Our Epic RV Journey

It seems as if much has happened over the last week and a half as we are nearing the move out date from our home.  The moving van will be here on April 24th to pick up the remaining pieces of furniture that will be going into storage.  At that point we will be living at the local Hampton Inn while working on getting rid of any remaining small items and cleaning the house.

Also, we are now scheduled to pick up the 5th wheel near the end of April.  The Heartland assembly plant in Indiana is scheduled to finish it on the 21st, then transport to our dealer in Virginia.  After a three day thorough testing and checkout period by their techs, we will then spend a full day there on site.

During that day, they will install the 5th wheel hitch in the bed of our truck and spend several hours going through all the systems and features with us.  Owners training.  I’ll probably use video to record the day’s training or else we would never remember everything.

That wraps up today’s short update.  The stress level can get a little overwhelming at times as we keep reviewing the ever growing to-do list all the while the days remaining are shorter.  Ack!  My last day of regular employee work at Federal-Mogul is May 5th.  Cinco de Mayo!  I now have 16 workdays to go, after 44 years.  🙂

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I knew that it would sell.  It is a strange feeling to watch some of the items that I always wanted to have and now to have them change over to a new owner.  On one hand I would have worried if we had placed the bike into storage for a few years.  Many things can go wrong when a gasoline engine is stored.  Like the fuel lines leaking, carbs getting gummed up, etc.  So, it is liberating to be downsizing and getting rid of just things.  On the other hand, I had always planned to take some longer trips when I had more time.  So finally I decided to sell it and I can always buy another bike at a later date.  No more worries, but… Continue reading “Sold My Motorcycle”

As we are moving ever faster to my retirement date and the transition from living in a large home to our new 5th wheel camping trailer, we have an exhausting list of things to do.  I’m going to list it here to have it to refer back to occasionally.  This is in addition to hundreds of things that are already completed.  Whew!  In no particular order: Continue reading “Punch List for the Next 45 Days – March, April 2017”

Things are continuing to move at a fast clip!  Maybe too fast?  Well, anyway it is what it is, so we had better hang on for the ride.  The final closing was today with the normal flurry of signing many papers, so we now have until April 30th to move out of our lovely home that we raised three children.  Having until the 4/30 was part of our sale by owner contract.  Lots more downsizing needs to happen in the next 45 days. Continue reading “Closed on our Home”

After a few months of research and some test drives, we selected a Ford F-350 1-ton pickup truck with the 6.7L diesel option and dual rear wheels.  It also is loaded with other neat options specifically for towing.  Some of the reasons for selecting this truck are: Continue reading “We Bought Our Truck”

We listed our home on the Zillow for sale by owner website a couple of weeks ago and had an offer after one week.  Yikes!  It has now progressed to a written contract and is scheduled to close in a little over a week.  Things are moving along crazy fast.  But you never know until the cash is transferred. Continue reading “Our Home May Be Sold”

We have been asked this several times when explaining our retirement plans to family and friends.  I will try to explain here the reasons and what our longer range plans are.  Well, where to begin? Continue reading “Why the Full Time RV Living?”