Ok. Instead of sending the email telling me that they were working on the birth certificate, they just bypassed that part and - sent me the birth certificate.  My mother has never had a birth certificate - in her entire life.  It was only until she needed it to renew her driver's license that she found out her "notice of birth" wouldn't work.  It's a very old document, the only "real" and official thing she had. 

Why she waited so long to get her birth certificate is unknown, but because the state was never asked to make one, she couldn't get it on her own.  You read that right: she asked them to send her a birth certificate with the state seal on it and they refused.  Appalling? Yes, in my opinion, but whatever. They told her a family member would have to ask for it for her.

How does that  make any sense?  Whatever the case, I didn't get into it with them about it, I just sent in the form, got some stuff wrong on it, they sent me an email informing me of such, I corrected the issue and walaah.  Mom will finally have a birth certificate.  I sent her a pic earlier - just got the thing - and asked if she needed it overnighted to her.  

I suspect she's driving on an expired license - I've gone through this before. I didn't used to be that you needed a birth certificate to renew your license. I thought it was only for commercial licenses, apparently they want it for everyone now?  I didn't know anything about it, went to get my license and they told me I needed a birth certificate  The issue had me going clear back to Arizona to get one because I was not going to be able to work - it's a long story not worth going into again, I just know how she feels.  

Mobility is important. As long as she is legally/medically qualified to drive, she should be able to.  Yes, I asked her if she was driving on expired license, I didn't get an answer lol. I changed the subject after realizing she didn't want to admit to it for whatever reason - wouldn't have bothered me if she was doing so, she doesn't normally go around breaking the law everywhere and her need to go to the store and get groceries supersedes the state's desire to have everyone in a computer data base so they can keep tabs on you..... and she tried to do this on her own to no avail.  The state doesn't care what your needs are, I have learned that from ample experience and a book's worth of stories I could go into here - and won't.

So today was a "put the house back together" day.  It's been in a shambles for quite a while.  I had a box out there in the living room amidst the rest of the boxes I had forgotten about. I tried to bring it into my room when....plop....the entire contents spilled out onto the floor after the bottom gave way. 

No worries, I threw half of the stuff into the trash can and put the rest of the stuff away, problem solved. Another box to go through and I'll be done with that. But, that's nothing I'm doing today.  

I didn't finish this post but publishing it anyway.  

 Day 2 of a fairly uneventful trip.  

Well, getting passed on the shoulder this morning was interesting.  

Actually, yesterday, after getting to the plant at 5:45 am, getting loaded right away with no waiting and then going to the scale house and waiting over 2 hours for paperwork?  Well, I was a bit unhappy with that.  They have been taking longer and longer to get simple paperwork done.  There were 3 people ahead of me when I walked in, 1 of them left a few minutes later, 2 others were gone in 20 minutes.  

So, I asked if the COA wasn't in yet? No it's here, she's working on "something else". 

Hold on for a moment, I need to pull my truck up, a reefer just pulled up next to me and I refuse to listen to that noise all night long, I won't sleep.  I have no idea how those drivers can stand having that noise machine feeding that noise into their ears all  night long, nothing I want to deal with.  

Anyway, by the time I got out of there, I only had 10-1/2 hours left on the 14 hour clock.  I like to make this trip 3 days, not 4.  But I was able to get to the minimum distance I need to get in order to make this a 3 day trip - a truck stop, small one, in Barnhardt, MO.  There's a bar and grill next door, I usually go in and have some chicken wings.  

Today? Up at 4:45 am, off to the plant, where they did, of course, spend over 4-1/2 hours unloading. It's normal for that place. I haven't been there in a year at least as the other company got that contract and the only reason we get any of it is if the other company can't cover the loads going up to it.  

And I have no clue what this reefer driver is doing, he's moving back and forth and - what the hercules.  Hmm.  He pulled up, backed up, pulled up, backed up, pulled up, backed up - for what?  Ahh ok, so he stopped right next to me, the reefer unit shut off, but when it comes back on again, I'll pull up far so I don't have to tolerate that nonsense all night long.  It's always my fear whenever I park anywhere that one of those things is going to park next to me. Fortunately, I am in a huge field type of parking lot, no set spaces, I will pull up 20 feet if I have to to get away from that noise.  

So, today was a 16 hour day as I used my 16 hour exception to make it as far down the road as I could get.  I didn't want to wake up in the morning with near 600 miles to go.  I've got it down to 400 miles and I'm comfortable with that. I will have enough hours left to go to brownsville or Oklahoma, I'll take either.  My checking account is down the lowest I have seen it in years.  Never recovered from the great ice/snow event of Texas, SNOVID2021.  Now I'm not going to say being out on the road all of this time is all that wonderful, but neither is having an empty checking account.  

I heard nothing back from the realtor today and I am kind of taking a break from talking to her while I get this loan process going.  BUT, if I get home in time tomorrow, I"m going to the 11 acre property listed for 21k and find out if there is enough usuable property on it.  I don't care about easements and gas operations as long as they aren't that close to the intended area for the RV park.  I'd also like to go take a look at this house on 20 acres, but I doubt Ill have time for that.  The 8 acres isn't off the table, but I'm not going to deal with the owner's owner-finance terms. A rip-off, greed, just something I won't get myself into. I can't say that I'm desperate for property, but boy have I put a lot of time into looking around all over the place and coming up with nothing as far as results go.  

Such a beautiful property - but the monthly payments with his high interest rate and shorter length of the payoff date equals high payments that I am very much not interested in getting involved with.  This is why I started looking at acreage with houses on it.  Buy the property, rent the house, boom.  No out of pocket expense for the entire property.  Such a better idea - but there are few properties in the affordable range that I have seen.  Most of them are hundreds of acres with a huge house on it going for half a million and up.  This one just happened to show up on a real estate broker search that I hadn't looked at before. 

Well it's been a long day and I'm getting sleepy. Get up in the morning, finish this drive and go on to whatever is next. 

G'nite. 

 Well unfortunately the land owner has some pretty outrageous terms, so I had to decline.  He came down in his price - but only 10k.  He wants to charge me 8% financing, which isn't even anything I would consider getting involved with considering I have excellent credit. 

His length of the loan is too short, making the payments higher.  I could pay a house payment for the money he wants for a monthly payment.  It was a bit of a let down - however - I am applying for my own loan through a Texas land bank.  No guarantees there, they may say he's asking too much per acre - or to compensate - ask for a huge down payment.  

It will take a couple of days to get any kind of reply from the bank, but I'm absolutely not going to pay this guy's price. Even the realtor agreed that his terms were ridiculously high.  The property might be worth what he's asking, so that's why I'm going to try to see if I can get a loan. If I give them 20% down maybe they'll be motivated, considering I make good money, verifiable, annually.  

Meanwhile, I found a house out in the county on 20 acres.  High priced, yes, they want 150k for a 3 bedroom house, a 20 acre property with a pond and a couple of "barns" they described them as.  The house, however, is a "handyman's special".  The property is probably worth around 60k, I don't know what the house is actually worth since I haven't seen it, but probably not 90k.  Plenty of houses go cheap in this area - rent doesn't go cheap here but if you have the credit for a house - you can get one pretty cheap price.  

But, I don't know what banks are wanting for down payment right now or what interest rate. I'll be looking at that - soon I guess.  I wasn't even looking for houses but this one showed up on a search for land - a house like that would fetch a grand a month in rental payments and pay the entire amount for the land.  

I guess my real turn off to the 8 acres is the fact that this dude only paid around 11 grand for it.  He's rich, I've seen him at the auctions.  He can wait however long it takes for a person to come along and pay his price, I get that.  I don't hold it against him, I was just hoping he would go at least down into the 40's range.  The property has been on the market going on 80 days, if it sits around long enough perhaps he'll have a change of heart. Or not, that's up to him.  There is a reason it's sitting around so long - no one wants to pay that much for raw, undeveloped property.  It's the same all over this region, people wanting too much money for their land - it sits for half a year, a year, 2 years, in a couple of cases around 10 years.  

Well, I got back from Brownsville this afternoon, I haven't been home that long actually. 3 days, excellent paying run with 2 days worth of detention pay.  This is why this run is coveted and it sucks that dispatch/management bow to the demands of a few people and it doesn't get handed out equally to everyone..... Just before I got back, I got a text for my next load.  I had no idea I would be going out again tomorrow. 

Illinois.  I don't even remember the last time I went up there, this one is in Morris. It's the longer Illinois run.  It's also high potential for detention pay, sometimes a ridiculous amount of it.  It's 3 days.  I got a 34 hour reset in Brownsville, which sucks, I should have asked for a free hotel last night.  Well maybe not, I got up at 3:45 am, it's a bit harder to wake up out of a slumber at the early am to have to leave a hotel versus just get up in a truck, get dressed and go.

The bad part of this next run is limited time to make any food.  I got lucky - the catering lady said she would make me 3 keto meals in time to get here tonight, no problem.  Well great! but I'm cooking a whole chicken regardless.  

______________

Almost done. It's been constant this and that since I got home.  Socks left to go, they are in the dryer.  No day off here, I started at 3:45 am and I've been going the entire day. Tomorrow will not be fun getting up at 3:45 am.  It's already a quarter after 8.  I'll have to drive to St Louis tomorrow.  Then up to the plant - stay for however long, always a mystery on that one usually at least 4 hours - and then try to get back far enough to get home the 3rd day.  

But tomorrow will be the long @$$ day that will seem like an eternity because I won't have enough sleep.  

The boys wouldn't leave me alone when I got home, Addler was shoving his head into my side and trying to get all of this stuff done lol.  Not that I mind, a little loving from humans or animals isn't a bad thing.  

So now what.  Well, I'm going to dig out W-2's because the bank wants them.  If I can find them without spending too much time looking. Otherwise, it will have to wait until I get back.  I'm not going to panic over the dude lowering the price for all to see. It's still pretty high priced.  If it's meant to be, it will happen. If it isn't, oh well, move on.  The 20 acres with the house is looking pretty appealing right now anyway.  It's more land, a pond - big attraction I am finding out - not terribly far off the beaten path, a huge like across the street and I could make this a destination park, not a parking lot.  

Anyway, I need to finish up and go to bed.

G'nite.    

 So I sat out in this yard literally all day long, after I left the hotel this morning.  They said there would be an empty here in the afternoon. Afternoon is loooooooooonnnnnnnggggggggg gone.  It's almost 8:00 pm.  What does that mean? It means I get a second night of detention pay.  We had 5 trailers full of ethylene, they took one out of here around 3:45 pm, they usually come back a few hours later with an empty - that never happened.  

So what's your point? My point is I now get a second night of detention pay.  They could show up now with an empty trailer and I'd still get it.  Actually hoping they do show up tonight with at least one, I want to go home tomorrow.  No way are they going to have 3 of us sitting down here for days without either getting us empties or having us bobtail back to the yard.  But, they won't do that because there won't be any empties available if any of us leave.  They don't really need any more down here right now, 5 full trailers and possibly another behind the driver that just showed up.

We got to talking. There is one driver who gets Brownsville runs every single time.  There have been rumors about him pulling the race card - he's black - to get his way with this particular run. And now it's been verified, as the driver said our manager was confronted by this dude and claiming the - race card.

Of course.  Nowadays you can just pull the race card on anything you like.  If you're a minority but especially if you're black. Am I a racist for saying such things? Well that depends on who you are and the way you see things.  I'm going to call a spade, a spade and if you don't like it, you can go pound rocks.  I didn't grow up in a pansied society that has suddenly decided that a few offended people will not only get their way, but if you happen to take a stand against their stupidity, you are "cancel cultured".  

In actuality, it is time for white people to stand up to this foolishness and push back. Most white people are NOT racist. This is just a convenient way for people to get their way, that's all it is. Or power grabs.  In this case, get the run this person wants, every single time.  

I got a taste of Brownsville, I wonder when the next time I'll see it will be.  My issue is paychecks, that's all it is.  And if some people - there is now another driver I was informed of that is also getting a lot of these runs that isn't even a part of our division - are getting kick-ass paychecks and others are barely scraping by? No, no, and no.  I'm going to stand up for myself, that's all I can do.  The dispatcher said she'd make it up to me this week, yes please, one Brownsville run is nice, but not enough.  

Anyway, that's enough of that. I don't need to get myself worked up over this stuff. I just need to make my needs known - firmly, courteously and respectively - but firm.  I am used to X amount of pay, I am now getting Y. Y doesn't work for me, I need the X back.  Please and thank you.  This is a brand new dispatcher, everyone is in her ears, I can't remain silent.   I'm not going to be bi**** about it, but I will be persistent if I need to be.  

I wrote up a post on an RV group yesterday about what people like to see in an RV park, boy did I get a lot of replies! It's almost up to 900 the last I checked. There was some consistency: level lots.  Yes, I wouldn't want to have sloped lots unless it's just an area where I can't do otherwise - but modern RV's have automatic levelers, so I"m not sure what they are complaining about unless the lots are so sloped even the levelers don't work?  50 amp hookup a recurring theme. That's for electrical outlets available.  The newer, bigger RV's have 2 AC units and they have 50 amp plugs. They can use a converter but then they can only run one AC unit.  Now, you can have all of those AC units running, that's fine, but be prepared to pay for that luxury.  Which I am finding out most of them are. $35 seemed to be a cheap price to them.  

A lot of them want fire rings at every lot. Picnic tables.  Cement pads - that's not going to happen at first, but it's certainly something I would consider doing down the road.  Just very expensive. You'll have to have them lined with rebar to handle the weight and I simply don't have the outlay for that now.  It's going to be gravel and many of them were okay with that, a few weren't. I guess those few won't be coming to my RV park, lol.  

It was a mix tho on full hookups or not.  Some lots full, some with electric and water, some with electric and sewer, some electric only, were the mix of replies.  Interesting, tho they all wanted electricity regardless of anything else.  Some said at least have an RV dump - where you pull up, dump your grey and black water - instead of having hookups at every site. All well and fine, but that still means having a septic system installed.  It would only save on piping and fittings to each pad.  

MANY, many  of them want a dog run - fenced in. Some just want to be able to walk their dogs open on trails - that's understandable and I am definitely a dog lover, dogs will definitely be allowed.  A few were "55 plus" people, no thanks.  It's going to be open to any ages - families, loners, couples, doesn't matter, I'm not limiting the available pool of potential customers to age limits.  Trees were a plus for many, a definite no for others.  Pull throughs are popular as well. I just hate to cut down that many trees to make that possible.  

Group sites - where you do a square or rectangle and have 4 or 5 sites around it for groups to hang out with each other.  I don't know about that.  I just don't.  I don't want my options limited, but a group site could be rented to individual units if groups don't show up.  Just a different configuration.  That option was mentioned several times tho.

Garbage.  People don't want to have to walk to the other end of the park to dump their garbage. Understandable, I'll think about it.  Running around collecting people's garbage isn't really that wonderful of a notion, so I dunno.  Maybe some receptacles strategically placed throughout the park and a golf cart with a trailer to collect it.  Or just make them walk it to the big container, where most other parks force them to do it.  I don't want to get too labor intensive.  Laundry is demanded, not asked for.  Bath houses as well.  I won't have a bath house at first, tho I'd like to do a small laundry room since you can make considerable money off of such a setup.  A small C store - ice was a recurring them. Why they all want ice, I have no idea, but if they want it, I can get an ice freezer outside, just like you see at grocery and convenience stores and have them restock it. No work for me.  Money maker, sure, not a lot of money but anything that helps the bottom line, we'll be doing.  Firewood as well.

Because everyone wants fire pits, I will sell firewood.  And that does make some money.  I've seen what they charge for these little bundles of firewood.  They must be making $500 per cord or even more profit off of that stuff.  I don't want to be quite as stingy as most of them are.  Give them enough to have at least an hour's worth of a fire.  The woods will be cleaned out quickly of any logs laying around lol, then they'll have to come to papa Ben for their fire wood needs.  

More and more things were voiced that I had already thought about. Families isolated from those that want a quieter experience. You know, kids and noise? I live with kids, noise is attached to them.  If a kid isn't making noise, there's something wrong.  

If I were to get this property, the natural gas operation would get a new road.  It makes now sense to have them driving right through the middle of the campground when I could just make a road along the very western edge of the property and they can run whatever they want through there.  I don't want to redo an easement agreement, I would rather they just agree to use it and I will do the clearing work to make it happen.  Or even ask them if they would do it - I'm the property owner, I can do what I want.  They probably will say no to the clearing, I would press for them to say yes to using the new road.  They wouldn't have to go up a steep slope anymore and have undoubtedly stuck trucks when it rains.  

It's at least something I'd like to look into and keep their traffic away from campers.  But, nevertheless, I saw no truck tracks, just pickup truck tracks, that isn't that big of a deal.  But when it comes time to do the saltwater thing, I would rather they go down a separate road.  They don't have to agree to it, of course, but I can ask them.  On the other hand, the inlet road to the property is on the far eastern side of the property.  So, lots could be established well away from that road and not really bother people too much when they do run through there.  The other half of the property there is no road, all of that I won't have to worry about.  

The other thing I did today was look at satellite photos of existing RV parks in the area.  They are parking lots, that's all they are.  It's a convenience, people to pull in, stay the night and leave.  Or live there? I don't know but they have either no amenities - literally just a place to park with hookups. Amazing those places are so full.  I have to consider somewhere down the line to open up my own sardine park near the Interstate.  That will have me at more of the tax lien sales, something close to the interstate. Something not far off the highway.

Here's the other thing I learned today.  RV parks well off the beaten path?  Not many RV's in them. The only thing that drives RV'ers to out of the way places is if it's a destination park.  It has to have some kind of attraction to draw people there. Such as a river or a lake - those are popular I'm finding out.  There is a town near a lake that has property for sale.  It's about 20 miles - maybe 25 - away from my house.  The thing is, it has to be lake-river-pond front property.  People want fishing.  I can't do that on this one I'm looking at.  

But the idea that people won't drive far off the beaten path got me thanking the good Lord today that I didn't buy one of those properties I was looking at in the middle of nowhere.  The one I want?  It's about 2-1/2 miles off the Interstate, about 3 miles away from a major Highway going through our town, right off a secondary highway.  Location - it's all about location.  I guess.  I'm learning and I haven't even gotten property yet.  The more I learn, the more I feel the drive to do more research.  There is a property right off the Interstate that I had looked at - but it's right next to the airport and it's right at the end of the runway where planes do their runups. I just happened to be there the day I was looking at it when a small plane was doing that. It was quite noisy.  It's a small airport so I don't know how often that happens.  I don't even think a regional jet comes into that airport tho.  It's a thought, the price is too high for the available acreage, but it's been on the market for quite a while now.  Drive a mile off the Interstate and you're there type of thing.  

Well, still no empties.  I'm amazed. Usually when they say one or more are coming?  They get here. Sometimes later than they say, but not this much later.  So, I now have a good paycheck for  next week with 2 days of detention pay.  This is why I and everyone else likes the Brownsville run, and this is why it is so completely unfair that a couple of people have this run tied up the way they do.  I have the choice of finding a movie to watch  - or going to bed. I was going to go to bed early for I thought by now an empty would come in.  Get home earlier tomorrow by getting up early am. 

Now?  I'll get up when I darned well feel like it and get my detention pay.  And, I'll have a 34 hour reset by tomorrow morning. Mixed feelings about that - I want to work but I don't want to do crappy runs all the time.  Give me a mix, like everyone should get, not, 3 garbage runs in a row.  

I think I'll get on Dish Network and find something to watch. Usually some movie on there that will entertain me. I have shows and movies saved on there as well.  

No, I haven't heard from the realtor, she was expected to hear back tonight.  Or she was hoping anyway.  I will keep myself reserved on that matter and just wait it out. But, I can still do my research and asking questions and looking at parks and such - whatever I end up with, I'll need all of this knowledge.  

G'nite.  

 I - more often than not - write entries, get distracted, don't finish them and then they just sit in limbo. Hundreds of them, lol.  So the last one was as well.  Oh well.

I'm in Brownsville, got down here at 5:30 pm, about the earliest I have ever made it here.  There were 4 trailers in the yard when I arrived, I checked every one of them, they were all full. Meaning finally, I get to get some detention pay.  And, because I got here so early? I treated myself to a hotel.  

I wanted the Marriott Residence Inn - their prices vary widely - tonight was far too much at $142 so I just went to one that I have gone to here many times over in the past.  If I can get 15 hours in a hotel I'm good with staying in one versus hanging out in a truck, in a dirt parking lot, with it raining and muddy and pools of water everywhere.  

I haven't been down here in - a month? Maybe a little less.  

In the quest for my mother's birth certificate, I finally heard back from Pennsylvania.  This is your "final notice" to supply the "real name".  I supplied all 3 names, what on earth are they talking about? And these notices they allegedly sent before this one? Never got them.  Whatever. I knew this was going to be a hassle for a person in their 80's that's never had a birth certificate.  I don't even know how that happens. I'm calling them tomorrow and sort this out.  

The property? I have no clue. The realtor said she hopes to hear back from them on Monday - which is tomorrow.  I can't say that I am not getting a little bit impatient.  I need the decision made either way or negotiation so I can get this past me.  There are more properties available now, but still, this is the best one I have seen for the intended purpose.  

My attention has diverted on a daily basis to the setting up of one of these properties.  The electrical has been on my mind, for it's going to be quite expensive to do if I have someone do it for me.  If you think I wouldn't take on this project on my own and run all the lines, boxes and meters myself, think again.  I'm on a budget here, I don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to do this park.  It's going to start out small, I am freely stating that for the world to see.  

I will probably spend all of that old 401k getting the thing up and running.  I need a layout made up.  I don't know if I'll try to do that myself or hire a professional to take a look at satellite images and any pics they would want me to take of the property including grades/slopes to come up with something possibly more appealing than I can do?  

I actually don't think so.  I want trees all over the place, I don't want to have to mow  down every single tree in the place and the only way you really do that is to take a first hand look and say, okay, I can put a pad here, trees, another here, more trees, another here - etc.  It may lesson the number of pads I can install, it will increase the charm and the price tag for spaces.  People want this kind of thing.  

I see ZERO parks around here or even in this region that is nothing but sardine can parks that have no allure to them anything more than a place to park your RV.  I don't have a lake or pond on this property I am currently looking at - but it does have trees. Beautiful, magnificent, tall trees.  

_______________

The next morning/Monday. 

Last night, my ears were assailed by the sounds of people having extremely loud sex in the room next door.  It went on for an hour and a half.  I shall not go into great depth, excepting to say the screams coming from the woman were getting a bit ridiculous. I decided I'd wait it out before complaining to management, but I didn't come here to listen to that all night long.  At around 9:30, I was ready to go to bed. I turned the AC fan all the way up which covered most of the sound - but thankfully, they stopped and I haven't heard a peep from next door all night long. 

I understand people go to hotels to have sex.  I'm not new to life.  It's just that it went on for soooo looooong.  Guy has stamina, I'll give him that.

Well, an 80 minute wait on the phone with PA and they say to respond to the email they sent and fix it that way. I did that earlier, but I wanted to see if they would fix it over the phone and get this over with.  Nope, I was told, because it has been "red-flagged".  Okay, I sent it in, we'll see if they fix it or - if I have to just sent in a new birth certificate request. Now that I know what I did wrong on it, I will get it right on the next try if they force the issue.

No, I haven't heard a thing about the offer on the property.  I'm trying to just bide my time patiently, but that's proving a wee tad difficult lol.  

With that, I'm putting the laptop up and taking a nap. Supposedlythere are trailers coming in the next few hours, I want to be as rested as possible.  I may have to drive all night long.  Or not, I dunno. There are 5 loaded trailers in this yard, I don't know why the company wants even more brought down here, but I think there are 2 more loaded trailers coming down here right now.  I've never seen this many loaded trailers in this yard before, yet, the company that uses it will just continue to order more. It's pretty odd stuff.  I mean, these trailers will hold the product for up to 1,711 hours - that's a lot of days. 

And, these particular trailers are all leased out to this company, we can't use them for anything else.  So it's their call I guess, have a few hundred thousand pounds of ethylene sitting around in a yard somewhere lol.  I'm hoping an empty comes in soon.  I really don't want to be driving until 3:30 am or later.  

G'day.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'day

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She insisted I go find another line to get into.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay, I'm outta here.

G'day.  

 Talk to enough people. 

Ask enough questions.

You may eventually get to the truth.

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

I guess?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regardless, I'm getting offa here. 

G'nite.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

__________________________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'day.  

 Gruesome day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

He, however, was from a different company.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'nite. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'day.  

 Soooo...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In that respect, this has been a strange trip.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With that, I'm offa here.

G'nite. 

 Birds woke me up at 5:45 am.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___________________

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

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