We finally officially moved into the Turtle on Friday, May 17. My birthday. Gonna make it easy to remember our full-timing anniversary! It was a fun albeit stressful day. I think I held my breath most of the day as we were unpacking, hoping we were going to find holes for all of the "stuff" we wanted to bring along. It all worked out though. That's not to say we don't have some things in funny places...but at least it's in here! In one of Max's "past lives", he worked for a moving company, so he is quite the packer extraordinaire. When I couldn't make everything fit, I called in the expert. He never fails me!
Monday, May 20, was official moving day out of our house. Byron Cowling Moving and Self-Storage showed up on Monday promptly at 8:30. Justin and Logan were fabulous. Justin has been with Byron Cowling for 11 years, since he graduated from high school. Logan was a newbie with only 3 weeks under his belt. Together, they made a great team. Lots of youth. Lots of energy. Lots of muscle. All things Max and I were running short of.
Justin was just incredible. He had been doing it for so long, you could just see him looking at what we had and figuring out how it needed to be loaded on that truck and then ultimately into the storage building. Eleven hours later...a 10x20 by about 12 feet high...stacked from one end to the other and all the way to the ceiling...
I just couldn't see how they were going to get that last load in, but Justin could. He said no need to pay more each month for another overflow unit; they could make it work. And they did just that. (He said he plays Tetrus in his spare time. I'll bet he's very good at it. Then again, having all our worldly possessions reduced to a Tetrus game is a bit humbling...)
I wasn't really prepared to clean the house that day but quickly decided they only needed one supervisor, and Max was the man. So as they emptied rooms, I went behind them cleaning up and scrubbing from ceiling to floor in preparation for the new renters. It worked out quite well and saved us an extra day or two at the house doing follow-up chores.
Tuesday morning I had a follow-up appointment with the orthodontist. Sadly, they had to make me a new retainer and I am to wear it full-time for another 6-8 weeks. Probably all those Tootsie Roles I've been eating, making up for the past 18 months, threw them out of whack again. :)
We spent time Tuesday afternoon organizing our "basement" (storage area underneath the Gypsy). I had seen an organizing tip somewhere to use the see-through tubs and to make "labels" for each, listing the contents on a piece of paper and putting it inside each so you can see it when you open the basement door. It worked out quite handily!
Wednesday we went to Sam's and bought new batteries for the Gypsy. The lights have been cycling quite a bit--going dim and then brightening again when the converter kicks on. Not only was it annoying and made it hard to see sometimes, but it was worrisome in anticipation of boondocking. Max has been saying for quite a while he wanted to replace the one 12-volt battery we had with two 6-volt golf cart batteries, giving us more power for a longer period of time. So we decided just to go ahead and bite the bullet and get it done while we had the time and a convenient Sam's nearby. It seems to have fixed our problem.
Later that evening as I was preparing dinner for us and a friend who came to visit, Max opened the door and said, "Do you want to see what a trailer looks like that has a busted water line?" Sadly, our very nice neighbors next door had water pouring out of their basement area. A DPS officer, his wife and two children are staying in that trailer while their new house is being built. Just as Max discovered the disaster, the wife and children drove up. (The husband was at work.) Max helped her shut the water off and start the draining process. Unfortunately, they had not put any kind of water pressure regulator on their line, and for some reason it seems the park's water pressure spiked and their lines just couldn't take it. We had an extra regulator and Max loaned it to them. What a sickening thing to come home to. The good news was it didn't get their battery wet so it didn't short out their electrical, and it didn't get into the living quarters upstairs. It could have been a whole lot worse. Thank the Lord for the blessings that come!
Later the same evening our neighbor on the other side of us experienced the same thing. Yikes! Maybe we should use a couple of those regulators just to be safe??!!
Yesterday we finally got my car sold. Woohoo! Big day. Big relief. Big blessing.
Today we were back at the house with the carpet cleaners, spent some time with Max's mom helping her get some things taken care of before we leave town, Max had a doctor's appointment, we ran more errands, came back to the Gypsy and took a little nap, and then evening and dinner was upon us. Where does the time go?
We have things pretty much where we want them now, though, and that's a nice feeling. We'll hit the road next Friday for Brownwood to spend about 10 days with immediate family and to attend a family reunion at Lake Brownwood. Then it will be off to Port Aransas!
Note to everyone out there: When I deleted my work email from my iPhone, it also deleted all my contacts and phone numbers. That was a bad day. If you have my number and you haven't heard from me this month, I would love a text from you giving me yours just to make sure I have it. Thank you, and have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
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