Well first it was the small fish in the tank having their fins eaten off by bigger fish. But tonight, I noticed the bigger fish also had their fins disappearing. 

Gotta be fin rot.  Fortunately I have fish antibiotics in the refrigerator - I've been keeping a bottle around for years now after I found out you could just order fish antibiotics online without a prescription, fine for dogs and works quite well.  So I dumped 3 of those capsules in there a few minutes ago, will do it again 24 hours from now and probably the next several days and see if that starts to fix them.  

I've got way too many fish in that tank, that's the main culprit. I was going to go outside and put up the pond tomorrow.  Day off, ya know and need to get it done.  

Nope, it's going to rain tomorrow.  I mean, we have been getting way too much rain.  It's nice when it rains, but it's not so nice when it rains too much.  Can't get anything done.  

We celebrated mother's day with Taylor tonight, kid-free lol. The boys went to Maria's house for the night.  I've been gone for most of the last 5 days, the 6 year old wasn't too happy about that.  The part about going over there that is, he started getting cranky.  I just told him I'd be home tomorrow we can hang out a bit then. Not like we can do much anyway if it's going to rain all day long.  Otherwise, I'd go over to the property and do so more checking on things that have come to mind that I want to look at.

Mostly, just to get the dogs out and get them on a good, long walk/run.  

I can't say I mind just staying home, finally, on a Sunday. I have plenty of stuff I need to get done in my room if I feel so inclined to get to doing stuff.  

On another note, these people are trying to confuse me.  You see all these posts from RV'ers in various groups and they make statements that seem - weird.  Apparently some or many - who knows - of these people expect newly built parks to be pristine oasis of their demanding.  You built a park and didn't put in bath houses? Shame on you!  Why would anyone want to come to YOUR park, I saw in a thread and the person had no answer.  I can answer that, easily, on a few fronts but I won't bother to go into that again here.

After months of reading all of this stuff, I finally had come to the conclusion that I will do what I want and can do and if someone doesn't like it, I can't help them, they can move on down the road to the next place.  It's just that, if/when I close on this land, I'm going to have to make some serious decisions about the setup of the park and how many trees Im going to have to cut down.  I hate the idea, but there's going to have to be a lot of trees felled and there is no way around that.  I just made a promise to myself that the back 6 or more acres would be left untouched. Of if a portion of it was going to be developed, that would be a place for me to live, not for people to pull their trailers or coaches into.  

Time may change that thought, but it's pretty well set in my mind that a portion - hopefully a large portion - of that property is going to retain it's trees as is.  I think the walking trails through it is a great idea - as long as people aren't  disrespectful to the land and throw trash everywhere or do whatever irreverent people do when they are out in the wilderness and don't give a damn about God's majestic creation.  It's pretty sickening to walk through a thick, deep forest and find beer bottles and cans laying all over the place.  

What I do find encouraging is that there are a lot of people that love the idea of the park I'm building - that they mostly only find that at state parks.  It's the "camping" part of it, that's the original thought behind RV'ing - but that has morphed into this idea of having a home on wheels. And they have some beautiful RV's out there. They are exactly like a house inside just a much smaller version of it.  They're building them bigger and bigger.  In my view, if you can afford a 85k pickup and a 100k trailer you can also afford $75 per night park to that giant thing. And yes, there are parks that charge that much.  But those are the resort parks that have huge amenities.  I don't even know if I want to accommodate such huge things, there are plenty of smaller rigs around that require less space. Less price per night, but less amount of trees to take down as well.  

The RV concept and living in them full time is exploding right now. That's not the reason I am getting into this business, or trying to anyway, but it doesn't hurt that so many people are hitting the open road, selling their houses and even carting around families with them.  

A thought that crossed my mind about propane is simply to approach the local wholesalers and see if it would be worth it to one of them to send out a truck once a week or more to fill propane tanks in the RV's.  I take no cut off of it, it's all profit for them, customers get a service that they need and they are happier.  Make people happy, that's the goal. Make people want to come back again, another goal.  Make people want to give you good reviews, a highly important goal.  Give great customer service, smile, listen, take their money, thank you very much, have a great day!

Lol. The stuff I've been doing for large companies for decades perhaps I can do for myself.  Oh and then there was a discussion about whether you should try to clear the land yourself, paying for rentals or just pay a company to do it for you. The argument is that the company can get it done quickly and likely cost less in the long run over renting a machine. And then, if you insist on doing it yourself, what machine should you use?  This stuff is seemingly endless. 

The thought of Pandora's Box entered my mind.  Or cause and effect.  You do this, ten other things that you have to deal with arise.  And then, ten more things from each of those ten things.  There isn't anything that I have looked at where I started at point A and ended up at point - H, R, Z - going through endless possibilities, rabbit trails and potential consequences from one action taken and then several more problems potentially arise. 

It's become far more complicated than it really should need to be.  It's land. Clear it.  Put in the pads, Add the utilities. Get an office building delivered, set it up. Put the gravel down for the driveways and pads.  Get a service for debit and credit cards.  Do whatever you have to do and get it going.  Even insurance.  If you have a kid playground, you pay more.  If you have your own propane service, you pay more.  I haven't even acquired the land yet and I'm looking at all of this stuff, scratching my head, and wondering what to do first?

I know what to do first. Clear the land.  Get the water line to the property. Get the power company out there and give me a quote on getting power there.  Call ATT, what's it going to cost to have line/s run and service started for multiple users?  What's the best setup and how much is the monthly rate?  Does the power company have any statistics on how much power an average RV park uses?  Call septic system installers and get quotes.  You know, the basic stuff here.  If you take in a grand in one day, you can likely expect half or more of it to go to expenses. It doesn't negate profit, it's just how it is, you have gross profit and net profit. You have profit margins.   

I can tell ya one thing: I'm going to get quotes on the water, septic and electric, pad installation, gravel and everything else, add it all up and see what it's going to cost before I do much of anything. Except clearing the land. It's just impossible to understand how to set the park up without being able to see it clearly from the ground.  

I didn't even want to get into this thinking tonight but several posts popped up on my feed and I "had" to check them out. Then start thinking. Then come to the conclusion that - I don't know what I want to do about that - yet . Admit to myself that I don't know everything about this, tho I have freely admitted this several times before - I had to admit that again - and admit that it would be good to get some help formulating a plan versus just sitting here attempting to find out everything by endless searching. 

But, maybe endless searching isn't such a bad thing. I learn - pros and cons.  I get opinions of all different sorts. I read experts views. This method costs less but that method, tho costing more, costs less in the long run. For example, I read a very long thread in an RV forum not on Facebook that was discussing electrical hookups to each pad.  There were 4 different methods that were brought up and these people got into this highly technical discussion about it - they completely lost me at some point and I just kept reading in bewilderment.  Well, I had a basic idea of what they were talking about when I ended up going off that thread and looking up info on these methods.  Doesn't mean I completely understood all of it, but it was interesting reading and in the end? I still had no clue what method is actually the best.  

Until I read that thread, I had no idea that there were  different ways to set up your electrical system.  There's a lot of math involved in calculating voltage and amps, nothing I even want to get into. I'd rather just pay someone who is an expert in the field to design it for me tell me what goes where and what parts/wiring I need to buy for all of it, including lengths and quantities.  Let me rephrase that, I'd rather do all of this myself with some laborers and save a ton of money.  But I also don't want to get in over my head on any particular thing, make some massive, costly mistake and have to start all over again, costing twice the money it would have cost if I had just paid someone to do it for me.  

Changing gears, it saddens me my middle brother's behavior towards our mother.  She loves him, there is no question about that.  He - has not spoken to her in over 2 years now.  She has brought it up and it obviously weighs heavily on her mind.  It's the same pattern as with my dad.  He hadn't spoken to him in at least 15 years before he passed away.  My dad spent years trying to talk to him through various platforms. Mail, phone calls, text, emails and even going to his doorstep on one occasion.  To no avail.  I is hard to believe he is doing this with his own mother, an elegant, graceful, peaceful, lovely and beautiful person.  My brother believed things about her - and me - that were simply not true.

I don't care if he doesn't want anything to do with me, I've gotten over him years ago. But to deny your own mother is, IMO, unforgiveable and unconscionable if you allow it to continue on to their or your grave. He has a reputation, he used to tell us in an arrogant, condescending manner, he cannot deal with family matters.  He's the king of his world and our putrid, foul, toxic family cannot be a part of it since - of course - we don't bow to him, he's a family member, not our God.   

I don't feel hatred for him, I feel sorry for him.  He has created a bubble around him and some day it will come crashing down on top of him.  Mother is 85 years old.  She is in good health for her age, she takes care of herself.  But she won't be around forever, none of us will.  Eternity.  I always think about the other side of the grave, where you go to meet your Maker.  I have enough of my own issues to worry too much about other people besides telling them about the Maker, who He is and how much He loves you.  And the important aspect of Christ, repentance and forgiveness.  

But I can't be responsible for other people's lives or the choices they make.  I think he is making a very bad choice in rejecting his own mother.  I don't know what has happened to him in his adult life that has caused him to come to reject both of his parents, but, he has done it.  

I tried looking up his info through a large number of google searches with info I know about him. He moved near me years ago into a house about a mile away.  I see old info about his career dating back over a decade, I see nothing current.  I don't know what happened to this man during his lifetime that caused him to hate his parents.  I grew up with the same parents. They had their issues like everyone.  But they showed us love, took care of us and did the best they could, the same as we all do with our children.  We might not agree with everything they did or the way they saw things, but they didn't do anything to deserve our lifelong contempt and hatred.  

I would really have a hard time with this if mom dies and he hasn't tried to reconcile.  Not just for mom's sake - going down to her grave with an unforgiving son - but also dealing with her affairs and the inheritance.  He has always been the one that wanted everything.  If I got something from her, he wanted it and said he should have had it, notwithstanding the fact she had given him something of sentimental of monetary value as well.  It would be quite contentious, for I would look at him with disgust and disdaining for the way he treated his own mother, whose womb he came out of.  He would want his share of the inheritance regardless of the fact that he's had nothing to do with her.  

That's her choice, I would certainly honor that, but I wouldn't respect him, at all and I would make it quite known of my contempt.  

Okay, it's getting late and this thought process is draining and I want to stop it. It isn't anything worth dwelling on, I usually don't but mom brings it up here and there.  I sent her flowers on Monday for Mother's Day. I know, it was early but I didn't want to forget and then remember on Sunday - tomorrow - that I need to send her something.  That's like, gee, you remembered me, but a bit too late type of thing.  I'll call her as well plus wish happy day on my facebook page.  I know my oldest brother will do the same and probably invite her to dinner or something.  At least my oldest brother - who also wrote off my dad, has definitely not written off mother.  He was in shock that middle brother did what he did and he couldn't comprehend it, as far as I know. I don't have any communication beyond happy birthdays and merry christmases,  with him, he has never wanted anything to do with family from early childhood, but at least he still loves mom and helps her out whenever she needs the help.

With that, I'm going to bed. 

 I drove til midnight last night- not that I had to but I wanted to get most of the driving over with. Went straight to bed, no gambling for me, haven’t done so in quite awhile. I’m at the casino truck stop. 

Well actually I’m in the casino getting breakfast at one of the restaurants. So I get up a little bit ago, open the door to one of the closets to get fresh clothes - no clothes! 

Yesterday when I got to work I tried to fire up the truck - it’s the first thing I do. In case there are issues I want to get on it right away. Well, I got distracted with finding the mechanics and asking them to deal with it. They ended up putting new batteries in it and I ... forgot to put my duffle bag in. 

It’s a good thing this is only a two day trip. Id be finding a Walmart somewhere otherwise and buying new clothes. Not the end of the world. I actually was laughing at myself lol 😂 

Whatever the case, providing I get home early enough, we are going to Texas Roadhouse. I haven’t cheated in months and I’m ready for  a grand, one meal break from the same old stuff. Just one meal tho. That last time I cheated for several months? I kind of regretted that after gaining 20 plus pounds back and taking forever to lose it again. 

I’m hoping I get tomorrow off. I haven’t had one off in a long time. Load the dogs up, go to one of the properties and let them run out some energy. 

Monday. The appraisal should be completed. It shouldn’t be an issue, the land is easily worth $4,400 per acre. I suspect that property wouldn’t have lasted long if had been listed on the MLS. I caught a break on this one and I don’t wonder if all the trouble I’ve gone through finding the right place was actually meant to be to eventually end up with this one? 

I’m not going to get distracted with the property today. Just need to focus on something else. 

Right now? Breakfast is done and time to get back to the truck. My 10 hours is almost up. 

G’day 

 Here it is.  I could not get it to upload the image from my computer, so I took a screenshot of it.  Look at the rows.  There are lanes throughout the entire property. They have not been maintained and are filled with underbrush, and more specifically, a bunch of thorny vines that need to go.  There is a lane going vertically through the property, that is the cutoff.  To the left is RV park, to the right is kept as is.  Except, of course, to get rid of the underbrush.  It serves no useful purpose and can dry out in dry season and cause forest fires.  I will try to outline the areas for the things I want to install with lines tomorrow. It's late now, lol, I'm going to bed.  

 

 There are days when I definitely do not feel like driving, today was one of them.  With around 540 miles to go to get back to the yard, I just wasn't in the mood.  I mean, I'll get  it done but I have to distract myself when it's going that bad.  Mostly listening to stuff on YouTube.  All kinds of content on there, you can find anything that suits your fancy.  

It didn't help that the thought of - simply because there are power lines nearby, that doesn't mean I'll have access to them. It just hit me today - those lines are on other people's property. There are easements going through those properties but there isn't an easement going to mine. Well there is a path that seems like it might be one, but who knows?  Awful large risk to take to think about buying a property you can't get power to.

So, after putting up with all the nonsense and lunacy on the road all day long - that's probably my biggest reason why I don't like driving anymore - I drove straight over there from work.  I had to get this out of my head.  I eight can or can't have power. If I can't, this deal is off, I don't want anything to do with it. It's one thing to have to have your own septic system installed, it's quite another to think about having to supply your own power. No thanks.  My concerns were eased when I saw a power line crossing the road maybe 50 feet from "my" property line.  That's all easement along the road, they could easily just run it from there over to my land without having to pay any property owners for easement rights - if they'd even give it.  

I'm still going to pursue this before signing day tho.  I have time.  I'm going to call what I believer to be the power provider tomorrow and ask them to please find out what will need to be done to get power to my property.  

I got at least a hint of hope today when the realtor joyously texted me that the title company was asking about my marital status.  Don't know why they need to know that but I gave it to her. She said it's at least good that they are moving on this.  We made jokes about how long this process is taking and that was that, lol.  It's still over 2 weeks to closing day.  

Back to working, I think besides dealing with all the ridiculousness in traffic every day, it's also the long days.  I put in 16 hours yesterday.  The day before that was 14 hours.  Today was less at 10 hours, but good grief.  It's too much. I'm tired of it, I want a permanent break from it.  If I could just work an RV park every day for 8 hours and take a day off here and there, I'd be good.  It's why I am seriously looking into just financing the whole thing, get 70-80 sites set up at the get go, have a laundry and bath facility, get an office building and let's go with this.  About 200k, maybe 250k to do what I would need to do would get the whole thing set up and over with. There would be other things I would want to add over time but that would get me over the initial hump.  

Whether I would qualify remains to be seen. Otherwise, I'm going to have to cash out that old 401k and then probably have to get a loan on top of that.  To that end, I'm also looking at home equity loans.  My house is worth far more than I owe on it, it's just it's a manufactured home and a lot of the lenders don't want to finance that regardless of how much it may be worth.  But I'll keep looking until I either exhaust all of it or I find something.  Right now, tho, I'm not doing anything that requires any kind of credit check.  I don't need that showing up for the lender for the property.  

I've got another loan that's down to less than 2 grand, I'm considering paying that off as well and get my monthly expenses down far enough that any lender looking at my monthly liability spreadsheet would definitely at least give consideration to my loan request.  And then there's the banker next door who knows the person in charge of the SBA loans in this region.  They have money and hardly anyone taking it at low interest rates.  That's his words.  

Lenders such as LightStream, Prosper, upstart and the like want way too much of an interest rate to even consider using them for a loan unless I didn't need that much. If I were to just do the 25 pads and I could get most of it done with the 401k, then I could see taking out a 15-20k loan. But you get into the 50k and up territory and they want more than a house payment for monthly payments.  I get that it's an unsecured loan but get real with the interest rates, please.  

And on and on.  There will be a flurry of activity at the get-go if/when this property closes.  A quote on a septic system - I'll contact 3 companies and get some bids.  Get electricity to the property - unless it's going to cost a fortune, then it can wait until I secure more financing.  And get the water line run to the property. I can't see that costing more than 3 or 4 grand, it's not that much of a project.  And get the underbrush cleared on the front half of the property.  

Which means I'll have to go and put ribbon around all the stuff I don't want taken down. That'll take a bit of time.  I want all of those lanes cleared out.  Where they already took out trees and made rows. It's almost as if the owner wanted to build his own RV park, I have no clue why he did all of that. None of my business, I guess, I'll never meet him apparently. This is all being done through realtors.  But the fact that all of those rows already exist - that's a lot of tree felling that won't have to happen. There will be plenty more trees that need to come down, yes, but all of that is already out of the way.  

There is a plan slowly developing in my mind. The more understanding I gain, the easier it is to come up with a basic plan.  Money is everything of course.  

There is also future stuff that I am considering.  A convenience store with a deli - that also takes care of the lot rentals of course. Why? Because there is a huge piece of land with an office that accommodates 250 people in the office portion and even more in the warehouse part.  It's up for sale for 3 million, it was owned by BP, they moved out for whatever reason.  Someone is going to buy that facility sooner or later and I wouldn't mind facilitating lunchtime for whatever portion of them I can get to come down and buy lunch.  The nearest place to buy anything is 6 miles away.  People don't have forever lunch times.  

That was something that crossed my mind today.  I don't really want a gas station, just a convenience store and propane sales.  A log cabin type of thing, that sticks with the look and feel of the land.  Rustic look - pine trees and such don't need some "modern" feel to it. That's not what campers want anyway and those that do can find fancy RV resorts that better suit their desires.  I'm not going to try to appease everyone, the trees will drive off a certain amount of RV population and I'm fine with that.  They complain about them and say they want open clear land.  Yup, well that's not the theme of my park.  

Oh, the 250 people part of that facility up the street? That's what got me to wondering if they paid for sewer line over there. Otherwise, they must have had to install a very large septic system or several smaller ones.  It's an oil company, they can of course afford to do whatever they need, but I am going to find out if they have septic or if they paid to tunnel under the Interstate a sewer line.  

Yes, it has actually been useful that the land hasn't closed yet, because it's giving me time to really think about what I'm attempting to get into here. But, I am pleased with the property and the location and the availability of the utilities, wifi especially. Many RV'ers work out of their RV's, they live in them and travel from place to place. If you don't offer wifi, those types of RV'ers won't come unless they have their own wifi off of their phones (which is what I would have anyway if I were doing that type of lifestyle, I already have unlimited internet with unlimited tethering as it stands).  

But whatever happens, the fact of the matter is, even starting out small, the getting the utilities set up on the land is going to be more than I will have with the 401k and I am preparing my mind for more debt - but hopefully debt that will be supported by revenues. I just can't make a decision on what to do concerning loans until I get all the numbers in on how much all of it is going to cost.  

But, the things I will be installing, I have thought about endlessly. Water lines from the main connection, that's me.  I am not paying someone to do something that is quite easy, it's not brain surgery. Underground electric from the pole to the sites? I'm wishy washy on that one. The materials will cost at least 10k and that doesn't include installation.  Setpic? I'll pay someone to install but I'll run the lines to it from the pads.  I don't need help with that, that's as easy as the water line installation and I have contacts to get the pipe for cheaper than anyone can get it.  

The water, sewer, electric are going to be the money gobblers in this proposition.  Pad creation probably not so much, asphalt millings or concrete shavings I haven't looked into yet.  That's for pads and driveways. 

I will say James is all for this.  He'll work his ass off, I know him well enough, he's not a slacker, if I pay him an hourly wage, he'll get stuff done.  He's smart and can figure things out as well.  I could see him doing pads on his off time - just get a Bobcat rented for a month or two and he could get those done.  I have to keep working my job, I can't stop working til' I know I have the monthly income from this venture to be able to live off of.  I'm fortunate that I can get help from a person that is motivated, knowledgeable and likes to learn new things.  Cause' honey, all of this is new to all of us.  I have lived in trailers, but that isn't the same as attempting to build the place your rig is parked on. Apples and oranges.  

If you haven't figured it out yet, I am highly motivated to get this land and get this project going.  I have no fantasies of it up and running in a month. More like next year a grand opening. I already have numerous people that want to come.  I'm going to take 20 plus pics of the property after it's cleared and have a name-calling contest.  I can't come up with a name that isn't really unique. Whispering pines, Timberline, Piney acres -  and many more are already taken and are a bit  less than different. It's got to be something that at least remotely; reflects the type of place it is - tall pines, peace, quiet, restoration perhaps.  Nature, camping, trails, freedom.  I dunno, but I do know that others are far better with coming up with names like this than I am.  Someone has a eureka moment, comes up with this awesome name and walaah, there it is.  A permanent name is important not only for the image of the park, but the fact that you have to pay to have signs and billboards and ads put up.  

I can't just open a park and expect people to randomly find it, lol. It has to be advertised through multiple different media, but most importantly on social media sites.  Billboards are good for the nomadic traveler needing a place to stay for the night.  Local ads are good for the person needing a place to park their unit semi permanently. But if you want people to know about it and include it in their traveling plans, you have to be all over social media.  And have it come up in the top google searches - you pay a firm to do that for you.  You have to have your own website, your own facebook page and pretty much anywhere else - twitter, myspace, whatever gets the message across. Start your own RV group with your park name on it.  Get it up there in the google searches - again, you pay a firm to do that for you. I don't know how they do it, but they get it done.  

There are a large number of internet sites that rate and review your camp site and include it in their listings.  

I could go on, but you can see that this kind of project has a lot of different facets to it - some of it time consuming, some of it money consuming, but you have to do all of it to make it a successful venture.  I will have a professional set up my website replete with an online reservation system that will pay for a site rental in advance and reserve it in advance.  It seems endless all of this.  But it has to be done, all of it.  Anything missed is revenues declined.  You have to spend the money at the get go to get the word out, it's not just setting up a park, it's making it know to the RV'ing world that its' there and you are welcome to come check us out.  I can see thousands of dollars spent on all of that alone.  

To be honest, my mobile home park idea would have been easier than this.  But, my mind switched gears after looking into potential profits.  And the social aspect.  RV parks don't have the social stigma of mobile home parks.  A mobile home park isn't out of the question, but not on beautiful land like this.  Tear down half the trees to put them on there? Naw, not happening. Just get barren land for a mobile home park, put in a bunch of old mobilies, fix them up and rent them.  In reality, my truck parking idea has far more income potential and much less investment than a mobile home park. 

And RV parks - you don't buy RV's to rent them out, everyone already owns them.  You just have to have an appealing place to bring them to you.  And this whole thing is a challenge. I like a challenge.  All of it.  Work through one thing and then work through another - and another - and another.  You get it done and you think how good of a feeling it is that you got that accomplished and now tackle the next thing.  Money will be a thorn in the side, but it will keep me realistic as well.

Home? I got here late. The boys were all happy I walked in the door.  Taylor was gone to the neighbor's house, I saw her for 2 seconds before she came in, said g'nite and went to bed.  James I talked with for a while, especially about this venture - as I said - he's all for this.  These are my friends, if they want to help they can also reap the rewards of helping out.  I'm not looking for handouts here, that would be wrong on several fronts. I don't want free labor, I need help and it's something I will pay for, just as any business owner would do beyond what that owner can do on their own.  But, they are people I can trust.  Without any doubt, I can trust both of them.  James works at his own pace but he gets it done.  Taylor is highly organized and would take care of accounting to anyone's delight.  I wouldn't mind hiring her to run the place initially, but she wants to do stay at home stuff for now.  I respect that and there's nothing wrong with it.  But she is someone that can take care of business and do it efficiently.  

Their friends are willing to help as well. In fact, it was discussed quite a while back that they live on property.  I didn't bring that up, they did. I dunno how far I'm going to go with all of this, but also Maria would probably help out for either a place to live for free or a paycheck.  I just need friendly people - I don't need people that can't smile, be friendly and talkative and can take some normal customer - abuses. If a customer starts s*** and starts cussing anyone out, then it can be taken to the next level. Like, get the h*** out of the park, take your sorry @$$ and your rig out of here and don't come back.  I don't expect that to happen, yet, there are sorry people that affect every business. Still, you have your reputation to think of and even if they are demons from hell, you have to try at least to de-escalate anything and attempt to come to an amiable conclusion.  

This whole thing has become a bit overwhelming the more I find out the things I will need and the information I will need to know  I'm not giving up at all, but the learning curve here is huge.  I don't considering myself low IQ - I'm attempting to learn everything as I am confronted with new information.  

I've said this for many years on my blog - I write this stuff out because it helps me think things through.  This is by far and away the biggest undertaking I have ever attemptied in my entire lifetime. This is why you see me writing some of the same things, over and over here.  I write something, stop writing and sit back and think about it for a while.  I go do some research and then I might come to a different conclusion. I am not double-minded as some of this may appear. Where I say one thing and then switch to something different.  I had literally no clue what I was doing when I started the land search.  And after months of research, I can honestly say I am still far from being any kind of expert.  But, if I write all of this out, it causes me to think about my intended actions or thought process and then causes me to question it, confront it and learn other, more informed views of it.  

If there is one thing I have definitively learned in my life, it's to learn from other's mistakes.  What did you do wrong? What did you do to fix it? How can I avoid making the same, costly, mistake?  RV park owners are not free with their information, I am finding out.  They went through the same ordeals and I guess they think you should pay to play, find out about it at your own expense.  Some day, down the road, I will be able to offer advice and opinion on how to go about doing this, Right now, I just offer my observations of what I am dealing with.  

There is nothing more to say today about this.  Tomorrow I am going to call the power company, at least the one I think that serves the area from the research I have done and ask them to get me information about what it will take to get power to the property. This is of UTMOST importance. No power - no park.  

Addler is not happy with me lol. I've been gone alot. I give him and Aspyn a lot of attention when I get home. But, he just doesn't like me being gone so much.  Hopefully the day comes before his earthly days are over that I can have him roaming around with me doing the stuff one the property.  He can come every time, he's a good, obedient doggy. You have to somewhat pay attention to him wandering off, yes, it's just dog nature out in the wilderness.  But, he always comes back.  

Yes, it's getting late. I got home late.  I can't just get home and go to bed or something.  3 days out and out again tomorrow - it's somewhat depressing.  I'm more of a social creature than not, sitting in a truck alone all day long is no longer acceptable to me.  It pays my bills but it doesn't serve my desired life.  I'll take whatever debt risk I need to to get this business up and running. I have nothing to lose, this is what I've always wanted to do. Debt is the deterrent here, don't do it! Yes, do it if necessary, under a business setup, not your personal name if it's a business loan.  An LLC is necessary.  Just one more thing on the list.  It's a roll of the dice. Start small and try to do it with minimal loans and debt, or start it all out, get it all done, have a much larger monthly payment - but hopefully have the revenues to more than pay for it. You tell me. I don't know, I haven't decided yet and can't really come to that conclusion until after I know what my initial costs are.  Even then, it will still have to be a decision either way.

With that, I bid you a good night.  

 I'm stuck once again at a receiving plant.  Hardly unusual for this job, but it is unusual for this particular plant.  When they order, they need it now.  It was quite surprising when I got to the gate, called security and they said "they're not ready for you yet, we'll call you when they are".  That is never a good message to hear - at least not if you want to get the truck unloaded and get back on down the road.  Which is what I want to do.  

I'm already getting close to the point of no return - when I don't have enough hours left in the day to get back to the minimum place I need to get to so I can make it home tomorrow.  Once we pass that, I'm all for staying here all night long, otherwise it's just a waste of my time, lose a day I could have gotten a run going somewhere else.  

I guessed a 5 hour wait - just a thing that came out of the blue and previous experience waiting at plants. So far I'm 3 hours and 15 minutes.  I could still make it back to the other side of Atlanta even with a 2 hour unload, but that minimum time line is approaching fast.  Oh well.  I've got plenty of food at least, I'm sitting inside the plant in a tanker parking lot.  

In other news, I received a text from the realtor today.  She said she had talked to Cale - the lender - and he said he was looking at closing on the 21st if all goes well.  16 days from now.  Still a long time.  I did not contact either the realtor or the lender - I decided I wasn't going to ask anyone anything until they had something for me. 

It's appearing as tho a septic system is going to be quite costly even for a small operation.  I'm not 100% about that yet, but that's what it looks like.  That will alter my plans if true.  I'll have no choice but to try and get an SBA small business loan to put the park together. And if I do that, I'm asking for minimum 200k and get it all done at once. 80 pads, laundry room and shower house.  A small office and that would eat up that money.  Well, maybe even more than that, around 300k.  80 pads would cost a lot of money - but that's do or die.  In Texas, I found out, if you don't have sewer access to every pad, you have to have at least a waste dump site.  

So you still have to have a septic system.  Or possibly just a large tank that you can have pumped out.  I'll have to look into that, but once this property closes I'll be getting a professional over there to give me a quote on installing a system. I've got to have something.  People won't want to come to a park that doesn't have any kind of facility to get rid of black water tank - human waste - and as far as I could read it's mandatory to have something available at any park you put up.  I am going to check into see if that giant facility up the street somehow managed to get a utility to run sewer line there.  It's a long shot, they probably have a big septic system, but you never know.  

Revised.  I was looking at a site that I thought was for the state of Texas, turns out it's county restrictions on RV parks in a different county than what this is in.  This county has no restrictions, they don't care lol. They just tell you that you have to abide by state codes.  I've read the state codes.  Basically, if a septic system is going to cost too much to begin with to supply to each site, then I will either have a dump station with a septic system or an underground holding tank and have a truck empty it out whenever it fills up.  I have to have something.  

This is getting frustrating, I can't really do anything until the property closes.  This is why I was putting it out of my head, but she had to text me today with that information, lmao.  

I was trying to find information on that plant for sale, but I only found one place where it is listed and it doesn't say what utilities are available.  Just be nice if there was a utility sewer it hooked into, I could pay to have a line run to my property - which wouldn't be cheap but it would be a permanent solution and I wouldn't have to worry about it once installed.

The good news. After 4 hours they finally came and got me.  If it takes 2 hours to offload, I can still get 4 hours back to where I started and get home tomorrow.

The bad news, of which wasn't true last time I was in here: You have to sit inside the truck the entire time. Last time I was here, I waited outside of the truck so I wouldn't burn up inside of it. No, they don't let you run the truck.  

Whew.  Cold water at least.  Grin and bear it, it's worth $25 per hour waiting so that's some comfort lol.

I think I'll do more perusing on the internet.  

 Eternally long day.

It started out alright, to the plant, rack was empty they started loading me right off the bat.

Got that done, over to the scalehouse, she had me in and out of there in 10 minutes, almost unheard of anymore after people retired and they got newbies in there.

Got on down the highway.  Minimum mileage goal: 600 miles.  

But see, I am going to Enoree, Georgia and the way there is through Atlanta.  I knew I would have fun finding a parking spot tonight and I wasn't let down on that aspect.  The closer you get to Atlanta, the worse it gets.  See? I could open up a 500 spot parking lot and the profits would be very good even at only $5 per night.

I went to several places before I ended up where I'm at now.  I had found a paid parking space at a Pilot - only to find out they had all been rented in advance, sorry.  The amount of time I wasted tonight looking for a place to park was a bit much.

I took off down the road and got to Flying J.  I hoped beyond hope that at least one of those reserved spaces was available. She smiled, there's 3! That'll be $15, please. See what I've been saying about this paid parking stuff? $15 for 10 hours just to park a truck?  But what was I going to do?  And anyway, my company will reimburse me for it, but I try not to do it at all, occasionally I have no choice and this morning, I figured I would - have no choice by the time I got here.  

The funny thing is, I could have just reserved a space online if I had thought about it and not have had to go through all of this.  

Oh, what made this a challenging day? Pouring, driving, heavy rain for at least 350 miles worth of driving.  That's no exaggeration, at all.  My hair feels like I just got out of the shower and my clothes are wet from walking to the store to get the parking ticket.  I can hear the patter of rain on the roof of the truck right now - I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if this goes on all night long.  No worries, I can sleep through that noise, just put in ear plugs.  

I got lucky yesterday that the keto meal lady was able to make me 3 meals for this trip - just got through eating one of them, delicious.  

I kind of feel sorry for all the trucks coming in here looking for a parking space right now. There are none left, they filled up quickly after I got in here. They are going to have a tough time finding anything getting this late.

I did think about driving to our company's yard in north Atlanta and just parking there for the night - but the rain was slow going.  No hydroplaning for me, thanks and visibility wasn't all that great either.  I didn't have enough drive hours to make it that far is the point.  Anyway, I'm better now that I am parked for the night and no more worries about that.  That stuff can get stressful, wondering when you are actually going to be able to get done for the day.  

Tomorrow, drive out the 225 miles left to the plant, unload this beast and try to get back to Alabama, where there are far more parking choices.  It's definitely doable - but you know, driving through Atlanta in the morning is going to be hellish and up 85 - that's another nightmare Interstate corridor.  I haven't done this run in so long, I had forgotten that I'll have to unload the truck. 

I have never unloaded this old beast.  It's a pain, from the look of it. The hoses hook up to the rear cabinet, the valves are on the driver's side cabinet and the rest of it is on the passenger side cabinet.  The new trailers? Everything is on the rear.  It may very well be another long day tomorrow - and I haven't even checked the forecast yet. I'm afraid to, lmao.  

Yes I have to say it: no news from the realtor or the lender.  I didn't expect any, but I'll be looking every day anyway. 

I did find out that many RV parks have their rules listed on their websites.  Yes, there has to be rules, but I didn't know everything.  Dogs have to be on a leash at all times - no brainer. Quiet time from 10pm to 8am - wasn't really sure of the exact times.  People get pissed when their neighbors are being noisy late at night and the management doesn't enforce the rules.  Other things tho I hadn't thought of. A reservation system and how to work it.  The idea that many of these parks have various sized lots for the various sized trailers or motor coaches.  And various prices.  

One place is charging $75 per night for regular lots and it goes up from there.  Amazing, but I'm not going to try and go that high. That was a resort RV park, mine is going to be plain Jane at the beginning, tho turning it into a resort over time is definitely a goal I will make.  That pretty much means a pool and jacuzzi, laundry room, convenience store, bath house, fire rings at every lot as  well as picnic tables and a grill.  A dance hall/party building.  

Well whatever. I can't get too deep into that thought right now, I have no land closed on to start anything.  Any I'm tired.  It's time to go to sleep. I was just trying to wind down for a few minutes after a very long day of having to exercise uber-focus on roadways that were challenging to say the least, most of that from people that have no clue how to drive in rain and think they can hog the passing lanes.  I get it, some or many people are uncomfortable with wet roads. I'm not, please get out of the passing lane if you aren't passing anyone. That's just it, that's the law in most if not all states anyway. Left lane is for passing only - and other ways that states word it but it all means the same thing: get the h***  out of the way of faster drivers, please and thank you.

And also -g'nite.  

 I was hopeful the giant dog would behave himself today, but alas, he was grumpy as usual at the vet's office.

Mind you, that grumpiness only started after they took him in the back, did a fecal swab to check for parasites and he apparently didn't like that  - at all.  They came back with him 5 minutes later and said, uhh, we'll have you deal with him while we do our stuff.

I can't blame him for getting a bit upset.  He had needle after needle stuck in him.  It was time to update everything and everything we definitely did.  But, as usual, for the needle part, we ended putting a muzzle on him and I had to hold his head.  

But, immediately after the sticking was done, I took off the muzzle and he was his good old self, talking to everyone and sticking his face into everyone's business, including the vet that stuck him over and over lol.  He's a really good doggy.  

After that, it was back out into the main room where everyone waits and the front office.  The lady that had looked out of the door before we went into our room - and totally freaked out about Addler's size - came out again and then ducked back into the room.  I offered that my dog is leashed and I have total control of him.

That didn't convince her at all.  Long story short: she ended up running full tilt out of the front office and out the front door lmao.  

I don't want to portray Addler as a meanie. He was very good natured in the front office. He was great in the exam room. The vet came in and he was fine with that.  The needles came out?  No, lol, just no.

I dropped 5 bills there today.  It was everything plus the flea/tick pills that were ordered for both dogs.  The heartworm injection is more expensive than the pills, that's what the vet objected to.  Well, this injection is a lot more expensive.  Yea, well a heartworm diagnosis is a 2.5k proposition, I don't want to have to give him pills every month, I'll do the injection.  The vet agreed, he does the same with his dog, but he was apparently attempting to prepare me for the sticker shock.

That shock came and went long ago, I know how much it costs, lets do it.  

 My poor doggy. I've given him lots of attention since this afternoon and I gave him some rare treats he normally doesn't get.  He's clearly not happy right now.  He looks okay but he's got a look on his face.  I dunno, but those shots are, IMO, mandatory for dogs and keep him from getting terminally ill.  

It's sort of getting late.  I have the South Carolina run going out tomorrow morning.  It's 3 days - 4 if things go south.  I'm not really interested in this run, it takes you through Atlanta and up 75, tomorrow, finding a place to stop for 10 hours will not be fun.  That's not speculation, that's fact. This is why I want to try to start a model for parking that doesn't cost a fortune but gives an option in crowded corridors.  

I actually think if you could get enough of these set up in a region and show the benefit for large trucking companies, large trucking companies would sign onto it.  Of course I don't have the money to buy 100 properties in a several state area. 

The kid - was definitely sick.  He became clingy.  He also fell asleep when we were going to Lowe's for some carb cleaner - like 2 minutes after we pulled out of the driveway.  He looked bad, sounded bad, coughing, no idea what's gotten a hold of him.  I felt his forehead, it was very warm.  Thermometer showed 102.5 - mama gave him some tylenol and it eventually came back down and he was feeling better.  

I'm quite tired. I was just waiting til it got a bit later so I could sleep without too much problems. 
But the birds - they go off around midnight and the sound is obnoxious. I'm reverting back to using earplugs every night.

With that - who knows when I will post again - but c'ya soon.

bb

 Think ... pond.

I'm trying lol.

Kids got up and started making a racket early this morning and pretty much pissed me off, considering I had been in a deep sleep and probably would have slept a couple of more hours had they not done that.  Mama was not happy when I informed her of that so hopefully some consequences for an action they very much know they shouldn't be doing that time of day. 

I'm kind of tired is the point.  I tried for well over an hour to get back to sleep and that was a non-happening event.  

So, I decided to get up and do something useful with the time. Addler needs his rabies shot and it's also entering the time of year for mosquitoes - that give dogs heartworms.  So, I'm taking him into the vet this morning and get that over with. Aspyn will be at another date.  I took her in last time to get her loss of weight assessed. Let's see, rabies, heartworm test, heartworm injection, tic and flea pill and whatever else he's needing? That will be $400 Mr BB.  

I'd be willing to bet money I don't get out of there without dropping at least 3 bills.  But, if you want to take care of your animals, you're going to have to spend the money and that's just a part of owning dogs.  People who don't take care of their animals end up with sick/dead pets and that's no fun, at all.  

The pond? I'm going to need to get out of this funk I woke up in with those kids making all of that noise.  I was going to sleep until 9am, that's pretty much what I do when I have a day off.  The pond will entail moving heavy stones from one side of the property to another, so yea, I'm not necessarily in the mood for that.  Maybe later after I get done with Addler.  

Several other things on the agenda for today - whether it all gets done or not is unknown but I'ma try.  The life of being on the road all the time, home time is sometimes plenteous but also sometimes infrequent.  When it's infrequent, that's when I'm tired, worn down and needing a break.  It's also when I usually need to get a bunch of stuff done.  

One thing I'm trying not to do is check my email all day long for any sign of anything from the lender.  It's really hard to resist that temptation, lol, even tho I know it will be weeks at least before we get to the closing date.  It's just what it is.  

But, since I'm going to be in the area where I would want to start a truck parking place - the animal hospital is right up the street from I-20 on a less traveled road but the Interstate being right there is the only thing that matters - I'm going to look around for properties for lease or sale. Preferably for lease, no real risk besides however long the minimum agreement is for.  Probably a year, 6 months would be better.  

Don't think I'm joking about a truck parking place.  It's been in my head for a while as well as RV parks, Mobile home parks and other business ventures that heretofore I had no path to accomplishing any of it.  I refuse to just sit around and work for a huge coroporation for the rest of my life while opportunity sits in front of my face.  That's just it.  I'm sick of driving trucks, that's where I'm at, that's where I've been at, gotta do something about it.

And with that, I'm going to take a look at SBA loans, what they involve and then, prepare to go to the vet.

G'day.   

 So the tattletale - is tattle taling again. Pathetic excuse for a man going around telling on people behind their backs.  This is the 4th person that I know of he's tattled on. This time?  There is a Mexican driver - he speaks Spanish and he gets along well with the Mexicans at the yard in Brownsville.  So much so they invite him to drink and dine with them when they are there partying.  

Well, can't say he wasn't warned. I told him when we were discussing that when that driver is down there that tells on everyone to stay away from the partying.  He's gonna tell on you.  He didn't believe me, he had - operative word had in the past tense - more faith in him than I do.  I see what this guy does, for whatever reason he thrives on tattle tailing to the manager. The thing is, our manager doesn't come off as a dude that much cares for people like that.

Whatever the case, he is not allowed to go down there anymore.  Another driver also has been banned from going down there - for another reason. This other driver isn't a drinker at all, but, he's a slacker.  He doesn't drive straight through down there, he stops like 150 miles before he gets to Brownsville and then drives down the next day - which gets him there in the afternoon.

Now that, I can see.  It's one day down and it's one day back up under normal circumstances.  If you have a breakdown, a blown tire costs you the hours to get there, if the loading plant has issues and you run out of hours, that's understandable - but it doesn't happen very often.  I haven't had a blown tire in months, I can't remember when it was the fuel pump went out on the truck, but it was last year and usually I can make up for the loading plant taking way too long to get everything done. Just drive like a madman, don't stop for anything but the 30 minute break.

It's why I fuel up every single time on the way back up in Lufkin.  If I fuel in Lufkin and I go back down to Brownsville the next trip, I can make it all the way down there without fueling - until I get there.  If I don't have the time to fuel at the Love's down there, I bypass it, go straight to the yard and get the trailer dropped on premises and get off the clock.  Whatever the case, anyone wanting Brownsville runs best be getting down there in one day and getting back up the next.  No matter how you feel, no matter what your mood is, you get it done.  This is why I drove through the night last week, well a week and a half ago.  

I want those runs and I'll sacrifice my sleep to get them.  I feel bad for the Mexican dude that got banned.  He's a good guy, a great driver and even if he does drink, it doesn't stop him from driving the next day. He's off duty and the company shouldn't care what he's doing on his own time.  But, that's the way this company is and I have learned to deal with it for the most part.  They have a lot of rules and a lot of things can get you into trouble with them.  In fact it's a long list.  I am surprised I have lasted this long.  

Personally my life isn't going to end if I do lose my job there, they are extremely anal about everything and that can be a good thing - and a bad thing.  The trucking industry has been changing and good drivers aren't exactly in overabundance.  

Anyway, it was a bit disconcerting to hear this - again - about this same person messing with people.  Like he take pride in ruining people's lives.  After he complained about me saying something to him at the loading rack about not reporting the fact that the pump is shut down and nothing is being loaded - he tried to get me fired for texting him that - I have never talked to him since then. That was well over a year ago and my suspicions about him have proven correct. 

He was down there after I got in last night, I just stayed in my truck.  He best not come up to my truck and ask anything, I'll have zero, zilch, nada to do with him.  He knows it to.  I turn a cold shoulder to him every time I see him.  I don't know why he gets Brownsville runs every load and I'm not sure it's going to be a good idea to ask my manager about it.  This may very well be a sore spot for him - he is also under the company's rules about everything.  Including if someone tells him something, he has to deal with it whether he wants to or not.

So at this point I am not going to look at this job as the one I will have until I retire. I just can't, I am not quitting but I am not going to naively believe that I can't ever be put on the chopping block.  I've seen too many people fired, laid off and treated like the number on the screen we are to this company.  

There's more to this story with this driver and what's going on with runs than meets the eye. There is stuff behind the scenes I don't know.  I get bits and pieces here and there and try to put the puzzle together, but there are definitely missing pieces.  For example, why would they show that much favoritism to one single driver to give him the most coveted run, every single time, knowing that the rest of the drivers have figured it out?  

But whatever.  I get my work done, ,that's all I can say.  I'm not the perfect driver, but I do get the work done.  

Tomorrow apparently my day is planned. Install the pond. I have been putting it off. It's either been raining or I'm drained from working too much.  That's about how I feel right now, work work work.  It's just going to be a lot of work.  I'll have to bring a bunch of the stones from the front to the back. Line the thing with duct tape to keep the liner I have to put in it from tearing. Put the underlayment and the liner in.  Set up the pump.  Fill with water. Get it running and hope that everything works.  

I've got lots of stuff I really need to get done tomorrow beyond installing a pond.  I think Taylor likes the idea of a pond and she wants it going lol. I have all the equipment - I think - to get it up and running.  I need to go shopping,I need a haircut and I need to make a trip to the county office.  

But, it's whatever. I'll try to get up earlier than I normally would after having had been working so many days in a row and see about getting it done.  At least get it going. I won't put fish in there right away, I want the water to condition for several days first.  That just means pouring the chemicals in there and running the pump/filter.  It's doable, I just need to motivate myself.

I just don't want to have to spend more than half the day on it.  It's like going to work when you come home.  More work.  

There is nothing else. Well there's lots, lol, but there's nothing new on the property and I don't expect to hear anything for several more weeks.  I wont have time to go looking around for a property to lease tomorrow - that can wait anyway.  It's not on high priority list, it's on the "I'm thinking about it" list . 

Alright.  Taylor wants the pond up.  I'm gonna do it tomorrow. Right? lmao

 

 I've come to the determination that I'm definitely going to the next tax lien auction - if there's anything there worth buying.  My town has shut down a couple of the places where local truckers - those that also live here - used to park, one of them there were always a bunch of trucks parked there. Whoever owns it - probably the shopping mall - shut it down and put tape all over the place. 

There is only one truck stop in town and it's a s***hole.  It's horrible. The parking lot is huge, yes, but it's full of huge craters the sizes of small swimming pools.  I have therefore determined - tho I have given thought about this before anyway - that I need to open up a couple acres worth of truck parking - paid of course - but cheap.  

If I had a place that was cheap enough - $100 per month parking fee or maybe less, just depends on what the market will bear - I could make some dough off of it with little investment and without a lot of labor expenses.  But beyond that?  Drivers looking for a place to park overnight. 

See, vast majority of truckers won't pay to park - but that's because of outrageous pricing.  TA's charge $18 per night.  I think Petros charge the same. Another place I have stayed at charges $12.  You get 100 trucks in there - which is easily doable if you're right off the freeway - that adds up quickly.  It even can make prime property near the Interstate worth whatever outrageous price they want for it for the fact that you will easily make your money back quickly.

But I don't want to pay prime rates, that just isn't my style lol.  When you start talking about giving $5, $6 may $7 per night that will attract people who ordinarily wouldn't pay anything.  

I've been thinking about this for a while now.  I may should have started out with this before the RV park the more I think about it.  2 to 4 acres would work, it just has to have enough to park at least 100 trucks.  You can get 40-50 trucks in an acre of land if you go to the trouble of actually marking out the spaces. They cram them in at truck stops, I can tell ya.  The land needs no trees, it needs to be barren land.  Truckers don't care about trees and if there are any, they'd all have to come down.

I am admittedly a tree lover - tree hugger? I don't care what the labels are, it is exceedingly hard for me to think about cutting down those beautiful, majestic, 75 plus foot tall trees on the property I am buying. But alas, some of them are going to have to come down. They won't go to waste tho, I'll split them and sell them as firewood at $150 per cord.  

Anyway, I am going to be looking for property near the Interstate and near Highway 59. I might even see if there is property for rent that can be easily converted.  That's not a bad idea, actually, I don't have to own the property to make money off of it even with a monthly rental payment.  Hmmm and I have a couple of places in mind that would work. This would be a much less capital invested project and could easily make several thousand or more per month.

I know this because I am a truck driver and I know how hard it is to find parking.  When you find a place that works for you, that is the top of your list for stopping when you are on the route that takes you by there.  You figure there is going to be parking available. Get the parking location on Trucker Path and you are on the map.  You don't even have to do any advertising, Trucker's Path is a free app, most truckers use it and once you're on there, they will consider using your services. It will tell truckers that it is a paid parking place and it will list the price it costs to park there.  

When it comes to paid parking, greed is not the name of the game.  There is a glaring niche for parking now after the Elog requirement from the feds and everyone all of the sudden started cramming truck stop parking lots full at early hours.  

That is why I am thinking about trying this.  A simple ticket system would work.  Pay the fee at the entrance, get a ticket with the gate code on it and you just eliminated having to pay someone to attend the lot.  Put in surveillance cameras all over, it's a done deal.  A rental lot would actually be better.  I have attempted to get my mind off the RV adventure since I am told it probably won't close until the end of May.  

Well, excepting my banker friend next door. He encouraged me to look into an SBA loan.  I had thought about that but I didn't know if I wanted to go into extreme debt to get this thing started. It means having to get it up and running quickly, meaning paying more money to have others do the work for you. He said I don't have to have business experience, they have money and practically no one to lend it to - and at low interest rates.  A 200k loan would get the park up, running and filled with amenities such as a bath house/bathroom, a laundry facility, the office and a gathering place.  It would provide for 80 lots right up front and the office facility would be large enough to have a convenience store in it.  A propane refill station, highly popular even if you charge a little extra over wholesale - obviously anything you are doing has profit in mind.  

Of course, a 200k loan would also have a fairly good monthly payment, the park would have to be a success pretty quickly to afford that.  The only thing I really thought about for getting loans up to this point is for getting the land, the rest of it I figured to do as I could afford it. Get at least 20 spots up and going with a few amenities - mostly the full hook ups are the biggest attraction for getting anyone and everyone to come there along with the beauty of the tall pines and walking trails in the portion of the property that will remain undeveloped.  

Anyway, when I get back from this trip - I am in Brownsville, got down here an hour ago, there was an empty trailer and this time I don't mind not having detention pay - I am going to go looking around for suitable property to start a parking venture.  I just sold myself on the idea of just leasing property if there is anything available that is suitable and I know where to  look, a couple of properties for lease just south of I-20.  

For the 2cd week from now pay period, even just an Oklahoma run would ramp up the pay period to a nice, sizeable check and that wouldn't bother me.  It's highly unlikely I'm going to get a 3rd Brownsville in a row - tho I certainly wouldn't turn it down.  I won't have enough hours for a long trip, thankfully, I don't want a long trip right now.  Actually I don't want any long trips. I don't complain about them when they give them to me, I'd just prefer not to be out for 3,4 or more days at a time.  

I mean, the lender said closing probably not until the end of May - this month now. That's a long time.  I don't even know if I want to go back to the property now until it closes.  Dogs can go to hunting property and have just as much fun wandering around there - and much less underbrush to deal with as well.  I'm still looking at information about RV parks - it's seemingly endless, but this property? Just need to chill on that for a while.  I'll turn my attention to another business venture that will cost nothing near as much as an RV park but still make some decent profit.  I've waited a bit long in life to do any of this - but I never had the money or the credit to do this kind of thing until I got this job I am now working. 

Money - it takes money to make money.  I'm also much more patiently waiting for these other properties to "mature" - the 6 month waiting period - and then I can find a title company to take care of that business and then put them up for sale.  I am still seriously considering petitioning the city council for an over-ride on the planning and development manager's decision. It's ridiculous at it's face, considering that particular street.  The council is full of liberals, if I appeal to them emotionally, I can at least hope to see them vote against this planning manager's ridiculousness. What's the emotional appeal? I just went through a listing of houses for rent in my town, not that many and pretty pricey for what you are getting.  

See, I'm not this 'get rich quick' mindset. I'm more like - give the person who can't find a break anyway - a break.  Of course there would have to be down money, that's only responsible for a seller in a rent to own scenario. If they trash the property, break/ruin stuff, you have their money to fix it with.  My realtor is all over it, she'll gladly put her real estate sign in front of these properties and I will gladly pay her fee- tacked on to the asking price of the land.  Yea, I'm not paying for that.  

I've been getting shafted all of my adult life with outrageous interest rates and fees because I didn't have good credit. Screw those companies and yes, people that have a solid income should get a break as long as their existing credit history doesn't show a lot of delinquents.  

If you've read this page for any length of time, you know the unbelievable amount of stuff I had to go through to get approved for a land loan.  I literally had no idea. Even with excellent credit, I was grilled on every single little thing.  Then they told me I had too much debt - which I don't but it's whatever - I had to pay off 2 credit cards and a personal loan. I jumped through their hoops.  I get there is risk involved, but my goodness, how does anyone get anything without making a lot of money? You don't.  You get s*** and you get screwed.  "Your credit 'sucks' you will have to pay MORE to get a loan!".  Convenient way to tell you they are about to screw you up the ying and yang and tough if you don't like it.

Sorry for the rant, but I could be a millionaire by now if I had only been given a chance to make something of myself at an earlier age. I'd like to be able to take some of my earnings from potential profits and give it back to the Kingdom of Heaven. Missionaries, churches actually doing God's work,  people that are in need. I've done that throughout my life anyway, but I could do it on a broader scale. I wouldn't mind my own soup kitchen - my town is listed as having 25% poverty rate.  That's a big percentage of people in the poverty cycle.  People get into that rut and they can't find a way out.  You have to have an address and a phone number to be considered for employment. I'm a working man, no one gets a free pass without commitment to finding a job and getting themselves back on their feet - with help.

I have all kinds of ideas for all kinds of things.  Just never had the wherewithal to do much of it.  

And after mulling the idea of just doing Oklahoma runs when I start getting some decent income from business, I have really embraced that idea.  But I have also read that the fuel tanker industry is in great demand now and they are desperately looking for people to fill positions.  I dunno about our company, it's one of the largest fuel tanker divisions in the country.  I can learn fuel lol, that's a daily thing in a daycab, home every night/day.  

My plans however are to get out of the trucking industry much sooner than I originally anticipated.  That may or may not happen, we'll see, but that is a new goal that I would like to meet early on.  There's a lot of decisions to make after that property closes, that's all I can say for now. Well, quitting my job isn't on that list, but decisions about loans, pads, expenses, etc.  The SBA loan is appealing to some degree.  I'm giving it some thought.  

Anyway, I'm hooked up to empty trailer and will be leaving around 7:30 am.  I'd leave hours earlier but I can't, the 10 hour required break isn't over until after 7 am and then a required pre trip inspection.  Otherwise?  I'd just get up in 6 hours and get home early afternoon lol. 

With that, I'm going to bed.  

G'nite.  

The next door neighbor is, indeed, still a cop.  

I thought he had still retained his license, but I wasn't sure and hadn't seen him in months.

Tonight changed that, he was out on his porch and I was informed that he was requesting some company.

Sure thing! Took the new AR over there, he liked that.  Told me where to take it for a new scope and mount and that they would install it, sight it and get it set for my eye distance.  

It was a nice distraction from everything else that goes on.

He's mostly a banker and said I should have come to him for the land loan. Oh? I could have gotten you 3%.  Well, I'm a bit invested into this deal, the payments aren't going to be high .

He then suggested and SBA loan after I get the land and get the project rolling.  That's a loan to pay for the land and construction of the property - everything - low interest rates, etcetera.  I dunno about that.

His statement that a septic system would cost around 60K was a bit disconcerting.  Umm no, I'm going to put in what I can afford. Whatever the state says that can legally serve for the number of lots? That's how many lots I'm putting in.

So, from everything I've read, before I even think about building the lots, I'm going to need to know how many lots I can put in for the amount of septic system I can afford to have installed.  

So, this property I'm getting - or any property I get regardless - that will have to be one of the first orders of business.  Get some bids, take the best one and then move onto lot installation.  

John Wayne weekend on one of the satellite channels coming up soon.  Get the remote, record all of it.  

It's bedtime.  3:45 am comes awful early.  I just can't go to bed too early, it's a waste.

 Doc says probably just because I changed toothpaste recently after examining the inside of my mouth. So, he spent 5 minutes on that and telling me the drugstore down the way has "miracle mouthwash" - a combination of pain killer, antibiotics and all kind of other stuff, his words, and that should take care of it. They were more interested in the crown that had fallen out a few months ago.

Do you have it with you? Yes, I figured I might be able to get that put back in?  Oh sure, let's try!  He spent 45 minutes on that task and got it back in there.  I just am not one to go see the dentist every chance I get, it usually takes something like this gum soreness or possible having some crowns installed to get me to go. 

The mouthwash tastes horrible, btw.  Lol.  He said without my ever bringing it up " you don't have cancer".  Thank you.  Lol.  It looked bad but not that bad to him apparently, he's seen far worse.  I'm sure he has, but in my view it looked horrible.  

Whatever.  I'll do the mouthwash 4 times a day for 2 weeks as advised and see what happens.  Don't really look forward to that nasty stuff in my mouth, but that's a lot easier than some other outcomes I can think of.

Brownsville info finally sent.  6am load :( time of day : ) time you get down there and get done with everything.  And of course they shorted me once again on one of my Brownsville runs detention pay where I was supposed to get 2 full days of it and they shorted me, for unknown reasons, 6 hours of it.  My manager will deal with it, he always does.  

My 2020 tax refund came back, I spent most of it on an AR-15 - you know, the guns that the left are calling "weapons of war" and "assault rifles"?  I challenge anyone to show me where any US military unit is using AR15's for anything.  They don't, they aren't "weapons of war", they aren't fully automatic.  Although, if you have a gunsmith that doesn't care, he'll convert it for you.  Nope, not doing that, just saying I know people that have had it done.  

The same for the term assault weapon, which everyone has virtually accepted as a legitimate term for AR15's.  No, they aren't assault weapons.  An assault weapon is just a made up term that the left invented long ago to demonize these types of rifles.  

Whatever the case, I have my neighbor looking into ammo for it and giving me advice on the type of scope to get for it.  Ok.  A town 25 miles south apparently has all the ammo you need. Sounds far, but everything is far around here.  Not today tho.  It's getting late in the day and I have an early rise in the am, just got back from the dentist and the drug store, I'm done, not driving clear down there, just ain't lol.

 It appears I have something wrong with a tooth.  I thought I just had some sores in my mouth but upon closer inspection it's definitely a - bad tooth or something - that is causing the problem.  It was weird it just came out of nowhere. It wasn't a slow growing pain or something, it just happened overnight. I dunno what it is, maybe need a root canal, I have no clue.  

Whatever the case, I was able to get an appointment for this afternoon at a local dentist office for all the fun, games and hooplah you always get when you go to a dentist's office! It's sooo much fun!  My dentist - of whom I'm going to give up on - wasn't available of course.  He is the only dentist at his practice, he doesn't have any associate dentists working with him so getting into his office is not so easy.  The other dentist office has several associates and they are much more flexible.  

It's whatever, I need this situation diagnosed and treated, whatever that may be and whatever earthly hell that may entail. The last time was a pulled tooth - a pain that I don't really want to have to go through again.  

Meanwhile, the buyer's option for the land was changed today. It was originally only for 7 days, but since the seller is taking so long to get the survey done, it's been modified to 21 days. It's simply and out button. If I decide I don't want it, nothing happens.  I'm out of the contract, I get the earnest money back and that's that.  Not that I want to do that, but you never know if something else, more appealing will pop up.

Not likely, especially around these parts, but not impossible.  I've looked so long for land, however, I'm pretty much done with all of this searching nonsense.  Please let's get this over with and get me going to phase 2.  I have looked - the only thing of interest is a parcel of land just outside city limits, but the entire entrance to the property is a huge gas well operation.  No thanks. Especially for the price they want - premium acreage prices for far less than premium property.  It is new on the market, I suspect it will sit on the market, just like that other one I was interested that is also on the very outside edge of the city limits - it would have been perfect excepting the fact you are driving through someone else's land to get to the entrance and all of the noise of the highway and the auto salvage operation behind it.

I've been to the property I am hopefully closing on many times now.  Doing that to see if there is anything going on around that might change my mind about it. The only thing that is suspect is the giant office/warehouse facility up the road. It's currently empty, up for sale.  Eventually someone will buy it and then what.  Well, it won't affect my operation since none of that traffic will come down the street.  However, there could be a noise factor come into play?  I wouldn't think too terribly bad considering most of it is office space.  It's a risk I am willing to take at this point.  

Brownsville tomorrow. I was offered either Oklahoma today or Brownsville for tomorrow. Brownsville, thanks, it is almost double the pay and only an extra day out.  We are slow again, apparently, since I'm off 2 days again.  I'm just calling this current pay period a wash.  It's going to be about a $230 paycheck next week and oh well, what can I do.  This brownsville will start the pay period for the week after next.  That's a good start early in the game.

I have nothing else.  Just rambling about this tooth problem. I've spend enough money on my teeth, I'd like to hope the issues would cease and desist, but they don't.  Age I guess, I'll spend whatever I have to to keep fixing problems. 

G'day

 So I have some sort of sores that have developed overnight in the roof of my mouth.  Weird that it happened that quickly and had such a ridiculous effect on eating and drinking.  I'm going to try to get into the dentist or doctor today to have it checked out.  I read about possible causes. They all say to give it a week or so and see if it just fixes itself, that they eventually go away.  But I don't necessarily think it's such a great idea as one of the issues it says it could be is mouth cancer and it's best found early as it is far more treatable.  

Yea I hope I don't have mouth cancer, that would pretty much ruin my life, doncha think?

Anyway, after the exchange between the dispatcher and I last night, I heard nothing more.  I at least half expected my manager would be contacting me this morning about it.  Or, the dispatcher's manager - who is really cool and used to give me a good mix of decent runs and low paying runs - but never giving me a bunch of crappy runs in a row or having me working 2 out of 5 days and making a gross total of $450 in that 5 day span unless we were absolutely out of work.  

That is simply not the case.  I know because my manager told me that it was odd I was not working as much when several other drivers are on a 34 hour reset.  Well you only need a 34 hour reset if you've worked 70 hours in the last 8 days.  I could do 3 Brownsville run in that amount of time.  Or a palm pennsylvania and a Brownsville run. Or whateer.

So I dunno what's going to happen now.  Just ignoring me isn't going to make me go away or the problem disappear.  I'm guessing that since I haven't heard from my manager about this, she either said nothing to anyone, or presented it to her manager, or presented it to her manager and my manager and for whatever reasons they aren't saying anything.  

I dunno, but I don't get a run - and a decent one at that - tomorrow I'm just going to continue on - respectfully and courteously of course, nothing rude, demeaning or demanding - with it until someone actually says something to me.  At this point, tho I don't really want to start looking for another job, I could actually considering taking a pay cut to be home more often and that one job - home every weekend.  My expenses are not that great and I never did the deal where you earn more money and your lifestyle upgrades with it - meaning spending money on stuff you never used to or buying things you would never buy otherwise.  

My house pays for itself, I have utility payments here that I am responsible for every month.  I have a car payment that is still 2 years before it's paid off.  I have some credit card debt and a couple of loans.  Even going back down to the 3 grand per month net range I could still make it work, probably wouldn't have my 401k deductions set so high as they are now and other savings, but I can live with that.

What I wouldn't like too much, tho, is the idea of not having the money to be able to do this entire project which is, hopefully, coming up soon.

The point in saying all of that? I understand the company I work for is just another trucking company that views you as a number on a computer screen.  Drivers having conversations about it? We came to the conclusion we are all expendable, like piles of household trash, they can get rid of us as easily as keep us.  So, making "waves" about my workload, I took that into consideration.  The "like or leave it" mentality, the "don't let the door hit your @$$ on the way out" type of thinking that I have grown accustomed to in my trucking career.  Well, not quite so much now, the demand for drivers is high. That doesn't necessarily mean the pay for drivers is also high, but the median wage is going up.  Making a minimum 60k per year is pretty much mandatory excepting in some local jobs where they think they can take advantage of you and give you in the 40 to 50 k range.  

I think 60k is the lowest I would go in considering a new job and I would not be willing to enter a rat race where they're working you to death and you never see the doorframe of the house you live in excepting once every couple of weeks.  Or just make a job change altogether.  i saw an ad for a forklift operator fair that is going to go on next month here at the convention center.  I'm a bit rusty but my forklift skills are A plus, I'm as good as anyone out there after a dozen years of operating one to pull parts and load trucks.  No, I wouldn't be making 90k per year doing that, lol, but I'm so tired of the trucking industry. Not just my job, but the trucking industry as a whole.  The amount of federal regulations.  The constant meddling by state troopers pulling you over for no reason except to do inspections - which they can legally do.  The companies installing inward facing cameras and monitoring everything you do.

I can remain hopeful, tho, that this current situation will improve and I won't have to or be forced to go look for a new job. Again, I was not disrespectful at all - but...these Oklahoma runs don't make a decent paycheck.  Well, 3 of them per weeks would amount to .... around $1,400 per week gross pay.  I guess I could make that work now that I think of it.  But only if I got 3 per week and make up somewhere else if/when that plant shuts down.  Doing the math and making assumptions about the average pay, it would gross 72,000 per year.  

I would be home much more often.  I actually might think about that now that I looked at the numbers.  No one would care if I took only Oklahoma runs, no one likes them because they are low paying.  But it's an easy run, out the first whole day and usually back by noon or a little later the next day, depending on load time.  Nah, not right now I don't want to do that. If I ever get this business up and running I could think about asking for that, close to home and able to be there the next day at the latest if something arises.  However, I am going to need someone to do small repair jobs if I continue to work and be able to get over there fairly expediently. It would keep me on health care and I doubt the company would care about that truck only doing that run. As long as it makes them X amount of money, they are good with it. It's an old truck, they likely don't owe anything on it so that's an expense they don't even have to make with it.  In fact, none of our trucks are new by any stretch of the imagination.  

James can do that, of course, but, he has a full time job and he's going to school. Yet, he's still looking for side jobs on top of all of that. To be young again, lol, I simply don't have that kind of energy any more.  I have energy, just not that much of it.  I like taking naps here and there now.  

So it's whatever, perhaps I made my case and just shut up about it now.  If they don't like it and tell me to leave, I will do so and I will have no regrets.  I'm not going to start looking for new jobs just yet tho, the one I saw the other day popped up on my screen from a saved search I have in one of those job search engines.  It was definitely intriguing.  Hazmat tanker, I don't know what they haul, but they adamantly stated that it's weekend off and home either every night or possibly out 2 or 3 days. Well I already do that now, that wouldn't be much of a lifestyle change.

Well, it would be a change that I would have weekends off. I heard a driver complaining to my manager yesterday at the office about wanting at least one weekend off per month.  I get what he's saying, but I also get that my taking weekend work gets me good runs a lot of the time - except recently.  I've gotten so used to working weekends that I don't even think about it anymore.  Well sometimes I do when I see people going to church and think, gee, it would be good to get back into church again. Kind of difficult when you're on the road all the time.  

I do know that some drivers refuse to work weekends.  I dunno how they get away with it, I guess because enough of us will take whatever comes our way at whatever day of the week we get it.  I never asked about it because I really don't care.  I do care about the drivers that are getting special privileges in the types of runs they are getting.  One driver boasted to me the other day that he got "only Brownsville and Oklahoma runs for 2 months. It got kind of boring".  Yea, he was making bank and he left out the part that he demanded that situation because of Cornoavirus and making excuses to get his way.  That's what these drivers do, they make up stories to get their way about things and for some reason, management/dispatch allows it.  Hence, my request - I didn't demand anything - that I get more work.  

So here it is, day 5 of nothing pay.  No one would be expected to live off of $450 gross pay per week. After taxes, health insurance and 401k deduction, I'd have in the low $200 range.  Lol.  This is what I told the dispatcher yesterday and she couldn't and didn't even try to refute it.  

So what will I get tomorrow, if anything? An Oklahoma run to spite me? Lol.  An out of state run to make me go away? Not likely a Brownsville run.  I dunno, but if they're sending me out of state, I'd like to know about it pretty soon so I can get the keto cook to make me some dinners for the road.  

Seriously think I should at least go to Urgent Care and have this thing checked out. At least get a doctor's eyes on it and get some kind of determination of what it is. If that includes blood tests, I'm definitely not going to like that, at all. I get nauseaus and I come close to passing out when they draw blood.  Call me a wuss, I'll take it, it's a life long thing. I have to be laying down to give blood, and I have to be able to lay there for a while.  It just makes me feel funny.  If they did take blood, they might as well take extra and check my cholesterol levels while we're at it. 

Ugh, that doesn't sound very ... fun.  

Property? Nothing new there.  Just the lender asking the question about which side of the property I was getting.  But checked email just now anyway, lol, he sends stuff and I sometimes don't see it for a while, but there's nothing there.  The appraisal they are going to do or are doing?  Should come back good for the price per acre.  I'm trying to put all of that out of my mind for the moment.  I've done so much research I'm kind of done with doing that for a while.  It's not helping me do anything ATM anyway. It has prepared me for the potential day that we close and it's all mine, a sketch of an idea what to start with at least.  Lots of people saw my comment on a local facebook group - no it wasn't a post I put up, it was a comment on someone asking about getting land cleared and I mentioned I would potentially need those services done as well - and they contacted me via messenger.  We can do it! How much?  We'd have to look at it! Or, my grandson (adult version thanks) does this kind of work, here is his number! and others just saying they can do it.  

Of course they can do it. With proper equipment, land clearing is probably one of the easiest jobs they do and makes good money doing it.  The lowest I've found so far is $75 per hour - that includes the machinery and the operator.  That's not bad.  The next was $125 per hour and I thought that wasn't that bad.  I'd take the $75 per hour guy as long as he has some good reviews somewhere.  The rest were a "take a look and give you a flat price" for it deal.  I don't think I want to go that route. I'd rather pay by the hour and get as much as I need done at likely a cheaper price than some flat price where they crank it up.  But, I might have one come out and take a look and see what they offer.  

Or rent the machine, take a week off from work and do it myself.  Just not sure at this point in time which is the most cost effective.  I have no experience clearing land, tho I do have experience operating earth moving equipment. I doubt it's that hard. But I have to factor in $650 per week to rent the machine, plus fuel, plus not working.  A "normal" week - forget the recent complaints - is anywhere from $1,750 to $2,800 gross pay.  So, losing that plus $650?  Well, do the math, likely cheaper to just hire someone out to do it for me.  Average 2 grand for lost pay plus the $650 and nothing else and that equals 34 plus hours of the $75 per hour dude.  That's a lot of hours. 4 plus 8 hour days and I only want about 4 acres of the property cleared out at the beginning.  I doubt it would take that long, in fact, I would want more of the property cleared out if I was going that route.  Let's get 6 or even 8 acres done. The rest I could do later on, clearing out brush and creating walking trails.  

See? These things swirl around in mind endlessly, hence I want to try to turn it all off for a while. 

Well, I just remembered my manager asking me to do the endless online training stuff that they demand we do.  So, I'm offa here, going to do that and eventually decide whether to go to the doc or wait a few days and see what happens. 

G'day