More progress

We've had a very productive few days.  First, so you can see how crazy we are.  Those of you that follow this blog realize we lost one cat, Sadie awhile ago, and now have Bert, our orange tabby.  Bert's a great cat, travels well in the motorhome with a once in great while motion sickness, but other than that no problems.  He either sleeps in the back or on Jan's lap.  Our vet is located about 70 miles away from where we are right now.  Believe me, it's a long story that I won't go into right now.  Well, Bert in the car is another story!  He absolutely hates it, he throws up, goes to the bathroom all over himself and the car if not in a crate, blows his coat so there is hair everywhere, and cries and meows constantly.  It takes weeks to clean up all the hair in the Jeep, we figure it regenerates itself somehow!
Sooooooo, now we work it out to take Bert to the vet in the motorhome.  Nuts, huh?  We took him on Monday morning, out of our way a bit on our way north into Kentucky to have the motorcycle lift taken off.  I planned out a route that would take us north from the vet who is located on the Northeast side of Atlanta up through north Georgia, through North Carolina, Tennessee, and finally into Kentucky.  Well, we have managed over the years to take the motorhome on some roads that were pretty tight and winding, but this time we really outdid ourselves!  Man o man, wondered if we were ever going to make it.  We had no business on about 100 miles of our trip, but we survived, and so did the cars we met on the roads :)  We stopped at an Escapee park in Heiskel, TN for a quick overnight, then left early this morning to go the last 90 miles to Visone in East Bernstadt, KY, the same folks we bought the lift from and who installed it.  They agreed to buy it back and remove it for us.  A great group of people, they have a huge reclaimed RV parts, body shop, Rv junk yard, sell used motorhomes of all kinds, and are a dealer for the Hydralift motorcycle lift that we had on our coach.  They were ready for us, and popped it off in about an hour, and we were on our way back to Atlanta.
So now the bike is sold and so is the lift, also got an offer on my car today so hopefully that will come together later this week.  Looking good.
Diesel and gas prices are climbing, no surprise to any of you.  Diesel was above $4.00 at a bunch of places already and gas seems to be around $3.65 or so.  Wonder how high it will get before it comes back down again?

Good bye Paint

The BMW motorcycle was just picked up.  A gentleman bought it and trailered it away.  We will miss it, but we accept it was time to move on.

We sure had some great rides, and some challenging rides.  But another puzzle piece just fell into place, now on to my car.

Busy, busy

Busy, busy, spending money that is.  With our new Jeep coming soon there are quite a few things we needed to get.  Unfortunately the manufacturers make sure the item from one model year won't fit on the next!  We have to get a new base plate for our Blue Ox tow bar.  The base plate is the assembly that is mounted on the vehicle that you hook your tow bar onto.  As I have done many base plates over the years, I mount it myself.  That accomplishes two things; one, I know its done right, and two, it saves a bunch of money.  Also we had to get a new wiring kit to install on the new Jeep.  We use a system that does not tie into the Jeep's own wiring.  We figure with all the electronic gobble-gook on the new cars its better to leave it alone.  This kit is totally separate.  We will mount a plug at the front of the Jeep and run it's own wire to the rear light modules.  There is enough room inside to mount a separate bulb that will act as brake, turn signal, and light.
Next we ordered floor mats, cargo area mat, and a front air deflector.  The Jeep, obviously comes with floor mats, but we like the more durable, rubber tray type mats that will contain water, mud, or spills.  We've had a lot of luck with the air deflectors in the past.  Maybe its just dumb luck, but we've never had a windshield crack or ding with the deflector mounted even with the thousands of towed and driven miles.  So we don't want to mess with luck!
We have a Thule rack on the roof that we use to carry our kayaks, of course the new Jeep requires a different mounting system.  At least we can still use our cross bars and kayak mounts.  So we ordered the base and feet kit from REI.
We even ordered a new GPS.  We had a Garmin Zumo that we used for the motorcycle and then would use it in the motorhome and my car, but that is going with the bike on Sunday.  I'm kind of a geek or just nuts with the GPS.  We've been using a laptop computer hooked up with a GPS receiver using Delorme's Street Atlas program for years and years.  On previous motorohomes I mounted a Jotto desk near the driver's seat so I could see the laptop, but this motorhome has built-in GPS so didn't think we needed that.  Turns out we really hate the built-in GPS so we don't use it.  So since we had the Zumo anyway, I would mount it next to me in the driver's seat and then Jan would have the laptop in front of her as we traveled.  Overkill, right?  Well, we like this method a lot, so the new Garmin Nuvi will be taking the place of the Zumo right next to me.
Put my VW GTI up for sale yesterday, had a lot of interest so far, so hoping it will sell quickly over the weekend.
Its all coming together!

More progress!

We went to "look" at new Jeeps yesterday and ending up buying one.  The deal worked out well, now we need to sell my GTI fairly quickly to make this all work out:)  We won't get it for a week or so which gives us a little time.  I'll show some pictures when we get it.  Now need to get a new baseplate for the tow bar, wiring harness for the tow lights, and new feet for the roof rack that carries our kayaks.
I managed to work out my schedule to finish on the 20th at 1100 am, so that should be my "fini" flight.
Cool, all coming together!

Still gaining on it

Took my very last FAA physical a couple days ago.  Have to get them every 6 months now that I'm over 60.  Jan went to Florida to visit my Mom and friends, and to help move some furniture out from Jason's storage unit.  Put several pieces in a consignment store and the bedroom set sold in the first hour!  They had enough time to put the bed together, and then got to take it apart again.  Yeah!  We made a quick trip up to sister Karen's over the weekend, cause it will be probably be November before we get that way again.  Sorry we missed you, Tom.  Jan helped Karen a bit with V&V's apartment.  We are taking tons of photo albums out to Viv in Albuquerque.  I'm sure she'll be pleased.
Taking care of a couple small items on the motorhome.  We have a keypad by the entry door where we can lock and unlock the door and basement doors.

 This is the third one, and it is being intermittent again.  The company is replacing it free of charge, of course, but it's really been a pain.  They don't know what the problem is, but I'll tell you it can be mighty frustrating when the door will NOT unlock!  Yes we carry keys now, ask us why???

The buyer is arriving this coming Sunday to pick up the bike, and on Monday we are going to take the motorhome up to the folks at Visone to have them buy and remove our Hydralift from the back of the motorhome.
I am working on my schedule for March, and hope to finish up around the 20th.  We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Lifestyle

We were talking with a good friend yesterday and he asked us how we dealt with not having a home or a home base.  He said he didn't think he would be able to do that and how do we come to terms with it?  It kind of surprised us since we've known John for quite awhile and we have been doing this full-timing thing since 2004.  I guess it's the fact we are soon coming to an end staying here in Atlanta and are ready to start moving around in earnest.  I'm sure it seems to him and other people we know locally, that we live here, albeit in a motorhome.  He asked if we didn't miss having a house?  We really never give this a thought as we are totally committed to this way of living and don't ever think of owning a house, but his questions made us ponder a bit and made me want to try to share our outlook and impressions on this type of lifestyle.
Do we ever miss a house is the first question, and I guess, we have to admit every once in awhile it would be nice to have a place where you could have a larger group of people over for dinner or a party, or just a visit.  We make do with this most of the time because where we are is usually warm so we spend our time outside.  But, yes, sometimes we wish we had more room for people when its cold or rainy.  But actually that's the only time.
What we love about the lifestyle is we get to change our scenery, our weather, our population density, whether we are in trees, open desert, mountains, along a stream or a lake or an ocean, at a resort or the middle of nowhere, and the greatest thing is we are always at home!  We sleep in our bed, we don't pack and unpack, everything we need we have.  We can boondock and be totally self-sufficient, or hooked up to all utilities with pools, hot tubs, entertainment in a resort setting.  Here's a few examples:

Here's a shot of a foggy morning parked right beside the lake.  That is the view from inside our coach.

Parked right beside Palo Dura Canyon in Texas.

Sunset in Santa Fe right from our coach.

Pulling out of Lake City, CO with Jan's sister caravaning with us.

A gorgeous sight in the late afternoon in Durango, CO.

Relaxing beside William's Lake in Colorado.

Alongside a beautiful rushing stream northeast of Gunnison, CO.

Camped right beside the Mighty Mississippi.

Having fun with new friends and old friends.

Kayaking with good buddies.

Hanging out with some family.

Parked right on a lake in Idaho, not far from Yellowstone.

And a chilly, white day in rolling Kentucky.
All these were with our home and our own bed.  Bet your house can't do that. :-)  Moving where we wanted, enjoying the travel and the new and oft visited gems alike.  Do we want just one place with grass to mow, taxes to pay, the same road in and out every day, not now, maybe not ever again.

Quick repair

We have 3 motorized blinds that cover the front windshield that we put down each night.

  Jan caught a very early flight this morning to Florida to get some stuff done and to visit with Jason and my mom.  Of course, last night as she was rushing around putting a bag together, I started to lower the blinds and pop, the far left one pivots around and falls down sideways.  I yelled for Jan, she ran out, I grabbed the blind, had her try to put them back up while I held on to it.  It worked, so today I had a little project to see if I could figure out what went wrong and try to fix it.
My first challenge was trying to hold the blind up while I unclipped it from its mount, then while holding it with one side hanging down try to disconnect the two wires that power it.  I succeeded and didn't even destroy the blind!  Then to figure out how to take it apart.  A lot of these things on the motorhome aren't made to be repaired.  They are all sealed up and impossible to disassemble without ruining them.  Turned out I was able to pull it apart and found out one of the strings had broken inside the blind.

The aluminum tube on the left is the motor that runs the blind up and down.  I was able to pull the motor out to access the spools that wind up the string.  Luckily the string broke very close to the bottom, so I was able to reattach it and shorten the other string to make it even, and voila, fixed!
It was a good project to do inside, especially since it is all of 33 degrees outside.  We are finally getting a couple days of winter.
We both are absolutely chomping at the bit to get moving.  Seems the closer we get to that point the more frustrated we are.  We're trying to keep a good attitude.  I appreciate all of you putting up with my ramblings, as I hope they are not too mundane as we count off the days until we start another chapter of our lives.

Good stuff

I'm a little late with my update, we had a little burp in the plans that was taken care of so on with the news.  We sold the bike, essentially anyway, the buyer is supposed to pick it up this weekend or next, and if it meets his expectations, he's going to ride it away.  Also we have the Hydralift on the back of the motorhome that we were interested in selling as well when we sold the bike.  It is a hydraulic lift that carried the bike behind the motorhome.

Decided to contact the great folks who put it on and ask if they were interested in it and would remove it?  Turns out they are going to buy it and remove it as well!  Looks like we can cross off two more big items from our retirement list.
Another biggie on the list is a Jeep.  We need to sell my car, a 2006 VW GTI, and our present Jeep, a 2006 Grand Cherokee, and, of course the bike, and want to get a new Grand Cherokee.  As we start our travel in earnest we have to get down to only one vehicle.  We are working on whether to try to trade both cars to save on sales tax, or to just sell my car and then trade in only the Jeep.  Not a big rush on that, although our son Jason, who is in the car business, told us that right now is an excellent time to sell used cars as a lot of people are getting their income tax refunds and use it to buy a car!  Never associated one with the other.  Live and learn.
As to work, I have to bid for a schedule one more time.  Hopefully I can work it out to finish flying around the 15th of March, yet stay officially employed til the 2nd of May!  Really helps with the medical insurance.  I'll fill in the details later as it unfolds.  All perfectly legal and acceptable, by the way.
Tick, tick, tick.

Quiet, in a good way.

Not much to report, but what there is, is good.  Storage unit is all done, with room to spare.  Yippee!  We are hoping to hear some good news on another front tomorrow evening, I'll let you know.  How's that for an enticer?
Retirement plans are coming together in that we have arranged medical coverage, just working on an absolute date to implement it.
We went to a nice Super Bowl party last night, and although I would have liked to see a different outcome, it was a good game with good company, and way too much good food!
I flew an extra section into Indy on Friday with excited fans, and later today I fly an extra section out of Indy.  I guess there will be some smiles and some frowns.  Extra sections are flights that are added to the regular schedule to accommodate more passengers.
Well, that's all for now folks, update to follow.

Another month!

Wow, time is flying.  Another month in the countdown, and we are getting some stuff done.  We are going this morning to finish moving the last few things into our downsized storage unit.  Yup, we did it.  Moved from a 10'x20' unit to a 10'x7.5'.  I had some doubts along the way, but Jan kept saying it would work.  She was right, of course, and we have room left over.  Only downside is my shoulder that I injured years ago is killing me.  Oh well, no pain, no gain as they say.

The weather has been cooperating, 50-60 in the day and lows around 40, but pretty wet, a lot of rain, all in all a very nice winter.  We haven't had a chance to clean out the basement yet, but we'll get it done soon.  We're going to get the bike listed again, and we're trying to figure out the consolidation of 2 vehicles and a motorcycle into one vehicle.  I've got to get my LAST FAA physical later this month now that I am going to work until the end of March.  We're also trying to get doctor appointments, dentist appointments, and glasses appointments all done before we leave.