“Toby Keith is Right”

Jill's Journal: Rob comes home this evening from another week in New Jersey, an event that indirectly prompted one of my favorite moments of the week. Naturally, the girls miss their Daddy something fierce. One day, we were in the middle of driving and the Toby Keith song “I Wanna Talk About Me” was playing in the background:

“We talk about your work, how your boss is a jerk
We talk about your church and your head when it hurts…”

Victoria suddenly sat straight up in her booster seat and said with all the vehemence a 4-year-old can muster, “Toby Keith is right. Daddy’s boss IS a jerk!”

“What?” I asked. “Why do you say that?”

“Because last time he kept Daddy there in New Jersey FOREVER and now he’s there again,” she sputtered angrily. “And he needs to know that Daddy has a family who loves him! We need him more than that boss does. We’re a family and we belong together.”

She had much more to say, but I was laughing too hard to remember it all. How I love that little girl! (And I'm pretty sure Rob melted when I relayed it over the phone to him later that night...)

Finally home.

I'm so excited to be back home. The plan was to post a photo of my plane coming into LAX - showing my joy to be back home - but I found out, after the fact (just tonight), that the phone was full... You can see my fantastic photo below.

What's missing in the photo is the view of downtown LA and the Hollywood sign over the front of the wing of that 757. Too bad too, because it was a really nice vista. Regardless of the artwork - I'm glad all is back to normal and that the kids gave me a great welcome back. I don't like that I'll have to do it all over again soon, but I'm looking forward to the welcome back then too.

Pictures, cameras, travel, and family...

As you all know, we went to Death Valley yesterday. It was a long day, followed by an early day today -- moving day actually. We got a later start than expected, and were a little tired after the trips both Saturday and Sunday. Death Valley will be talked about by Jill (in detail) tomorrow night I'm sure.

For now, I downloaded my pictures and while I caught some good stuff - nothing, save one - aside from some family shots - stood out to me in my downloads...

For some reason I really liked this one, and I hope to get much more time, and more snapshots, in DV in the near future... Tuesday will tell. ;)

The *insert word here* RV trailer you ever did see....

Well, I've been absent of late, and I'm sorry about that. Jill's been covering the blog just fine, and I've not really had much extra to contribute lately. Plus, I picked up an unintended 2nd job, but all is well - just a little busy. :)

Anyhow - what drives me out of hiding? What makes me need to post? Seriously, the funnest trailer I've seen yet. Unfortunately, it seems to have had a short life span, seems to have hit the market during the downturn, and is a little hard to find now - but I had to share.I mean really - how cool is that? We went to an RV dealership in Bangor (http://www.webbsrvcenter.com/) - a town that I'm not outwardly fond of, but if everyone there were like the guys in this dealership, I'd say everyone should move there - they were pretty great. They even gave the kids RV toys - Erika picked up a nice Jeep/Travel Trailer combo - Victoria grabbed a nice European Class C - and Madelyn hit the motherlode with a classic, reconfigurable Class A. Needless to say they were happy! I only wish I could have bought more there.:) If you're interesting in this fun little cabin - I know where you can get one - http://www.webbsrvcenter.com/19006.html

Big Day for me... Ahhhhh.

So today I got to get everything out in the open. I wasn't trying to hide anything from anyone, but the most important things to me recently were - see if we can actually make this happen, and let my boss know in person what we were doing. It just didn't seem like it made sense to talk about it over the phone wihout the concept being proved - or maybe that's just me and the way I am...

Regardless, today was the day. We've been on the road for about 6 weeks now - out of the house for 9 weeks almost, and while I'd not made light of the stress I was under selling the house, or moving to the farm, or getting everything on the farm done... I hadn't completely mentioned 'the plan' to my employers. I'd done that for two reasons really - first, to make sure we could do it. I've made no bones that there were times in this short jaunt that we almost quit. Second tho, was to prove that it was more than a concept and that we already had made it work - that I was no different on the road than at the bricks-and-sticks house, and maybe, just maybe, that I was better... I feel I've been better the last couple of weeks than I've been before that, I'm very hopeful that it just keeps getting better and better.

I'd lost a little focus recently, and now, with us doing what we are doing, and knowing what that means to me and my family, I've sincerely become more focused, more responsible - bottom line a better employee/worker than I'd been in awhile. I'm happy to be up here, getting stuff done in a way that I can only do when in the office, and having the opportunity to spend good parts of the next 10 days in the office to do everything that NEEDS to be done. I'm looking forward to doing more of that on the way back down New England, if necessary.

Today was a big relief and while it was a little different than I'd planned (obsessively for the last 2 driving days, including this morning), I think the info was well received and understood. I'm absolutely certain that I can make this work (with dedication), and my stress level (which has been high as of late) could be down as much as 12 million points. ;) Overall, no matter how you slice it - a good, big, day.

Updates...

Hey all - We've finally settled in and are finally getting down to routine. Work in the daytime, kids to bed, personal time at night. Its a little funny to me how little some things have changed since we were in the ol' sticks and bricks (RV slang for a house), but how much other things have changed. I'm hoping to change my schedule a little more to be more in line with the kids. I've been saying that for a long time now, so I'm sure Jill doesn't believe it - but it'll come. My guess is that next week will have a significant push toward that direction - true boondocking.

I know I haven't posted in a couple of days, and let me tell you why. I got a little funky about the comment on the West Virginia post. We know nobody (that I know of) from West Virginia, and while at first it seemed a little cutesy and in jest, the more I thought of the comment the snarkier it became in my head. We post so that people can keep up with us without having it rammed down their throat. Know what you want, see what you want, comment back when you find something funny, or truthful or fulfilling. You don't even have to leave a name, in fact - we love it when we get comments at all, and so far most have been signed in some way so that we can tell who you are, but that the commenter doesn't have to open themselves up to the whole universe. That's fantastic, and all we ask. However, the WV comment was anonymous, in the most anonymous sense -- the text, the verbiage, the mocking - didn't fit with anyone we'd expect. So - my policy is now this... This is a friendly blog. We are not trying to get famous, gain followers, promote RVfor5, or do anything other than let friends and family know what's going on without having to make 25 phone calls a day. It has become a forum that we can talk on, share with you, relive the trip and all its, uh, fun and learning. There are a lot of things that I want this website/blog to become, but a snarky place for unnecessary comments is not one of them. I'm not naive enough to think that there aren't people out there that are looking at our blog that we haven't told or invited. The Internet is a wide open thing. I am just saying this - there's no need to be that way. Step up WVA person and tell us more about yourself...

Bottom line: If your comment is anonymous, snarky, and neither Jill nor I know who wrote it - its probably gonna get axed. I'm leaving Mr. WestVirginiaGetOffMyHighways as a learning experience. I'm just putting it out there otherwise.

Now - that all being said.... Updates:

Injector - I went down to Richmond today to try to get that fixed and was told rather unceremoniously by Jason that without being able to replicate it, they'd never be able to figure out what was wrong. I was pretty sure I knew what was wrong, gave them info, but if "it don't throw codes" then apparently they can't figure it out. I now have to wait until it REALLY breaks and makes towing really difficult before taking it in. Hopefully at some point it breaks just enough to tell them what's wrong without halting our trip... And they say the American car industry is in a comeback. :/

Today - I'm sure that Jill will blog a bit about our visit today, but can I just say how nice it was to visit with friends from the past. Everyone here needs to know that without the friend we visited today, none of this (and I'm talking down to the Jill and I even meeting part) would be happening. Thank you for changing the course of my life. It was fun to catch up and I hope to see you more in the next couple of weeks, not to mention on the trip back down. Somehow, we'll find a way to get you camping yet :)

Campgrounds - WOW. How different they all are. We've had - GREAT (Horse Park), CORPORATE - (First 3 days in Cave Creek), RURAL, SMALL and disconcerting (but by far the most friendly - Bardstown), TROUBLING - on so many levels (Jellystone Park), and now PURE STRANGE (here - in three days I've talked with one other camper, and it was not good). Its funny that our first park is maybe one of the best parks in the US (and now we are starting to understand why). We still have a lot of different experiences to go through, and I'm sure a lot of different types of parks to see, but I think we've run into a good mix of things. I'll post more on the different parks soon, but let me just say this - read between the lines of advertising; read comments and posts about the parks before you reserve them; unless they are in the exact, perfect location for what you're trying to do (read: not another park that rated close within an hour), research more.

I'm really enjoying the many aspects of this trip, but its going to be tough to find an RV park that will fulfill everything we are looking for. I know for a fact that it is tough to start your trek with such a good park, and that most will have a tough time measuring up. However, its also amazing to me how much personality each park has... We've just got to learn what type of park we want to be friendly with... :)

I've still got a lot to post about, but now its late and I'm going to need to get up rather early tomorrow to get a full day of work in. I can see why retirees favor this kind of lifestyle, and while I wish I could do the same, I'm glad to be able to provide and work from the road. Hopefully I can figure out everything Internet in the next few weeks and be all set for every situation. I'm sure it'll get expensive, but if that's what makes the trip happen, then whatever it takes - right?

R.

I know, I know... I KNOW. :)

I should be blogging more. I know I should..., I mean to..., I want to... However, there are still so many little things to do that I'm finding it hard to find the time. I'm hoping that by the end of the week I'll have most of the small stuff sorted out. Then - well, hopefully I'll bore all 3 people that are reading with the 12 stories I have. :)

Today was my first day back at work since having a schedule that required me to be somewhere, do something, fix something, etc. outside of work. I liked it. While I wasn't up as early as I'd hoped (that extra hour of Central Time really does make a difference - not sure why), I was up, did projects and felt really productive for most of the day - until my back said "uh, no. Remember yesterday?" (I could barely walk yet went shopping for stuff anyhow. Looked like a stroke patient dragging a foot... got...to...get...to...chiro.) Anyhow, since this evening things are better and I'm hoping, as usual, in full recovery so that I can get things on the mend, and on the move.

After work, project wise it was a pretty good day. I fired up our grill (Weber Q 200 with the nice little stand) after picking up some cylinders. I need to figure out the whole 'line from RV to Grill so I don't have to buy cylinders' thing, but there's time for that. Installed the knife rack. Put in the stemware rack that I'd been waiting to find and now the kitchen seems larger and more organized. :) And the calendar.. Can't forget about the calendar - most important installation since we left. We missed three months of it not being on the wall, and now Jill is happy, and content. And - as you all know - that is good. :)))

I still have a bunch of stuff to do, and I will do them over the course of the next couple of days. I sense a trip out to Bowling Green tomorrow or Thursday to tie up a couple of loose ends (stuff we forgot, things we remembered, the BIKES, and Beer...) "Beer?" You ask. "Beer?..." Yes, you see, we're in a dry county. Several in a row in fact. Hadn't experienced that before and will learn to plan well ahead in the future. :)

So. Many more posts to follow. I've been thinking about blogging about the places we eat (tonight was devine), and several other little things - projects, driving, observations, and campgrounds. It is strange to write everything down, but I do find myself lately thinking in headlines and paragraphs... maybe I should see a doctor about that. :)

Welcome!

Jill's Journal: If only I had a penny for each time someone asked if we had a blog! We finally decided it was time to go public. I’ve been keeping an occasional journal of our preparations to travel with the intention of sharing it with our girls someday. (Because surely someday they’ll wonder what possessed us to pack them into an RV and hit the road). Since my typing skills are stronger than my handwriting skills, it seemed a natural to make it a blog and that way my parents could track our travels as well. And now it’s morphed into something a little bigger…we’ve decided to also share it with our friends and family.

If you’re just joining us, the brief version is this: we’ve sold our house (closing in a matter of hours!), have bought a fifth wheel, and plan to travel North America for the next three years. We have a loose itinerary that includes 49 states and parts of Canada. Rob telecommutes already and can work from anywhere, so we realize this makes us incredibly blessed and very, very lucky. Our three girls are young with our oldest just finishing kindergarten tomorrow, so I’m going to try my hand at homeschooling for a few years. We can’t think of a better education for them (and for us!) than seeing the country firsthand.

As people have learned about the adventure that awaits us, we realized how many either long for this type of opportunity or think we’re completely off our rocker. Either way, it’s clear many people are very curious. We thought this blog would be a way we could take everyone along for the ride.

Both Rob and I will post. His entries (like the one immediately below) are labeled with an “R.” Mine will always begin with “Jill’s Journal.”

It will take another week or so for us to completely wrap up things here in Lexington, Kentucky, and then we’ll be on our way. So, stay turned and join us on our journey if you’d like. And welcome!

Day 4 | end of the trek West.

So after a good night's sleep (finally), I'm ready to head off to trailer world. I got an unexpected gift from the boss today when she took the day off for her birthday, freeing my day up and pushing my workday into the evening. whew.

To continue last night's blog... actually, to do last night's blog :)

First, the truck - I finally totally settled in, I'm driving it very comfortably now, as long as the road doesn't have an attitude grabbing it about. I'm happy to have that confidence in driving something so big, and having the tires act like they should helps too. I can still get them to be squiggy, I just have to make it happen now rather than making it keep from happening. :)

Red Highway - I forgot what red Highway looked like. For those of you that don't know, I'm not referring to that crash tape they make you watch in driver's ed, I'm talking about those parts of the southwest that use native rock to pave the highway. it always seems to compliment the surrounding area so much, and I just like the way it looks. If I remember correctly the color is derived from the rain rusting the iron in the soil, giving it that reddish appearance. you can see it in the plateaus of NM and AZ, possibly NV. Its just a neat highway to drive.

Empty Billboards - a few hours in this morning there were these little towns in NM that do all kinds of tourist-trappy Indian stuff, and before each of them is usually a ton of billboards proclaiming all their specials and why you should stop in - and I mean a ton. i think I counted 25 before this one place (there were three that I remember). Anyway, I wish I had my camera ready because a sign of the times could not have been more clear. At the last stretch, they were empty. Just the hulking 16' by 40' empty spaces, 25' apart from each other with nothing on them. Waiting, perhaps, for when the establishment either reopened or when they could finally afford it again. it wa bleak - if I go back that way I'll definitely stop to photograph it. it really spoke volumes about the times many people are living in...

Scrabble - I came up with an idea for a new game. Travel Scrabble, and we may play it at our next family get together. Standard scrabble rules and board, except - you can only use locations. Two letter, valid North American States are OK. Valid three letter country codes are ok, but any words longer must be somewhere that can be put in the phrase 'Last summer I went (to) (the)'. It'll be interesting to see how it plays :)

Classic Rock - I came to an interesting realization today. The reason our uncles and aunts listened to 'classic rock' when we were younger is because that's the musice they heard when they were in HS, and learning about music. I came to this realization as 97X (not the LA variety, but ALBQ or such) tagged itself as THE classic rock station, and then played Sunday, Bloody Sunday by U2. Man, I'm getting old, aren't I.

PINK is the official music of this trip. Right now, all I know is that she is getting PAID! I've heard her latest song at least 3 times a day, with it at its peak Friday night (13 times in 8 ours). Flipping radio stations is interestin, and hearing what's popular is fun. I like the song (which is probably good for my sanity) and the only reason I probably haven't heard it more is because Woodstock's anniversary was Saturday (and I listened to it on public Radio for awhile. aside - its always interesting to hear swear words on an FCC licensed station, even if it is public radio...). I also think that if you mentioned PINK in Oklahoma and the north of Texas it doesn't have the meaning of the songstress. I don't think i heard one pop station on that tretch of the trip, or the pink count might be 3 times what it is. :)

Finally - and maybe sadly for Jill - I'm finding out that I may need to live in the mountains. Driving through Flagstaff told me alot about my state of mind. I calmed down and felt I could truly take a deep breath for the first time in awhile. The town is a little screwy for sure, but I felt a little at home there. And the views - mountains and pine trees and small roads and little wood buildings... I wonder why it is that city people always take vacations into the mountains (or beach) and mountain/beach people always take vacations into other mountains/beach? Somthing to be said for that...

Day 3 | How far today? Tucumcari to...

Good night's rest I must say considering the cicumstances. Woke up to a bit of rain in the cab - from the sprinklers, but nothing too bad. I must say I do like the rain-guard things on the windows. Its opened my eyes as to why people use them, and I'll put them on every truck I own from now on. They just have so many convinieces to them.

E-mail is stuck because of that monster report Gregg runs every night for the loader. I need to figure out some way to deal with all this huge archival email I get. Its going to be too cumbersome on the road. Figure maybe to pop those accounts only when I have a good connection or a solid power base where I can just let the thing sit and sit and sit. More to ponder about work...

Flying J is back to being OK in the realm of places to stop. The bathrooms are clean, the store well stocked. I just ran into a bad one earlier in the trip I guess. Maybe I'll give Love's another chance at love...?

I'm figuring that I'll make CA today, but just not the whole way. It'll depend on how far I push myself and how much work I feel I need to accomplish. I still have a list of things for that project, and I'd like to have it done on Monday so we'll see what that takes.

This morning routine is good. rather than what I used to do which was wake up, rub eyes, turn on car, go - taking a little time - an hour even - is worth the wasted road time because I'm more focused and more together out there. That's always a good thing.

OK - off West. Blog soon :)

Interesting conversion for a desk

I saw this when looking at used trailers today, and thought it a very elegant solution to not having workspace. I could do this with any chest of drawers using mostly materials that already exist in the RV. The slides and platform for the pullout could be easy to get from Lowe's/HD, and the drawer facia could be cut down to remanufacture smaller drawers on the top level. Everything could then be laid out on the chest, with the pull out left for the laptop.

Since just about every one of the units we've looked at has a chest of drawers like this in some format, I think my problem of workspace is pretty much solved in that fashion. then, if I ever did have to work late, and Jill were asleep I could take the laptop out into the LR without problem, as long as I don't always have to be out there.

They Know!

Jill's Journal: My parents came from California to Kentucky to visit us last week and other than enjoying their visit, my focus was in telling them about our RV plans. Truth be told, I was terrified! Here I am a responsible, grown woman with kids of my own, and I was afraid to tell my parents for fear of their disapproval. Crazy, right?

Turns out I needn’t have worried. To my great and wonderful surprise, they took the news FABULOUSLY. Astoundingly well. Kristi thought my presentation helped: I told them how we never dreamed we’d leave Kentucky, but we’ve learned the only way to be competitive in the Thoroughbred industry here as breeders is to have far deeper pockets than we do. I told them we want a farm again someday, but we can see the benefits of a regional market as opposed to the top Kentucky market. I told them how our trip to the Central Coast of California last year opened our eyes to the realization that we could possibly live somewhere else. I reminded them how Rob already telecommutes and can work from anywhere. And I told them how places like Montana were considerations as a future home, but we very well might still stick with Kentucky – we honestly don’t know what the future holds. They’ve been hoping we’d move back West since we headed East 12 years ago and got very excited at all the above…

And then I told them that we had thought it would be so neat to “live” in various places for a few weeks at a time, kind of as a trial or test of future hometowns for us. I said that idea had morphed even farther and melded with our desire to travel the country. And then I broke the big news: we’d finally arrived at a plan of buying an RV and spending the next few years traveling before settling down again.

I waited for any sign of disapproval, but there was none. NONE! They took it amazingly well. In fact, to my great surprise, they were extremely positive about it! They were surprised at the plan as it is out of the conventional world they’re accustomed to, but they almost thought it was kind of neat and said it’s the kind of thing we need to do now while we can. You could have knocked me over with a feather at their reaction! It made me very, very happy and I don’t think I will ever underestimate them again. :-)

My parents' fabulous response surprised me so pleasantly that the next morning I worried if perhaps the margaritas and bourbon consumed during our “talk” had impacted their judgment. I asked them about it again just to make sure and the reaction stayed the same. It was like Christmas in July for me! As a few days passed, they thought of new questions to ask and had fun little realizations like wondering what would happen to my marvelous Dyson vacuum during our downsizing. (Side note: My Mom wants to volunteer to babysit it!!)

They took it so great!! I love my parents.

Next hurdles: telling Rob’s Mom and his employers. Yikes.

Catastrophic Failure

AAARGGHHHHHHHHHOOOOoohhhhhhhhhhahaaaaahhhhhhh...sob.sob....whimper.

I lost everything. E-mail, graphics, Google-frickin-earth. Anything and everything I did for the last year or so. My laptop had a complete and utter drive failure and it just 'went away'... So, now I'm rebuilding - with an eye toward keeping everything backed-up in duplicate.

Work stuff I can recover or remake. Most of it is posted to the website, so that shouldn't be a problem. E-mail - much of it is unimportant (although it has created my first hole is past email since 1996), however work stuff I was able to pinpoint and have Gregg send. Overall, not too bad.

The biggest problem is that I lost ALL my google earth stuff. All that work, all that research - and I have no idea what I put there or how I found it. I'm getting glimmers here and there, and I think I can replace some of it - but there are a TON of hours wasted. Oh well - moving forward...

I have to plan on how to do backups (online?) and have the ability to pull a machine back together on the road (have a second one setup to accept the backup? backup hard drive? how much equipment do I need to carry to be absolutely certain I have no downtime?) Now, there is another step - what about the servers? I need to make sure that access is 100%, that Gregg has everything, absolutely everything to back me up. I need to be sure things are running very well and that my disappearance on a weekend is not going to kill the job. Iglou will be a big help with things - I can trust them, and everyone else should be just fine - but I've got to keep an eye on things and make sure I have everything perfectly dialed in... Make a list - More Research ;)

RV FAQ

Jill's Journal: At this point, we’ve shared our RV plans with just a very few people. They all seem to have the same questions. So, without further ado, here is a list of common RV FAQ, complete with answers!

What about Rob’s job?

That one is easy – Rob already telecommutes, so as long as he has a computer and an internet connection, he can literally work from anywhere. We’re envisioning doing most of our driving on the weekends and setting up base camp for a week at a time, giving him an uninterrupted work week. I’ll spend lots of time exploring kid-friendly activities with the girls to give him plenty of peace and quiet for work.

What about school?

I’ll home school the girls. Erika will be in first grade, Madelyn will be in second-year preschool, and Victoria will still be too young for anything at all official. My girls love to learn and we already do little educational sessions here at home for fun. I don’t think this will be a difficult transition for them. We do worry a little bit about a lack of social interaction for them, but it’s only for a year. They have each other and we have lots of friends we plan to visit who have kids their ages. And surely we’ll find other kids to play with at campgrounds and various places. I also have no qualms about hunting down parks and all sorts of fun places in new cities where kids come in spades. In addition, we have many kid-friendly activities already on our developing itinerary (i.e. Crayola Factory, Sesame Place, etc.).

Are you crazy, doing this with little kids?

Maybe! It’s something we’ve always wanted to do and for a long time we entertained the notion of doing it sometime in the future. But when? The kids likely won’t enjoy it when they become teenagers and we don’t want to wait until they’re all out of the house because we’ll be too dang old! We’ve decided there’s no time like the present. They’re young, enjoy adventure and travel, and still like our company right now! What a wonderful life experience and incredible education for them. Plus, we want them to always follow their dreams. This is a pretty good example for them.

Do you realize how tiny an RV is? Especially for five people?

Oh yes, we know. But we’re already in a very small home and Rob also works from home, so we’re all used to spending lots of time together in a small space. Lots of larger families in history lived in a smaller space with a lot more people. It’s only a hardship if you believe it is.

Won’t you get sick of being on the road?

That’s always a possiblity. But we don’t think so. Rob and I have always loved road trips. Loved them with a passion. We really can’t think of any better way to travel right now than in an RV. To be able to move our home and necessary belongings pretty effortlessly, to see the country but still sleep in our own bed every night appeals to us tremendously.

When your trip is over, will you still live in Lexington?

Honestly, we don’t know, but that’s part of the reason for our trip. We had been planning on buying a new, bigger house in 2010 and really had no intention of living anywhere but Kentucky for the rest of our lives. However, lots of things have made us rethink that stance lately. We really do love it here, but since we got out of breeding Thoroughbreds (a whole ‘nother story but primarily because our focus is 100% on our children right now), it’s not as crucial that we live in Thoroughbred “Mecca.”

Moving is something we’ve been thinking about for a while – are we 100% certain we want our children to call this area of the country home forever? We’ve been here for 12 years and it’s a lovely place to raise a family, but is it a perfect fit for us? We’re open to other areas too.

This RV trip is partly to let us “live” temporarily in a few of the places on our list that we’ve been considering and let us “scratch the itch,” so to speak. We hope it will tell us if Kentucky is going to be our “forever home” or if that might be somewhere else. High on our list is the Central Coast of California, a place we fell in love with on a recent trip and, as an added bonus, a place where Kristi and Adam will be moving after school. The four of us have had many conversations about the “compound” we want to build together! Another place that really appeals to us is Montana. Or we may find somewhere else…or we may recommit entirely to Kentucky. We shall see, but we don’t see any point in buying a new house until we know exactly where we’re going to live for the rest of our lives. Enter the RV plan. Perfect timing.

Why?

Think of the adventure! This will be something to remember for a lifetime. We only live once and we’ve always believe in making the most of it.

Rethinking how the job will work...

So, I kinda had a bad night/day today. Chinese hackers (and other foreigners) decided to attack my server which in and of itself is not pleasant, but now it goes deeper than that.

I'm going to have to come up with a contingency plan for when we are travelling. Is my connection fast enough, secure enough, strong enough, hell, there at all, when something like this occurs. I will no longer be able to count on an absolute static IP, nor can I count on a high-speed connection. With the cellular network I think I'll be in good shape for most of the time we're stopped. Plus, most - well many? - RV parks have wireless networks, but again - how much can I trust that.

So - I'll have to start putting all that in place as well as setting all the other items up. That means I'll probably have to spend a little money this year in order to get everything secured. Would putting UEO on its own server be a better option since I can pretty much close the outside world to it? Should I move my non-essential services to a non-essential server? I'm sure I'll come up with a general plan in the next couple of days.

--R.