Life slowly returns to normal

Good evening everyone.  It is two days after Christmas and life is gradually returning to a less hectic pace.  We are still in Canada and certainly getting our fill of snow. 

This is just outside my parents place .......all that white stuff falling is snow. I remember now why I want to follow the sun.  Christmas was great.  We got to enjoy family and a lot of laughs, and food.  The drive up was long.  We left home around 8 PM and arrived at my sisters at about 1 PM. (yup count em........17 hours.....well 16 if you allow for a 1 hour time adjustment when we crossed the border)  We were so tired and slept like logs Christmas night.  The next morning my parents and daughter arrived and we celebrated our Christmas gift exchange and traditional turkey meal. (only 24 hours late) Of course we left the table stuffed.  Once we cleaned up we sat around and played a game called Catch Phrase.  We laughed until we had tears in our eyes.  Such good times.  Late Sunday evening we left and drove the hour and a half from St.John to Moncton.  We were lucky enough to beat the storm. 

Today my daughter and I went into town to shop.  I think most of the stores in Moncton must have been empty because the whole city had to be at the mall we were wandering through.  The parking lot was bumper to bumper cars and inside was elbow to elbow people.  We went to Tim Horton's for my coffee fix.  I miss their coffee so much when I am in the US.  I make a run there every time I cross the border. (as often as I can)  It was nice to have some mother daughter time with her.  Seems I don't get enough of that. 

Now is it late Monday night and the house seems to be settling for the night.  I guess it is good night to all and I hope your holiday was a wonderful as mine was. 

All packed and ready to go

Good evening everyone.  Today was packing day for me.  Tomorrow both Ira and I work until 6 then we are hitting the road north to visit family.  When we come back we will be able to say "we are going full time THIS year".  We spent most of the day getting stuff gathered up and put where we would just have to store it in the truck after work tomorrow.   The only thing I have to remember to pull is the turkey from the freezer.  We don't have room to keep him so he is going with us..........we will cook him up there. 

Lucky for us our dogs are good travellers and really do seem to understand the words "road trip".  When you say those words with a leash in your hand...........well it does get a bit crazy around here for a while. 

We finished our Christmas shopping this morning.  We braved the last minute crowds and got it done.  At least, as done as we are going to do it.  We didn't spend much on Christmas.  We don't see the reason for it.  I would rather get together with family and make that the Christmas present.  I hear ads on the TV telling you that you can use your clear title on your car to get "needed" Christmas cash.  I was thinking .....that is right, hawk the car for Christmas presents.  Take all year to pay it back.  It doesn't make much sense to me.  Christmas should be about family.........not to say presents are a bad thing. If you can afford it by all means buy presents till you drop but don't go into debt doing it.  One of my customers last night was telling me he still owed $200.00 from last year....sad.

I hope the above doesn't sound like a bah-humbug because it was not intended that way.  I would like to see Christmas get away from so much commercialism and become more the holiday that was intended.  There is beauty in this day...... even if you are not Christian.  Go and enjoy your family either in person, by phone or letter.  Cherish them and let them know that you do.

Anyway I plan to spend Christmas with my parents (and yes I realize how lucky I am to still have them) my sister, and my daughter.  My biggest regret is that I will not see my sons and grandchildren.  They are out west and I wont see them until next summer. 

Tomorrow will be very busy at work I am thinking and as we are heading out right after I probably will not get a post done again until after the holiday.  So in that case I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful day in what ever way you celebrate it.  Take a few minutes in all the rushing around that you will be doing to just realize your blessings and be thankful that we can take part in this wonderful life.

Good night everyone and for those of you traveling ......drive safely.

By way of introductions:

Good Morning.  I am guessing the first thing on the list is introductions. My name is Vicky and my husband is Ira.  We are not full timing yet but we are close.  We are living  in PA for the next while but where we will domicile in the end is still up for discussion.


A  little background would probably be appropriate here.  I have been camping in one form or another since before I can remember.  I have seen pictures of me when I was three years old or younger staying in a tent with my parents and sister.  I have camped in small two man pup tents to 36 foot A class MH and most everything in between.  Living in an RV would not be new to me.  It is something I have wanted to do for about 10 years now. Ira is just the opposite.  Until he met me three years ago he had never stayed in a tent.  Our first date was a camping date.  He took to it like a duck to water. 


Not long after we married we bought a small Jayco 5th wheel trailer to play around in.  We took it to Florida last winter for two months.  We loved it.  The Jayco was small but the life was wonderful.  We didn't want to come back home.  That was when the decision was made that we were not going to ever have to "come home" again because in the future we were going to take our home with us.


We knew that as much as we loved the little Jayco she was not going to cut it as a full time rig.  We definitely needed much more room and storage.  After all there was more that just us to consider.  We also had our four legged family to think about too.  We have Troy, an 80 lb Golden Retriever, his sister Shayla, and Kisa, our little 8 lb Malt/Shih Tzu.  The whole tribe is ruled by our 20 lb cat ...Jack.  Believe me the dogs just bow when Jack walks into the room.


Now you can see why a small 28 foot 5th wheel would not be enough to live in.  We started looking around for what we would need versus what we could afford.  The first thing our research showed us was that we did not have enough truck. We had a 2500 Hemi with a towing limit of around 11,000 lbs and we were going to need a bit more muscle to tow the type of 5th wheel we were going to need. We upgraded to a 3500 Dually which we love.  (I love the sound of a diesel engine) and a few months later we found Serenity. She was exactly what we needed and was in our price range.  After some discussion about adoption fees and a chat with our banker we brought our new baby home and settled her nicely in her own special place.  She fit perfectly in our driveway beside the house. 


Much like everyone planning this drastic change in their lives we are busy purging and getting the house ready to sell.  We plan to put it on the market in the next 2 to 3 months. The plan right now is to move out of the house once we have it staged and live in Serenity.  The question is do we leave her parked in the yard or do we move her to a close by campsite.  We shall see.  We are lucky as the market in our area is not as bad as some. Houses are selling just not as quickly as before.  We shall just have to see what develops.  I think we are going to start out our full time lives as full timers with wheels that don't roll.  At least for awhile anyway.


With Christmas fast approaching we are in madcap preparations for the holiday.  We are heading north to Canada to visit family and hopefully get my once yearly dose of snow.  That is about the only time I want to see it and experience it.  There is something about a white Christmas that brings out the child in everyone.


That brings us up to today.  Both Ira and I are working part time at a local store just for the extra income until we hit the road. Tonight is my night to work. You can just imagine how busy it is.  But it keeps us out of trouble.


Merry Christmas to all my friends and family.