The year 2019 was a year filled with a roller coaster of emotions.  Happiness, Sadness, Stress, and Relief.  Anxiousness and Anxiety.  Patience and Optimism.  The year flew by and at times all it seemed like I was doing was waiting.  Waiting to retire.  Waiting to move into the trailer.  Waiting to get our RV.  Waiting for our truck.  Waiting for our departure date.  

I would be retiring so we hired my replacement at the bank.  My replacement would work hand in hand with me until my last day of work.  February and March were a whirlwind of travel and training.  On March 31, I walked out of the bank at noon with a feeling of happiness and a strange feeling of relief.  Some people are skeptical but I was totally surprised at the surprise retirement party the bank held for me.  My right-hand person, JoAnn planned and pulled off the biggest surprise of my work career.  Family, friends, co-workers, and staff all attended.  Some of my staff drove hours to attend.  It was a good send-off.  All of you non-believers about me being surprised, I had no clue.

A few weeks after retirement, we started getting our house/property ready for sale.  We never thought the house would sell right away. We actually thought we would have a year or so to sell our home. That would enable us to slowly get ready for the next chapter of our lives.  To our surprise, the house sold right away.  It sold so soon that we didn’t have a place to live.  The buyers wanted us out in 30 days. During those 30 days, it rained a good 20 of them.  Roy had 2 skin surgeries which put him out of commission for several days after each surgery.  We had a yard full of sticks and leaves to pick up and possessions to sell.  We rented two storage units and took tubs of possessions to the storage units.  Thanks to all who helped and special thanks to my sister Gerri, my brother-in-law Larry, my nieces and their men.

In 30 days, we sold our home/property, our Solstice, our 1000 Arctic Cat Quad, our commercial zero turn lawn mower, our John Deere front loader tractor, our GoldWing motorcycle cargo trailer, and a flatbed trailer.

We closed on the house with a day to spare.  We took a last walk around the property, handed over the keys and now it was time to turn that page and start a new life.

We would be living in a 3 bedroom trailer that my sister and I own.  Where else could we live with three puppies?  We would be buying a 5th wheel RV and a big, big truck.  Both had to be ordered.

A small glitch in the plan to live in the trailer.  We needed to have it remodeled and it was not ready for us to move in when we sold our house/property.  We rented and lived in a 34-foot camper in the trailer’s yard for 11 nights.  The remodel of the trailer was getting done one room at a time.  Finally, we were able to move into the bedroom of the trailer.  We had access to the bedroom and bathroom.  My sister said it was like staying at the Motel 6 and she would leave the lights on for us.  Soon we had access to the bedroom and then the kitchen.  Thank you, Adam Kahl, for the excellent job you did with the remodel.

In October, we got the call that our 5th wheel RV was ready for us to pick up.  One major problem is our truck was not ready.  We ordered a 2020 GMC 3500 HD Dually, 4 wheel drive with a crew cab and 8 ft bed.  When we ordered the truck in June, we were told 2 months.  Thanks to GMC going on strike, our truck which was promised to us no later than Nov 18 was not going to be built until 2020.  This was not good.

We had no truck to pick up our RV at the dealership in North Canton Ohio.  Our RV dealer would deliver our 5th wheel to us at a very reasonable cost.

We had to scramble to buy a truck.  Sean Byland, our sales rep at Sarchione Chevrolet in Randolph, Oh found us a truck.  Thanks, Sean.  It would be a 2019 Pearl on Pearl white Chevy 3500 Dually, 4 wheel drive, crew cab with an 8 ft bed.

On November 23, with my family gathered around to say goodbye, we packed up our puppies and pulled out of our yard in our 5th wheel Grand Design, Momentum 397TH.  We were heading to sunshine and warm weather in Florida.  We would be snowbirds.

Another glitch.  Our plan was to travel around the United States staying in one place for a month at a time.  We would do all of our sightseeing in our Honda Goldwing/Sidecar with our puppies.  We got the Wing/Sidecar into our RV garage but can’t get it out.  Thanks to hubby’s daughter Jen who lives in North Carolina we have a solution.  We will visit Jen and she is allowing us to store it in her garage.  She will make sure we have help getting it out of the RV garage and into her garage.  It went into the RV garage, it has to come out.  But we need help.

Thanksgiving was quiet.  Christmas was quiet.  Tonight is New Year’s Eve and it will be quiet too.  I missed the holidays with family and nothing can replace that.  In a few short months, we will be heading home for a while and we can make up for lost time until we take off again.

The other day, we took a day trip to Daytona Beach.  Imagine that.  In December I was walking on the beach.  Yes, we are snowbirds.  We are parked in a nice RV park in central Florida.  We’ve made some friends.   We take several walks every day with the puppies.  We enjoy this nice weather and sunshine.  We do what we want when we want to do it.  Life is good.

2020 will bring some surprises but you will have to wait until 2020 to hear them.  

So for now, Happy New Year

from Roy, BooBoo, Bella, Benji and me.

 

 

GB