Who doesn’t love a good plan?

 First a little recap...

When last we wrote, we shared that we traded in our travel trailer for a 33’ fifth wheel trailer.

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow us to introduce Thurston, our third HOW.

We had also bought a 1 bed, 1 bath park model (stationary) trailer in Mission TX where we spent most of last winter, enjoying time with old friends and new, and learning some new hobbies.  

Aren’t plans great?  We planned to head back to Illinois in March to begin the process of selling our house.  I, Penny, had all of our doctor and dental appointments made well in advance so that we could jump right on them in April.  I felt like the queen of organization!  

Then came covid 19.  We ‘sheltered in place’ in Texas.  Thought it’d be for a few weeks, then a few more, and a few more, just like everyone in the country, or in the world for that matter.  As time went by, the virus seemed to be spreading far more  in Illinois than in TX, so we stayed in TX.  We rescheduled appointments, then rescheduled again, then finally just cancelled them cuz who knew when we’d be home, or when Illinois would open back up.  I’ll say no more, except that we stayed healthy.  Thank you Lord.

We finally made the long avoided trip to Illinois at the end of May.  Three nights in hotels, where we wiped down each room with Lysol wipes, removed the blankets and pillows and replaced them with the ones we brought with us, and used copious amounts of hand sanitizer.  Just call me neurotic, I can take it, but I never want to travel anywhere without our HOW again.

Fast forward to August.  After eight weeks of thinning out our possessions, holding a garage sale, painting the inside of our house, generally sprucing up the outside (and catching up on those doctor & dentist appointments!),  we were ready to call a realtor that was highly recommended by a friend.   We liked him very much and hired him on a Friday.  He had his first showing the next morning, and by that afternoon he had a cash buyer for us.  That evening we signed the sales contract, and closed on August 28th.  Woosh, just like that!

Well, it was a really nice house...

Preparing for take-off!   Did I mention something about ‘thinning out our possessions’ earlier?  We’ve gone through our ‘stuff’ and purged so many times, and still we have 3 boxes of who-knows-what in the RV.  And the car is packed to the gills.  And there’s more stuff in the back seat of the truck.  Hello, our names are Paul and Penny, and we are pack rats.  Now I know the true meaning of  ‘you can never be too thin’.  It refers to how much weight  is in the RV.  The RV can only handle so many pounds safely, and the truck can only tow so many pounds safely, and the car can only weigh so many pounds safely.  

In about 8 days, (actually on Oct 7), we’ll begin our journey.  Our first stop will be the CAT scales at the truck stop to see if we made weight or have to purge once again.  

Until then, be safe & healthy!