End of an Era

Hi folks
Just wanted to take a moment to share.  Tonight is my last forever night to be in my home of 31 years.  Tomorrow night is the official beginning of Fulltime RV living.  I have been so buried in doing all the chores necessary for this transition that I'm not sure the reality of this drastic lifestyle change has actually sunk in.

After working 3/4 of the summer, I had the yard sale back on Aug 24-26 which was very sucessful.  Useful items remaining were put on Craigslist or Nextdoor and that too worked to get rid of more items.  I sold 170 mature hostas with more people than plants to go around.  In the past 2 weeks, Ebay was the venue for my Steiff bears and many antique bears I had restored with 22 items selling in just ten days-meaning Ive packed and shipped that many boxes.  All vintage jewelry went to one antique store dealer who bought the whole lot of it.  Tomorrow St. Vincent de Paul comes for my modern couch and loveseat, the TV goes an Sunday and that is the last of every bit of furniture. Goodwill runs start today.  Files and clothing to weed out yet too.

Moved the trailer from storage to a campground a week ago for the transition period. Did the bleach thing to sanitize fresh water and got the vinyl floor down in the slide area that the dealer was suppose have done last May (that's another story).  More changes to trailer interior to come in the next 2 weeks - replacing ugly faucets and cabinet hardware, and moving to a farm 2 weeks from now where a former client is going to re-paper the walls and rid me of those awful, dark, disgusting walls in the trailer.  Could not find a paper hanger locally who would do the job.  Also, today starts runs to the trailer moving in clothes, household stuff, etc. Then gotta go to CAT scales and have the hitch set up checked for the new weight.

Then the house closing happens this Wednesday Sept 26.  Two dental appts for me and one for the cat coming up, meeting with tax preparer, more change of addresses to do, etc, etc.  But once the home cleanout happens for closing, I'm on fulltime rv status meaning my time, travel, destinations no longer have a schedule--and I can breathe again.  Probably off to South Dakota sometime around Oct 10.  HOORAH

So that's my transition story.  It's been a long haul but the end, errr the beginning, is in sight.

Linda

Without change there is no change. 

Looks like things are changing drastically for you...great!

Are you going to spend the winter in South Dakota?

Congratulations Linda.  ;D I did the same thing 15 years ago and never looked back. You will have a great time full timing it. 8)

Congrats Linda best of luck to you.  We did the same 8-months ago and absolutely love it, as Seilerbird said, "have not looked back".

What excitement you have to look forward to! I believe you will find a huge sense of relief when you are no longer tied down to things or location. Life is meant to be an adventure, so enjoy! It?s a joy to see people be able to experience their dreams and watch them unfold. Have fun and laugh a lot on your new journey through life Linda!

I'm so jealous! Someday... Enjoy it and keep us posted!

Thank you all for the encouragement and happy thoughts.  With so much to do, I forget the excitement I had two years ago when I started thinking about and researching the possibility of RV living.  The last couple days, some angst over possible lonliness has crept into my mind, but that's probably just the result of general stress making my head start wandering in search for release from overload.  And thinking about friends I'll miss.  Hopefully new ones await.

Hey Arch - no I'm not staying in SD, only going there to establish my domicile state, get license, do will, etc.  Then I'm off to Loveland CO to meet up with some old friends for a few days, then on to Texas, a visit to McDonald Observatory, and then hang around Big Bend Natl park area.  After, the tentative plan is to make my way west across the south US and hit Quartzite in January and the RV Forum's rally at KOFA 2019.  After that ?  I have no idea yet what route to Texas destinations I'll take, but I think I'll have time to plan that while on the road.

I'm looking forward to slowing down, hanging out and doing nothing, and cease living off of "to do" lists.  Yeah, I'm excited for that, . . .and starry skies, smell of pines, noisy streams,. . . And more.

Now, back to work!

Linda

Glad to hear you are doing a will. Have several friends who haven't done that and it's very important.


I like your plan...

I always say...Don't know where I'm going but suppose I'll get there anyways. 

Linda, best of luck in your new life.  It's exciting and I hope you also never look back.

ArdraF

BikerFlex&HappyJen said:

What excitement you have to look forward to! I believe you will find a huge sense of relief when you are no longer tied down to things or location. Life is meant to be an adventure, so enjoy! It?s a joy to see people be able to experience their dreams and watch them unfold. Have fun and laugh a lot on your new journey through life Linda!

Click to expand...

Well said and so very true.

RVMommaTo6 said:

I'm so jealous! Someday... Enjoy it and keep us posted!

Click to expand...

Make someday today.  Life is not a dress rehearsal.

We went through the same things a couple of months ago but also had to close up my 42 years of solo medical practice. I found things in drawers in my office that looked like they came from the beginning of the last century. For the first few years of my practice I did my own blood counts and many of the lab tests that our government has made impossible for solo doctors to do any more. Now you have to hire a lab tech and have OSHA requirements that make it far too expensive.

We've been on the road for 3 weeks now, heading East from the DFW area, heading toward the Gulf tomorrow to Biloxi, with the ultimate goal, South Carolina to visit relatives. Then we, also, will be making our way out West, by the way of Big Bend. You'll likely be long gone by that time.
Bob

Deb and I have just gone through the same thing. Trying to get our lot ready for us to move into. Been at a State Park for the last two weeks. We will be moving over to her sister's property today or tomorrow for a week or so.