundreds of them around the country was discussing the subject in a podcast.  He pointed out that costs for everything are likely to go up for at least another year, possibly much longer, and that if you had any upgrades or major purchases you needed to do for your park, you are best off doing them right now.  Don't wait even a few months.  Economists have had the same, gloomy outlook. And now Rand Paul put out his version of a report that blames the government spending spree for Covid relief as the main culprit for 7% year over year inflation, which the story labeled as a 40 year high.

As far as the cost of everything, right now is absolutely the worst time to be thinking about building anything. An RV park is filled with costs for this, that and the other thing when contemplating building one from scratch.  The only real way to save any money is to do as much of the work as you can yourself.  I don't have carpentry skills and putting up a building is a bit beyond my skill level.  Interestingly, if I wanted to do that, I wouldn't need any kind of permits from the county. They don't care and they make no bones about telling everyone.  If you live in the county, outside of any municipality city limits? You pretty much have free reign to do whatever excepting what the state imposes.

I was thinking about trying to find a competent handyman, but the last time I tried doing that they all wanted very high hourly wages or they wanted to give bids, which turned out to be very high and untenable.  I moved on quickly from that landscape.  It's true that I am in a limited market for anyone with skills, this is a rural area and it's not densely populated.  Therefore, whatever the price of a service is? You are stuck with it. You can try to get everyone in the area to give a price/bid, in the end, you'll have to deal with one of them for it isn't going to be cheaper to try to drag someone from 100 plus miles away.  

So I will just continue to look at what options I have.  I could go without a bath house, I suppose, but there is so much information that details the necessity of having one if you don't want to isolate a large portion of potential customers that might otherwise come.  It's at the top of the list of priorities many RV'ers have when considering a campground.  

It's getting a bit dismaying to see the costs of everything going up so high that the money I will have in a few days would have built this version of a park and then some plus money left over, but now I am looking at spending most all of it just for a 14 space operation.  I was quoted 28k just for gravel yesterday. Yes, that includes delivery, but 28 thousand dollars for gravel?  Did the earth run out of raw materials or something?  I can tell ya right now I am not going to spend that much money on gravel, I will find cheaper material somewhere else or I will do something different. I don't know what, but rocks simply aren't worth that much money.

Anyway, I think I will just go right back to bed and take a nap.  Why not?  

 The finance center for this RV park is becoming problematic.  I had a company quote me $26,000 for gravel.  

Twenty-six thousand dollars.  For gravel. Huh?

There is no shortage of gravel. It doesn't come from China, Indonesia, the Philippines or India. It comes from a quarry locally.  Yet they feel the need to drive up the prices for rocks as well. This is just price gouging.  

The thought of paying that much money for just 14 spaces is appalling.  Just for gravel? That's even more than the electricity quote.

I dunno, I'll pay whatever I have to pay, that's just one company and I haven't pursued it too much in asking for price per ton, delivered.

But it gave rise to the thought that having a bathhouse at this stage is premature.  Well, not having the bathhouse, but having one built.  It dawned on me that a bathhouse for 14 lots and one for 50 are 2 entirely different animals.

If I ever get the park going - which I intend to but there are so many obstacles - and if I ever get it up to 50 lots, the size bathhouse I intend on building for a 14 lot site will not be sufficient for one for 50 spaces. It means I would have to build another bathhouse.  

I looked at portable versions of it a while back, but now? I'm going to do a lot of research on it. Both for buying and if available, renting.  A 14 lot site will not have a huge demand for it and with current inflation, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to spend the kind of money it will cost if there is a better and cheaper alternative out there that will cover the need at significantly reduce price.  

I am not trying to spend all of this money I am going to have after the house cashout arrives in my checking account just because - I have the money to do so.  

Other things but not going into that now.  I haven't been home but 2 hours and it's time to go to bed.  I was looking at hotels in San Antonio tho, found one that looks quite awesome. Actually, there are several that look good, but they have to have accommodations for 3 people and not all the in the same room.  Vacation time is coming.  No dates yet, but that's only because I'm looking at what's available.  I'm not staying at a crappy hotel for a vacation, thanks.  

Off to dreamland.