Our Independence Day

The Great RV Escape has, at long last, begun.

It's official. We're fulltimers!

Our last morning in the Bay Area started early. Like every morning for the last couple of weeks, we had a lot of stuff to do. We had piles of stuff sitting outside the moose, and each pile needed to go somewhere. Resisting the temptation to simply put the stuff somewhere and roll, we wisely took the time to get organized. Believe it or not, the purging continued! A couple of hours later, we had a place for almost everything. We gifted several items to our hosts: storage tubs, cleaning supplies, hangers, liquor and wine. (We have plenty of the latter on board!) It felt great to leave that extra weight behind at the start.

With our organization complete, we were off to run our last errands: We returned our cable modem; I mailed the keys to our former back gate to the new owner and had my vintage Gibson guitar packed and shipped off to my brother; and, Boris got one last haircut from his favorite barber. We picked up a yummy grinder sandwich from a great neighborhood spot and took it back to the moose for lunch. On the way, our realtor called to tell us the title transfer was complete.

With that call, we were now free to roam about the country!

Though we were hungry, we were too excited to eat. We decided to share half the sandwich for lunch and saved the rest for later. In just a few minutes we had the moose ready to roll.

This was the moment we were waiting for! All of our preparation, hard work and good luck was leading to this day - this moment - for our new lifestyle to begin. We took a deep breath (OK, actually, it was several) and headed out.

The egress from our hosts' house was a bit tricky (though not as scary as the ingress!) so we decided to save the hooking up for a church parking lot about couple of miles away. There, a UPS driver, City of Oakland employee and several church volunteer gardeners likely took great amusement in watching these brand new fulltimers get hooked up.

For the benefit of our future fulltiming friends, we offer the following advice: If you plan to carry a bike rack on your tow hitch, take it on a test run before you load up for your fulltiming adventure.

Among the hundreds of "to-dos" we've done over recent months, one was to have our drop hitch receiver modified to accept our bike rack. Another was to replace our bike rack with a more RV-friendly version. Done and done. What we had not done, however, is try them all out with the squirrel in tow. So, the driver, city employee and gardeners got quite a show as we unloaded three bikes and figured out how to get the Jeep hooked up. It won't be that complicated in the future, thankfully. And, with practice, we'll get better at it all. With everything finally hooked together, we started toward the street. With the first right turn in the parking lot, we checked the camera. It looked like a front corner of the Jeep was plowing into Boris' fancy road bike. (Yikes!) We stopped, jumped out and looked. Turns out that camera angle can be quite deceiving. Thankfully, the bike and Jeep had plenty of clearance.

We waved a friendly so long to the amused gardeners and thanked them for the use of their parking lot. At 2:00 PM Pacific Time, we hit the road. It was much later than we had anticipated. With an estimated six hours of travel ahead of us, we were in for a long first travel day. We did our very best to get our adrenaline levels down to something close to normal and settle in for the first leg of our great escape.

It was a gorgeous day to travel. Sunny, with little wind and very pleasant Summer temperatures. With surprisingly little emotion, we waved so long to Oakland and traveled on very familiar highways most of the afternoon. Along the way, we reflected on what it took for us to get to this point, and how happy we were to finally be here. As we passed Redding we were venturing into new territory, and it was beautiful. As we were crossing stunning Lake Shasta, we placed a call to our fulltiming Godfadda and his bride to share our virtual toast to new adventures. (We saved our toast for later, of course!)

At 8PM, we pulled into the Mount Shasta KOA, which sits in the shadow of - you guessed it - magnificent Mount Shasta. We were settled into our very level pull thru in a matter of minutes. We made a couple of quick calls to family members to let them know we'd made it safely to our destination, and then enjoyed our favorite adult beverages with a toast to our exciting new lifestyle. With plans for a special celebratory dinner, we opted to save that meal for tomorrow - given the late hour. Instead, we sat down to what will surely be a very memorable first night meal.

Yep, we shared the rest of the sandwich and a Heineken.

With that, we're calling it a day. And, like so many of our fulltiming friends, we just can't wait to see what is in store for tomorrow.

Moving Out

The papers are signed.

The POD is gone (and the HOA board members cheered).

1-800-GOT-JUNK has come and taken ours away. 

Salvation Army should be here soon, though someone apparently came by and took about half of what we left for them. 

We've shuffled a load or two to our rolling home. 

All that's left is a little bit of cleanup. 

Before we do that, we're going to unhook the modem. So, it's time for us to sign off until we're back within wi-fi range. And, that might be tomorrow night.

By then, we have high hopes of being very happy fulltimers. 

For now, we're flat out exhausted soon-to-be-former homeowners. 

All is well. Let me just say we've collected a bunch of stories this week that will make great campfire conversation down the road. We look forward to it. 

More soon...from the road!

Down to the Wire

Yes, it's crunch time, people.

We have much to do before our heads hit the pillows in our rolling home tonight. But, so far, so good. 

The POD is packing quite nicely, if you don't count the nasty stares by HOA board members as they pass by. And, the piles for Salvation Army and 1-800-Got-Junk, who will both be passing by tomorrow, are manageable. Though it all still feels a little surreal, we're confident we will get it done tonight. We can only hope that we can wrap it all up at a reasonable hour. 

For having so much work to do today we sure had a busy social calendar. We had brunch with friends and said so long to one of our party hosts before she hopped in her taxi for the airport. An old friend and her daughter stopped by this afternoon to take some things off our hands and help out. But, we're down to the point where, as Boris says, everything we touch involves us having to make a decision. So, that made it a little tough to delegate.

The extra special treat in our day was an phone call from Gordon (aka da Godfadda) and Juanita. Having traveled this path more than three years ago, they know how these last days feel. We so appreciated their call of encouragement. We made a virtual date to enjoy a celebratory toast to our independence on Tuesday. We so look forward to seeing them live and in person in Port Orford in a couple of weeks to continue the celebration.

Time's a wasting, so I'll close. More to come.

Celebrating Our Independence

As predicted, this is indeed turning into some kind of Saturday. We're getting close to wrapping up our packing and purging. We have about half of the day tomorrow, then it needs to be done. And, it will be, one way or the other.

We are so ready!

Our frenetic Friday continued into the evening. When we returned home from the vet, we had a message from a member of our HOA board. She was none too happy to see our POD sitting on our private street. And, she just had to tell us all about it. She was sure our local fire department was going to fine us $100 a night for our violation. We said we were sorry, this isn't how things were supposed to turn out, and we'd do whatever we could.

We called PODS to see if there was anything they could do, such as pick the pod up today. But, to no avail, the local site was closed for the holiday. The earliest it could be picked is Monday, our regularly scheduled time. 

Next thing we knew, the PODS people were calling us. Seems they had received nasty emails from two of our HOA board members. They asked us to assume all liability if anything happened while it was on the street. We said we would. Then, emails were flying between our HOA board and the PODS people. To say we were frustrated with the whole situation would be an understatement. 

Now, it's important to understand that our neighbors have said they are fine with this. It's the size of a car sitting on the curb. Everyone can get around just fine. (Even a fire truck!) No one has been inconvenienced in any way. In talking with the neighbors, we've learned that this is SOP for our HOA board. They love to get into everyone's business. It's obvious they have nothing better to do. Boris has started referring to them as our HOA "bored". 

With all of this correspondence flying, and the sun getting ready to set in the West, we decided we'd take a few extra steps to make our big white box on the curb look a little more visible. Though we were due at a farewell dinner in our honor, we made a trip to Home Depot and an auto parts store to pick up two bright orange cones, two reflective safety triangles and a handful of round stick-on orange reflectors. Back home, we surrounded the box with glowing orange and headed off to our dinner, nearly two hours late. 

Emails continued to fly during the evening. The president of our HOA emailed our agent! Our degree of agitation continued to boil. Afraid we weren't very good company, we excused ourselves from dinner and headed home. As we pulled onto our street in the dark, we were so pleased to see all of the day-glo orange doing its job. You can't miss this thing! 

Neither of us slept particularly well or long last night. This morning over coffee we read the latest email exchange, and it seems that the tempers of our HOA board members have cooled. Perhaps everyone has come to accept that, on this holiday weekend, the soonest this big box will be moved is Monday morning.  And, maybe our HOA board members have, at long last, decided to get a life.

Our heads are cooler today, as well. It's just one more piece of affirmation that we no longer want to be here and have far better places to go. 

We're taking a break from our last minute surge to attend our going away party. It should be a fun, informal gathering of friends. Together, we'll grill a few brats, have a beer or two, check out our motorhome, see some fireworks. In the end, we won't say goodbye. We'll simply say, see you later. 

We wish everyone a safe and happy 4th of July. It's an extra special holiday for us, as we celebrate our very soon-to-be independence.

Cheers!

Frenetic Friday

The madness continues! 

But first, we took a well-deserved break last night and met a former colleague for drinks after work. It was great to see her again and catch up. While we were together we ran into a client from our former firm. She seemed very interested in what we were up to and said we both look 10 years younger! 

After drinks the younger-looking two of us stopped for dinner at our favorite neighborhood restaurant for one last simple and very tasty Italian meal. We'll definitely miss that place, but look forward to finding many other favorite neighborhood spots around the country. 

Our frenetic day started early. We got the house ready for the walk-through with the new buyer. I finished the binding on Bullwinkle's quilt and finally got our old PC laptop up and running again. Then, we headed out to rescue Bullwinkle from storage. 

Bullwinkle's fulltiming journey is already underway! We vacated our not-so-secure storage lot and headed toward home to our friends' house with the big driveway. Boris captained the moose on its first trip through the nearby Caldecott Tunnel. As I followed behind in the squirrel, it looked as if Boris had made this trip hundreds of times. It was a piece of cake! We ventured along roads that were familiar to us, but new to Bullwinkle. Pulling into our friends' long driveway took some time and several friendly discussions, but we got it done, leaving the moose parked there for the holiday weekend. 

With Bullwinkle settled, we ran the short distance home to meet our buyer and her agents for the walk-through. She's a seemingly lovely woman who seems to think our house is lovely. And, she's paying over our asking price, cash. It was a weird visit. But, it's all good.

While the walk-through was wrapping up, our POD storage unit arrived. With much noise and fanfare, our 7 x 7 x 8 foot box landed safely on our street. Now, it's sitting there just waiting for us to fill it! And, we will. 

Next up is a final trip to the vet for one of our lucky felines. Then, we're off to the suburbs to have dinner with friends. 

Tomorrow is sure to be some kind of Saturday.

Thrilling Thursday

So much progress today! 

The most thrilling event of the day was the "de-staging" of our house. In just over an hour, a crew of three removed all of the furniture and decorative items. We couldn't believe how fast they worked! 

Boris sold the beemer today. Hip, hip Hooray! Now, our only vehicles are Bullwinkle and Rocky. 

The Salvation Army guys are starting to feel like family. They came by today to pick up another truck load. And, they'll be back for their final pickup on Monday. They are very grateful for our generosity. We are so grateful to them for giving new purpose to so much of our stuff. 

A friend stopped by this morning and saw the stack of stuff we put out for "the guys". He eyed our camping equipment and we handed it over. He'll put it to good use and we feel good helping out a friend. 

All of that thrilling activity leaves us with a big empty space. And, that's just what we needed. Now, we can actually see what's left. It actually looks like we're moving. 

It's about time!

Wonderful Wednesday

I'm sticking with the alliteration, folks. Whatever it takes to get through this wacky week! 

We still have lots to do today. So, this will be quick. 

The best part of today was our trip to the title company, where we signed our closing documents. (Yippee!) The second best part was seeing our big sectional get loaded into a truck after it was purchased by a lovely family. (Double Yippee!) The third best part was confirming a time tomorrow morning to deliver our BMW to its soon-to-be-new owner. (Triple Yippee!) And, just this moment the UPS guy dropped off our new bike rack cover. (Quadruple Yippee!)

The rest of the day has been (and will continue to be) spent sorting through stuff.  (How can we STILL have stuff in this house. Is it multiplying, or what?) We have designated three areas for our belongings: stuff for the RV, stuff for our two remaining Salvation Army pickups and stuff for the POD. Anything not fitting in one of those three categories is headed for the trash. (Something tells me we'll be combing neighborhood trash bins far and wide Sunday night!) We stacked our moving boxes inside one of the 7-by-7 foot squares in our garage, and we're optimistic that it might all actually fit. That said, we are continuing to be ruthless in our purging. 

When we've needed a break from that never-ending task, we've made calls and logged on to various service providers to change our address and "go paperless" whenever we can. When those activities provide a welcome break, it's time to get a new life. 

Oh yeah. We're are!