Wonderful Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend. Even though the campground was completely full, there were no problems. Everyone behaved and had a good time. The weather was incredible. It was actually hot, but I'm not complaining. Highs were in the upper 80s and it was humid. Our site does not have any shade so we had to run the air.

Yesterday we were very busy with canoe rentals. The park has 4 canoes and 4 kayaks to rent. Prices are $5 per hour, $15 for a half day, or $25 for a full day. On Saturday 2 families rented all 4 kayaks for both Saturday and Sunday. That was $200; they didn't bat an eye. They had several kids between them and they kept the kayaks at their sites right on the river for both days. I think they had a great time using the kayaks.

Two of the canoes were rented for the day yesterday morning. The other 2 canoes came and went all day with hourly rentals. It worked out well, but it seemed people only came when we were trying to eat. It must have been Murphy's Law :)

We had some friends camping in the park for the weekend. We played games, ate, sat around the campfire, ate, chatted, ate (you get the picture)! Oh yeah, and we may have had a few cocktails :)

Thanks for your comments regarding DirecTV. I didn't want to appear negative, but I try to give details about our experiences. Hopefully, it may help others in their fulltime plans.

We don't have the network feed for the east and west coasts. According to the installer, we can call every time we move, give them our new zip code, and they are supposed to give us the local feed for that area. We were assured there was no limit on this, and we would not be charged. We'll see how that goes.

Kevin put a switch on the system so we can switch between DirecTV and the antenna if we want to. If DirecTV gives us a hard time, we'll just use the antenna for local channels. Of course, then we won't be able to tape them on the DVR. We'll see how it goes this winter.

I was finally able to get a picture of a hummingbird at my feeder. They sure move fast :) Thanks to Judy for letting me know it is a ruby throated hummingbird coming to my feeder. It wasn't his neck that was green, but his back. Oops! His neck is sort of orange.

Continued Frustrations with DirecTV

I spent another hour on the phone this week trying to straighten out our DirecTV account.

When I originally called in early May to change our service from our house to the RV, I was told it was not possible and that we needed to be in one location at all times with a permanently mounted satellite. After going round and round with the guy, we finally agreed the best course was to suspend our account until we could find someone who knew what they were doing.

After several unsuccessful attempts, Kevin found a local DirecTV installer who was able to get us exactly what we needed. She shipped the satellite, the tripod, a DVR and a regular receiver for our two TVs. An installer came to our RV and hooked it all up. Finally, success. Now the only problem was we had two DirecTV accounts. I still needed to deal with the suspended account.

This is where the hour long phone call came into play. I thought I would go crazy :) By the end of the call, I had been transferred to three different people. The first person told me the accounts had to be merged and transferred me to a "merge specialist". OK, that sounded reasonable.

After holding for some time, the merge specialist came on the line. He went ahead and merged the accounts. After he was done, he told me one of our old receivers had to be transferred to the merged account. I explained our situation AGAIN; that we already had two receivers and didn't need a third one and how the original person I spoke to could have avoided all this mess if he only knew what he was talking about. Well, after going round and round, I was told an old receiver had to be transferred. The "system" would not allow anything else. No overrides were possible. I asked for a supervisor. He would not transfer me to a supervisor!! By now I was growing weak from hunger and exhaustion. I agreed to the receiver transfer figuring I'll just call a few days later and cancel the extra receiver. You guessed it, I now had to be transferred to an "activation specialist".

More time on hold. I asked the activation person if she could get around the "system" since I didn't need the receiver she was transferring. She told me to call a week later and cancel it. That's what I had already figured I would do. I have NEVER encountered such unbelievably screwed up customer service!!

The following day I received a call from a survey company asking about my DirecTV customer service call. You can imagine the earfull she got. She assured me someone from DirecTV would be calling me and solving this entire mess. That was on Wednesday; still no call from the magic person who can fix things. Go figure!

My blood pressure is now back to normal. Actually, the rest of the week was great. We have had the most beautiful weather the last several days. This has been very unusual for May in Wisconsin. Average high temps are 72 degrees. It has been in the 80s for an entire week. The Memorial Day weekend forecast is fantastic.

The campground sites are all reserved. I'm sure we will be quite busy this weekend.

I also want to report that I have had a visitor to my hummingbird feeder. I'm so excited! I'm trying to get a picture, but it never stays long enough. I don't know exactly what kind it is, but is has a green neck :)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Fantastic Weekend

We had an absolutely fantastic weekend. There were 20 units here from the camping club we belong to. We were able to spend time with them in between our host duties. Since most of the sites were occupied by our club, we didn't have many people needing help. Here's some of the group having breakfast Sunday morning. Did I mention this group likes to eat? :)

Saturday morning started out a bit foggy and cool. Once the sun came out it was a beautiful day with highs around 80 degrees. Yesterday the heat and humidity really set in. High of 89 degrees with a dewpoint of 69 percent. Our bodies are still in winter mode, so it was a bit much to cope with. I'm not complaining; I REALLY don't like winter. The rest of the week is supposed to stay hot and humid. Next weekend is supposed to cool off into the high 70's. That would make for an excellent Memorial Day weekend.

I did rent a canoe Saturday morning to a younger couple. As soon as she got in, the canoe tipped over and she was soaked, sweatshirt and all. The water is still cold. Ouch! I also rented a canoe for half the day to a grandfather and his 10 year old grandson. The grandson wanted to fish. They were back in 2 hours. I guess 10 years old don't have much of an attention span especially when the fish aren't biting :)

Yesterday we rented a canoe to a young man with some children. When they came back, the guy spent 20 minutes telling me his life story. I think I'm a pretty friendly person, but I really don't need to know everyone's life story. Some people just love to talk!

Kevin had a surprise for me this morning. He shaved off his mustache. When I met him 35 years ago, I convinced him to grow a mustache. He's had one ever since. The last few years it has been feeling more and more like a wire brush against my face. I've been asking him to shave it, but he didn't want to. Finally, he told me when we were fulltimers, he would do it. Well, he wouldn't consider us fulltimers until we had the check in hand from the house sale. That was Friday. When I reminded him of what he had said, he started waffling. I didn't push and this morning, surprise; no mustache! Guess what? I didn't notice. Oops! He looks great and no more wire brush :) He's rather picture shy, so no pictures. You'll have to take my word for it!

This afternoon, we're going to the library in town. They have free WiFi and I want to download an anti-virus program to the new laptop. Then I'll get back to trying to get it to work as a WiFi hotspot in our camper. Wish me luck. I know just enough about technology to make me dangerous :)

Dreams Do Come True

It has finally happened. Our house is officially sold and the money is in our account. I can't believe the dream has finally come true!!! There were times when I never thought we'd sell the house and start this next chapter in our lives. I can't tell you how happy we are!!!!

Reader Merikay has asked us to tell about our duties as camphosts. In order to become camphosts we signed an agreement stating we would be available 3 hours a day, 5 days a week and that we would also be available when we were in the campground.

Our main duties are selling firewood and renting canoes and kayaks. The canoes and kayaks are not in the water yet. Supposedly that will happen this weekend. We are expecting a heatwave with temperatures in the high 80s this weekend and next week. This is extremely unusual for Wisconsin this early in the year. I'm thinking those boats will come in handy.

We are co-hosts at the park. The other host's site is right next to the wood shed. She has been on vacation for the past 2 weeks so we have been selling the firewood. Once she is back, I think most people will be buying from her as she is right there. Things here are very laid back, so I'm not sure how it will work exactly. I was thinking of suggesting we have some assigned times for the firewood so we aren't always wondering if we should be up there.

Today Kevin spent about 1-1/2 hours doing some weedwacking. That's the first time they asked him to help with that, but he doesn't mind. That's about it. We pick up garbage when we take walks and answer questions people may have. Tough job, but someone's gotta do it :)

Here's the scoop on the dog bite. Last Saturday evening Kevin and I were taking a walk. We were in the middle of the road. As we passed a campsite, this big boxer dog came out from behind the truck and bit me in the butt! I never even saw it until it was charging at me. I was very startled. It was tied to the bumper of the truck, but the leash was long enough to reach the middle of the road.

I was stunned. I felt a sting and wasn't quite sure what had happened. The owners were yelling at the dog. They never said a word to us. We just kept going. I wasn't even sure what had happened. I felt my leg and didn't feel anything wet so I knew I wasn't bleeding. When we got back home, I looked in the mirror. There were 2 red bumps. It definitely nipped me, but didn't break the skin. Now I have 2 bruises where it got me.

I have been wondering if we did the right thing in not saying anything. We are so new here and didn't want to make waves. I'm not sure the dog's owners realized I got bit. I'm fine, but I keep thinking about the dog biting someone else. What if it had been a child?

In "hindsight" I think we should have reported it. I am not anti-dogs. We have had dogs in the past. I do have a problem with people not having control of their dogs. I sure hope no one else gets bit by that dog! Oh well, it's over.

Kevin likes to have me walk next to him closest to the side of the road for safety reasons. I told him from now on, I'm walking in the middle of the road as far from the side as possible. I figure I have a better chance with cars than I do with dogs :) Big dogs scare me, and I think they must sense it.

Hopefully, this weekend we won't have any dog bites or drunks stealing wood. Most of the reserved sites this weekend will be a camping club called the Milwaukee Jaybirds. We have been members of this club since 1981. This is the first time the club will be camping in our "backyard". It will be fun to see our club friends!

Estate Sale Recap and Hummingbirds

I got the final sales summary from our estate sale company, Legacies, Ltd. My total was just under $1000. I sure was hoping for more. I was also surprised to learn that I was charged $266 for moving my items to her consignment shop. I don't recall that being mentioned. I signed a contract, but never received a copy that was signed by them so I can't check to see if it was in the contract. I have sent them an email with several questions regarding the final total.

I still can't say if I would do it the same again. As I mentioned in a previous post, there were pros and cons with using an estate sale company. My recommendation to anyone else out there preparing to fulltime is to get rid of as much as you can as soon as you can!

Yesterday Kevin and I went to the house for the last time. The Veterans Association came and picked up the furniture we had left to donate. It almost filled their entire box truck. Then we loaded up the back of the pick-up with the mattresses and some miscellaneous garbage we had left and took it to the dump. The house is now empty!

Kevin mowed the lawn for the last time. It was a beautiful day and he got some sun :) While he was doing that, I ran some errands. At the end of the day, I sat on the front stoop and reflected on the great years we had at that house. I can't say that I felt sad. We spent 26 years there raising our boys. The memories are wonderful, but we were so ready for the next chapter of our lives. All I saw now was the work to be done at the house. It was definitely time to let it go :)

We left the house and went to pre-sign our closing papers. The buyers sign tomorrow at 9 a.m. and the check will be wired to our account. If all goes well, we'll have the money in our account before the end of the day tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for us! We are so very close :)

After that we took our son, Eric, out for dinner. He really helped us a lot at the end with moving furniture around and letting us use his address to forward our mail. He's a great guy if I do say so myself :)

I sure was exhausted by the time I got back home to the RV.

On Tuesday we attached a hummingbird feeder to the back window. Today I have seen a hummingbird twice hovering around the feeder. So far, it has not landed. Maybe it's still a little shy :)

Here's a picture of our home. The building behind us is the office where campers check in. I put a hanging plant on a shepherd's hook in front of the little tree. We have our solar lights out and our garden flags. It feels like home :)

Next time I'll post about our duties here at the campground, and how I got bit in the behind by a dog last weekend. Bet you can't wait to hear about that!

The Excitement Begins

First of all, I wanted to show you a picture of our upper cabinets. I previously posted a picture showing how see-through the frosted glass doors were. We didn't like that we could see the stuff behind the doors. We bought some frosted window lining and placed it on the back of the glass doors. It took two layers, but I think it looks much better. You can still see a shadow, but it's not nearly as unsightly as it was. Hint to the RV designers. The glass doors may look nice in theory, but they are not very practical.

Here's a picture of one of the park visitors. He's been coming up from the banks of the river. I've seen him almost every day. He is usually a few sites over from us and seems to be feeding on the dandelion seeds. After doing some research online, I believe he is a muskrat. So far, he has been less trouble than some of our human visitors. :)

We've been camphosts for about 3 weeks, and it has been very quiet so far. That changed this weekend. We are co-hosts at Astico County Park near Columbus, WI. Our co-host is on vacation until next week. She went to Italy! There is also a full-time park attendant who lives in a house on the property with her husband. All of us are located near the entrance of the park. That's also where the wood sales shed and the bathhouse are located.

It's a very nice park with a river flowing all along the park borders. The river has a few bends in it so there are a few different camp areas in the park located along the different bends in the river. There are about 70 total sites with 40 of them having electric hook-up. The rest are tent sites. These tent sites are located on the point where the river makes a sharp turn. This area seems to attract a younger crowd who enjoy playing their music loud, staying up late and consuming large quantities of certain beverages. We had a few groups of these younger people camped at the point this weekend.

The county has a ban on bringing in any firewood due to the Emerald Ash Borer problem in neighboring counties. Therefore, we sell a lot of wood. I was the only one here for much of the day yesterday and I sold a LOT of wood. There is a large sign stating wood sales are between 8am and 8pm. Some of these young groups bought $20 worth of wood which is 44 pieces. You would think that would be enough for one night. :)

Around 12:30 pm last night, there was a knock on our door. It was the camp attendant's husband. He had caught some young men who had climbed the fence of the wood shed and were trying to help themselves to some more wood. They claimed they had knocked on our door, and we had not answered. He was just checking out their story. Of course, they were lying. The sheriff was called. I'm not sure what happened to them as I went back to bed. Hopefully, this is not a sign of things to come. We have been assured that this is a quiet park, and there are usually not many problems. I understand things like this will happen; I just hope it's not very often. Here's a picture of the fence these guys climbed. Maybe barbed wire will need to be added at the top! :)

It's a beautiful day today. The sun is shining and temperatures are expected to be near 70 degrees. It's 10:30 in the morning and the mass exodus of campers has begun. When Kevin and I used to do weekend camping, we always tried to stay as long as possible on Sundays. For some reason, Sundays were often the nicest day of the weekend! :) We never could understand why so many people leave so early on Sundays. We're not going anywhere today. Just going to enjoy this beautiful day in our new life!!

Estate Sale Insights

The estate sale is over, and I have mixed feelings about it. In hindsight, it's hard to say if we would have disposed of our belongings the same way. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, right? :)

I won't say our estate sale experience was a good one, but it wasn't a terrible one either. Since we have no previous experience to compare it to, I can't really say if it went well.

I still don't have a dollar amount, and that will definitely make a difference on how I feel about it. The owner told me she has turned the paperwork over to her bookkeeper, and I will have a check within two weeks.

The owner did tell me that I had less stuff than they usually work with, and it was borderline that she would do the sale. I had four different organizations come to give me quotes, and two of them turned it down due to not enough inventory. I went with the company I used because they have a consignment shop for some of the better items that don't sell on the day of the sale. We had several pieces of furniture that did not sell, and they have taken them to the shop along with some Hummels and wall prints.

The pros of having the estate sale are:

They went through all our stuff and priced and displayed everything. They told me I should just leave everything in the closets and cabinets and they would take care of it all.

They held the sale and dealt with the public. They took care of the advertising. I did offer to put an ad on Craigslist for them.

They boxed and bagged all the leftover stuff and put it in the garage for us to donate to a charity. They didn't move any of the furniture they didn't take to the shop. Actually, they would have done that for an extra fee, but our son helped us instead.

They cleaned the entire house after everything was out, and they did a good job.

The cons of having the estate sale:

The fee is 33% of the total sales if the total was $6,500 or more; 50% if it was less than that. I'm assuming I'll have to pay the 50%.

It seemed to me items were overpriced and much more could have been sold at lower prices. Also, they had the sale on Mother's Day. I think a different day would probably have been better.

Although they did box and bag everything and put it in the garage, I felt they could have done a better job of it. Everything was just thrown together in a huge pile.

I didn't feel they communicated well. I had to keep calling.

If you decide to go the estate sale route, make sure you are comfortable with the company you hire. Do a lot of checking and contact references. I've heard many horror stories of people getting majorly ripped off.

If you have the time, I would recommend selling as much as you can on Craigslist and having a rummage sale for all the household items. We were in a Catch 22. The realtors tell you to stage the house for sales purposes. Then once you have an offer, things go fast. There wasn't time to sell the big stuff on Craigslist. Also, we live in a rural area and rummage sales don't do well. If I had to do it again, I think I would have sold more of the furniture ahead of time even if it meant some of the rooms were empty. In this market, it took a year to sell our house. I really don't think staging had anything to do with it. I think the main thing was the house was move-in ready. We had repainted almost every room, and replaced much of the carpeting. It looked good.

Either way, we may have ended up with the same amount of money. Rummage sale prices are much lower than the estate sale prices were, so it might have come out about the same. And, I didn't have to do any of the work setting up or cleaning up afterwards. That's a big bonus especially since we were already living in the RV which is an hour's drive from the house.

It's emotionally hard to see all your stuff thrown into bags and boxes. Our donate stuff has almost filled our 2 car garage. It's hard to get my head around donating all of it. I really don't want any of it, it just seems like such a waste to give so much away. Of course, we will have quite a tax right-off this year :) I had to make the arrangements for the donation. I think most estate sale companies take care of that, but since our sale was borderline, I agreed to do that part of it. It was harder to get someone to come out and take all the stuff than I thought it would be. The Veteran's Association is coming Monday for the household stuff and Wednesday for the furniture. They don't do both pickups the same day.

So, the lesson learned is don't buy so much stuff. And if you do, check Craigslist for used stuff first. There is so much quality used stuff out there for a lot less money. From now on, I'm not giving gifts just for the sake of giving something. If they want something specific, fine. Otherwise, I'll be more creative and either give gift cards or something consumable. Who needs all that "stuff" anyway :)