The first month is over.

I can't believe that it has been over a month since we left Pa. We moved out of a 5 bedroom 2500 sq foot home to a 5th wheel.  The strangest thing is that we hardly notice the difference.  I guess we really didn't use that much of the big house we lived in. 

It has been strange to know we don't have a stick and brick house anymore and that everything is here.  It is wonderful to know each day as we get up we are free to say "what are we going to do today?" but it is also scary to not have the structure of a day to day routine.  It is relaxing to know that if we just want to do nothing we can and not feel as if we are "wasting" our days off.  When we were working we always felt as if we had to cram as much into the days off as we could and we just wouldn't dream of wasting them by doing nothing at all.  I am sure eventually we will get used to the routine of no routine. 

We are still camping in St John at my sisters place.  It has been wonderful to just spend time with her.  It seems that we really haven't had a lot of time together since we grew up. For the past 2 weeks my parents have also been parked in their back yard.  We have been building 2 bedrooms and a bathroom in their basement.  What a lot of work.  It has been a lot of laughs also, especially dealing with the plumbing part of things. 

Last week we went up Moncton to take my daughter out to dinner for her birthday.  We went to a vegetarian restaurant (the name escapes me at the moment) but the food was great.  Didn't miss meat at all. 

We have taken a day trip into Nova Scotia and went to Peggy's Cove on a picture taking excursion.  It was foggy and rainy but the pictures came out great.  As soon as I get them from my net book to my laptop I will post some of them. 

We have been enjoying ourselves just living one day at a time.  I have had time to take up embroidery again and have dug out my sewing machine.

We are having fun planning future destinations and then discarding them to plan something else.  The best part is knowing we can do what we want when we want.  

Right now we are getting hitch itch and it is time to lift the jacks and move on.  I think that is going to happen tomorrow. 

Here we are camped in her back yard. 

Before heading out on a ride Deb works Spirit to use up some of her energy.  They still have more work to do on the ring but they are getting a good setup here for the horses.

Even the dogs are getting to run off their energy. Troy and Shayla with their "country cousin" L. E.  There is a small pond just out of sight and they often run up for a quick swim.  At least LE and Shayla do.  Troy is a big chicken and won't get in. 

It is getting late and time for bed.  Nite everyone and see you soon somewhere down the road.

This is the good life.

Yesterday Ira and I did a run to Moncton.  I was talking to my mother and the Dr. had told her she was not going to go home yet.  Dad was quite upset and worried so we drove up to spend the day with him.  When we arrived at their place Dad told us that the Dr. had changed his mind and Mom's immune system had improved so much that she could go home.  So we all went in to pick her up.  She is feeling much better and is happier at home sleeping in her own bed.  The dog was so excited he didn't really know what to do with himself.  He would look at her and run full tilt from one end of the house to the other. He would then stop and look at her again and run again.  He kept this up until he was tired out.  It was funny to watch.  Now I just hope Mom stays healthy.

Today we plan to run into St John and do the tourist thing.  It has been a long time since I have been to the city (other than just driving through) so it will be nice to just stroll around. 

We are loving this freedom and the fact that we can set out schedule as we feel like on any given day.  This is the good life!

Thank you Howard and Linda! Without your blog and encouragement we would not be doing this.

Thats it for today.  Hope to see you down the road one day soon.

Settled but no internet

It has been a few days since posting.  I had really intended to post as often as possible once we hit the road but right now we do not have Internet and using a borrowed computer is not always convenient. 

We are parked at my sisters place in St John New Brunswick.  Unfortunately she does not have wireless so we can't just tap into her Internet and I have to come inside to use her computer.  Right now she is working so I have time to just sit and read or type. 

The weather is great but a bit cooler than I am used to and the bugs...well ......lets just say I had forgotten how much of a pain they could be. 

My mother was admitted to the hospital they day we arrived so the first day my sister and I spent in Moncton at the hospital.  She is feeling better now but we still don't know when they are going to let her go home.  I hope today but we shall just have to wait and see.

Ira and I are finally just getting to relax and we can feel the stress just slipping away.  What a great feeling.  I know we are going to love this life.  We have spent the past few days repairing the stuff that broke on the nasty roads up to here and reorganizing so it doesn't happen again.  The learning curve is quite steep right now.  Have we missed our house and property in Pa?  Not yet we don't.  The dogs are loving it here.  They get to run around loose and play with the horses and chase the barn cats.  Not sure the cats enjoy it as much as the dogs but they definitely give them a run for their money and the cats are never in any danger of getting caught.  The dogs wouldn't hurt them if they did catch them.  They just want to play. 

Today we plan to go into the city and explore there.  I don't know St John very well so it will be fun.

Hope we can meet somewhere down the road soon.  Until then drive carefully and watch out for the other guy.

The story begins......

It has been an interesting few days.   We were supposed to close on Wednesday at 11.  It got postponed until 3:30.  Then again until Thursday at 2.  Of course we were ready to go on Wednesday so having to sit for one more day was stressful.  There is always that little fear at the back of your mind that things might just go sideways at the final hour.  We didn't sleep much on the Wednesday night.  I was up at 5 restless and ready to pull out of the driveway.

Finally 2 rolled around and we arrived at the office to sign things over.  It happened ...............finally.  We no longer owned a house.  We were houseless..........not homeless.  The first feeling I had was "OMG what have I done!!!!"  It really was scary.  What if we don't like this life.  I think the stress and lack of sleep was hitting us. 

However we went back to our ex-house and hitched up Serenity (who was now parked in someone elses yard) and headed out.  It was 5:01 Thursday May 26 that we officially started to roll.  We headed north. 

We drove until after midnight and finally stopped at a rest area somewhere near Boston.  It was right on the highway of course and very noisy but we did manage to get a few hours sleep. 

Friday was sunny and HOT.  We continued our drive to Maine and arrived at our campsite around 2.  We were tired and hot and we couldn't get the hitch to release.  We tried pulling forward and backing up.  No matter what it just wouldn't release.  Finally we just decided we were not going to unhitch.  We were too hot and stressed to deal with it so we finished setting up everything else and went in for a cold drink and to sit in an air conditioned 5er for a while.  Once we relaxed a bit we decided to tackle it again.  One of our neighbours came over to offer some help.  Of course once other men detected someone with a problem they all came over.  It didn't take long to get it done.  We unhitched finally.  I felt better then.  It seems that we are not supposed to take the weight off the truck before releasing the jaws. Who knew.   It was the opposite with the little Jayco we owned before.  We hope we have this little problem solved and as today is moving day we will soon know.

On our drive up here we stayed on the interstate all the way.  The roads were so bad we bounced everything in Serenity all over the place.  Good thing we strapped the TV down tightly.  It was so bad even one of the blades on the ceiling fan broke off.  Good thing I wanted to replace that one anyway with one with a light in it.  Looks like it is going to happen sooner than later.  Everything had moved and bounced.  The shower head fell and broke the little loop thing holding it to the wall.  Something else we have to replace.  Sheesh. Wonder how it would have been if we had of left the interstate for some back roads!  I shudder to think.  Today we move again.  This time we are not so stressed and we feel better (read more rested) with everything about this life.    We will cross the border later this afternoon. 

So until next time stay safe and watch out for the other guy.

The wheels will roll

Today we close and the wheels will roll.  We had it all planned where we were going to be for the next few nights.  We are still parked in the driveway and we are already learning the meaning of the "plans are made in jello" phrase.  The closing was delayed by 4 hours and that already throws a monkey wrench into our plans.  But no matter.  We are free and we don't have to be anywhere by any set time and we have the rest of our lives to get there.  WOW what a feeling.  Of course everyone we talk to asks the same question, or rather same two questions, the first one with a look of surprise and a bit of doubt............"you are going to LIVE in your RV? and then comes the look of envy and "where are you going first?"

The people who bought our house were here last night for their walk through.  They are a nice couple with two children.  I hope they enjoy the house as much as we did and I hope they make a future full of memories there. 

I still can't believe that we are going to roll today.  I thought this day would never come. 

I will close with one word today...................YAHOO!

almost there

Wow the past two weeks have gone by fast.  I can't believe we pull out in just two more days..... or as the kids say 2 more sleeps :)  I made our first reservations today.  The first of many.  We are heading up north to Maine and plan to stay there for 2 nights.  Then we cross the border into NB.  I am so excited and still a bit stressed.  Still having those mixed feelings..... I am sure you know the ones.....excitement mixed with the "oh no what have I done?" feelings.  I am waiting for the feeling of relief we will have when we roll out of the yard on Wednesday.  We have been living in Serenity for nearly 2 months now and I must say we really havn't noticed a huge difference from living in the 2500 sq foot house.  I guess that shows just how much of the house we actually used. 

We have been so busy.  The house is empty, repairs are done and addresses have been changed.  We are going to domicile in Florida so our new address is out of Pensacola.  Maybe I can get cut rates on Walt Disney tickets now. 

We had our yearly dentist check ups and I am happy to say our teeth are shiney white and we don't have any need for further work. 

We went out for a farewell breakfast with some friends.  As excited as I am to roll it is hard to leave friends.  We will be back and I know we will hook up again.  In fact we are going to be back in the area for the RV Dreams rally in Hershey in Sept. 

I have been driving around the area doing some photography.  I am planning to do a photo journal of our travels and the adventure starts here.  It has been fun to see places with an eye for pictures.  I am having fun playing with the camera and learning what it will do.  Here is some of what I have taken so far.

Blue Marsh Lake

I wish they had over night camping around this lake but unfortunately it is only day use. 

This is Reading at night.  We went up to the pagoda which sits on a hill overlooking the city.  Such a nice view.

The edge of the pagoda with a cherry tree in bloom. 

Union Canal hiking trail.  Easy wide walks.  Perfect for the beginner like me.  I would like to take the bikes out there for a ride before we leave, if it ever stops raining long enough.  At least with all this rain we know Serenity doesn't leak!

Until we meet somewhere down the road .......stay safe and have a wonderful week.

2 more weeks.

Two more weeks to go and we roll out the driveway.  The timing on this is not the best because we roll just before the memorial weekend. Not having any way to predict that we would be on the road for the holiday weekend we did not make any sort of reservations, and we all know how much the CG prices go up when a holiday weekend rolls around.  Our plan was to head north to Canada stopping for a few days in New London, Salam and a few other places on our way north.  We don't want to spend a weekend camping in a Walmart parking lot so we now think we will just head north moving until we cross the border.  Once in New Brunswick we can moochdock in my sisters yard and my parents.  I don't really know how long we will stay but that is the beauty of this lifestyle.  We will stay until we want to move. (or my parents decide that we are leaving. heheh right Mom?)

The last item on the inspectors list was taken care of this morning and by tomorrow we should have everything we want to keep moved out of the house and we just wait for closing.

Be seeing you soon somewhere down the road.