Forecast = Partly cloudy with a chance of rain. High of 79F. Winds from the SE at 5 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 20%.
Jim called Nancy about 10:00 yesterday morning and asked if she had been able to contact Emily. She said that she had not because Emily was gone for the weekend, but would contact her and get back to him right after lunch.
About 12:30 Nancy called back and said that she had talked to Emily and had the answers to some of the questions that Jim and Linda had about the house. So, around 1:00 Jim and Linda took CLT and headed over there.
After talking to Nancy for a little while and telling Nancy that they felt the price of the home was still too high, they all headed over to the house to check out the items that Jim and Linda wanted to see again. While Jim and Linda were checking things out, Nancy talked to Emily and was able to get the price reduced more.
Oh, this time, Jim took his camera along and took a bunch of photos of the house. The photo below is the first one I've seen and is of the front of the house, taken from across the street.
It looks pretty nice to me and CLT said that he felt nice and comfortable in the carport. : )
Don't forget, you can click on the photo to enlarge if if you want.
After their inspection and talking to Emily for awhile, Jim, Linda and Nancy headed back to the office. After talking to Nancy for awhile and asking even more questions, Jim and Linda told Nancy they they would accept the new price and buy the home.
So, , , , unless something very unforeseen happens, around the 1st of February, Jim and Linda will be the proud owners of a 44 foot long, 48 foot wide, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, double wide manufactured home!!!!
Now, I know many of you have a lot of questions. I'll try to cover most of them in future posts. One of the main questions that I've been asked already is, "Are Jim and Linda going to hang up the keys?"
The short answer to that question is "NO"!!!! In fact they still have plans to head up to VA and NC to see the boys this spring, Spend a good part of the summer in Rantoul, IL and go to the Family Reunion in WI in July. Then the plan is to stay at Rantoul until sometime in September, before heading East and then South for the winter.
Just like they normally would.
They plan is to stay in the home while they are in Florida for the winter but still travel during the summer months when it's very hot in Florida.
Jim says that there's still things he and Linda want to see and do!! ; )
A Point to Ponder : Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
Forecast = Partly cloudy. High of 72F. Winds from the West at 10 to 15 mph shifting to the North in the afternoon.
I know that some of you reading this blog are full-timers like Jim and Linda are. Some of you want to go full-timing in the future and are working your way towards that dream. Others are thinking about the lifestyle and a few of you would never think about giving most of your possessions away, selling your house and moving into an RV.
So, what possesses people to get rid of almost everything that they've worked so hard to accumulate throughout their lives, move into a little box on wheels, say good-bye to family and friends that they've had for years and go full-timing?
I'm sure the answer is different for everyone, but here's a few of the reasons.
Some people are wanderers and just can't stay in one place for any length of time. It's easy to understand why they would want to go full-timing. Others are just plain fed up with the "rat race" they've been living and have decided that there just has to be a better way to live. Some have children who have grown up and moved to different parts of the country so the full-timing lifestyle is a good way to travel to different locations to see them. And, I think some people have always wanted to travel and see the country and have decided that full-timing would be a good way to do it. There are also a few that are trying to run away from problems that they are having while living in a stix and brix house.
Now, "on the other side of the coin", , , , Why don't some people feel that they can or want to full-time?
Well, here again, there are are all kinds of reasons but a couple of the reasons I hear the most is "I don't want to be away from my family", or "I couldn't possibly get rid of all of my "stuff" and move into an RV."
Some folks say they would "love" to go full-timing but come up with all kinds of reasons why they can't. They feel that they don't have enough money, they don't want to be "homeless", they can't because of health reasons, or they say that they're afraid to make such a big change in their lives.
Of course there are many more reasons on "both sides of the coin" but these seem to be the main ones.
So, where am I going with this?
Well, being that this post is getting pretty long already, you'll just have to wait for my next post to find out!!! : )
I promise that I won't keep you in suspense too long. ; )
A Point to Ponder : The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.
Forecast = Overcast with thunderstorms and a chance of rain. High of 72F. Winds from the SSW at 5 to 10 mph shifting to the West in the afternoon. Chance of rain 50% with rainfall amounts near 0.2 in. possible.
The other day when Jim was servicing my batteries, a lady that was walking by on the street, turned up the sidewalk into my site and introduced herself as Debby. She told Jim that she and her husband Russ were camping here at this park, down in the area where I was last year. She said that they were selling their house and are now living in their Class "B" motor home. They have a new MH on order, but they won't be getting it until later in October.
The reason she had stopped by, was that they had noticed my South Dakota plates and were wondering if we were full-timers. You see, they are just getting started with this full-timing thing and were looking for someone to talk to who had some experience with mail forwarding services and transferring residency to a different state.
Jim said that he and Linda would be glad to share information and suggested that they get together and talk sometime later in the week.
Well, yesterday morning, Jim walked down to their site and asked Debby and Russ if they'd like to come over to my site to talk?
I a little while, they came over and after getting the "tour" of the inside of me, everyone sat down and talked and talked. : ) They had some very good questions that Jim and Linda tried to answer and both Jim and Linda had some suggestions about how they should go about doing certain things to get set up for the full-timing lifestyle.
Of course as most full-timers know, there's really no right or wrong way to go about all of this, so they have some decisions to make, based on how they want/need to do things.
They're a great couple and it seems like they have the right attitude for full-timing. They've been living in their class "B" since spring, so when they get that new, much larger MH in October, they should be much more comfortable and be able to get some of their "stuff" out of storage to take with them.
They were here for a couple hours and before they left, both Jim and Linda told them to be sure and come back and ask more questions if they needed to. They also exchanged e-mail addresses so hopefully they'll be able to stay in contact.
Oh, and Debby and Russ are planning on spending much of the winter down in Florida, so maybe we can even get together with them down there!!! : )
I'd really like to meet their new Motorhome!!
Not much else happened around here the rest of the day. Jim took a nap in the afternoon, then he cooked a couple burgers on the grill for dinner while Linda got all the other food ready inside of me. Linda is still working on her Family Tree stuff, trying to get as much information off of the Internet as possible while she has the free wi-fi here at the park, then they both watched TV in the evening before going to bed after the news.
So, it was another great day!!! : ) I really enjoyed meeting Debby and Russ and I know that Jim and Linda did too. Hopefully we'll get to see them again real soon, and many more times down the road. ; )
A Point to Ponder : A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
The last 9 days, I haven't had Internet, Jim and Linda didn't have phone or TV. I've been operating off of 30 amp electric with temperatures running right around 90 degrees, so I've only been able to use 1 phase of my AC to try to keep it cool inside of me.
Luckily, Jim and Linda have been spending most of the days at the house were the reunion is being held and haven't been here at the CG too much.
I've tried to keep track of everything that happened during that time, so I'm going to try to get you caught up on what's been going on.
I'm now at the Rustic Barn RV Park in Kieler, WI., for 1 night only, and will try to get as much posted from here as possible, but I have a weak signal, so I don't think I'll be able to post any photos. : (
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We left the Borderline RV Park near Land O Lakes right at Saturday morning, (the 14th of July), and continued South on US 45. When we got down to EagleRiver, we turned off of45 onto WI 17 and followed it down to Rhinelander.
Everything was going fine until that point, and then things got real interesting real fast!!!!
WI 17 kind of by-passes the city to the east, and there is a section of 4 lane divided road for a couple of miles before you get to US 8.Well, it was on this section, at one of the crossroads, a car pulled right out in front of me and then stopped!!!! Jim slammed on my brakes, blew my air horn and got me stopped, about 3 feet from the car’s driver door!!!!: O
Whew!!!!!!!
The driver of the car then took off down the road, and we followed at a safe distance. Once we turned West onto US 8, (a 2 lane road), the driver of the car that had pulled out in front of me, decided to pass the row of cars in front of him. The only problem was that there were cars coming from the opposite direction!!!! The car swerved back into the right lane just in time to prevent a head-on collision with on-coming traffic, and then pulled off on the shoulder of the road and stopped.
We pretty much stopped on the road too because Jim had no idea of what the driver was going to do next!!! Well, as we slowly crept by, both the driver and passenger doors of the car opened and 2 people got out.
It looked like they were changing drivers.
We don’t know what the problem was, but the elderly man driving the car must have had something wrong with him. The car wasn't swerving around as it traveled down the road while we were following it, but there definitely were some bad decisions made.
Hopefully they made it home safely.
US 8 took us over to Tomahawk where we turned South on US 51/ I-39 and followed it all the way down to Colona, WI., where we turned off on WI 21.
At that intersection, Jim pulled me into a truck stop and bought me a nice drink of that good old #2 diesel fuel, which was about 10 cents a gallon cheaper than in Michigan. : )
Once I had my drink, we followed 21 West to the little town of Necedah, where we turned SW on WI. 80.80 then brought us down here to the Lil’ Yellow River Campground near New Lisbon.
It was 1:25 when we pulled up to the office so it took us 3 hours and 55 minutes to travel exactly 200 miles, dodge the driver in Rhinelander and stop for my drink of diesel.
Not too bad, considering.
I don’t have any kind of Internet connection here at the CG. We’ll be here for 9 days and I have no idea when any of this will get posted, but I’ll just keep writing using this word processor. Hopefully Jim will find some way to post it for me.
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07-15-12Lil’ River CG andDay One Of The Reunion
The Lil’ Yellow River CG is an older park. There’s lots of nice big trees for shade, (which is good considering that we had temperatures in the 90’s yesterday), some of the sites are pull-through, and I think most are pretty level.
The drawbacks are that there is only 30 amp electrical service, no sewer hook-ups, no cable TV, no wi-fi and the CG is getting a little run down. There are trees that need to be trimmed, electrical boxes that need to be repaired and the park just spruced up in general.
I really doubt if this owner will ever do any of that though. You see, he lost his wife a little over a year ago, and I just don’t think his heart is in it anymore. : (It’s too bad, with a little up-dating and repair, this could be a very nice park.
Jim and Linda didn't do a whole lot yesterday morning. They got things ready to take over to the reunion, (mostly food and beverages), and then about they headed into town and to the reunion.
For the reunion, Linda’s brother Glenn and her sister Nancy have rented two houses that are next to each other. Both houses are on a small lake, have lots of bedrooms, (for the kids and grand kids), large living areas and full kitchens. There are also large decks on the back of the houses, overlooking the lake.
So far, about ½ of Glenn’s family are here and most of Nancy’s family. Laura, Ashley and Anna are supposed to arrive here from Florida today, and the rest of Glenn and Nancy’s family should be getting here too. So, by this evening, everyone who is going to be able to make it this year should be here. : )
I’m hoping Jim will take some photos of the houses and all the people so I can post them.Ofcourse, there’s still the little problem of getting on the Internet, that hasn't been solved yet. : (
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07-16-12Hail! Hail! The Gang’s Almost All Here!
Yesterday morning, Monday, Jim and Linda loaded up the rest of the food that they were taking for the evening meal into CLT and headed over to the reunion.
About , Laura and the girls called and told Linda that they were still down in Illinois, but were heading up to the reunion and would be there as soon as they could. : )
I didn't get the exact times, but I think it was around when Glenn and Jeanette’s daughter, Mary, and her family arrived. Then around or so, Laura, Ashley and Anna pulled in.
Now, everyone was there except Debbie, (Nancy’s, Son’s, wife), who is still in the Chicago area, because she had to work on Monday. : (But,,,,she should be getting to the reunion today, (Tuesday), and that will make it complete. : )
The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting and then Laura and the girls helped Linda make the BBQ, green beans, frost the cakes and get out all the drinks, chips, paper plates, plastic glasses, and everything else needed for dinner.
After dinner, it was more visiting and playing games until about , when Jim and Linda came back here to the CG for the night.
A very good 2nd day of the reunion!!!! ; )
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07-17/18-12 The Reunion, Days 3 and 4
Most of Tuesday was spent visiting. Debbie did make it to the reunion without any problems. Linda, Laura, Ashley and Anna went down to the Wisconsin Dells for awhile in the afternoon. They went to a book store in downtown Dells and then to a cheese shop in LakeDelton.
It sounds like they had a good time. ; )
Yesterday, (about ),Laura and the Girls had to leave already. : (They had to get back down to the Chicago area in order to catch a flight this morning, back to Florida. They weren’t able to stay very long, but everyone was very happy that they could come.
Then, it was more visiting, but since Mary and her family went to the Dells, and Ed and his family went to Milwaukee, there weren’t near as many people there.
Later in the afternoon, Glenn, Jeanette, Nancy and David went to the Casino down in Baraboo, WI., and Jim and Linda came back here for awhile and took naps. Then, for dinner they all met at a restaurant down in Mauston.
After dinner, they went back to the house where they played games, visited and watched TV, while a fairly strong T-storm passed through the area, just to the South of New Lisbon.
Today, I don’t think anything special is happening. Probably just more visiting and catching up on what’s been happening since the last reunion, a year ago.
Oh, I just rememberedone more thing. Jim called and made an appointment for me at the HWH factory on MoscowIowa to have my right rear leveling jack cylinder looked at next Tuesday.
It’s been leaking a little for quite awhile now, and since we’re going to be passing fairly close to the factory, Jim thought it would be a good idea if we stopped by on our way from here down to Rantoul and have it repaired.
Their labor rates are less than most repair shops, and they should have any parts needed to stop the leak. (Including a new or rebuilt cylinder if necessary).
Forecast = Numerous showers and scattered thunderstorms. Highs 80 to 85. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70 percent.
As soon as Linda got up yesterday morning, she started doing laundry. There was quite a bit to do and being that we won't have a sewer hook-up at our next CG, she wanted to get caught up. She also has been getting some food ready to take to the reunion and has cooked some of it and put it in the freezer to be brought back out, probably Monday or Tuesday.
A little after lunch, a fifth wheel pulled up in the site next to me, and as Jim was outside, said "hi" and talked to the couple about their site for a minute.
At that time, he didn't think they were very friendly, but they were busy getting set up.
Later, Jim was outside again, and the man asked Jim if we were from South Dakota? Jim told him that we were full-timing and used SD as our state of residence.
The man looked at Jim and told him that he and his wife were full-timers also and that Texas and South Dakota were, "No d**n good"!!!
Huh???? Where did that come from????
He went on to say that when he registered his trailer and truck in Texas, the price for the plates was so high that he moved back to Wisconsin for his state of residency.
When Jim asked him about taxes and insurance cost in WI. compared to Texas, the man said that he didn't mind paying taxes, as it helped the state.
Huh??????
Jim sensed that this was going to be a no-win situation, so he just walked away!!
This man did not seem happy at all. He evidently has a problem of some sort, but who knows what the real problem is? I don't know how long this couple have been full-timing, but I can't imagine them being out on the road for too long, as they won't have any friends with an attitude like that!!!
I'm glad we're leaving here this morning. I wouldn't want to spend much time parked next to them.
Later in the afternoon, Jim dumped my tanks and put all the hoses away. Then, he hooked CLT back to to me. They were forecasting possible rain showers for this morning, and he didn't want to have to do a bunch of stuff if it was raining.
I think this next CG that we will be staying at has wi-fi, but I'm not sure. It's also quite a way from any large cities, so I don't know if I'll be able to hook up with the air card either. So, if I don't post for awhile, keep checking, I'll post whenever I can.
Did you know that on this date in 1868 - Alvin J. Fellows patented the tape measure?
Forecast = Mostly cloudy. High of 81F. Breezy. Winds from the WSW at 15 to 20 mph.
Jim and Linda decided that they needed a few groceries and some other items, so about 11:00 they took CLT and headed up to Kennewick, WA. where they found a Walgreen's Drug Store. There, they found the items they needed, plus the few groceries they were wanting, (bread, buns and milk).
It was about 22 miles up there and CLT said that it felt really good to get out on the open road for a change, instead of just running around on city streets. : )
By about 12:30 they were back here and were putting everything that they had bought away. Then it was naps, reading and TV for the rest of the afternoon.
For dinner, Jim got out the grill and cooked a brat for him and a hot dog for Linda. While he was doing that, Linda cooked some asparagus on my stove and got out chips and stuff to go with them.
Today, we'll be heading up to Sprague. From looking at the map, there doesn't seem to be anything anywhere near there, so I'm not sure what to expect as far as Internet, phone, TV or radio. I'm pretty sure that we'll be there at least until next Tuesday, and possibly a whole week.
So, , , , , , if you don't hear from me for awhile, you'll know what's going on.
Did you know that Washington state's capitol building was the last state capitol building to be built with a rotunda?
OH, by the way. As of tomorrow, (June 1st), Jim and Linda will have been full-timing for 11 years!!!!
On 1 June, 2001 they officially moved out of their house and into their 35' Winnebago Chieftain Motor Home, (Mariah). The vehicle that they towed, was a 1992 Nissan pickup truck that Mariah named TTT, (Tiny Tin Truck).
