Preparation, Part 3... The RV
We've sold the house, we now have a HUGE truck!!
The move from the river house in Dahlonega was traumatic. We've moving from a 2,100 sq. ft. house with a full basement and a ginormous attic, all of which are packed beyond reason to a single story, maybe 1,200 sq ft rental for the short term until we move into the RV (coach). As mentioned in the last post, Ruth was way more diligent about getting rid of stuff than I was but when it came time to move it seemed like we hadn't gotten rid of anything. So many trips from Dahlonega to Bogart, truck, car, trailer and then finally we rented a truck to move the big stuff. Thank God for good friends who made moving day a possibility. Many subsequent trips after the big move we finally get to closing day and we still have stuff in Dahlonega and to make it worse, I have a trip to West Virginia for a meeting. While traveling up on a Friday morning I get a call from our agent, the closing is scheduled for MONDAY, the following Monday and I'm gone till late Sunday. I told him before I left to not schedule the closing till at least Tuesday but it's Monday, after several delays it's scheduled and can't be rescheduled. Ruth is not happy, I mean really not happy, I'd have to say that this was the closest we have come to a marital meltdown.
We're cat people, we have two cats, Toonces and Tom. Toonces is a 14 year old Maine Coon female mix, Tom is a 4-5 year old male tom mix. Toonces is declawed, Tom wasn't. Tom was ferrel, he showed up on our door one winter evening and you know the story, don't feed him cause he'll never go away...well we fed him and he didnt go away, but how do you let a starving cat freeze to death, we couldn't. It took over a year before he would let us really get near him and another several months before he came into the house. Toonces rarely goes outside, she used to but no more, Tom, well that's a different story, in the warm months we rarely see him in the house, he always wants to be out. In Dahlonega that wasn't a problem but in a more suburban area where there are cars, streets and other houses in close proximity, well we were concerned and afraid that if we took him with us he would end up getting killed so we started looking for someone to take him. No one jumped up and volunteered so while talking with the buyers, who also have dogs and cats, we mentioned our dilemma and they say they will take him, GREAT!! So when we clear out the house in Dahlonega on the morning of the closing we leave Tom along with food water, bedding and LOTS of tears. We get through the closing and we congratulate the new owners and tell them that Tom is in the house, they tell us they won't be moving into the house for several days...what... we jump into the car and drive back up to Dahlonega and get Tom, his food, water and the bedding...we still have Tom!!!
So we're now in the rental house, a single story concrete block house on a slab. All the walls are concrete block, interior and exterior with no insulation in any of them and its November in Georgia. Now Georgia isn't the coldest place on earth but it does get cold, especially for a Florida boy, and this house doesn't have insulation in the walls or ceiling. The water heater is in the well house, a separate building about 50 feet from the house so when you turn on the hot water you wait, and wait, and wait. To take a shower you turn on the hot water, brush your teeth, pick out clothes to wear, make a cup of coffee, then go check to see if the water is hot yet!! If there were a tornado coming, this would be the place to be, I think it could withstand a nuclear bomb, we refer to this place as "The Bunker". as we were moving our stuff into this house we started off very methodical. placing like stuff in specific areas. Clothing in our bedroom, kitchen stuff in the kitchen, etc. As the moving progressed we got into a bigger crunch for time so stuff just gets pit somewhere, when it's done there are literally foot paths within the stacks of boxes...mass craziness. So we get to work sorting and putting away, after a week the place is starting to clear, at least in some of the rooms, the bedroom, living room and kitchen. The other rooms are still pretty cluttered but manageable. Well, this is home...at least for the short term, so ordering the coach becomes a priority. Now the task to sort through everything we still have; does it go into the RV when we get it, do we sell it, take it to Goodwill or simply throw it away?
There were couple of positives about being in this house. First, we're really close to our daughter Erin, her husband Kevin and our grandson Eli. This was a blessing and we took full advantage of our time together. The other positive was the church we chose to attend, Athens Church which is one of Andy Stanley's churches. We joined a small group while there and met some really wonderful people who we still communicate with and visit when we're in town.
But wait, we're supposed to be ordering the RV
We have been researching all aspects of the RV for months, years. We've looked at the Redwoods at least 4-5 times and we have a pretty good idea of what we want so it's now time to get busy. All the cards in the deck have fallen into place so we decide to get serious and we think, we'll go get a firm quote from the dealer here in Georgia then while in Florida for Christmas we'll price out the coach from dealers there and after we have the two quotes we'll choose the best deal and order the coach.
So we head down to Southern RV in Jonesboro GA again, this time to sit down and choose exactly what we want to get a quote. The folks at Southern RV are wonderful, so patient, so helpful. We sit down with Brad, the owner and we tell him that we want to price out the coach and then compare the cost with the dealer in Florida, and he starts the process, asking what we THINK we want and jots down several notes. Then he starts explaining what he thinks we said and makes recommendations based on our comments. We walk through the entire list of options, some we're very familiar with, some we're clueless, but Brad takes the time to explain the pros and cons of each option and we decide yea or nay. When it's all done he gets out the calculator, crunches the numbers and gives us the bottom line...pretty much what we expected. We're waiting for the final estimate and Brad is on the phone with another customer and I hear him say that the delivery will be in March or April. When he gets off the phone I ask him if he was talking about a Redwood and he says yes, Redwood's build time is about 5-6 months and getting longer due to the volume of orders!! Wait, we want to take delivery in the April 2013 timeframe, its now November 2012...we have a problem. If we wait until after we get a price from the Florida dealer in January we will not get our coach until June or July, we can't wait that long, we have to be on the road by May 2013. Now what... we tell Brad that we need to think and pray about this so we head home to make a decision. After a couple of days of praying and discussing our options we decide to order the coach, so we call Brad to tell him to go ahead with the order. Now the wait..
A Sample of Winters in Florida
We originally planned to spend Christmas on the beach in Florida, then decided to spend a few weeks there so we could attend the Tampa RV show in mid January. We would leave Georgia late December and go directly to the beach house, then we'll move to Ruth's aunt Mary's house after the week and stay with her until the Tampa show. So we're plugging along in Georgia going through our stuff, it's getting colder, the house is getting colder, it's now early December and I say to Ruth, why wait till Christmas to go south, will Mary be ok with us coming down early? Well we leave Athens in mid-December, ah warmth... Part of the rational of staying in Florida for an extended time is to look for a campground to stay in for the winter of 2013-2014, while down in the Sarasota area we visited almost every campground between Bradenton and Punta Gorda, there are lots of campgrounds and they are expensive in the winter. We did fine a spot, a beautiful place under big old oaks dripping spanish moss, about 5 minutes from the beach...perfect!!
So the time in Florida goes by way too fast and we discuss staying longer...no we have stuff to do back in Georgia and we miss our cats so it's off to the frozen north for one last time. We leave Florida on a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the mid 70's and arrive back in Athens, its gloomy, rainy and the temps are in the 20's. What a rude awakening. The "bunker" is like a refrigerator so we go from wearing shorts, t's and flip-flops to long pants, sweaters and fleece, and thats in the house.
Now we're in the final stages of lining in a "sticks and bricks" house and we're going through EVERYTHING...what to do with it; keep it (to take in the coach), sell it, donate it, recycle it of trash it??? Did I mention that we had lots of stuff?
Next... the final push, and delivery!!!
