beach

The Rv has sold, and the adventure continues

| jamiefeinberg

Hello, friend! How are you? How is life in your neck of the woods? Are you safe, and healthy, and happy most of the time? We sure hope so.

Since our last update, so much has happened. Read on for updates on where we are, what we’ve been up to, and what’s next in the life of Ross and Jamie.

We moved to Canada! To be honest, it happened six or so days later than planned, because in our rush to get everything complete, we managed to initially take the wrong COVID test! It then took multiple tries taking the PCR test in northern Maine to get our results back in enough time (within 72 hours) to cross over the border, but the pluses were that we got to enjoy some vacation time in Bangor (a much more fun, progressive, and affordable city than we’d realized) and got a tiny taste of Moncton, NB too, where we spent our first successful night in Canada. Once (hopefully) COVID is behind us, Moncton will be close enough to us for a day trip or easy overnight stay, so we were excited to get a little preview of it.

Though we’ve had a ton to do since we arrived, from coordinating the sale of our RV (thank you to everyone who assisted with that!) to purchasing some furniture, from learning where to buy groceries to setting up a bank account (still working on that one this week), to learning how to see doctors and mental health professionals here (there’s a big wait list for primary care physicians here, but having access to free mental health clinics a truly beautiful thing).

At the same time, Ross has gotten started at the university and has already played a few concerts on acoustic guitar (while simultaneously continuing his ukulele teaching and podcast editing), and I’ve started singing again (apparently I’m a soprano 1?) and will be the director of Island A Cappella, a barbershop singing group affiliated with Harmony, Inc., beginning in January of 2022. I also sang at a church this summer, so it’s been fun to get back into the arts, and the extra income doesn’t hurt either.

Thanks to school and the music ensembles respectively, we are each making friends and dipping our toes into having a social life and community here on the island. After five years of travel, it’s exciting to set down roots and really invest our time, energy, and money in a community.

Of course we both have supportive friends and family back in the US, and we’re thankful for Zoom and cell phones to keep us connected with them. Social media helps too, and we’ve been scheduling time to connect virtually with loved ones.

We’ve both had our struggles in adjusting to things, but we still wake up every day thankful to be here and eager to keep doing the work to grow and thrive here. We know how privileged we are, and we don’t take it for granted.

After a much-needed social media and blog pause, I’m looking forward to growing my coaching business and our music business in 2022. If you’d like support in creating the life of your dreams too, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to offer you a free session to help you get clarity on your priorities and find your path forward.

Thanks for reading, and have a beautiful day!

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Supporting Our Blog

We are so thankful for your support of our blog and our careers! You can help by doing any or all of the following:

  • Purchase one of Ross’ albums! 
  • Take Ross’ online ukulele course!
  • Become a patron of our work!
  • Make purchases via our Amazon website links. There is no additional cost to you, and a portion of the proceeds can support our travels. Begin your Amazon search here.
  • Make other purchases using our affiliate links. Signing up with Dosh is a great way for everyone with a smartphone to support us, and we also have options for aspiring virtual assistants as well as occasional and full-time RVers to save money.
  • Subscribe to our blog, as well as perhaps InSearchOfAScoop.com, and recommend our work to your friends and family.
  • Take music or theater lessons (group or private) from us, either in person or via Skype at TinyVillageMusic.com. 

Making Tracks And Losing Power

| jamiefeinberg

Traveling in an RV is the perfect anecdote to complacency and taking niceties like running water and electricity for granted. I’m writing this post on March 26th. We left Florida a few days ago, and we’re feeling some mixed emotions.

Our house batteries have been on the fritz, at least in part, for more than a year. We started having issues over a year ago when we first arrived in Florida. When we visited our mechanic, they said we could milk them for another year.

It turns out that might have been optimistic. Even if you don’t use the electricity for anything else, a little bit is required to run your fridge on propane, so when the batteries are dead, you lose your fridge.

Unfortunately we’ve been testing that. We get the fridge back for a bit when we drive, but it doesn’t let very long when we stop. So while we could purchase coolers, we’ve decided to deal with it, at least as long as we can. So we bought a Passport America membership and our goal is to plug in every other night to keep the fridge and our food happy.

We’ll be in New Mexico by the end of the week, and their state parks are supposed to be awesome and easy to walk into, so fingers crossed that by Friday or so, we will be plugged in. We will then commute to our gigs (in Silver City and Alamogordo) from there.

We’ve also been having issues filling our RV tires. We purchased sensors to make it easier, but they’re very finicky. But it turns out Walmart is really nice about helping us to check and fill tire pressure – so far for free. What a blessing!

We’ve enjoyed our travels so far. The weather has been beautiful and we’ve seen tons of lakes/rivers/the Gulf so it’s been lovely.

We also stayed at two wonderful campgrounds we’d be happy to return to or even workamp (especially the first): Pine Lake RV Park in western FL and Martin Lake Resort outside Biloxi, MS. Both have somewhat usable internet, gorgeous water features and places to walk, and the latter has a jacuzzi and gorgeous pool and a swim beach/place to fish and kayak (and lots of kids and teens). The former is quiet and secluded and has a workout gym and a piano in their rec room. Luxuries!

Photos of Pine Lake:RV in nature, Florida Ross and Jamie Adventure

Photos of Martin Lake:

Ross and Jamie Adventure at the beach

I was lucky enough to visit with my friend Eric who was performing in Pensacola Beach for a wedding. It was a great excuse for me to visit the area, which is very reminiscent of the Outer Banks. We found a nice Walmart to park at, even over spring break, so Ross stayed with the RV while I wandered. A few beach photos:

We’ve got a bit of work to do this morning before continuing on. Hopefully by the time you read this, we will be settled or almost there. Safe journey wherever you are!