Bought an Outdoor Grill and Table

Okay, so I know it’s not always good to go out and buy a lot of stuff for your RV until you actually own it and discover how you like to use it. Just not sure I agree to wait for some purchases, especially if you can use them immediately. Fortunately I also have time to do the research and wait for items to go on sale.

I kept some notes on a separate page to refer back to.  Here’s the page if you are interested. Otherwise following is a quick summary.

Went with the Weber Q 1200. Karen and I saw them go on sale at Walmart last year around September at a huge discount. So we watched for a sale this year and picked one up for about 30% off. Living in our sticks and bricks does come with a side benefit of having time to wait and shopping local stores for deals.

I already had an extension for a propane line and an extra propane tank, although the grill can run off the small disposable bottles.

I like the fact this grill has a thermostat, built-in shelves on the sides and electronic ignition. So far we cooked steak, bratwurst and thick pork chops. Came out perfect with the food tasting better than I could have expected.

A runner up during the search was the Blackstone 17″ griddle. In the end I figured it would be hard to cook a whole chicken on it and we can add griddle plates to the Webber or just cook griddle type food on the stove in in the kitchen. Although watching my sister Mary cook breakfast in a frying pan on a conventional gas outdoor grill is a sight to behold.

Blackstone 17″ griddle

The table is an all aluminum Coleman. Caught that on sale as well as I had time to wait. It rolls up into a small bag. I found out about them after I posted on the forums for advise. We may also be looking out for a 5′ folding table as our 4′ table is trashed.  When we are setup in a campground for a couple days we like having a longer table under the awning without dragging a big wood picnic table under it.

Once we get our fifth wheel, and I’m still working fulltime, we plan to equip it before we hit the road fulltime. Maybe in a couple years I’ll look back and see how that worked out.

Advertisements

Trip to Michigan via Nashville – Visit with Fulltimers and RV Shopping

Karen and I finished up a trip to see her mother and family in Howell Michigan a couple weeks ago. We first stopped off in Nashville Tennessee to pick up her brother who joined us on the trip. Unfortunately we did not have much time to spend in Nashville touring. Karen’s brother is a professional musician and has lived in Nashville for years.  Figure we will make an extended trip there in the future. I’ve already got some ideas for a campground which is Seven Points Campground, a Corp of Engineer Park.

Karen ran off shopping with her sister and mother in Michigan while I took a couple day trips.

Ryan and Deanne from California

Montana with Nice Ram

For quite a while I’ve been sending emails back and forth to a reader of this blog. Ryan and Deanne are from California. Ryan is originally from Michigan and as luck would have it they were in town visiting his father. So off to the south of Detroit I drove for a day trip. I got a grand tour of their wonderful 2018 rear living room, 35′ Montana 3120RL. And a ride in their new beautiful Ram truck that’s equipped for maximum towing with 4:10 gears, dual rear wheels, Aisin transmission and the high-output Cummins diesel engine. We drove to a local joint for Coney style hotdogs which is apparently a Detroit original. As would seem to always be the case, when meeting fellow lovers of RV’s, it took only a few minutes to feel like I’d known the couple for a while. Great conversation for sure. Thank you Ryan for all the valuable conversation in-person and through the internet! Thank you Deanne for the tour or your home. She had a list of what she would change in this fifth wheel. Wonderful input for us who are still looking to buy one.  As a side note, one of the things I like about the Montana is the very large user group. The Montana Owner’s Forum is huge.

My second day trip was to the Haylett RV dealership in Coldwater Michigan. Home of my favorite RV tour videos and one of several dealerships we might buy from if we go with the Montana. Although I’ve known three people who bought their Montana fifth wheels at Lake Shore in Muskegon Michigan. It’s the volume – lowest price dealership. All three seemed to have had good experiences.

While at Haylett RV I was able to compare the 2019 Montana with the newer 2019 Anniversary Edition.  Funny how in just a few months there have already been two significant changes to the same 2019 trailer! I’ve also been reading Keystone is incorporating more technology in their upcoming fifth wheels. That will be the third significant change in one year! So far they plan to hardwire cellular and WIFI into the trailer using some kind of Furrion system.  Here is part of the news bulletin:

“At the end of September, Keystone RV Company will launch another industry first, all Keystone RVs will be 4G LTE and WiFi ready, standard. New Furrion technology offers an antenna that integrates 4G LTE and Wi-Fi with standard VHF/UHF/AM/FM reception. WiFi and cellular signals are routed to a wall-mounted base inside the trailer.”

The trip to Michigan from Tennessee lead us through Kentucky. This was the first time I’d been on Interstates through south to north Kentucky. I was impressed with the scenery. Karen’s brother Steve had made the trip a number of times and alerted us to an upcoming view of Cincinnati Ohio as it entered our view on Interstate 75/71. I cut some photos out of Google Maps that don’t do it justice. Basically, as you approach from the south, down a hill there is a curve. As you make the curve Cincinnati’s tall downtown buildings suddenly come into view.

Here is the view approaching Cincinnati

WAIT FOR IT

 

 

Bam! As soon as you come around the corner the city appears.

North of Cincinnati is Jeff Couch’s RV Nation’s Dealership. Home of the low price volume dealer for the Forest River Cedar Creek. A trailer which has a ton of changes for 2019. Most importantly is their introduction of a 35′ trailer in direct competition with the Montana 3120RL. Wish we would have had time to stop to look over the new model. Karen likes the double bowl sinks in the Cedar Creek which come at the expense of a deep pantry.

Keystone Montana 3120RL

Forest River Cedar Creek 34IK

So that now makes a total of four RV companies who are building our top floor plan. The others are Vanleigh with their Vilano 320GK or Beacon 34RLB and Grand Design’s Solitude 310GK. Subtle differences in some parts and major difference in others among the four trailers. I’ll not get into that unless someone asks in the comments section. If you are looking for a 35′ “luxury” fifth wheel, these are the four we looked at.

We drove four days on this trip with a little over 500 miles between destinations each way. Karen and I really enjoyed the quick brake from our sticks and bricks home. We both still can’t wait to get on the road sometime next year. Till then we keep downsizing and fixing up the house.

Favorite Downsizing Tools

I’ve got a couple downsizing tools that are not typically mentioned. Or at least they have not been discussed in blogs I’ve read. A  skill saw and reciprocating saw.

Mine happen to be battery operated. I keep a multipurpose blade on the skill saw. As reciprocating saw blades are easy to change out I have one for wood and another for metal.  I’d suggest buying good metal blades which decreases the time and effort needed to saw something up before the battery runs out. I might take the reciprocating saw on the road for cutting tree limbs, camp fire logs or whatever. The saw is wonderful for general purpose.
I’ve cut up a metal swing, flat screen television, furniture and more with these saws. There is not one safe thing in the house that will not fit in a our large trash can!

Around our house we always remember trash day is Tuesday, making sure to top the can off for the trash man. As our service will only take one large can, I keep a spare to fill up when I get a wild hair to cut-up stuff. Then transfer that to the normal can for the next week.  Works for me.
Found a few things around the house that don’t make it to the trash can without a second usage. The bottom of a plastic cat litter container or a coffee container make great paint pails.

We don’t have our truck yet so hauling loads to the dump is impossible. Once we have the truck there will be a couple larger items such as couches, which are junk now, to haul to the local large trash dump off site. Lucky for us the city runs a large item waste drop off point located a mile from home. They charge by the piece or truck load. Till then – I’m cutting it up for the trash man!

Karen and I just got back from a 2,300 mile trip from Missouri to Tennessee to Michigan and back. Visited family,  new full time RVers and a RV dealership. So lots to report on later.

You and I

As I begin writing, I’m having trouble coming up with a title for this blog post. So I’ll just wait until it’s written and see what falls out.

We all have so much in common this I know.  I’ve been spending time watching YouTube video and reading blogs in search of content where the author is at the same junction in life – one year from a major change. I’m sure you can relate. It’s fun to have already passed the earlier stages of planning where one learns basic things such as STOP BUYING STUFF you cannot later sell or take in an RV.  Or there is no perfect RV or floor plan or truck or whatever.  Most of our choices are just that – our choices.  Some of us have to over-think it all and prove it to ourselves.

You, Me & the RV is a YouTube channel of some newbies.  I’m thinking it is going to be a good one if you want to check it out. I’m trying to learn from folks like them so I know what to anticipate and try to avoid or duplicate.

Karen and especially me started planning September of 2014 for an anticipated take off date in 2023.  No surprise that date moved up to 2019. Everyone told me it would.  I’ve been using a series of critical dates to help me get past wanting to leave now.  Most of those dates had to do with savings, paying off debt and such. Here is a good one.. I turned 55 years old on August 13th. Another critical date because I decided in my early 30’s that 55 would be the dream age where I’d do whatever I wanted in life. Rather than following a typical trajectory of work till 65, retire, have a few years of health to fix my house and have the best yard in the neighborhood, travel a week or so at a time uncomfortably, move into assisted care and then a six foot by thirty inch condo in the ground. No thank you…  I’ve got a couple more critical dates in mind that will help get me to the finish line. Next spring is going to be a wonderful time around this household.

Not to get off topic, but do any of you other bloggers have a problem with the “I” word or is that just me?  This person (I) am always trying to find a way to replace the letter because it seems self serving, braggadocios and self centered.  After more thought, so what..  It often is the perfect letter for the job so bear with me now and forever when I use it.

A couple emotions have come up in the past few weeks I’d like to share. Not sure why but seems like the right thing to do. You full time RVer’s have been through them and I’m figuring at the same point in the plan I’m in.  First is a little bit of anxiety that I can feel in my chest if I give it much thought. This anxiety is not related to the process but anxiousness to get it all done. I’m so glad we started years ago. Second, I know there are some critical dates that are approaching where this is about to get real. Such as putting the house on the market.

I went to the doctor some time ago for a checkup. I call it my “fit to retire” checkup. Just making sure all systems are a go before I loose paid sick leave and better health insurance.  So far so good. Although I’ve got the final check-up planned for this coming Wednesday which is a cardiac stress test.  Been through it before so no big deal.  Doctor says my symptoms are stress related but just wants to make sure.  I’m sure the discomfort will go away once I’m off the job and on to something real.  Better get the test anyway says the doctor. If I start thinking about all there is to be done and all the crap at work the feelings become uncomfortable so I try to occupy my mind elsewhere. Update on the chest discomfort: Dr. had me get a CT scan called at calcium scan. Cheap at only $60. The scan also checks for masses in the area as well as clogs. 100% zero issues there.  Talked to a guy at work about it and he reminded me I stopped chewing tobacco last April. He had the same issues when he stopped. Go figure he’d know more than the Dr. on this one, but worth the tests anyway. I went to Walmart and bought some 2 mg nicotine gum for the very stressful times. It worked to a large degree and now I focus on recognizing the stress coming on and finding a better way to cope with it rather than focusing on my concern there is something medically wrong.

Okay so I’ll get past the anxiety of the present, this I know. It’s all mental and there are critical dates in the future that will come and go along with the stress of them. But what about the unknown and for the first time shifting to a more carefree and unscripted lifestyle? With the first really big step being placing our home on the market early next year. We have that to look forward to as well as the “what the heck have we done” once it sells.  I know there is and will be a phycological component to all of this. Each of us is able to handle it a little differently but with similar results. I know my ability to cope with it is based on past experience, the current environment and mental health. We just seem to get past it after a few very stressful emotions.

I continue to enjoy the blogs I started reading years ago. Many of you are in your fourth year on the road and have put miles upon miles on their rigs. I even continue to follow blogs where you have come off the road and are living in your exit plan.  Some bloggers have just disappeared. I assume they were having to much fun and are in a Mexican prison.

Human nature really is predictable isn’t it?  Karen and I have met a few of you personally and it takes all of about five minutes to get comfortable enough to talk about anything. Some we have met more than once and consider our new friends for the foreseeable future. Hope you are seeing some similarities in my emotions at this stage in the process as it was for you.  I also hope you are thinking to yourself about what Karen and I have coming in the process in terms of emotion. Because if we are thinking alike then I know this is all part of it and it shall pass.

I was planning to write about more downsizing stuff. We can actually hear echoes in some of the rooms in our house as stuff disappears. But I now have a title for this blog in mind so I’ll just end it.

Weekend of Downsizing and Painting

Today was our family reunion which is held annually in Southern Missouri. I decided to stay home this year. Weekends are valuable commodities around here. Especially with just about a year left before we move on to the great RV adventure. Spent the time downsizing and painting.

Selling the motorcycle is among four things I’d like to get done before purchasing our dually truck.  Selling the hot tub happened a few weeks ago. Yesterday the motorcycle left the driveway and I was not riding it!   SOLD…

This was one of many bikes I’ve owned. Had one since I was 18 years old. This latest bike was a big 1500cc which Karen and I much enjoyed riding through the scenic hills that surround our home. Sold it to a friend of a friend. I’ve actually had good luck selling stuff to co-workers and their friends. They all know we are leaving next year.  Sold a freezer to a co-worker’s daughter. She thanked us for the great deal, how clean the freezer was and the fact she had a young family and can now shop for bulk foods.  Win – Win deal for sure.

I should add an update regarding the truck I found in Springfield Missouri. It sold before I had a chance to make a move on it.  Was not meant to happen I’m sure. A part of me really wants to stick to a schedule leading to the purchase. However, after a lot, and I mean a lot, of shopping around I can say it’s fairly difficult to find a decent used truck equipped the way you want for hauling heavy loads. If I had to do it all over again, I’d figure out a way to be in a better position financially to buy a truck when I find it. We are debt free as of last January and I really don’t want to change that with a truck loan.  Meanwhile, our truck fund is growing so that’s a good thing.

I’ve been surfing the web for new blogs to read.  It’s an easy search in that for the most part I just hop over to blogs I follow and look at their list of other blogs they happened to follow. Especially from the list of bloggers who happened to be over-planners like myself. Here is a list of blogs I follow in case you are looking for a few to read.  I have several more bookmarked and check in on them every couple months.

At this point in planning what works good for me is to take a look at a blogger’s lists of past postings, selecting one that is written in the same time period we are at right now. For example, as we are into heavy downsizing and selling stuff off, I tend to be attracted to those pages. Finding all kinds of tricks and hints others are using. A blogger mentioned using Freecycle.org to get rid of personal belongings. Although the program is international, our local group does not appear to be very large. Check it out for your area. Basically, Freecycle is a not-for-profit created years ago to reduce the amount of materials going to landfills. Everything listed is free for the taking or giving. Another lead I got off a blog was Bagster.com. Here you buy very large bags and a boom truck comes around to haul them off.  Might be cheaper than a dumpster. Personally, I may just borrow a dump trailer from a friend once we have our truck for a trip to the local landfill. Already did the dumpster thing back in June when at the time we had plenty to fill it.  Dumpster are so convenient.

As I wrote earlier, we skipped the family reunion this year and spent time painting on the outside of the house. Believe I’ll never use a paint brand again other than Sherwin-Williams. It may sound funny but I had it down as a goal to paint one side of the house each year for the past four years. I’m behind schedule. Thankfully we are painting everything the same color and using a high quality paint so one coat coverage may be the time saver we are needing.  Karen read where if you paint something blue it will cut down on the number of bugs that cling to a surface. It works.. She painted the ceiling of our porch as an experiment a few years ago. 

I repainted the blue ceiling with the local Ace Hardware paint she had originally used. Took about 25% more effort compared to the better Sherwin-Williams paint I’ve been using on the remainder of the house. You can’t see the blue ceiling from the street or sidewalk for that matter. So it does not stand out unless you are underneath it. Then it’s rather attractive.

I’ve sold three houses I’ve lived in. I painted all three.  A brush and roller are the main tools in my opinion after trying all the gadgets.  I really like the How to Paint a House Videos for tutorials. And here is a video on cleaning a roller and paint brush. This guy has it right. I personally don’t use a wire brush to clean a paint brush unless it has a lot of dry paint on it and then I also apply paint thinner. If you trust your method to clean a brush and roller completely then it’s not so hard to swallow the price of a decent roller and brush.

We are hiring a contractor to paint a taller side of the house because I don’t have the proper ladders for that. And now that I’m old I don’t bounce very well when falling off ladders.

We have one other blue ceiling in our home. I know it can be risky to “experiment” with colors in a home when you are looking to sell. We certainly have appreciated the differences while living here.  We added the sunroom maybe 10 years ago. The ceiling is vaulted so you don’t see it until you are in the room.

Approach from Kitchen to Sun Room

Blue Ceiling in Sun Room

It’s a little difficult to see in these photos. From our kitchen you walk into the sunroom through a cased opening seen in the left photo. The photo on the right is the blue ceiling. This is actually a relatively expensive option for paint. Because it’s applied by the drywaller. First you paint the ceiling a flat color. Blue in this case, although a pale yellow is beautiful as well. Then the drywaller adds white paint with his ceiling texture before spraying it on the ceiling. Really gives the room an open and airy feeling.

Karen enjoys this room on a daily basis. When we starting using our third bedroom/office for a staging area to sort junk, she moved her desk into the sunroom. Now she gets to look across the back yard towards the treed hillside. Next year we both should have views like that – out our future RV windows.

Karen’s view from her desk – Nice

Karen says our cousin Kathy posted photos of the family reunion. Believe I’ll head over to Facebook to check them out.

Garage Sale Success

Well, we finished up our two day garage sale and deemed it a success. Both financially and just getting rid of stuff.  We had purchased a package with 1000 stickers that had prices stamped on them. I’d say based on the number of stickers remaining we sold off at least 400 items of various sizes. Thought I’d share a few observations about the sale.

We actually found it less of a challenge to decide what would go in the sale than we thought it would be. Especially on the emotional side of giving up stuff. That may have been made easier because it’s not our final sale and we have come to an agreement a 5×10 storage unit could later house, at least for a while, items we are not willing to part with or are not sure if we will need it on the road. Boy did I have a few questions to ask others about what we should keep for the road. Fortunately, an opportunity came up where I had to travel to Joplin Missouri for work. Our good friends and full time RV’ers Cheri and Dean were parked in their home town. Cheri writes the Travels with Bentley Blog. I took a detour on the way home to pay them a visit. Not just to ask questions but to see how they were doing. They kept a larger storage unit after selling their house. I ran a list of items past Dean, asking if we should keep them for the road. The couple are doing good and preparing for their trip north to see family and more.

I’ll just bullet point a few comments about the sale:

• We advertised on Craigslist, Facebook and the local paper. Taking into account the households within a 10 mile radius of us, I’m thinking the advertising could have reached up to 35,000 homes.  We are also fortunate to live on a corner lot with a major street so a well placed sign pointed folks to our home.  We had plenty of customers. Surprisingly this also turned out to be a great way to meet neighbors we had never spoken with in the past. We also received cards in the mail from local realtors asking to be interviewed or considered as an agent once we get ready to sell the house. One of our adds mentioned we would be selling the house next year.  That add also had an unanticipated effect at work! Several fellow employees apparently read the add and asked others what was up, was I leaving now. Not a big deal for me but something you might want to think about should you advertise for your own sale someday.

 

Items Group by Product Type

Tarps Used to Screen Stuff Not for Sale

• Items over $60 in price did not sell well. People were looking for deals. I’ll not go into the details of how to setup garage sale displays as I’m sure you can find that advice online. We moved all the leftover large items to one side of the garage and will post them individually on Craigslist.  That got me to wondering if it would have been a good idea to have posted them for sale on Craigslist or Facebook, individually, prior to the sale. Then just use the sale date to have people show up to buy. The lack of selling more expensive items has us worried how we should plan our final sale, when way more expensive or larger items are to be sold off. I’ll talk about that in a few moments.
• A good way to look up what you might want to price something at is not to use a laptop for searching. Use you phone’s voice to text feature and just ask “eBay or Home Depo (fill in the blank)”. The Google search should pull up what others are selling the same item for and if they had any bids on the item. We priced most everything below the online price because we wanted to get rid of it.
• We essentially have a three car garage with two overhead doors. We moved everything that was not for sale behind an area draped with tarps hanging from a soffit. We moved all our shelving from inside the house to the garage to setup displays. The shelving will be sold in the next sale. I sent a text to a neighbor to see if he had any tables we could use. He volunteered to get four 10′ tables from his church where only a small deposit was needed to insure the tables came back in good shape. Steve even hauled them to and from the church for us. Karen and I plan to take Steve and his wife to dinner as a way of saying thank you. He also has a power washer I can clean our concrete with – score!

Cleaning Station

• By far the most time consuming part was cleaning everything. We setup a washing station outside and a bucket with stool in the garage.  I used Windex and a rag for a few final touches. I also bought a can of black spray paint for a couple lawn mower attachments that had been in one of our two storage sheds.
• We planned for the sale to begin at 8:00 am but opened the doors earlier. Friday was full of what I’d call professional garage sale shoppers. I asked a couple if our prices seemed reasonable based on their experience. The answer was yes and they were impressed how we organized everything.
• Here’s a big reason the sale was so successful – we started Saturday morning by posting signs that everything was 50% off the labeled price. We had watched people looking over items on Friday that had not sold. We also wanted to give the people who were at work on Friday a chance at finding a few bargains. As expected, more than once I heard someone on Saturday say something similar to; “well I don’t need this but for the price I’d better buy it.”  After all, the goal was to get rid of stuff!

Sell a Box Full of Stuff

Storage of Leftovers

• We decided not to make any donations to charities who resale goods – yet.
• We pushed our shelving together and put a tarp over the leftovers for the next sale. There are a few other leftovers stored in boxes in our basement as well. Lot of totes were freed up to go in our future fifth wheel basement later!
• A good trick to get ride of stuff that might not sell individually is to throw it in a box with other stuff. Charge a single price for the entire box.  Good thing we saved up a few boxes for that. During setup I had several boxes pre-marked for sorting. Those boxes were labeled HVAC and Plumbing,  Electrical, Nuts and Bolt, Electronics.  I made sure to have at least one good item in plain view in the box to encourage someone to buy the entire box just to get the good item.
• Another special category worth mentioning is books.  We priced hard covers at $2 and soft covers at .50 cents regardless of actual value.  Karen loves her books and said they are hard to let go of. We arranged them by subject, sometimes stacked on the top shelf. We found people would buy most of the same group of books by subject. We have thought about donating some to local RV parks where we know they have books in their library for campers to enjoy or trade other books for.

A few final points:

I was worried we might sell something that was a gift from a family member. That stayed on my mind because I don’t want to be ungrateful. One suggestion I’d heard was if this is an issue then call the family member and let them know you enjoyed the gift but now our lifestyle had changed. Offer to give them the gift back or see if they would be offended if we sold it.  That might come up in our final sale.

I should not have put any money into fixing anything up. I should have just sold it as is. Specifically, I’m thinking adding new parts to an old BBQ grill would not have been required to sell it. People who know a good grill when they see it already are aware they can order the replacement parts and could have looked up the price for those parts. I made $10 on a great grill that would have sold for maybe $50 as is.

I want to thank my sister Donna, who lives hours away from us, for sending her friends to the sale via Facebook Messenger.  And Mary, thank you so much for the offer to help setup the sale. We had it under control or would for sure have needed the help. There is a chance we will take you up on the offer at our next sale.

And speaking of our next sale. A dilemma has developed. Do we host a larger “garage sale” or hire/hold an estate sale?  Knowing now that more expensive items do not sell, in our area at least, at a typical garage sale? Also knowing an estate sale requires more extensive and experienced setup? I’m worried if we hold another “garage sale” too much will be sold off and an estate sale business would not be interested in setting up an estate sale should we want to later hire them? And I’m worried if we held an estate sale we might have to allow people in our house after spending the winter fixing up the inside for the pending home sale?

One final step or idea that’s worth mentioning. Some time ago Karen moved her cooking utensils into lower kitchen drawers. As she used them she would move them to drawers above. After awhile, the utensils that still remained in the lower drawers became obvious ones to get rid of. Smart…..   Bet the process would work equally as well for clothes.

Downsizing – Garage Sale Preparation

Just finished up a couple 60 hours weeks at work. Karen has been busy working on garage sale preparation back at home. Thankfully I’ve got two vacation days planned for the end of this week. Just in time to finish the setup for our first large garage sale.

Perhaps the best advice I would give to anyone who is in the initial planning stages to move into an RV is to STOP BUYING STUFF NOW!  And the second advice I would give is hold a garage sale now, clean out some corners of the house. It will boost your morale and perhaps solidify the fact “this is really going to happen, we are really going to take the leap to a great journey.”  Karen and I are touching about everything we own, asking ourselves, do we need this in the next year? Do we think we might use it in an RV or give it away to a family member? Are we not sure and have to think about if we need/want it?  And is this something worth putting in a 5×10 storage unit we plan to rent?

Every Room is a Mess from Sorting

Sorry, not sure we can have any guests at the house for the next year. Most every room has a pile of stuff in it. We have been busy sorting and filling the trash receptacle each week. Thank goodness neither of us are particularly clean freaks. This would drive us crazy if that was the case. 

Sent a text to the neighbor to see if he had any tables we could use for the garage sale. His church loans them out for a small deposit. He even volunteered to take his trailer and pick the tables up with me.  Damn glad Steve moved in across the street.  Wonderful guy and hope to be able to return the favor. 

We cleared out some of the bookcases in the house and are moving those to the garage sale area to setup displays. I’ve been shopping around for camping tables we would want to take on the road. Buying at least one early so we can use that in the garage sale as well. Leaning towards a 5′ table that folds in the middle. Should be easy to store in the fifth wheel basement.

As for non-garage sale events there has been a little progress in planning. We are still trying to buy our truck by September. Darn, found the perfect one, used with 4,000 miles, about three hours from home. Just not ready to buy yet. So, I sent the owner an email and told him don’t worry if he does not sell it by September, I’d come over and give him an offer.  It’s a 2017 Ram Laramie Longhorn with a B&W hitch, nice bed cover, 3.73 gears, Aisin transmission and air bags. Well within our budget. Karen says to buy it now. I still have three goals to accomplish before the truck and I’m sticking to it.

Friends I’ve met online, some moving to an RV this year and others in 2019, have been communicating with us regularly. Thank you to all who are sending the emails and text message. Really learning a lot from you!

And finally; I sent in the paperwork for my first retirement check. This is from a corporate job I held years ago. First check should arrive in September:)  Also figured out technically I only have to be at work 71 days next year. Karen and I have not formally moved up the retirement date from November of 2019. However, we sure are looking at what month would be more practical which is not the first part of winter as planned. Maybe we will head north from Missouri, where the RV prices are better, as early as April of 2019 and see what happens if we find our new home on wheels.

I was looking at Craigslist to see how people were posting garage sale adds and found this one.  Funny stuff.