The Distance: 0 miles, of course, as we entered the middle stretch of our two month work camping gig in Asheville. Our total for the year remains 1,352 miles. Next month that mileage shoots up.

We were here the whole month, so no route map this time.

The Places:  The entire month of April we stayed at Lake Powhatan National Recreation Area. That’s 30 days at a public (federal) park with 50 amp full hook up services.

Our new niece, Olivia Jane Chalupa Batman. That’s right, a totally real, not at all half made up name.

The Money: 47% under budget, which is a big deal given how badly the year started (with both January and February way over budget.) Having worked at Lake Powhatan since mid March our paychecks kicked in, giving us a big boost, while our daily campsite fee of $15 was well below our $30 target. Though we did not implement a true austerity plan, we were reasonably frugal; I know the focus on restaurants and breweries from last post makes it seem like we live high on the hog, but we went to a brewery only once a week and dined out all of seven times this month, and some of those were just pizza or a split entrée. The real budget saver, however, was not having any major unplanned expenses: no major appliance broke, the car received only minor work, and neither of us needed medical or dental care.

PKM helping out with prepping a tent for guests.

The Drama & Improvements: Having broken my phone last month, it was Rosemarie’s turn to damage something technical and thus continue our unofficial electronic upgrade plan. Her relatively new iPad fell off the bed while charging, and broke off the charging connector inside the port. Luckily I had purchased the extended insurance from Best Buy, so it only cost us the $49 fee to get an entirely new one, though it took nearly a week for them to get it to us. Other than that, we started the basic maintenance stuff associated with a major road trip, in this case oil changes for both Loki and Serenity and other related things.