A Last Hurrah (05-11-15)

Over the last 6 years, we have had numerous reasons to travel to Michigan on a regular basis- pretty much every year- and sometimes more than once a year.  When we started on the road, our doctors were here.  Gradually we have moved on to doctors in other states.  For several years our daughter lived in either Michigan or nearby Indiana.  She has since moved to California.


And then of course,  our “stuff” has been stored here- both the boat and our household goods- but of course- not for long.

Over the last week or so, we have been spending time with our friends, getting caught up on all the news.  It was bittersweet.  It was pretty evident to everyone that we won’t be coming back to Michigan on a regular basis anymore.  Not that we won’t ever come- we love the Traverse City area and the Upper Peninsula- but we will have no reason to come here on a yearly basis.  So, we have invited all our friends out to visit us in Havasu! 

In between the visits, we have continued organizing the storage unit. On Monday, several moving companies came to look at our stuff and give us quote.  They were impressed with our packing job. We had thought we would spend all day Tuesday re-combining our stuff back into the one unit, but we actually finished doing that on Monday!


So, Tuesday morning we packed up and blew out of town.
Before we could load up the boat and camper, we had to put the hitch on.  Look at the size of that thing!  It has to be that long to accommodate the length of the camper.










The next step is to load up the camper, which is always a fun job.   I will say though, we are starting to get the hang of it. You can see the hitch sticking out the back.












The final step was to hook up the boat.  He had taken just the boat for a short trip to make sure the brakes and lights work.











And so now, we are back on the road for the long trek home. My daughter asked me if it felt weird saying we were going “home” and it really does, but not in a bad way, just weird.

Digging In (05-07-15)

Once the boat was settled it was time to dig in to the storage unit.   


Our first stop was the office at the storage center, where we discovered that the unit across the hall from ours is available, so $90 later, we had a place to throw a bunch of our stuff so we could dig deeper into the unit.








It was pretty convenient, and quite a time saver, to have a place so close by to put our stuff.

As we made our way towards the back we had to think about our stuff, and whether we would have a spot for it at the new house.  It was a sometimes painful process because anything we didn't care about was discarded 6 years ago, when we went on the road.  So, anything that is left is something somewhat important to us.

Not everything made the cut, and we have made several trips to Goodwill and Salvation Army.  The barber chair stays, though. We’ll find someplace to put it!








 
Some items that seemed important to keep 6 years ago, now seem very old school and outdated and were donated.

There are things we come across that are bringing back a lot of memories, and are kept for that reason, even though we don’t need them. In the pre-automatic feeder days, Dozer, the Emmy award winning actor, would routinely score at least two, and sometimes three, dinners in a day.

I finally made this door hanger that we put on the closet door where his food was kept.  Whoever fed him dinner flipped the sign, and when he was fed breakfast it was flipped to the blank side.

When we packed the camper for this trip we tried to pack light, figuring there would be some items that either because of their fragility or their importance, or both, we would want to bring back with us. 

The original tailgate for the truck has been in storage since we bought the truck, and rather than try to pack it for shipping, we are bringing it with us.  Unfortunately we can’t keep it on the truck with the camper on, so it will ride in the back seat….

What else is coming with us?  Our jewelry, my keyboard, and the stain glass windows that Paul’s mom made for him years ago.  They are crated pretty well, but we are going to see if we can incorporate them into the house while it’s being built.

One of the things that has made life easier is that we were very organized when we stored everything 6 years ago.  Every box was labeled with a number, and a master list was created with a list of all the contents.  We knew we would probably be having things shipped, so most things were crated or packaged with that in mind.  That sure has helped keep our stress levels down!










We’ve contacted several major moving companies and on Monday they will be coming to look at our stuff and give us an estimate on the move.

Michigan Road Trip-Days 3,4, and 5(05-03-15)

Day 3

Elk City, Oklahoma to St. Clair, Missouri

( 550 miles)

Yup, we drove, and drove and drove.  All day. The most exciting thing that happened all day was that Dozer calmed down and started sleeping all day…




We did have a little frustration at the end of the day.  When we were all tuckered out and ready to call it quits, we headed to an Elks Lodge that has one RV spot.  We  didn't call ahead since we figured if the one spot was taken, we'd just dry camp for the night.  Well, the one spot was taken and the parking lot was sooooo sloped, we couldn't find a spot that we could set up the camper!  Wow, now that is sloped!  We had to drive another 15 miles or so to get to the local state park.

Day 4

St. Clair, Missouri to Fremont, IN

( 454 miles)

Today’s exciting observation was signs of spring- the bright, vibrant green of new leaves on the trees…




Later in the day we started to feel like we were on home territory, as we passed Ball State University in Muncie Indiana.  Our daughter went to college there and we spent many a day driving to and from this school, back in the day.





  We almost made it all the way to our destination on day 4, but when we called the RV park we want to stay in, they were closed for the day and we couldn't confirm availability, and since we would have been really pushing it, and arriving at 8 pm, we decided to call it a day.

Day 5

  Fremont, IN to Ypsilanti, MI

( 121 miles)

This is more like the travel day that we are used to….as fulltimers, we usually adhere to the 2-2-2 rule; travel no more than 200 miles, arrive by 2 pm, and stay 2 nights.  In other words, slow down the pace. When we are on a “mission” that doesn't happen, and we can, if necessary, travel as fast as possible.  But we don’t like it.

Once we arrived at the RV park, we checked in, and got permission to take the camper off the truck. That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but some parks require you to keep a truck camper on the truck and many parks don’t allow truck campers at all.

Notice that although yesterday we had trees full of new leaves, in Michigan, spring hasn’t really sprung yet, and the trees barely have buds on them.

Our first priority is the boat.  Come hell or high water, it’s coming back to Arizona with us, and since it’s been sitting for so many years, we need to check the trailer, tires and brakes.

We remember that we packed it full of stuff-we vaguely remember that the yard rakes are in there, but we have no idea what else is under the shrink-wrap, and it isn't worth removing it just to take a peek.

After giving it a couple of test laps around the parking lot, Paul deemed it road worthy and we took it back to the campground with us so he can finish working on it there. 

That’s one less thing we are paying to store!

That was enough excitement for one day so we put off going to the storage unit for another time.

Are we having fun yet? or.......

A Day From Hell. 
That was yesterday.  Seemed like everything we touched turned to you know what.
     We left Indiana early in the morning because we had to make it to the RV park in Michigan 260 miles away, park the trailer and drive 65 miles to pick up a part for the truck, before the place closed at 3 pm.
The ride was uneventful, except when we pulled over to take a quick break, we saw that the globe to the ceiling fan light had fallen and smashed into a bazillion little shards of glass.  Ugh.  There was nothing we could do at that point so we waited until we got to the RV park.  Problem number 2 happened when we tried to get in the trailer when we arrived in MI.  The door wouldn't open.  We have keyless entry, which we tried, then we tried the key, etc etc.  It took Paul 20 minutes and a pair of pliers to get the door open.  Once he did, he told me I wouldn't want to look inside.  Apparently the refrigerator in this trailer has a touchy clasp that is difficult to close and yup, it wasn't closed, so as we were driving down the road the refrigerator was spewing its contents all over the floor and carpet.  I think the eggs and the pickle juice were the worst.
  It was about 87 degrees inside the trailer, so Paul got the AC going as soon as he could.  It couldn't keep up though, because I was running the vacuum, creating a lot of heat.  Do you know how long it takes to make sure you vacuum up every single little piece of glass, so that the cat won't cut himself?  A long time!  So long, that we were very close to not being able to get the truck part.   When we realized how late it was, we dropped everything, didn't take time to eat, and just drove off to go get the part.  Luckily they knew we were coming, so they waited for us.   That's when the day took a turn for the better.  We did have trouble getting in the trailer again when we got back, but Paul made some adjustments to the lock and he thinks its OK now.
   We have some stuff to drop off at our storage locker and a few things to get from it, as well.   We'll stick around here until Sunday morning, then take off for Pennsylvania.

neighbors

For the last few days as we quickly (but not quickly enough!) packed all of our stuff, and tried to clear out the house, mostly what I thought about was our neighbors. Last weekend we had several over for a very casual dinner of hot dogs and chili. We had a fun time with everyone. The past few days many neighbors have stopped by to say goodbye, get an update, or just tease us about all the stuff we are getting rid of, etc. all of that and more make me think about what great neighbors we have/had. As we got further behind in our efforts, (MAYBE partly due to my husbands inability to throw out something thats perfectly good) we got help from sooo many people! Poor Liz and Jim, who got so many things from us that we were sure they needed, whether they agreed or not. I think Jim started hiding so we couldn't give him anything, but thats ok, we started just leaving stuff in their garage that we wanted them to have. The trash and recyclables became a pile too big to handle, and Andy next door pitched right in. He took the recyclables and offered to put them out on recycling day, and then offered his dumpster so we could get rid of the pile of stuff. Mary, from the house behind us, came to say goodbye, and offered to take the canned goods that we were looking to donate and find a food bank to donate them to. Billy and George, from across the street, came over many times to help Paul lift and carry the things that were just too much for me. Beth offered to store Jessie's stuff in her garage for the 3 weeks until she leaves for school... and I will never forget my last hour at the house. I can laugh now, but I was a little frazzled at the time, I admit! With less than 2 hours to closing, it was clear that we had too much to fit in the truck and if we took the time to try to pack it, we seriously weren't going to make it to the closing. Paul's huge, heavy toolbox was supposed to go in the back of the truck but it was tooo heavy to lift. On a positive note, it had wheels....a quick decision was made and I started wheeling it over to Liz's house, calling her on the phone as I went. I told her we were out of time and room in the truck and still had "stuff" . She not only took the toolbox, she came over with her little wagon and took more. she told us to just leave what we couldn't take in the driveway, and she would take it over to her house. We took her up on the offer, and were on our way to closing! That's what I will miss!

exhaustion sets in...

Seriously, we are just getting tired. Its hard to sleep at night when you know there is so much to do the next day. Today is Saturday, and we had day 2 of our second garage sale today. Paul pretty much handled it himself- I packed boxes and made spaghetti sauce and meatballs to freeze, so we could use up some canned goods. On the plus side, he sold a lot of stuff in the last two days, but it also took up his whole day and all his energy. Tonight we took Jess and went out to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. Tomorrow Jess and I will spend the day sorting and packing her stuff- what she needs to bring to school and what she needs to buy etc. Then we shop, of course. This is our last week in the house, hopefully. We have spent the last two weeks taking trips to the storage area, packing the stuff we won't need anymore. Paul hasn't had time to do much work on the Everest, but if you know Paul at all, you know he has a list of "modifications" he wants to make. This week he has to do the things that will require power tools and anything else that will be going into storage or given away. Everything else will have to wait. We hired a small moving company to come on Friday to move the heavy stuff for us, so whatever we don't get moved ourselves this week, at least we can have them do it on Friday. Last night we had a bunch of neighbors over and had a great time hanging out. That is one of the things i will miss. we have the most awesome neighbors/friends!! I will truly miss the Parks and all the shenanigans that go on next door. So much fun to watch! More later.............

Pictures of Our new home

before the road.....

Ok, so I got the idea of blogging from Michele, who suggested it so she and others could follow our travels throughout the U.S. Today we had the home inspection, which went surprisingly well. We are both waiting for the other shoe to drop, I think. We also received the money for the boat, which really is a bittersweet thing. I guess I have to keep reminding myself that keeping the boat will not serve our purpose and won't bring back boating like it was in MA. IF everything goes according to plan, we should close on the house on July 21st. Paul is very busy selling things through Ebay and Craigslist. If the appraisal goes well, we will really have to start getting it in gear. I feel like I am at the start of a race, crouched in position, waiting for the gun to go off. we can't do too much until the house appraises for the selling price, at which point our sale has a better chance of going through- but if that happens, we have exactly 4 weeks to pack up and get out. We have been getting as ready as possible for the last few months, but there is a lot that has to wait. We already had and lost one buyer, so we don't want to assume anything. In this area of the country, the house isn't sold until after it closes, for sure. People lose their jobs at the drop of a hat around here it seems. We lost the last buyer because they lost THEIR buyer- a school teacher who got laid off at the end of the school year, 5 days before closing on her first condo. She eventually got her job back but our deal fell through in the meantime. This whole thing started due to Paul losing his job with Ford, in February. He was one of the lucky ones who actually got a retirement package. Most people don't. Living in the Detroit area is extremely depressing right now. So many people are struggling- willing to work hard, but there are no jobs, no matter how willing you are. As Paul looked for work around here, and further south, it quickly became apparent that there wasn't much out there for him. In April We went out to California to visit friends, and while there, casually looked at some 5th wheels, thinking in terms of retirement in a few years. Soon after we got home, after looking at our finances, life situation and a lot of other factors(we even took a whirlwind trip to SC to see if we would like it there, if he could find a job) , we decided that we had been given an opportunity, and if we let it pass by, we would be sitting on the sidelines of life rather than living it. After weighing the pros and cons, we decided that IF we could sell everything (the boat and the house, basically) that we would be able to spend a year (or so) travelling the country, exploring anyplace that sparks an interest. A week later the house went on the market. That was April, this is June. Not too bad for Detroit. We lost a lot of equity, but we really feel that this is the right choice for us right now. We take turns feeling anxiety, Paul and I, and it seems like whenever I am calm, he is frazzled and vice versa. Thats a good thing, I guess. Two frazzled people would be too much in one house. Just ask Jess. On the rare occasion Paul and I are both stressed at the same time, she probably feels it the most (sorry sweetie). As usual, she is a trooper and understands why we want to do this. It wouldn't be her choice to do right now, but she has her own things going on, and has really been supportive of our decision to take advantage of this opportunity. More later...................