Our RV Adventures Blog

The chronological account of our travels. Like most full-time RVers we'll babble on about all the mundane aspects of our daily lives. Some will find it interesting, and others will use it as a sleeping aid. Either way, we've done our part.

Map of States Visited

States where we've camped in our RV since Sep 1, 2004. Driving through doesn't count.

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Mac has mentioned before that I usually keep notes about what we’ve been up to and use them to update the blog. Since we’ve been sitting here for so long in Vegas I’ve let my note taking fall behind. Now that I’m trying to update the blog I’m having a hard time remembering what we’ve been up to this month. I think I need to start keeping notes again!

As Mac mentioned he’s been putting in the hours at work this year. He’s also been putting some hours in on several of his interests so we haven’t had the time like in years past to do many of the things we did then. We haven’t gone to any shows yet this year here in Vegas. Also this year we haven’t watched as many videos as we did last year while here. Yet we seem busier this year than in previous years so it’s hard to figure out where the time goes and what we’ve done with the time.

Royal Flushes and Ducks

Mac twittered about the royals we hit on Friday the 12th. It was great to finally hit some royals again. It was a month and one day since I’d hit the last one and I hit two in the same day and Mac finally hit one his first in about 2 years. We are way up now for the year, especially when you add in the comps we’ve received in free meals and gifts! I hit another royal today. We had gone to the M Casino and I hit a royal and also hit 4 deuces on the same machine. I finally cashed out with a profit of $1,400 for the day!

Road Construction

I don’t think either of us has mentioned it this year but I mentioned it last year about the road construction on I-15. They’re widening the road and it can take a long time to get through there at times. We usually try and avoid it when it’s really backed up with stop and go traffic. It’s seems like many others also take the side streets during those times and they get backed up too. It has not been fun this year getting around in Vegas. I’ll be so happy when they finish that expansion. I miss being able to get on the interstate and then exiting in about 15 minutes at my destination. Now it takes at least twice that amount of time. I know one day it took us 45 minutes where it used to take about 15.

The Days are Just Packed

Chris said we've spent our time differently this year, and it's hard to figure where it's going. I think we're spending more time playing Video Poker than we did last year! With the Aliante casino near by we are in a casino about 6 days a week. She's also right about my day job. I think I'm working about 5 hours a week more than the same time period last year. Also, I've started taking an active role in managing our meager investment portfolio -- which became even more meager last year.

I won't bore you with the details, but as far as I'm concerned the investment strategy of "buy and hold" is dead! Put me in the same camp now with Jim Cramer (CNBC, Mad Money, Real Money). For longer term investing, market fundamentals, growth and value analysis, I listen to Jim Cramer, and use Morningstar. They don't always agree and that's a good thing. For technical trading I've found someone who is actually teaching people to learn to trade instead of just selling "hot picks" and trying to time the market. Dan Fitzpatrick is the man, and his website is StockMarketMentor.com. Dan makes appearances on CNBC Fast Money and other shows, and also on Jim Cramer's websites RealMoney.com and TheStreet.com.

We're also fortunate that our employer started a retirement plan in early 2008 and we're both able to make tax deferred investments. Chris plans to retire at age 62, and I hope to semi-retire when she hits the magic number. That's about 7 years from now, so we need to grow the nest egg all we can! Unlike some who start saving in their 20's we pretty much spent every dime we made and then some until about 1994 when Chris took a government job and became eligible for the "Thrift Savings Plan" essentially the Govt. Employee version of a 401k. Since then we've participated in 401k's wherever we've worked; however, I have a gap from 2002 to 2007 while self-employed that I once again failed to invest except for some small Roth IRAs. Ok enough about this topic.

Chris said she hit a RF at the M casino today. We've been going a few times a week to pick up free points from their M Call promotion. It seems the point awards have been decreasing the past week, but it could just be luck. We did very well the first week we participated. So far we've had the buffet for free, filled the gas tank 3x at their station, and still have enough comps for a buffet and another tank. Of course we earn a few points for our play, but Full Pay Deuces Wild only gives you 1/4 of the points that negative games reward.

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