Moving Days

New and old

We cleaned out the old motorhome; sorted, trashed, stacked, stuffed, stored. It took a full three days, and we still have to find places for many things. Many things that are in places, will need to be repacked in suitable containers once we figure out what those are. The space in the new house is about the same as the old one, but the shapes are different. We have much more storage up high, and not so much underneath.

The last thing to come over from the old motorhome was our 18 year old cat Moonie. Consuelo tossed her in the kitchen sink and gave her a bath in the old home, then brought her over to snoop around in the new home. She's drying pretty quickly in the dry Arizona air.

The big slideout

We're enjoying discovering how to live in the expanded space, and how things work (or don't). Many years ago, we relaxed on a sofa together with Consuelo leaning on me as we watched TV. We can do that again. I can put my feet up on a coffee table and relax, exactly what I'm doing as I write this.

On Sunday, one of the dealer's people came out and drove our old coach away. There was a bit of sadness as we saw our faithful home disappear for the last time.

Monday was the final packing. I had a pile of things like hoses and pipes that needed bins that would fit in the one compartment designated for them, so I picked up a couple from Walmart. And I got the satellite receiver stuffed in the tight compartment up front and connected it to the external dish through the Alfa's built in wiring. The Kingdome still needs to be changed to Dish network, so we can't use it yet.

Max leaving us

The satellite dish is the overflow, and won't fit into storage. For the moment, we'll haul it in the back of our car. I'm hoping that there will be enough room for it below when we take the solar panels out and mount them on the roof.

Today, Tuesday, we will drive to the dealer to see if they'll fix a few nits, like missing catches on some of the drawers. Then we'll head to Apache Junction for most of March.

Buying a new motorhome

2004 Alfa See Ya

We've been thinking about upgrading our home on wheels for some time. The primary pressure we felt was the desire for more living space created by having slideouts. We had seen several different brands and different models in each brand. We were strong on the Alfa Leisure brand, and the So-Long floorplan, but we realized that our budget wouldn't support a new one, and that used ones with this floor plan were still too new for our pocketbook.

For better or worse, we found a used Alfa at a dealer in Arizona. We went to look at what was available, and after being shown the high end and the low end, we found an Alfa See-Ya which was ripe enough for us to afford. We signed the papers and went home to worry that we had not made a big mistake.

We were smart enough to demand a 24 hour cancellation clause, and after doing some research on the internet, we discovered that we would be paying too much for the coach. We went looking totally unprepared to buy, and got sucked into the laments of the sales people. At the open of business the next day, we cancelled the deal, offering the sales price as the reason. The sales people made counteroffers, and we made some demands, we gave up some incentives, and reached a new agreement, which we found much more reasonable.

Space, the final frontier

Owning our vehicles though a Montana LLC turned out to be an obstacle for the dealer's finance department, though. They claimed that our LLC limited the options they had for arranging the financing as we had agreed, and we made several concessions, and they made some concessions, and we finally reached a workable agreement.

We signed piles of agreements at least 4 times. On the final signing, the finance manager made a typo on the contracts, and had to start all over again.

That behind us, we're now waiting for the service department to complete their tasks to prepare the coach for delivery. We've begun the ordeal of sorting through the things we have stuffed in various nooks and crannies and deciding if they are appropriate for the new house. Of course, most of them are, but some items won't fit the color scheme. And all the effort I've made to get the media wiring installed as I wanted it will have to be re-thought and reinstalled. Meanwhile, we've begun piling bins and bags of things that will go into the new home when we get it. Once we get everything moved (a major task in itself) and put away (decisions, decisions) then we will have the daunting task of trying to remember where we put everything, a process that will likely continue for a year or more.

Needless to say, we're both excited, and impatient to get into the new place. The new motorhome is 2 feet longer than our old one, which shows up in a little extra drawer/closet space and a little extra living space. Many of the ameneties are similar to what we have now, though some are newer, better designs, like the main awning being electric instead of manual. There are a few things we don't have, like the slideouts and a dome satellite TV dish on the roof, which will help increase our enjoyment of living on the road. The engine is a step up. And of course, everything is 7 years newer, meaning we get to use up those items for 7 years to get them to the same state we have them in now.

A couple things will be a step down. One, the tires are 4 years older than the ones we have now. I would hope we made up some of that difference in the trade-in value. And the washer-dryer is a year or two older than the one we have now, since we upgraded that in 2005.

There will be more reports on this transaction as we continue our travels in our new abode. We can't (but must) wait.

Happy RVers

Before we departed California, we got a chance to visit Gaylord and Margie Maxwell in Yuma. We bought our Coachmen Destiny from them back in 2003, and we've stayed in touch with them ever since. We share our joys and misfortunes (Gaylord says the warrantee has expired on our coach!) . They tell us that the Destiny is the best motorhome they ever owned, and that includes quite a string of RVs going back to the 1960s.

Gaylord Maxwell

We shared a bottle of wine, had some lunch at Olive Garden, and remarked on the state of the RV industry. We told them that we're looking to buy a new(er) RV, and we discussed the options for that. They brought us up to date on their wonderful family and life in Idaho. We told them about our new house in Maine, and our travels through the last year.

Gaylord is the inspiration and together they are the perspiration behind Life on Wheels, an educational endeavor for prospective RV owners and current RV owners to study the lifestyle and all aspects of RVing. We attended the courses twice in Des Moines, Iowa, prior to departing on our fulltiming journey. The instructors gave us much needed confidence to separate ourselves from the sticks and mortar life and venture forth. When we're in a place where we can go again, we most likely will do that, too.

Margie Maxwell

We think they made a good decision to buy this RV back in 1996, and we're glad we got a chance to meet them and have them be our friends.

Little Dream, Big Reward

El Centro, CA, In The Rearview Mirror (by Consuelo)

A month, three days, twenty hours and twelve minutes… Rio Bend RV Resort, a nice stay by the golf course, surrounded by old and new friends.

Slippers drying for the craft fair

Early in our stay I checked out the planned activities looking for something crafty to do. I’ll take the watercolor class, I thought, so off I went the first Monday of our stay. $7 for all the mess I could make, what a deal. I brought to the class one of my now-famous knitted and felted slippers to ask the activities director how I should price them for the up coming craft fair. I’ve made over 30 pair but all have been gifts so far.

So, I whipped the slippers out before the class started and I was accosted by two enthusiastic Canadian women. They giggled as they tried them on and were curious how they were made. Felted? They had no clue what that meant but in the spirit of “we’ll try anything once”, they asked if I would teach them how to make them. They were sure there were a couple more women at their campground across the road that would be interested in learning as well. We made a date to meet at their place the following day.

Instructing the Canadians

At the meeting, four others joined our developing plan for a class. They, too, tried on the slipper I had brought and giggled with interest and curiosity. We chose a day, 10 days hence, to give time for large orders of yarn to be placed and delivered. I busied myself ordering yarn from a manufacturer I love and recommend for this project, we bought seconds which are low cost and flawed in small ways not impacting a felting project. Everyone was excited.

The class day came and we gathered at the home of one of the students… I made a feeble attempt to teach. These were all lively, fast thinking, smart women and I could barely get a word in edgewise!! Silly me, I had made IBM-ish charts to explain this and that to them but, no luck, they just wanted to get on with it and KNIT! And knit we did. There were “challenges” to techniques, some thinking they knew a better way… all that knitting had to be ripped and the teacher’s instructions were then, finally, heeded. Lots of laughs and a few struggles.

The class, pre-felting

When finished, these slippers are humongous. At least fifty percent bigger than the final product so… there were doubters that these large sloppy looking things would ever fit. A week later, having given everyone enough time to finish the pair, we gathered at the campground’s laundromat to felt them. Several hot washes did the trick and there were oos and aaahs of delight as the projects got smaller and smaller and finally measure the intended size. They were all going to show them off at the campfire that night. There were hugs and thank-yous and wishes for future projects. I was happy.

Finished products

Here is the part of the story I didn’t tell most of them: feeling qualified after thirty-plus pairs, I had been thinking of teaching this project. Had not yet figured out where and how, it was just an idea rattling in my head and then our paths crossed at the watercolor class and it all became clear. The moral of the story is a well-known one: dream your dreams and a way to attain them will show itself at the right time and place. In my fortunate case, it was also the right, fun, interesting people that just appeared out of nowhere to bring this little bit of fullfillment into my life. Now I think I’ll offer to teach at campground as we travel the counry and, come summer, maybe even in Maine.

PS I sold seven pair at $30 each at the carft fair. What a hoot.