A New Chapter

When we told people our plan was to retire, sell our house, buy an RV and explore warmer states for the winter, one of the questions we heard over and over was, "What are you going to do with all of your stuff?"  For the most part, we gave it away.  As we got within a year and a half of our retirement date, we slowly started putting stuff we knew we didn't use or want in a pile and took it to donate to a local thrift store.  We did that a couple times.  We loaded up two truck loads of stuff to donate to a fundraiser yard sale at a local church.  We had a "Moving Sale" which was really a give-a-way because everything was free with a few exceptions.  The goal was an empty house, so we were happy to see people walk out with arm loads of stuff.  And we gave our kids whatever they wanted, and then some... They got countless texts with pictures of stuff, asking if anyone wanted it.  We are often asked, "Is it hard to get rid of everything?"  In truth we have a storage unit and did keep all of our photos, every 123,456,789 of them 😆, and special, sentimental, personal, handmade, family related things and some other stuff.

Not to mention that we have a truck and camper full of more stuff, and we are already thinking about getting rid of more of what we brought with us.  But to answer the question about how hard it is, we found it much easier than we thought it was going to be to decide we didn't need it and could part with it.  We found it much more time consuming and exhausting to go through every single solitary item in our home and decide whether to keep it, store it, take it, sell it, donate it, trash it, give it away.  What was hard was not so much letting go, but that you have to look at everything and figure out what "pile" it belongs in.  Its so much thinking and deciding... Having done it, I would guess that some people would find it much harder and even impossible to let go of so much.  We saw it as a gateway to freedom that we were simply so ready for that it was worth the sacrifice.  No pain no gain so to speak.

We left Saranac Lake on Nov. 1st and have been staying with family for a few days.  There have been so many people who have given us a hand in one way or another.  Thanks to CJ Williams for allowing us to park the camper on his property.  Thanks to my brother-in-law Clyde Baker for helping move some BIG stuff and keeping some precious things at his house.  Thanks to Kathy and Lonnie Ford for letting us park the camper in their driveway while we carried stuff from our house to the camper.  Thanks to the guys at Hoffman Auto in Lake Placid for torquing our tires at no charge.  Thanks to my brother Scott for the steel caribbener for the breakaway cable, fixing the cabinet door, making blocks to put down under our stabilizers and suggesting we get a hitch lock (one of many things I didn't even know existed... a anti-theft device to keep someone from hooking up to and driving away with our camper - yeah I want one of those!) . We are grateful for the kindness and generosity of family, friends and strangers.  This adventure wouldn't be possible without lots of help and advice from ya'll.  

I have to admit, I wasn't sure how I was going to do driving with a camper in tow for the first time.  Yes, we are embarking on full-time RVing without ever having been RVing before.  We drove 2 hours the first day and 6 and a half the next day.  Once I got used to the feel, I got over my nerves pretty quickly and in no time was having fun, enjoying the ride.  Carol took some pictures of the view along the way.  We were surprised to see how much color there was as we got out of NYS into PA.  Tomorrow we head to our first campground in Virgina Beach.  Now to figure out how to actually do all the RV-y stuff 😮