September 25 2011

            Let’s see … this is Sunday morning … I’ve slept in the new trailer three nights … that would be Saturday, Friday and Thursday.  That means it was Thursday when we picked up the new trailer at about two in the afternoon.

            If I seem a little confused … I am … the last several days have been so busy and run together!

            The plan was that we would split the stuff we had in the Road Ranger fifth wheel so that some of it stayed and some of it moved into the Hitch Hiker fifth wheel.  We planned to set the stuff on the patio, move the Road Ranger into storage until Spring of 2013, put the Hitch Hiker on our site and move the stuff from the patio into our new home.  Seemed simple enough!

            In fact what happened was:  we moved a portion of our belonging onto the patio.  That went as planned! Yeah!  What happened next was NOT planned.  The slide out on the Road Ranger would not slide in.  We called our maintenance crew here at Cutty’s and said we were ready for them to move the trailer into storage however we needed help getting the slide in.  They came and we pushed and pulled and it would not budge.  On closer examination, it was discovered that the bottom of one corner of the slide had rotted out.  The bottom had fallen to the place that it was impossible to force it to slide back in.  It was finally decided to give up the idea of sliding it in and to just tow it to storage with the slide out. (To help you that are unfamiliar with trailers and slide outs, imagine that this room is like a drawer in a cabinet.  When it slides out/open it hangs three to four feet out of the trailer.)

            What this blip means to our long term plans is uncertain at this time.  The plan was to live in the Hitch Hiker until the fall of 2012 and then move it to Texas.  We planned to stay in Texas until the spring of 2013.  We would leave the Hitch Hiker in storage in Texas and drive back to Iowa.  We would have the Road Ranger moved from storage onto our site and live there until we drove back to Texas in the fall of 2013, where we would move the Hitch Hiker out of storage and live in it.  A home in both places.

            The Road Ranger is twenty years old and not worth the expense of repairing it.  Since the slide will not go in, it can not be driven on the road.  That means that I can’t sell it to someone who would buy it “as is”.  We may try to sell it off as “parts”.  So we may or may not be able to recover some of the lost value.  But at any rate, we will not be able to live in it again.  So, scratch the long term plan and start looking for options.

            We did get the Hitch Hiker moved to our site and moved stuff inside.  We are still trying to find places to put it.  Now however, we need to move ALL of our stuff from the Road Ranger into the Hitch Hiker.  The HH is five feet shorter than the RR and does not have as many storage cabinets inside (though the ‘basement’ storage compartment is much larger).

            The fact is we have more stuff than we have room for.  When we moved from the house and into the RR we downside quite a bit, even though we still have several rented storage space with things we haven’t used in four or five years.  Now we need to downsize again.

            Everything is piled here and there while we sort and arrange.  I don’t operate well in clutter.  And not only is my physical space jumbled so is my ‘mental’ space unorganized while trying to determine what to do next.

            The good news is God has guided us into a warm and comfortable home to live in when the other one was no longer suitable.

            Okay, let’s see, what else has happened since my last post?  We babysat with the greats.  Then found out that the youngest had hand, foot and mouth disease.  She loves to eat the crushed ice from my glass of water.  Here is how that cycle goes: her hand into my glass digging for ice. ice into mouth, hand back into my glass and repeat over and over.  So far I am showing no signs of any sickness.  Hand, foot and mouth usually only affects young children and infants.

            Last Wednesday was busy.  We were at grandson N’s before 6:30 a.m.  I had Men’s Bible Study from 8:30 to 9:30.  I had some lab work done before going to the doctor’s at 1.  after the doctor’s I had x-rays of both knees. (no results yet)  Then back to Ankeny to pick up greats from schools.  Had supper and pie at Village Inn with friends.  Ella worked 5 to 8.  I worked getting stuff around in the trailer until I left for Worship Committee meeting from 7 to 8 p.m. We hadn’t been home long when we got a call from other friends that wanted to meet us at Village Inn for pie.  So we went back for more pie.

            On Thursday, after spending the day move stuff in and out of trailers, friends took us to supper at Ryan’s steak house.

            Friday was just more moving stuff.

            Saturday Ella worked in the morning while I did more moving stuff.  In the evening we went to church for the Praise Service.  We were home and in bed by seven.

            Sunday, Ella worked this morning. I went to Sunday school and church.  I fixed a quick stew from leftovers when I got home from church before Ella was off work.  After lunch we did some shopping and are now home at wishing I had taken a nap instead of shopping.

            There!  All caught up … I think.