Our RV developed several leaks during our shakedown cruise, all of which had to be worked on. The most serious of these was some "delamination", a curse word dreaded by all RV owners the world over. That caused extensive repairs, which will be completed next week. In the process, we will lose our leopard decals along the side, to no one's great regret. Once that is done, we will be ready to pack the RV and go on the road.
In the meantime, we have been packing up all our belongings in preparation for renting out our house. Generous friends and family have provided us storage space in several locations for our mountains of stuff, and we have been giving away, throwing out, and selling off all kinds of things to get the profile down to something manageable. It's great to be getting rid of things, which tend to accumulate to excess when you have been together as long as Ivy and I have. We will be moving in to the home of some friends for a few days while they are away on vacation.
We have found a tenant for our house, and that family will be moving in at the end of the month. It's quite strange to see our house so empty after seventeen years here, and to think that we won't be back for such a long time. But we are very much looking forward to launch this adventure and seeing so many new places we have always wanted to see.
We have acquired some great new technology to help us on the road. We have plunked for an iPhone to provide both GPS and internet access while on the road. These amazing gadgets have countless Apps that provide information to travelers like us, pointing out the gas stations, RV parks, cash machines and whatever you need in whatever location you find yourself. We were clueless about the features, but our children and grandchildren were happy to educate us, after appropriate eye-rolling at Grandpa and Grandma.
We will miss our community of Vashon while we are gone, and our many friends throughout the area. We have been used to visiting with them and being involved in our community activities for years, and that will be a real change. For weeks now we have been having farewell luncheons and dinners with friends, sometimes multiple ones with the same friends. And we have been gradually letting go of committee work and civic involvement and transferring that work to others. Everyone wishes us well and has been as helpful as we could have wished, so we are ever mindful of and grateful for the support of our friends and family.
Most of all, of course, we will miss our four charming granddaughters, who light up our life on such a regular basis (Their parents are not chopped liver, either, but, you know......) . We have two in Seattle and two in London, and we will be far from everyone. Our last family gathering was last summer, and those are some of our most precious times, as you can see from the photos. But we have not given up - we are busily plotting some kind of gathering on the road, so that we don't totally miss the little urchins. Being residents of London and Seattle, they are all drawn to beaches and warm weather, so that will definitely be part of the plot. There will be future bulletins on this subject. Some unfortunate news from our family down in California will be affecting our trip plans, as well. My brother Chris has had serious spine surgery and has been diagnosed with advanced and pervasive lung cancer. Given his prognosis, he is refusing further treatment and has arranged for hospice care. So we will be heading down to his home town of Healdsburg, north of Santa Rosa for our first stop. The news is very sad, but we feel lucky to have the RV ready at this time, so that we can spend as much time as needed in the area and have a completely flexible time schedule.
Our next posts will be from on the road. We hope to see as many of you as we can while we are traveling, either by visiting you at home or meeting up in whatever places we find ourselves. Keep in touch.
Steve
I've become a friend on your blog and will be glad to hear of you rolling south!
ReplyDeleteMuch love,
Jim