We have finally returned to our domicile after an extended roadtrip from nearly coast to coast twice. What a blast! We definitely had some amazing experiences as well as several epiphanies about ourselves, our families and our lifestyles. Suffice is to say, we are becoming experienced RVer’s in the truest sense of the word. From slide outs that didn’t function, to golf ball sized hail, to drivers around us qualifying for NASCAR. But through it all, we would change it for the world!
The week has flown by with recuperating, relaxing and reorganizing. The weather too, has been a factor in our return to the southern border. Each day has been limited with activities simply because of the heat advisories. The temps with the humidity have been well into the 110 to 120 degrees, which makes outdoor activities almost impossible if you’re not finished by 10 am. The girls are getting accustomed to their home again, and enjoy their ‘walks’ or dare I say rides, in the golf cart to the dog park.
The storage shed is looking less empty as we unload the RV. Still have a couple of compartments to square away, but basically we are putting down the roots to stay for the long haul. Spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning the screen room and we’ve added another two fans to keep it bearable in the oppressive heat. The room kinda looks like when we went to the drive-in movies and parked so you could put 4 speakers in the car, with a fan on each corner. Reminds me of quadrophonic sound, only with fans. Ah, the drive-in,…but that’s a tangent we’ll go down at another time.
A huge shout out to Robert and Christie Stillwell, as when we arrived, they had a big welcome home sign to greet us. We then enjoyed a trip to the pool to combat the heat and caught up with all that’s happened as well as understanding Robert’s condition. By the way, he’s doing great and although struggles with fatigue, looks basically none the worse for wear. So glad he’s doing well as he is definitely one of the good ones! Christie is her usual ray of sunshine, which always brings joy to our hearts. Also made connections with Dan and Becky and heaped lavish praise on Dan for fixing and setting our AC which worked exceedingly well on the entire trip. Also got together with Randy and Barb and of course the ginormous white beast Wally. Kent, our next-door neighbor also chatted us up and we saw Ellen our RE agent and neighbor as well. So good to have a base of friends and familiar faces after such a long journey.
We did take the plunge on Wednesday. After a huge spreadsheet, hours of crunching numbers, and researching it to death, we both went online and applied for our Social Security retirement benefits. We discovered that by taking it now, we would not begin to lose benefits until well into our 80’s. Hope to make it that far!!! Also, we’ve begun looking at another car to replace the Escape. with over 210k miles on it, it’s time to let it go and get a car with a few of these newfangled gadgets that supposedly makes driving easier. Just didn’t realize how expensive cars have become. Goodness sakes, the new ones cost more than our first house! Looking for either a Ford Bronco or a Chevy Blazer or Equinox. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Today, Friday, we have grocery shopping to look forward to as well as continuing to settle in for the long haul. I have a doctor’s appointment with the orthopedic surgeon next week and in two weeks I start my stint of federal jury duty. Vicki is going to be leaving the 4th of September to go visit her father for a week and give Elisabeth and Justin a much-needed vacation from elder care. I’ll be left unsupervised for week so we’ll see what kind of mischief and mayhem I can create. Other than that, not much more exciting to report. So I’ll close for now and state the obvious, still loving retirement!
My deepest apologies for not getting this posted yesterday, it seems the day just slipped by and I was distracted by shiny things. That being said, we’ve basically finished emptying the rig and now comes the task of organizing it in the storage shed. It is still too f****** hot to work outside past 10 am so that really puts a damper on things. Walking the dogs in the morning has become a challenge as in one of the dog’s favorite areas, a skunk has taken up residence. We give each other wide berths as we don’t have a huge amount of tomato juice to counteract any spray we may contact. So we have to rethink the morning cart ride and walk. Met with our good friends Kat and Jim on the south forty and chatted until well after dark. We learned about some possible VA benefits so that will be a task for next week. Maybe we’ll get insurance from the VA. How cool would that be? We took a fan to Robert and Christie as their AC went on the fritz, but super Dan can over, adjusted wires, and they were back in business. It’s so nice having someone around who knows WTF they’re doing. I want to get this published so will simply say: still loving retirement.
