Restore Your Own Headlights–It Really Works!!!

Man this sure has been a cooler winter than we have experienced during our last stay in Arizona. We do occasionally have a nice day here and there but for the most part it has been chilly. I haven't had to wear blue jeans but dang I have been wearing a sweatshirt with my shorts way more than I would like to.

We have been continuing our workouts at the park’s fitness room, playing a lot of pickleball and of course attending the afternoon happy hours at the pool listening to the various bands (including some dancing for Sharon). We really haven’t been doing much of anything else except what I call winter chores.

One thing I did that wowed me was to order a SYLVANIA Headlight Restoration Kit for our Honda CRV. Our headlights had yellowed to the point that when we drove at night (not very often) I could tell that we weren’t getting much light from our headlights on the road. I realized I either had to replace the headlights, restore them or quit driving at night!

After researching the options it was obvious I wouldn’t quit driving at night even though we rarely do, Resolving this safety issue would be expensive if I were to purchase new headlight lenses so restoration seemed to be the best choice. However, almost everything I had heard was that restoration was at best only a temporary solution.

Yet the more I read I came to the conclusion that if done right restoration would last a long time before needing to be redone. Done right means sanding the headlight lens to get rid of the weathered (and yellowed) product but the downside being this sanding also sands away the protective UV layer which prevents further yellowing. We decided that this was not so much a downside since they were really horribly yellow!!!

After lots of research I came across the SYLVANIA Headlight Restoration Kit which won me over with all of its positive reviews and the fact that Sylvania offers a life-time warranty on the product (so we will certainly keep the receipt). Since it was under $20.00 I ordered the kit and as soon as I received it I got to work…

First there was a solution to apply to the lens that “melts away” much of the yellow outer UV protective covering. Then it required wet-sanding the lens starting with a 400 grit sandpaper and working up to a 2000 grit sandpaper. As directed I wiped the lens clean after each sanding until achieving a smooth, non-scratched lens. Next was application of the same cleaning solution I started with and then waiting for it to dry. The last step was applying the UV protective layer with an included microfiber cloth. Voila! Total time took about 1 hour for the whole process for both lenses.

The end result was stunning!!! They truly looked brand new and although for some reason I forgot to take a starting photo (the before picture is an older one) but I assure you mine were pretty bad. My guess is that they were so bad that only about 40% of my available light would actually reach the road!

I will also add that there is really enough to do two cars if you are frugal with the supplies. I highly recommend this product for anyone needing to restore headlights (and no, Sylvania did not give me the product to review). I bought it and was so impressed I decided to share my experience.

After a couple more weeks in Mesa, off we go. I sure hope we can find some warmer weather soon as I am about to run out of projects…

RV’ing the Northern California Coast… A Rant!

When we first started RV’ing I was really looking forward to traveling to the west coast specifically along the coast of California. You see when I finished graduate school I took a few weeks off to take a trip from Vancouver Canada all the way down Highway 1 along the coastline to Los Angeles before I turned back toward Texas.

I had many fond memories of scenic vistas, great sunsets, fantastic food and great roads on this trip taken back in the early 1980’s. Boy has a lot changed since I last traveled the California coastline. So what is different now and why did I feel compelled to write this blog?

The biggest differences that have detracted from this trip along the northern coastline are:

1. The price of diesel and gas in California are super high when compared to the rest of America due to the high gas taxes required of Californians from their state government.
2. The price of RV parks is exorbitantly high and I think in part due to the fact that the state charges such high prices for its state park sites. I mean I have found state or county parks along the coast that charge $50.00 or more for a dry camping spot… NO HOOKUPS! No wonder there are private parks charging over $90.00 for a spot…
3. Many of the roads in California are some of the worst we have encountered, especially Highway 101…

I know the state of California is distressed economically. The local counties were depending upon the lofty tax bases of sky high valued properties. When the big collapse of real estate occurred in California many counties found themselves in very dire economic hardship and even towns such as Stockton have declared bankruptcy.  As a result taxes have increased and costs are being passed on to the consumers. Repairs of public facilities and roads have been deferred and as a result roads such as Highway 101 are in really terrible shape.

So why write a blog on this subject? For one reason I believe that RV’ers should  know that although California may be a dream destination they should also understand that it may be very costly to visit the state. Diesel and gas are well over $4.00 (40 to 50 cents higher than the USA average) and the further south we go the more expensive it has become. The same can be said for RV sites as we now feel like we have found a “cheap” site when and if we can find one for $50.00 or less per night!!!

Throw in the fact that the water is cold and it is always chilly on the beach, I don’t think we will feel compelled to return to this part of of America anytime soon in our RV. We feel California should pay heed to the potential snowballing crisis they are in. RV’ing tourists such as us will likely not return to spend our monies in their state due to high costs which could contribute further to its further decline.

I am not saying don’t come to California as it is one of the most beautiful states we have seen with some really outstanding weather. However, if you do come prepare for costs to be 25-50 percent higher than what you may be used to…

We have had some nice sunsets here and  I am hopeful we will have better luck as we head south in this beautiful state but I am fully aware that Los Angeles still awaits us…

Big News for us… Sold the House!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We temporarily interrupt this blog about the Florida Keys and RV’ing to bring to you the exciting news of “WE SOLD OUR HOUSE”!

Yes, it is true, after over a year on the market and two price reductions we finally sold our house. This vacant house has been costing us between $400 to $500 per month… Do you know how much fun we could be having with an extra 400-500 bucks!!! Of course you do!

We mention this for all of you who worry about selling your home to let each of you know it will eventually sell. We set our initial price high on the house since we listed it 8 months before we planned to retire, but in our budget we had a lower number for what we expected to sell it for. We fell just short of what I expected to get for it.

Our biggest worry in selling our home was that our market and local economy is driven by the 45,000 student Texas A&M University. So if we hadn’t sold our home by the end of July we were going to have to rent it out to students most likely. Not good!!! They tend to trash your place… We are glad to have sold it and now we don’t have to worry about it or the expenses associated with keeping it on the market.

This was our third contract on the house and after the other two backed out before closing we kept this one to ourselves as to not jinx it… must have worked :). There is hope for all you people out there trying to sell your homes to hit the road. You can do like we did and just go and hope it sells soon, it worked for us… or for some you will have to stay till it sells. We have no regrets but were getting a bit worried…

I now return you back to the regularly scheduled blog about RV’ing in the Florida Keys… at least the pictures are from the Keys!

Wow has it been two months…

So here we are still in the Aberdeen-Pinehurst area and we are still boondocking in the front of a friend's five acre tract. We only planned to stay here a couple of weeks but we have been here 6 weeks and are going on seven. I am worried we have overstayed our welcome but our friend doesn’t share that thought it seems. What have we learned in these last two months?

• driving a motorhome isn’t as hard as it sounds
• living with the person you love 24/7 isn’t as tough as it sounds
• boondocking isn’t as bad as it sounds
• keeping within budget is harder than it sounds ;)

So we have been at this for two months and although we blew through the budget the first month we got a lot closer the second month. You would think that when you boondock you save a lot of money but with propane and diesel at $4.00 plus per gallon even boondocking isn’t cheap if you have a four door fridge sucking down propane and only two 12 volt batteries to boondock with requiring at least two hours of generator time a day. But the second month was close to budget. So the moral of this story for future full timers is to plan on the first month to cost about twice what each successive month would cost.

We just filled with propane today and got about 50 bucks worth of diesel to get us through the week since we leave for South Carolina next Tuesday. Why only 50 bucks worth you may ask? Well, it is only 140 miles to get to South Carolina and diesel is at least twenty cents a gallon cheaper there than here in North Carolina. Not much of a difference but when you buy 80 gallons it adds up so we plan to refill just across the border…

Gotta save those nickels and dimes where you can… because we are starting to get that hitch itch that we have heard about…

Chilling in Aberdeen, NC…

We have been taking it easy the last few days and started to do some catch up work around the place. While we were in Nashville we stopped by a Sams Warehouse and bought a new printer to replace our printer that became a trip casualty right after we first headed out. You see, we put everything away before hitting the road like we were suppose to d but one time we left the printer on a shelf fending for itself. While in transit it got jettisoned across the bedroom and landed on the bedroom floor. While it still worked at the time it made a gawd-awful noise when it printed…

Well we needed to print some papers and sign them for our real estate agent back home before we left for Nashville and it of course decided not to print for us.  Chalk this up as one of those unexpected expenses of RV’ing :). Then to top things off the wife’s five year old laptop decided to call it quits when the power supply finally gave out. It also fried some RAM in the laptop when it decided to blow… so we have another big ticket item to purchase very soon. This needs to be bought ASAP since she said early on in this adventure that she didn’t need dish or satellite TV since she could see all her favorite TV shows on her laptop. Well her favorite shows and mine are quite different so we are shopping furiously for a new one. ;)

Also, we finally got our diode wiring kit and light relays as well as our quick release brackets for the toad for towing behind the motorhome. I will have to install all this pretty soon. I have read this is a big job and may take 4-6 hours with most of the time involved trying to feed the wires from the front of the Honda CRV to the rear where the tail lights are. I will attempt the job but not sure I will be able to finish it without some assistance. Need to get all this done before we head up north in about a month from now…

NOTE: Photos of some buildings in Nashville, TN have been added to this blog, and as you know clicking on any of them will enlarge them…

Insuring a motorhome…

Insuring a motorhome… is not an easy task! I have contacted at least six different insurance companies and have gotten each to give me quotes that are as comparable as I can get.  I still have a few more to get as well.  I have laid them all out upon a spreadsheet for comparison purposes and there seems to be two groups that are similarly priced.

For the motorhome we hope to purchase the insurance is running from about $125 per month to $155 per month depending on who we choose. This is full timer insurance. Now obviously cost is a major factor for us but it is not going to be the only one in our decision since the main reason we have insurance is so that the claim process goes smooth and easy. So although We know which insurance company I am leaning towards We will ultimately decide after reading more forums and blogs of those who have had to make claims.

And yes I know I am running out of time as the fellow who I hope to buy our future home from wants to meet on Friday and complete the transaction…

… I better get busy…

2. Get your expenses in order...

I already talked about getting control of your most likely largest expense in a previous blog - your mortgage. But it is equally important to get all of your expenses in order. Besides your mortgage you need to pay off all the debt that you can... Pay off those cars and pay off those credit cards if you have them ASAP!

To better understand my expenses was to go back in time and record all of our expenses in an excel spreadsheet. This was easy for me to do since all of my expenses are paid out of two accounts. Our primary bank account and our primary credit card provide us all the numbers we needed. Between these two accounts I was able to easily categorize our expenses.

I created a column for each category of expenses I wanted to track and by doing so it made it very easy to see where our largest expense categories were. For us they were department stores and travel. Well having discovered this made it very obvious to us which category was needing our attention. We needed to begin a reduction in expenses and it wasn't going to be in the category travel. I now have 17 months of expense data in my spreadsheet along with the same number of months for our revenues. Our financial picture has become clearer and even more clearer is what we need to do to prepare us for reduced income in our future retired lives.

So what is next....

Now that we figured out a way to pay off our mortgage early we need to start planning for retirement in other ways.  What about our expenses?  In order to retire at the earliest time we can we have to watch the only two things that we can impact -  savings and expenses.  We have made the necessary adjustment to increase our savings in both the tax-deferred and taxable areas.  So now we need to get a grip on our expenses.

The best way to do this for us was to set up a spreadsheet in excel that allowed us to track in detail what our expense were currently.  So I went back in time and pulled all of our financial records together and recreated our expenses for the last 16 months.  Since we have never really budgeted but always watched out for our money's best interest this provided us with a snapshot of what we were really spending.

Our two biggest expense categories were our travels (we love to travel) and department stores!  Department stores????  Now that had me scratching my head... it appears that my DW loves to shop more than I had originally thought.  We sat down and discussed this new information and decided that we should not change our spending habits at all at first.  But we should at the very least start asking the question - "Will I really need this in my retired life?  This has resulted in us not buying any big ticket clothing and other w*rk related items that we won't need after two years and thus, don't really need now.  We will see what this does to our expense over the next 4-5 months. My guess is they will drop some.