Wednesday, February 18, 2009

A whirlwind week but we're learning & having fun!

We're here in the Lake Conroe/Houston North KOA Kampground at the AGS Publishing annual meeting. It's a huge park. I believe the manager said 48 acres. Even though the economy has slowed down, this place has a lot of RVs in it.

We did our training last month so the annual meeting is a good refresher before we go on our first job next week in Abilene.

Turns out everything we learned about how to do KOA Guest Guides in our training is now changed. I must say we're very impressed. KOA is putting a lot of "fun" into their new branding efforts.

We've always been big fans of KOA Kampgrounds and now were even more impressed. And our first job is at a KOA. How good is that...

We have new AGS logo jackets, name tags, and our business cards will be here tomorrow. So we're all set. Just a little review on our part and we'll be good to go.

Everyone at AGS is so nice and extremely helpful. There are two teams (Bob and I are one of them) who are "newbies" here. This means we've been through our training but have not worked a job yet. But that all changes come Monday morning.

We finish all of the company festivities about noon Friday and then I will catch up on laundry & reading. We'll also start setting up our new job and review our ops manual. From what I can see and what we hear from other rep teams, this looks like a great opportunity to travel and make money -- good money -- along the way. We're excited!

Oh yes, while we're here we'll find out where more of our future destinations will be. I'll keep you posted...

Right now we know we're going to Abilene for 2 weeks, then Ruidoso, NM for 2 weeks. Then we'll go back to Denton, TX and tie up loose ends (translation-do taxes) and visit Bob's mom for her 95th birthday, then on the road again.

Shut eye time for us now... till next time...

Vicky & Bob Heron (Capt. Jack & Jesse James)

How to work & live wherever and whenever you choose!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

We can't believe it's finally here...

Retirement -- Bob's!

Actually, it's more like semi-retirement since we will be working some of the time. At least we will be living our dream lifestyle, traveling in our RV to places we have not been to before... all over the country. And our so-called "work" will be in the camping & RV industry. So life is good.

Yesterday was Bob's retirement party at work. He looked so happy. Lots of people showed up to wish him well and were sad to see him go. I know his shoes will be big shoes to fill. And tomorrow is his last day. I wonder if he'll smash the alarm clock???

A few last touches to the RV, lunch with a few friends before we go and in a few more days we'll be embarking on our new life adventures.

Of course, the sales and marketing skills I've used in my own business for the last decade have enabled us to land the type of work we'll be doing and the ability to make good money doing it. We'll update you more about all of this as we get on the road.

Over dinner tonight Bob and I were talking and both of us agree... the last 8 months have not been for the faint of heart! Getting the house ready to sell, getting rid of almost everything we owned, and finding a place for everything in the RV has been a huge undertaking. Thankfully, it's all gone pretty smoothly.

The last minute details have us in a tizzy right now. Doing things like getting new health insurance lined up, several months worth of prescriptions on hand so we don't run out, getting the mailing issues straightened out, brakes installed on the tow dolly, and loose ends like that are keeping us hopping. But we'll get through it.

You know it's so much different now. We're not going on a 2-week vacation. We may be gone from our home base for several months at a time. We've made many shifts in our thinking and continue to do more every day. It certainly is a new way of life. Shouldn't be boring!

Soon we'll be singing that Willy Nelson song -- "On The Road Again!"

Till next time,

Vicky & Bob Heron (Capt. Jack & Jesse James)
How to work & live wherever and whenever you choose!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

We've Been Soooooo Busy And Enjoying It!

I've been meaning to get this updated much more often. But, with our lifestyle literally doing a 360 in the last quarter, this task is unfortunately way overdue.

My humble apologies...

After my last post, we...
  • moved into our new roving home over Thanksgiving weekend
  • had our moving sale on December 6th
  • (I-Vicky) had shoulder surgery (bicep tendon repair) on Dec. 9th
  • closed on our house December 17th (without a hitch)
  • went to Teague over Christmas to see our daughter & granddaughters and it was so nice to just go down there in our own home. There is a city park in Teague that we stay at (with full hookups) for $10 a night. Can't beat that! And, it's only two blocks from the kids!

Now for the big news... Bob retires next Friday, February 6th. Yippee!!! We are BOTH extremely excited about this. That said, we will not be sitting around the campfire twiddling our thumbs. Oh no...

January 16th we left for San Antonio and met up with our AGS Publishing trainers at Traveler's World RV Park. More about that in a minute. Traveler's World is a very well maintained and busy park. Paved streets, large concrete patios with a nice picnic table, palm trees, and nicely manicured river-graveled lots. Yes, they rake the gravel carefully into place almost daily.

You can always tell when you stay in an upscale park. People actually keep their dogs on a leash when they walk them and pick up after them. Remember, we have two little Chihuahuas, Jack & Jesse, and we never have them off leash and we always pick up after them. I hate stepping in poop and not knowing it until I get inside the coach... YUCK!

Why is it -- in some parks people read the rules and follow them faithfully, while in other parks people don't think the rules apply to them at all?

In a perfect world, everyone would think of the other person's welfare as a result of their actions. Wouldn't it be nice! Okay, I'll get off my soapbox.

Anyway, we arrived in San Antonio Jan. 16th and started training for our new "life on the road" and new job the next day. After 5 mind-numbing days we graduated. Our trainers took us to a lovely Italian restaurant downtown. We drank way too much wine -- but it was so good. Larry Chuippi and his wife Nancy Raimondi are great people!

After our training ended on Jan. 21st, we stayed at this nice park one more day just to relax and go next door if we had any questions while we were preparing for our first two jobs. In this economy it will be nice to be able to travel and see places while supplementing our retirement income as we do.

Since our job will be creating visitor guides for RV parks and campgrounds and selling advertising to pay for these guides, my copywriting skills will be invaluable. I'm going to be the one to go out and help area businesses grow their business by attracting the RVers from the area -- by selling the advertising.

Bob will take care of most of the paperwork and the creating of ads. I'll do some spec ads to show to prospective clients. It will be weird to have me going out to work and Bob staying at home. I'm already training him to keep the place clean! Poor guy :-)

Next stop, Teague, TX (our home base) to visit our daughter Bobbi and our two granddaughters Corynn & Katelyn. Then we arrive at Montgomery, Texas at a KOA Kampground for the annual AGS Publishing meeting. We're really looking forward to this. We'll be meeting all of the other company ICRs (Independent Contractor Reps) and I'm sure we'll come away with a lot of valuable information & insights.

Till next time,

Vicky & Bob Heron (Capt. Jack & Jesse James)

    • How to work & live wherever and whenever you choose!