Getting Ready – The Wandering RVer

A Year in Review

With 2017 and Peterborough in the review mirror, I realize just how much our life changed last year. When 2017 began, we were still living in a stick and brick home, we owned a business and we were still making our plan to hit the road. Then, something happened and it all changed. Accelerating our plan to move into Waldo full time a year ahead of schedule required quite a lot of work. First, had to decide what we wanted to keep and what needed to go, then we had to get rid of all our belongings that weren’t going with us…

We had to get the house ready to sell. Clean, paint, new flooring…

And, of course, the we had to wait for the weather to warm up…

Sometimes, you just have to take a break!

Then, there was all the work we needed to do to Waldo before we could leave. My favorite “upgrade” was our new curtains…

Curtain A — What do you do with family photos?

Curtain B — You turn them into iron-ons and make curtains!

We said goodbye to family and friends…

Finally, Florida bound…

By far, the biggest improvement we had to do was get a new roof. We decided Florida was where we should get that done. The benefit of being able to stay with my dad while the repair was done, made the decision an easy one…

Steve began to adjust to not going to work every day…

It was July before we truly ready to hit the road. We had a job waiting for us in Texas and it was time to go…

img_3891-1 — Our first meal living full time in Waldo.

And then, our new temporary home in Texas…

The next 5 months seemingly flew by, bringing us to December and the impending new year.

How things can change in 12 months! From this view…

To this view…

From using wood for winter heat…

To using wood for camp fires…

It’s been a year of major changes, all for the better. We’ve visited beautiful places and made some wonderful new friends. It means so much to me to have you along on our journey. Thank you.

May 2018 be your best year yet!

Happiness in the rear view mirror

I know it has been quite a while since I’ve written a post and I’m sorry. An awful lot has happened in the last nine weeks! It has been an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least. In April, we put the house on the market. But it seemed every time I turned around, there was still some unfinished little project that needed to be done. Touch up the paint here, wash that cabinet, clean out that room. It was almost never ending and it really took a mental and physical toll on me. In May, we liquidated the contents of our business and our home. We auctioned off all the business assets. There was quite a crowd but the bidding was low and we came away with a lot less than we had hoped. But it was done! Next came our moving sale. Steve and I spent every spare moment moving items from the house to the garage. I organized and tagged while he did the heavy lifting. How in the world did we ever end up with so much stuff!?!?! The sale lasted 3 days – 3 long days! In the end, we did pretty well and a lot of “stuff” was gone. But what to do with the rest of our possessions? As I looked around at the leftovers, I made mental lists of what could be donated (and to whom), what should be thrown in the dumpster and what should be brought to Our Town Co Op, my favorite consignment store. It took several weeks to go from…

To…

In the midst of all of this, there was a family get together. For the first time ever, we had all three of our kids and all three of our grandchildren together.

Plus there were lots of friends to say goodbye to. Breakfast with Bill and Sue, dinner with Jeff, lunch with Keith, dinner with Lindsay and Leo, beverages on the patio with Rick and Carol, lunch with Martha. It seemed every day we squeezed in one more goodbye. Unfortunately, it was taking away time I needed for wrapping everything up. Don’t get me wrong, I love our friends dearly, but I was feeling the stress of finishing my to-do list. Last week, I checked one of those things off my list – mowing the lawn for the last time…

Finally it came down to packing Waldo. Our first destination is my dad’s house in Florida. There are just some things we don’t want to part with, but do not need on the road. Leaving them in Florida just makes the most sense, plus we need to have a new roof put on Waldo before we hit the road for good and staying at my dad’s sure beats nights in a motel! Finally, Waldo was loaded to the brim, every available inch of space was stuffed with something. It’s time!!!

We did stop at the end of our driveway to say one last goodbye…

Happiness in the rear view mirror….

Florida – Here we come!

The Joke’s On Me

With hopes of making progress, on March 26th, we moved Waldo from its concrete pad near the garage to our driveway. There are still several Waldo projects we need to complete (replacing the microwave/convection oven for one). With Waldo in the driveway, we can plug into shore power (aka the house). Now, I can use power tools without needing a 100′ extension cord. Great! Let the projects begin…

Not so fast!!!! On the 28th, some snowbird friends called and asked if they could park their rig in our driveway for a few days. They are returning from work camping at Ocala National Forest for the winter and the campground they are heading to won’t be ready for them until April 1st. “No problem!” I said, thinking we could just put Waldo back on the concrete until they leave. Ut oh, dead batteries. Waldo isn’t going anywhere! Our friends arrived and were able to back down our long driveway and park next to Waldo. This wasn’t ideal, but we could work with it…

We spent the evening catching up on their adventures and sharing our own work camping plans. Then Mother Nature decided Old Man Winter had not wreaked enough havoc on us this year! The forecast was calling for a FOOT of snow! Are you kidding me?!?!?!? This has to be an April Fool’s joke right?!?!?!? Nope – no joke…

By the time it stopped snowing, we had close to a foot of wet, heavy snow! And, for the icing on the cake – our snowblower crapped out and our plow driver broke down before he could plow our driveway! I promise, I am not making this up!

Sunday dawned with bright blue skies and promises of temperatures reaching into the 50’s. Armed with shovels, snow brooms and the neighbor’s snowblower we began to dig out…

We finally got the driveway cleared enough for them to get on their way and I’d be willing to bet, they won’t ever come back to New England quite so early.

Instead of getting to work on Waldo, I decided to take in some sun…

Yes, that is a weight bench and Yes I know I’m laying on it wrong!

Maybe my next post can be full of the progress we are making!

You can’t do that to me! I’m a SHOWER CURTAIN!!!

Well – Yes I can! You see, you USED to be a shower curtain. Now your just a curtain!

I should probably back up a little here. Last week, I wrote about how I made personalized curtains for the bedroom, using a collection of family pictures. This week, I took making Waldo our own a step further. About 8 years ago, I helped my mom sew together the curtains they used as the privacy curtain (for those of you not familiar with being in an RV, that is the curtain you can draw which blocks the windshield). It has several functions. It serves to keep nosy neighbors from seeing you before you’ve had your coffee and it helps insulate from either the scorching sun or the cold wind. The curtains I helped my mom with were a lovely shade of 1970’s gold. And later, after a trip to Mexico, my mom made curtains for the rest of the windows from very colorful Mexican blankets she picked up at a bazaar. I wanted a new privacy curtain and window curtains, something more in line with our taste.

About the time I came up with the idea for the bedroom curtains, I also had an idea for the rest of the windows/windshield. Now don’t laugh! Fabric shower curtains!I have to admit, it isn’t the first time I’ve used shower curtains for window curtains.

After scouring too many websites to count, I picked several shower curtains and waited anxiously for them to arrive.

The first step, was to determine which part of the curtain I was going to use. Most shower curtains are way to long for window curtains…

SC1 — To be completely honest, the curtains in my dining room are shower curtains

Once I decided what part of the scene I wanted, I cut them to size and lined them with room darkening fabric (just like the bedroom).

It took a total of 3 to make the privacy curtain. The 2 sewn together will be drawn to the driver’s side and the 3rd one will be drawn to the passenger side when we are moving….

Now, no matter where we are, the scenery will be beautiful!

If I had made curtains like this for my office, this wouldn’t be what I am seeing right now…

Hitting the road can’t come soon enough!

Taking it all with us – Or Not!

Despite the fact I have never been over attached to ~~crap we’ve collected over the years~~ possessions, downsizing can be an emotional roller coaster! Lucky for us, we began the process several years ago (something else we learned from my parents – start early). We’ve had numerous yard sales over the years and more Craig’s List posting than I care to count but what about the truly personal items: the scrapbooks, historical photographs, hand written notes from loved ones? What do you do with those items?

Several weeks ago, an idea began to take shape. While it is not practical, weight wise, to take all those photo albums with us (and seriously who ever opens their photo albums and looks through them?), there isn’t any reason we can’t take the pictures. We do have one of those electronic picture frames where the images scroll by, but I wanted something more personal and functional. We have done very little in the way of making Waldo our own. It still has the curtains my mom bought and while they do the job, they aren’t exactly my style. What did I having lying around I could repurpose? I’ve always made my own curtains, I just can’t justify the expense of fancy store-bought ones. The only exception to that was the blackout curtains Steve bought several years ago (To be honest, Laura was visiting her parents when the curtains magically appeared – Steve) Well, I could cut them down to size and that would be functional and while the soft blue color does match our bedroom, it won’t make them personal. My plan was to use the blackout curtains as a liner. I wanted to do this as inexpensively as possible, so I used an old microfiber bed sheet I had lying around for the “front” of the curtain. I ordered dark fabric iron-on transfers and turned our favorite pictures into transfers. I took some time to size them, print them, cut them out and iron them on, but the result was exactly what I had hoped for…

I included pictures of our parents, our children through the years, our grandchildren and us. The blackout liner will be perfect when we finally get to “The Land of the Midnight Sun” aka Alaska. I hadn’t told Steve about my idea and had them folded up on the dining room table when he got home from the shop one night last week. I think I might have seen a tear in his eye when he looked at them. Now our favorite pictures will always be right where we can see them!

On another front, we are one step closer to being ready to put the house on the market. The new carpet was installed this week. Now all the flooring upstairs is new. Of course it wasn’t as easy as just getting new flooring, I had to finish all the painting before the installers arrived – no small task! But – IT’S DONE!! woohoo!

Out with the old…

And in with the new…

The final thing I accomplished last week was to design and order new business cards. Here are the results…

What do you think?

My goal this week is to finish the painting downstairs and to start getting ready for our final sale, our moving sale!

“Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” – Anonymous

Planning To Wander

We’ve had a 5 year plan for about 14 years now. When we first got married, we talked about homesteading; living off the land, finding our own way. Life has a funny way of changing your plans for you. It doesn’t ask – it just does it and leaves you with the mess. After you dust yourself off, you start making a new 5 year plan. Sometimes, ~~if you’ve screwed off for 5 years~~ you’re not careful, 5 years comes and goes without any furtherance of your plan. Perhaps it wasn’t the right plan. My mom had a long list of serious medical issues, things that would ensure she didn’t live to be a centurion. So, my dad retired early, put their home on the market, bought a truck and a camper. Medical issues be damned – they were going to travel. And the things/places they saw!!! Steve and I began to formulate a NEW new plan. We wanted to travel too! Anyone who knows me, even just a little, knows I hate winter and I hate the cold. I’ve been talking about leaving New Hampshire since, well, let’s just say for a very long time.

Over the years, my parents went through several upgrades and downgrades. Everything from a 26′ tag trailer called The Dog, towed by an F250 named Beast to a 38′ Class A motor home named Waldo who towed a nameless Jeep Wrangler. I’m the one who named the motor home. I never knew exactly where my parents might be. Just because they were in Arizona yesterday, didn’t mean they were still there today. Hence – Where’s Waldo. Every summer, my parents would make the trek to New Hampshire, park their rig in our driveway and spend a few weeks with us. During their visit, Steve and I would listen to stories of the places they had visited and “oops” moments along the way. We learned a lot from my parents. Things like: when you buy your rig, make sure there are enough outlets, don’t buy things you don’t have room for, be willing to unplug from the world, it’s never too soon to start downsizing but maybe the biggest thing we learned is LIFE IS SHORT. Due to deteriorating health, in 2011 my parents bought a house in Florida. Travel time was over.

Before my mom passed away in 2012, my parents gifted Waldo to us. Our travel plan got a little nearer – we had wheels!

The next 16 months were a disaster for us. In Oct 2012 , my mom passed away at just 64 years old. In Sept. 2013, Steve’s dad passed away. And in Feb 2014, Steve’s 32 year old son lost his battle with cancer. We were learning first hand how short life is. And just to show that life doesn’t care what your plans are, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder to go along with the heart problems I have. Luckily, the heart problem was mostly solved with a cardiac ablation, but the autoimmune disorder isn’t going away (as with most autoimmunes there is no cure). Steve and I have learned to “live with it”. Good days – bad days. S0, before it becomes Bad days – good days we have decided to throw caution to the wind and implement our plan!

The first part of this blog will be about our journey from

We have a different Jeep now but you get the idea…

As we wander, I will post about where we are and the adventures we are having. I’d love for you to wander with us!

You can see where I’ve visited in New Hampshire by checking out www.TouringNH.com