It's been a hectic month

The last few weeks have been hectic. (I'll get to that in a minute.)

But now I'm in Costa Rica for the next three to four months enjoying the warm sunshine and the relaxing pace of life in this part of the world.

As you can see in the picture above, when I look off my balcony at the jungle with the coffee plants, banana trees (they're not really trees), and flowers, I'm in a different world from the snow and ice I left.

It got cold in Texas

For five days, when I was on the beach in Galveston, Texas, there was no power, and the temperature went down in the teens. There was no natural gas for the houses in the area, so they were really hurting. At least, I had propane and a generator.

I had my new lithium-ion batteries, and they worked great, but there was one problem. Lithium-ion batteries won't take a charge when they are below about 25 degrees. So even though I had a generator, I couldn't charge my coach batteries. And without batteries, the propane furnace wouldn't work.

I remember back this summer when I installed my new lithium-ion battery system, I thought about putting the batteries inside the coach to keep them above 25 degrees. Then I decided that I never planned to be anywhere that it was below 25 degrees. Well, I didn't plan to be where it got that cold, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans . . .

That's only part of the story

To make things worse, the day before the Texas snow and ice storm hit, somebody made a left turn at a red light into my car and totaled it. It took his insurance company three weeks to decide that the car was totaled. By then, it was too late to buy another car, so I dropped the pressure in the dolly tires down to 20 psi and towed the dolly back to North Carolina without a car on it.

I'm going to wait until I get back from Costa Rica before I buy another car.

To complicate things even more, I couldn't find the title to my car, and as expected, the insurance company didn't want to pay me for my car until I give them the title. I have sent the notarized paperwork to the NC DMV to get a replacement title. I guess there's no hurry. I'm not going to spend the money and buy another car until I return to the US.

I now officially live in Texas

To add more complications to my last month, I spend several days driving around Texas to get my address set up with Escapees and then get my motorhome inspected and registered in Texas. I decided to officially move from North Carolina to Texas, mainly because there's no state income tax in Texas. After all, as an RVer, I have to declare someplace as my home.

Bottom line: As I said, the last month has been hectic, but now I'm enjoying the warm weather and relaxed Costa Rica lifestyle for the next few months. RV life is back to being good.