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.

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.