Monday, February 15, 2016

Random Thoughts, Lake Conroe RV Resort, Willis, TX - February 11-13, 2016

Random Thoughts, Lake Conroe RV Resort, Willis, TX  -  February 11-13, 2016

Obama Care strikes again. If you get your health insurance through the Healthcare.gov website (Obama Care), watch out. Normally it would work out good for us. But we have found the 'catch'. And we are kinda stuck in it.

Here is how it works. Late in the year (Nov, Dec), you report to  Healthcare.gov, what you expect your income to be for the following year. Then maybe you qualify for a subsidy for your health insurance. Now so far, that's great. We qualified for a subsidy of over $500.00 a month. Cool! Uncle Sam is gonna help us out with health insurance.

Now the 'catch'. We bought our motorhome last March and I contacted our 'financial lady' who is managing our money, for a distribution. Why not, it's my money.
Well guess what, that extra money caused me to be over paid in terms of the health subsidy the government paid for us. Now it is tax time. I must now pay taxes on the money I pulled out of my IRA, and also repay money that represents the overpayment of the health subsidy. Bottom line, I will owe over $3500.00 in taxes.

Now, can I just call my 'financial lady' and get some money? It is my money. No! That will just screw it all up again for next year. Boo hiss!
Yep, Obama Care works good for some people, if you don't need any extra money, even if it is your own. Catch 22. And that is why Donna is work camping this year. And I will report any extra income as is happens.

What else is going on?

Well, I did spend a day backing up my photo collection. I am kinda anal about this, probably too much so. Every 1000 pictures we take with our phones or Cannon EOS, I copy them all to an external 2TD hard drive, then burn a DVD. With 1000 pictures per DVD, I now have 26 DVDs full. I keep them in a 3 ring notebook. It is one of the items to grab in case of a fire or some other incident.
I also go through my pictures each time I do a blog entry and these are stored in the cloud (Google Photos). All my other important docs, spreadsheets, maps and whatnot, are kept in the cloud using Microsoft's One Drive. With Windows 10, I never know when my computer will giveup the ghost.

I have noticed since getting to Texas, there are many more folks who are using Rvillage. The last 3 parks we have stayed in have had as many as 22 Rvillage people logged in there. Bill Joyce let me know that there was a fellow blogger/friend in my park. I found him on one of my walk abouts. They are Greg & Jan White. Great folks. Could be a twin to Nick Russell too. Small world, that's for sure.

I read on Nick's blog (Gypsy Journal), that he may ... may be winding down his full time RV travels. We all settle down sometime. I know 10 couple that have bought a S&B home and stopped or became part timers. And we are just in our 3rd year. We are not there yet. We have many more places to go and places to see.

The last 2 TT parks we have been at have had really nice mini golf courses. They were concrete with a nice clean coating on indoor/outdoor carpeting on them. Looks just like grass. Nice brick edges and 'hazards'. None of these rotten wood, dirty rundown courses. I shot a 48 at the first one, and a 45 at the other. I'm kinda like a 'pro' I guess. But it is fun!

I also spend a lot of time using Microsoft's Street & Trips, and also the Escapees Day's End directory. I enjoy trip planning. Toward the end of this month, or early into next, we plan on slowly meandering north and west back to Washington for our work camping gig. And I am alread dreaming the trip back to Texas for next winter, and on to Florida and up the East coast to New England. Of course, it will change a bunch... but I do love to dream & plan.

We took a little day trip north a ways to Camp Tejas, a christian camp close to Giddings.




Our friends Mark & Terri were volunteering there. So nice to find fellowship on the road.

Here they are.




And she took our picture as well.





Also been working on the new web page for the Christian Fellowship we belong to. It is www.cfbof.com and is coming along nicely.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and our moving day too. We are off to our 3rd Thousand Trails here in Texas. Getting closer to Livingston and our Doctor appointments too.

OK, I guess I have rambled on enough for now.

Happy Trails.

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