Author: Rae

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At Least One Cost Keeps Going Down

Except for one practise I thought was frowned upon in developed nations (all I’m saying on that matter!), Alberta is going to be the cheapest province for driving costs.

When I hit the road in ’08, I was registered in Quebec. Yearly costs there:

-registration for Miranda: $650

-insurance for Miranda: $750

-registration for the toad: $250

-insurance for the toad: $1,500

-driver’s license: $50

Total: $3,200

I then moved to Yukon and my yearly costs there were:

-registration for Miranda: about $125

-insurance for Miranda: $750

-registration for the toad: about $70

-insurance for the toad: $1,500

-driver’s license: $5

Total: $2,450

Now, I haven’t crossed all the T’s for Alberta, but I’ve been promised that the insurance estimates are pretty firm:

-registration for Miranda: about $75

-insurance for Miranda: $750

-registration for the toad: about $75

-insurance for the toad: $630 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

-driver’s license: $17

Total: $1,547

Notice the one constant, the cost for Miranda’s insurance! The Alberta broker I’m going with thinks the amount is outrageous. I still can’t believe it’s that cheap.

As a reminder, Miranda is insured by Aviva Elite, the only entity in this country to have a product specifically tailored to full-timers. Brokers might scratch their heads when you say you live full-time in an RV, but just send them off to Aviva who will cheerfully come up with a quote that will cover your rig (and then some), your contents, and give you a good amount of liability coverage.

Toad insurance is tough (they don’t like it when you take the car out of the province…), but you can travel freely with your rig. I’m not sure I’d have the strength to push on with the other challenges if I didn’t have these understanding folks at my back. When the worst happens and you have to claim a total loss of home and possessions, or you get sued by someone who trips on your stairs, lies and half-truths just won’t cut it. Aviva allows me to be fully open in disclosing my lifestyle so that I can get the right policy. I am very grateful to them.

(Psst, Aviva, do you need a spokesperson?!)

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How I Started RVing

Croft just posted a great story about how he started RVing.

For newer readers who might not have read back to the beginning of the blog, here’s the short story of how I started RVing:

-sometime around 2005, a blog made me notice RVs for the first time and I had a revelation: hey, I could have a home AND be able to travel!

-in early 2008 I attended an RVing show;

-later that spring, I toured a friend’s Gulfstream Hurricane class A;

-on that same weekend, I slept in my mother’s pop-up camper, my first time overnighting in an RV!

-in July I bought a motorhome;

-in September I hit the road full-time.

That sums it up quite nicely. Thankfully, fortune (in the sense of life experience wealth, not monetary wealth) has favoured the foolish!

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Red Tape Exhaustion

I’m in the process of switching to Alberta residency and I’m just about done with this whole full-timing in Canada thing. It’s probably easier to request, and get, refugee status in the States than it is to move from one province to another.

I’m no longer comfortable spilling all the details of how I handle the legal red tape in this country. I am tired of all the lies and half-truths I have to tell to be able to drive and have some semblance of health coverage, and I grow increasingly concerned by the abundance of information that I voluntarily give up that could be used against me.

There was a time not so many months ago that I thought I was strong enough to be the full-timing martyr in this country; that I could live openly, proclaim from the rooftops that I screw the rules and do things my own way, consequences be damned, but that isn’t me anymore. The stress is gnawing at me and my resentment of my government grows exponentially with every hoop I have to jump through. I am exhausted. I bet if I were to grow out my hair it’d be grey!

I won’t let the government win. I’m not giving up on this lifestyle that I love so much, but I am going to go into hiding, so to speak, for a while, and say a lot less on the blog for the time being about the infrastructure aspects of my life.

 

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Enjoying My Weekend

The last week of July and first week of August were busy at my apartment management job. I worked 12 days in a row since I had to go in for a few hours both days last weekend. It’s nice to be able to stay home this weekend even though I took on five small transcription jobs.

Between transcription bursts, I’m still working on destriping the rig. The driver’s side stripes are tenacious! It’s taking way longer than did the passenger side, probably because it’s not in direct sunlight. I don’t have much longer to get this project done so I try to do a little bit every day that I’m not completely swamped with apartment management, fliers, and transcription.

The weather gets very, very hot in the afternoons and Miranda becomes uncomfortable, even with windows open and the fan going. Add to that a Macbook Pro that runs very hot and I can’t get much work done between 4 and 7.

Yesterday, I put on my walking shoes, grabbed my iPod Touch (and new armband for holding the device), and went for a long walk, listening to several chapters of an audio book, enjoying the slowly cooling air. I then came home, put the iPod Touch in the dock (bought for my old iPod, but working great with the iPod Touch!), and continued to listen while making, having, and cleaning up after dinner.

iPod dock

I love that the days get so hot but cool right down at night so I can sleep comfortably. My cats aren’t struggling with the heat at all. They lie by the fan, the door, or an open window, and I put a couple of ice cubes in their water in the morning so that they have cold water all day. Both are eating me out of house and home, so as long as that keeps up I’m not concerned!

Back to work I go. 🙂

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Middle Eastern Lunch

While I was at Walmart yesterday, I found three boxes that made me decide to end my quest for Lebanese ingredients out west. No grocer here seems to know what tahini is!

tabouleh, falafel, and hummus mixes

It felt sacrilegious to buy these, but I was getting desperate! Greek-style falafel doesn’t do much for me!

I made up the hummus and tabouleh first and let them sit for a bit.

hummus and tabouleh (with added tomatoes)

The first taste of both left me relieved. The hummus is flavourful and smooth. The tabouleh is a bit more ‘parsleyish’ than I like, needing some fresh mint, but for a box mix I am quite impressed!

I then mixed up the falafel mix, which would have to sit for ten minutes:

very damp falafel mix

While that sat for a bit, I cut up my mystery fruit. I was right, it’s a melon! It tastes like a canary melon and I’m wondering if this is a miniature version of one. It is VERY sweet.

mystery fruit is a melon!

The falafel mix was getting thicker, but not quite ready yet:

falafel mix getting thicker

Pita offerings are slim out west, but these Greek pitas appeared to be anything but and I took a chance on them:

not-so-Greek pitas

They were stale, of course, so I nuked one for a few seconds with a damp paper towel over top. Took it out and investigated. Sure enough, this was a thin, pocket-style pita, not a thick, pocket-less Greek-style pita. Yay!

stale pocket pita is better than no pita!

I then heated up some oil and while that was going, I dressed up my pita:

a layer of hummus

a layer of tabouleh

Time to check if the oil was hot enough:

that sizzle tells me to get those patties in there!

I don’t have a falafel baller, so I just rolled balls in my hands and lightly flattened them. One minute of frying on each side and voila!

that actually looks like falafel!

Add three falafel patties and the sandwich is done:

The falafel mix was excellent! I could zazoom it up with some toasted sesame seeds next time, and it was definitely missing a drizzle of tahini, but for a lunch at home from three boxes I am very satisfied!

And, yes, I will be eating the leftovers for the next few days. I have no problem with that. 🙂