ependydad...Doug

Technically, this dude is on top of everything.  

You're not using enough duct tape, then.

Zebra Domes SMB.

With us fulltiming, I laid down the rule that for every one thing in, two has to come out.
I mean, we don't do it- but it sounded good.

So, I have to admit. I bought one for myself (I am not even hiding behind my pre-teen daughter- it was me, ALL ME!). For family photos, selfie sticks are legitimately a useful tool. You feel like a tool using one, but they're really a nice to have.

I'm the one who has to carry everything into the camper. The more duplicates we have, the less I have to carry!
Now, we did buy cheap stuff first and have slowly replaced it with better stuff. But even with the amount of camping we did (each year: 50, 50, 100 nights), I don't think I would change and have ran out to buy good stuff right out of the gate.
Now that it is home, it's a different story.

My wife has been talking to me about an Instant Pot. With our Colorado plans, I was all for it.
 
Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be a kitchen appliance.

The two long days made today easy. We only had to drive 8 hours today. We made it to Anaheim at a bit past 6 pm local time. We've already been to In and Out Burgers, and the twins are out exploring. We will call it a night soon, and sleep in a bit tomorrow. It's hot here, but nothing like some of the desert temperatures we drove through today.
Thanks for all the prayers. Aside from the key incident, our drive was great.
TCD

Please enlighten us newbies on who this Bob is and why it's his dock?
Sent from my iPhone

Mine is the same as Kristie - it came with doors and 1/2-size drawers at the front of each bench. We keep pots & pans in one and cooler bags in the other. Now that we've moved into the camper- we store more stuff down there:
- All of the extra paper plates, napkins, and plastic utensils go in a bin in one
- The ice maker in another
- We use the Ziplock vacuum seal bags for extra linens for guests and cold weather in the rear bench
- And currently have an open area (GASP!)
We use totes in our basement storage to keep things together. Most of my tools live in a tool bag (that is horribly heavy and terribly disorganized ). I recently upgraded fresh water hoses to those roll-flat hoses. I bought 3 x 10' sections and kept 1 section of regular 25' hose. For my black tank flush hoses (yes 2 because I have 2 sewer hookups and hate having to move stuff), I bought the shrinking hoses with metal ends (the metal end is important for longevity... supposedly). All told, I carry ~150 feet of hose in so much less space than before.
For sewer stuff, I made storage tubes out of vinyl fence post covers, caps, and a bit of gutter. I do this because I have to carry a good 40' of sewer hose. My "wye", 90-degree elbow for the campsite's sewer, and my sewer donut ride in their own little bin- though, I want to use heavy duty zip ties to tie down a battery box on the bumper and keep them in there. I use my rear bumper for my awning tie down poles.
We have something like this for our paper plates, plastic utensils, and napkins. It's convenient for taking everything in and out at one shot.
http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Metal-Wire-Picnic-Utensil-Flatware-Dish_1258619702.html
Bathrooms get lots of little bins for stacking and moving around. Everything in the shower lives in a bin that we move to the floor for travel.
Museum putty is showing up more and more to stick things down so that we don't have to move them for travel.
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As for the article. The stacked t-shirts is great when they're all there. But start using them and they fall. Or am I missing something?
We do rollup our clothes for suitcases.
12. who has that many shorts??
15. hanging the suit cases is a great idea. I don't think any of my closets have been that tall- but still, a great use of space.
My wife's jewelry cabinet is about to become command hooks on the wall behind our door. We didn't bring one and right now it lives in a travel jewelry bag.

I only have a few pictures left. By this point, it is Saturday, July 11 and we're leaving on the 12th to take 2 days to get to Stone Mountain, GA. As I mentioned, we spent the end of morning and early afternoon at Blizzard Beach. Good, but nothing great. Certainly liked Typhoon Lagoon better.
We wrapped up the day and our plan was to get showers and cleaned up. We were going to drive over to the Grand Floridian because my wife and I had date-night dinner reservations at Narcoossee's. It was the best meal we had in a long time and especially at WDW on our anniversary trip, and we wanted it again. The only reservation that we could get was at 5:30, so it was an early dinner. We warned our waitress that we had a long, lazy plan for dinner. We ordered one course at a time (drinks, appetizers, dinner, dessert) so that we could manage the slowness.
My wife saw that the kids at the table next to us had Mickey straws and she joked that she wanted one. I don't know why she was surprised when I asked for one. Ask and ye shall receive:

Our waitress even gave us a couple of extra clean ones to take back to our kids.
I don't seem to have pictures of my wine or our appetizer/salads. And right now, I'm drawing a complete blank on what it was. The wine for me was one out of the flight of wines from our last visit. Super sweet white wine- most wine drinkers would snub their nose at it. I'm OK with that.
For dinner, I got the Key West Shrimp and Garganelli Pasta. Very yummy and just the right-size portion for me:

Of course we had to get the loaded mashed potatoes again:

And more of course, she got the steak + lobster again:

Note, the butter in the upper corner remains untouched through 2 meals now. The butter poached lobster is just that dang good.
(Unfortunately, the steak was just slightly underdone for her. I guess places get scared by "well done" steaks that they'll end up dry and sent back. But, she had enough that was cooked wholly through that she ate most of it.)
When it came time for dessert, the waitress brought out the regular dessert menu. Both things that we had last time were really good, but they weren't quite what we were after. See, the kids at the table next to us (the same ones who caused me to ask for Mickey straws) had something special. Something wonderful. Something only on the kid's menu. Again, ask and ye shall receive.

BAM. Yep- s'mores. We freaking got s'mores from Narcoossee's.
Now, mind the OCD- count the crackers.

Like a good husband, I took one for the team and ate a marshmallow with nothing else. YES, LADIES- SHE'S THAT LUCKY.

Where is Grandma and the kids through all of this, you ask? WHO CARES! We were eating at Narcoossee's!
Ok, we cared once we left the restaurant. While at the restaurant, we noticed that the resort monorail was inoperable. There was the yellow sitting at the monorail station at MK the whole time. The TTC monorail was running. We called and found that Grandma and the kids walked to the Polynesian for dinner. They meant to take the Monorail, but with that down- Grandma isn't very adventurous with buses.
Being fat, fed, and happy- we weren't about to walk. That would be un-American (unless you're DaveInTN). I snapped this picture which I call "Castle, Castle, and Palm Trees":

But, that's not the amazing one. You just have to wait for that. In fact, I'm breaking chronological order to close with it.
We stood in line in front of the grumpiest people you'd ever meet. First they were mad at their friends for going somewhere. Then they were mad at the long line. Then they were mad at the length of time the boat was going to get there. Then they were mad because they weren't going to make the first boat (they did, sadly). I was never so happy to get away from people.
These insufferable fools didn't stop me from taking the photo. The one that you'll want to get prints made of. The one that I might even win awards at this year's fair. (if that's a real thing) But again, I want to close with it. I saw a neat line up of elements from the boat dock and I took a few pictures (about 23) to where the lighting was just right. It's really beautiful. You can't wait to see it.
A quick boat ride to the Polynesian and we were walking in. We laughed as we noticed this sign:

(Note, we just rode the boat and people were getting on the boat that we rode.)
We found our crew over at the Polynesian. They were a site for sore eyes. My daughter was hurting because this was her first day walking. My son was tired. And Grandma was worn out. We headed out to a bus to go to Downtown Disney. On the way, I snapped this picture of the floor:

Outside, I played mean dad and called a veto on the Downtown Disney plans. Instead, we headed back. We had a big day the next day- we needed to pack up the camper and get to getting. Mentally, to me, our fulltiming year was officially kicking off (before that was "vacationing"). Now, s$#%t got real- we were making our first of many weekly moves. Leaving Florida was also the last time for a long time that we would be somewhere for more than a week or two.
But first, we had to get going. I made a run to the dumpster and snapped this photo of our camper. I don't recall why- but here's the last shot of our camper in Florida:

I was headed to take some pictures of someone's camper. See if you see why I took it:

Let's focus in a little closer; ignoring the Corvette and double-decker car trailer:

Do I count that right? Is that FIVE (5) AIR CONDITIONERS? Sheesh! (Though, I'll admit- I keep considering a third for my camper.)
A quick air pressure check, topping up of tires, and loading all 5 of us into the truck, we were off. Goodbye Florida, see you next February.
And now, it's time for my big reveal. I loved the sunset that we were given on our date night. I also noticed that the TTC Monorail was running. With the hotel, the water, and all- it turned out beautifully.

I think the stories of truckers getting mad are the rarity and generally a result of the RVer doing something stupid (sitting at the pump while eating lunch inside). I've pulled maybe 15-20k miles and almost always fill up at truck stops with the big boys. Generally speaking, I'm filled and gone before a truck fills.
Now, as for the process- most of what I have seen, you need a fleet card to start the pump. Pilot/Flying J offer a RVer card and you get discounts if you're a Good Sam member. This lets you authorize and charge to the pump. The bill has to be paid in full each month (or supposedly you can fill and then go inside to pay with an alternate form of payment).
Otherwise, we'll pull up to the pump and my wife and daughter go inside to authorize the pump. The cashier will swipe her credit card for a pre-determined amount (we guesstimate high). After that, she calls or texts me to go ahead (usually I know because the pump beeps and resets itself to zero). I'll pump while she waits inside. When done, I text or call her with the amount and she gets a receipt. This part is optional as they'll automatically only charge the correct amount if you just leave (they out a hold for your estimate but send the sale to the credit card for the actual amount).
Once I tell her how much, I'll pull the truck forward to the "pull up to here line". Basically, you're freeing up the pump for someone to pull in behind you. At this point, I head back to the camper to use my bathroom. My wife and daughter use the bathrooms in truck stops. I think they're insane, but she doesn't mind. If you're going to be more than 5-10 minutes in the camper, you should go park it. At that point you run the risk of holding up the trucker behind you.
Back to the angry truckers- I've only had good experiences. On many occasions, I've been asked questions about my truck and camper. She gets thumbs up and waves when she is driving. I've commiserated about the (not forum friendly terms) the trucker behind me said about the guy in front of me who was taking *forever*. And once, a truck and I coordinated backups so he could go around another trucker who disappeared inside.

I'll bet it's a Starbucks.
 
TCD

I feel a little sad that none of those carts were driven by kids.

I own a 2012 Ram that is right in the midst of this. I'd buy another Ram without concern.

My feelings exactly!

I'm betting this one was created as a training exercise (or less likely- as lark by some bored employees) and was never supposed to see the light of day. No chance this was officially sanctioned. Disney is way too particular about messaging to knowingly let this out.
I would have guessed that you might not have been on an official Disney site and were just phished. But with Carol also getting it, it messes with that plan.
--
Maybe related, maybe not...
I can tell you the time that I had another developer walk into my office and tell me, "I have 3 words for you. EOF <bad expletive> <super bad expletive>". When I stared blankly, he reminded me that I was dang lucky that a database table always had data or I would have had a very bad day with a feature on the Cunard Cruiselines website. I was having a rough go with some code and needed some debugging. My angst showed in my errors. Developers do crazy things.
(I can tell you- all of my debug messages are now clean and NOT embarrassing.)

I just wish I could close the app and reopen it back to where I closed it. Every time it resets itself to the home screen and every time it makes me sad inside.

Having fun is something we do well.. that and spending money. Sadly, spending money comes very easily for us. :D
 
 

No kidding on this. What I had forgotten about with driving up in a metro area is the friendly flashing your lights to warn of a cop ahead. We weren't speeding, but it was nice to see other driver's looking out for each other.
 
 

I agree about Duffy. I don't see the fascination- he was literally created in order to merchandise. But, for some reason she really like him and yes- she was really excited. For a non-speaking character, we had a great interaction with the Duffy stuff. It was pretty cute and pretty fun. 
 

I do believe we will. Right now, not until next summer. But with this unexpected romp down to Branson, MO - we're trying to figure out a route. Here's what we have now:
http://www.rvparky.com/trip/6065550066188288

I heard that it happened at the campfire.
Apparently Chip was mad at Dale for messing with his nuts and opened a big O'le can of whoop a$$ on him.