Author: Jolene MacFadden

Semi-Retired former Full-Time RVer, published author, handcrafted bead and wire jewelry maker, who has started another side businesses helping self-publishing authors publish the books and marketing as well.

Have An Emergency Fund

December 9, 2012September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

While traveling it is always a good idea to have an emergency fund of some kind in either cash and/or credit cards. You never know what is going to happen when you travel. Case in point. We have been at Faver Dykes State Park just south of St. Augustine, Florida. Again, because we promised the family we would be close during the holidays. Which in this case was probably a good thing. We were able to stay at Goldhead State Park for about a month (they were not that busy and they gave us permission) but we had to move to the next park on the list near Jacksonville. Our RV is too long for us to spend any time at Little Talbot Island State Park camping area and the other RV spots were too expensive.

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Florida State Parks, Funding Your Great Adventure, Lessons in Camping, RV and Campers

Second Lesson in Camping

October 25, 2012September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

We have been going round the Northwest part of Florida and have visited 6 different state parks so far. We will be heading for the next one on November 1st. In all this time we have only been able to fishing two times, didn’t catch anything, and have yet to start a fire or tried to cook anything outside. We have walked along some trails, taken lots of pictures, visited a few places outside the parks such as the National Naval Aviation Museum yesterday.

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Lessons in Camping

Our First Lesson in Camping

October 4, 2012September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

We have still not gotten to go fishing yet. There is just so much to get done before you can pursue a Full-time RV camping adventure that we are just now getting to the point where we can relax and enjoy ourselves. We are learning while doing stuff for our RV including how to hook-up the water and electricity and what we have to do for the waste system. This is not a pleasant subject to talk about but it is a necessary one. Being in an RV with three women there is a lot of washing and bathroom going. We try to use the camp’s facilities as much as possible because those little tanks underneath the RV do not hold a lot of water. You would be surprised at how quickly they fill up. We didn’t have to worry about that at Suwannee River State Park because they have a sewer hookup at each of the sites but when we got to Three Rivers State Park we learned that these little tanks have to be emptied at least every 3rd morning.

Florida State Parks, Lessons in Camping

Don’t Stop Believing

July 8, 2012September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

I love the songs of Journey and Angie Johnson and the Air Force Band Sidewinder does a great job with their hit: “Don’t Stop Believing”. We are going to make it our theme song. We all have dreams and ours is the journey. We hope you enjoy the video below and will share it with all your friends and relatives. If you don’t know the story of the Air Force Band Sidewinder and Angie Johnson doing a song by Adele that went viral then you are missing a great story. While serving in the Air Force, Angie Johnson and her fellow members of Sidewinder entertained the troops wherever they landed. These little concerts help keep up the morale of our soldiers almost as much as mail from home. They do an excellent job and we commend them on all their hard work. It is just a shame that they have to do it.

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Getting Inspiration

What Would You Do For Your Dreams?

June 25, 2012September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

What would you do to achieve your dreams? We all ask ourselves this question once we set out on a quest. Our dream is this trip and to have to ability to go where we want to go when we want to and in the mean time to earn a little money along the way. We have collected cans, turned in all of our spare change, held yard sales and even offered things for sale on Craig’s List. We have a couple of websites that feature our handcrafted goods for sale and even offer them in exchange for contributions. We offer our skills and our talents to try and achieve our financial goals in order for us to have our dreams.

Funding Your Great Adventure

Collecting Cans to Recycle for Cash

May 26, 2012September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

We have tried various methods to help us raise money for our trip. One of those have been to have friends and family members save their aluminum cans for use to turn in to the recycling center for cash. The going rate is about $0.35 to $0.45 a pound and usually there are about 20 cans to a pound or there about. We spent the afternoon crashing most of them to get more into bags that will fit into our car. We don’t have a truck to carry them in unless we can get one of our family with a truck to help out. This is not a bad way to get a few dollars here and there. The problem is that you need so many to amount to any significant amount of cash. But hey, every dollar counts, right!

Funding Your Great Adventure