5 Year Retrospective - Year One

Johnson City, Texas - December 2009

Hi all, Dianne here.  December 2013 marks our five-year anniversary of hitting the road full time in our RV.  There have been a lot of changes since then (different dogs, new home base, new friends) and several things that have stood the test of time (our RV, Charlie the Cat, old friends).  Also many lessons learned!  I thought it might be fun to take a trip down memory lane and pick out some favorite places, photos, and highlights of our five-year journey and our new life.  We'll start at the beginning, and this blog entry will cover Year One.



Note:  I'm new at Google maps, and can't figure out how to make the left panel disappear.  To see the route under the panel, you can move the map to the left away from underneath it. 
This first year our home was still on the market and so we made loops back and forth from Indiana to keep the house ready for showings.  We started out by heading north from Pendleton, Indiana to Elkhart (Bradd & Hall) to have our old analog TVs switched out and the cabinetry altered.  When we finally left Elkhart on December 6, 2008 it was 13 degrees!   We headed south and made haste for Charleston, South Carolina.

One of our favorite camp sites that first year was site 26 at Edisto Island State Park.  We were there in December, so there were no gnat troubles and we were able to get a great site between the marsh and the beach.  

 We took daily walks with Jasper and Chaplin (the "Travelin' Whippets") on the beach and marveled at just how nice it was to be able to be outside in December in t-shirts and shorts!

Favorite food:

Po Pigs Bo-B-Q - Carolina Style

Our very first Christmas away from home and family was spent strolling around Savannah, Georgia with Jasper and Chaplin.  

We then spent a month at Markham Park in Sunrise, Florida (outside Fort Lauderdale) in order to get our Motosat Datastorm system installed.  The campground was in a city park and the sites were grassy and spacious.  What made it really nice, though, was "Barkham at Markham" dog park.   We quickly became "regulars" at the park and both dogs loved it.

Chaplin the "Chick Magnet"

While at Markham Park, we took day trips to the Miami Metro Zoo (awesome!), South Beach,
 and also several trips to Everglades National Park.

One of the most memorable experiences that first year was the 15-mile bike trip at Shark Valley in Everglades National Park.  This was before we had bicycles of our own and I hadn't ridden a bike for years.  Before we even got to the point where we were riding around lethargic alligators laying in the roadway, I lost control of my bike, ran into an elderly tourist, and took a hard fall on my knee.  There is still a knot on my knee, a permanent souvenir of that day.  If you want to read all the gory details, here's a link to that blog entry:
Shark Valley Bike Trip  It was truly a day to remember!


Worst camp site of the year award:  KOA in the Florida Keys:  

  Best camp site of the year award:  Site #10 at Franklin Locks COE park near Fort Myers, Florida:

Jasper, Chaplin, and Lemon Tree

We spent a week with our friends the Gemmers in Fort Myers...

Chuck & Cindy

Jay & Nancy

...and a weekend with our friends Jay and Nancy at their then-condo in Naples.

We spent a week at Fort Wilderness Campground at Disney World.  Amanda and Kaia flew down from Indiana to join us there (Robyn was performing on a cruise ship that year and couldn't come).  

Kaia, my Punkie Pie

After they flew home, it was time for us to make our way north in time for yard maintenance at our house in Indiana.

On the way, we stopped at another favorite that year, St. George Island in the Florida Panhandle:

With stops at Lake Lanier in Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee, we finally made it back home to spend several weeks in Indiana at state parks, driving back and forth to our house for yard work.  We didn't stay there because I didn't want to have to keep it constantly clean for realtor showings and also, it no longer felt like home.  

We were asked by the local garden club to place our home on the annual garden tour that summer.  We readily agreed, since it would bring foot traffic to our house.   By that point it was nearing a year and a half on the market.  (Lesson learned:  Don't try to sell your home at the bottom of the worst housing market in a generation).

If you have too much time on your hands, here's the Entire Garden Tour blog entry.

Trip number two that year sent us toward New Orleans for a wedding, then to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to change residences, then back to Indiana for yet more yard work:

We drove the Natchez Trace from Nashville, Tennessee all the way to Natchez, Mississippi.  

The wedding in New Orleans took place at the famous St. Louis cathedral, then a jazz band led the wedding party from the ceremony to the French Quarter reception.

We danced through the streets waving white scarves behind the band and the bride and groom.  The bride (Jennifer) had been a fixture at our home since grade school, and we wouldn't have missed her wedding for the world, even if it weren't an awesome New Orleans affair.

Chateax aux Arc Winery near Altus, Arkansas

Then it was back to Indiana via Arkansas and  a side trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for driver's licenses and vehicle registrations.  Lesson learned: There have been wineries near Altus, Arkansas since 1880 -- our first winery tours, and good ones, too!

August was a very busy month that year.  I drove a U-Haul to Florida to help our daughter and granddaughter move, then flew back just in time for our annual kayak trip at Turkey Run State Park with the Gemmers, Patterns, and our other camping friends.

The best news of late summer was that our house finally sold that August.  We spent the rest of the summer  selling almost all of our furniture. 

My Texas friends might recognize the secretary, since it's now in our little coach house in Texas.  

We also held yet another garage sale at the little house our daughter had just moved from, to get rid of many of her things and what was left of ours.  Since we owned that little house, we were able to park our motor home in the driveway.   We actually thought at that time that we'd spend our summers there at the little house and travel in the winter months.

The last of a zillion garage sales

In September we traveled a little bit east to Celina, Ohio to attend Nick Russell's Gypsy Journal Rally. From there we drove straight to Coffeyville, Kansas to spend two-and-a-half months workcamping at the Amazon fulfillment center there.  

  We took this job (our one-and-only workcamping experience) before we knew that our house would sell.  Here I am soaking my feet in Epsom Salts after work.  Roger and I worked separate shifts because of our dogs, and he met me at the door with a foot bath and a glass of wine.  Whatta guy!! If you want to know what that job was like, read this blog entry:  Dianne's Perspective.

When our stint was over, we made haste to get south before bad weather struck.  A quick stop in Arlington, Texas to see Roger's cousin and her family gave us our first real taste of Texas.  Then we went on to spend our second Christmas on the road in Kerrville, Texas at Buckhorn Lake RV Resort.  The opening photo was taken on an organized trip from Buckhorn to have dinner and see the Christmas lights in nearby Johnson City.  They truly were the most awesome Christmas lights I've ever seen.  

The final photo for this Year One Retrospective was taken the day after Christmas at our very first visit to our favorite winery, Grape Creek, outside Fredericksburg, Texas.  (Note how slim we still were from our Amazon job.)  Here's to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas!

Cheers!

Roger is working on his own "best and worst" blog entry retrospective and I'll do Year Two when time permits.  This blog is our virtual scrapbook, and it's fun to look back.  

The pet pictures of the year are a compilation of a few of my favorites from Year One, with captions:

My Three Sons

Charlie playing in front of barely-filled-in US map

Naptime for My Three Sons

Hey, Dad's eating Steak!

Ice Cream in Key West

We sure miss you, Jasper and Chaplin....

"Working Like Dogs" + Yet ANOTHER Garage Sale!!

Roger here....  We took these pictures at our VERY LAST garage sale

 that took place a couple of weekends ago, but have been too busy to write about it until now.  Today was the day that I planned to work in the yard at our new little house, bringing in outdoor hoses, planters, chairs, etc. before leaving Indiana until next May, but on a day that was supposed to be partly cloudy and dry, it is raining.  I was able to wash the motor home, including the roof, in the rain, but I refuse to do the other yard work until the rain stops.  (I was interrupted in the middle of this.  It is now 5:30 p.m. and it is STILL raining.)  So it is a good time to get the blog up to date.

To use Dianne's oft used expression, we have been working like dogs to get ready for our departure.  There was still a lot of "stuff" to get rid of (ours and our daughter's) in addition to some of our valuable antiques.  Soooo.....  Reluctantly, we had another garage sale.  This time, we timed it to coincide with Pendleton's Fall Heritage Fair, which always draws hundreds of out-of-town people.  It was a good decision.  About two-thirds of the "stuff" was sold after the two-day sale.  All of the remaining items were loaded in the car and taken to Goodwill.  Our new garage is now clear!  

We have also completely emptied the house and garage of the house that we are selling.  Dianne listed the last antiques on Craig's list and one very valuable 1830 nine foot tall-case clock on Ebay.  The clock was purchased  by a clock expert from Cincinnati, who assures us that he knows how to get the wooden works to once again keep time.  All of the other items are also gone.  The house and garage are totally empty.  What a relief!  We can now live the rest of our lives only being concerned about the few items we have in the little house that we will visit for a couple months each year and the motor home.   We also decided to keep our red 

Adirondack chairs so that we can enjoy the views of the soy bean field and woods across the street.

  The second floor of the little house is totally devoted to the storage of the items that we could not part with (photos, etc.), and the items that our daughters and granddaughter wanted us to keep for them. 

 Speaking of our grandaughter, Kaia called us today.  She just got her first report card from her new school in Fort Myers ---  nine A's and 3 B's.  Not bad!  We are so proud of her and can't wait to see her and her mother in our travels.  

We had the motor home serviced at Mt. Comfort RV yesterday - a VERY good place for service.  We have come to depend on their advice and trust the service that they have done for us.  Good people!  While we waited, we wandered through the store.  Dianne found an extension to add to our batwing so that we could, hopefully, get all of the local channels.  (There is a tree in front of our satellite's south view that needs to be addressed when we return in May.)  We have only been getting one of the three major networks.  I installed it, and it actually works!  Now we can keep up on the new network shows.  Too bad we did not get it earlier, since we are leaving on Sunday.  

I will end with what I think is a funny story.  (Dianne may not.)  We both have a laundry list of tasks to accomplish before we leave for the Gypsy Journal Eastern Rally in Celina, Ohio on Sunday.  One of the items was to address the locking of our new front and garage doors.  Since we did not have a key for the garage door, nor the ability to shut the storm door in the front without it blowing open, both needed to be repaired.  We made a quick trip to the local hardware store and purchased a new handle/lock (with new keys) for the garage door, and a new handle mechanism for the storm door in the front.  Dianne and I agreed that we could each install one of the items.  Dianne took the storm door, so I started on the garage door.

We have a photo of the new garage walk-in door lock  installation.  It works REALLY well.  After I finished, I went into the house to see how Dianne was doing.  

Let's just say that despite the smile on Dianne's face (with the drill), that things were not going well.  Evidently, the installation require the drilling of a couple of new holes in the metal storm door.  As you can see,  Dianne drilled at least five.    

 Fortunately, they are all now covered by the new installation, which, I must admit, was much more involved than mine.  Oh well!  Everything now works.  It's all good!

Our next entry will probably be from the Gypsy Journal Eastern Rally in Celina, Ohio.  We have been looking forward to this for far too many months.  It should be both fun and educational as we learn some of the new skills of our adopted lifestyle.  WE CAN'T WAIT TO GET THERE.

Dianne here:  Boy, do we need a break, and we REALLY need to soak up this rally and remember why we've been doing all this work this summer, and what we're working towards.  We have both reverted to our former stressed-out selves, and can't wait to get all this behind us and hit the road once again!!    

Indiana State Fair, House News, and Yet Another Garage Sale!

Roger here....  

It has been another busy week.  Since we have been back in Indiana, we seem to be working harder than ever, at least physically harder.   I am really looking forward to January when we will be spending a couple of months at Bentsen Palm Village in Mission, Texas.  Staying in one place for two months will be a different experience for us as full-timing rookies.  Should be fun.

In the midst of all the work, we did take a break last Thursday evening to attend the Indiana State Fair with our friends, Jay and Nancy.

  The State Fair was always a big deal for those of us who grew up in Central Indiana.  My dad used to show cattle when he was a kid, and slept in the stall with the livestock.  His dad (Grandpa) showed apples from his orchard every year.  The walls of the apple barn next to Grandpa's house used to be covered with all the ribbons that he won over the years. 

 I personally, growing up as a townie, was not into 4-H, showing livestock, or growing produce (except for one year in 4-H with an insect collection - blue ribbon at the county fair),  However, I loved the State Fair, My memories of the fair from my youth included the midway rides, great food that sometimes made you 

sick, looking at all the animals, watching the high school bands perform, and wandering around with my family and friends.  Actually, when Dianne and I were dating, we spent a day wandering around the State Fair.  

It was a nostalgic day.  Many things were the same.   Some were different.  The world's largest hog was still on display, as was the display of grotesquely-large pumpkins

 (see photo).  The rows and rows of apples that I remembered from my grandfather's day had shrunk to a couple of tables.  The walking and walking and walking

 to see everything was still a challenge.  We did not ride the plentiful tractor-pulled carts

 that have operated for at least 50 years, because the exercise was good for us :).  The greasy and yummy food was everywhere.  We did pretty well, health-wise, eating a ribeye sandwich and a loaded baked potato for dinner.  However, I must admit that we did sample some very good and very greasy onion rings, and the mandatory cinnamon-sugar-coated elephant ear.  We passed on this year's specialty, deep-fried, chocolate-coated bacon -- just too weird.   In passing, Jay said that a lot of the food was deep-fried.  I challenged him to find something that was not.  He did - lemonade shake-ups and pineapple whip  :).

The highlight for me was walking through the horse barn and petting those magnificent animals.  The gigantic draft horses were amazing.  There must have been some sort of horse show in the coliseum, because we passed several silver-ladened teams of horses pulling a variety of carts.  

Lots of fun.  Lots of memories.

Back to our hectic lives:  Our house has sold, barring any unforeseen circumstances.   The closing will be in late October when we are in Kansas, so we will have to use technology to sign the papers.  This is wonderful news for the two of us - something that will truly enable us to enjoy our new lifestyle as full-time RVers.  Yippeeeeeeeeeeee!   We have been working toward this for three years.  Things are finally moving in the right direction.

Just to keep things interesting, our daughter and granddaughter have moved to Ft. Myers, FL.  We may have already posted this.  Dianne and I own (no mortgage) the small house in Pendleton that they have lived in for the past several years. 

 In addition to selling the antique furniture from the house that we just sold, we are now getting rid of the "stuff" that Amanda and Kaia did not take with them to Florida, and in the process giving the house a GOOD spring cleaning (in August).

We had a yard sale last Saturday that included items from both houses.  We did get rid of a lot of the bigger (size-wise) items - one of the goals.

  BUT, on a day that only had a 10% chance of rain, it rained off and on all day.  (Note from Dianne:  I hurried up to get ready for a garage sale this day because the forecast all week was for BEAUTIFUL weather, sunny and high 70s.   We were outside by 5:45 a.m. hauling things out to display in the yard.  You guessed it -- as we were putting the last items out around 8:00 a.m., it started to drizzle.  It turned out to be a really lousy day, and the WORST garage sale I've ever had!!   We spent all day trudging things in and out, tracking mud on the floor, drying things off only to have the drizzle begin again.  It was miserable!!!!!)

 A few things, none valuable, were ruined as we hauled things into the house, then out of the house, then into the house, ad nauseam.   I must reveal that there was some snipping between Dianne and me throughout the day (an understatement -- D.), and the garage is still packed with items that we must dispose of.   We are planning to do it all over again with better advertising and a nicer day hopefully (weather-wise) on the weekend after Labor Day. 

 This will coincide with the annual Heritage Fair in Pendleton, so there will be a lot of out-of-town traffic, which usually helps.

In the midst of all this, our older daughter, Robyn, who is currently performing on an NCL cruise ship in Hawaii through Second City (Chicago), called.  We have not seen her FOREVER.  We are storing her car in our garage until she finishes her current stint.  Anyway, she is pretty sure that she wants to try things out in Los Angeles.  She has been very successful acting and doing improv comedy in Chicago, so this seems like a logical step.  It is a good thing that we can easily bring our home across the country to visit both our daughters (Florida and California).  

Finally,  Dianne and I have made a pretty major decision:   We have decided to keep the small cottage-style house that our daughter and granddaughter lived in.  Our original plan was to buy a parking spot with a Florida/Arizona room in a warm area that we would leave in the hot months.  Now we plan to arrive in Indiana in August so that I can continue to do HR consulting for my former school corporation, stay through the early fall (beautiful in Indiana), then travel for the other ten months.  Financially, this makes sense for us, since we already own the small house, and know that right now we could not recoup our original investment.  

Property taxes are low on a small Indiana house.  

We would have a place to land when we can no longer "walk".  And besides, we love Pendleton, IN.  It is a beautiful hidden secret that the people of suburban Indianapolis will soon discover next to interstate 69. 

  (Dianne here:  What Roger forgot to mention is that his parents used to own this little house as a rental.  When we were newlyweds in 1972 we lived here for almost a year, rent-free.   Then Roger's brother lived here when he first graduated from Purdue until his marriage.   This little house has a lot of family history!   Roger's uncle purchased the house from Roger's parents, and lived here until just before his death.  We purchased it from his estate for our daughter and granddaughter to live in as long as they needed a home.   As we were painting the upstairs trim yesterday, I remarked to Roger that if someone had told me when I was 23 years old and painting this room that I'd be re-painting it when I was 58 years old, I wouldn't have believed them!   I guess we've come full-circle....)

The house, which looks great (quaint) on the outside, 

needs a little (not a lot) of work on the inside.  We will probably return for a couple weeks in May to put up some bead-board walls in the main room and put new flooring in the bathroom and laundry room.  It already has a new foundation and substructure flooring (due to an unfortunate termite experience about 3 years ago).  The main room and kitchen have nice-looking laminate flooring that Dianne installed a couple of years ago, after the termite fiasco.  We will put our bedroom furniture, a wicker couch, a Lazy Boy recliner on the first floor, and use the second floor for storage.  The views are of a forested vacant lot and a large soy-bean/corn field with a forest in the background.  Falls Park on the falls of Fall Creek, one of the best small-town parks (including hiking trails) in the midwest, is only two blocks away.   (Dianne again:  It is also right down the street from the Every-Saturday-In-Summer farmer's market, walking distance to the local library and the center of town, and just down the street from the community swimming pool.   Location, location, location.   We will call it our "glorified storage unit.")

Last week we had a 50-amp outlet installed so that we can run both air conditioners in the motor home.  (We intend to sleep in the motor home when we stay here.)  We may cut down a small tree and have a pad, that allows our dish to face the southern sky,  installed so that we can resume our satellite coverage during the few weeks we are here.   

 (In this neighborhood, there is not a problem, expense or hassle with covenants or homeowners' associations.   We already pay someone to keep it mowed, so it seems to be the perfect solution for us to be able to travel as much as we want and still live mostly on Roger's pension.  -- D)

My life as a school administrator was always challenging, rewarding, stressful, and busy.  Right now my life seems to be the same (without the income).  The good news is that we are very close to having the challenges, the rewards, and the busyness, and leaving the stress behind.  As I said before, I can't wait until January.  By the way, the dogs don't seem to be nearly as busy as Dianne and me!