It's Official

First off, I'd like to welcome new readers Clark and Sandy. For some reason, it is very exciting when I get new readers. It feels good that others are finding our information helpful.

Merikay asked if the witch I worked with came to my going away party. NO! Which was great because very few people like her. She will live her small bitter life, but not with me around :)

So, now to the title of this blog. We are considering today our official first day as fulltime RVers. It feels good :)

Kevin actually lived in the camper all last week as he was not working and had started our position as camphosts. I still had to work last week :( It was worth it to get another week of paid vacation :) That makes today the first time we are both retired and living in the RV. Did I say it feels good!!!

We are going back to our house tomorrow to do some last minute chores before the estate sale people come on Monday. I will actually sleep there one more night because the septic inspector is coming Monday morning at 8:30 am, and I don't want to get up super early to drive back. Kevin will come back to the camper tomorrow night and camphost.

Monday afternoon we are moving to a different county park to continue our camphosting position. Originally, we were hired to be the camphost at Derge County Park, the park we are at right now. Then, the Derge camphosts from two years ago contacted the parks department and asked if they could come back. The powers that be decided to keep both couples so we will now be co-hosts at Astico County Park in Columbus, WI. It's a busier park so that will be a good thing for all.

Below is a picture of the campground, there are 25 sites. This weekend there is a truck camper and two tents. The next picture is our site. It has been very windy all week so no awning. The last picture is the crabapple tree in our yard. This has been my favorite tree as long as we've been there. It's so beautiful in spring. I took this at 6:30 am on Friday morning as I was leaving for work for the very last time :)

Freedom

It was a great feeling this morning knowing that I would not be hearing that alarm clock again. I'm sure there will be times we will still need to set the alarm; but for now, it has been silenced :)

Yesterday after school, the staff had a going away party for me. Many of the teachers and support staff attended. It was a very nice party. They decorated the tables in the library with candles and seashells in anticipation of our traveling to warm climates in the winter. They presented me with a wallet full of gift cards for gas, Starbucks, McDonalds, Arbys, Kohls and Wal-Mart. So many people here are really nice. It's a shame I had to work with the nastiest person in the building. If not for her, this would be a nice place to work. But, in 6 more hours she is history!!!!

I spent last night going through all our stuff in the house one more time to make sure I wasn't leaving anything behind by mistake. We have closed off one bedroom and put the things we are going to store at our son's house in that room. The estate sale people will be coming on Monday to prepare. The sale will be at the end of the week. We'll see how that goes. I'm not expecting much money. We're just happy to be getting rid of what is left. And, my mom is bringing several boxes of her things to sell. She has a ton of stuff and every little bit we can sell now will help later :)

Tonight, Kevin and I will be spending our first night in the camper as full-timers. Champagne is a must :)

Thanks!

Thanks to readers Ken and Nanette for their kind comments regarding yesterday's post. Their words brought everything back into perspective. This part of their comment especially rings true:

"life by purpose rather than the circumstances the world would have you live it by"

That says it exactly. We are tired of buying into what the media, society, and the government want us to believe is the life for us. We know what we want the purpose of our lives to be, and what we were doing wasn't cutting it for us anymore. That's not to say we weren't happy with the life we have led to this point. There's not much I would change, but it is time to move forward. I'm feeling better :)

Please don't think that I am whining or feeling sorry for myself. I fully realize how fortunate we are to follow our dream. I'm just being as honest as I can be so that others contemplating this lifestyle can more fully understand not only what we have done, but some of the feelings involved.

Something happened this week that again confirms our decision to live life to the fullest. Kevin's cousin, Todd, died at the age of 53. They are very close in age, and the two of them spent a lot of time together as kids. He died of natural causes; went to sleep Sunday night and never woke up. Another reminder that life can be short, and you never know what's around the corner. The funeral is tomorrow. My heart goes out to his entire family!!

For some reason the following words to a song keep going through my head :)

"I'm free, I'm free"

I don't know any of the other words or who sings it. But, it feels good just singing that part over and over. If anyone knows who sings it, please let me know. I'd like to see what the rest of the lyrics are :)

I'm glad we were able to still be in our house this spring. The crabapple tree is blooming, and the lilacs are getting close. I'm happy to be able to enjoy the spring beauty of our yard one last time!

"The truth is I love being alive. And I love feeling free." Angelina Jolie

Emotions

I'm feeling really emotional today! I really don't understand it. I'm so happy and excited to start living our dream, but I think I've just been on overload this week.

Kevin doing the camphosting thing, and I've been home trying to tie up the loose ends. I'm not complaining. It's just rather overwhelming right now.

I have this nagging feeling of guilt that doesn't want to go away. I think it's because people look at me like I'm nuts when I tell them what we're doing. Many tell me they are envious. Today someone told me he wishes he was as brave as we are. But, that look they give me tells me they think we're nuts. It's the fear thing. What if it doesn't work out. Are we crazy and selfish? I don't think so, but that little nagging voice is still there.

What's really dragging me down is these last days at work. The nasty witch I work with is really ratcheting up her nastiness. She is super masterful at being snide. Her comments are never directly made to me, but to others when she is sure I can hear them. She is the most masterful manipulative, back-stabbing, evil person I think I have ever encountered. I'm not kidding!! I have tried to be positive and not let it bother me. Being subjected to her torture daily just wears me down sometimes. But, only 2 days left. I can do it! I wish I was the kind of person who could just say "kiss my @#!" but it's just not in me. Once I'm out that door, I will never think of her again!!! I have wasted too much time dwelling on her evil ways. I'm done with that!!!

I had a question in the comments yesterday from some readers about the car we sold. We had sold a car on Craigslist and the person paid for it in full and told us he would come with a friend to pick it up the next day which was a Sunday. He never called Sunday, and when I called him, I got voicemail. Well, he called late Monday and said he had misplaced his cell phone. We finally met him Tuesday night and did the trade.

Our reader Merikay asked about the estate sale person. Once we are all done with that, I'll write a detailed entry about how that went. It has not been an easy experience, but I think it will work out.

Thanks for your kind comments. I really do appreciate hearing from all of you!

Busy, Busy

Wow, this week is a whirlwind. After a few relaxing days last weekend, it was time to swing into action.

Since the weather was not very nice last weekend, I came home around noon on Sunday. Kevin is staying at the campground to do camphosting duties. I got a lot accomplished on Sunday.

We are working on a project for the camper. We are building a desk. I saw one some other fulltimers were discussing in a forum recently. They bought it from an Amish furniture maker in Indiana. It has two end cabinets that sit on either side of the dining table under the windows. There is a piece of wood that goes over the back of the table connecting the two ends. The top is 12 inches wide so we lose some of the dining table, but we gain a place to keep the laptop, printer and two cabinets for more storage. If we pull out the leaf on the table, we can still seat four. The cost from the Amish company was $800. We found some cabinets and bought an oak board and are making our own for around $200. The pieces were all unfinished so I did some staining when I got home Sunday. Once it it finished, I'll post some pictures. I also packed up everything else except the Christmas items.

I currently have 3 bins for our son to store. I think I will have 1 or 2 more after finishing with the Christmas items and a few other things. I packed a box of kitchen items for our son in Minnesota. He is moving into a new apartment and is losing the roommate that had the kitchen stuff. I also did laundry. I was really tired by evening.

We also decided to sell Kevin's bobbleheads on ebay. I wish we would have thought of that a little earlier. I sold almost all of them, but have spent the last two evenings packing them all for shipping.

I spoke to the estate sale woman today. She still hasn't given me an exact date. She is going to contact the newspapers tomorrow to see when she has to have the ads in and will set the date based on the ads. I hope this all works out!

I've also been very busy at work getting everything done before I leave on Friday. Only 3 days to go!!!!! I am getting so pumped :)

Next time I'll discuss some other last minute technology details we're taking care of.

First Blog Posting From RV

This is the first time I am posting to this blog from the RV. It feels gooood! We are camping at Derge County Park in Beaver Dam, WI. We got here around noon yesterday.

Back in February when we thought we had sold the house, I had called the Dodge County Parks office to see if they had length of stay restrictions in their parks. We were looking for a place to stay for the summer. After explaining our situation to the woman, she asked if we would be interested in camphosting. Well, that sounded like a great idea to us. I quickly put together a resume for us, filled out the application and before we knew it, we were on board.

We are actually "volunteer" camphosts as we don't get paid. Our site, electricity and firewood are free. We can arrive as early in spring as we want and leave as late in fall as we want without paying any camping fees. Our job is being "eyes and ears" in the campground, helping sell firewood, renting canoes and answering questions. We have agreed to be available 3 hours a day, five days a week. However, whenever we are in the park, it is understood we will answer questions and help out if needed. We met our boss, Mike, yesterday. He seems very nice and laid back. It seems this will work out great. Time will tell.

It's raining and cold outside. I'm nice and warm in my cozy home. Isn't this great!!! I have done some organizing of storage space. There is plenty of storage in our new home. We only have a few more items to put in the camper. We should have no problem fitting everything in. Now, if we can only find everything :)

I made an appointment for the septic and well inspector to come on Monday, May 3rd. That will be the last step for us as far as inspections go. We don't see any reason for problems, as we have never had any issues with our system. Keeping my fingers crossed all goes well with that inspection. Otherwise, we are on track for closing.

One more week of work and I am FREE!!! Can't wait. If things outside clear up a bit later, I'll take some pictures of our new home to post next time.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

More Packing

Last night I worked on getting the kitchen packed. Kevin brought all the kitchen stuff from the camper into the house, and I went through everything from both kitchens to pick out the best items. Just how many spatulas does one household need anyway :) I have narrowed it down and today Kevin will pack it all back into the camper. Our son, Korey, will be moving into a new apartment next month and needs some more kitchen items. So, some of what is left will go to him and the rest will hopefully be sold.

Last night the appraiser also did his inspection. Hopefully, there won't be any problems with the appraisal amount. I can't imagine it will be an issue.

We are camping this weekend with a local camping club we belong to. As luck would have it, it's supposed to be rainy, cold and windy all weekend. This used to be so upsetting to me. Now, who cares. After next week, we'll be camping all the time. I still feel bad for our camping friends who have to go back to work next week and hope the weather will be better the next weekend they get to camp.

The campground our club will be at is the same campground Kevin and I are camphosting at. So, we'll be on the host site and then just leave the camper there. It will be nice to see everyone again after a long winter. The campground has an unheated building we can use. At least we'll have someplace dry to get together. There will be games, cards, chatting and eating. There is always eating :)

I plan to spend time this weekend organizing the stuff we have put into the camper. I've just pretty much thrown it all in. Now, I need to figure out the best way to store things. I'm looking forward to organizing our new home!

It's funny. I can't stop smiling. This sense of pending freedom feels so good :)

A brief candle; both ends burning
An endless mile; a bus wheel turning
A friend to share the lonesome times
A handshake and a sip of wine
So say it loud and let it ring
We are all a part of everything
The future, present and the past
Fly on proud bird You're free at last. Charlie Daniels