Stream of Conciousness: Our Craziest New News
At one point in dipping our toe into the wonderful world of RVing, I ran across a group called The Escapees. I stalked their forums for awhile - gleaning what I could about RV insurance, the best campgrounds and whether or not to leave your propane on while on the road -- all the most exciting topics! We were so new to RVing that we had no idea what we didn't know.
Around the time we found Gary, we decided it was time to actually pay for an Escapees membership. One of my hesitations with joining was that it seemed that most members were quite a bit older than us - retired - very experienced RVers. I wasn't sure that we'd fit in...but I knew we needed their knowledge.
Lo and behold, just when we were joining, a new group within Escapees was forming - the Xscapers -- an overall younger group with a focus on those who lived and worked on the road.
Say what?
Lived and worked on the road?
Can you do that?
I had read in the forums about people that lived on the the road after retiring but not before and never thought about working from the road.
Seriously?
Thus started my research then campaign (sometimes not so subtly) to get Mike to consider taking longer RV trips or at least going out more often. He could work some from the road now and then when he retired.....well, who knows what craziness might happen then!
We all understand that life happens - yards must be mowed, concert tickets are purchased, dogs get sick....gawd....the list can go on forever so, even though we did travel, poor Gary continued to sit more in the driveway than he did at campgrounds.
So - remember that party in December of last year? The retirement party? Mike was done with working for a paycheck. He was now going to putter in the yard each day, sort thru his clothes, empty those boxes from the office and....travel.
We have fabulous friends here in Fort Worth. We know our way around the metroplex without even trying. We have several groups we volunteer with. We have a beautiful historical home and garden that we love and that needs us. OK - so it doesn't need 'us' - but it needs (nay I say 'demands') attention.
Are ya seein' where I'm going with this?
We have full days and full lives except that we rarely feel totally free to leave. There's something wrong with that.
We took off for a week in February to take Daisy, via 'her' RV, to the beach then right away we did two weeks in Missouri at the Escapees big rally - Escapade. The Daisy trip was lo-key, do nothing because her illness made it her trip and the Escapade trip was go-go-go. We loved them both! We didn't want to go home either time....but we had to. The yard, the cats, the stuff.....
So Mike came to me not long after that and announced that I was right (!!??!) and he'd thought it through....let's sell the house (what?!?!) and go full-time RVing (what?! what?!). We'll see what we want to see and when it's time (sooner or later - who knows?) we can decide where would be a good spot to settle back down.
W-w-what? W-w-wait a sec! Are you sure?
That acknowledgement carried a ton of weight and for about three days, I walked around thinking 'be careful what you wish for!' It was almost a week before we actually discussed it. It is a HUGE step on many levels - the biggest hurdle is getting rid of the S-T-U-F-F.
Twenty-four years in this home....3200 sq ft of space and almost all of it full....a three car garage...garden shed, chicken coop and remember the garden tour....so many pots and plants. That stuff can not and will not go with us. That stuff must disappear. So...much....stuff.
There are plenty of smaller things like setting up mail service (for those very, very few things we get that is not junk, we need a place for it to land), scanning in 1.27 billion pictures, scanning in documents, getting Gary ready to live in or do we get a new rig? Once those things are done comes the ultimate freeing, yet probably most emotionally gut-wrenching 'to-do' item: we have to sell the house.
We've started telling people and, great thing, everyone is excited for us. I'd read that people will think that you are nuts but that's not been the case with us. Maybe they already think we are! There are times that I wonder about that.
More as this new adventure unfolds....
Oh - and we close our propane when we travel.
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