Athens, TX - An RV Inspector & RV Technician in the Making
My amazing husband is good with his hands. We needed to find a job for him on the road and we decided RV school was a good fit.
We started full-time RVing last November 2020 and we soon realized we couldn’t sustain ourselves on our savings for two years as we hoped. It costs to live and we enjoy exploring!
But when you come across what looks like an obstacle to your dream, take a breath and take a step back. What at first looks like a problem is often an opportunity that you just haven’t figured out yet. For me and Jeff, rather than pack it in or cut short the experience, we did some thinking outside the box.
Jeff used to work in corporate America by working for IT firms, but his other talents include being really good mechanically. He decided to combine that skill with his love of helping others. He did lots of research and came up with a plan: getting his RV Technician and Inspector Certification. That would pull in the income we needed, allow him to work while living on the road, and keep him true to who he is and what he enjoys doing.
. He decided to go to the National RV Training Academy.
When RV’s are going down the bumpy roads, they are really ‘moving earthquakes” en route to their destination. Plus RV’s are notoriously made poorly so there is always something to fix and at least do some preventative maintenance on.
Jeff took RV Technician school for 6 weeks. He learned how to diagnose and repair the RV’s exterior, heat pump, air conditioning, RV refrigerators, water pumps, and more.
Then the last two weeks of April, he took RV Inspector school. Do you know how you have home inspections? You also need an RV Inspection to determine how sound the trailer or Class A Motorhome is.
That allowed Jeff to help even more people who shared his love of RV life. It was the perfect solution to earning income in a way he finds fulfilling and that keeps us rolling. We’re excited about Jeff’s website, so please check it out: Umbrella RV.
So whenever you feel like a barrier has come up, especially if it’s about living your ideal life, take a step back and look at the big picture. There’s always a way forward and it can leave your life even more full of satisfaction than before!
Please check out Jeff’s website: Umbrella RV.
So I found myself in Athens, TX for 2 months (March 1 - May 1), 2021.
Jeff went to the National RV Training Academy
East Texas Arboretum and Botanical Society
While Jeff was in school, I went exploring with my camera!
It was nice to experience Texas’s spring flowers in March.
I love sunflowers and took some selfies playing with their fake sunflowers.
Bulldozer was my Neighbor
Some people live in their RV full-time and don’t move around. This was true for Bulldozer’s owner, Danny who would walk barefoot w/ his dog around the campsite each evening, smoking his cigarette.
It’s always interesting when people are different from you and when you strike up a conversation, you soon learn you have something in common. Bulldozer’s owner used to be a truck driver but before that he would jump out of airplanes and take people’s pictures up high in the sky. Yes, the camera!
Bulldozer was Danny’s prize possession. He made sure he got a bulldog with good bloodlines and it shows. Isn’t Bulldozer beautiful? I put him on our picnic table so I get eye-to-eye with him. He just wanted to jump on me and slobber all over me. He loved the attention.
Being in East Texas was very different from me. The tenor of the campground was anti-mask, anti-vaccine. They even made fun of those that wore a mask to class, calling them “Maskers.”
At first we couldn’t find a place that offered vaccines nearby. Finally, a local Walmart offered vaccines. We quietly got our Moderna COVID-19 vaccines from Walmart and didn’t share that with anybody.
Biking! My other favorite activity 🚴♀️
I have to admit, biking was really tough in Athens, TX. I never saw another cyclist the whole time. The dogs chased me and I feared they would knock me over. I carried a loud airhorn with me and used that several times. I really had to get my druthers up before I biked by myself. One day, there were 3 dogs that approached me and scared me pretty badly. And there was another time, two dogs were waiting for me to come down their road to bark and chase me. I had to alter my route several times.
What was interesting was the cows in Virginia were curious and would approach me, while the cows in Texas were scared of me and would promptly run away if I stopped to talk with them.
One day, there were even cows in the middle of the road. I biked in some areas pretty desolate areas where I wasn’t sure if Bubba was going to come out. Jeff only biked with me twice since he was busy with school.
Otherwise, I tried to focus on the beautiful spring flowers blooming everywhere.
One section of the route called for sand which was hard to bike through. Another time, there was a frog in the middle of the road. No matter how hard I tried to save him from oncoming cars, he wouldn’t budge. The next time I biked there, I was relieved to not see a frog remains. Can you imagine come across cows in the middle of the road - MOOOOVE over! We never saw a live Armadillo but we did see them dead on the side of the road.
Our First Rodeo
It was a Saturday night with an open air arena, so we decided to go the Henderson County Rodeo nearby. I didn’t think I would like the rodeo and I was right. It feels like animal cruelty even though people sweat that the Humane Society watches/inspects closely how the animals are treated.
I watched the cows closely and they seemed to know exactly what was going on. This was confirmed later when a cowboy confirmed that there are designated animals for rodeo. The bucking broncos? All they do is buck and don’t learn other skills.
Going to the Rodeo once was good enough for us!
Everything is really BIG in Texas!
Lots of BIG trucks, lots of fast lanes and pretty sunsets.
I was thrilled to leave East Texas because I was going a city that had been on my bucket-list for a long time! Santa Fe, NM!