Closer to getting on the road

Thursday:

We sorted through the last of the boxes of stuff we had put in my dad's barn. Made some final decisions about what to pack in the Duchess and what to leave. We actually ended up with a little bit of extra space in the motorhome that we don't have anything stored in at this point. I didn't think we would get everything in, so this is a unexpected result. We went into Bastrop to do some grocery shopping along with picking up a few items at Home Depot. Originally I was going to take my cordless drill along but I decided that it takes up too much room and I would always have to charge the battery before I could use it. So I bought an inexpensive electric drill with a cord to take along. We also purchased some PVC pipe that we cut into the right length to keep the closet doors from moving when we are on the road (this was a suggestion from my dad).

Connie is now two weeks out from her surgery. She received a call from The Laser Spine Institute asking about how she was doing (everything coming along OK) and telling her to stop using the back brace (to allow her muscles to start doing the work instead of the brace). There are set of exercises that she will need to do twice a day along with a slight increase in the lengths of her walks. The distance from where The Duchess is parked to the entrance to the property is about 0.3 miles and we have been walking up and back for the last two weeks. We will add a few minutes on the county road that runs along the property to increase the distance/time of our walks.

Bunny rabbit along the lane

We are out the country here in Rosanky. We see rabbits almost every time we walk. We have seen deer and one snake along with a roadrunner that makes an occasional appearance.

Mushroom plant along the lane

Friday:

Connie and I travelled into Austin to take care of a few items. We dropped off the last chair we had from the sale of our house at Connie's sister house. We had originally thought it might fit in the motorhome, but decided we do not have the space for it. We then had lunch with Marty Rexroat, a close friend of ours, who will take care of our mail when we are on the road. After that we went to the Container Store where we purchased a trash can and a number of storage trays to fit into our bathroom cabinets to keep items from falling over when we are on the road. We also went by a store that sells kitchen items and purchase a few more silicone lid covers and another set of tongs for the Duchess. One of our friends, Heidi Ivey, was having a "happy hour" to continue the celebration of her 50th birthday so we went by for a couple of hours.

"Happy Hour" @ Freda's - Heidi's 50th

The group was going to a local club to see a band play later in the evening, but Connie and I decided to call it a day and headed back to Rosanky.

Best Friends: Connie, Heidi & Rhonda

Saturday:

Connie drove the car for the first time since her surgery today. She went back into Austin to visit with Beth Clare, Heidi Ivey (and her cousin Julie) and Rhonda Herrington in south Austin. I stayed "home" and spent the afternoon watching the Masters. I'm hoping that Jordan Spieth can hang on tomorrow and become the youngest winner of the tournament. Once Connie got home we went through the paperwork/brochures/manuals we got with the motorhome and Connie "organized" it so that we can find it (we had manuals in English, French & Spanish - we kept the English & Spanish and got rid of the French). This took a couple of hours and Connie forgot to take breaks so she ended up sitting a long time (which she is not suppose to do more than 20-30 minutes at a time). Her back gave her some problems at the end, so we called it a day and on to bed. We will try and take it easy on Sunday. It seems like we are almost done with the decisions on what is going in the motorhome and what is staying in storage. Next week will be busy trying to finish up the items on our list that need to be taken care of before we leave.

HOW NOT TO DOWNSIZE TO A RV:

I have decided to let everyone know how not to downsize (or at least how we did it wrong). IMHO the best way would be to have the RV parked in front of your house before you move out. Divide the items into:

• Must have in the RV.
• Like to have in the RV.
• Items to give away, sell or donate.
• If you are going to store anything, put these items in a pile.
• Items to put in the trash.

Once you have been able to see what fits in the RV, get rid of (or store) everything else. Start up the motorhome or truck pulling your RV and quickly drive away. Don't spend a lot of time dwelling on your decisions on what to take in the RV. You will find out over the first few months that you forgot some stuff that you will have to replace and you brought along some stuff that you will never use. As our friends Bonnie and Fred Lee have told us: It like the old wagon trains heading west in the 19th century. You end up leaving stuff along the way to lighten your load.

Connie and I have moved everything (except for the furniture that we gave away to friends) at least three to four times: from our home to the rent house during its remodel to the apartment where we were dog sitting and then to the ranch/barn/motorhome. The good news is that we have gone through everything several times so we have to been able to a decision about an item and then reverse that decision. However, it has worn us out going through everything time and time again. It is like moving 4 times in the course of 4 months. There are a number of reasons we ended up downsizing this way, but I would not recommend this method to anyone out there.