Sunday, April 19, 2015

Traveling the Oregon Trail...in an RV

If I was a good blogger I would have taken pictures of this Nevada campground we visited that had wild horses all over the place, or of Vegas when we went there a few days ago.

Vegas isn't terribly exciting for me since I lived there for eight years.  


It seems weird to say that I ever lived there.  Vegas is kind of like a fairy tale place; not a real place where people actually live.  And yet when I brought this person I met at the current campground we're at I had all sorts of things to show him.  I knew how to get around in Vegas so easily.

This guy had never been to Fremont Street so I took him to the Golden Nugget and showed him their huge showcase with a very large golden nugget in it.  Nearby is a vending machine where you can by actual gold bullion, from 1 gram for $75 to 1 ounce for $1,300.  Then I showed him the shark tank there, which is separated from the swimming pool by a glass wall, so people in the pool get to feel like they're swimming in the same tanks as the sharks.

I could have shown him much more, but like most RV type people he'd had his fill of the crowd, the noise, and the luridness of Fremont street.  I guess I had my fill too.  Vegas is no where near as fun as it was in the late 90s when my mom and I started vacationing there and fell in love with it.  Gambling isn't fun anymore either.

As I mentioned in another post my income is going to take a severe drop when I get paid for this month's royalties in July.  

In August I should bounce back because I plan on putting out a new installment of my Alien's Bride series, which always sells well.  Of course, I haven't even started writing this, because I'm stressed over complications with our house sale.  It might not happen now.  It's a heartrending situation that I hope will clear up soon.  In the meantime I don't even try to fool myself into thinking I can write.  My mind is locked on my troubles.

That means I have to accept the fact that I'll be making $1,500 less in July.  Hopefully it won't be worse than this.  Perhaps it will be a little better.  I'm trying to mitigate the damage as best I can.

I don't want to miss contributing to my IRA or Health Savings Account, so I have to make cuts elsewhere.  The obvious place to cut down is in the food budget.

I was playing the old-school Oregon Trail game on the computer today.  (You can play it, too.  Go click that link.  Be sure to use the names of friends so you can take a screen capture to send to them when they get dysentery). 

I'm kind of on an Oregon Trail of my own...


Except without snake bites, measles, fever, exhaustion, cholera, or dysentery.  I've got tires instead of wagon wheels, but I've already learned to expect one to go at least every third trip out.  No wagon tongue...but a trailer hitch.  And I've got axles.  Though, I would never caulk my wagon to get across a river...

Okay, I'm not on an Oregon Trail.  But I thought, maybe I can research what they ate and emulate the emigrants to reduce my food budget!  Here's what I found out:

A typical food list such as that from Joel Palmer's guide would include for each adult:
two hundred pounds of flour, thirty pounds of pilot bread, seventy-five pounds of bacon, ten pound of rice, five pounds of coffee, two pounds of tea, twenty-five pounds of sugar, half a bushel of dried beans, one bushel of dried fruit, two pound of saleratus [baking soda], ten pounds of salt, half a bushel of corn meal; and it is well to have half a bushel of corn, parched and ground; a small keg of vinegar should also be taken.(l)

Wow...that's a lot of bacon.  I think I'd gain way to much weight with all the carbs...but in the game you tend to run out of all that and have to hunt anyway.  I bet a diet of buffalo and muskrat would do me good.

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