Still settling in . . . and preparing for life on the road!

 

I can’t believe it’ll be 2 weeks tomorrow since we pulled in here at Haas Lake Park.  We’ve been getting used to our new life in the RV . . . finding places to put everything, staking out everybody’s “space” for work/school, and trying to get things set up to make our lives easier.

Right now, we’re still in some dis-array, but we’re working on it.  We ordered our WIFI Ranger, which arrived at my SIL’s house on Monday, and our aircard from Millenicom, which should arrive by next Monday, so once we have both of those we can get our network set up and put the printers up in the cabinet.  That’ll help quite a bit, because right now the one printer is sitting on the only counter space I have, so that it’s accessible to plug into each of the laptops . . . and it’s a pain in the neck to move around all the time.  Only a few more days, though . . .

Work space has been another challenge, with both boys doing schoolwork, and me working . . . right now, Nicolas and I both use the kitchen table, and Bryce uses my coffee table that lifts up to desk height.  I found a desk for Nick at Ikea that we’re going to install in his room, but Tom is nervous about putting screws in the walls, so he may wait until we’re in Nappanee next month, and have Carlyle install it for us.  We’re also going to have Carlyle build a corner shelf under Nicolas’ TV for the Xbox, so we can get that off the floor.  The other destination next month will be Lambright’s in Shipshewana to pick up a recliner for me.  Tom is still leaning towards a Poang chair from Ikea for himself, but I want a recliner-rocker.  The Poang chairs are comfortable, but I like to sit more upright, especially if I’m reading or sewing.

Food storage space seems to be working out.  I’m using up most of what I had in the old walk-in pantry in the house, and only buying what I’m going to use right away . . . menu planning in definitely helpful!  Joyce and I were talking the other day, and she was saying that was one of the harder habits to break – stocking up on whatever is on sale!  The refrigerator was one of our big worries originally.  When we were shopping for an RV, we really struggled with finding one with a bigger frig.  Ours is 10 cu. ft., which isn’t very big (especially with 2 teenage boys!), but with the extra 4 cu. ft. frig in the garage for pop, water and beer, it’s working out OK.  I can fit about a week’s worth of fresh veggies, fruit, meat, lunchmeat . . . and 2 gallons of milk . . . along with all the staples (ketchup, mustard, pancake syrup, creamer, BBQ sauce, and 4 salad dressings! . . . yes, we each like a different salad dressing!).

Even without the convection microwave (another October fix!), we’ve managed to cook everyday.  We grill a lot, and I’ve got the stove, and I’ve used the crockpot a couple of times, too.  I even found out that leftover pizza reheats very nicely on the grill, when wrapped in foil – better than the microwave anyday!

This month has also been good for taking care of the little (and not-so-little) details . . . we changed our addresses on all our licenses, took all my old VHS and Hi-8 home movies to a guy who’s transferring them to DVD, I got my hair done today, and we meet with our financial planner next week.  We’ve also been ironing out our situation at work . . . Tom is still working out what he’s going to do, but I will definitely continue to work while on the road.  That takes a big unknown out of the picture . . . no need to find medical and dental insurance, and now we know that we don’t need to use any of the proceeds from the house to finance our travels. 

Speaking of travels, we’ll probably head toward Texas this winter, and then make a loop through the western and northern states next spring and summer, before ending up back in MI around Labor Day.  We’ve still got lots of research to do, but that’s our general thoughts for the next year.

But our stay here hasn’t all been work . . . Bryce has baseball every Saturday and although his team has been struggling some, the weather has been great for baseball!  There’s lots of area here for walking and bike-riding, playing cornhole, and just enjoying watching all the swans and other birds on the lakes.  I thought it would be more empty around here, but the “seasonal” campers have their sites until September 30th, so there are quite a few of them still around.  This weekend is their “Halloween Weekend”, so it’ll be busy, but we’ll miss most of the festivities because of baseball.

So, that’s the extent of our life on the road so far . . . not too exciting yet, but getting closer!