Overwhelming!! How to fix it!!

Got a lot more "stuff" done this week. I even took to task a few jobs I've really been procrastinating over!! My "BIG" desk and file cabinet have been purged!!! Why did I keep all that stuff?? Managed to fill up quite a few large trash bags. Glad that's over with. We've probably put our garbageman in shock over the last few weeks!! I think the "selling" phase of this plan is coming to a close. Only a few more items left to sell. We're going into the " donate and give away like everyone else has gone thru" phase. Been reading about these moves for 4 years now on www.hitchitch.com . It's kinda inspirational, especially when ya feel overwhelmed.
   Got a lot of our entertainment center installed and up & running in the new rig this week. New radio/cd player, tv mounted, VCR connected, etc. CB checked out.
   Glad this new rig has a lot more storage space. Hope we don't overload it!
  The lighter side of the week involved our uncanny ability to be cat magnets. Got 2 stray cats coming around. Probably here to eat our birds! Been putting food out for them and hope to keep them full so they don't catch the new baby birds.  Neither of them wants anything to do with people. I wonder how long that'll last??
   There's only a few more things to prep on the new rig. I'll be glad when all this " busy" is done.
We're debating about selling the car. We might & then again we might not. If we do we'll buy another one once we get down South. I'd feel a lot better with "The Navigator" in the motorhome. I'm sure it would keep me from missing turns. LOL
   We should be able to get in a few shakedown cruises next month. It'd be nice to take a break.
HOPE ALL OF YOU ARE HAVING AS GOOD A TIME WITH LIFE AS WE ARE.
REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...Charlie & Heather
  

Every nook & cranny

Simplifying seems to be the trick to getting ready to fulltime. Spent the last few months emptying every nook and cranny and now starting to fill 'em up. (In the new motorhome) I'm kinda fanatical as far as keeping paperwork in my file cabinets and that was one of the hardest chores  I've had to get through. Filled a few large trash bags just from the files and office. I felt accomplished when done with that procrastinated job. We've purged our closets and dressers of a lot of clothes and treasures and either tossed them, given them away or prepared them for donation. Slowly we've been loading the new rig with the "stuff" we figure we'll need. Glad we had the last 3 years of experience to help guide the way. Our motto, " a place for everything and everything has a place" will mean even more for fulltimeing.
   These next few weeks will be filled with trips to donate stuff. Only a few more items to sell (glad that part is over) and as time to leave gets closer it'll get a lot less busy. We still want a few quick "shakedown" trips to see if everything is working. Got an appointment to get the generator tuned up. Even though it has low hours on it we still feel that is a good thing to do.
   Even though we have "Our plan", there is still a lot of trepidation in both our minds about this "BIG" decision to fulltime. It'll be very foreign to not have a stix & bricks. Confidence has been gained by reading a lot of fulltimers blogs to guide the way. Seems like all of them have had the same feelings at the beginning of their journey too. If you wonder what I'm saying check out  www.hitchitch.com  and you'll find some interesting travel blogs telling you all about us gypsies. LOL.
   We hope everyone of our blog followers is having as good a life as we are.
REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY....Charlie & Heather

TINKER PUTTER & THROW IT !!

Aside from tinkering & puttering with the "new" motorhome, which only means getting things up to our standards, I must honestly say it's been a productive few months. Didn't like the wiring jobs that were done by some previous persons so I've been correcting a lot of their messes. I probably pulled about 200 ft of excess wire out and have labeled about 90% of the previously unmarked circiuts. Makes it a lot easier should any problems develope on the road. Installed a new modern radio/cd/Ipod ready noise machine and the speakers are awesome. Curiously I found a wire that had 6v on it????? Still haven't figured that one out ! So far I've fixed a few things that weren't working and most were due to dirty or broken wires or a bad ground. No brain busters. Probably the funniest trouble was pushing in the cigarette lighter and seeing both blinker dash lights coming on. HHMMMM!! Since I'm a retired electrician it's all fun..The refridge worked on gas but not electric. Found a broken wire stareing me in the face in the rear of the fridge, reconnected and "viola", it works. Replaced some faucet "O" rings and the shower faucet,due to minor leaks,  added a handheld shower head and all the water system is AOK..My buddy is gonna go over the brakes and suspension next week. He's the guy that helped prep the "Tioga" 3 years ago and you've all read about our excellent luck with her!!
   Since we got home in May we've had yard, moving and general sales. We've advertised on a local radio station "swap shop" and put ads in the local paper. Told all our friends what's for sale. Craigslist has been kept busy. Our kids have been notified about our plans and they've been given a chance to take what they want..Soooo. Now we're at a point where the rest of our "stuff" will be donated, given away or in a dumpster. There's only about 8 weeks left to "get outa Dodge". (where does time go??)
  We've found that the new rig has a lot more storage room in it.Kinda important when planning on fulltimeing. I'm figuring we'll still need a small enclosed trailer for tools and our Karaoke Business and for workamping. Lots of busy and time flies!
  Hope ya'all aren't bored by all these details but that's how our summer is rolling! I'm sure the blog will get more interesting once we're "On the road again".
   REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Charlie &Heather 

WOW !! Found a newer motorhome!!

In preperation to dump our stix & bricks, we were advertiseing some stuff on a local radio staion's swap shop and heard an ad about a motorhome, locally.We jumped in the car and took a ride to look at it.  Found a TLC'd 1988 Chevy powered "Titan". It's been garage kept and very well taken care of..the owner is a craftsman and has a lot of "special features" woodwork wise. It has 69K miles and a 454CI Chevy drivetrain..got a very good $$$$ price on it. We looked at each other and decided that this rig was calling our name so we bought it. The owner had just advertised it,  had 3 calls on it while were there!!.We got it home, cleaned it up according to our specs and started moving our stuff into it..We were suprised how much "stuff" got transferred!! Took hours!!..Been checking it out and doing a few modifications like adding racks to the closets. Sure is a lot more room in this new rig due to a few more feet in length. We gained a bedroom space too!. This "new" rig, to us, has new tires, brakes,exhaust and other features that showed pride of ownership. Only 69K miles and service records! I was happy to see it'd been used lately. The owner had a heart attack and his better half didn't want to drive a Class A so he bought a Class C, which she will drive. He definately loved this rig but had to make a decision to enable future travels. He told us,honestly, all about it's pros and cons and we decided we could handle the cons. which are all minor.  As you know, if you have followed our blog, we did quite a bit of heavy repairs on our last rig, the Tioga. So...to make a long story short, we've upgraded fron a 1982 to a 1988 motorhome..We're H-A-P-P-Y. that's all that counts (& WE PAID CASH---NO PAYMENTS !!) Now, the big challenge is to sell our beloved TIOGA. She gave us 3 trouble free years and is looking forward to a few more..We hope all our blog followers have as much fun with life as we do..REMEMBER--LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS LIFE GOES BY QUICKlY......Charlie & Heather