Wednesday, December 31, 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

These early morning hours are getting to me. It was really hard to get up this morning.
Temps were 46 when I got up, then winds and very cold by the time I got home.

Mr Boss was in a really bad mood, pretty much yelling at everyone today. Mrs. Boss stayed the whole day again, she was suppose to leave by 10:00. At least I'm getting paid and it's full days. She gave me the schedule for next week, on call for all day on Tuesday, and working all day on Wednesday. She said she'll probably change my hours to 30 hours a week, that's five more than normal.

We have a party tonight! It's the first time in a couple years that we're going out to celebrate. I won't be on chat, and I'm hoping to stay awake till midnight. See ya on chat tomorrow night.

I wish everyone a great NEW YEAR, may it be prosperous and may you have good health.

RECAP of 2008
I'll give a recap for our search, decisions, changes of our minds since the beginning of the year.

March we went to Perry Ga for our first rally. It was the Rally of 2008. We met Charles and Ethel an RV-dreamers chatter. We learned a lot about tires, overweight, RV toilets, vents and several other topics given at the rally. We stayed at Robbins AFB, so we know what kind of camping can be done at military bases. Thanks Charles for showing us the ropes and what things to look for at rallies. We stayed four days, which went fast. The people we met were wonderful. We saw several fifth wheels that we put on our short list, Hitchhiker, Holiday Rambler, Excel, and Mobile Suites. We took lots of pictures to compare once we got home.

June 11-17 was our turning point for the whole year. Up to this point we thought of going full time 2012. We went to the RV-Dreams rally. This was very special to me. I had been chatting online with several people from the RV-Dreams website and I felt I knew a lot of people, I just wanted to meet them face to face. We had to rearrange our traveling plans to see the kids to include Branson, MO and with the help of some of the "chatters" we rented a small cabin at the rally to stay right with the group instead of going into town. We learned that we could get on the road two years sooner and with the help of seminars and talking with all the RV'ers it wasn't going to be that hard. The week was the best ever and the memories will be forever. Thank you again Howard & Linda for a great rally, and we'll be going again when we get on the road. Next time we'd like to have our own rig.

August, I started selling everything I could get my hands on. We had our second garage sale at someone else's yard. We're not allowed to sell from the condo area. I have some friends that do a sale once a year so they included me. What didn't sell went to donation places. Some of the bigger items went on Ebay and Craigslist. I started putting everything in boxes that I didn't think I'd be using and in a few months I took the boxes unopened for donations.

September, I had a realtor come in and see what we have to get done to sell. I then had the carpet stretched to get some wrinkles out of it and the living room carpet cleaned. I have to paint a couple walls and that's it. I'll get that done the first part of 2009. We're in good shape for living here 11 years. In September we also went to Greensboro to check out the Holiday Rambler. They had several so we took out time to go through each one. I love the Presidental but still not quite sure. We're looking for a certain bathroom area that Jim likes. A nice big sink area, now days there's a very small area around the sink.

November, was our three year anniversary when we started thinking about going full time. It happened when we were with some long time full timers visiting. It seems like a very long time ago but we've made it this far. The day of our anniversary, Jim found a dually truck that he wanted. We traded the little truck that we bought a year ago and now owners of the truck that will be pulling our 5th wheel.

We have gone through some thinking times of maybe this isn't what we should be doing. We have doubts, fears and just worries. After talking to several full timers, they all go through the same thing. We're now in our last year. The condo will go up for sale after we see the factories in Elkhart in June. Factory choices are Heartland, Carriage and maybe Forest River. We're hoping they stay open.

Follow us for 2009 to see what we accomplish and when we get the 5th wheel and when we sell the condo. It's going to be a great year.

Days left to sell and order the 5er. 5 months

1 comment:

Leno said...

I look forward everyday to reading your post. How neat to follow your plans with you. Have a wonderful New Year. So much happening this year.. Enjoy the ride!

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