Life on the Road as a Fulltime Voiceover
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October 12, 2011

Am I nuts? I've got this great house, and a terrific sound studio all set up just the way I like it and it's humming along just fine and I decide to do something crazy.

Unfortunately, this great house is in Arizona, a lovely place in many respects, but a place that just doesn't resonate with me. I miss spring in New England, autumn in New England, summer in New England, and yes, winter in New England. I miss water, trees, and dirt that you can sink a shovel into when you garden.  I miss great biking, old friends, and Christmases with snow.

I've always considered myself an adventurer, an explorer, and a traveler. Trouble is, I haven't done nearly as much of that in the past few decades as I'd like.

SO....time to shake things up. My house has been on the market for a year with NO SHOWINGS (although I just hired a new realtor and I think she's going to be great). I didn't want to wait another year to leave here, so I've bought at 1992 RV with 38,000 miles on it. And bought a custom sound booth for the back bedroom, 2 new computers (because the old ones were .... old), and spent the last 2.5 months getting things configured, networked, replaced, repaired, and tested.

It's been A LOT of work. Far more than I imagined. And now I'm planning to leave in less than 2 weeks. Yikes!

Last weekend I did a trial run to Tucson (about 1.25 hours away) and stayed at an RV park. After 2 days there, I drove 40 minutes north to Catalina State Park, a gem at the foot of the Catalina Mountains with lots of great hiking trails. The next morning I got a request for a 1.5-2 hour session for a regular client. Would my internet be good enough for the live-over-IP session he wanted? Would my mic pick up the sounds of rigs leaving and entering the campground? There were a few audio dropouts, but otherwise he thought my setup sounded great and that the dropouts were not a deal breaker. Whew! I do worry about that kind of stuff. I consider myself a consummate professional and don't like problems of any kind (internet, ambient noise, etc) to make me look like an amateur.

If you're interested in how this all turns out, stay tuned. I'm pretty curious myself.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Day one of my new adventure. It's a five day (2+3), and Five is all about adventure and exploration - my favorite words. It was a chore to get to the place where I could finally shove off, so to speak. I wanted to meet a friend who was traveling in her RV and heading west, so that set me back timewise. When I finally stopped at Camping World outside of El Paso, it was Sunday night at 6:10 and they were closed. There was an RV park about 1/10 of a mile away, so I blew off staying at the state park a few miles away and decided to stay here so I could hit Camping World first thing. I needed to pick up a few small things for the RV.  Imagine my surprise when I realized that this treeless, stark, and rather unattractive RV park has 4G service - translation: blazing fast internet from my mobile broadband. Which will be wonderful if I have to work in the morning (although the sound of trucks on the interstate might be a little loud - but I think it'll be okay).

Tuesday, October 25, 2011 

The last two days have been a bit of a haul. I left the RV park at Camping World late because I had work to do. Then I had to pick up a few things at CW. By the time I left there, it was 11:30. I drove straight through to Carlsbad Caverns.

When I was done, it was about 4:30, too early to stop for the evening, so I decided to press on. After finally making it out of Carlsbad (very busy and very confusing), I drove, and drove, and drove. I was on backroads highways, but the speed limit was still 55 or higher. They were dark, narrow, and there were few cars. The only comfort I had was from my GPS receiver showing me inching closer to somewhere.

The first town I came to, Eunice, didn't seem to have much to offer. So I kept going. At the worst, I thought, I could pay for a motel room just to have someplace to park for the night.

Finally, around 8pm, which had become 9pm due to a time zone change at some point, I HAPPENED to notice an obscure sign saying that the Chamber of Commerce had free RV parking. Yikes. I couldn't find it right away, so I used my iPad to find the address and then input the info to the TomTom. Voila. There were no hookup sites available (there were only six spots in all), so I just parked against a building and hoped that no one would wake me up in the middle of the night and insist that I move. It was a little noisy with main street type traffic, but I slept pretty well and headed out first thing.

 The roads were great - about 70mph speed limit with 4 lanes and little traffic.

Austin was 1 hour 40 minutes beyond Fredericksburg. The traffic started to get heavier, and I was nervous about driving in such traffic with sudden stops possible. Nevertheless, I made it to a state park in Austin about 6:30. There's 4G broadband here, which is totally cool because I have a Source Connect session on Thursday. Yay!

Can you believe I'm getting high speed internet here?

October 27, 2011

Okay, time for some nuts and bolts talk.
I was originally thinking of getting a utility trailer and putting a recording studio in it. I talked to George Whittam at Eldorado Recording Services and he suggested a used RV, pointing out that it would already have electrical, heat, and A/C. Since I live in Arizona, there's no shortage of used RVs. I went onto Craig's List and found, just 7 miles away, a 1992 27' RV with 38,000 miles. This is somewhat astounding to me, because as much as I'd like to say that I live in a one horse town, the truth is that there are many more horses, cattle, goats, javalinas, coyotes, and rabbits than there are people.
Within 5 days, I had arranged to buy the rig. The guy I bought it from, Dave (and his wife Lurah), had owned a solar company, so he installed a solar panel on the roof with an inverter inside tied to 2 6 volt batteries. So even if there's no electrical for some reason, I can still use my laptop (with my external monitor plugged into it) with my preamp and use minimal power.
Their neighbor Marvin took out the bed in the back bedroom and moved the electrical box to the side wall. After that, a friend installed new burgundy carpeting through the entire rig (the carpeting was 20 years old...).
While all this was happening, I ordered a new PC and a new laptop, both with Windows 7. I don't recommend getting new computers with new operating systems while one is preparing for a major life change such as this. (Mac users - yeah, I know. Next time...). I had to deal with installing programs, updating programs, networking the computers together, solving conflicts, etc. BUT, my old laptop and old PC were very old. I was getting strong signals from both of them that they weren't going to be around much longer. It was a lot of work getting all of this computer stuff done. But I didn't anticipate all of this happening as quickly as it did (I do have a habit of being impulsive).
I also had to figure out phone patch, Source Connect and those other little gadgets that make my working life easier. More on those later.

In the next installment, all about my custom sound booth.


October 28, 2011

Originally I had thought about perhaps building a sound isolation "closet" in the RV, but I've liked working with my Sound Sucker booth from Gretch-Ken so much, I decided to investigate using one of those. The standard height is 7', which definitely would not have worked in the RV. The ceiling is 7' and about a foot of clearance is needed to put the top/ceiling on. I nervously dialed GK, hoping that this wasn't going to be phenomenally expensive. Turns out that GK cuts all booths to order, so I only had to pay for the next size up. Whew! I went with a booth 3.5x3.5x6. It's a little cramped and I probably could have used a few more inches on each side. But, too often I've measured and ordered and then realized, "Oh...I hadn't thought/realized/considered such and such...". So I erred on the side of caution and generally I'm pretty happy with the booth. I have it flush to the bedroom wall in the front so that one walks right into the booth instead of the bedroom. There's another fairly narrow door to the right, which allows me access to the back of the bedroom, which I used as a closet and for storage. My PC is in the corner behind that door. All of my cables run through the cable tube in the wall. I was using my PC networked with my laptop (using the PC for all applications except recording and using the laptop just for recording), but I found this setup cumbersome in the RV (even though I use this setup with 2 PCs in my home office and love it). 

Dave screwed a closet pole along the rear top of the booth and secured it to both sides of the RV so there wouldn't be a lot of rocking movement when driving. Since the booth front is flush to the front bedroom wall, even if I have to stop hard, the booth won't go anywhere. 

Of course, it's not sound PROOF, merely sound isolating. Wind makes my rig rock a little which causes creaking sounds. I haven't done any recording in the rain (been living in Arizona, you know), so I'm not looking forward to that, ahem, challenge. And I've been very fortunate not to camp next to noisy children or dogs. Of course, this setup is MOBILE, which means I can also stow everything (takes about 10 minutes) and drive somewhere quieter. I have solar, so I can use my laptop if need be. However, it seems that I don't actually try this stuff out until it becomes necessary. After running myself ragged for 3 months, I'm just trying to recharge right now. 

Next installment - mobile broadband, Source Connect, and ISDN on the road.

October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

Being on the road means I'll miss Halloween celebrations. Well, next year. 

I'm in a beautiful state park in Louisiana today. It was 20 minutes off the interstate but worth it. Lots of beautiful trees and privacy and decent 3G internet.

Speaking of internet, here's the scoop.

Last year I found out about mobile broadband (I've been living in a very low tech area of the country and so I'm not up on these things). So I got a Mifi device, which acts as a wireless hotspot for up to 5 devices. I also have a USB modem for backup (I just have to move the sim card over). It's $50 a month for 5GBs and then $10 per GB after that. 

Now, using Source Connect with mobile broadband had me totally confused for awhile, but I won't bore you with the details. Turns out it works fine with mobile broadband. You'll get a "port not mapped" message, but that's okay. I did an SC session from Catalina State Park for an hour and a half and there were just a few little dropouts (which may have been caused by software trying to update, so I've disabled some of my startup services using msconfig). I always record sessions on my end so I can send them to the engineer if needed. 

As far as ISDN goes, I use a Source Connect bridge (www.isdnbridge.com) which is $35 an hour booked in advance. Now, some studios don't want to use a talent who's using a bridge and some studios don't even want to use Source Connect. Being mobile means making some sacrifices. 

And now, one of my favorite studio gizmos - my phone patch. Yes, a cellular phone patch. JK Audio makes the "Daptor Two" which connects to your audio interface and has a 1/4 inch headphone jack with a mini plug at the end. You may need an adapter as I did for my Blackberry. JK Audio can advise you on that. I did find that the first adapter I bought worked sporadically at best. The second adapter I bought works fine.

November 4, 2011

Just outside of Greensboro, NC

The night before last I stayed at an RV park (expensive at $42) just off I-40 in North Carolina. Truck rumblings made it impossible to work, so I left early. (Note to self: check satellite image on iPad before deciding on where to stay.)

I drove about an hour and visited with one of my favorite studios. If I had to work a job outside the home, I'd want it to be at a place like that. I was so welcomed and even taken out to lunch. About 6 people piled into the RV to see my setup (although the cats seemed to get most of the attention). They implored me to consider moving to that town, and it's so cool and beautiful, that maybe I will...

I had a Source Connect session this morning and my Mifi showed me getting 4G. I uploaded some files and saw the speed go up to 7Mps (yowza yowza).

BUT, maybe there were sunspots or something because I was having a tough time connecting with the studio. (Immediately after the session I was going to do an echo test with Source Connect but both echo lines were busy. I've never seen that before, so maybe something was going on with the Source Elements servers.)

So, we ended up doing a phone patch, which went very well. After the session, we re-connected using Source Connect and it was fine ("Of course!", said the engineer). My gratitude for a patient engineer and his patient clients. 

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain (it rained all night too - a novelty after living in Arizona for 5 years), the sound of crows cawing, and the low rumble of a truck somewhere.

It seems serendipitous that I should be in this business. I'm very sound sensitive (but not sensitive enough to, say, consult with people about their acoustics - just sensitive enough to be driven crazy by barking dogs, screaming kids, and loud vehicles). 

So when I woke up, not having recorded in the rain yet, I was a little nervous. Would the crows go away? (They did). Would the truck rumbling stop? (It did). Would my mic pick up the rain? (It didn't). The session went well and the engineer and his clients were pleased, which is the bottom line.

In a future post, I will discuss Synchronicity, Serendipity, and The Flow.  I'm learning a lot about all of these on this Adventure. 

But someone asked about MAIL.

I read somewhere that it's important to have your driver's license, registration, and legal address all in the same state, otherwise authorities may get give you a hard time. Since I still have property in Arizona, my legal address is still there. Otherwise, if I didn't have any property anywhere, I would change my legal address to Texas, Florida, or South Dakota, which are known as "friendly RV" states because of their laws regarding vehicle inspections and legal residences. One may have merely a mailbox there to be considered a legal resident.

The USPS will forward your mail via Priority mail once a week, but it's pricey ($15 a week from what I recall).  So I've taken an easy way out. I'm having my mail forwarded to a friend in Raleigh (since I'll be here for at least 3 weeks), then I'll go online to USPS and change the forwarding address to my mom's place for a few weeks. After that, I'm not sure. But I can have my local PO hold my mail until I know where to send it. Some RV parks will accept forwarded mail - others won't. And some POs will accept general delivery mail and some won't.

It would be great if all my clients paid by PayPal or direct deposit. But they don't or can't, so when I pick up my mail, I'll be sending a batch of checks to my bank (probably by Priority Mail). I looked into getting an account at a Big Bank with branches all over the country, but I get a queasy feeling from them these days. At my bank in Bisbee, Arizona, I know all of the tellers by name and they all know me by name. A valuable asset if there are problems.

November 8, 2011

Some little things I've learned from the past 2 weeks on the road. 

Interstates kinda suck, but in some places they're the best and fastest way to get from point A to point B and there isn't a terrible amount of traffic. I had an agenda to get to Raleigh, and so I had to take the interstates. From here on out, I hope to stay on secondary highways. 

I also try to avoid metropolitan areas whenever possible. Too much traffic.

When staying at a park off the interstate, try to find a park several miles from the highway. Otherwise you'll be listening to trucks all night. 

I love my iPad. It allows me to plan my routes very easily and efficiently.

Don't keep driving past the 1/4 tank mark with gasoline in order to find a better price. It wouldn't be worth it to run out. Sometimes you win with a low price, sometimes you don't. I know there are apps for finding gas prices, but I just haven't had time to look into that.

My TomTom GPS receiver is invaluable. It talks me through every turn and has graphics for when I'm a little confused.  And when I think it's wrong, it almost always isn't.

In Autumn, it's best not to park under oak trees. Acorns fall and squirrels follow, running across the roof.

Always scope out a campground before deciding on a place to park (unless they won't let you). Telling someone you want "a quiet place" is the kiss of death. You will almost certainly be next to noisy people. (The campground folks don't know who's quiet and who's not.)

Determine mobile broadband strength before you park and set everything up. (See next posting.)


November 16, 2011

After taking last week off to re-energize (which didn't really happen because I had to move out of the RV with my cats and all my valuable stuff because my friend's neighborhood doesn't have room for RVs and therefore I had to park 1/2 mile away) and so I was living away from home and couldn't take care of a lot of things that I haven't had time for yet - I moved into a state park 2 days ago.
It took me the better part of a day to move my stuff back in and organize.

My friend and I drove around here last week to check out the mobile broadband signal and I was thrilled to see 4G on my device. HOWEVER, when I moved in, no such signal was found. And for three days now, I've had intermittent internet. It will sometimes be fairly strong and other times drop out entirely. My Mifi shows a strong 3G signal and sometimes even a 4G signal, but at times I can't transfer anything via FTP and sometimes my PC shows that I have no internet connection at all.
Fortunately, I am the BACKUP QUEEN.
I also have a Pantech USB wireless modem, so I switched the sim card and fired that up and now I have a strong connection with upload speeds of around 800 Kbps.
I looked online for information about the Mifi and it turns out that there's a firmware problem with is mostly noticed when one is switching between 3G and 4G, which apparently is the case here.

November 22, 2011
Okay, so how did I get here?
As I've already mentioned, I'd been thinking for years about ways to travel more, but I DO have to work for a living. About a year ago, I met a new soon-to-be neighbor who traveled a lot with her husband. I asked her about internet and she told me about mobile broadband (remember, I've been living in a tech void in SE Arizona for 5 years). Okay, so now the gears are spinning again about traveling and working...

I love cycling, so I briefly thought about something like this,

which might have worked had I not needed to make a living as a voiceover  (and not had two cats).

Then, I met a man who converts utility trailers, old government vehicles, etc into campers. So I contacted him but he had a lot going on and I could see that it was going to take quite a while for him to build me something. And, as I've mentioned, I'm rather impulsive, so I wanted to get going on this sooner rather than later.

So then I contacted George Whittam of Eldorado Recording Services  and told him that I was considering converting a utility trailer into a mobile recording studio (I was thinking that I could do housesit gigs or even rent a one bedroom apartment somewhere and still have my studio and be able to move around from place to place).
George suggested that I buy a used RV ("It already has heating, AC, and electric", George reasoned.)
And since I lived in the land of RVs, I decided to look around for something suitable.
The next day I checked Craig's List and found a 27' RV (20 years old but with only 38,000 miles) just 7 miles from my house (you have to see where I live to know how extraordinary this was. Nothing is 7 miles from my house except a post office and a gas station/convenience store).
To make a short story shorter, I bought it. I mentioned to Dave and Lurah (the owners) that I wanted to put solar in (I thought it was going to be very expensive). Dave mentioned that he used to have a solar company and could do the work at cost (please see a future post on Synchronicity, Serendipity, and The Flow).
Then they introduced me to their neighbor, Marvin, who removed the bed, moved the electrical box that had been under the bed to a side wall, and installed the solar panel and inverter. Subsequently Marvin would do many more tasks involving the RV, and I am eternally grateful to him and Dave and Lurah for all their assistance.

The carpet was b-a-d, so that got replaced.


New curtains were made and I started a collage of old family photos on the walls so I would always have loved ones with me. Future plans involve a collage on another wall of special friends.
And, as I've already written, I had to order my custom sound booth, new PC, new laptop, and other little things to make my studio hum.
I looked at the RV on July 15th, and hit the road on October 23rd. Impulsive indeed. I've found myself saying over and over, "WHAT am I doing?" It feels surreal.
 And yet, Travelers must travel. They get antsy staying in one place for too long.

So, I guess THAT'S how I got here.

December 2, 2011
Here I am in Carolina Beach, just south of Wilmington, NC.


For the most part I've had 4G internet (YES!), although yesterday my internet dropped down to next to nothing for awhile.
There's been some road noise from the busy road that's adjacent to the campground. There's a bridge over a cut (river) and sometimes big trucks lumber over that bridge.
Which brings me to an important (for me) topic:

STRESSING OUT

Audio engineer and author Dan Friedman took one look at my setup and said, "No one should try this!" He knows all the little things that can mess up audio quality. Nevertheless, he gave my studio a thumbs up.

I do stress out quite a bit. About internet connections. About Source Connect (and by extension, ISDN) sessions. And most of all, about noise.
I stress about barking dogs, leaf blowers, lawn mowers, motorcycles, trucks, rain. I have a tendency to think that the noise from these will be continual. Which is rarely the case.

When I arrived at this current campground, I could hear the traffic noise from the bridge. I considered moving to a different campground. BUT, there's no guarantee that another campground will be much quieter, especially in an urban area.
When I was laying in my bunk that night, I could hear something that sounded rather large moving through the area, perhaps a passing boat. OH NO! I could feel myself stressing out.

 But the next day, when I got into my booth, it was quiet. Once in a while I could hear a large truck, but it passed quickly. Occasionally a campground resident would drive by, but that too would pass quickly.
I went for a walk and heard a guy about 100 feet away using some kind of power equipment. OH NO!
I got into my booth and couldn't hear it.

Yesterday I had hours of work to do. From time to time I'd have to stop recording for a passing truck. Sometimes I could see "little dots" on my waveforms, which meant low hum sounds (such as from engines), but I couldn't hear anything on playback.

Now, there are those people who can hear a pin drop in the next campground. I'm not one of those, fortunately. But I have begun to realize that I am far more critical than most of my clients when it comes to audio. And much of yesterday's work was for a client in Denmark who was going to be putting ambient sound in the background anyway. So, why stress so much?
Indeed.
I know it will take more time for me to get a feel for recording in a mobile studio. I've been visualizing worst case scenarios.

And I've learned not to ask people about noise.
"Oh yeah, it's real quiet here. Real quiet."
Then you get there and realize that the campground is underneath the flight path for a major airport. Other people just don't hear what we audio people hear.

But it's now been almost 6 weeks that I've been on the road and I'm beginning to learn that stressing out just isn't worth it. I haven't been in a place yet where I haven't been able to work.
So I guess I just need to follow the advice I have written on my dry erase board:

Don't worry - be happy!


December 12, 2011

It's been a hectic week or so.
After I left Carolina Beach, I headed south for a few hours to Charleston, SC where I checked into a county park which was surprisingly expensive ($47). However, it was more like a private park in that it had a store, laundry, and other amenities. Turns out, it's also host to the Festival of Lights, a 22 year tradition that benefits the county park system. Three miles of roadway were adorned with lighted displays - sometimes Christmasy (Angels, Santas, etc), sometimes not (Pink Flamingos, Trains, etc).


I was concerned that it would be noisy with a fairly full campground, but it wasn't. I had decent internet and was able to get work done before I headed south again, this time to Hilton Head to visit a friend. Unfortunately, this friend lived in a gated community and I wasn't able to park at her house, but she arranged for me to park the RV at the stable there (yes, a stable in a gated community). Unfortunately, there was constant traffic noise and I wasn't able to work much so I hit the road early. My original plan was to drive along the coast, visit friends in Port St. Lucie, and then head west toward Mom's place on the Gulf Coast. But after speaking with Mom on the phone (she's 86 and not in very good health), I decided to head straight for her place. Ten hours later, I arrived, exhausted. I had made reservations at a park and called to see if I could check in early. I could. Unfortunately (there's that word again), the internet here is AWFUL. I could barely connect. What's up with that? This is a fairly good sized city and I assumed that I'd have great mobile broadband. OH NO!
So I checked with a few neighbors (there are quite a few fulltime residents since this appears to be more of a trailer park than an RV park) about the internet problem. Frank said to ask Kenny. Kenny told me that the entire park is wired for Comcast high speed internet. SAY WHAT?
So I called Comcast and now I have this nice little cable running into the RV bringing me super fast broadband, all for $29.95 per month (on a month-to-month basis).
(Thank you Comcast!)
The park is fairly quiet. I'm parked at the very end, which is adjacent to land with trees. There are small planes flying overhead from time to time, and every time a resident drives by, I have to stop recording, but otherwise, as I said, it's fairly quiet.
LIFE IS GOOD.




December 14, 2011

Okay, an addendum to the above about quiet and stress about lack thereof.
This little park I'm staying in has its share of noise. Everyone drives to the dumpster on their way out of the park, and since the dumpster is at the back of the park (where I am), there's a lot of driving by here that goes on.
At dusk, I noticed a lot of "thuds", but when I went outside to investigate, the thuds seemed to be coming from difference directions. Huh? I've chalked it up to mobile homes, RVs, and trailers contracting when it starts to get colder at night and "thudding".
But there's also been a "banging" that happens from time to time. I had a Source Connect session today and the studio was concerned about the connection (I was concerned about the banging).
However, during the session, there was no discernible noise whatsoever. (Thank you, Noise Gods.) The engineer was happy, the client was happy, and I was happy.
After the session, I figured out that the banging was coming from Kenny's trailer (Kenny's the guy who told me about Comcast).
So, armed with a small tin of Danish butter cookies, I paid a visit to Kenny to thank him for the Comcast information. Turns out that Kenny is replacing the tile in his trailer with wood flooring, hence the banging. But the banging is sporadic and it looks like he's 3/4 done with the project. In any event, if I have a critical session, I've now established a neighborly relationship with Kenny and could probably wander over and ask a favor if I needed to.

January 3, 2012
Synchronicity, Serendipity, and The Flow

Yes, it's been awhile. Happy New Year!
It's been a challenging few weeks. My mom needed major surgery and we scheduled it for December 21st. We weren't sure she'd survive the surgery, but she did and she's doing well now. I think she may get discharged from rehab within the week, and after spending a few weeks getting her re-acquainted with daily life in her apartment, I plan to leave Florida and head north (but not TOO far north).

So, with the advent of a new year, it's probably a good time to talk about Synchronicity, Serendipity, and The Flow.
Sounds a little new agey, but (for me anyway), these exist and the secret is in letting them happen and not trying to force something.

Is it a coincidence that I arrived in Florida just in time to help my mom get through her medical woes?
Did I just happen to meet a great RV service guy who made house calls, fixed a bunch of stuff, and who told me about a park to stay in on the coast of North Carolina?

Here's a great example:
I had bought a cellphone adapter to use with my JK Audio Daptor Two, a phone patch. The adapter didn't seem to work very well and when I called JK (I didn't buy it from them), we both figured that it was my phone.
Then I went on my "shakedown" trip to Catalina State Park. When I returned, I couldn't find the adapter anywhere. I looked, and looked, and looked. The company I had bought it from apparently was out of business (that was fast!), so I bought another adapter from a different company. When it arrived, it worked perfectly. The next day I found my old adapter on the rug in the dining room. Hmmmm. If I hadn't "lost" the old adapter, I still be struggling with it and perhaps would have bought a new phone (and discovered that the adapter didn't work any better with it). Plus, I would have been on the road, where it can be difficult to receive packages in a timely manner.

So, I've already told you about the RV service guy, Dan. He fixed an A/C leak (turned out that the bolts holding it down hadn't been tightened when it was installed last year), then loaned me a space heater when the heater in the RV stopped working right when the temperature dropped down below freezing. THEN, I kept losing my lighting in the evening. It was a problem with the electrical converter, which was very old. He ordered me a new one, but it wouldn't arrive until after I had left (I had to leave on a Monday because the state park where I was staying had a two week maximum). But Dan told me about the park in Wilmington where he has a camper and met me out there the following weekend and installed my converter. What service!

In Texas, I was driving in the evening, looking for a place to stay. It got dark, then darker, then darkest, and I still hadn't seen anyplace in the small towns I passed through.
In Andrews, I just happened to notice a small sign that said "The Andrews, Texas Chamber of Commerce Welcomes You! Free RV parking behind the chamber building" (or something to that effect).
It took me a few minutes to find it (thanks iPad!), but yes, there was free parking with hookups. Unfortunately, all the spaces were taken, but I pulled up alongside a building and parked. I was too exhausted to go anywhere else, and I figured that if the police came along in the middle of the night and asked me to move, I'd just tell them to arrest me.

When I ordered my custom sound booth, I had a cable pass-through cut in one wall. I thought I had ordered it with two pass-throughs in different walls, but no....I hadn't. I had planned to put my PC, printer, etc on top of the storage space in the very back of the RV. But now I'd have cables running all over the place, which wouldn't be practical at all.
So I put my PC in the corner behind  my booth "escape" door (which leads to the back of the RV). I was able to bungee the PC to a corner cabinet with a pillow between the cabinet and the computer, which keeps it safe and sound for when I'm driving.

As far as the back storage space goes, I was keeping all my shoes on top of it, which made it very challenging to access the inside. The lid was heavy to lift, and shoes would come tumbling down from all directions.
My friend in Raleigh, whose mother had just died, was getting rid of some of her stuff, including a hanging shoe caddy that fits perfectly along the back wall of my booth.
So now, I can access the storage space, which is where I keep tools, bike stuff, roller blades, etc. I actually go in there quite a bit, so this worked out great.

When I left Arizona, I worried about internet access, noise, where to stay, bad guys, rain. Turns out, I've been wasting my time worrying. Things seem to work out.
Serendipity, Synchronicity, and The Flow.

January 24, 2012
Three months on the road as of yesterday. I had planned to write about What I've Learned So Far After Three Months On The Road.
BUT
I had a chance to meet (in my world) a rock star. Peter Thomas has been doing voiceovers since 1948 and I've been a fan of his for decades. His is probably my favorite male voice of all time. I had learned many, many years ago that he lived in Naples, the same town my mom lives in. I always wanted to call, but it seemed that I was only in town for a few days, it was the holidays, etc. Plus, it seemed a little groupie-ish ("Hi, I'm, like, a really big fan of yours and like, I'd really really love to meet you!")
When my agent in Atlanta heard I was in Naples, he emailed me, "Oh, Peter Thomas lives in Naples." Hmmm, maybe it was time to get in touch.
THEN, one of the women my mother and I have lunch with every day at her clubhouse, upon hearing that I was a voiceover, innocently asked, "Have you ever heard of Peter Thomas?"
HAVE I????
Long story short, she gave me his telephone number (I had already looked for a website, but he doesn't have one. He doesn't NEED one.)
So I called, and yesterday, my 3 month anniversary on the road, I visited him and his wife at their beautiful oceanfront home. It was built in the 1950s and Peter and Stella have had the good taste not to tear it down and build a mansion.
Well, they couldn't have been more hospitable and welcoming. I felt like an old friend. Peter indulged me and allowed a photo. (I'm smiling so broadly that I've created a double chin!)

Then he showed me his studio (in his garage, just like a lot of the rest of us). And then I pressed my luck and asked him to record something for me. (I used my Blackberry voice recorder function, so the quality isn't very good.) Of course, he did. That's the kind of guy he is.
Peter endorses Karen

Anyway, I'm so very grateful to have finally met my voiceover idol. He's still going strong and doing major voiceover gigs at 87.

Thank you Peter!

So, Saturday I hit the road again. I'm going to Port St. Lucie for a few days to visit with friends from Maine who live in Florida most of the year. And then I'll spend the month of February in St. Augustine.
After 7 weeks here spending an average of 5-6 hours a day with Mom while she recovers from surgery, I'm woefully behind on work-related activities. I just got another book in to narrate and soon I'll be receiving the first manuscript of a 20 book series of novels. Plus, all my usual broadcast, IVR, and narration work. I'm extremely grateful to have a lot of work at a time when many people are unemployed.

One of the reasons I picked St. Augustine (other than the beaches and historical city) is that it looks as though (from the coverage map) that Verizon has 4G service there. BUT, since areas with overlapping 3G and 4G service sometimes cancel each other out, I decided to see if I could transfer my Comcast service to the RV park in St. Augustine. I CAN! Upload speeds are 4-6Mbs. Excellent. It's still just $29.95 a month (payable month to month with no contact), however the installation fee is $44.95. Steep, but worth it.

January 30, 2012


The Voxmobile at Cynthia and Mal's Florida home

On Saturday, I got here a little late. I had the outer layer of an inside rear tire (got that?) peel off on I-95 in Pompano Beach. But I bought new tires and arrived here just after dark.
Yesterday (Sunday), Cynthia mentioned that she couldn't download books onto her Kindle because she didn't have WiFi anymore after getting Comcast internet in her house. So we went off to Staples and bought a wireless router and I hooked it up for her. Problem solved. Her laptop is also old and was woefully slow, so I defragged, did disc cleanup, and deleted her temp files and cookies. Ah, much better.
Then, we ran my 150' foot ethernet cable (you can see it in the photo above) from her modem in the rear bedroom of the house, out the window, around the side of the house, and into the back of the RV through a rear hatch. (Precisely the scenario I prepared for by buying so much cable.) I was showing uploads speeds of about 3.5 Mbs, but today it was closer to 2.25 Mbs. Good enough for a Source Connect session later this afternoon.
I'll be here until Wednesday morning, when I head up to St. Augustine, about 3 hours north. Comcast will come (hopefully) sometime between 5 and 7pm that day to install my high speed internet.

February 3, 2012

Beautiful and historic St. Augustine, Florida
I arrived here Wednesday afternoon and Comcast arrived about 15 minutes after I did. They hooked me up and now I'm golden for at least another month (longer if I decide to stay here).
After spending 7 weeks tending to my mom in Naples, I'm very behind in work, so I'm chained to the microphone for at least the next week. BUT, the ocean is so close I can hear it. I can't really see it that well because of sand dunes, but I can feel it (the moist, salty air, which I LOVE!).


This photo makes it look like there's hardly anyone here, but it just happens that there are some empty sites in this particular area. There are over 200 RV and park home (manufactured housing) sites here, so it's a fairly busy place. Just beyond the far buildings and over the dunes is the ocean. Probably a few hundred feet from where I'm parked.

The day I came in, a tow truck pulled in and idled for 20 minutes before parking. About an hour later, it idled again for quite awhile as it loaded up a truck that needed towing.
In a place like this, people call out to each other, dogs bark, trucks come and go. In other words, a lot of noise. Despite my earlier BS about "Don't Worry, Be Happy!", I had a lot of anxiety about this place. I've paid for a month, and I was worried about noise. So worried in fact, that I didn't sleep well my first night here and woke up at 6am. I decided to start work very early in order to get a lot done in case noise started up. But actually, it's relatively quiet here. Sure, dogs bark. Trucks come and go. People call out to each other. But not constantly. I was able to get quite a bit of work done yesterday. In my zeal to get ahead, I ended up working until about 10:30 last night. Not a good move, as I woke up exhausted.

What I know for Sure After 3 Months on The Road

This is bound to change after "4 months on the road", etc. But here goes.