Finally it's official, and we're on the road again..

American RV Park
Anthony, TX

Wow, we've been busy since Christmas when I last posted.

Christmas Eve we went out for our traditional Chinese buffet,

followed by a candlelight service at a local Lutheran church.

Christmas day we drove down to Cypress (near Houston),

and visited with George's brother Bill, and his wife Connie.

Bill then drove us over to his daughter Angie and husband Wes's house.

We had a terrific dinner and watched some festivities..

Someone was quite happy with their presents :-)

Meantime, we spent the rest of the weekend preparing

to finish up our chores.

George put the plates on the truck and Harvey..

We cleaned the inside thoroughly as well.

Monday morning we got up early and went to the TX-DPS,

or DMV as I call them all.

It is a very small location in Livingston, manned by one person.

We filled out our forms, and he went through everything.

Unfortunately we found out that we needed two pieces of mail

that showed our new address,

something Escapees didn't make clear.

We were able to use the voter's registration card,

but we had to get our insurance agent to get our policy

ready and e-mailed to us.

That was another thing that Escapees didn't make clear,

they say that should be done last...geez.

Miller's Insurance was terrific, got this all finished for us

while the DPS office was closed for lunch.

By about 2 pm we were officially 'official Texans'!

Although we planned to stay until Tuesday morning in Livingston,

we wanted to get a jump on our travel, 

so we hooked up and drove all the way to Kerrville.

We slept in a Walmart there, it was cold!

Today we left the parking lot at 5 am,

and made it to just beyond El Paso.

We drove through Texas in freezing drizzle,

but the roads stayed pretty dry, so we were happy.

Tonight we're staying at an RV park behind a Camping World.

$27 with Good Sam's makes for a much nicer sleep when it's this cold!

Tomorrow we're pushing on,

getting to around Chandler, AZ and possible staying

at a Casino parking lot.

We know some fellow workampers who live near there,

so we're hoping to meet up with them for an early dinner

before the New Year's partiers start up!

Merry Christmas, Y'all!

Rainbow's End Park
Livingston, TX

George and I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

We've had an interesting couple of days.

After getting all ready to take off on Sunday morning

from Campbellsville...

we were hitched up, and doing our final vehicle and trailer light check.

I was in the back giving George the thumbs up signs as he did 

the turn signals, etc.

He put his foot on the brake so I could check the brake lights,

and wooosh..the pedal went all the way to the floor.

The brake line burst, dripping brake fluid all over the ground :-(

So....

we unhooked, put the slides back out,

and paid for one more night at Heartland.

George got up early on Monday and very slowly made his way

the the Chevy dealer, which is only a mile away, thank God.

They got him right in and fixed it, so we were on our way by noon Monday.

We had a PDD couple of days, driving to Livingston, TX

from Campbellsville, stopping in Little Rock at a Walmart Monday night.

After 859 miles we are settled down in the Escapees park for a few days.

Our purpose for coming here was to change our domicile.

We stopped at Soda Auto Repair on our way in for the

dreaded Texas inspection.

Inspection? Ha! 

For $31 total, he wrote down our license plates,

'looked' at the truck and Harvey,

filled out the paperwork, and applied the inspection stickers.

The whole process took less than 15 minutes and we were on our way.
We don't have to get it inspected again until the next time we drive through Texas.

After we got settled into our spot at Rainbow's End,
we took off for the tax office to register the truck & RV.
We had done our homework, so had everything we needed to get it done.
The only thing I forgot was the checkbook :-(
George drove back to Escapees and got back quickly!
The total was only $426, of which $206 was a one time fee.
Less than South Dakota!

Only one more step, our driver's licenses.
Unfortunately, when we drove there,
they had closed early for the holiday.
We'll stay as expected and get it done on Monday.

Today we're relaxing, getting caught up on laundry.
I'm hoping to find a church nearby to attend worship this evening.
Tomorrow we'll spend the day with George's brother, Bill,
and his wife Connie.
Looking forward to spending time with some family!

My Mom drove down to Bakersfield to spend time there with her sister.
I'm glad she's with family as well :-)

Freedom!

Heartland Campground
Campbellsville, KY

The day finally arrived.

Our last day was today, we were 'released' at 11:45, right after our lunch break.

We had a very busy week up in gift wrap,

getting all the packages out on time.

We enjoyed reading some of the gift tags

proclaiming Merry Christmas from grandmas, grandpas, aunts & uncles.

In our final meeting today,

the HR managers gave us gift cards.

We both earned $50 each for the last two weeks for perfect attendance.

$100 each to spend on anything we want ;-)

They also distributed our 'Peak' t-shirts,

an Amazon tradition.

I have to say that although the work was hard,

and it will be awhile before our sleep patterns

get back to normal...

it was a good experience.

I've lost 25 pounds since I got to KY in October,

and our bank account after our final check is deposited

is about $9000 fatter!

We met some nice people, 

and renewed some friendships as well.

Will we come back next year? Probably :-)

For now we're pretty much packed up and ready to roll in the morning.

Our first stop will be an overnight at a Walmart in Jackson, TN..a 286 mile day.

More soon!

There's that light at the end of the tunnel!

Heartland Campground
Campbellsville, KY

We are approaching our final days at Amazon!

Yesterday we got an email giving our official release date of

Saturday December 20th!

As excited as we were to get here and start working,

we are now VERY ready to get on with our travels.

When George and I started our adventures,

we vowed always to be in shorts and flip-flops.

That hasn't happened since we left South Carolina!

Working at Amazon has made us a bit foggy.

We hardly know what day it is let alone what month!

It does feel at times that you are in another reality,

with no windows, and the constant noise from the machinery.

If it wasn't for the Christmas decorations at each department, 

we wouldn't know what time of year it was!

For now we have made our plans to depart Campbellsville

on Sunday December 21st, arriving at Escapees Rainbow park on the 23rd.

We're really hoping to get our truck and Harvey inspected as soon 

as we pull into Livingston.

In a perfect world we'll have time to get all our paperwork filed

and get our driver's licenses and registration finished on the same day as well.

However...

we know how things go..

so we're planning on staying through the 29th

in case we need to get things wrapped up before 

we get on the road towards California.

The nice part about having extra time in Texas, 

is we can spend Christmas day with George's brother and wife,

and his niece and her family as well.

We'll also have some down time relaxing after a busy few months!

Starting to look and feel like Christmas here in Kentucky

Heartland Campground
Campbellsville, KY

Things are still moving along here in Amazon-land.

We are still upstairs in giftwrap,

but since there are different volunteers that come to do that job, 

we're mostly doing support functions.

George for the most part does a job called 'water spider'.

If you picture what a water spider does,

you can visualize what George is doing.

He flits about, stocking supplies,

making gift boxes,

and generally helping in all places.

I bounce from the rebox station..

 (putting gifts from one small shipping box to another larger shipping box).....

....to 'scan and verify'.

This entails scanning the box,

then scanning each product in the box.

A gift tag for each item prints

as well as a packing slip.

All is put back in the box and sent down the conveyor

to the gift wrappers.

Mind numbing jobs :-)

In our short time off on Sunday,

we get the chores done.

Not much time to do everything that needs to be done!

We like to eat at the college twice a week,

and now enjoy their tree..

One thing we've gotten accomplished...

we are now Texans y'all!

South Dakota has not been nice to fulltimers who need health insurance 

on the exchange.

With some advice from Kyle Henson,

we chose to 'move' to Texas and enroll in a Blue Cross/Shield plan.

The premium is comparable to SD's Avera insurance plan,

but we'll get well visits at no charge anywhere in the nation.

That will be great!

We plan on swinging through Livingston, TX on our way west,

and get our driver's licenses, license plates, and inspections done.

We are anxiously counting down the few weeks remaining here.

Our route to California is planned, and barring any bad weather,

we'll travel on route 40 across the states,

getting us to our next job on January 5th.

No rest for the weary!!