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On 13 Aug 2007 at 9:07, MARCOS DIAS wrote:
On 12 Aug 2007 at 2:54, Larry wrote: Hi George, Of late your blog has been just great ................ very interesting indeed. One question. Looking at your position on Google Earth I noticed that the fields are cultivated in a circular pattern. Have you an explanation for this? I am very interested having seen nothing like this anywhere else. I note that some of these circles overlie one another. I would appreciate any information you might have. Mike Long time follower George replies: Hi Mike, Thank you sooooo much for the compliment about my blog being great lately!! And also for being a "Long time follower." 
Those circles are irrigated sections of agricultural fields. In this area, the farmers are using an irrigation system, pipes with sprinklers that travel in a circle. More often, the irrigation system travels in a straight line. In Google Earth, these look like the mysterious and unexplained "crop circles." On 7 Aug 2007 at 18:23, Larry Detwiler wrote: George, Saw you were in the Montpelier, Idaho area and thinking about spending the night. If you do there used to be a truck stop there called the Ranch Hand that used to have the best breakfasts anywhere. We were truck drivers and really looked forward to being able to stop there to eat. That was 10 yrs. ago so the place may not even still be standing but if it is it used to be really good food. It is located just on the north side of town. Good luck in your travels. Larry Detwiler George replies: Hi Larry, I found the Ranch Hand Truck Stop a little over 2 miles north of Montpelier, Idaho [using my DeLorme GPS map]. I usually fix my own breakfast, but at your great suggestion I'm going to treat myself to breakfast tomorrow morning! 
Note: Unfortunately when I arrived at Ranch Hand Truck Stop, it appears to have recently closed down! On 6 Aug 2007 at 3:34, Dee wrote: Hello George, Do you think that its safe for women to rv alone? Like camping out in the boondocks? Miss D George replies: Hi Dee, You may be very surprised to know that I've received a ton of emails from ladies asking the same question as you about safety when RVing alone out in the boondocks. Here is what I think about that. Safety is inside your mind. I imagine that you live right now in a house or apartment. Are you safe in there? Just recently I read in the news about a doctor whose home was invaded, his wife and daughters attacked and murdered. I wonder if they thought about safety in their home before this tragedy? When I first began to RV, I often felt nervous at nite. What was I nervous about? Somebody doing me harm during the nite? I carried a pistol for awhile, and often put it by my bedside. Made me feel better. Now, I do not have that pistol, but I do have a 3-foot long machete. Hmmmmmm?
And guess what happened during the five years that I have been RVing? Nothing happened. For years nobody at all ever bothered me, or even knocked on my RV door. Except perhaps police, every so often. And also some readers came by to say, "Hello." My advice is to try to Dry Camp or Boondock alone somewhere close to your home. See how you react emotionally to this experience. You never know how you will feel, until you actually try. Let me know what happens, OK? On 1 Aug 2007 at 16:18, Jim Painter wrote: George, Hello again. I’m really enjoying Ms Tioga’s reports through Colorado and Wyoming this summer. Those are some of my favorite areas, which I hope to be visiting soon. As my date for following in your fulltime footsteps gets close, I’m paying much more attention to the day to day details of your methods. I’d like to revisit the RV size question. Although we understand the obvious advantage to using a smaller RV for fulltime stealthy overnighting and boondocking, some of us are already committed to full size class A Motorhomes for our fulltime travels, but still want to take advantage of some out of the way boondocking sites. Many of the non-urban night camps you have been using in Colorado and Wyoming look like they have plenty of space for a 38-40 ft motorhome. Do you agree? In general, what % of your remote night camps (outside cities & residential areas), would you estimate have been suitable for RV’s much larger than Ms Tioga? Thanks, Jim George replies: Hi Jim, I cannot answer your question about what percent of Nite Camps in wild areas would be suitable for larger RVs. However, I can tell you that MsTioga is about 27 feet long, and I definitely would NOT want a larger RV than that for the places that I travel. Very often I go on narrow dirt roads where I have to turn around and return. If I had a longer RV, I would not go on many roads, because I would be concerned about not being able to turn around. That would make me cautious. Not good for my type of travel. Unfortunately, there are compromises for every type and size of RV. On 30 Jul 2007 at 4:15, rod moody wrote: George, I've been long time reader, now first time writer. Let me say how much I have learned from your site. There must be many like me who read to learn about all this stuff for, shall we say FRUGAL RVers. To keep this short as possible my biggest wonderment is, you have GAS refrig., water heater, stove, cat. heater. Now,, I know you need 12v for lites,fans,pumps tv, etc. but I guess your biggest dc draw is your datastorm equipt? maybe. Why does it take so many solar panels for your Batt. storage ?.I know it would be nice to have that much solar,,,but when your out of Mexico you drive enough that i would think your "free" alternator power would supply a large percentage back to your batteries... Maybe its for piece of mind, knowing you have sooooooo much reserve.... Again, the info here is invaluable to others who enjoy this life style,,,I hope you keep enjoying it, so we can keep enjoying it. Rod Moody Gulf Shores, Al. Directly on the Gulf of Mexico George replies: Hi Rod, Many days, especially during the months of April thru October, I could get by with less than (6) 75 watt solar panels. However, my solar electric system is sized for the other months, November thru March. Those months are when the Sun is low in the sky, and it takes more panels to provide a full charge for the solar battery bank. My alternator does not supply enough electricity to fully charge my solar battery bank. It does provide some, however. I only drive about two hours each day, not near long enough. Thank you so much for writing, and especially for the compliment about learning from my site.
On 28 Jul 2007 at 11:15, Jim wrote: Hello Chips, Would you tell George that his blog now looks like a great big billboard. The adds are much bigger then the daily posts. Jim H. George replies: Hi Jim, Yes, those ads are numerous, aren't they? However, without those ads, there would be no blog. There would be no Adventures of Tioga and George. What there would be, is George working at a WalMart to make ends meet. Are the ads that bad? 
On 25 Jul 2007 at 10:00, Roger Herrscher wrote: Hello, I stumbled upon your website. I own a 1990 26ft Tioga Arrow Motorhome. I noticed that in more recent photos your RV looks different. Did you paint it yourself? Or did you have someone else paint it? How much did the paint job cost? Do you have an article in Ms. Tioga magazine about the paint? I think it looks very good. Best Regards, Roger Herrscher. George replies: Hi Roger, Thank you for writing and especially for the compliment about the paint job. I was planning to publish a story in MsTioga Magazine about my paint job. However, I had a computer problem and lost all the preparation for that story. My Tioga was painted at a fiberglass shop in the City of Constitucion, Baja California, Mexico. I also had all of the aluminum molding removed and replaced with fiberglass. A new fiberglass roof replaced the old rubber roof. Then a three color paint job was applied. The entire job, fiberglass and paint cost $3,500. On 23 Jul 2007 at 17:45, Jim Corey wrote: What happened to Mr. Dometic? I hope you had better luck dealing with the factory than I did. They sent a defective cooling unit (two in fact!). The poor shop owner was going crazy. Indeed, so were we! Jim Corey George replies: Hi Jim, Mr. Dometic has an appointment in the shop tomorrow [Tuesday, 07/24] morning to change out his cooling unit. I understand that the quality of these cooling units is a crap shoot. They may not be any good. That is the main reason why I have gone the route of buying a Dometic "Full Service Contract." When something goes bad, Dometic pays for everything. All that I have to do is show up at a "Dometic Team 2000 Service Center." It could be that my replacement cooling unit is not a good unit. In that case, another one will have to be sent. And, I will have to wait for it. On 20 Jul 2007 at 17:25, Robert B. wrote: George, I recall you spending a lot of time and effort in Mexico on your solar panel arrays and yet since you've returned to the states, I don't recall seeing a single picture with the array titled up into the sun. Did the design not work out as you had hoped or did climbing up onto the roof to deploy the panels turn out to be too big a pain in the posterior? 8-) Robert George replies: Hi Robert, This is an excellent question. During the months of March thru September, the Sun travels fairly high in the sky. It is not necessary [or essential] to tilt solar panels during these months because the battery bank gets its charge easily. October thru February is different. During these months the Sun is low in the sky. Tilting panels during these months may mean the difference of getting a full daily battery charge or not. It is very easy to tilt panels with this design, and I am very pleased with how the tilting mechanism works. Also, I am still able to easily climb up on MsTioga's roof, and enjoy going up there. View is great!
On 14 Jul 2007 at 17:32, Glenn wrote: Hi, George, My name is Glenn and I am planning to live full time in an RV in the near future. I am single and will be retired so I will have no travel schedule to stick with. Some questions I don't seem to be able to resolve when it comes to choosing the RV right for me are: 1) How large can the motor home be if I don't intend to tow another vehicle and use my RV for all my travel? 2) How large should the fresh water tank be to sustain me a period of a week while dry camping? 3) I feel I need a comfortable chair as part of my floorplan, but that is next to impossible to find in the smaller rigs. Any suggestions? 4) I really don't want a rig with a rubber roof. I like the aluminum roof of the Lazy Daze or the fiberglass roof of the Born Free, but the later is more pricey than I think it should be. Am I putting too much emphasis on the roof material? I should also mention that I am even considering a Roadtrek class B motor home. It meets most of my requirements in a very small space including the comfortable seating by rotating the cab seats, but I do have some reservations about the size of the fresh water tank (31 gallons including the water heater) and the cargo carrying capacity. I will not put upon you with any futher questions as I don't want to be a pest, but I will say that I really enjoyed reading your website. We share a lot of the same outlooks on life. I found it through Brian Gore's site, which was referenced to on the Lazy Daze Yahoo! forum. Thanks a lot for your time, George, and maybe we will cross paths someday and share stories about our travels. Glenn George replies: Hi Glenn, Thank you sooooo much for writing and introducing yourself. Very good to meet you!
Choosing an RV that is good for you when you have not done much RVing is really a tough thing. When I first began to think about buying an RV, I sat in my livingroom and laid out my encyclopedia on the floor as the perimeter of my RV floor. Then I sat in the middle of those books, and tried to imagine if I would have enough room. Wow! The size of your RV will be dependent on what you plan to do with it AND your own personal preferences. If you intend to go into the forests and wild places [as I sometimes do], you may wish to have an RV with a small height to avoid hitting tree limbs. You say that you are interested in the Lazy Daze, which has one of the smallest heights of all RVs. The Lazy Daze people went to a lot of effort to bring the roof down. There is some sacrifice in storage, however. Did you know that many of the newer Class Cs have raised their roof height a great deal? They did this in order to give more storage in the basement. I am guessing that consumers were wanting this extra basement storage. My feeling about the length of an RV is, that it should be as small as you feel comfortable. MsTioga is 27 feet long, and is perfect for me! You ask about how large the fresh water tank should be. I used to think that I would like to have a larger fresh water tank. Mine is 35 gallons + six-gallon water heater. However, I found that I most always run out of other things before fresh water. Fresh fruits and sometimes fresh vegetable, for example. I hardly ever stay out boondocking for a whole week. It is much easier to come in and go shopping. I love to go shopping [as you may know] and maybe that's why I come in to a city or town often. Another thing about water. I never drink from my fresh water tank. These tanks are hard to really clean well. My tank is not accessible for scrubbing the inside. So, I decided sometime ago to carry my drinking water in separate jugs. I have one 5-gallon jug with a pump, and two 2-gallon dispensers that hold my drinking water. By using this method, I am not too concerned about the quality of water in my fresh water tank, because this water is only used for washing dishes, bathing and the toilet. Roof material is important, but not a deal breaker in my opinion. I recently fiberglassed my roof, and that is my preference. The Lazy Dazy aluminum roof seems really good, to me. Large comfortable chair? Hmmmm? Guess you are going to have to shop for that one. I wrote a webpage in MsTioga Magazine, about choosing an RV. Would you like to take a peek at it? Choosing an RV. If you have more questions, Glenn, please write back. I love to help! On 11 Jul 2007 at 23:54, Laura M.: Well, hi! One of the women's RV boards mentioned you & your travels with a link to your website, and ever since I've checked in daily to see what your latest adventures are. Your are a remarkable person! I have many questions, but my guess is that they're probably all answered somewhere in your blog. For example, how did you get started? Was it because you had cancer? What was your occupation before you began full-time travel? How do you decide where to go? For now, I guess the only other thing is would you recommend the type of travel you do for single women? I recently took a trip by myself up the coast of California to the Redwoods and got creeped out a bit in some of the remote areas I was exploring. Didn't want to hang around, even though the areas were more "public" than I've seen you in. Thanks George for your inspiring lifestyle. Who knows, maybe I'll do the same thing some day! Laura M. George replies: Hi Laura, Thank you sooooo much for the compliment that you give to me by tuning into my blog!
I was fascinated by RVs for many years, long before I got cancer. However, being in my cancer support group and watching group members die from their disease, caused me to make the decision to not waste my time anymore. I decided to rush at life, not take anything for granted. I had "perspective" now. While I was recovering from cancer, I read about the Datastorm satellite internet system. That got me thinking about RVs, and I began to make plans. When my cancer doctor told me that my cancer was in remission, I went out that very day and bought MsTioga. Deciding where to go is very simple. I just wander around and explore. By only traveling a short distance each day, I seem to find interesting things [or maybe they find me?
].
Other women have written from time to time, wondering about this lifestyle for themselves, as you are doing now. It is difficult for me to tell you, "Just go for it!" I am not a women, and do not know how women feel inside. I know that I felt a bit scared when I first began to be a fulltimer. Used to sleep with a loaded pistol by my side. What I was afraid of, I have no idea! Now, I do not carry a pistol anymore, and never even think about being afraid. How about going on RV.NET and posing your question to women in that forum. Might be very interesting to read what other women think about RVing alone. On 11 Jul 2007 at 9:30, R.W.Roper wrote: Hello George, One of the things that has always bothered me is that you are out in the boondocks by yourself taking long hikes. What are you doing to protect yourself from rattlesnakes? If you were to be bitten, you would be in deep do do. George please take care, Wayne from Va. George replies: Hi Wayne, Your email brought to mind a day years ago when I was at the Kern River in Southern California. I was walking over big rocks near the river, and came upon a sleeping huge rattlesnake. The snake was startled awake, but was not coiled to strike. It rattled in alarm, and moved fast to get away from me. I of course, ran like crazy in the opposite direction. This snake was at least 3" in diameter and about five feet long. Wow! That was a scary thing. When I am walking on my hikes now, I am constantly on the watch where I will walk BEFORE I take a step. Thank you sooooo much for your concern. On 9 Jul 2007 at 16:20, frank d. wrote: Hi George, Are you headed up to devils Tower.....This is Frank in Pa.....we were up there in 2001....You got to check it out..........let me know.......ok.... be safe..frank George replies: Hi Frank, Thank you for writing! Probably not visiting Devils Tower on this trip. However, I was there in 2004! Would you like to take a peek? Hmmmm? June 30, 2004 July 01, 2004 July 02, 2004 Loved Devils Tower!! Thank you sooooo much for reminding me of that trip! |