March 31, 2010

March is going out like a lamb. It was a beautiful day here today, 84 degrees, partlly cloudy skies and no wind. I had a busy day or maybe it wasn't that busy.
I took Sarah to work then I went to the chiroparactor, he seemed to help my doesn't hurt quite as much tonight. Or maybe it is the whiskey I am drinking tonight. Actually it is for the thought of haveing to go back to work tomorrow.

I reserved a truck for the 9th to take furniture to Omaha, picked up the boxes needed to pack Sarah's china and my pictures. We almost have everything out of the apartment that we want to put in the camper. It's a good thing too, because we are almost out of room.

I spent this morning doing some laundry in our washer and dryer. They aren't the heavy duty ones we had in the apartment but they do the job although they take twice as long. We had sticker shock the other day because we did laundry in the campground laundry and at $2.50 for a wash and $1.00 for a dryer. I do like the washer/dryer we have.

I sat down at the computer to enter all our receipts for the last couple weeks, it took me two hours to get it all done. I am going to have to keep that up to date better.

I took on rearranging the basement, the storage area of the camper, I had several boxes of books which I went through and eliminated some more books. I now have two boxes to take to the facility mom lives at in Centerville.

Now I have to get my mind back to the idea I have to go to work tomorrow.
We are enjoying the camper and can't wait until we retire to use it the way we want to use it.

Dreams Do Come True.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Another day of moving resulting in a sore body. Toddy time tonight, I haven't had this much to drink in years but it sure relaxes me. Anyway, I visited the accountant today to drop off a voided check, to my surprise we get refunds this year. We haven't had a refund in years. This will be added to our investments to help us in our adventures.

I have to buy a new printer to fit in a certain space in the camper. The printer I have is to big. You would think that one would be easy to find on the internet but not the case. So I am on the hunt for one with certain demensions. I will continue tomorrow and see what the local stores have to show me.

I took the F350 today and Sarah drove herself today, I wanted to wash the truck and fill it with fuel, I didn't get it washed. I came back to the camper and went to get a LP tank filled, the milk carton idea worked great. Anyway the truck is ready for the buyer, Merlin will be here this weekend to pick it up. It should make him a good truck and do a good job pulling his fiver.

The campground has a third party for wifi, I checked on it today, it costs basically a dollar a day unless you go for three months or longer. I have a verizon air card and so I don't beleive I'll do that but I may if we use to much of our 5 gb a month. We'll have to see what happens.

I am a NCIS junkie, since we don't have cable anymore and I haven't activated the Direct-TV yet, I am only able to watch it on Tuesday and Thursday. I do enjoy that show.

Tomorrow I need to take Sarah to work then I have to find some boxes to pack the paintings and other pictures.

I looked for a bike rack today to carry our bikes on the back of the camper. I talked to a guy at the Bike World shop and he said it isn't a good idea to carry a bike on the back of the camper. At the same time he showed me a rack that others have used without incident, the problem is it costs $450. I don't believe we would ride the bikes enough to justify spending that kind of money. So I think we will take them to Omaha and maybe sell them on Craig's List, if Daniel can't use them.

I brought the desktop, monitor and printer to the camper, I am taking them to Mason in Beloit. He is getting old enough to get on line, Robert says he already gets on line to play games now. They will love it.

One more day before having to go back to work. I am going to enjoy it.

Dreams Do Come True.

Almost done with the move

A picture of the unit fifth wheel;


I am still learning on to do some of this site, I will put more pictures in of the unit as we go along. Right now there are boxes in the living room and hallway so we have a ways to go before we are totally moved in. I am beat, I knew it would be a some work to move but I did not think it would be this difficult. I guess age does slow a person down, my mind tells me I am 29 and my body tells me I am 80.

We don't have much room left in the fifth wheel so what is left in the apartment may get throw in the dumpster. It still amazes me how much stuff we have and how seldom we have used some of it. I still haven't been able to sell the Larry Zack paintings so I guess I'll store them with Daniel's in Omaha.

Jerry, my brother, came to the apartment today and took the bed, he brought his son Jeremy to help. Tiffany and Matt will be back on the elevnth to get the sofa, a chair and a couple of bookshelves and whatever else they want. I am going to rent a truck to take a load of furniture to Daniel in Omaha. I am glad we have a place to put it.

I woke up this morning with a cold nose, maybe it is because I am healthy, but actually the camper was at 53 degrees. I turned on the fireplace but the fan didn't continue blowing long enough, I will have to look at the manual again. I took Sarah into work and then did some errands. I returned home about noon and turned on the heat pump to warm up the place. It did the trick and before long I was warm as toast. I did some investigating on why the furnace didn't work and to my unsurprise a LP tank was empty. I switched over to the other tank and the furnace worked fine. So tomorrow one of my chores is going to get the LP tank filled. I have never transported a 30 lb LP tank to be filled so I asked my neighbor Dick. He said he use to put the tank into a milk carton and secured it into the back of his pickup with bunges cords. I am going to try that tomorrow.

Time to go - Dreams Do Come True

Moving is almost done.

How do we accumulate so much stuff? I am amazed at the amount of things we had in the apartment. Most of it we haven't thought of, let alone used in the last year or two. I believe we have moved just about everything we want into the apartment, actually we have stuffed the fifth wheel with so much it is almost bursting at the seams. I am sure we will end up getting rid of some of it yet this summer. I know we have to much in the camper and we know we can not put any more in it.
Tiffany and Matt came down at took a bunch of things home with them. They are back for some more in a couple of weeks. Tomorrow my brother Jerry is coming to the apartment to get a bed and later in April he is taking a couple of other items. So we are slowly getting rid of everything.
Yesterday we came back to the camper and some of our lights inside the camper didn't work. It seems to me there is a fuse or something that needs to be fixed. I am going to try and find it tomorrow and if I can't find it I will have to call the dealer and see if they can talk me through a fix. Otherwise we really like the camper and will enjoy it a lot. Tonight we did the some laundry and met some nice folks. Our neighbors Dick and Judy were over and we visited a bit. They want to get a happy hour going and maybe some card games. We'll have to look into those things, I think they would be fun.
This is a nice park, the facilities are new and each site, in the newer section, has a cement pad. They are put cement in the older section also, it is well kept and very clean. There aren't many trees but I am ok with that. I haven't hooked up the satelitte but no trees is good.
Well Sarah has to go to work tomorrow, I have taken a couple more days off so I'll take her to work and keep working on cleaning out the apartment.
Till later - Dreams Do Come True.

2nd Day

Day two arrived with a nice blue sky at 32 degrees. We were up fairly early and began loading up boxes with kitchen items. You really don't know what you have until you try packing it. I am not a fan of moving but this is a great move and I have been anticipating it for a long time. Cnythia came over and help load the boxes and off we went to the camper to unload. The day went well and we were able to get most of the boxes unpacked but we still have one chair and the sofa full of STUFF to find a place for. Oh well there is always tomorrow.
It has been very windy the last two days and it is suppos to rain tomorrow. My brother Larry is coming up tomorrow to pick up the wash/dryer. The maintenance folks at the apartment complex removed the set from the closet it was in, they didn't unstack them. I hope Larry and I can figure that out.
My body aches in places I forgot existed. So I fixed myself a big stiff drink. It is amazing how it makes you feel. I still ache but I really don't care.
I need to get the camper on water tomorrow and then try to figure out how much propane we have left in the tanks. It isn't supppose to freeze but below 60 degreees is still cold. It has to get warm one of these days.
Remember - Dreams Do Come True.

It happened we picked up our new Excel this morning. I can't say enough about Bob & Jo's RV in Guthrie Center, IA, they are great. They de-winterized the unit and checked it all out for us yesterday so it would be ready for us when we arrived this morning. We got there about 9:10 and for the next couple of hours we learned about the unit. Then we hooked up and was on our way. Oh, we did buy a couple of lounge chairs Sarah wanted. The drive to Griff's RV Park was about a 60 mile drive and the unit pulled very nice and the F550 pulled as I expected it would.
We parked the unit in B5 and with a couple of minor adjustments we parked it exactly where we wanted it. Even though the site is a drive thru I had to pull up and back in to get as close to the edge of the pad as needed.
Then it was one trip with the truck and car to begin the process of moving in. Sarah lined the shelves with shelf paper and I messed with the radio. Some stations come in nicely others not so good, I need to hook up my satelitte radio tomorrow.
I am beat tonight and plan on hitting the sack early.
Until later be assured Dreams Do Come True.

I don't know how often I will post but here goes; after five years of researching, reading blogs/journals, asking questions, going to RV Shows and changing makes, models and specifications we are moving into our new Excel Limited 36GKE. It is an exciting time for us and a frightening one also. Our kids give me two years and they say I will have enough of it. I believe if that were the case I would not have been able to get this far into the process. There is much of this country I have seen and want to see again, so much more I haven't seen and want to see, it seems to me I won't be able to get it all in before my time is up on this great planet. We'll see, stay tuned and see if our kids are right or it I just spend all of their inheritance doing what I know I will enjoy.