Still preparing for the leap into the unknown

This one is dedicated to Sheila, our salesperson at General RV, enthusiastic and helpful.

Right now, we are camped at our friend Kay Bruns' place. She also has been more than helpful, giving us storage space in her huge attic and putting up with a great ungainly lump in her driveway, meanwhile allowing us to enjoy her beautiful lakeside home and even inviting strangers in for get-togethers. Her generosity apparently knows no bounds. There's no way we can repay her.

Standing, Kay Bruns, Liz, Bob Sedler
Sitting, Rozanne Sedler, Diane Buffalin
A most entertaining Sunday Afternoon

View from Kay's back deck

These two cranes are a common sight at Kay's.

For the first week here, I was housesitting for Kay (Such a task!) and Liz was in North Carolina visiting her mother, sister and nephew. We'd been living pretty much in each other's pockets for the past seven months so the break was refreshing. The reunion was even better.

Liz here: my mom, Irmgard Miller at the NC Zoo

Liz here: my mom, sister Lorie and nephew Wil studying a dinosaur exhibit in the zoo

Docent and dear Brother-in-law Glenn

 Dinosaurs at the end of the exhibit shoot water out of their mouth.
 They startle children. Nice cool surprise on a hot humid day!

The trailer is nearly ready now, loaded up with clothes, various tools (I'll get more when we stop at Mom and Dad's where I've stashed my toolbox.), a little food. Liz has been working hard making sense of our 300 or so square foot apartment on wheels while I've been obsessing on the possibility of flat tires and the intricacies of backing the dern thing up. I'm sure my maneuvering into Kay's driveway would have made a fine Youtube video. Just this morning we modified our mattress. The original owners replaced the factory mattress with a very nice memory foam one that was just a touch too long. The Foam Factory beveled off the edges for us, making it much easier to squeeze past the bed to the closets. We're still short a TV and DVD player, a toolbox for the truck bed, lug wrench, air compressor and probably a bunch of other stuff but it's time to get out and practice being gray nomads.

Our new home

My teacher on the intricacies of mobile living, Riggs.
The lessons were comprehensive but the learning curve is steep!

 

Our first stop will be near Hartland for just a couple of days, pulling in and setting up. As a reward for dealing with General RV (Have I mentioned they're a class act, especially for the 4 hour training session I had to take before they'd allow me off the property?), we got a coupon for a week of free camping at Walden Woods resort. From there we'll probably head up north. Kay's brother Leigh has a nice property near Sleeping Bear dunes for our first taste of unimproved sites. Then comes Father's day and the family bash.

Liz and Mike in dining area

Mike and Kay on rockers in living room

Liz here: we have one slide out shown above.

Glenn, thanks for this magnet.

As I said before, the jitters are upon us. We've put a large portion of our less than considerable fortune toward this. Now we'll see how it works!