Today is the day: We are officially full timers!
Here we are leaving the driveway for the very last time. We are no longer Kingsburg, CA residents.
Escrow closed last night at 5pm and the new homeowners were biting at the bit; they had their trailer loaded and everything. So we did the walk through and asked if we could spend one more night in their driveway since the check would not be ready until the morning. Tom even offered to help them move stuff, but they said they had help lined up so we took the night off.
In order the give the new family their space, we went to dinner, drove around by the river looking at the local flooded out RV parks, had one last drink at one of our old spots on the river, then caught a late (for us) movie. The lights were out by the time we got back.
Our plan was to leave first thing to get out of their way, hang out somewhere until the escrow office opened at 9am, take our check to the bank that opened at 9:30, and drive up north to see grandbaby before noon.
Well…..The new homeowners trailer was blocking our exit so there was no first light rush. Then we spent some time visiting before heading out of the driveway for the very last time.Then we had to wait a bit at the title office, and the banking took a little longer because of the $25.00 in pennies we took in. (Did I mention we had a lot of stuff to get rid of?) So by the time we walked back to the parked RV, we were about an hour over schedule. Which, as full timers, we shouldn’t even have a schedule, right? But I’ve been on a mission to see the grandbaby.
Then it happened: our first SNAFU as full timers. Everyone says it’s not a matter of IF something will break on the RV, it’s just a matter of when. This wasn’t even our first problem, but it’s the first to delay our travels.
The step wouldn’t retract. We’d been having problems with it freezing up, but a couple of tries and it would go in. We even called the Newmar factory and they said we just needed to clean the sensors located in the door. So we’d been doing that and it seemed to work. But this time the darned thing was being obstinate and would’t budge. And you can’t drive down the road with the steps extended. We know because we’ve done it already, and you get people honking at you and flagging you down!
So Tom got out his tools, got out a mat, and slid under the coach to try to fix it. After an hour and a half of fighting it, he gave up. He was able to retract it so he bungeed it up and we got on our way.
So so far it doesn’t feel any different. We’ve been spending a lot of time living in the RV this year already, and we’re heading to someplace familiar. In fact we’ll be staying pretty local this whole month of April because Tom has upcoming dental work scheduled, and then we’ll hang around for son’s races and daughter’s bridal shower.
We still have some chaos to clear, some things that still need to find a place to live.
We still need to get our office (area) organized. But basically we’re all moved in.
The real test will be finding what we need when we need it. I expect to hear “Joy, where did you put that…?” a lot in my future. I’m sure there will be plenty of times we need something we got rid of, have something in storage we need now, or find things and ask, “Why did we bring THIS along?” That’s expected and all part of the adventure, right?
While the break we’ve had while waiting on escrow was nice, we’re not ready to slip into vacation mode yet. We still have plenty on our to-do list: Finish with the change of address notifications, get our medical records sent to our new provider, get our digital pictures organized, continue scanning old photos (we ended up bringing the scanner along and plan on carrying a box of photos with us to scan after each trip to storage). That’s tops on my to-do list. Tom still needs to get the jeep lights hard wired for towing, and now of course, do something about our steps.
But we have nothing but time now, right? I’m not sure it’s really sunk in yet – that we are now vagabonds! But it sure does feel good to have the house behind us. We are no longer anchored to anything, and that feels very freeing.
Happy Travels!
Peace & Love, Joy
We seem to be taking parallel paths, just a few months apart. Our first night as full-timers was spent in the Cummins parking lot to have repairs the next morning. We actually met some wonderful people also forced from the road–good thing Cummins had hookups. We just pulled out our chairs and enjoyed the company. I’m looking forward to following your adventures! Dawn
Such is life, and it IS all about the company! I’m enjoying your posts too – thank you!