We made plans to attend Burning Man 2026 in the Nevada desert this year. However, those plans are now canceled, and I will sell my tickets and vehicle pass to the highest bidder.
My reasons are many, but suffice it to say, I purchased tickets to an EVENT. I DID NOT surrender my Constitutional Rights.
I read all of the rules and regulations, and I decided I could not be a part of such a horrific cesspool of Communism.
I could write a long explanation here, but the conservatives already know what I would write, and the liberals would just make some smarmy comments and move on.
Six months ago, I would have bet money that I would NEVER own a “Smart Car.” Well, all f that changed yesterday, when I left a deposit on a 2014 2-4-“Passion” in jet black!
This car is amazing! It only has 54,000 miles on it. New tires. Heat and AC. Moon roof. Heated seats. Stereo. Cruise control, and more!
I bought it to use as a ‘shuttle craft’ for the RV. In the summer months, I will probably have the Honda Goldwing with me on the truck, carried in the garage pod. However, in the colder, wetter, WINTER months, a motorcycle is not practical, unless I am camped in Florida, MAYBE.
So I answered a Facebook marketplace ad for this car, and drove down to Burns, Tennessee to look at it. I fell in love with the car as soon as I saw it. Not a scratch, inside or out. It ran like a Swiss watch, and it was actually FUN to drive!
So now I have al alternate transportation option. If I am camped somewhere, and Denise decides that she needs some “grandma time” with the kids, I can let her take off in the Smart Car, and come back when she has had her fill!
As a BONUS! It comes with 18 clowns that pour out through the doors in the event of an accident, to confuse witnesses!
As I prepare to move out of my home and into the RV, I am working to purge my life of ALL of the unnecessary items that I cannot take with me.
Unfortunately, on January 27, I slipped on the ice on my rear door brick steps and landed flat on my chest. The pain … If I had a gun, I might have used it to stop the pain. I heard a definite CRUNCH sound, and thought I had broken all of my ribs.
I was taken to the Franklin, KY. hospital where they did a cat scan. They told me that ” nothing is broken.” I guess that means I did not crack or break any ribs. That is a blessing.
However, my entire chest and back feel like I was hit by a truck! Breathing, coughing, sneezing … ALL new experiences in PAIN.
So now I am struggling to move, sleep, and shower, etc. This one is going to take some time to heal. It really sets me back on my plans.
Fortunately, Marty has come down from Illinois for a visit, and she is staying here as a roommate through the winter. He heater in her home is on the fritz, and it is far too COLD to live in a home in Illinois without HEAT!
I am continuing to sift through boxes of papers and photos, etc. I am tossing a lot of stuff that I really do not need, and CANNOT take with me in the RV.
I have designed a garage pod loading system that I will add to the truck. This will let me load and unload a lockable garage pod from the truck frame when I will settle at a camp site or RV site for any length of time.
This is the 8×10 pod I will pick up on 01/22 in Saltillo, Texas.
It will contain my Goldwing and touring trailer
and also a PowerPusher machine which will help me maneuver the HUGE trailer into position in camping spots where the Kenworth is just too large and clumsy to maneuver in a tight space.
The garage pod will have its own wheels and a robotic Trailer Valet that will allow me to move the pod into position by remote control.
I have to construct a steel bed for the truck too. It will be similar to the one in this sample photo…
The commercial horseshoe hitch will be removed. A TRAILER SAVER hitch will be installed onto the rear of the truck frame.
and this hitch will ride on a height adjustable frame of my own design.
This will allow me to raise or lower the hitch pin temporarily, to deal with ground clearance issues, such as crossing uneven railroad tracks, etc. I can lower the pin to raise the rear end, to give me more ground clearance to enter or exit steep driveways.
I have looked at several generators that are capable of running my XTOOL MetalFab laser. There are a few models that are relatively quiet, but they still make noise!
So a person on Facebook pointed me to these large Lithium power supplies, and now I cannot ignore them.
If I get one of these, I can literally run my laser to cut metal, making absolutely NO NOISE in my campsite. Again, as with everything else, these are NOT CHEAP! But they will allow me to make metal art where I would normally be forbidden from doing so, because of noise restrictions.
I am looking hard at the JACKERY power units, which will be fantastic for providing 240 VAC power at 40 Amps, while making no noise at all.
It occurs to me that this truck and trailer are going to be quite LARGE! Most of the ERV parks and campgrounds around America were built back when a 35 foot Class A motor home was the King of the road.
Today’s RVs are larger and wider. My toy hauler is 47 feet in length, and has four slide outs! So it has a much larger footprint. Where parks have pull through sites, it isn’t much of a problem. however, I can see where I will encounter spaces that are just too tight to maneuver a T680 semi tractor and a 47 foot trailer.
The solution I am currently considering, is a bit pricey, but it involves a machine hat I would carry on the truck, and use to move my trailer into difficult spots where the truck cannot possibly do it efficiently.
Enter the Trailer Caddy! This is admittedly an expensive accessory for an RV. However, it would absolutely come in handy, in those places where the large Kenworth simply cannot maneuver. I am looking at the fifth wheel version seen in this video…
I recently sold my Ingersoll-Rand rotary screw air compressor. It was a fantastic machine, but it was WAY to large and heave to put into the RV.
However, I needed a compressor that would provide enough air to run the XTOOL MetalFab laser, and still be quiet enough to run in a campground or an RV park without causing a disturbance.
I found what I was looking for, in the EASTWOOD ELITE QST 30/60 SCROLL air compressor!
When the garage pod is deployed to te ground on the passenger side of the truck, I need some way to move it into position at the RV site or campground.
So I have ordered a Trailer Valet. it is robotic “tug” motor that grabs the garage box via a removable hitch, and maneuvers it into place by remote control.
This robot will be used to grab the garage box and pull or push it into position at an RV site or campground. I don’t want to be pushing a 4,000 lb. box around by hand, so I chose to get this robot to do the job for me.
The owner took a moment out of his day to send me some photos of the build progress. I am really anxious to move into this toy hauler soon. They will deliver it to a campground near my home, and I will move into it over time, as I acclimate to living in an RV once again. It is a BIG change from a 3BD/2BA 2,160 sq.ft. home with a 10,000 sq.ft. man cave!
I am trying to sort through the piles of STUFF that either needs to be sold, given away, or tossed. It is a bit disheartening to watch so much just walk away for pennies, or nothing. But the money that would realistically come from selling all of it over a long period of time … really isn’t worth the effort.
If I has $20.00 for every person who said they were coming and never showed, I could by a new truck! Personal accountability is RARE in America today.
