Sometimes You Just Have To Go For It
For over 15 years, my husband and I wanted to live in an RV and travel, earning our living doing something that is portable. Faced with my husband's health issues, and the realization of how little time we might have left to get out there and "get 'er done" we made the decision to focus every ounce of our energy and every penny we own into making that happen while he was still physically able to enjoy it.
If you've ever had a dream that has been pushed onto the back burner over the years, maybe now is the time to drag it out, dust it off, and get creative about making it happen. Life is just too short to keep putting off things until tomorrow, for as I've become all too aware of recently, tomorrow doesn't always come.
If you've ever had a dream that has been pushed onto the back burner over the years, maybe now is the time to drag it out, dust it off, and get creative about making it happen. Life is just too short to keep putting off things until tomorrow, for as I've become all too aware of recently, tomorrow doesn't always come.
The Dream Awakened At Quartzsite, Arizona
Miss Kitty's Ice Cream was for sale!
We had a wonderful visit with the owner, although she had already sold the business before we arrived and was just waiting for the new owners to arrive to take over. Seeing the equipment and realizing that we already owned most of what she had, and noticing that our concession trailer (which has languished in the driveway while we've attended to medical issues) was every bit as good as many of the concessions we saw around town ignited the old desire to be full time concessionaires.
Where in the world is QUARTZSITE? (hint ... it's in Arizona)
Why Quartzsite? (It's more than just the weather!)
Quartzsite is a tiny little town in the Arizona desert that swells to over a million people over the winter, with January and February being the busiest months. There are RV parks all over, and many of them have vendors selling from tents and booths. This is an example of a permanent structure business.
We Jumped In! (There weren't many spots left!)
I know, this doesn't look like much at first glance, but was to be OUR SPOT for January and February. We put down the deposit on it because there were only 3 spots left, and we wanted to be where we'd have hookups. Many people "dry camp" but not having a self-contained unit, that really wasn't an option for us.
Vendors who dry-camp pay about $150 a month for each space they rent; spaces with hookups can range from a low of $300/month to some as high as $1000/month for prime locations. We were at the lower end of the cost spectrum, but it was still relatively cheap.
Vendors who dry-camp pay about $150 a month for each space they rent; spaces with hookups can range from a low of $300/month to some as high as $1000/month for prime locations. We were at the lower end of the cost spectrum, but it was still relatively cheap.
What Was On The Horizon Back Then ... We Were Going To Buy A Bus ... This Bus, as a matter of fact.
A couple years before this particular adventure, Bob had the chance to visit a cousin up in Washington. This bus was sitting in their driveway, and hubby snapped a few shots of it and we talked about buying it. We seriously considered it, but shoved the idea onto the proverbial back burner and almost forgot about it.
Then we had our epiphany at Quartzsite, and remembered "our bus" and wondered if it was still up for sale.
It was, and another dream begins to take shape.
The cousin was willing to sell it to us, and I had enough money in a retirement account to pay for it. YAY!!!!
Then we had our epiphany at Quartzsite, and remembered "our bus" and wondered if it was still up for sale.
It was, and another dream begins to take shape.
The cousin was willing to sell it to us, and I had enough money in a retirement account to pay for it. YAY!!!!
December 2010 Update ... We Bought This 1987 Argosy Instead
January in Quartzsite was amazing. We experienced some pretty bad weather - there was flooding, high winds when a tornado touched down just across the freeway from our camp, and right before we left, there was a fire in the back parking lot. We lost our tents and some of our merchandise in the storm, so we packed up and headed back towards Texas, stopping in Phoenix to visit family. We were there for almost 3 weeks waiting for our money to catch up with our huge expense - the transmission in the van failed. Yikes!
Got home and decided to go for the Scenic Cruiser - there was a meet up in Texas that we wanted to attend in April, so off to Washington we went after I submitted my paperwork to pull my little federal retirement. Once there, we worked on trying to get the ol' gal road worthy, and did get her started. About the time we were wondering if we could afford to keep her running, we got an emergency call that our car had been in a wreck. Less than 30 minutes later, we were back on the road racing home to take care of that nasty little bit of business.
The RV bug was in our blood by then, and so we started looking around to see what was available. Not too long after that, we became the proud owners of a 1987 Argosy by Airstream. Almost as collectible and historic as the ScenicCruiser, the Argosy felt like home the moment we stepped inside.
The next couple of months were spent getting ready for full time living - there is a great deal to learn about living in an RV, we soon discovered, and buying a used RV can become a nightmare. Lucky for us, Bob knew how to fix things!
We spent the summer in a lovely little RV Park in Smith River, CA, and I built webpages for a couple of wonderful artists I met while staying there. Stones With An Attitude was the name of the facetor who was staying in the park with us, and Richard Martin makes the most wonderful Agateware and Horse Hair Pottery you'll ever see. I was impressed by the artwork at the park, and so I built a page about that, too and called it Art At Salmon Harbor RV Park. Those pages are long gone, since the site I was using back then was sold out from under the content creators and I opted out of moving to the new owner's site.
Returning to Texas, we found a little RV Park in back of a larger mobile home park, where we opted to stay while Bob's medical issues at that time were being addressed. However, we werenlooking forward to traveling in 2011.
Got home and decided to go for the Scenic Cruiser - there was a meet up in Texas that we wanted to attend in April, so off to Washington we went after I submitted my paperwork to pull my little federal retirement. Once there, we worked on trying to get the ol' gal road worthy, and did get her started. About the time we were wondering if we could afford to keep her running, we got an emergency call that our car had been in a wreck. Less than 30 minutes later, we were back on the road racing home to take care of that nasty little bit of business.
The RV bug was in our blood by then, and so we started looking around to see what was available. Not too long after that, we became the proud owners of a 1987 Argosy by Airstream. Almost as collectible and historic as the ScenicCruiser, the Argosy felt like home the moment we stepped inside.
The next couple of months were spent getting ready for full time living - there is a great deal to learn about living in an RV, we soon discovered, and buying a used RV can become a nightmare. Lucky for us, Bob knew how to fix things!
We spent the summer in a lovely little RV Park in Smith River, CA, and I built webpages for a couple of wonderful artists I met while staying there. Stones With An Attitude was the name of the facetor who was staying in the park with us, and Richard Martin makes the most wonderful Agateware and Horse Hair Pottery you'll ever see. I was impressed by the artwork at the park, and so I built a page about that, too and called it Art At Salmon Harbor RV Park. Those pages are long gone, since the site I was using back then was sold out from under the content creators and I opted out of moving to the new owner's site.
Returning to Texas, we found a little RV Park in back of a larger mobile home park, where we opted to stay while Bob's medical issues at that time were being addressed. However, we werenlooking forward to traveling in 2011.
June 2011 We Celebrated One Full Year of Living in our Argosy
We were at that time still in Texas, and Bob was still alive, for which I was extremely grateful.
Our first work-camping experience was a success and a disaster. We sold fudge by the slice during a Valentine's day road show for Fudgie Wudgie out of Pennsylvania, via a staffing agency known as Working To Travel, or WTT Ent. Our fudge sales were excellent, and had we received the amount promised, 25% of the gross sales, we'd have returned for another stint over the Easter & Mother's Day shows. However, we only got a portion of what we'd agreed to work for, and that was a LONG time coming, so we did not participate in the next set of shows. Later, we had to file a claim with the TX Workforce Commission, which we won, but from which we never did receive the balance of what we'd earned.
What really messed us up was that we'd turned down other offers in order to be available for the Easter season shows, and there was nothing in the wings to replace that income, so we found ourselves in a bit of a financial bind.
Before that, however, we did get to Las Vegas to attend the ASD Trade Show and WOW, what an eye opening experience that was! If you are into selling real products, that has got to be one of the biggest, best, and most amazing trade shows ever. We wanted every year to get to go a second time, but as fate would have it, never managed it.
That's when we discovered the 290 Flea Market near Austin, where we bought and sold used toys and other stuff until it got too hot for us. Texas had been having severe hot weather and drought again in 2011.
We planned on trying another workamping position for October, November, and December - we'd been offered employment at one of Amazon.com's fulfillment centers. To earn our keep between June and September, we focused on my online activities and our offline Flea Market sales.
Our first work-camping experience was a success and a disaster. We sold fudge by the slice during a Valentine's day road show for Fudgie Wudgie out of Pennsylvania, via a staffing agency known as Working To Travel, or WTT Ent. Our fudge sales were excellent, and had we received the amount promised, 25% of the gross sales, we'd have returned for another stint over the Easter & Mother's Day shows. However, we only got a portion of what we'd agreed to work for, and that was a LONG time coming, so we did not participate in the next set of shows. Later, we had to file a claim with the TX Workforce Commission, which we won, but from which we never did receive the balance of what we'd earned.
What really messed us up was that we'd turned down other offers in order to be available for the Easter season shows, and there was nothing in the wings to replace that income, so we found ourselves in a bit of a financial bind.
Before that, however, we did get to Las Vegas to attend the ASD Trade Show and WOW, what an eye opening experience that was! If you are into selling real products, that has got to be one of the biggest, best, and most amazing trade shows ever. We wanted every year to get to go a second time, but as fate would have it, never managed it.
That's when we discovered the 290 Flea Market near Austin, where we bought and sold used toys and other stuff until it got too hot for us. Texas had been having severe hot weather and drought again in 2011.
We planned on trying another workamping position for October, November, and December - we'd been offered employment at one of Amazon.com's fulfillment centers. To earn our keep between June and September, we focused on my online activities and our offline Flea Market sales.
Scenicruiser on Wikipedia
Most of the links that show up in Google are word-for-word identical to this Wikipedia article; it covers a lot of ground.
Airstream Forums - Airstream Owners Community
The largest Airstream trailer & Airstream motorhome enthusiasts community online. Our goal is to share knowledge about everything Airstream related. Find info on Airstream repairs, parts, restoration & even Airstream trailers and motorhomes for sale!
|
Airstream History.com, Silver Wheels
This is person's personal web page about airstreams - about half way down the page, under the heading "The Pseudo-Airstreams..." you'll find information about the Argosy line, and a photo of an 86 Argosy.
|