Packing Up

As mentioned in a previous post, step one of our master plan, selling Bragg Manor, was not going well. It's still not. So we decided to try step 1b, renting Bragg Manor. We figured that renting was better than letting it sit empty.

We found a very nice family that had just moved from Arizona to rent the house. The only catch was they had to be in the house by Sept 1, which gave us about a week and a half to pack up our stuff and get out. After 11 years in one place, you tend to accumulate a lot of stuff.

Since any stuff we take with us will sit in storage for at least a year, we decided we had to get rid of as much stuff as possible. We sold a lot of stuff to neighbors the first weekend, then sold and gave away a lot of stuff in a garage sale the next weekend.

It's depressing to find out how little your stuff is actually worth. One item, however, was quite popular: the kegerator. I think I could have sold it for more than I paid for it new, which says a lot about our neighborhood.  (Mickey: Which is why we loved our neighborhood so much and will miss everyone dearly.)

All we had left were the bare essentials, which filled a 26 foot moving van. Packing is a lot of work. There is no way we could have packed everything on time by ourselves. We had a lot of enthusiastic help from friends (thanks Karen, Trish, and MaryBeth). In retrospect, they may have been a little too enthusiastic.

On Sunday night our neighbors threw us a surprise going away party. It is humbling to realize how many terrific friends we have made during our stay in Pennsylvania. We will miss them during our travels, but we will be back some day. (Mickey: Spring of 2011 for sure.)  Here are some pics of the party (Courtesy of Trish).

Blue Knob State Park

Two weekends ago we went on our first official camping trip to Blue Knob State Park, about half-way between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. We thought it would be a good way to work out any kinks in the new RV. We chose Blue Knob because it was the only park that had camp sites available on short notice. We also chose it because we were going to drop the RV off at the dealer in Harrisburg on the way home to get a new satellite dish installed and fix any kinks we found.

By the way, my definition of kink is anything that doesn't work or we are too dumb to figure out.

We arrived on Saturday a bit later than planned because none of the RV chargers for the GPS worked (kink #1). We set up camp fixed dinner and found kink #2, the kitchen faucet was on strike. Fortunately, the bathroom sink and shower had plenty of water. Unfortunately, none of it was hot. Fortunately, those were all of the major kinks we found.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast and were ready to do some camping activities. Blue Knob is popular because of its ski resort. Apparently, the ski resort is closed on weekends so the only activity remaining is walking. Or as us outdoors types like to call it, hiking.

So, map in hand, we set off on our first hike. We quickly learned our first lesson about hiking.

Always check the weather report first.

Thirty minutes into the hike we were dodging lightning bolts and swimming up streams that used to be walking paths.

Editor's note: The previous photo is NOT a shot of Mick competing in the wet t-shirt contest at the local tavern the night before. She made me promise not to say anything about that so I'm not.

Back at the RV, we dried off, waited for the flood waters to recede, and we were ready for hike number 2. This hike was much less eventful. Here's me sitting on a rock.

And here's one of me doing some actual hiking.

I think I picked up some radioactive material from the rock.

After a couple of hours of hiking we returned to the RV and collapsed for the night. Monday packed up and headed back to Harrisburg to drop off the RV at the dealer. They will spend the next couple of weeks working out the kinks.

Our next trip will be the big one: back to Texas at the end of August. We have to be in Lubbock for a Texas Tech football game (and our first real tailgating experience) on Sept 5.

Until then, I'll leave you with what is either a nice shot we took of Blue Knob or a screen saver image I found on my hard drive.

First Trip

Saturday we drove to Reading to visit our friends Sam and Courtney. Courtney was throwing a party to celebrate Sam's 40th birthday. We decided to take the RV because it would give us an excuse to spend the night in it.

On the way up we stopped to refuel for the first time. Eighty gallons of diesel and $240 later I was ready to return the RV. Unfortunately, we have lost the receipt to the RV.

The party was a lot of fun with plenty of food, beer, and drinking games by people old enough to know better. Here's a shot of Mick with Sam and Courtney. Nice t-shirt, Courtney!

We slept soundly in the RV our first night, which I attribute to the comfy mattress and not the gallon of beer we each drank.

The next morning we ate breakfast with Sam and Courtney and went for a walk. Then we headed for home with Mick behind the wheel for the first time. Notice the death-grip on the steering wheel.

Other than one really close encounter with a mail box, she did a great job getting us home.

The Journey Begins

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

-Lao-tzu

Welcome to Dennis and Mickey's RV blog. For the next year or so we are going to drive around the U.S. in a motor home, also known as an RV. That is, if one of us doesn't kill the other first.

Some background. I write computer software. I have recently taken a job that allows me to work from anywhere as long as I have an internet connection.

Mickey, my wife, is a retired legal assistant. We call Texas home, but we have been living in Downingtown, PA for the past 13 years. We have two sons: Derek, age 24, and Ryan, age 21.

Inspired by this blog, we began kicking around the idea of selling the house and living in an RV. We have always talked about buying an RV when we retired, but the change of jobs as allows us to accelerate the schedule.

The plan:

1. Sell the house.
2. Buy the RV.
3. Start driving.

Since step one was not progressing as well as hoped (something to do with the economy), we decided to skip it and go straight to step 2. Last month we bought a 38 foot 2010 Four Winds Monticito. Today we picked it up. Here it is in the dealer's lot.

That's me next to it saying "What the hell were we thinking?"

An hour long walk through, a test drive around the block, and 432 signatures later we were pulling out of the dealership in our brand new RV. I should mention that when the day started neither of us had ever driven an RV before.

Now one of us has (me). Somehow we made the hour and a half trip back home without any major incidents. I think we ran over a small cow but the RV is so big we hardly felt a thing so I can't be sure.

Here's the RV parked in the driveway.

The home owners association's really going to love us now!