Fins To The Left

Jimmy Buffett came to town last Saturday for his annual concert @ Verizon Music Center.  We love to go to his concerts and  always have such a good time.  This year his theme was Under The Big Top.

We attended this year with our fellow Parrotthead and friend Debbie.  She was introduced to his concerts last year and could not wait to attend.  (A Parrotthead is is a commonly used nickname for fans of Jimmy Buffett. "Parakeets" is the term used for younger fans)

It's a lot of fun to check out all the folks that attend.  This years concert was much earlier in the season and it was very chilly.  But, it did not seem to stop the fun. Most people party in the parking lot prior to the concert.  It's not unusual to see cheeseburgers being grilled and margarita's whirling in blenders powered by cigarette lighters.  Here are a few parrottheads playing corn hole.

Cars are often decorated for the event.

Parrottheads come in all shapes, sizes, and ages.  Here is our favorite couple in matching coconut bras.

So, if you have not ever attended a Jimmy Buffett concert, be sure to add it to your bucket list. 

Reflections after 14 days as a full-timer

We have now been full-timing for fourteen days.  Here are a few things that we have learned so far about the differences of living in a stick and brick home vs. a motorhome.

• Getting ready in the morning takes more coordination
• You are much more aware of weather
• You have to pay more attention to some services that  you never really thought about before such as running water, flushing toilets, sewer
• Friendships are easier to make in the campground.  It is much more social than in a neighborhood
• The fantastic fan really is fantastic J
• You are a lot more active taking long walks with Jimmy in the campground.  (Jimmy loves all the new smells and attention from other campers)
• Cleaning our home is so much faster
• You have to be more organized and tidy
• You can get your wash done a lot faster at a laundry mat
• I miss the dishwasher
• We still like each other living in 350 square feet

Odds & Ends

Over the past two months we have stayed at this lovely home. It is called the Blessing House and is owned by a friend in my book club. It certainly has been a blessing to us. The previous owner had a landscaping business. His talent is very evident in the lovely gardens and patio he designed. Part of our arrangement with my friend was to clean up the gardens this spring. We enjoy this type of work and enjoyed the exercise. There were probably over 75 large bags of garden trash. The tall grasses had to be all cut down but they are coming back now and look very nice. Below are a few pictures of the house and gardens. 

We have a few remaining items (furniture and decorative items) to dispose of and then we’ll be done. An antique dealer came last evening and looked at everything. He decided to place into auction one of our end tables. They have a live auction once a month where items can be bid on in person and over the internet. He thinks the table will do well and will list it in July.

 

The remaining items were taken out to another auction house in Greenwood (Christie’s) that sells items every Wednesday. We were told that their average audience is around 1200 people. They charge a flat rate of 25% of your sell price.

 

My brother cams on Saturday to pick up some items that we want to keep…for now. We’ll re-evaluate them in a year. We will not have the cost of storage, so for now we’ll hold onto them. Most of these items are more sentimental in nature than valuable.

 

The only remaining household items are for Jen and we will take those to her in mid May. They are all boxed up and ready to go.

 

Two months ago the two car garage was stacked full with furniture, gardening tools, and household items. It was very overwhelming. Could we possibly find “homes” for all these items in two months time? Someone gave me good advice once and said "just getting started gets you half way there". So with that in mind, we sold or sent items through Craigslist, EBay, auction houses, Goodwill, and friends/family. We feel such a huge sense of accomplishment and at the same time are a little exhausted. I mentioned to someone to keep talking to me at dinner or I’d probably fall asleep. :)  In all the hustle and bustle of everything  I think it’s important to reflect and celebrate your accomplishments. So with that in mind, we paused and looked at that now empty garage and said to each...job well done. 

Life is good!

Fixin' this and that

Our new best friend Al came over on Sunday and helped with some needed repairs to our motorcoach. It was a blue sky day for us! With Al’s help we were able to accomplish so much.

First item on the list was trading out the “house” batteries. Included with the purchase of our motorcoach were four new batteries. The previous owner had purchased them but hadn’t needed to install them. It was now necessary to trade up to better power. Al and John studied how they were already installed very carefully to be sure everything was lined up properly. There also was a guide to help you too. They carefully cleaned out the battery area and removed all the corrosion and dirt with a mixture of baking soda and water. Al had an old rubber mat that was cut to fit the area and provide a little more cushion. It did not take them long to install them. They were off to a good start.

In the meantime, I was using my new toy. It is a labeler that I had purchased at Cosco. It was recommended to us to use this to label all our bins and various items in the coach such as computer cords. I practiced using it with our filing system. Over the years I had cut out articles about places we would like to visit. Plus there was lots of campground information and seminar information we had received at the RV Dreams Rally. Everything is now nicely organized and in alphabetical order. I was able to discard a lot of information that we will no longer need such as motorcoach brochures.

The next project for the boys was to fix the automatic step cover by the front entry way. It is a cover that is supposed to cover this area when you are driving. It allows the passenger to put their feet down on a level surface and keep them from falling into the stair well. The previous owner said it had not worked for them. Before long this amazing duo had it working. They were both very pleased that they could trouble shoot this and determine why it had not been working.

With building confidence they then decided to install the solar panel on the roof. The panel had met with an unfortunate awning accident a couple weeks ago. We knew better at the time, but had opened out the awning at the rental house and had not secured it with stakes in the ground. It was not windy, but within no time John heard a loud thwack and found the awning on top of the roof with the solar panel crushed. I found a replacement one at Frye’s, a local electronic store, that was significantly less expensive then Newmar’s. With a little creativity they were also able to install the new one.

 

 

Four projects completed!  That was great.  Afterwards we celebrated dinner with Al and his family.  It was a perfect day.  Happy Mother's Day!

This lifestyle has a bit of learning curve

This is our first motorcoach and it can be said that there is certainly a learning curve. We have been told this many times by others. So, we are trying hard to remember to be patient, breath, and hopefully locate someone, when all else fails, to ask for help. I read on a blog today that to pack in your motorcoach a sense of humor and patience.  That's a great suggestion. 

 

Our hot water was not hot…it was more like lukewarm at best. John read the Newmar manual and RV repair guide and we were pretty much convinced that an expensive repair was going to be in our future. Sheesh!   After two days of very cool showers John mentioned it to our campground host (Al) and his eyes lit up. He said it might be the “bypass valve”. I think the look on our faces made him quickly realize that might be the case.   "Easy fix" he said and off he went to our campsite. Well, to make a long story short we had hot water in no time and no repair bill. Whew! Al is our new best friend!  It's my understanding that this valve is turned on when winterizing your coach to decrease the amount of antifreeze that needs to be added.  Once you de-winterize you are supposed to turn off the valve, or something like that.

John has a long “honey do” list already.  That's not unusual, however, the list now includes many  tasks he has not done before. I'm sure he will gain more confidence as time goes on.  Having hot water sure made our life a lot more comfortable. It's the little things in life that you come to appreciate.

The next morning I'm up early getting into the shower.  There is hot water but alas guess what...it ran out.  Just like that!  We had checked the gauges the night before but they are not accurate.  Imagine that! We had heard that this is a common problem.  I just wish we hadn't learned it right in the middle of my shower.  :) My coworkers today thought this was hysterical. In fact, they seem to be really enjoying our new adventure.

So to all our new followers out there...could you please add us to your prayer list! Thanks a million.

Special Visitors-RV-Dreams Howard & Linda

We had two special visitors camp with us last night. We have followed for a couple of years an amazing journal written by Howard Payne on a website called RV-Dreams.com. www.rv-dreams.com  This site is the go to guide for anyone contemplating or experiencing the full-time lifestyle. We had attended a fun and informative rally held by this couple in Kerrville Texas. It was a great conference. See an earlier entry with all the details (November 2009)

We noticed a few days ago that they would be traveling from Louisville Kentucky to Elkhart Indiana.  They needed to have some work completed on their fifth wheel.  It looked like they might be traveling right through our area (Indianapolis). We contacted them by email and told them we were now full-timing and would love to see them. We share of love of canoeing and hoped they might want to check out this campground.

Sunday evening they arrived after a rather trying journey (lots of rain and delays).  We spent a great evening together. After a tour of our motorcoach we went out for a nice dinner and later had a special dessert prepared by Linda. It was difficult to express our gratitude in words to them. I hope they know.  It seems so apparent that they truly enjoy being a support and guide to us and so many others.

We reference their forum frequently and have gained a lot of knowledge from posting questions and reading other discussions. You name it and there has been a discussion about it on the forum. There are many folks who actively participate and the advice is really appreciated.

Howard posted our visit in his journal.  My goodness, we received emails from all over.  We certainly appreciate the well wishes and have found some amazing blogs to follow. Here is a link to our visit written by Howard and his review of the campground.  http://www.rv-dreams.typepad.com/

We hope that our paths can cross again soon!