Planning 89 Days of RV Maintenance and Content

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[0:06] hello start here rolling cigarettes I
[0:09] know you don't all
[0:11] agree smoking K 16 though that's not
[0:14] something you quit overnight I guess it
[0:16] is when you do quit right not there yet
[0:21] yeah I am vaping a lot more though
[0:24] especially
[0:25] indoors so hopefully soon I think I have
[0:29] like three C into this left just want to
[0:32] get them rolled up so takes up my space
[0:35] in
[0:36] there I just thought maybe I'll talk
[0:38] about what I plan to do over these next
[0:40] 89 days starting to get busy out here
[0:44] people coming all over the place
[0:47] so there a site right next to me it's
[0:50] pretty close I'm curious how I feel
[0:52] about that cuz open tent structure
[0:55] here don't really have any way of like
[0:58] maybe a tarp or something I how I'd
[1:00] attach
[1:02] it it's a nice sight though I do like it
[1:05] I think I'll be happy here I'm kind of
[1:07] getting used to other people being
[1:09] around like I still like my solitude but
[1:12] you know it's
[1:14] tolerable um so I'm at this spot for
[1:17] five weeks I could
[1:19] have could have moved to if you saw my
[1:22] other video I could have moved to
[1:24] like um more natural setting you know
[1:28] but then my Starling put work I'm kind
[1:30] of contemplating it cuz it is a tradeoff
[1:33] picking between the two kind of
[1:35] sites I think more people are probably
[1:38] out here
[1:40] so definitely be more private if you're
[1:43] out in the
[1:44] trees maybe Le just chilling down
[1:49] there but yeah I think for the next
[1:53] three months it just makees sense for me
[1:54] to have very good internet for what I'm
[1:57] doing so there's a lot of things
[2:00] I have a lot of stuff to do to this RV
[2:03] was looking at the tires
[2:05] and I'm really concerned about the ones
[2:08] on the driver's side where the side
[2:10] comes out I think maybe the weight or
[2:13] something they don't look good they
[2:14] don't look good to me and they're pretty
[2:17] old tires I think they're like eight
[2:19] years old maybe I don't have to try to
[2:21] confirm that but I think they are maybe
[2:24] it's 6 but it's somewhere between 6 and
[2:28] 8 so
[2:30] I need to replace them I got to find a
[2:32] place somewhere around here I can take
[2:34] it
[2:36] to one of my stabilizers doesn't work at
[2:39] all I don't know why I've been
[2:42] putting those Lego bricks under it but
[2:45] that's hard to do it's hard
[2:47] to get the perfect length so that it's
[2:50] truly acting like a
[2:52] stabilizer I've been dealing with that
[2:56] for not sure a while so I really want to
[3:00] get that fixed um my little step ladder
[3:05] to the door it only turns on at first I
[3:09] thought it was completely broken but it
[3:11] actually does turn on when you're
[3:13] running on battery power but not when
[3:15] it's hooked up to shore power to Camp
[3:17] Crown power I assume that's the same
[3:18] thing that's Shore power right
[3:22] so I find that very curious it means
[3:24] there's a shorten line right there's
[3:25] probably a shorten line
[3:28] somewhere um
[3:30] what else did I need to do this
[3:35] thing I think those are the main things
[3:38] like oh I need
[3:40] to this I can do myself I need to put
[3:43] these sensors on the tank so that I know
[3:45] their levels don't know that
[3:48] yet
[3:50] and you know obvious I need to get
[3:52] propane but that's just a normal
[3:58] task I guess that pretty much covers it
[4:00] I want someone to look at the slide
[4:03] where you could see that hole outside
[4:05] like what is that about just you
[4:08] know I need to find out if I'm supposed
[4:11] to grease my slide that's something my
[4:13] father told me once I looked at it and
[4:16] it just doesn't look like you grease it
[4:19] so I I just need to find out I feel like
[4:22] I just need an rvtech to come out and
[4:24] help
[4:25] me um I couldn't put air in the tires on
[4:28] the driver's side because
[4:30] I couldn't even find the the nozzle
[4:33] thing for it
[4:34] so um it looked really suspicious to me
[4:39] I truly am like what is going on here
[4:41] it's a little bit nervous about driving
[4:43] it here once I discovered that so want
[4:48] to get that done before I move sights at
[4:50] least I'm here for 89 days I've got time
[4:52] to to manage all that and I feel
[4:56] like you know I need that because when I
[4:59] start heading to Nevada I mean it's
[5:01] 2,000 mil way I want to I want that
[5:03] thing in perfect condition you know as
[5:06] close as I can get
[5:09] it um I want to replace one of
[5:13] the the you know the fan vent things
[5:15] well actually two of them the one in the
[5:17] bathroom is crap like that one really
[5:19] needs to just like I want to I want to
[5:23] get another one that's automatic where
[5:24] you just press a button and it opens up
[5:27] and then I could take the one that's
[5:28] there now but that one in the bathroom
[5:30] that would work I want to adjust the
[5:33] camera the back camera I think I know
[5:35] how to do it I looked at it I just need
[5:37] to climb up there um it looks like it's
[5:41] adjustable you can just adjust it with
[5:43] but you need like a tool I just need to
[5:44] make sure I have the right kind of
[5:47] tool so I wanted these are all things I
[5:49] want to do on here as far as you know
[5:52] just AR maintenance so oh I definitely
[5:55] want to get it to a mercedesbenz shop
[5:57] and just have them look it over make
[5:59] sure everything
[6:00] good um change the oil you know just
[6:04] stuff like that
[6:06] and just look at it and let me know is
[6:09] everything good on this thing from that
[6:12] perspective just I want to I want to
[6:14] feel like I covered all the bases if you
[6:17] can think anything else let me know cuz
[6:19] I really really want to do everything
[6:21] possible I'm
[6:22] here cuz it's going to be a remarkable
[6:28] Journey um I don't I don't know how fast
[6:30] I'll get there I'm going to do a lot of
[6:31] planning on here um I don't know that
[6:35] we'll make like a straight shot
[6:38] there I me because I guess I could do
[6:41] that but I'm calling it a pilgrimage
[6:43] because that's what it feels like to me
[6:45] I feel
[6:46] like I feel like I've been lost my whole
[6:50] life I've just always felt like I was
[6:53] out of Stu with the world and I I don't
[6:58] I just all my life and it's like like
[6:59] I'm 47 now right and it's just
[7:02] like shouldn't I have found my place by
[7:05] now you know I'm
[7:08] questioning I'm just questioning
[7:10] everything these days so I just want to
[7:14] go to this place and do some stargazing
[7:16] and then contemplate and probably talk
[7:19] about those topics on camera you know
[7:21] and see what comes out of it I'm hoping
[7:24] for a transformation that's that's the
[7:27] idea I've never
[7:32] I assume this is accurate information
[7:34] I'm giving you I've never
[7:36] seen I don't know if you can see it on
[7:39] this side of the
[7:42] um you know the north side of Earth or
[7:44] if it's only in the southern
[7:46] hemisphere but you know I've seen images
[7:48] of our night sky and it's got like this
[7:53] there's a reason they call the Milky Way
[7:54] I've never seen that you know um in real
[7:57] life and I'm just wondering could I see
[7:59] that that in Nevada at this place they
[8:00] say it's the best stargazing in the
[8:01] whole country darkest Skies that sort of
[8:04] thing right
[8:06] so I just want to see it with my own
[8:09] eyes I want to I just want to experience
[8:12] it and probably I'll try to get a
[8:15] telescope before I go I've always been
[8:17] interested in that I just never pursued
[8:20] it um nothing expensive I couldn't
[8:23] afforded at this point but something you
[8:26] know maybe I could check out Venus you
[8:28] know and Mars and
[8:29] that would be so cool I would love that
[8:33] actually knowing me I try to stare at
[8:35] the sun though I actually did that once
[8:37] not with a telescope
[8:39] but um I think I damaged my eyes but
[8:44] yeah don't do
[8:47] that
[8:50] just it's really important to
[8:53] me there's for so many reasons this trip
[8:55] is going to teach
[8:57] me um how to truly live this lifestyle I
[9:01] mean I'll learn a lot here in these next
[9:02] 3 months right but I will learn other
[9:05] things on the
[9:07] road and I'm going to really plan it out
[9:10] I'm going to know where I'm going you
[9:12] know every step of the way I'm going to
[9:13] know every gas station I'm going to
[9:15] everything I'm going to thoroughly plan
[9:17] it
[9:18] out
[9:21] so if they're stops along the way I'm
[9:24] just not sure about that I got to kind
[9:26] of think about that cuz I don't want
[9:28] taking forever I mean going to be here
[9:29] for 3 months and this
[9:31] is
[9:33] so for sometime in August right um means
[9:38] I probably get there in
[9:41] September maybe even
[9:43] October I bet that's a good time of year
[9:46] to be there though I think I'm really
[9:48] going to like it I'm I'm looking forward
[9:50] to this so those are all the RV aspects
[9:54] I'd say that I can think of at the
[9:56] moment um
[9:59] the rest
[10:00] is so I'm really I'm only going to have
[10:03] two channels this one and my my gaming
[10:05] channel which is Minecraft mostly for
[10:08] now um I decided why would I have a
[10:11] hiking Channel I'm Outdoors like if I go
[10:14] hiking it's on this channel why would I
[10:16] have an arts and craft Channel I don't
[10:17] do it enough like when I do do it it
[10:19] makes sense to put it here it's an
[10:21] expression to myself so it's all going
[10:23] to be here minus the gaming so you know
[10:27] I'm planning a lot of content around
[10:29] that and a whole lot around my gaming
[10:31] channel CU I really am hoping I'm really
[10:34] hoping to do something with that you
[10:35] know I have some
[10:37] ideas on maybe how I could monetize what
[10:41] I'm doing so that it will help make my
[10:43] life easier I'm going to run out of
[10:45] money if I don't figure something out
[10:49] so um my client that I had for 10 years
[10:53] he says everything's fine I'm you
[10:56] know um I don't need to worry too much
[10:59] right
[11:00] now
[11:02] um so I have time I have time but I
[11:07] don't have a lot of time
[11:10] um and I'm just contemplating different
[11:12] things like I was thinking about writing
[11:14] a book about my life I actually started
[11:15] thinking about I've always wanted to do
[11:17] that my whole life I wanted to I don't
[11:19] know why just that's the thing I've
[11:21] always wanted to do I have a lot of
[11:24] stuff that I could reference you know I
[11:27] have journals going back so long s um I
[11:31] have a I have a bag just full of
[11:32] memories those are the only things I
[11:34] kept for my
[11:36] house
[11:38] and I've had an amazing life it's been
[11:42] hard being the kind of person I
[11:47] am but it's been interesting and I
[11:50] thought you know what if I mean I could
[11:53] sell my book maybe some of you guys will
[11:55] buy it um and someone gave me an idea
[11:58] they said why not start start a patreon
[12:00] and give early access to the chapters I
[12:02] write things like that and I don't know
[12:05] maybe I don't know like I would like to
[12:07] start a patreon but only if I can figure
[12:10] out a way to give you guys value like I
[12:12] can't just ask for money I can't so I
[12:16] have to be able to find a way to give
[12:18] you guys value and I haven't figured
[12:20] that out yet with my gaming channel I
[12:22] have some ideas on that like I was
[12:23] thinking maybe I do like create some
[12:25] mods as a programmer you know I just
[12:26] maybe I'll create some mods I have some
[12:28] ideas on mods at like to make for
[12:30] Minecraft um so that's a that's a
[12:33] possibility but you know that's months
[12:35] down the road my first Minecraft video
[12:39] nobody subscribed from it so um it's
[12:42] going to be challenging but I'm not
[12:43] giving up I'm I'm going to pursue this
[12:47] and see where it takes
[12:50] me
[12:52] um I do feel like I'm starting
[12:55] to I don't know where those second
[12:57] thoughts were coming from honestly
[13:00] I think about it
[13:03] cuz well I hate my bad even after
[13:06] changing the mattress I hate that thing
[13:08] it is I started sleeping on the other
[13:09] way did not help at all so I don't know
[13:13] what to do that I don't know what to do
[13:16] I'm not getting enough sleep I'm not so
[13:19] I used to sleep so well I miss that I
[13:22] miss being able to
[13:24] sleep oh I hate that
[13:27] bed so I don't know um you know some
[13:33] things are a real challenge like I'm I'm
[13:35] not a cook I don't know how to cook
[13:37] anything and I can't order door Dash
[13:39] anymore it's starve to death out
[13:42] here especially because I'm so afraid to
[13:44] get propane you know so
[13:48] I'm it's an adjustment for me I know
[13:51] that my challenges are not going to be
[13:53] everybody's challenges I know this but I
[13:55] do think that everybody has challenges
[13:57] you know yours will be different but
[13:59] you'll have them and I think it helps to
[14:01] see my challenges and me trying to
[14:03] overcome them and all of that right you
[14:06] might have a different challenge but
[14:07] you'll you know you'll know you can do
[14:09] it
[14:11] um it was so easy to level this thing I
[14:15] used to be afraid of that you know
[14:17] emptying my tanks before I before I came
[14:20] here yesterday super simple not an issue
[14:23] at all um boy was I afraid to do that
[14:27] you know that was nothing the the place
[14:30] like just down this street here this
[14:31] little road um just a little ways on
[14:34] this is interesting I thought um I don't
[14:37] know like five seven maybe like seven
[14:39] sights down um is where the what do you
[14:42] call it um where you empty your tanks
[14:44] whatever that is um it's right there uh
[14:49] basically you cannot get if somebody has
[14:51] to empty their tanks you're stuck
[14:53] waiting behind them you can't get down
[14:54] the
[14:55] road like I'm just waiting to see what
[14:58] happens this weekend and sort of like
[15:00] some mini drama or something right um
[15:04] but you know I don't think you know if I
[15:06] had when I have to go and empty my tanks
[15:08] I just go right down there you know it
[15:10] doesn't take long and then turn around
[15:13] come back now I think my next challenge
[15:16] will
[15:17] be I didn't reverse in here very well I
[15:20] guess I should tell you guys this so
[15:22] that was raining right
[15:25] and I didn't know what to do with my
[15:27] Jeep because
[15:29] I didn't want to block the road I didn't
[15:31] even know about that thing yet but I
[15:33] didn't want to block the road like what
[15:35] are you what is the protocol what are
[15:37] you supposed to do um when you need to
[15:40] back into a site and you're towing
[15:42] something right I I truly don't know so
[15:45] but you know nobody was here and it was
[15:47] like okay so I detached my Jeep I forgot
[15:50] to put the parking brake on and it
[15:51] started rolling backwards I freaked out
[15:55] I ran towards it open the door and I was
[15:58] going to hit the break right but my
[16:01] um that device thing was hooked up to
[16:04] and I was like oh no what do I do and
[16:06] then I had the parking break that was
[16:07] fun and right across the way is where
[16:10] the um volunteer um park manager is I'm
[16:15] like I'm hoping he didn't see that that
[16:16] was embarrassing that's what I was going
[16:18] to get to so after I get all that done I
[16:21] you know and I'm parked my Jeep to the
[16:23] site next to
[16:24] mine
[16:26] I get ready to reverse into here I
[16:29] thought I'm doing really good right and
[16:31] then I you know I stop and I get out and
[16:33] check just to make sure I'm by
[16:35] myself and I was in the grass like way
[16:38] in the grass I wasn't even near the path
[16:41] like not at all and it was a really hard
[16:43] angle I and I'm going to have to do that
[16:46] again it's a hard angle I don't know how
[16:48] people I'm going to watch people that's
[16:49] what I'm going to do cuz they all have
[16:51] to do it around here I'll be watching
[16:54] people so anyways um you know empty the
[16:58] tanks come back around the next
[17:00] challenge including you know backing on
[17:02] that's com challenge um we'll be backing
[17:04] up perfectly to end up back on my Lego
[17:08] break so that I stay level right so that
[17:10] would be
[17:11] interesting um just you know in and out
[17:14] in and out until you get it right
[17:16] so maybe I'll get better with that over
[17:18] time I don't know some of these people
[17:21] they're just so good at well they always
[17:22] have a
[17:24] helper there's somebody guiding that
[17:26] person
[17:29] just me you know that does present a
[17:34] challenge but you know they're minor
[17:38] things they're truly minor don't think
[17:40] that they're big deals they're not and
[17:42] let me tell you something let's say
[17:44] there were people around seeing me do
[17:46] this I you know I would care I'm going
[17:48] to be honest um probably but I wouldn't
[17:52] let to stop me right and then I would
[17:54] tell myself whatever they don't remember
[17:56] you know like this is just
[18:00] you got to learn somehow right they all
[18:03] had to learn somehow it's a challenge
[18:05] for all of us so like because I I
[18:08] remember this one guy was walking by my
[18:11] RV um with his wife I assume it was his
[18:14] wife at the last Campground and he was
[18:17] snickering as he was looking at my
[18:20] um my stabilizers I don't think you
[18:23] realized one of them wouldn't come down
[18:25] I did the best I could you know people
[18:27] are just judgmental just got to ignore
[18:29] it he's just trying to sound impressive
[18:32] to his wife you know and it's like you
[18:34] don't sound impressive you just sound
[18:36] like a a
[18:38] jerk
[18:40] so you
[18:42] know uh you
[18:44] just so I don't mind I'll get out of my
[18:47] vehicle a bunch of times and check I
[18:48] mean that's what you should do just be
[18:50] safe and and do your best and hopefully
[18:53] hopefully it gets better I don't know
[18:54] cuz I haven't done it enough but you
[18:56] know I'll probably have to do it every
[18:58] couple weeks at um I mean I don't know
[19:01] if it'll it won't be a weekly thing I
[19:02] don't think I don't use the tanks enough
[19:03] for that but you know maybe every 10
[19:06] days or something like
[19:09] that so I don't want to just ramble to
[19:12] you guys I'm going to I'll cut it here
[19:14] and um I hope this video is of some
[19:18] value to you did I say everything I
[19:20] wanted
[19:22] to I guess I did I mean there's a lot I
[19:26] want to do here over the next 90 days
[19:27] it's not like I'm just just going to be
[19:29] sitting around doing nothing I want you
[19:31] guys to know that this the pause it's a
[19:35] pause
[19:37] um but it's also not right it's just
[19:41] it's a change of pace it's it's just
[19:44] something that I need and I think it's
[19:47] important to document that too
[19:50] because you need to know that you can do
[19:52] that you need to know that it's okay um
[19:56] slow down if you need to
[19:58] you know don't feel like don't
[20:02] rush don't rush anything really just
[20:06] give give yourself the time you need to
[20:08] do the things you need to
[20:10] do I'll end it there you guys have a
[20:13] good day good weekend
19:57
Walking to Camper's Cove at Barren River Lake
May 10, 2024
11:15
Building a Miniature Bookshop Model at Camp
May 11, 2024
6:47
Planning Trail Hiking and Oven Cooking in Kentucky
May 11, 2024
4:59
Retrieving the Cat, Documenting a Complicated Day
May 13, 2024
9:54
Replacing RV Mattress, Bailey Arrives at Camp
May 13, 2024
3:32
Naming Grief from the Old Life
May 13, 2024
3:51
Recounting Dream of RV Reversal and Boy
May 14, 2024
11:30
Saying Goodbye to Oliver Before Heading West
May 14, 2024
22:59
Securing Shelves and Settling Bailey Into the RV
May 15, 2024
9:55
Assessing Bed Level, Bailey, and RV Build Quality
May 15, 2024
37:07
Organizing the Camper Across Six Hours
May 15, 2024
6:14
Organizing RV Storage and Launching Gaming Channel
May 16, 2024
3:07
Bifurcating YouTube Channels by Interest
May 16, 2024
7:10
Recording Gaming Channel Intro on a Morning Hike
May 18, 2024
1:40
Booking 90-Day Campground Stay for Bailey
May 19, 2024
4:43
Clarifying Channel Purpose While Driving Back
May 19, 2024
4:03
Speaking on Emotions as Energy in Motion
May 20, 2024
1:27
Planning Westward Route to Nevada
May 21, 2024
2:06
Explaining AI Utility After Assisting a Stranger
May 21, 2024
9:15
Breaking Camp in Rain, Relocating with Bailey
May 23, 2024
10:22
Arriving at Bailey's Down Site in Rain
May 24, 2024
4:29
Booking 89 Days and Naming Chapter Three
May 24, 2024
20:28
Planning 89 Days of RV Maintenance and Content
May 24, 2024
13:39
Riding Out a Storm Without Power
May 26, 2024
3:51
Captured Channel Introduction: RV Transition to Nevada
May 27, 2024
5:18
Planning Transition to Full-Time Boondocking
May 29, 2024
8:03
Adjusting Systems for Full-Time Camper Living
May 29, 2024
4:17
Cataloging Kind Acts and Issuing a Challenge
May 29, 2024
3:47
Cooking Baked Potatoes While Listing Reasons for Solitude
May 31, 2024
6:12
Mapping Paternal Pattern and Departure Motivations
Jun 1, 2024
30:18
Cooking Chili While Cutting Ties With Mother
Jun 1, 2024
1:30
Recommending ChatGPT for Exercise and Stretching Routines
Jun 2, 2024
5:58
Cutting Ties With Parents
Jun 4, 2024
6:43
Running Errands and Organizing the RV
Jun 4, 2024
Photos · Jun 5, 2024
Jun 5, 2024
7:37
Outfitting the Camper Against Heat and Humidity
Jun 6, 2024
3:28
Packing Up Camp and Driving Untowed
Jun 7, 2024
5:41
Documenting Equipment Failures After Tire Installation
Jun 7, 2024
3:16
Stating Terms of Visibility to Audience
Jun 8, 2024
3:25
Clarifying Intent and Thanking Supportive Audience
Jun 8, 2024
3:30
Naming the Channel as Video Journal, Reworking Camper Workspace
Jun 8, 2024
PUBLIC
May 24, 2024 rswfire PUBLISHED
Temp 0.10
Density 0.80
Energetic Quality
steady and enumerative
Journey Phase
staging
Directional Vector
toward a planned departure — building readiness for the Nevada pilgrimage
Narrative

The slide was out and the light indoors was steady enough to work by, so rswfire sat rolling cigarettes — three left in the pouch, he figured, and he wanted them done before he talked. He named the habit without defending it: sixteen years, more vaping lately, especially indoors. Outside, the campground was filling. A site sat close on one side, open tent structure, no obvious way to string a tarp for cover even if he wanted one. He turned the question over aloud — how he felt about the proximity — and answered it in the same breath. He still liked his solitude. This was tolerable.

He had chosen this site over the wooded one. That trade was already settled and he restated it as a matter of arithmetic rather than preference: the trees meant privacy, the trees meant no Starlink line-of-sight, and for what he was doing over the next three months, internet was the deciding variable. Eighty-nine days here. Five weeks at this particular spot before the first move.

Then the inventory. He started with the tires on the driver's side, where the slide extends — the weight, maybe, or the age, six years or eight, he'd have to confirm. They didn't look good to him. He couldn't even find the valve nozzle to put air in them, and that discovery was what had made him nervous about the drive in. One stabilizer didn't work at all; he'd been shimming it with Lego bricks, and getting the length exactly right was hard, and he'd been living with that for a while now. The step to the door turned on when the rig ran on battery and stayed dark on shore power — which meant, he reasoned out loud, a short somewhere in the line. Tank sensors he could install himself. Propane was routine. The hole he could see outside the slide, and whether a slide is something you grease — his father had told him once, but looking at the mechanism, it didn't seem like it was — those needed an RV tech. Two vent fans, one of them the bathroom unit he called crap outright, with a plan to cascade the working one down to replace it. The back camera looked adjustable if he climbed up with the right tool. And the whole chassis to a Mercedes-Benz shop for oil and a full look-over. He wanted every base covered. He asked the camera to tell him what he'd missed.

All of it was in service of one thing, and when he got to it the register didn't change. Two thousand miles to Nevada, and he wanted the rig as close to perfect as he could get it before it moved. He was calling it a pilgrimage because that was what it felt like. He said he had felt out of step with the world his entire life, that he was forty-seven, that he was questioning everything these days. What he wanted at the other end was the sky — the darkest skies in the country, they say — and to see the Milky Way with his own eyes, the band of it, the thing he had only ever seen in images. Maybe a telescope beforehand, nothing expensive, enough for Venus and Mars. He mentioned, dryly, that knowing himself he'd try to stare at the sun; he'd done that once already, without a telescope, and thought he'd damaged his eyes. He was hoping for a transformation. That was the idea.

The planning would be granular. Every step of the way, every gas station, thoroughly mapped. Departure sometime in August put arrival in September, maybe October, which he suspected was a good time of year to be there. From the road he moved to the channels: two, this one and the gaming channel, Minecraft mostly. No hiking channel — he was already outdoors, so hiking went here. No arts and crafts channel — he didn't do it often enough, and when he did it belonged here anyway, an expression of himself. Beneath that sat the money. His client of ten years said everything was fine, so he had time, but not a lot of time. A book from his own life, the thing he had always wanted to do, with journals going back years and a bag of memories — the only things he'd kept from the house. Someone had suggested a Patreon with early access to chapters. He liked it conditionally: he would start one only if he could figure out how to give real value first. He couldn't just ask for money. Mods for Minecraft, maybe, since he was a programmer — but that was months out, and his first Minecraft video had brought in no subscribers at all.

The harder things he listed the same way he listed the tires. He hated the bed. Changing the mattress hadn't fixed it, sleeping the other direction hadn't either, and he wasn't getting enough sleep; he missed sleeping well. He wasn't a cook, DoorDash was gone out here, and he was still afraid to get propane. He drew the line himself: his challenges wouldn't be anyone else's, but everyone had them, and watching him work through his might be useful to someone working through theirs. Then the ledger of what had already resolved. Leveling — once a fear, now easy. Dumping the tanks the day before — he had been afraid of it, and it turned out to be nothing.

What remained open was reversing. He told the story straight through: the rain, the Jeep, not knowing the protocol for backing a towed rig into a site without blocking the road, so he unhooked the Jeep, forgot the parking brake, and watched it start rolling. He ran for it, got the door open, reached for the brake — and the tow device was in the way, and then he found the parking brake. The volunteer park manager's site sits directly across from his. He hoped the man hadn't seen. Later, mid-reverse and feeling good about it, he stepped out to check and found himself deep in the grass, nowhere near the path, on a genuinely hard angle. He would have to do it again. He would watch other people do it — everyone here has to. He noted that they always seem to have a helper guiding them, and he doesn't. He remembered a man at the last campground snickering at his stabilizers while walking past with his wife, and he named it plainly: judgmental, trying to sound impressive, sounding like a jerk instead. He said he would still care if people watched. He said it wouldn't stop him. He would get out and check as many times as it took, because that is what you should do.

He wound it down before it turned into rambling. Eighty-nine days, and not one of them spent sitting around — he wanted that on record. A pause, he said, but also not. A change of pace. Something he needed. And worth documenting for that reason alone: so someone watching would know they were allowed to slow down, that nothing had to be rushed, that a person can take the time required to do the things that need doing. He ended it there and wished them a good weekend.

Tags

RV maintenance Nevada trip planning stargazing content strategy monetization campground logistics self-documentation

Summary

rswfire records from a new campsite while rolling cigarettes, noting he is vaping more indoors and has a neighboring site close by. He states he has 89 days at this location and chose a developed site over a more natural one because Starlink performance matters for the work ahead.

He enumerates the RV maintenance list he intends to complete before driving roughly 2,000 miles to Nevada:

  • Replace driver's-side tires (6–8 years old, valve stem not locatable)
  • Repair a non-functioning stabilizer currently shimmed with Lego bricks
  • Diagnose the step that operates on battery but not shore power
  • Install tank level sensors, get propane, replace two vent fans, adjust the rear camera
  • Have an RV tech inspect the slide and a Mercedes-Benz shop service the chassis

He describes the Nevada trip as a pilgrimage, planned in full detail, aimed at seeing the Milky Way under the darkest skies in the country, possibly with a telescope. He states he is 47, has felt out of step with the world his whole life, and is questioning everything.

On income: he plans two channels only — this one and a Minecraft gaming channel — and is considering Minecraft mods, a book about his life drawn from long-running journals, and a Patreon contingent on delivering value. His ten-year client reports things are fine; he states he will run out of money without a new structure.

He closes on operational learning: dumping tanks, backing in at a hard angle, and dismissing a bystander's snickering.

Environment

Recorded on-site at an RV campsite where rswfire has just arrived for an 89-day stay, seated indoors with the slide-out extended, rolling cigarettes while talking to camera. The site is described as close to a neighboring open tent site, with the dump station roughly five to seven sites down a single access road, and the volunteer park manager's site directly across the way.

The site was chosen for Starlink line-of-sight over a more wooded, more private alternative — internet capacity is the deciding infrastructural variable for the next three months. The broader field is the Oregon coast RV circuit, with a planned 2,000-mile route to Nevada in the background.

Substrate

This is a staging signal: an 89-day window treated as a work platform rather than a rest interval, where mechanical readiness, financial runway, and content infrastructure are all inventoried in the same register. rswfire holds the position that a vehicle is a system with enumerable failure points — tires, stabilizer, shore-power short, tank sensors, vents, camera, slide, drivetrain — and that full accounting precedes movement. Beneath the maintenance list, he states the trip's frame explicitly as pilgrimage rather than transit, naming stargazing under the darkest skies as the object and transformation as the intent, so the material checklist and the ontological question are held as one continuous architecture.

Actions

Performed

  • •rolling cigarettes on camera
  • •enumerating RV maintenance items
  • •assessing proximity of adjacent tent site
  • •stating the 89-day plan
  • •naming the Nevada trip a pilgrimage
  • •soliciting maintenance suggestions from viewers
  • •describing channel consolidation decision
  • •stating financial runway limits

Referenced

  • •inspected driver-side tires and found them aged 6–8 years
  • •could not locate the tire valve on the driver's side
  • •propped a failed stabilizer with Lego bricks
  • •tested the step ladder on battery vs shore power
  • •changed the mattress and reversed sleeping direction
  • •emptied the holding tanks the previous day
  • •leveled the RV
  • •detached the Jeep in the rain without setting the parking brake
  • •chased the rolling Jeep and set the brake
  • •backed into the site off-path, deep into the grass
  • •posted a first Minecraft video with no resulting subscribers
  • •kept only journals and a bag of memories from the house
  • •stared at the sun once and states he damaged his eyes
  • •observed a man snickering at his stabilizers at a prior campground
  • •considered a more natural site and rejected it for Starlink reasons

Planned

  • •replace driver-side tires
  • •locate a local tire shop
  • •repair the non-functioning stabilizer
  • •trace the shore-power short at the step
  • •install tank level sensors
  • •get propane
  • •have an RV tech inspect the slide and the hole
  • •determine whether the slide requires grease
  • •replace two fan vents, including an automatic one for the bathroom
  • •adjust the rear camera
  • •take the chassis to a Mercedes-Benz shop for oil change and inspection
  • •drive 2,000 miles to Nevada in August, arriving September or October
  • •plan the route down to individual gas stations
  • •buy an inexpensive telescope
  • •observe the Milky Way, Venus, and Mars
  • •record contemplative topics on camera at the dark-sky site
  • •run only two channels — this one and the Minecraft gaming channel
  • •write a book about his life from journal archives
  • •consider a Patreon with early chapter access, conditional on delivering value
  • •build Minecraft mods as a programmer
  • •observe other campers backing into sites
  • •re-back the RV onto the Lego blocks to maintain level
  • •empty tanks roughly every 10 days

Entities

beings
rswfire — Speaker; documenting an 89-day staging window and a planned pilgrimage to Nevada
volunteer park manager — Sited directly across from him; possible witness to the Jeep incident
his father — Source of the advice that the slide requires grease, now under verification
his client of ten years — Existing income source; states the arrangement is currently stable
places
Nevada — Destination 2,000 miles out, framed as pilgrimage site and darkest-sky stargazing location
systems
Starlink — Satellite internet; the deciding variable in site selection over a more private wooded spot
Mercedes-Benz — Chassis manufacturer; shop targeted for pre-trip drivetrain inspection and oil change
Patreon — Suggested monetization channel, held conditional on being able to deliver value
DoorDash — Prior food-delivery dependency, no longer available at this location
Jeep — Towed vehicle; rolled backward during detachment in the rain
concepts
Milky Way — Never seen in person; the specific visual object of the Nevada trip
Venus — Named telescope target
Mars — Named telescope target
media
Minecraft — Subject of the second channel; potential mod development and monetization vector
journals — Long-running personal archive retained from the house; source material for a planned book

Symbolic Elements

Represented archetypes or recurring motifs.

pilgrimage
dark sky
threshold
road
tires
stabilizer
short in the line
telescope
archive
level ground
fire (rolled cigarettes)

Ontological States

Expressed modes of being or awareness.

staging (an 89-day interval held as work platform, explicitly named 'a pause and also not')
sovereign (all systems assessed and sequenced by himself, without a helper or crew)
provisional-competence (skills acquired in sequence — leveling and dumping already resolved, reversing still open)
questioning (states he has felt out of step his whole life and is questioning everything at 47)
runway-bounded (states he has time but not a lot of time before money runs out)

Engaged Subsystems

Architecture engaged in this transmission.

infrastructural (RV mechanical inventory: tires, stabilizer, vents, slide, camera, tanks, propane)
electrical (shore-power vs battery discrepancy diagnosed as a short in the line)
network (Starlink line-of-sight governing site choice)
logistical (route planning to gas-station granularity, tank-dump cadence, site maneuvering)
economic (client income, monetization design, Patreon conditioned on delivered value)
creative (two-channel consolidation, book from journal archive, Minecraft mod development)
somatic (sleep degradation on the bed, cooking absence, nicotine intake shifting to vape)
social (adjacent campers, snickering observer, park manager proximity, solitude tolerance)
cosmological (stargazing as the stated object of the pilgrimage)
pedagogical (documenting his own learning curve as usable material for viewers)

Dominant Language

Core motifs or linguistic fields.

89 days / three months
pilgrimage
I need to get that fixed
perfect condition
thoroughly plan it out
value
challenges
it's a pause but it's also not
Narrative

The slide was out and the light indoors was steady enough to work by, so rswfire sat rolling cigarettes — three left in the pouch, he figured, and he wanted them done before he talked. He named the habit without defending it: sixteen years, more vaping lately, especially indoors. Outside, the campground was filling. A site sat close on one side, open tent structure, no obvious way to string a tarp for cover even if he wanted one. He turned the question over aloud — how he felt about the proximity — and answered it in the same breath. He still liked his solitude. This was tolerable.

He had chosen this site over the wooded one. That trade was already settled and he restated it as a matter of arithmetic rather than preference: the trees meant privacy, the trees meant no Starlink line-of-sight, and for what he was doing over the next three months, internet was the deciding variable. Eighty-nine days here. Five weeks at this particular spot before the first move.

Then the inventory. He started with the tires on the driver's side, where the slide extends — the weight, maybe, or the age, six years or eight, he'd have to confirm. They didn't look good to him. He couldn't even find the valve nozzle to put air in them, and that discovery was what had made him nervous about the drive in. One stabilizer didn't work at all; he'd been shimming it with Lego bricks, and getting the length exactly right was hard, and he'd been living with that for a while now. The step to the door turned on when the rig ran on battery and stayed dark on shore power — which meant, he reasoned out loud, a short somewhere in the line. Tank sensors he could install himself. Propane was routine. The hole he could see outside the slide, and whether a slide is something you grease — his father had told him once, but looking at the mechanism, it didn't seem like it was — those needed an RV tech. Two vent fans, one of them the bathroom unit he called crap outright, with a plan to cascade the working one down to replace it. The back camera looked adjustable if he climbed up with the right tool. And the whole chassis to a Mercedes-Benz shop for oil and a full look-over. He wanted every base covered. He asked the camera to tell him what he'd missed.

All of it was in service of one thing, and when he got to it the register didn't change. Two thousand miles to Nevada, and he wanted the rig as close to perfect as he could get it before it moved. He was calling it a pilgrimage because that was what it felt like. He said he had felt out of step with the world his entire life, that he was forty-seven, that he was questioning everything these days. What he wanted at the other end was the sky — the darkest skies in the country, they say — and to see the Milky Way with his own eyes, the band of it, the thing he had only ever seen in images. Maybe a telescope beforehand, nothing expensive, enough for Venus and Mars. He mentioned, dryly, that knowing himself he'd try to stare at the sun; he'd done that once already, without a telescope, and thought he'd damaged his eyes. He was hoping for a transformation. That was the idea.

The planning would be granular. Every step of the way, every gas station, thoroughly mapped. Departure sometime in August put arrival in September, maybe October, which he suspected was a good time of year to be there. From the road he moved to the channels: two, this one and the gaming channel, Minecraft mostly. No hiking channel — he was already outdoors, so hiking went here. No arts and crafts channel — he didn't do it often enough, and when he did it belonged here anyway, an expression of himself. Beneath that sat the money. His client of ten years said everything was fine, so he had time, but not a lot of time. A book from his own life, the thing he had always wanted to do, with journals going back years and a bag of memories — the only things he'd kept from the house. Someone had suggested a Patreon with early access to chapters. He liked it conditionally: he would start one only if he could figure out how to give real value first. He couldn't just ask for money. Mods for Minecraft, maybe, since he was a programmer — but that was months out, and his first Minecraft video had brought in no subscribers at all.

The harder things he listed the same way he listed the tires. He hated the bed. Changing the mattress hadn't fixed it, sleeping the other direction hadn't either, and he wasn't getting enough sleep; he missed sleeping well. He wasn't a cook, DoorDash was gone out here, and he was still afraid to get propane. He drew the line himself: his challenges wouldn't be anyone else's, but everyone had them, and watching him work through his might be useful to someone working through theirs. Then the ledger of what had already resolved. Leveling — once a fear, now easy. Dumping the tanks the day before — he had been afraid of it, and it turned out to be nothing.

What remained open was reversing. He told the story straight through: the rain, the Jeep, not knowing the protocol for backing a towed rig into a site without blocking the road, so he unhooked the Jeep, forgot the parking brake, and watched it start rolling. He ran for it, got the door open, reached for the brake — and the tow device was in the way, and then he found the parking brake. The volunteer park manager's site sits directly across from his. He hoped the man hadn't seen. Later, mid-reverse and feeling good about it, he stepped out to check and found himself deep in the grass, nowhere near the path, on a genuinely hard angle. He would have to do it again. He would watch other people do it — everyone here has to. He noted that they always seem to have a helper guiding them, and he doesn't. He remembered a man at the last campground snickering at his stabilizers while walking past with his wife, and he named it plainly: judgmental, trying to sound impressive, sounding like a jerk instead. He said he would still care if people watched. He said it wouldn't stop him. He would get out and check as many times as it took, because that is what you should do.

He wound it down before it turned into rambling. Eighty-nine days, and not one of them spent sitting around — he wanted that on record. A pause, he said, but also not. A change of pace. Something he needed. And worth documenting for that reason alone: so someone watching would know they were allowed to slow down, that nothing had to be rushed, that a person can take the time required to do the things that need doing. He ended it there and wished them a good weekend.

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