Happy Thanksgiving and Veteran’s Day!!

Posted on November 11, 2013 by liv2rv

As with Halloween, Thanksgiving has come early here in Campbellsville. Amazon had a catered Thanksgiving meal of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, pumpkin pie and apple pie today, for all the employees. It was very good, and we both appreciated the gesture by Amazon. My pedometer read 11 miles at the end of our shift, so I figured I burned off everything I ate…could have had another piece of pie!!

Amazon also paid tribute to all the employee’s that are Veteran’s, and gave them a special pin.

Today the 12th and final group of workcampers started, so Amazon handed out the 2013 Amazon Camperforce t-shirts to all of us as we left. People were very excited about the color of the shirts this year, turquoise. There is a day in December that we are all supposed to wear them. Amazon has lot’s of activities planned in December for all their employees, to keep us going during peak season. It should be an interesting month.

Tonight they are predicting an “artic blast” coming thru, with temperatures below freezing. We might even see a snowflake or two! This just gives us further incentive to keep looking at more campgrounds in Florida for February!

Last week we did go to the National Corvette Museum and the Corvette Assembly plant in Bowling Green, KY. I have been having problems uploading photos with this slow as molasses internet, so I will wait to post on that until I can get the photos working.

We signed up for voluntary overtime on Thursday. We have to call the morning of, to see if it is still on, as it could be cancelled. So place your orders folks, so we can keep busy!

Last night we had dinner in town with another couple, Phil and Rudee. I have been following their blog for a year or so, and they are now working at Amazon for the first time as well. It was great getting to meet them in person, and listening to their adventures. You can check out their blog at http://workinrvers.blogspot.com/

Tomorrow is our “Friday”, which means “happy dance Tuesday”!! I have a few other ladies that join in with me on the happy dance! It doesn’t take people long to catch on to doing a little dance at the end of the workweek!

Quote for the day: “On this Veterans Day, let us remember the service of our veterans, and let us renew our national promise to fulfill our sacred obligations to our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much so that we can live free.” – Dan Lipinski

7 weeks to go!

Posted on November 4, 2013 by liv2rv

Yes, just 7 more weeks left of work at Amazon. December 23 is the last day of work for the workcampers. Today another group of 60+ campers started. Next Monday, the last group of workcampers starts. After that, this location will be hiring an additional 1200 employees from a temp agency. So it will be getting quite busy and crowded at work.

Christmas is definitely around the corner, based on all the lights, ornaments, and Christmas CD’s and DVD’s that we have been picking this week. And there have been a lot of new releases on DVD’s, as we have picked a lot of The Hobbit and the full volume set of Twilight.

The week of Thanksgiving, we will be off on Tuesday, and working on Friday. All shifts have been adjusted, so everyone is working on “Black Friday”. Should be interesting to see how that will work out. After that, we may have 3 weeks of overtime. Depending on the volume, we could be working 50 or 60 hours each week in December.

I finally found my pedometer, and have worn it the last 3 days. Saturday I walked 13 miles at work, Sunday 12 1/2 miles, and today was a “light” day at 10 miles. No wonder I am so pooped out after work! I am doing a half marathon every day!! I have lost 5 pounds already. Dan has no comment on his weight loss!

We have booked a one month stay at a campground in Cedar Key, Florida from January 2 – February 2. Other than that, we have not yet made any plans. We will probably slowly meander down to Florida from Kentucky after we leave on the 24th. Originally we thought about going to Texas to visit my sister, and then on to Arizona, but decided to go for the warm weather in Florida instead!

Yesterday we moved to another site at the State Park. After November 1, Amazon workers are allowed to move wherever they want in the park. We just had to wait for a couple from Lexington to leave, and then we moved to a lakefront site.

our new view

Thanks Amazon, for our free lakefront living!! It is a nice, concrete pad with an extra pad for the picnic table. But for some reason, we are now down to just one channel (the CW) on the TV! We only moved about 100 feet, but lost the 3 Kentucky education channels. I didn’t think I would miss TV, but I do. One can only put up with so much “People’s Court”, which is what seems to be the only thing on.

We hope all is well with everyone. If you thought you signed up for the blog, but have not been getting e-mails when we make a post, just sign up again. There was a few days when it was not working, but seems to be now.

Quote for the day: “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” – Epictetus

Final stop on the Bourbon Trail

Posted on November 1, 2013 by liv2rv

Wednesday turned out to be a pretty nice day, low 70’s, so we decided to complete the final to stops on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. We started at Heavens Hill, in Bardstown, KY. We had been here before, so we did skip the tour, but got our passport stamped. Their visitors center has a lot of interesting information on the history of bourbon.

Heaven Hill had a huge fire several years ago that destroyed over a dozen warehouses. As with all the distillery’s, the warehouses are spaced pretty far apart, but once several thousand barrels of bourbon starts on fire, there isn’t much anyone can do to contain it.

Heaven Hill warehouses

Below is an example of a copper pot that was used in the past by moonshiners.

A simple copper still pot

Heaven Hill has on display many historical photographs from the days of Prohibition.

Heaven Hill was founded by William Heavenhill. It is believed that a typists error on the distillers permit put a space in between Heaven and hill, and the company could not afford the fee to have it corrected, so it was left as two words. Their main brands of bourbon are Elijah Craig and Evan Williams. Elijah Craig is considered the “father” of bourbon, as he was a minister, and was the first person to char the barrels that the whiskey is placed in for aging. Evan Williams was Kentucky’s first commercial distiller, rolling out the first barrel in 1783.

After Heaven Hill, we headed to our final stop on the tour, Jim Beam, in Clermont, KY. Beam is considered to be the number one bourbon distillery by volume. We had also done their tour last year, but they completely revamped it, and built a brand new visitors center for 2013, so we decided to go on their tour. At $10, it was the most expensive of the tours. They had to raise the price of their tour because so many people were stealing their tasting glasses, that they now give them as a “complimentary” gift! Also on our tour was a number of students from the national Future Farmers of America (FFA) convention that is going on in Louisville. You don’t have to be 21 to go on the tour, only to sample the product. It was good to see the students learning about the importance of the grains. After all, they could be the future farmers providing these important ingredients.

Jim Beam complex

The tour this year was very interactive and informative. This is the new visitors center:

lounging on the rocking chair

The tour starts out by going over a small-scale example of a distillery, and then goes into the main plant to see their operations. During the tour, visitors have an opportunity to fill a barrel, dump a barrel, and rinse out bottles.

We were able to watch the bottling of the single batch of Knob Creek. Dan participated in the rinsing of the bottles. The bottles are not rinsed with water, only bourbon. You could then put a sticker with your initials on the bottle, and follow it along during the filling, labeling and hand dipping of the bottles. They only hand dip the single batch bottles. Then they will engrave the bottle with today’s date. Follow along on our bottle’s journey….

single barrel Knob Creek

rinsing the bottle

placing it on the filling line

Dan’s bottle “DVA”

filling

capping

Unlike Makers Mark, they don’t let you dip your own bottles.

hand dipping

The finished product!

Now if anyone wants to join us in the “sampling”, come on down to Kentucky! We’ll be here until December 24th!. Continuing on with our tour, we went into one of the barrel warehouses.

barrel warehouse at Jim Beam

Jim Beam has two warehouses that sit on either side of a Baptist Church.

this bourbon’s safe

Jim Beam also has a huge display of souvenir containers that actually contained their bourbon and was given out as gift items.

This is part of their copper pots. They have one above ground, and one below ground in a blast proof container.

Final stop on the tour was the tasting room. They give you a plastic card that you insert into the machine below, and it dispenses two small samples of your choice.

The tasting machines

And now onto our favorites. We both enjoyed the Woodford Reserve the best, as a good sipping whiskey. Makers Mark was also good, but the triple distilling at Woodford made their whiskey a bit smoother. The regular Jim Beam or the Four Roses yellow label would be good for all the recipes that call for bourbon in the ingredients.

As far as tours goes, again we felt the Woodford Reserve tour was the best, followed by both Makers Mark and Jim Beam. If you are in the Kentucky area for a week or so, the Bourbon Trail is a fun thing to do. Except for two, the distillery’s are 20 – 50 miles apart, so this is not something that could be easily done in a weekend.

Quote for the day: “Whiskey is by far the most popular of all remedies that won’t cure a cold.” – Jerry Vale

Abe’s birthplace & boyhood home

Posted on October 27, 2013 by liv2rv

On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born to Thomas and Nancy in a small log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm just south of Hodgen’s Mill, Kentucky (now called Hodgenville). Abraham was named after his grandfather. He had an older sister, Sarah. Thomas had purchased the farm in December 1808, for $200 for 300 acres of land. The Lincoln’s moved to Knob Creek area 2 years after his birth, due to a land dispute on the Sinking Spring Farm.

Hodgensville, KY

In 1907, an effort began to preserve Lincoln’s birthplace, and what was thought was the actual cabin that he was born in. Over 100,000 citizens donated $350,000 to build a memorial for Lincoln, and his log cabin. President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone in 1909. In 1911, President William Howard Taft dedicated the memorial. It was almost 50 years later, when they determined it was not the exact cabin, but is considered symbolic of the cabin.

Lincoln’s Birthplace 56 steps to the top

There are 56 steps on the memorial, one for each year of Lincoln’s life. Inside the memorial is the log cabin that is symbolic of the period. It is still the original cabin that was placed in the memorial in 1907. There is nothing inside this cabin, and nothing else inside the memorial.

Park Rangers take good photos

only 1 window & door

The visitor center of the park has a nice 15 minute video on Lincoln’s time at this farm, along with what they believe the inside of the cabin would have looked like.

Life in a 1 room log cabin

On the grounds you can still see the spring that gave the farm the Sinking Spring name.

Sinking Springs on Lincoln’s birthplace

In 1811, the Lincoln’s moved 10 miles northeast to a farm on Knob Creek. Lincoln stated his earliest recollections of his life were at the Knob Creek farm, where he helped his parents farm many crops on the fertile soil. There are no original buildings remaining from Lincoln’s time on this property.

Knob Creek Property

The land at Knob Creek is a beautiful area, and the National Park Service has left it undeveloped. There is a walking trail that goes around the park, so you can walk and hike in the same area that Lincoln did when he was a boy. The park service has planted a small garden to represent all the crops that would have been grown on the land by the Lincoln family.

Example of garden crops

The park service also obtained and rebuilt the one room log cabin owned by the family of Austin Gollaher. Austin was Abraham’s childhood friend. The boys were out playing near a creek one day and Lincoln fell in and almost drowned. It was Austin that had saved is life. Imagine how different our country would be today, if Lincoln was not the 16th President.

Austin Gollaher’s cabin

In 1816, Lincoln’s father lost his court battle over the Sinking Spring Farm. In addition, the family was being evicted from the Knob Creek farm over a land dispute. In December of 1816, the Lincoln family packed up and moved to Indiana. Lincoln would never return to the state of Kentucky.

In 1928, Hattie and Chester Howard purchased the Knob Creek farm, and they built the Lincoln Tavern on the site to both honor Lincoln and capitalize on tourism in the area. The park service took over the site on 2001. The tavern building is not open to the public, and the park service has not decided what to do with it.

The Lincoln Tavern

Quote for the day: “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

Fort Knox and 9/11

Posted on October 26, 2013 by liv2rv

Fort Knox is an actual city in Kentucky, and covers three different counties. The military base was established in April of 1918, as the military was in need of new bases for training soldiers in WWI. When WWI ended in November of 1918, the base was used as an area to bring the returning troops home to, and then as a peacetime training facility for the Army.

In WWII, in addition to training soldiers, it was used as a POW camp. Since then, it has undergone different assignments, but continues to be an active base for the Army, and in training soldiers.

The most famous building on Fort Knox is the United States Bullion Depository. We were surprised by how close to the highway the building is. The building is not open to the public, and I took the photo was Dan was driving down the highway.

The building is more commonly referred to as the “gold vault”, as it houses the largest portion of the United States gold reserve. The first gold was brought to the building in 1937, and protected by the 7th Cavalry Brigade. In addition to gold, during WWII the building housed the Declaration of Independence, the United State Constitution, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, three volumes of the Gutenberg Bible and the Magna Carta.

The James Bond movie Goldfinger was partially filmed at Fort Knox, as Bond prevented Goldfinger from destroying the gold depository. The most recent movie filmed at Fort Knox was Stripes, with Bill Murray. In the movie, the base was called Fort Arnold. The city scenes in the movie were filmed in Louisville.

After Fort Knox, we stopped at the Kentucky Veteran’s Cemetery in Radcliff, KY to see The Kentucky September 11th Memorial. The memorial was constructed from a piece of steel from the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The wall behind the steel beam is made of bricks recovered from the Pentagon.

Kentucky 9/11 Memorial

Base of the memorial

Quote for the day:

For me and my family personally, September 11 was a reminder that life is fleeting, impermanent, and uncertain. Therefore, we must make use of every moment and nurture it with affection, tenderness, beauty, creativity, and laughter.

–Deepak Chopra, M.D.

General Patton

Posted on October 25, 2013 by liv2rv

We have decided to take a break from distillery tours, since some others venues have now opened back up. Thursday we drove up to Fort Knox, Kentucky to see the General George Patton Museum of Leadership (cost: free). This is the Army’s only museum dedicated to the history of Army leadership at all levels. It was first opened in 1949 as the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor and was in operation until 2010. Many of the tanks have since been moved to Georgia, and the museum is currently undergoing a transformation with the new leadership format. There are many exhibits that are still under construction. Probably by next year, it will be completed. Regardless, it was well worth a visit. The museum covers Army history from 1775 right up to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. It is also the first museum we have visited that encourages you to bring in your smart phone or tablet device. They have free Wi-Fi, and encourage you to download the museums app. There are multiple spots where you can scan a code into the smart-phone, and it will provide additional information and videos on the display that is in front of you.

Patton Museum

They do have a few tanks remaining outside the museum.

seems like a small tank

They also have Armor Memorial Park outside, and this monument caught my attention, as it had a wreath by it. It was honoring the F Force troop in Vietnam. My two older brothers served in Vietnam, thank you Greg and Jerry. And thank you to all our veterans.

Vietnam Memorial

General George S. Patton, Jr. (born 1885), came from a military family, and attended both the Virginia Military Institute and West Point. He worked his way up through the ranks and had 438,000 GI’s under his command in the Third Army in WWII.

Patton’s West Point uniform

Patton, as a Lieutenant, participated in the pentathlon in Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden in 1912. After the Olympics, he studied with the French Cavalry and is credited with designing the M1913 cavalry saber. The design became known as the “Patton Saber” and was effective at piercing an opponent. It was the last saber issued by the Army. Below is a photo of the saber, along with a toy wooden saber that Patton played with as a child.

Prototype and wooden toy sword

Patton purchased a Colt 45 revolver in 1916 in Texas, and carried it with him until his death in 1945. This revolver was designed in 1872, and was the standard issue service revolver used by the Army until 1892.

Patton’s Colt 45

Who knew Patton was an RV’er??!! This was his quarters that he lived in when he was out with the troops. Patton was loved by his soldiers because he stayed with them, unlike other Generals that would stay in hotels. Patton believed an effective leader needs to be out front with his soldiers.

Patton’s ‘RV’

Inside Patton’s ‘RV’

Patton’s Leadership

Below is a photo of the restored 1938 Cadillac Limousine, Series 75, that was given to him in 1945 by his troops after it was seized from the Nazi’s.

Patton’s Limo

On Sunday, December 9, 1945, General Patton was riding in the back seat, heading out for a pheasant hunt when his driver, a private first class struck a truck that turned in front of them. Patton was thrown forward and struck his head on the glass divider, which fractured his neck and paralyzed him. Patton was hospitalized, and ordered that no investigation be made of the accident, as he did not want any discipline to occur of either driver. The museum displays part of his hospital records. He was reported to be improving, but 12 days after the accident his vitals rapidly declined and he passed away from a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in his lung). Patton was only 60 years old when he passed away.

General Patton

The museum has a large collection of weapons.

Coach T your dad could add this one to his collection!

And tanks

Hanging with the tank guys

They also had a small recognition of General Colin Powell, and listed his 13 rules to live by. I think we should all follow these (you may need to double-click on this photo to read all of them).

Colin Powell’s excellent tips to live by

The newest exhibit at the museum, which arrived on September 11, 2013 and is still under construction, is a fire truck from the US Army that was on duty at the Pentagon on 9/11/2001. The truck was damaged during the attack on the Pentagon.

US Army Foam 161 was on duty at Pentagon

Damage from Pentagon 9/11/2001

We will definitely return to this museum, as it is only going to improve as it develops more exhibits.

Quote for the day: The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. – George S. Patton

Part 2 of the KY Bourbon Trail

Posted on October 21, 2013 by liv2rv

Only 1 more day to go and it’s the weekend for us!!! The internet works better when 200 campers leave. So to continue on with last Thursday’s journey, we went to Woodford Reserve Distillery in Versailles, KY for their tour (cost $7.00). It was a beautiful drive thru horse farms to get to the distillery, which is also a National Historic Landmark. The tour was excellent, as we were able to see a few things we have not experienced before.

Woodford Reserve -Versailles, KY

One nice part of the tour was everyone was given headphones, so we could clearly hear what the tour guide was saying. He started out discussing what makes a bourbon, and the 5 sources of flavor (grains, water, yeast, copper pot distilling, and aging in barrels). Woodford Reserve has one recipe, and one bourbon, all distilled in small batches.

5 sources of flavor

Woodford Reserve is the only distillery in Kentucky that triple distills their bourbon, which creates a smoother taste.

triple distilled at Woodford Reserve

We were able to watch an employee hand stamp all their barrels with their logo, as well as the date, as they were filling the barrels while we were there.

in 6-8 years, todays barrels will be ready to drink!

filling the barrels at Woodford Reserve

After the bourbon goes thru the 3 copper pot stills, it goes into a barrel. The barrels are then sent down what looks like railroad tracks, to the only surviving limestone aging warehouse in the United States.

barrels go down these rails after bottling

from filling to the warehouse

only limestone warehouse in Kentucky

limestone barrel warehouse

Inside the warehouse are hundreds of barrels, just waiting for the right time, usually 6-8 years.

barrel warehouse – Woodford Reserve

When the master distiller determines the bourbon in the barrels has reached its full maturity, those barrels are taken from the warehouse and brought into the bottling area. An employee uses a lift to place the barrels on a trough, and then drills out the barrel stop, rolls the barrel over, and the bourbon drains out.

drilling out the cork – barrel is ready to bottle!

You can see the bourbon pouring out of the barrel below on the right.

bourbon fresh out of the barrel

The bourbon then goes to these large tanks for filtering, mixing and then on to bottling.

from barrel to blending/filtering tanks

bottling, labeling, packaging

The tour was great, and we really enjoyed the Woodford Reserve bourbon. Plus, we got to keep the RV friendly acrylic glass that our sample came in!

bottoms up!

After Woodford Reserve, it was off to our final stop for the day, at the Town Branch Distillery in Lexington, KY. This distillery is new to the Bourbon Trail for 2013. They have both whiskey, and craft beer.

Town Branch Distillery in Lexington

We toured both the brewery, and then the distillery, which is only operating part-time now, as it is new. The brewery uses an old 1940’s bottling machine for their beer. It reminded me of an old episode of Laverne and Shirley.

1940’s bottling machine

Their bourbon was okay, but they had excellent craft beer. The best that we tasted was Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. They take their Ale beer, and then put it into used bourbon barrels, for 6 weeks of aging. It was one of the best tasting beers we have ever had. They said they are now selling their beer in Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. So if you have a chance to purchase their beer, I would recommend it! It comes in a 4-pack, and was a bit pricey down here at $11.99. But it was very tasty.

They also have a Kolsch-style beer, regular Kentucky Ale, and a hoppy IPA. We also liked the Kolsch-style beer (can’t be called just Kolsch, as it was not made in Germany). It was a lighter style of beer.

All in all, it was a good day working our way around Kentucky. Only 2 more distilleries to go, to complete our passport.

Quote for the day: “I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.” Lucille Ball

Happy Halloween!!

Posted on October 20, 2013 by liv2rv

This weekend at the state park was sold out, due to their annual Halloween festivities. I knew it was going to be an interesting weekend when our neighbor came over and asked Dan for help moving his coffins!

Friday night they had a folk singer and a storyteller for the kids, plus hot chocolate and a bonfire. Saturday was the big day for the kids. In the afternoon, they had a lot of games and craft activities. Plus a costume and decorating contest. We had to work, but did make it home in time for trick-or-treat. Makena wore her Packers jersey, and received many compliments. We really didn’t know how much to plan for candy, and we did run out. Duck Hunters seemed to be a popular costume for the boys, and there were two girls that dressed up as I-phones, and they had photos of each other on the corner of the phone (face-time!). Very creative costumes.

At night they had a DJ playing music, and “spooky golf” in their mini golf area. The big event for the adults was the decorating contest. These folks really go all out with their decorating. Enjoy the photos of some of the rigs:

Quote for the day: “A grandmother pretends she doesn’t know who you are on Halloween.” – Erma Bombeck

Continuing on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail

Posted on October 18, 2013 by liv2rv

Thursday was a bit rainy, so we decided to just go and visit some more distilleries. There are seven major distilleries that are a part of the Bourbon Trail. You get a passport that lists each one, and when you visit the distillery, you get your passport stamped. Once you have visited all seven locations, then you can turn the passport in for a “free” t-shirt (not factoring in the cost of gas and admission fees for the tours!)

We did four distilleries on Thursday, but due to painfully slow internet service today at the park, I will only discuss the first two. It is simply taking forever to upload photos. I will do a follow-up post with the second ones, which also included a craft brewery. The park is again sold out, and they are gearing up for Halloween this weekend. We are stocked up on candy for the kids (did not find any boxes of Dots though…bummer!)

Our fist stop was Four Roses Bourbon, in Lawrenceburg, KY. The tour is free. The distillery, built in 1910, is of Spanish Mission-style architecture and is on the National Register of Historic Places. They are the only distillery that uses single-story rack warehouses, so they do not have to rotate barrels and the barrels are not subject to temperature variances like the barrels in multi-story buildings are. Given the age of the distillery, it was very cramped for a large tour group, but nice to see they are still using equipment that is older than I am. We were able to sample a single barrel bottle, small batch bottle and the Four Roses Yellow, which they recommend for mixed drinks. The Yellow label was good.

Welcome to Four Roses

Four Roses Distillery

old copper pot at Four Roses

overview of fermentation vats

Our second stop was at Wild Turkey, also in Lawrenceburg. Cost of their tour is $5.00. They are situated on over 900 acres. Wild Turkey recently created a new distillery and bottling plant in 2010. By volume, they produce the 2nd most whiskey in the world. It was a very industrial-feeling tour, unlike the other distilleries. Very clean and modern, most everything is now run by computers. We were able to sample several different types of their bourbon whiskeys. Personally, I did not like any of them. I thought they were too harsh tasting.

The new distillery building

They have a big barrel in their fermentation room for photo ops. Even with all the new modern equipment, the distillery still shuts down in July and August, because they are not able to keep the temperature in this room below 90 degrees. The temperature of the yeast must stay under 90 degrees or it will spoil the whole batch. You can see the vats behind us.

giddy-up!

Everything in the tour at Wild Turkey was behind glass, so the indoor pictures didn’t turn out too well. Every day the master distillers sample their product in this room. They can only sample for 15 minutes at a time, or else their taste buds get over saturated.

quality control room

Look for part two of our day coming soon! Hope everyone has a great weekend! Back to work for us tomorrow!

Quote for the day: “He was a wise man who invented beer” – Plato

You’ve got mail…

Posted on October 16, 2013 by liv2rv

Probably the number one question that we have received, is “how will you get your mail?” Since it was just Columbus Day, and you didn’t get mail, I thought we would have a topic on mail. When we decided to change our residency to South Dakota, we set up a service with a Mail Forwarding Company. There are a number of companies in SD, Texas and Florida that work with full-time RV’ers to handle their mail and other paperwork. After searching several companies, and talking with the people who work at those companies, we went with MyDakotaAddress.com, in Madison, SD.

downtown Madison, SD

We have been very happy with the service that we have received so far. As with all the companies we checked into, they offer several options for service. We chose to receive our mail once a month, as we already receive and pay all of our bills on-line. We have switched several magazines to an IPad app, so we do not receive much important regular mail anymore. We pay $76.00 for 13 months, plus actual postage costs. Once a month I send an e-mail requesting our mail, and give them our current address, and about 3 days later we receive a large package from the post office. If we needed something quicker, they will send the mail via FedEx or UPS.

You can also have your mail sent twice a month, weekly, or have them send you an e-mail each day that you receive a piece of mail. It’s whatever you want to spend, as each level of service costs more. In addition to the mail service, they will also take care of our vehicle and RV registrations, and helped us set up our voter registration and change in residency/drivers license forms.

When we arrived in South Dakota, it took us a grand total of 1 1/2 hours to set up our new mailing address, register to vote, change over vehicle titles, get license plates and new drivers license. It was a very efficient process, and Terri Lund at MyDakotaAddress was a huge help in completing all the paperwork for us. I would definitely recommend them if anyone is in need of a mailing service.

Just to update what we have been up to:

Makena wants to thank everyone for their comments and e-mails regarding the blog post she did. She wants everyone to know she has agreed not to stand on the kitchen table. We also have a couple that is letting her out while we are on our 10 hour days, Saturday – Tuesday, 6:30am – 5:00pm. We let their dogs out, as they work 2nd shift, which is from 5:30pm – 3:30am.

no table…while they are home

The park has been filling up on the weekends, and is booked solid these next 2 weekends for their Halloween festivities. After that, it is closed to the public.

Amazon is up to 310 workampers that have started, and has 5 more groups to bring in, about 50 a week. As pickers, we are expected to do 85% of what a regular full-time picker does. In other words, if they pick 100 items an hour, we are expected to pick 85 items. They give you until your fourth week to try to get up to speed. Yesterday, after week 3, they posted our numbers. Dan is at 108%, and I am at 125%. We are both fast walkers, so I think that is why are numbers are so high. Everyone has been very nice, and helpful. The hardest part is just getting to know where everything is. I am also having a hard time when my scanner has me picking automotive parts (what is a solenoid?), and some hunting/fishing items. Now when my scanner has me picking housewares, I just grab the item without hesitation!

It’s raining today, so we just are having a leisurely day. We are looking at some brochures to see what to do the next few days. We hope everyone is doing well.

Quote for the Day: I also hate those holidays that fall on a Monday where you don’t get mail, those fake holidays like Columbus Day. What did Christopher Columbus do, discover America? If he hadn’t, somebody else would have and we’d still be here. Big deal. John Waters

Liv2RV

Living and working around the country in a RV

Happy Thanksgiving and Veteran’s Day!!

7 weeks to go!

Final stop on the Bourbon Trail

Abe’s birthplace & boyhood home

Fort Knox and 9/11

General Patton

Part 2 of the KY Bourbon Trail

Happy Halloween!!

Continuing on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail

You’ve got mail…