So here we go, 3rd junk run in a row.

Meanwhile, the dude that somehow gets special privilege?  Is sitting at the scale house with a Brownsville trailer.  People who spend time in the yard claim that's pretty much all he does, Brownsville. The question is, that no one has an answer to: how does he get away with that? Why does dispatch do that for him and no one else?  I could easily make 6 figures per year just doing Brownsville runs.

Whatever.  Just an annoyance that has pervaded most of the drivers for quite a while now.  I heard one of them the other day, sitting in front of the office, go off about him.  Is it his skin color? Does he make some sort of demands that the company doesn't want to deal with? He certainly doesn't do the run any better than anyone else.  He is an owner operator but we have several of those that also go down to Brownsville and they don't get that treatment.

I'll shut up about that now. Saw the manager for the first time in weeks at the office.  I wish he was doing dispatch, he wouldn't give me 3 Baker runs in a row.  He just wouldn't.  He might make me do two of them, but 3 would be out of the question.  

On the bright side, I'm employed lol.  Today's paycheck was huge.  It's a beautiful day outside, absolutely gorgeous actually. Perfect temperature and a nice slight breeze.  

Went and checked on the grass seed I planted - but it was only 4 days ago. Nothing has sprouted yet, but I remain hopeful.  Especially in the areas where there was nothing but hard, compacted dirt.  

I have no news about the property yet, but the idea of an additional 7 acres was quite appealing.  Not at the interest rate this guy is wanting tho.  I have no idea whether he's received any other offers on the property - I'm guessing that natural gas operation is a sizeable hindrance to selling it.  If this other 7 acres is on the east side, that would be great. If it's on the west side - it's still okay just not as much forest as on the east side.

There's another property available if this falls through. I'm not acting on that one yet, but it's cheap.  It also has a gas operation going on it and it takes up almost half of the property from the satellite images I was looking at.  Still enough usable property tho, but I'd have to trudge through the property and make sure it isn't a giant pool of water under those trees.  The price is what's attractive at $21,000, you are getting more than your money's worth even with the amount of property you can't use.

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I don't want a big property right now.  I can live with a smaller one. The only way I'd do a larger property is if it's cheap and the payments aren't too high.

Remember, I'm trying not to take out loans for this project.  That means putting in maybe 20-25 pads at first, which isn't a lot but if enough spaces are filled up, covers operation expenses including the property payment, taxes and insurance.  I don't want to pay for people's electric use - not in this part of Texas where the temps get very hot in the summer and some of those rigs have 3 AC units on them.  If they are overnighters then they can pay a higher rate. If they want to live there, they can have their own power meter and pay that separate from the lot rent.  

I've been trying to come up with the rates, long termers are probably going to be around $350 per month, nightly will depend on the size of their rig and what time of year it is.  If it's summer, those big rigs are going to pay at least $40 per night.  There's no profit to be made on a unit that is going to suck so much electricity that it negates what otherwise would be profit.  Water apparently is usually given for free, so I'll try that at first.  Sewer is the biggest hangup and potentially the biggest problem with any of these pieces of land.  It's a bridge I will have to cross when I get to it.  

The huge allure of this property I want is it will be driving into a forest, literally, to get to your RV site.  If I could get 7 extra acres, I'd also put campsites on it and at least attempt to build a small cabin for rent.  I say attempt to build - I'm not paying a contractor 75k or more to build one. It's a do-it-yourself project and the county doesn't care about permits for such things, take your time and built it at your own pace.  It would take months to build one, lol.  But imagine a cabin in the woods with all the amenities of home - AC, heat, full kitchen, shower, bedroom, living room and cable.  

People don't camp the way we used to lol.  And more and more people are selling their homes and going full-time in RV's . I don't know why that's trending, but it is.  

The only drawback of this property is I really can't envision how I could set up pull throughs without taking down a large swath of trees.  Some rv'ers want pull throughs, especially the ones pulling vehicles behind them. They don't have to try to back their rig into a lot.  

As I said, I have been doing a lot of research. It certainly helps that there are online groups with people who already own RV parks and give away their expertise freely, the do's and don'ts, the pitfalls, the things people like. One of them was telling me about septic systems in Texas - highly regulated by the state, lots of cons to them but if it's all you can do, you have no choice. I'm not going to start Ben's Water Treatment plant, thanks.  Start my own sewer system, lol. That would be a hoot.  A smelly hoot! lmao

The proposal is being given to the owner today, that's all I know.  If I were the owner and was in the business, it wouldn't take me but a minute to think about it and accept or reject the offer or give a counter-offer. Which is what I would likely do - that's not enough, how about this much? And then if it's too high, I come back and say that's too much, how about this much?  

But now I know why this guy buys these properties with the gas operations. Some of them he can claim the mineral rights and get royalties off of them.  I was wondering why those properties were getting bid up so high 2 auctions ago.  Now I know.  And it's why I'm lowballing him. He only paid 10k, he's getting mineral rights and he's double and a half his money on the deal.  Just depends on how greedy the dude is.  When you're rich, you can just sit back and say, no thanks, I"ll wait for a better offer. 

When you're in my position, you are forced to say, sorry, I can't go any higher than that.  Hence the reason finding property has been a long, on-going project.  It's kind of fun, anyway, to go to all of these places and go traipsing about them, looking at all the scenery and dreaming of what I could do with it.  This one I"m looking at is by far the best property I've seen, regardless of the smaller size.  So many huge, mature trees, a road already going through it, water and electricity already at the property's edge.  

Well anyway, I'm at the plant getting loaded. 10:30 load means I'll probably be done with today between 11 pm and midnight.  Depending on how far back I want to drive before stopping.  

As for now? I'm going to put up the laptop and take a short nap before they get done with filling this trailer.

G'day

 

 An uneventful waste of a trip - low money - 2cd in a row.  Hey Ben!  I get a text today. I need you to do another one!  I replied that will be 3 in a row.  Didn't even mention her apparent lack of memory about the promise of a Brownsville trip on the next run.  It's all in writing.  I'll make it up next week!  

So I'm going on a 3rd worthless run in a row.  However, if she tries this a fourth time I'm going to refuse the load.  Come what may, I'm not doing a 4th garbage run in a row.  I'll sit and do nothing before I let her play that game on me.  

Anyway, onto another more important subject swirling around in my brain - property. I have been giving a lot of thought to this property situation.  Bigger is better? Yes, if you have the money to afford everything that comes along with "bigger is better".  The 32 acres I just gave up on that.  Annexation.  Petition for zoning change.  Try to find another water supplier.  Just too much stuff and too much money involved with it.  They make it too difficult and I think it's by design. 

If I had a 400k loan to turn that property into an RV oasis, maybe.  But I don't and I'm not looking for business loans on this first venture.  

My mind went back to the 8 acres that I had originally said no to after finding out it was residential zoned - and finding out subsequently the county has no zoning, they don't care what you do with your property, tho it still falls under state code.  

So I pulled the trigger today, asked the realtor to make an offer of 3 grand per acre.  Look, the guy that bought it bought it at the same tax lien sale that I did.  He only paid $10,500 for it.  He had to sit on it for a while before he could try to sell it.  I will go up in my offering if he demands more. If he's stuck on 69k for 8 acres - good luck.

I'm doing my homework. I knew there was an easement and I knew there is a functioning gas well on the very edge of the property.  This devalues the property - 10k is way to much money per acre for an operation like that going on.  I called the company that has the easement and doing the gas operation - their name and the lot number was posted at the front of the property.  Well, we use the road going through there, of course, the man replied.  Okay, I said, what else?

Well let me warn you, that with a functioning gas well, we have tractor trailer rigs going in there hauling off salt water.  Or bringing it in? I didn't ask that much questions about that, I don't know and I don't care. What I do care about is the volume. How many trucks come in there? And how do they mitigate that muddy road on a slope?  

Oh, I forgot to say I went back there today to take a second look.  What I hadn't noticed the first time I went but was definitely looking for the second time was the power pole.  This property has it's own pole with a feed from the main line across the street.  There is thousands of dollars worth of electrical work I won't need done.  I then found a water meter in the ground.  A lock on it - of course, but it's there. There is water.  I don't have to pay anything for any of that if I did get the property, it's right there. I can run my own line and I don't need a contractor to do that for the water. The electricity?  Well I dunno.  We'll see about that, but there is a power pole and a box on the property, that is literally thousands of dollars worth of labor and parts right there that I don't have to pay for.  

No sewer? I have no idea. Couldn't find any sewer lids anywhere, probably isn't any. Most of this property doesn't have sewer and you resolve yourself that you have to pay to have septic installed.  

The exciting part? This is the first property I have been able to actually place a bid on.  Whereas other properties I liked and found out they were already under contract.  The dude got a steal on this property at 10k, probably how he got rich.  Buying and selling properties.  It's what I want to get into more, eventually, after I get more money saved up. For right now? I'd rather try and get the land and get a business going.  Even if I were to buy more tax lien sale properties, I only want acreage.  No more city lots.  I have 3 and that is good enough for now.  If I can eventually sell them, that's great, I'll buy more. It's acreage that sells.  

But, over-priced acreage doesn't sell. This property has been on the market 70 days.  So I know at least no-one is busting down his doors wanting to buy it. The easement is undoubtedly a major part of the issue.  The road going half way back is good enough, it would be shared for I won't take up more of the property to have a separate road going in there and I don't have to.  The the portion of the road going down to their well? They can have that. I'm not going to do anything with it and it's a mess.  How they get trucks in there without them getting stuck is unknown to me.  I did examine the tracks, there were no dually big-truck tracks in there, just pickup truck tracks. 

What I know of these operations from truckers that do it is that there are times when they will send in trucks to sit and wait out loading, it can go on for a few weeks at a time. After that, you might get 2 or 3 months in between the trucks. 

From that aspect, I can develop this property so that people don't have to be exposed to excessive amounts of noise like that.  The property is rectangular. The easement road starts at one side of the property, goes halfway back and then cuts down a hill to the gas operation.  The hill - is mud.  I wasn't even going to drive my SUV down in there, I don't have 4 wheel drive and my feet work fine.  Most of the gas operation is on someone else' property next door.  The lots can be on the opposite side of the property in the back.  There's enough land in the front and back for at least 40 lots. maybe more. 

But I won't do that many, at least not to start. I'm thinking 20-25 to start with.  Just money. Electricity, sewer and water to each lot isn't free and building the lot - which in my case is going to be a leveled piece of land 65 x 15 - well not that bad.  Just level it, compact it and put rock over it. I've seen a lot of RV parks that don't have cement pads. That would be costly and I just don't have the money to do that right off the bat.  Maybe could do one at a time over a span of time.

I'm getting well ahead of myself since I don't know that they're going to accept my offer, or counter offers.  I gave the realtor a maximum amount I would pay, it's well short of 69k, I can say that.  My highest price at least for now is 5k per acre. It's probably worth that considering the surrounding area. It's so beautiful, the entire road.  So, if they insist on 69k, I'll think about it - long and hard.  Lol, if they did take my offer? My payments would be less than $300 per month for 90 months.  That's not that bad.  Even if the offer went up to say 40k, the payments still wouldn't be terribly  high.  

I'm hopeful, but I won't be crushed if it comes to the fact that they want too much money. I have at least at this point come to the conclusion that a large property is just too much, unless I can find something with load payments. I don't have to develop the whole property.  At first anyway.  

I've already designed this lot in my head lol.  Just from looking at a satellite pic and seeing the road, the woods and yes, I trudged through the woods today as I have at any property I was considering. It just rained and the ground was moist, of course, but no standing water anywhere. That's pretty easy to explain. On the west side of the property is that slope going down - about a 4% grade I'd say - the water goes down there - there where I have no plans for anything since it's easement property.  

Oh, this wouldn't be the only business in the area. Camp Bee - whatever that is - is across the street.  The only reason that is of interest is they must have water to that sprawling campus, meaning whoever the entity is supplying it must not care if there is other than residential such as the issue with that 32 acre property.  

I could be going on about nothing.  I might not get this property. I might be getting excited about things that won't come to pass. It won't be the first time and it doesn't affect me, I just move on.  

Or, it could come to pass and then what? Well, I can tell ya, whatever property I end up getting - it's going to happen sooner or later - ?  I'm not going to have an RV park opened up and ready for business the next month.  It will be a long period between purchase and park opening.  I want to do most of the work myself or hiring out individuals, not contractors.  I don't need high priced contractors for much of this work. Electricity - probably.  Septic? Definitely, too many state regulations on that one, I could do it myself but it would entail renting earth moving equipment and it's just more than I am going to get involved with.  Pads? probably not. Water? Definitely not.  Road? dunno, I need to figure out how to operate a bulldozer.  

This is why I want a lower monthly payment versus higher.  I can't really afford higher - or I suppose I could but scale back on my lifestyle in certain areas.  Or get a small business loan - who knows what that entails or what qualifications you need to get one.  I really would like a land payment I can afford right now on my current income that won't really affect much of anything.  

This property - at the right price - would fit that bill.  

I could say  more, but I won't.  I'm going to work in the morning - but not too early thankfully.  10:30 load means I don't have to get up until 8:00 am.  The realtor sent the contract via email.  I will hear back whenever she hears back.  What to expect? I have no idea. No thanks. Yes.  Counter offer. Those are the options.  Oh, what I can say is the property next door to the east is undeveloped as well. Not up for sale, but, there is no law against asking the owner about selling it.  

I think well beyond the current.  Always, especially anything that's going to drain my wallet.  In this case, will it fill the wallet back up and then some?  Would it be the boon to my retirement I'm seeking it to be?  And county land - I can put some mobiles on it.  Separate of course from the RV's, but that's a more permanent situation that brings in more money over the long run per unit.  Casitas, camp sites, log cabins - there's a lot you can do with these types of properties to lure people in.  

My mind gets so - twisted up - thinking about all of this stuff and all of the aspects there are to it.  It isn't as simple as it sounds.  

Oh, I have thought about how to take overnighters in without being there and not having staff there.  Simply do a Paypal transaction - or whatever payment they will make online - and online agreement that they sign off on with automated signing feature, such as I did today with the realtor.  No, I don't know how to do that, yes, someone else does and I will pay them to set that up for me lol.  The park would need wifi - not only for guests but also for cameras.  Entrance camera - who's coming in? did they pay?  Office camera - there will be a small portable building there.  To start anyway. 

I can't stop myself. I could just go on and on and on.  And on.  I have filled my mind up with so much information after doing so much research - and yet I feel like I don't even know the half of what I need to know to successfully operate a park. At the same time, I've lived in RV's and I can tell you, you want sewer hookups at every lot.  Try emptying a holding tank out without getting that "stuff" on you.  

The office? Big enough for a small office space, a few shelves of convenience items for sale, a couple of washers and dryers and a small living space on the side, separate by a wall and locked door.  Yup, I would love to find someone to live there - free of charge - and help run the place. I have someone in mind.  No, that wouldn't be feasible, the office couldn't be a living space as well. So, she would have ot have a separate living space.  I think she'd love that setup.  She could have her dogs and parrot, I could have someone there fulltime.  Small salary on top of free living.  

A pile of firewood for sale outside and fire pits at every site.  RV'ers like that. They like trees. They like a playground for the kids. They like a fenced in doggie park.  They like laundry facilities. They like showering facilities.  

There are so many trees that are offered for free around here from property owners that a tree has fallen, they "just want you to take it out of there". Show up with the trailer, cut it into sections. load it up, take it to the property, split it and sell it.  I'm not exaggerating. I see offers for free trees - oak mostly - all the time.  Come get it!  It's not something I'm interested while working a more than full time job such as I"m doing now, but if I were to get out of trucking, I would definitely be looking for any extra income opportunities associated with an RV park as I could get.  

There are so many options with an RV park that go well beyond RV's, again, I have been doing my research.  

Okay, I do have a question, that I may not get resolved. Why did the original property owners pay to have water and electricity run to the property?  I couldn't find any old structures that would suggest the need for it.  You don't get the power company to run a line over a street to a pole they have to install and put up a box for the meter and main power breaker for - free.  

Sorry, I just can't get myself out of this mode.  Once I get property the mode is going to go into all kinds of different directions as every step is taken and more steps needs to be taken after that.  It's definitely a process. 

Oh, and these aren't just trees on this property. These are tall, gorgeous pine trees.  Yes, I know, they make a mess with pine needles. And?  Every time I ask people that are doing the RV life, they always want trees. Nobody says, no, I want a barren spot like most parks.  Every tree in this area makes some kind of mess, I would far rather clean up pine needles than all the mess that oak and other types of trees around here make.  

I'm going to have to stop with this, for now.  If I do end up getting the property, I will take videos of it and the surrounding neighborhood and post on my Facebook account.  

For now?  I think I'm going to clear my mind of this stuff - or at least try to - and watch some TV.

 Couldn't let it go. Well I guess I could have but she was being rude and extremely curt.

Referencing a cashier at Kroger's.  The sign above her lane said "Express Lane, about 15 items".  I had 19 items and there was no one in her line. 

So I put about 3/4's of the stuff on the conveyor when she looked at me and huffed at me then said in a loud voice: How much stuff are you going to put on here?  

What? This isn't that many items and you don't have anyone waiting in line....

She insisted I go find another line to get into.  

OKKKKKKKKKKK...........I know for a fact it's not a policy at all for Kroger's to make people get out of line once they are in it regardless of how much stuff they have. I could have had an overflowing shopping cart in that line and they won't say anything.  I never do that - take a loaded cart through express lanes - I just know their policy for I have seen it in action several times.  

I asked for a manager.  A lady comes, uhh no, no offense but I want the store's general manager on this one, please.  Amazingly the dude came right up.  2 minute wait at most.  I told him what had happened.  Express lane, pointed at the items in my cart, 19 items, most of my stuff I had already put on the conveyor, and more importantly no-one was waiting in line anyway.  .

He got a look on his face, looked at the cashier and said, well that should never happen.  That's not the way we operate.  Exactly, I replied, what she did was outrageous.  Well I can assure you it won't happen again, he replied and said he'd deal with her.  

I don't want her fired, she's been there a long time according to another person working there that approached me after the fact and asked me what had happened.  But she certainly needs an attitude adjustment.  When I told that person what happened - she was also in management - she also got a scowl on her face.  Kroger's is all about customer service, I can assure you of that.  

So, I got in another line, saw her eyeballing me so I said to her, I just reported your crass behavior to your boss.  If you're digging yourself a hole, at the very least, stop shoveling.  But, by eyeballing me, she had continued with the shoveling activity.  

When you are in customer service, you are the face of the company and you are expected to show professional decorum and treat customers like they're gold. I get that people have bad days sometimes, I've been there, so maybe that's all it was with her.  But I wasn't rude to her, said hi to her when I came into her line, everything a base level of courtesy and respect should be.  

Whatever the case, I was given another Oklahoma run for today.  So, this is going to be a low paying week for next pay period.  Certain drivers - namely the owner operators - get mostly Brownsville runs when they're available and the rest of us get them sporadically.  I don't mind doing longer runs if it means getting the paycheck, but 2 low paying runs in a row doesn't work. I'm not going to say anything, yet, I'll see what happens with the next run. She claimed Brownsville would be next, she must know by now that is the most coveted run - whether there is detention pay or not.

Well I take that back, she tried to give me a Cheniere run which I can't do.  This is a new dispatcher, she has a learning curve to go through so I'm going to be patient and see what happens before I go complaining.  I'll take an Oklahoma run over cheniere any day of the week.  

But, I don't load until 1:30 pm, so I'll be out late tonight getting as much of this done before I get sleepy and decide the heck with it, I'm going to bed.  I figure around midnight.  Without doing anything but looking at the history of this run - the time I start the loading and the time I get back, I can safetly predict I will be back at the yard tomorrow around 3:30 - 4.  

I'm also glad that I got a very good night's sleep - those come and go, when they come they are relished and I will sleep in if possible to get more sleep.  Which I did by a couple of hours today. 

My mind is freshly filled with the thoughts of all the properties that I discounted because of county "zoning", which I have now found out doesn't exist, from the county itself.  I don't know if the realitors word it that way because that's what's in the area.  But the properties I have seen with "residential" zoning outside of city limits have houses that are well spaced apart and they all have plenty of land.  

Do they want an RV park in their area? I don't know, not really concerned about it.  That's the advantages of living in the county - or the pitfall.  People can do whatever they please, including having their own personal car junkyards and no one can do anything about it.  

But I have to say it was refreshing to find out this information. Very refreshing.  Hearing it from other people who don't work for county was nice, but it wasn't "official".  Now, a municipality could still exert some control by denying access to their utilities, such as the situation with the 32 acres I was looking at yesterday.  I'm still waiting to hear back from the other town as to access to water.  I won't even make an offer on that property until I know that I at least have water and electricity.  Sewer is pretty much guaranteed that you have to have a septic system installed.  

Oh, my pay for the PA run.  Just got the statement from the company.  It's over $1,800 for 5 days, that's pretty good.  But, I had to good paying runs on the trip, so the amount I grossed is excessive, meaning the government took a very large chunk of my money.  $551 worth.  Retirement took another large chunk, around $350 worth.  The first is involuntary, the latter of course voluntary.  In all, one thousand dollars was removed from my pay before I got it.

Well, yet another property I was looking at may go by the wayside.  It's not in the city but the city apparently offers utilities there.  I think there is more misinformation being given to me.  Why would they offer everything else that isn't a business water and sewer, that is also outside of their city limits?  That doesn't make any sense and I will be visiting yet again down there to inquire about this apparent disparity in who can get what. Not like I'm asking for the stuff for free.  Weird.  

Time to get ready to go.  I need to make another visit to the County Appraisial district and ask why they assessed my hunting property up to $330 per year in taxes.  It appears they are assessing me with all 12 acres worth of taxation instead of the 2 acre interest I have in it.  That needs to be changed.  The bill should be around $50.  

Okay, I'm outta here.

G'day.  

 Talk to enough people. 

Ask enough questions.

You may eventually get to the truth.

I am a bit surprised the realtor doesn't know this stuff, this is her job. 

I guess?

Because after several more phone calls,  I finally got to the brass tacks about county property.  

See, I wanted this question answered.  Are there restrictions or are there no restrictions on county land, outside of a city limits? 

It took several phone calls to the wrong places that I was directed to before I got to an unlikely source: The county's bridges and roads department. I mean, :I didn't even know that department existed, it never showed up under any google searches.  

Mind you, other people I talked to insisted that "other" sources were the place to call. And you call them, and they're like, we only do "this and that" here, we aren't responsible for any zoning. Finally, some dude said, uhh as far as I know? There is no zoning in the county. I had heard this several times from various people before, but no one from any "official" source ever said this.

Yet, he didn't know who to call either.  He tried, but that number ended up being a dud.  I decided that I would call the county and I would just - not stop - until someone could give me an official, definitive answer.  

Now I know. There are NO zoning ordinances in Texas counties.  The only things that have to be observed are state rules - like if you're installing a septic system, you have to get a permit.  Oh and the property owner selling to you can name conditions.  Mineral rights are obvious.  Easements as well. Most properties have easement for natural gas around these parts.

And then, when the property owner gets their money off of the easement money, they try to sell the property at highly inflated prices. They made their money, only pure greed would dictate to ask for outrageous prices for property after the fact. I'm not stupid, I am fairly intelligent. I know about zoning, hence I didn't just go out and buy just anything.  I had to find out about the zoning.  But the information coming out from all the sources is ridiculous.  

There is so much BS involved with properties around here, it's headache inducing stuff. You find facts on one thing and then you find out there are a dozen more questions about everything else.  You hear one thing from some "official" and then you hear something completely opposite form another "official".  You attempt to do your  research, but you don't know what the hell you are doing, who to ask, what to do next after finding out - more derogatory information that you cannot verify whether truth or fiction.

I freely admit in this arena of attempting to find out what a city or county allows or not? I have no clue.  Or had no clue.  I'm getting there. There is more to go. This idea that I have to put on a minimum 1,100 square foot house on one of my properties is outrageous.  I'll take that to the city council for a vote.  They can do as they see fit, but I will present a case they can't just ignore.  

That will have to wait, however,  until after the 6 month waiting period is up, another 3 months, and I see about getting an actual title to it and the other properties.  

Okay it's late. Pandora's box was opened today.  Once again: There are no zoning rule applied to any property in the county. There is no such thing as "zoned residential" in the county.  The realtors are making that shit up.  

I am not going to Cheniere as this new dispatcher attempting to give me.  I can't go there. She reassigned me to another Oklahoma run.  I can see times are going to be difficult with this new dispatcher.  Whatever. If it comes down to tit, Ill speak to my manager about it and he can determine what course of action he will take with it.  

I do not have an early load, It's 1:30 pm. Meaning I won't even arrive to that plant until probably around 11:00 pm.  

Regardless, I'm getting offa here. 

G'nite.

 The truth of the dictator at city hall and the property inside city limits came out today.

The dictator hasn't been completely truthful.  He is accountable to 2 people above him.  He is not solely responsible to the city council.  That was his claim when I asked about it specifically the first time I met him. 

I have both of those people's phone numbers as of today, one of them the city manager.  Of course and duhh. The city manager is above pretty much everyone but the mayor in any given city.  I will be visiting that person tomorrow if I can at all find this person and meet up with him/her.  

The property was listed as a "rare find" and "inside city limits" but with no restrictions! Oh really?  Liars. 

The property has a small portion of it inside city limits, the rest is county land.  It's pretty strange to think about acquiring a property this is partial city and partial county.  

So what's the deal here?  Well, the deal is that if you want the city's water, electric and sewer, you have to ask for it to be annexed into the city, according to the dictator's version of what the city manager's "policy" is.  I can think of a number of reasons why you wouldn't want to voluntarily subject yourself to the city, the other part of the Little Dictator's engagement today was proof of that.

 He told me that one of the properties I bought at auction would have to have a pier and beam structure with shingle roof or a brick structure put on it with minimum 1,100 square feet.  Oh my, isn't he so wonderful to concede that? That street has old  - and I mean old - mobile homes on it. OLD site built homes. One of them is rotting out.  It has a mansion on it, yes, down the road a ways and completely fenced in.  There are a few nice, regular houses. It's a total mix.  But this dude thinks I should dump a hundred grand into a housing project.

I'll tell you what, if i wanted to do that? It would be a small apartment complex or a duplex, triplex, or quad.  

I haven't given up on doing with that property, but I have minimal hopes of just putting a small house on it and renting it out.  They don't want to deal with it, with no particularly good reasons as to why.   

Back to the other property.  I am going to try to find out if there is county electric and water available.  There are numerous homes on the other side of the street, where are they getting their water and electric from? Not the city, or if they are, it's not because of some ridiculous mandate that the city gets to take it over with governmental authority.  

Look, I don't even know if  I can get the financing for this property. But you have to do the homework first.  

Tomorrow - yet another day off work - I will be attempting to find out if there is rural water available with rural electric. 

__________________________________

So, I went out and got the aerator machine yesterday.  It didn't take long, just a bit over an hour to pop holes all over the yard.  It did, however, kick my @$$.  It's a machine that has a motor and self drive simply by turning the spindle the tines are on - but just trying turning that thing!

You either have to lift the machine up or run around like a madman in a half circle trying to get it to line up with where you left off.  So it rained last night, I have no idea if the seeds got washed away - again - or if they are buried in the dirt.

Back to the property.  
For I went out and walked around part of it and up and down the streets next to it.  Power lines are running right through it, the city has no control over that.  The city doesn't generate power anyway. What they have control of is water sewer - if there is sewer out there I couldn't find anything.  But there is water running on the other side of the highway, but another water utility running down the side street.  I found a map and that appears to be under the control of a neighboring, much smaller city.  Whether they want to annex to provide services? I have no clue, tried calling them and got a recorded message and a "mailbox is full" message. 

The property has an old, caved in house on it.  Was rather surprised to find that thing there. It's so caved in there is no telling about whether there were utilities going to it.  One would assume yes, but assumptions are bad things sometimes, especially when considering putting my name on the line for 100k and giving a sizeable down payment to back it up.

One one of the corners of it, there are actually very small, separate properties, all with mobile homes on them.  Another situation where whatever entity has control of the land through the government would have a hard time coming back to me and telling me that the "only thing" I can put on there is what they dictate and take it or leave it.  

I also talked to the city manager.  I can make no guarantees, he said, but it would certainly be on the favorable side.  he talked about a study the city had done quite a while back where they wanted an RV park near downtown.  He said that would go favorable on your project.  Because not only would I have to have the property annexed, if I had to go that route, I would also have to get new zoning on it.  I have yet to find out whether the majority of the property is in county land or in the next city over's jurisdiction.  

This whole thing has been a giant learning curve for me. Whether I get this property or not, I am finding that I have to learn about more and more contacts to get necessary information before you even think about going to the bank and talking about a loan.  The property is way over-priced, but, i found out today going through the tax roles, it's owned by an heir of the deceased that originally owned it.  The description reads " motivated seller".  Well that's interesting, because I don't reckon that property is worth more than 3 grand per acres.  That puts it around 100k. They want - I dont' remember exactly, 138k I think it was.  

Whatever the case, I am putting any more fact finding missions on hold for a bit today and just sit back and think about all of this.  For even if I could get this property, I would likely be short on the funds/cash to be able to develop it.  Utility access along will cost in the thousands or even tens of thousands range.  That's the biggest drawback to any of these properties that don't have city sewer and water.  Or a coop.  Or a rural utility.  

Day 2 of 2 full days off of work. It's more like 3 since I only worked part of the morning on sunday, but the company will call that a day that I worked anyway. Full expect to get sent out tomorrow, dunno where.  I need a good run to shore up the Oklahoma run.  

With that, I have house work things to do and I'm getting offa here.

G'day.  

 Gruesome day.

Up at 3:15 am.  To the plant, get everything hooked up and ready to go, pre trip inspection, paperwork etcera.  

Get to the plant.  The operator says he can't load the truck, the valve on the door is leaking and will cause the inflatable valves to drop during loading after all the air pressure leaks out.  

Umm, just run the truck for air pressure?  We can't do that.  IE: they aren't actually allowed to do that.  If his boss had been there, he would have just told me to run the truck no problem.  This kid is green, I understand why he wants to do everything by the book, but it caused so much time lost.

So, back to the yard.  First time ever with this company that they didn't have an extra trailer available.  I mean, there were a dozen trailers in the yard but none of them were available for this particular run. I was informed the mechanic would come and fix the trailer.  They had originally told me to take it to a repair shop - and I politely told them that that repair shop wouldn't have the parts or the know how to fix this trailer.

I went to bed.  I only got maybe 3 hours of sleep last night.  At around midnight, someone texted me.  I was not happy about that and I never was able to get back to sleep.  

Well the mechanic showed up some time later, I dunno how long, I fell into a deep sleep and was glad to get a bit more rest.  He finished, I went back to the plant.  Well, I didn't need to get on the scale, I had already done that today so I bypassed the scales - and - a truck sitting on the scales that was also headed to the same loading rack I was going to.

He, however, was from a different company.  

Well, I got stuck behind a forklift going soooo slow.  He caught up to us and then decided he was going to pass us - in a no passing zone.  Good way to get yourself booted from the plant.  He realized the stop sign was literally right there ahead of us, what was he going to do, stop beside us at the stop sign, in the oncoming traffic lane?  Note that there are double yellow lanes painted all the way down this street.

This guy was right up my @$$ all the way to the rack.  The operator was out there and guided me to where he wanted me to stop and then? This dude gets out of his truck, comes storming up to the operator, went into full, complete melt-down mode.  THAT driver - pointing to my truck - bypassed the scales.  I am HERE at MY appointment time.  I mean, this dude was livid.  After he went on and on and finally shut his stupid mouth, the operator politely informed him that I was here at the first load appointment and he was going to load me first.  

I was waiting for this dude to come start s*** with me.  I was in a bad mood anyway, tired, cranky, tired, cranky and tired.  He didn't, he looked at the operator in disgust and walked back to his truck.  This operator then comes back to me to fill out some paperwork - this job has endless paperwork, everywhere.  He proclaimed he was in fear of that guy, the dude was intimidating - to him anyway, he's just a kid maybe 20 years old.   

Whatever. I handed him the keys - we can't run our trucks while loading - got into the sleeper, pulled a blanket over me and went back to sleep again.  It helped a little, but not much.  Back to the scale house, I made a pot of coffee. I hadn't actually had any coffee up to that point. The reason is because when I got up this morning and realized how crappy I was feeling, I decided not to drink any coffee right away so I could sleep at the loading rack.  It was a good idea, it worked to a point.

200 miles down the road? I couldn't stand it anymore.  I had lost almost 5 hours with this nonsense but I thought, I am soooo sleepy I have to take a nap. So I pulled out on the service plaza on the Indian Nation Turnpike in McAllister, Oklahoma.  I set my alarm for 30 minutes and fell fast asleep - again.  

Funny how I can sleep after the fact, but when I'm in bed, sometimes, at home?  Well it was that text. I didn't realize my ringer was still on and I had no inclination that anyone was going to be texting me at midnight.  

Anyway, after that sleep, I felt much better.  Up to Okmulgee for fuel at the Love's - and a lettuce wrapped guacamole burger at the Carl's Junior at that store - and then up to the plant. They got me right in - which was nice, maybe I could make it back to my normal stopping point that I usually stop at on this trip, I thought.  I used my 16 hour exception, which gives me 2 extra on -duty hours.  

That gave me just enough time to drive back the 200 miles to the truckstop at the casino, get my post trip done and get off the clock. Yes, it was a 16 hour day.  

Do I think I"m something special for doing 16 hour days? NO. I think I'm getting far too old for this nonsense.  Give me a job that just goes to work every morning and comes home every night. Give me my business!  

So, the realtor texted me today.  A property with 100 acres for 80 grand.  This had "too good to be true" stamped all over it.  I mean, in other states you can buy property cheap, but not where I live.  I read everything and then I got to the "undivided property" part.  NO thanks. That means more than one party owns the property.  No one has any real, set area off to themselves.  So, if they are selling 100 acres, then there is more property, likely much more property, involved with this situation.  Hundreds of acres with other people have part ownership in it. Any improvements you make? They own them as well, whether they chipped in for it or not. 

I wrote that one off quickly. I did give thought to the owners voting to divide the property up and give separate titles to those properties, but I'm not going to take that kind of risk with 80 grand. And anyway, a lender isn't going to loan you money on something that risky.   That's a cash deal type of thing and explains why no one has bought it after being on the market for a long time. 

I hate to keep telling the realtor no to everything, but I do explain to her why I can't do this or that property.  Inaccessible, landlocked, flood plain, too far away, etc.  She doesn't have to show me anything, IE; come meet me at these properties, so I really don't think she is being that inconvenienced.  She was going to meet me all over the place and I just said, no you don't need to, I can go look and not waste your time.  If I like what I see, then we can meet.  

She might be getting tired of my rejections.  I don't need a "perfect" property, but I need one that will fit my long term goals. Some of the properties were perfect  - and they were already under contract.  She's sent me some stuff clear over at the state line and down south, just too far.  The thing she sent today would have been perfect if it wasn't for that undivided interest nonsense.  Why would you want part ownership of property?  I can't even fathom that stuff.  I have what I have now - 2 acres undivided interest and come hunting time, we are going to snag a deer.  Or two or three.  

But even with that property, I am going to ask the other owners if they wouldn't mind if I got my 2 acres divided?  They'd have to sign off on it and a lawyer would have to be involved, but if they were willing to do it, it would be worth it.  Keep the property or sell it off.  

Oh, if you are wondering, no I'm not gambling. I haven't  done any black jack in a long, long time.  I come here and I am not even tempted.  Not that I wouldn't go sit down at a table, but I am not in the mood for it.  Mood is everything when it comes to blackjack. But I will go over there in the morning and to to the little store that makes breakfast and get my nice breakfast food and free coffee.  Right now? I'm far too tired to go gambling and putting up with people screaming every time they win $5 and all the rest of that.

In other words, I am not feeling very much in a social mood tonight.  

And I'm going to sleep soon. I just felt like getting on here and writing, the day was brutal, long and drawn out.  And for a measly $450?  Well more since I'm claiming breakdown pay, might add $75 to that, but still.  

I shouldn't complain tho.  Drivers have been getting sent to the Cheniere plants - there are 2 of them - all the time now.  Places I will never have to go to again.  I'll take the Oklahoma run over those hellish places any day of the week.  I don't go through 3 phases of security with authoritarian aholes demanding to see all kinds of identification every time.  Instead, a lovely lady comes out, takes my temp, asks me my name and that's it. The hell that I lost not having to go to either of those two facilities again I can't being to explain how wonderful that is.

Okay, it finally hit me. Fatigue. Like, being-run-over-by-a-train amount of it.  Yes, it's time to pass out.

G'nite. 

 Oh the joy of waking up in the morning in one's own bed. No truck. No engine idling.  Don't have to go anywhere, ie, get in the driver's seat and put in an almost 700 mile day.  Dogs, peace and quiet.  The last 7 out of 8 days have been work.  I dunno if I'll get 2 days off, probably not since baker is allegedly up and running again - I would fully expect to get a run there next, actually.  And that wouldn't bother me, a short run, get it over with and go home again. 

I do have some things on the agenda today tho, if I can ever motivate myself to get moving beyond the cup of coffee sitting in front of me. 

First is to go take a hike into the woods on that one property I was talking about before, 44 acres with a lot of water near the roadside.  If I really felt motivated, go to the hunting property and set up the deer camera. Go to Walmart and get ink for the printer - Taylor needs to print out her divorce papers.  Get a nice latte at the local coffee shop. Perhaps get a hair cut - I need one badly.  And whatever else comes to mind. 

I can't complain about work too much after sitting at home for so long and earning zero income.  But once you're thrust back into it? It can be brutal attempting to adjust back to that lifestyle.  It's easy to start thinking - I could never drive a truck again and be quite happy about it.  

My weight is down again.  After cheating last time, I figured I best not cheat again if the scale shows any weight loss and keep at it until I'm at least under 200 pounds. I went from 218 before I started the last trip down to 211.  It's relatively easy to keep with the diet while I'm on the road - I mostly don't even go into restaurants, but if I do, it's a breakfast meal I'm looking for.  

Oh! The realtor found the listing for the property I saw on 43.  She contacted the agent - the owners want 25 GRAND PER ACRE for that property! LMAO!! It's 11 acres, completely undeveloped, covered with trees, and is in city limits.  So, the city limits thing kind of wiped that out, even if they brought the price down substantially, I already know what the dictator at the city hall is going to say about zoning and trying to change it: NO.  

Oh well, time to go take a shower and get this day started.  I have decided there is a slate of things I want to get done, sitting here in front of a computer screen isn't going to get any of that done!

G'day.  

 Soooo...

The trip starts with the trailer in the yard.  Turns out the driver that loaded it and was going to take it had his truck broke down on him.  

Another Sunday start to a drive, I wasn't into it for quite a while.  Meaning I just plain didn't feel like driving and couldn't wait until I got 300 miles behind me so I could stop and nap a while.  There is no regulation saying you have to drive 300 miles before you stop, nor is there a company policy.

That's my self inflicted policy.  If I go well beyond 300 miles - which I often do - that's fine. But stopping before 300 miles is done? No, just doesn't work for me.

Anyway, the trip up was mostly uneventful. Didn't even see any horrific crashes anywhere - which is a plus.  Lots of congestion on the Interstates, lots of very rough roads, lots of - dumb- drivers, pretty normal stuff.

I ended up after the 2cd day of driving well beyond what I would normally do at about 78 miles from the plant.  Getting to the plant, all was fine, I figured 6 hours max, that's just what it takes them.  But after being parked and this dude attempting to unload for and hour and a half, I saw him walking around shrugging his shoulders. That was my queue to get out of the truck and find out what was going on. 

He claimed the fluid wasn't flowing and the truck wasn't unloading.  Partially true, when he turned the pump on, it was cavitating, meaning not enough fluid going through.  What was untrue is that it was obvious fluid is going through. This stuff is 150 below zero, when it flows through the pipe to go into the plant side, the pipe becomes completely frosted on the outside, you can't even see the pipe anymore. You can literally make snowballs out of the stuff.  Which I have  done lol.

We discussed this for a while, decided to let the air out my suspension on the tractor and see if that would change anything.  It did, immediately.  And yes, I was there over 6 hours actually.  Left there and started cruising. A little less than 6 hours left on the 14 hour clock, I was going to drive that out.  

And drive it out and then some I did.  For at the end of the day, I could not find a parking space. Into one place and out and into another.  I haven't had this much trouble finding a parking spot in quite a long time.  Looking at the Trucker Path app, I saw a place that said "lots of spots" 28 miles down the road. I was already beyond my 14 hour limit.  Had to his the 16 hour exception to keep driving legally. 

You can do that once every 70 hour reset.  Not something you want to abuse - use too often - which I don't, but tonight was definitely a night I needed one.  I got - here - and saw a spot right near the pumps.  The rest of the place looked full and I wasn't going to potentially give up a spot to find out the hard way that there wasn't any, so I backed in here and shut'er down.  This is not an optimal parking spot, but at some point, you get tired of looking. I was blessed that another truck parked next to me after I got in here, his truck will act as a sound block against other trucks coming in here. 

I was not happy to find out that my pressure in the vessel - the tank that holds the product - was up to 60 pounds.  Yikes!  I left the plant with it high as it was. 46 pounds.  This trailer is old and the safety valve goes off at 85 pounds. That's really low, it should be up at least as at 105 pounds.  So now I have to worry about pressure.  I can't let it get up to 85, once those safeties go off, you have serious problems.  They basically don't shut themselves off.  There's nothing in there but residual amount of product.  

And now, there are trucks parking in non-parking spaces and blocking other trucks from getting out, including me.  I'm here for 10 hours, if that junk is still out there when I get up in the morning? I'll be knocking on their door.  Dude, you are blocking me in and I need to go. Bridge I'll cross in the morning if I have to.  This is along Interstate 81 in Virginia and 81 is a  very busy highway. It's constant traffic, up and down the thing.  It must be one of the busiest Interstates in America, at least from everything I have seen.  That means drivers are looking for spots to park, just like me.  I do not, however, ever, park in a place where I would be blocking someone else from getting out. That's rude and will cause problems.

Last night. I was at a Flying J. Somewhere in Pennsylvania, it's been a long day, thinking isn't exactly on my list of priorities, I don't remember, I think it was in Harrisburg.  Almost 16 hours today, btw.  Anyway, I got lucky, there were plenty of spaces when I pulled in there but it didn't take long and almost all of it filled up.  Except for 2 spots, one next to me and one across from me.  

This truck comes around the corner and begins to attempt to back into the space across from me.  I have never in my entire driving career seen anyone have such a difficult time backing into a space.  I was eating dinner and watching this facade. How did this guy get a CDL?  This went on for almost 20 minutes.  I finally got out of the truck and literally had to tell him which way to turn the wheels.  It took another 10 minutes after that even with me directing him before he finally got the thing in there!  If you can't back a truck, you can't drive one.  

I can see doing a few pull ups, but half an hour to get a truck into a spot?  Guy didn't speak English very well and I was just trying to help him out. Oh, I forget, there was another spot 2 down from this dude's - 2 trucks tried to back into it and couldn't, they ended up leaving before another truck got in there and backed it right in. 

How do these people survive?  If I were having that much trouble backing into a hole, I would be doing some serious practicing on my free time to get the hang of it.  Not wait until I am out of hours and be forced into a position of attempting to do something - I can't do.  I can honestly say that there are nights when I'm blitzed tired and have more trouble than normal to back into a space, like having to get out of the truck a few times and go back and make sure I'm not about to ram another truck, but half an hour?  Or leave the spot altogether because I can't get in there? That's part of the job!

Next came the spot next to me.  I wasn't paying much attention to this truck, I was ready to go to bed.  But I happened to look and see him backing into the truck on the other side of the spot next to me.  STOP!!!! I was out the door quick, dude, pull up!  A lady got out of the truck that was hit.  She was not panicking or even angry, but she was definitely taken by surprise. The driver got out, I'm sooooo sorrry.  It actually only took off some paint, he got lucky that he stopped when he did, any more and he would have taken out the hood.  

In that respect, this has been a strange trip.  

Anyways, I have about 980 miles left to go to get back to the yard in Texas.  Try to knock out at least 650 miles tomorrow and then finish up on Thursday.  

OH! It was SNOWING today!  At the plant, it started snowing.  I was like, what on earth.  Fortunately, it was melting as fast as it hit the ground.  I couldn't imagine going through another trip like that one from West Virginia driving over ice.  That was a wicked run and not one I ever want to repeat.   

I don't remember if I posted on another property I found or not, but it is 25 acres next to a lake. Not fare from where I live.  So I forwarded it to the realtor - she came back and said: FLOOD PLAIN. There is one place on the property where someone built a huge pad for whatever reason, the rest of it is covered with water.  One could wish for a property next to a lake that wasn't flooded.  That would draw people far and wide.  Put a boat dock on there, heck, build a marina.  But noooo, it has to be flooded with water.

If that sounded cynical, it's probably because it was.  One property after another after another. It's already under contract, or it doesn't have water available, or it's covered with water. LOTS of properties I have looked at are covered with water. Just the nature of the region I live in, lots of rain, lots of water.  No place for it go.  I just keep looking.  There are properties that would work - but way too far away.  I'm not going to deal with a business that's 30 miles away. My support system may not mind driving 50 or 10 miles to deal with stuff, but 30 plus miles? 

I saw an RV "park" being built on the way back from Brownsville the other day.  It was a very small patch of land right off of Highway 59, a bunch of spaces being crammed together.  I guess the allure is the location? Other than that, you have constant, all day/night long highway noise, ugly views and nothing but just a place to park your Rv.  Is this what I should do, look for 2 acres of land and build a dive place?  Is it even worth the money spent?  Do they make any money off of those places?  

My desire for acreage goes beyond an RV park. It's the rest of the property to do other things with.  

Ugh. I don't want to think about all of that right now, it's time to go to bed. 650 miles may not sound like much (intended for tomorrow) but in a truck that goes 67 miles per hour and running into all the traffic and bad roads and construction sites that I do? It's pretty darn good to get that much done in a day.  I don't even have to do that much tomorrow if I don't want to - it won't change the fact that I will have to drive the next day to finish the trip. But, the final day? I won't have to drive near as far and will get home in the afternoon instead of nighttime.  

With that, I'm offa here.

G'nite. 

 Birds woke me up at 5:45 am.  

Realized I had no clean pants so I put a load in the washer and went back to bed. Dogs were content to sleep as well.

A litle while later?  A 4 and 6 year old decide to come into my room, unannounced, and get all up in my business, can we see your phone, will you play videos for us on your computer? Can you write me a note - the oldest got a small mailbox for a gift from grandma and ever since that little addition to the family, he has been asking me to write him "mail".

Parents soon realized what was going on and demanded they come out of my room, thankfully, as I was in no mood yet to get up but didn't feel like being mean to the kids.  They got into trouble 6 ways from Sunday including the fact that they can't be anywhere near me today.

After that, I sneaked back to the pantry, put my clothes in the dryer and then came back to my room to try to sleep some more. Don't ask me, when it hits, it hits hard and I have to sleep.  After a little more sleep I eventually decided it was time to get up.  After doing the morning rituals of bathroom/shower stuff, I was out in the kitchen cleaning up.  And there it was.  A text from my manager.

He knows I get busy with stuff on my days off, so he just said hey Ben! We have a load for you to take out tomorrow! Please give us a shout when you can!  Well I wanted to find out where I'm going, it's still early, if I have to prepare meals I have the day to do it. 

Sure enough, it's one of the longest drives I can get.  Palm Pennsylvania. The run I love to hate. But, this is different.  The trailer is preloaded.  How am I getting this run when there were fully 9 trucks in the yard yesterday when I got back from Brownsville?  I dunno, but I have to say that even tho this isn't my favorite run, I have some catching up to do in the finance area. It's about a $1,700 trip for 6 days.  But, since I'm getting there late - this load usually delivers Monday morning and I'm not going to be there until Tuesday morning - I won't have to wait around an entire day to get the thing offloaded.  I can drive in on Tuesday morning, get unloaded and at least get started back towards Texas.  

It is still strange they are giving me this run when there are undoubtedly drivers ahead of me.  Supposedly we can turn down a trip, I never have.  This particular run is loved by many of the other drivers, especailly the ones that are OTR and don't live near the yard.  I would start complaining about how going to Brownsville would get me  more money, but they are only sending one load a day down there ATM.  I probably would have been off 2 to 3 days without this trip.

I can only guess that, since the truck is preloaded - wait, I have no guess. It doesn't make any sense, I'll just take the run and be happy I have something to do to try and get my checking account back up to the place it was before Snovid21 and 7 days off being sick.  It takes a while and a lot of work to get the 3 thousand dollars I'd need to have it back to levels before that all happened.  

Meanwhile, we are going to the Ice thing tonight.  But, it's at 5:30 pm, so not too late, I think it's an hour and a half.  My plans today have been dashed.  I cleaned the entire kitchen, got my laundry done but now instead of going to that property I wanted to traipse around on, I have to go to stores and buy stuff to eat for the road, prepare some food in advance as well.  

Good, some of the cooking I don't have to do, the lady that made my last meals is goiong to make me 3 more.  I had her make 5 last time but that was far too much food.  I was eating on it for 7 days and there was still some left.  3 of her meals is like 5 or 6 of anyone's normal eating.  So, get some fresh Keto bread, lunchmeat and make some egg breakfasts, perhaps cook a whole chicken for something different and call it good.  

___________________

Many hours later.  Cooked stuff for the road, they finally delivered my 3 meals 10 minutes ago - I'm going to bed soon.  Trip is ready to go.  We went to the Circus on Ice, it was pretty entertaining, especially the clown character who was really the main attraction of the show but the dancers were pretty cool as well.  

Anyway, the day is done, not necessarily looking forward to 6 more days on the road, but it's the career I chose and have to live with it, lol. 

Since traipsing about the countryside doing that empty trailer run, I ran out of hours at the end of this Brownsville run.  That was nothing more than run down, drop full trailer, hook up to empty, leave early this morning, home today.

No more new properties to look at, just the one I want to go take a look at tomorrow again with waterproof boots on.

We all went out to dinner at Chili's.  I let the boys know that there is a surprise for them tomorrow.

They have no clue and even if I tried to tell them about it they still wouldn't understand.  

It's the "Circus On Ice".  Nothing like it has ever come to this town before. When I found it online, I was like, Taylor, let's go!  It's jugglers, hooplas, ice skating professionals - the whole nine yards.  In a rather small building.  But we're hoping it will be fun.

I was just glad it worked out that I am out of hours and can't drive tomorrow. Wouldn't matter tho, there were 9 trucks sitting in the yard when I got back today.  

That's it, lol.

G;nite.  

 The yard was void of trucks.  Good sign? Sure, just need a bit to recover from this trip, I ran that one long and hard. Did almost 700 miles yesterday, those are near record breaking numbers in the company.  Admittedly much easier to drive along with no trailer on the back or an empty one versus a loaded one. 

Got to Witchita Falls and decided to stop at the Flying J.  Both the Flying J and the Loves there have equally unimpressive reviews, but I've been to the Loves and it's always busy and it's always dirty.  I was surprised to find the Flying J had this itty, bitty little parking area.  Not at all what one would expect from that brand.  I was just short of shocked when the lady at the register told me $15 for a shower.

What?  No, just no.  I'm not paying $15 to get into a shower stall.  I get showers free at Love's, but that partciular Loves is nasty.  I figured $8 or so for a shower at Flying J.

Anyway, got up early - 4 am - got dressed and got out of there.  Drove clean through Dallas/metro area without a hiccup.  Couldn't say that for people coming into town once I got on the other side - I saw the lines of cars and thought, this is exactly why I got up so early, to avoid this nonsense. 

Back to the yard, another surprise. There were only 2 tractors in the entire yard.  So, the loading plant must have got it going again or people are being sent out all over the place.  I'll guess the former - a lot of those drivers will refuse to do trips like the one I just did.  Whining babies, they like their comfort zone.  Well, I just make a good chunk of change doing that drive and it was pretty easy stuff.  Even the trailer didn't offer any issues, which was amazing considering that it was obvious the thing had been sitting around for quite a while.

I knew this because of the thick coat of dead pine needles all over it that I had to scrape off.

My manager isn't doing dispatch - for now - but he informed me  I"d either be going back out tomorrow or the next day.  As much as I'd like to sit around town and do my own thing, I've lost too much time to snow and sickness. It's time to get back to work. I've got 35 hours left on my 70 hour clock, that's enough for a Brownsville run : ) We'll see.  Brownsville would be a good finishing touch to next week's pay.

On the way home, I stopped at a 44 acre parcel of land about 4 miles south of town.  It would really be a great property excepting for 2 things.  First, the large amount of water that was to be seen all along the roadway for hundreds of feet.  Second, the price tag.  At $114,000, it's out of my range - yet - the price is great for that much property. I figured there must be a reason why it's been sitting on the market so long.  Who wants a waterlogged piece of land?  What are you going to do with it?  Besides the pools of water everywhere, there are 2 large streams running through it. That is actually a bonus, but the pools of water - are not.  I don't want to have to add water drainage to the list of things that need to be done on any given property.  

I haven't nixed it yet, it  could be that it's just that portion of property.  I'll need to go back with my waterproof boots and take a walk into the woods and see what the rest of it looks like.  

I did find another piece of property at a great price, but it's pretty far away.  Somewhere around 25 miles.  I also didn't see if it has water and electricity available.  Now that I'm home, I'm going to look on my computer and see what I can find.  

That's it for now, I want to take a look at a couple of properties I found online - on my phone - and see much larger pictures of them on my computer.

Later gator.  

 Day 1.

Get up later than I wanted to - just didn't want to get up that early on a Sunday, especially when the thought of walking out the front door and work awaiting me in the form of a semi-tractor sitting in the street was right there.

Said my goodbyes to everyone including the grandma/pa that were there visiting for a few days.  They didn't leave long after me.  It took quite a while to get my brain into drive mode.  But I eventually did and made it clear to the yard in Atlanta.  

The trailer I was supposed to pick up was blocked by a tractor and there was a bunch of stuff on the fenders.  I asked a driver that happened to be in there what time they start up in the morning?  7 am.

I got out of there, went to the local Quik Trip truckstop and parked for the night.  Decided I wouldn't get back to the yard until well after 7 am.  It would be Monday morning, people would be lagging trying to get into work mode.

This morning, I couldn't believe this Quik Trip. I have never seen anything like it.  The parking lot had probably 70 cars parked in it and yes, there were a lot of people in that store.  So many and apparently expected that 2 sheriff deputies were standing around. There were 3 lines to the cashier, each line had at least 10 people in it.  I was just amazed at the sight of all of it.

Back to the yard, I was correct. They didn't even know I was coming.  Of course not, it happens every single time I get sent out on one of these types of trips.  But, they were accommodating and get me out of there pretty quick.  

OH, what threw me off yesterday? I ended the day with 666.6 miles for the day.  The terminal number? 66.  Weird, really strange stuff in my mind.  I proved my manager wrong - tho I wasn't trying to - that you can drive all the way to Atlanta in one day. I actually already knew that when he said it to me but I thought it better to keep my mouth shut about it.  Probably some other drivers had driven there and stopped somewhere before they got into town.  

Anyway, I got out onto the road and got 663.1 miles done with 45 minutes left on the clock. I could have gone further, but where would I park?  There wasn't much available after where I stopped and I thought, this is a lot of miles by our company's standards for one day, I can rest easy stopping here.  Here, is a truck stop in Ozark, Arkansas. 

I have 467 miles left to Amarillo and then it's 500 miles back to the yard.  So Wednesday afternoon I should be done with this trip if nothing happens.  I'm pulling a Carbon Dioxide trailer - apparently pressure isn't an issue with this product in these trailers. It's all sitting at zero on the gauges.  Trailer was covered with dried out pine needles from the trees above it - obviously had been sitting a while.  

I'm glad I took this trip.  Other drivers are sitting at least 3 days waiting on a load.  I dunno why my manager gives me these runs and not other drivers, but I'm not going to complain.  Especially when we're this slow.  I don't want to sit 3 days when I get back, I hope the plant gets fully operational pretty soon so we can get back to normal. I've lost a lot of income to 7 days worth of sickness and then 10 days worth of being off due to Snovid21.  

I started to look at properties listed in my town area today - and then thought, no.  I"m not going to find anything different and it's a waste of time and mental energy going through all of those listings and seeing the same properties over and over.  Exasperating.  I'll wait til' I get home and take a fresh look to see if anything has been added.  Nothing available in my price range is anything I want or need.  The only properties that are appealing are far over-priced.  They aren't worth anything remotely near what hte sellers are asking for and I"m not going to waste the realtors time trying to get her to lowball them.  Those people obviously made their money off of those properties with the gas drilling rights, funny they would try to jack up the price per acre after they had already made their fortunes.

Some of them don't have gas rigs on them, why they think it's worth so much is unknown.

I'm actually thinking I should just put this RV park stuff out of my mind for a while and let the realtor just send me whatever she might find when it comes up on the listings.  I'm getting burnt out looking for properties.  The only change I could make is to widen the search, but that means a longer drive to get to the property.  Just not sure that's a great idea, but I might try a widened search parameter just to see what might be available out there.  I might be missing some gem that even if it's 20 miles away, would be worth it to get it.

Not much else going on, at least not worth mentioning here that I haven't already gone over so many times before anyway.  

With that, I think Ill brush my teeth and go to bed early.  It's only 8:40 pm but driving all day long and dealing with traffic takes it's toll.

G'nite. 

 I decided to drive to the yard and get the truck over here. Just felt like I didn't want to drive 35 miles the wrong direction tomorrow and then that much back this way.  Since tomorrow is Sunday, that 35 minutes I'm saving today may very well get me clear to Atlanta tomorrow.  Not having to deal with rush hour traffic will also be helpful.

And I'm waiting for this person to show up with my keto dinners. A locally owned business that serves up all kinds of dishes, Keto is a specialty that they are diving into because the demand is starting to uptick.  

At the yard, today and however, I saw one of the owner operators who had had a run to Brownsville after me - hooked up to another Brownsville trailer.  My  manager is obviously trying to keep everyone busy, I won't complain about not getting a brownsville run instead.  It turns out there is only one of those loads going out per day and there is no detention time since it's easy for the plant down there to keep up with just one empty having to come up.  

I dunno if I have any good reason to be hopeful, but I will hope that by the time I get back from this run, the loading plant will be back to normal. 

Whatever the case, it's starting to get - late. Sort of. Time to text this person and see what's up.  I didn't spend all day today cooking because this company is making me all of these meals. 

Oh, I saw a large property I hadn't noticed before just outside of town with a Century 21 sign out in front of it. Couldn't find that property on any of the listings tho. It would be a perfect location and heavily wooded.  Right off a semi-major highway, nice road and easy access.  Pretty much the god properties I find are either too pricey or already sold. Lol

25 minutes, I'm informed on the meals.  I want to see how big the containers are and if I can fit all of them in  the refrigerator plus have room for lunch stuff.  

We celebrated the 4 year old's birthday today.  Well we did yesterday, but today they had people over to have a small party.  Video on my Facebook page, lol.  I broke my diet - after not breaking it for a while - to have some birthday cake. I must say, eating delicious sugar filled cake was wonderful.  I'll pay for that, of course, but nice lol.  

And the truck.  One of the mud flaps came off - the entire bracket with it - last trip. The mechanic said he was going to fix it on Friday - yesterday - which he didn't do.  I can't be driving that many miles without a mud flap, James and I dealt with that this afternoon.  Fortunate that this town has a NAPA auto parts and most of them carry truck parts.  

With that, I"m going to finish my preparations for this trip and go to bed - early .

 And all of a sudden the house is full of people.

Mind you, the house is not back to normal from the flooring installation.

Grandma and Paw-Paw showed up yesterday as well as a family friend. 

3 extra people in the house, lol.  I hung out with grandpa for quite a while last night talking stuff - he's a police officer and has lots of stories.  I'm me, I have lots of stories too lmao.

They showed up for the now 4-year old's birthday....who is being spoiled like there's no tomorrow. 

On today's list of things to do: I don't know yet lmao.

I have a 4 day run coming up Sunday morning, I was thinking maybe go to the yard and get the truck and bring it home.  My house is in the right direction to go to Atlanta, get 35 miles of the trip over with and perhaps even make it to the destination tomorrow.  I was informed it takes 2 days, but looking at the map it's likely a person could drive it in a single day.   

The back yard calls all of us to go out there and clean it up.  Every time I start tho, I can only get part way finished. It's  big project.  Just cleaning the concrete area up takes up half a day. 

All I know is, those kids went to bed at 10:30 last night, many hours beyond their normal bedtime, I kinow they are going to be cranky today.  And that's probably my queue to leave here and go find something else to do.  Perhaps I'll just take the dogs to the hunting property and go for a long walk.

Now that sounds like a great idea!

Happy Saturday.  

 Work is still famine mode.  I was informed by my manager that sitting around for 3 days is the new normal until the plant gets back up to normal.  Sucks that it happened - Snovid21 - nothing anyone can do about it.  Fix everything and get back to normal.

So, he offered me a run to Atlanta to pick up an empty trailer and take it to Amarillo, TX. That's some serious mileage that will take at least 4 if not 5 days to accomplish.  2,200 miles I'm estimating which is exactly what I need right now, something serious to get me back on track.  

Meanwhile, there is a local company that has pre-made dinners to go.  Keto stuff.  I'm going to try that this upcoming trip - I'm leaving Sunday morning.  I could have left tomorrow but the 3 year old turns 4 today and they are having cake and ice cream to celebrate - tomorrow, not today. I dunno if they're having other kids over to celebrate or what's going on, but I don't mind another day off.

That's because I have been busy all day long starting at 7 am and it's now noon-thirty.  I have much more I want to get done today and spilling into tomorrow.  I do give credit to my manager that he finds stuff to do when we are slow. I don't know who else he offers this stuff to, but I'm more than happy to take it.

Anyways, I have checked out several properties today - none of which will work. Two of them are larger at 37 and 44 acres - but they have been all but stripped of trees.  It looked that way on satellite, just had to check anyway lol.  The price was good is why. The road getting to them wasn't so hot either, I could foresee large RV's having issues.  Not because the RV couldn't make it, but from my readings, a lot of these people driving the rigs are not keen on anything that offers a challenge.  Those two properties are well off the beaten path, far out of the way, I just don't see the viability of either of them.

There's always an issue. The property is sloped too much.  It doesn't have water access.  You can't access it without going over steep railroad tracks or on crappy roads.  I'm not going to take something that I know won't work and I made that clear to the realtor today.  In nice terms of course, but just telling her that there is competition around here and I have a vision for this park if I ever get it going that will have it growing for years to come.  She agreed that she doesn't want me taking any property that I am not 100% comfortable with.

I just wanted her to know I appreciated all the work she had done so far and that I was sorry if I was being too picky but I have to be picky if I want something to have a chance at being successful.  

It would really be nice to quit work in 5 years, collect the minimum SS at age 62 but have this thing up fully functioning and reaping a solid income.  That is a current goal.  Not set in stone simply because the right property has been so elusive, but it is a good goal to incorporate into this mix.  

There are a number of great properties, actually, that would work - but they want far too much money for them. Like unbelievable amounts of money per acre. They sit on the market for a year or longer - who wants to pay 25 thousand dollars per acre for land?  Obviously not that many people considering the good properties are snatched up quickly and these properties just sit there.  

As for the rest of the day? I was going go to two other properties but then found out there is no water supply available.  I mean, it may come down to having to dig a well to get what I need?  Thousands of dollars just to dig the well, that doesn't include the piping, the well house, the pump and the electrical.  Almost none of the properties I have viewed have sewer available, so that cost on top of water cost would just be too much money to start out with.  

Anyway, back to the drawing board.

 I got started this morning in Brownsville around 4:00 am - that's get up, get dressed, turn on the coffee maker, get out, check the truck, etc, got on the road around 4:30, got back to town around 3:00 pm. I'm actually glad that there was an empty there, my mind is rather consumed - still - with this idea of finding a property.  

I found another great property a while ago - only to see it's under contract.  Is this some sort of sign? Am I not supposed to be pursuing this project? Or is it that those properties aren't the right ones?  Or what?  

Whatever the case, I directed my frustration into motivation and went full fledge once again looking at dozens of websites with properties and have half a dozen I want to go look at tomorrow.  

Brownsville is only getting one load per day.  That's not their choice, the loading plant is still having issues after all of this time. And now I understand why I haven't been to Oklahoma in a long time - not that I care - but it has been shut down since the first storm - that's the storm that hit that region before the Texas fiasco. 

So, that plant has been down a long time and no word on when it's coming back up.  Not my favorite run, but it's a good fill in.  And keeps us busy.  I'm not working tomorrow - of course.  We're normally 2 to 3 loads to brownsville per day and 1 to 2 loads a day to Oklahoma.  So, now I understand why we are slow, I thought the loading plant had come back on line - it did but it's been having quality issues.

Remember, that entire plant shut down during Snovid21.  They produce some 88 different chemicals, it's a huge, sprawling plant and employs a large number of people and beyond that, the services they employ from local businesses.  All of the cooling plants had burst pipes, those go down, the entire plant goes down with them.  

Whatever.  Hope they get all of that up and running soon as well as other plants that are also down.  

But while all of that is going on, I'm still going to focus on the evolving arena of RV'ers - couples and families that sell their homes, buy an RV and live in it, traveling around the country.  And... the people that live in the area that cannot afford regular housing and live in RV's locally.  

Do people really believe truck drivers are "rich"? I've heard this a lot.  I think owner-operators can make a small fortune if they get hooked up with the right company or broker.  But company drivers aren't really rich people.  I could call myself middle to upper middle class I suppose, depending on what scale you use.  And there's plenty of different scales out there, that's hard to say.  I dunno, just a curiosity.

I do know that my new CDL expires when I turn 62. I mean, if I live that long.  Who knows when you are going to die? God.  This is why I'm trying so hard to get this business going. I'd love to be able to quit at that age, collect SS and live off of the business.  And it's going to take a lot more than just buying the property and getting pads installed with utilities to get the type of RV resort going I want it to be.  It will take years of upgrades as cash is made available to do them. A party/wedding barn.  A large playground. Etc etc etc.  

There are far more things, I have been finding, that a person can do with an RV park beyond just having RV's.  They can have a restaurant, they can host parties, reunions, all kinds of activities.  It's amazing what people have been able to do with these places.  It doesn't happen overnight, that's the point.  

Anyway, before I drive myself crazy with all of these thoughts? I think I'll watch a re-run of Star Trek and then, go to bed.  Tomorrow is a new day!

G'nite.  

 3:15 am rolled around, the alarm went off and I was wishing I could go right back to sleep.  I'm just not good getting up that early in the morning.  It's not a routine for me, therefore it - sucks to be honest.  But I forced myself out of bed and got moving quickly, for I only allowed myself 30 minutes after getting up before I had to leave.

At the loading rack at the plant, I crawled into the sleeper and went to sleep for another 45 minutes.

380 miles into the drive, I got yet another nap and after that I was feeling ok.  I mean, so good that I could have driven several more hours after getting down here, especially considering the fact that there are empty trailers.  I'm hooked up to one, ready to go first thing in the morning - tho I haven't determined what time I will get up lol, I could leave here around 4:15 am.  

What am I doing on here after a very long day?  Paying bills lol.  I forgot to pay my credit card bills yesterday, today was a "pay them or get a late fee on at least one card" type of thing.  

And of course looking at some more properties the realtor sent me.  But, they don't do anything for me.  The price is good per acre, but this land has been almost completely cleared of trees. That just doesn't work for me.  I'm looking for a property with tall pines, a kind of hideaway.  I did find one yesterday, but it's zoned residential and I doubt the county is going to change that, it's a really nice area, I'm thinking residents there wouldn't want a commercial operation in the middle of their oasis.  

But, yes, I'm going to find out lol. And I'm going to drive down to those two properties the realtor sent - it might have more appeal looking at it in person, who knows.  And to make the realtor happy that I am at least checking out the properties she keeps sending me.  She has sent me a lot of them and I have checked almost all of them out in person, not just viewing from the satellite.  I still wish I could get that one property with the pond.....that place would have been as close to perfect as it gets for this area.

There's also a property I looked at once already - it was rainy and I wanted to take a second look.  I haven't completely ruled it out. It's nothing near what that other place would have been, but it might work.  Just have to take a fresh look.  

Other than that, there is nothing else available that will work.  She did send a property with 44 acres, but there is no water.  Digging wells is expensive.  Keeping them maintained is expensive.  The electricity to run them isn't cheap either.  I had already said to her, the realtor that is, that I needed electricity and water at least.  So, she hopefully won't send me any of those again.  

Well I am going to bed, albeit early.  It's 8:12 pm lol.  I don't feel like surfing the web and I don't want to watch tv.  

G'nite.  

 This morning was a joke.  They had revised the list a few days ago with a large number of properties that had been pulled.  In other words, people paid their back taxes and got their properties off the tax lien sale list.  Good for them, tho, I'm not exactly happy to see people losing their homes because they for whatever reason couldn't pay their taxes.  

I am not  a proponent of property taxes excepting when you first buy the property.  Sales tax, yes, everlasting tax where the government can take it away from you even if you have the entire land paid off

NO. That's tyranny, IMO. 

Anyway, when they finally got started - half an hour late - they announced a lot more properties had been nixed off the list, including the short list I had of properties I wanted.  I looked through the entire list of what would be sold and saw nothing that fits the bill besides properties that were going for more on the starting bid than I had to spend.  

So I left.  No sense wasting more time there.  

I was sent the worksheet for a run tomorrow: Brownsville. Yes, thank you.  I have yet another new dispatcher. This one is new to the company.  She's being overseen by Sheila, tho, so that's a good thing.  

The bad part about the trip tomorrow? I have to be at the plant at 6:00 am.  That means I have to get up - at 3:45 am at the latest.  That's just too early, those make for very long days.  It always ends up with me waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep.  Almost without fail.  

Anyway, left that place, went to Kroger's got a ham, etc etc etc, went home and - found another property I hadn't seen. It's only 8.7 acres, but it is covered with trees and it is only a few miles away from my house, yet, it's outside city limits.  It is also owner financing.  So, even tho I was busy getting ready for tomorrow's trip, I took a run over there. 

Beautiful property. At least at the entrance.  A road on the edge of the property, that's all gas easement.  Drove down it and found a mud pit, decided to gun it and plow through that, only to come up to another, much larger, mud pit that I knew I would get stuck in if I attempted it.  No matter, it was going down hill and into the gas company's excessive apparatus used for gas wells.  This whole region is filled with this stuff.  All over the place.  

If I were to do that property, it wouldn't be using that road.  I'd plow a road right through the center of the property and have RV pads on either side of the road.  This property is narrow but long.  But I don't even think the county is going to allow an RV park in there. It's a very nice area with ranches and houses, beautifully kempt properties, more of a residential area.  The other problem is the almost 8 grand per acre price tag.  Tho, for a nicer area, may be worth it, depending on the owner's terms - this is an owner finance property.  

Then the realtor sent two properties - 37 and 44 acres respectively.  Well over-priced but they've been on the market for half a year.  I might go take a look when I get back, but they'd have to bring the price down 25-30k for me to consider it.  Oh, wait, one of the properties doesn't have water, so that's a nix.  Wells are expensive to drill and I am not interested in going that route.  

So, today was a bit of a disappointment in not even getting to bid on anything. Keep on looking, yes. Enthusiasm beginning to wane, yes.  

Texas is doing away with the mask mandate in this state. Like masks? Great, keep wearing them. I despise the things.  More importantly, tho, is that business will be "allowed" to reopen to 100% . I find it amazing how quickly citizens in this country were conditioned to the amount of government control over their personal lives as what happened during this pandemic and people thinking any of us that don't want to wear masks are somehow evil.

I rarely wear them anyway, only where they are forcing people to do so and I really have to be there for whatever reason;. 

I'm getting sleepy. Been trying to get into go-to-bed mode.  Its only 8:40 pm, but yes, it's time to hit the hay.  If I could only sleep through the night, I"d get 7 hours of sleep and would be fine in the morning.....