Hurrican Ike

Here came another one and saw many, many, many RVers evacuating once again from our little piece of paradise. It was Friday and the newstations were telling us that we were right smack in the middle of the cone. OH MY GOSH! I thought we were really going to get it this time. Then on Saturday, we had a mandatory evacuation for all visitors. Local business hurts everytime this happens, but it's something that has to be done. We (hubby and I) opted to spend the day on the water with Rocky and Teddy (the pooches). We took them to Short Key (where it's shallow enough for them to run around). We were the only boat out there for several hours. Then on Sunday morning, mandatory evacuations for Key West residents began at 8-9am followed by the Middle Keys residents somewhere around noon and finally Upper Keys residents (that's us) at 4pm. We chose not to leave, since we were out of the cone already. We figured that if turned slightly towards us, we could always leave early Monday. That didn't happen but we did get lots of rain and wind. We also had several tornadoes throughout the keys, including one "weak" one just a block away. There were some trees down and some screened porches that were destroyed. No one was hurt, thankfully. Schools were cancelled Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so there weren't too many people out on the road. We opted to do some online research and work, which is our future goal (to be virtually established). I'm currently working and promoting some internet marketing programs. I'll be posting more about this later.

Hubby cleaned up around the property and I cleaned up around inside, since our son was coming home from the Navy on Friday for a long awaited visit.

Through the evacuations of visitors, I did see one Toy Hauler that was awesome. It looked like new. I can't remember the brand but it looked bigger than life. It was towed by a Ford F350, so I think we may have to sell our F250 and upgrade in order to handle the kind of rig we want.

For now, the weather is back to being typical September beach weather and we continue to spend time in the water.

Until next time, happy travels!

Tropical Storm Fay

Fay came.... Fay went....

Made me wonder how fulltime RVers manage when a storm/hurricane lurks in the distance. How far do you go away from it? When do you decide to leave? How strong does the storm have to be for people to leave?

We live in Key Largo so we were putting patio chairs away, tying down outdoor furniture, putting our downstairs refrigerators up on blocks, parked the cars on higher ground, and stocked up on the basic essentials.... water, batteries, can food, extra ice, BEER/WINE (for the hurricane party).... LoL!!!

Although it was no more than a windy Summer storm, it gave us an opportunity to have a practice drill and thankfully that's all it was. We did get some flooding from our canal but nothing like when Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Wilma came around in 2005.

Moral of the story: When fulltime rving, stay away from the Florida Keys during Hurricane season. And if I am anywhere near it, just leave at the first sign of one brewing near our coast.

In the meantime......
Happy Travels!

My first blog comment.... WOOHOO!!!!

While I'm sitting here doing my daily "research" and "education" on home/rv based businesses, I received my very 1st comment on my blog. I was soooooo excited that I jumped up and down. There's someone out there who actually took the time to read my thought and my goals. Thank you so much Joe and Sherri for being my first "comment writers". I'll never forget you!!!

We're on track... I think?!?!?

We decided to sell our Miami home (that was too much overhead for us plus two kids have moved out, so we don't need all that room). We're back in the Keys and loving it. I hope to keep this house for a long time because I really enjoy this life.

We're still working at our mortgage company (Equity Options Corp.) and I have activated my Real Estate license through Realty Options. Even in a slow market, the Florida Keys is still a very popular place and the prices have leveled out somewhat, making it very attractive to those who "missed the boat" several years ago before the prices sky-rocketed.

On the RVing news side, we created a "Skills Worksheet" to see what are the things we know how to do and/or licensed/certified in, so that we can develop an "income/business goal". We know that we need to "create" a home-based business, that is successful, in order to be able to hit the road eventually.

Peace!

Happy Travels!!!!

WOW! I can't believe it's been almost a year

Yep! Things have definiteley changed in the last 10 months. The Real Estate and Mortgage industry have changed drastically. We find ourselves yearning for the day we can hit the road, as we started planning almost a year ago. We're still looking for that special RV with "our name" on it. AND we are still waiting for the last child to graduate high school and head to college. Our current plans are to be on the road (at least part-time) towards the Fall. We will keep our home, as it is in a tourist area and rents well for vacationers. Our biggest concern is "income". We are no where near retirement age, so no pension for us. We have to definitely work.... so we're currently working on our website. I don't know how long that will take, but we are working on it slowly. We know we'll have to create an income from various areas and so far we've got my jewelry designs and soy candles, which I've got to start marketing through the website and craft shows (I definitley need to research the craft shows so that when we go on the road we can do several of those, especially before the holidays), some eBay auctions, and some other things that are still in the works.

That's all for now. Got to get working so we can start traveling.