information Eric Lyon - Updates On Recovery Process / Maiden Voyage

[Eric Lyon]

As quoted from my FaceBook update:

Update: getting ready for the maiden voyage on the 22nd we decided to add 2 more features. On the driver side, we added a smartphone/GPS mount so I can use GPS, FaceTime communication, or record clips of me while driving. In the center of the windshield, we added a dash cam that will allow us to record the views we see or maybe catch something interesting to share with others. If you haven't guessed by now, we might (not sure yet) get our feet wet in a video series. The details of the series are currently confidential, but I can say that it would combine 2 or more industries for both educational and entertainment purposes.

Source

Note: ( @Eric Lyon & @Amanda )The maiden voyage will be:

• Houston , Texas to Center, Texas
• Center, Texas to San Antonio, Texas
• San Antonio, Texas to Austin, Texas
• Austin, Texas to Boerne, Texas
• Boerne, Texas to Houston, Texas

We'll then stay in Houston for Christmas and start charting out a winter trip (After Christmas) along the southern bible belt states, possibly stopping in Florida somewhere for a little while until spring/mid-spring.

We won't be doing much in the way of meet-ups during our maiden voyage so that we can focus on our rig, dolly, and towed/toad vehicle. We want to make sure that everything goes smoothly before we start doing official meet-ups with other domain investors, developers, designers, hosts, registrars, registries, conferences, events, etc.

This trip will give us a better idea about any unforeseen repairs or upgrades that may be needed so it's important that we give our set-up our full attention this trip.

When we start doing meet-ups, we'll be using the events and meet-ups forum to announce the locations.

 

[offthehandle]

Enjoyed the photos, keep posting them as you can. For your adventure, you might get a youtube channel too, just for shorts from your cell, so you don't need to spend time editing. Enjoy.

 

[Eric Lyon]

Nice. This just refreshes my memories when I used to drive big rigs - cali to Boston - before getting into med school. What a life experience it was on the road.

I am glad you are taking off the time to visit places. Keep us posted. Your little man also seems to enjoy tractors.

It's a good experience for him too.

I operated tractor trailers (18 wheelers) as well for several years (Coast to coast). My endorsements were: Doubles/Triples, Hazmat, Tanker. Fun times with a few scary moments as air breaks went out going down a 15% grade in the mountains with a 25 mph sharp curve at the bottom and nothing but an aluminum guardrail to keep me from going over the cliff on the other side.

That's a story for another day.

I agree, I definitely want Julian to soak up some travel culture and historical education (Hands on instead of from a book).

 

[Eric Lyon]

Enjoyed the photos, keep posting them as you can. For your adventure, you might get a youtube channel too, just for shorts from your cell, so you don't need to spend time editing. Enjoy.

I may be adding a youtube channel in the future (After the maiden voyage) for a travel series with a twist. Still lots of things to work out.

 

[Eric Lyon]

Update: we now have reservations for medina lake, north west of San Antonio, Texas and south west of Austin, Texas. We check out around noon here and we'll hopefully be checking in to our pull through spot by 10pm tomorrow night at the lake for a week. The coming week will be visiting family in San Antonio, Texas, Austin, Texas, and possibly Boerne, Texas. Along with some Christmas lights previewing on the river walk in San Antonio. In between the events we'll be working remotely to keep things running smooth.

 

[johname]

 

[Eric Lyon]

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Nice job!

 

[Eric Lyon]

We are checked in at lake medina. Here's a few pics of the lake and clubhouse. The phone in the clubhouse is antique.

 

[Eric Lyon]

 

[Eric Lyon]

Mooooooo! @Amanda wouldn't let me stop to pet them :/

Would you believe that this suv had all it's tires and rims on last night parked there and is now on blocks? This isn't even a bad neighbourhood. I can't imagine the look on the owners face when they thought they were going to work this morning.

Just a few hill country road pics.

Flagged down a propane (L.P. gas) truck at the park here and refilled our 50 pound tank for $16.50. The way we use L.P. gas, that will last us 3+ months (stove, oven, hot water heater). Not a bad deal at all.

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Whenever I'm in San Antonio, Texas I always have to eat at my favorite Chinese place . Family owned, great service, and the best general Tao chicken I've found in the lower 48 states.

 

[Crysis]

Mooooooo! @Amanda wouldn't let me stop to pet them :/
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Would you believe that this suv had all it's tires and rims on last night parked there and is now on blocks? This isn't even a bad neighbourhood. I can't imagine the look on the owners face when they thought they were going to work this morning.

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Just a few hill country road pics.

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Flagged down a propane (L.P. gas) truck at the park here and refilled our 50 pound tank for $16.50. The way we use L.P. gas, that will last us 3+ months (stove, oven, hot water heater). Not a bad deal at all.

-----
Whenever I'm in San Antonio, Texas I always have to eat at my favorite Chinese place . Family owned, great service, and the best general Tao chicken I've found in the lower 48 states.

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TAO chicken looks delicious!!!

 

[Eric Lyon]

Sometimes, you stumble on the only local watering hole in 50 miles and it turns out to be a great experience. Great food and great music.

The wife @Amanda was looking for wine today and I almost bought this for myself, but then I was like, umm, if it kills me, it's my fault for ignoring the warning label. So I took a pic instead.

 

[Eric Lyon]

Note: first time use of the propane (l.p. gas) furnace report: fired it up around 7pm yesterday and turned off around 10 am today. It ran for 15 hours set at 65f degrees and used an 8th of a tank (50 pound tank). Our electric space heater appears to be best solution for temperatures above 32f degrees and the furnace for below 32f degrees. While we can refill our tank cost effectively enough, we may not always have a refilling station/truck available every 60 to 80 hours.

Japanese tea garden in december (San Antonio, Texas the day after the snow). Nice!

 

[Eric Lyon]

Just a few random Alamo and riverwalk pics

 

[Eric Lyon]

Update: We left Madina lake around 11 am (12/11/17) and checked into RiverBend RV park in Richmond, Texas around 5 pm. Nothing really picture worthy here. It's just several acres of flat land with no trees and a bunch of RV's packed together like sardines in a can. The rates good, the wifi is so-so, and the gender-neutral/unisex bathroom and showers are a bit disturbing. I'm sure a lot of people are comfortable having both/all sexes using the same showers and bathroom at the same time, but I can't seem to bring myself to be. Maybe I'm just shy.

In other news, We'll be here at least a month (Maybe 2) "Using our own RV shower and bathroom". We'll be taking this time to get company servers switched over, repairs done to the RV we identified was needed, and structuring something exciting for when we officially go on tour. The maiden voyage is over folks and now it's time to take the test run knowledge we gained and build something exciting from it. - We'll keep you posted.

 

[Lox]

@Eric Lyon What's going on w your brick house? Should we collect more funds? Let us know. Regards

 

[Eric Lyon]

@Eric Lyon What's going on w your brick house? Should we collect more funds? Let us know. Regards

Unfortunately, as I've mentioned prior in a few different places, the repair costs + refurnishing costs + used (New to us) vehicle costs + Appliances costs + misc. costs exceeded our savings, so we decided to take a few steps back from our loses and spin the situation into a positive by investing into an old motorhome, car, and dolly (We bought them outright, titles in hand).

This investment strategy allowed us to reduce our initial costs and recurring monthly expenses dramatically so we can focus better on saving back up. The only monthly expenses we have now are our mobile/data smartphone plan, AAA auto/motorhome insurance, and a couple misc. reoccurring bills (Hosting, renewals, etc.). We no longer have a water bill, cable bill, electric bill, internet bill, etc..

So far we have been lucky enough to find RV parks/resorts that only charge $300 to $500 per month and electric, internet, water, sewage, cable, etc. are all included in the one bill. We also have an on-board generator, propane system, and battery storage bank in the motorhome that allows us to generate our own power and boondock with no monthly expenses at all (We haven't done this yet, but do have plans to start testing things out more as we go to do it more).

The bonus of our investment choice is that it will also allow us to travel more and start a new adventure. We also have plans to launch a new business venture that complements our future travel plans here in the next few months (Currently in development).

Thanks for the kind words and offer for more support, however, I have faith that we will slowly recover and build something amazing as time goes on just fine. If anything, the best thing someone can do if they really still want to help is to reach out to me in private and see if maybe our new business venture would be a good fit to get your own business some more exposure through sponsorship.

Maybe it's my inner pride and hard-headedness, but I would feel better if we were providing someone with a valuable service/product in exchange for their patronage, rather than their donation at this point in our recovery process.

Thanks,

Added Note: We have lots more updates and photos of our adventure so far on my FaceBook timeline. Feel free to check that out if you want to see what we have been up to since this thread.

 

[Lox]

Thanks for update! You're right! I will contact you once we have a X project set up & ready for master-tune up.

Thanks again! Regards

 

[DU]

OfficeDrift.com

Coming Soon...a Texas, 47ft version of this:

 

[Kenny]

^^^ As my grandfather used to say when he heard squealing rubber ^^^
"There's a guy that doesn't buy his own tires."

Peace,
Kenny

 

[Kenny]

Not too far Off Topic...

Hi Eric,

Here is a story of a young couple living a similar lifestyle.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/couple-sold-belongings-traveling-world-van-two-years-161018507.html

Not as cool as your story, but interesting nonetheless.

Peace,
Kenny

 

[Eric Lyon]

Not too far Off Topic...

Hi Eric,

Here is a story of a young couple living a similar lifestyle.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/couple-sold-belongings-traveling-world-van-two-years-161018507.html

Not as cool as your story, but interesting nonetheless.

Peace,
Kenny

Thanks,

I traveled like this when I was single for several years as well in an 80's model Toyota dolphin (18 footer) and also in an 80's model conversion van. I had a stent of hitchhiking to for a little while in my early 20's. It's a lot different doing it with a family. The adventures are a little different as well. The good news is that our toddler is going to get some great culture at a young age and see the historical monuments in person to learn about U.S. history.

 

[Keral_Patel]

Some amazing pictures over there. I am sure this will be a life changing trip for you.