Locked and Loaded, or Loaded and Locked

We rented a climate-controlled storage unit at the facility right across the highway when we began moving our possessions out of our 5th-wheel home last month.  Today was the day to pick up the U-Haul trailer and empty the storage unit!

The trailer size is marked on it as 6x12, same as I had when I moved to Minnesota in 2005. 

Loaded for June 2005 move to Minnesota, with help from friends Jim  (left) and David (right) in Brenham, TX.  I made that journey as the only human in the truck, as my traveling companions were 1 dog and 2 cats.  What an adventure!

I tell ya what, though, it sure feels and looks smaller. Perhaps it looks smaller because back then I drove a Tahoe and now it’s a Ford F-350 diesel beast.   If this is the same size I had before, I have no idea whatsoever how I (friends who loaded it, actually) got so much more stuff in it than we have in this one.  We have no furniture; previously, I had a queen bed set, loveseat, kitchen table and chairs, coffee table, papasan chair, a couple of bookcases, not to mention boxes, vacuum cleaner, bike … I tell ya!  This one seems more like 12’ from the end of the tongue to the back vs. 12’ of box.  Guess that’s okay, because I think we’ve got it packed nicely.

Almost empty

Empty!

We have the site behind us to park overnight

Dave  chillin’ afterwards, well deservedly!

It took us about 1.5 hours to load the U-Haul.  Then it was time to chill out, rearrange a few things in the cab of the truck, I got a load of laundry done, dinner, and more chillin’ now.  Yay! 

We don’t anticipate an early start tomorrow, as we have to pack up and empty our “hotel room,” i.e., the rental travel trailer.  The mornings in hotels will be easier, as there will be less packing.   Too, I anticipate tomorrow being a slower day since we won’t pick up an interstate until after a while.  Although we know when we would like to arrive in our new hometown, we have no deadline, so we’ll just enjoy the trip!

For years, I haven’t considered a long trip starting in Texas to actually begin until I cross the state line!  Texas is big, ya’ll.  

Cheers to Matthew at U-Haul Moving & Storage at Texas Ave for fitting us out this afternoon and giving us a few extra courtesy days on the rental.  That location had great reviews, and I see why.

I continue to be grateful – very grateful – that things continue aligning nicely for us as we embark on a new chapter of our life together.   Well, I think that about wraps it up for tonight.  It’s almost 8:30, and it’s been a long day. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Ya’ll be safe out there, okay?

 

 

 

 

Dream Becoming a Reality–Lifestyle Change Ahead!

In my last post 4 months ago, I talked about how we were dreaming of and planning a lifestyle change and moving back to Minnesota.  Well …

No furniture to move, but there are boxes, bikes, and misc. items.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of putting our RV up for sale, packing, and finalizing other arrangements. 

Last photo with our Montana, which served us well for 7 years.

On Tuesday, we sold our RV – our home for the past 7 years.  I confess my eyes seemed to leak a wee bit a couple of times on the day of the sale.  We had so many adventures and shared awesome moments during our time as full-time RVers.  Memories were made that we will cherish always. 

While we enjoyed those years as full-timers, there is a feeling of relief and excitement as we begin a new chapter in our life together.  Relief in the form of selling our RV while it was still in good shape; of being out from under the responsibility, expense, and physical effort of maintenance and upkeep; and, honestly, the full-time lifestyle.  The excitement is in beginning a new journey and returning to the North and Minnesota. 

It’s just time.  Time to move on.  Time for a change.  Time to simplify our life.

Due to Dave’s work schedule, we will be here for just under 2 weeks.  After researching available accommodations here, it made the most sense – cost, safety, convenience, comfort – for our needs to rent a travel trailer from a local dealer we have patronized during our time here. 

Our “hotel room” in the same site where we have been.

While it serves our purpose of interim housing quite nicely, it certainly makes us appreciate even more the quality RVs we owned over the years – popup, travel trailer, and then the 5th wheel we called home.  We have items with us for interim living (cooking, etc.) and for what we’ll need during our trip to Minnesota (both warm and cold weather clothes).  The rest of our possessions are in a climate-controlled storage unit at a nearby facility.

With the “hard” items ticked off our “to do” list, we have this time to rest up in our comfortable routine of work and living until we get the U-Haul trailer, load it up, and hit the road.  We’ll downsize our truck to a “normal” vehicle once we are settled up there, so The Beast gets one more road trip!

To say that the past few weeks have been busy would be a gross understatement.  It.  Has.  Been.  Freakin’.  Crazy.

I wrapped up the last details of the sale today by cancelling our full-timers insurance and the extended service policy on the 5th wheel.

We’ll be going to a 55+ “cottage” in Minnesota, opting to rent vs. purchase.  Neither of us want to own property again, at least not at the present.  If something breaks … call maintenance.  Snow shoveling?  Nope.  It’s done by property management.  Sweet.  Simplification.

We’re not there yet, but well on the path.  At times we wondered if this was indeed just a dream, if it was even attainable.  At the beginning of this process, the logistics seemed totally mind-melting.  At one point, I just gave it all up to Spirit and The Universe – if it is meant to be, then it will be.

We are so grateful that aspects of this lifestyle change have been aligning, and that it does truly seem to be a plan that is unfolding very nicely for us.

I’ll repeat that.  We are grateful.  Very much so.

Thanks for stopping by!  Be careful out there, okay?

 

 

 

 

Winding Down 2016; Looking Towards 2017

Holiday lights add cheer

Honestly, I’m looking forward to wrapping up 2016.  We’ve had the usual challenges of Life  this year and said good-bye to our sweet Maggie.  We continue to be grateful for each other, our home on wheels,  work, food, reasonable health for our ages, and so forth.  I’m ready, though, to put this year to bed and move on.

Speaking of moving on, we are in the planning and dreaming stages of transitioning to a new lifestyle.  We have had 6.5 years of living as full-time RVers, but – if all goes to plan - that time is coming to a close.  We are currently both working “normal” jobs (Dave in the community and me telecommuting as an admin assistant) with our home in an RV park.  We might as well be living in an apartment somewhere. 

While we experienced challenges from Mother Nature during our years in NJ as an on-site security team, Mother also provided us with rewards of the Spirit, magical and breathtaking moments, and memories for a lifetime.

Our souls were nurtured.   Our souls are currently starving.  Time for a change.

That, of course, is not the only reason.  We’re ready to get out from under the physical maintenance and related expenses associated with RV upkeep.   We want to sell the rig while it’s in good shape, before it gets much older.  The reality is that I need a home office, not just a wee desk in the corner by the kitchen, as my job has mushroomed over the past months and continues to do so. 

I find that violent storms make me uneasy in the RV, something which never bothered me before.  Of course, we had sturdy buildings in which to take shelter, something we don’t have here, and we primarily experienced snow storms, not the volatile thunderstorms and tornado warnings such as we get here in Texas.  We don’t feel “hitch itch” as in previous years, although we are looking forward to being on the road headed to our new location next year; we do miss seeing new places and the experiences that come along with traveling. Giving up the RV certainly doesn’t preclude a car trip by any means.   We’re tired of … people and traffic in large numbers.  We feel the need to be closer to Nature in a cleaner  environment, closer to wilderness.

So … the plan at this point is to sell the RV and move to a smallish town in northern MN, settling in a cottage within a 55+ community.   Maintenance-free living.  Simplifying our life and expenses again.  No snow shoveling!

Will be  emotional selling our home next Spring.  She’s a good rig and provides us a cozy home filled with many memories. 

I hear you saying, “Minnesota?!  Northern Minnesota?!?!  But it’s cold up there!!! “ 

Yes, it’s cold up there.  That’s one of the reasons we want to go.  Having been back in Texas again this Summer, we realize we both need to be in a colder climate for comfort/health reasons.  We know about Winter in Minnesota, having lived there during  2005-2007.  Yes, it snows.    A  lot.  And it’s cold.  Really  cold.

Walking around town and loving it – Hibbing, MN 2006

But you know what?   I have grilled outdoors with snow on the ground and more coming down.  Life doesn’t stop up there when it’s snow season.   We both still find magic in snowfall.  We miss walking hand-in-hand, hearing our boots crunching in the snow. The cold?  Well, you can always put on more clothes.  I’m a “sweater girl” at heart, and Dave is from Scotland.  There’s only so much you can take off when the mercury reaches 100+.  It’s a dry cold, too, and that makes a world of difference.  Trust me.

Dave on one of our walks in Hibbing MN,  2006

Living in Minnesota is like … well, it’s like living in an entirely different country.  Seriously.  That’s what I thought when I first moved there in July 2005.  Obviously the weather is different.  Buildings are different, especially in the smaller towns.  It’s less ritzy and glitzy.  There is a unique and distinct Minnesota accent one hears.  We’re ready to be back in a small town.  Fewer people and less stuff  around,  enough to meet one’s needs (and ours are basic needs) – shopping, health care, etc. , and slightly larger and more prosperous than Hibbing, where we lived previously.   Where we hope to be is again in the northern part of the state – well north of The Cities - where there’s not much between us and Canada (again) except a lot of trees and a lot of bears.  I’m ready for clean air and clean water.  Fewer people doing stupid, rude, senseless, and violent acts.  I’m ready to return to an area where the predominant cultural influence is Native American.  My Spirit yearns for all this, as does Dave’s.  I’m ready to see Winter be so cold that it literally reboots Mother Nature for the next year.  I’m ready to be back someplace where we can pack a lunch and go out in nature for the day without having to drive and drive and drive and drive ...

Dave at the head of the Mississippi on our of our day trips – MN, 2006

No, it’s not Utopia.  There is no such place.  However, we believe that our quality of life will be greatly increased.

We are still active and vital, and not ready for your typical “senior community” and rocking chairs on the front porch.  Except for a lazy afternoon when the weather’s nice.  Ha!   We are, however, ready to live in a mature community where – hopefully – our neighbors share the same overall values as us.   Our age peer group, if you will.

It also seems fitting that we return to Minnesota, as that’s where we started our life together here in the States.

So that’s the plan at this point.   The logistics are going to be … interesting, at the least.  But hey, this is the same gal who in 2005, put her Texas property on the market, sold everything except bare necessities, loaded the rest in a 6x12 U-Haul trailer (with the help of awesome friends) and headed solo (but with 2 cats and 1 dog) to Minnesota to an apartment she’d never seen (picked out by an aunt and uncle), to a state she’d never been in, engaged to a man 4000 miles away with whom she had spent a sum total of 2 weeks.  All that was accomplished in less than 30 days.

Loaded  up  with the help of these 2 awesome friends (and others), ready to head to MN – June 2005

This is doable! 

If’s  … if our assignment in NJ had indeed lasted another 3 years, if by some fantasy that job opened up again, if we indeed had been given another assignment shortly after returning to Texas … we would be carrying on in the RV lifestyle quite contentedly.  But … things don’t always materialize as one has been told.    If we’d known there would not be more security work, we would not have returned to Texas. 

We’ve given this a year.   It’s time to make other plans. 

A bit of envisioning and manifesting going on with this blog post.  We’ve always said we would like to eventually return to Minnesota at some point down the road, and we’ve been talking about making this jump for months now, but this is the first time I’ve put it in writing. 

So, positive vibes, a goal to work towards and look forward to, and hopes I retain a wee bit of my sanity while we get our ducks – errr …. Canada Geese, more appropriately – in a row.  The prospect of this new chapter in our life together is exciting!

What’s on your horizon for 2017?

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

 

Looking Down the Road

I’m grateful again today that we are in a park with concrete sites and roads.  Dave just now mentioned he could only imagine the state of the other park we were at briefly when we landed here in College Station.  The term “mud pit” surely describes it.  Here, though, we are good.

Break in the rains on April 18

The days and nights seem to fly by; perhaps it does have something to do with the aging process?  As one gets on the “downhill side” of Life years, does Time truly seem to pass more swiftly?  Perhaps it’s a “mental” thing.  When one is young, one seems to be waiting for different stages . . . summer break from school, graduation, first job, first home . . . you get the idea.  Looking down the expanse that is the open road of one’s life to come.  In later years, perhaps we subconsciously realize we’re gliding on the “downhill” side.  Get it? 

I have to smile . . . the song on my Pandora station right now is “Where Are We Going From Here?”  We have been casually talking about the future.  No, we’re not ready to make a jump at this time, and it will be, realistically, two years before that time comes.  With that in mind, now is the time to start visiting the topic.  We are looking at ultimately transitioning from RV living to a 55+ community, i.e., apartment/villa/townhome so we do not have maintenance, grounds upkeep, snow shoveling. 

I hear you exclaim, “Snow shoveling??!”

We lived in northern Minnesota for a couple of years; yes, that included Winters.  It was a small town with not much between us and Canada except a lot of trees, lakes and black bears.  We both really liked that environment.  It was wild, simple, pristine, laid back . . . yes, Winter is cold with temperatures dipping down to –30 or so.  It is a dry cold – trust me, that makes a world of difference - and easier for us to physically tolerate.  One adapts and dresses for it.  Yes, you cover your face in subzero conditions.  Your breath freezes.  Your nose hairs freeze!  Snow?  Yes, there’s snow; however, life in that environment continues.  Things don’t come to a standstill – except during actual blizzards – just because there’s white stuff on the ground.  Summers are mild.  There are fewer occurrences of weather-related disasters such flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and so forth.  Extreme cold each Winter also seems to “clear the slate,” if you will, with regard to insects, viruses, etc.  It’s like you start afresh each Spring.  We like that concept and feel the colder climes are healthier for us all around.

Me and Baby (our dog-child then) strolling around town – December 2006

There is something fun, magical, unique and perhaps a wee bit insane about firing up the backyard grill, standing in snow and having the white flakes come down on you while doing so.

Ever seen the sun shine on ice crystals in the air, causing them to look like twinkling diamonds suspended in air?  Stood on your back porch and marveled at the Northern Lights?  Ever cycled the numerous Rails To Trails paths and seen a young black bear up ahead or had a large deer cross your path right in front of you?  Heard Canada Geese and the call of the Loon from your open bedroom window in the early morning?  Have you sat at the feet of a Native Elder and been honored by the wisdom and insight of yourself bestowed upon you?

If you have, then you perhaps understand the voice that speaks inside, calling you back to that land. 

Looking across the alley at the maple tree in our backyard in MN

Pros and cons.  Unfortunately, there are financial considerations.  Minnesota’s health insurance premiums are predicted to skyrocket exponentially in the coming year and the state does have a personal income tax. 

Texas is financially more favorable as the overall cost of living is lower and there is no personal income tax.

Wherever we end up, I think we agree that it will be a smaller town, one which has necessary amenities but not a surplus of businesses, hustle, bustle, traffic and people.  We’ll be back where one more intimately shares the land, sky and water with Mother Earth’s creatures of the wild kind.

Security job site - Warren Glen, NJ – October 2012 – See?  This is the “problem.”  We spent 3.5 years at this site in a small community.  We became “spoiled” with the beauty, the remoteness, living in Nature, the simplicity, the “wildness,” the peace, the privacy.

So, that’s our “problem,” mine, at least.  My soul looks forward to the time of escape from a large city with so much traffic and so many people.  I know, I know.  College Station is not truly considered a large city; however, it is a megalopolis by my standards.

We’ll see what the future brings and how we can shape ours.  There may be communities in Texas which would suit our everyday living needs with regards to housing, but . . .

What about one’s soul?  Does one have to “settle” for something totally absent of what is desired?  I confess it saddens me to think so.  Can’t one manifest what one’s soul longs for?  I have always believed so.

In the meantime, today is our “Sunday.”  The rains have hopefully moved out of the area for a while this afternoon.  Dave is preparing to get out on the bike again today – he logged 52 miles yesterday – and I’ll be going for a much-needed hair trim later.  Then it’s cooking Mexican Lasagna once I return; it’s a great dish for a few meals this week and then for portioning and storing in the freezer for a later date.  An evening of chilling – we finished House of Cards and have moved on to Hinterland.  Tomorrow it’s back to work!

Thanks for strolling down the path of future plans with me!