When last we blogged, Scoopy was heading back to the shop for her final upgrades and, as it turned out, a couple more repairs. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with her, but as always, it was too short. We seem to just about hit our stride when it is almost time to leave. But leave we did, and we deposited Scoopy outside the gates of the shop and left with her new residential fridge still running. We had no idea how to turn it off, or how to turn the inverter off. With all new things, there is a learning curve. Sigh. Fortunately, with her new batteries and new inverter, all was well when Jeff got to her on Monday morning.
We also made a serious newbie mistake when we drove her all the way to the shop with the over-the-air TV antenna up. (Yes, a couple of folks honked at us but we just waved at them.) It didn’t break or anything and it doesn’t seem to work anyway, so we didn’t worry about it.
Luckily our OTA antenna didn’t end up like this guy!
A couple of good things came from the fact that we had constant and heavy rain during our shakedown trip. We found that the repairs on Scoopy’s windshield wipers didn’t work, and we also discovered a couple of leaks in the driver side windows. Once back in the shop, Jeff discovered that the manufacturer of her windows had long ago gone out of business, but he did track down some parts that he said, “when they’re gone, they’re gone.” So at his urging, we purchased enough parts for all the windows should they fail in the future. Our task is to remember where we store them so we can find them should the need arise.
In a rare moment without rain at Blue Sky, we spotted this wonderful sight!
But this blog entry is about milestones, and we’ve had a couple of those recently.
Milestone #1 – Scoopy is finally back in her cozy storage space.
Scoopy got her new Oxygenics shower kit installed, had some work done on her windows, and with a tweak here and a tightened screw there, she was finally finished and ready to go. She has been unshackled from the repair shop and back in Puyallup.
Milestone #2 – Steven’s Retirement!
Inspired by the Oscars selfie photo, Steven looks genuinely happy to be escaping corporate America!
Last Friday, Steven officially retired from his job at All Critters Animal Hospital. They gave him a nice send-off with some, um, interesting parting gifts. He really enjoyed working with this crew and will miss them. But, now that he’s “unemployed”, the real work begins. He will turn his attention to downsizing and preparing for the estate sale and the sale of our home.
Steven and I are both serious procrastinators. We should have started going through our stuff a year ago, but we didn’t. So that leaves the bulk of the work to be done in May and June. We have made a small dent in the past few weeks but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. This is not unfamiliar territory for us, though, we tend to do our best work when under pressure so we are confident we will get it all done.
Out with the shelves we are keeping, in with the shelves and crap we are selling. Whew!
Our living room is housing all of our “keep” stuff. This stone coaster set is definitely a keeper!
I will continue to work until the end of May. We have hired my replacement and I am in the process of training her to take over scheduling surgeries for the practice. My role as Front Desk Manager has already been turned over to one of my coworkers, so each day I find my work load is dwindling. This is a good thing.
Onward to more milestones.
UP NEXT: Top seven things I will miss on the road!
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one book at a time..love the coasters!!! I think I would keep them too!
Congrats on your retirement. It looks like the transition is underway! Hopefully our paths will cross one day…
The problem with this life is that we learn many lessons. We've even moved out of our site with the electrical still plugged in!
Sue sent me over to your blog. We have been officially (sale of house closed) full timing since April first. It really is a good and liberating feeling to finally be free of the house and the stuff. We have waited to get renovations done on our coach until now. Waiting to get into the service center for another couple of weeks.
I am looking forward to reading your adventures and sharing ours!
See you down the road.
Sue, you have good taste. 🙂 We bought those coasters early one morning at the Buffalo Gals coffee shop on a day trip to Capitan, NM while we still had our vacay house in Ruidoso. We'd get up early to go exploring, but we had to have a coffee first! We love them!!
Randy, thank so much for you comment. We have been following your blog since the day your found your rig and then hit the road. Your budget info has been a big help. We absolutely hope to cross paths with you in the near future!
Oh, dear. I think Newbie mistakes are our biggest fear. So glad to hear we're not the only ones! Thanks for your comment.
Merikay, I read on your blog about finally selling your home and getting ready to hit the road. So happy for you, and we are not far behind! Perhaps we will meet up one day. Thanks for commenting!
Popping in from Sue…looking forward to following along on your travels Congrats on your milestones 🙂 and I so understand the procrastination!
Looks like you folks are off to a great start with your full time RVing plans & well thought out new Blog. All the best to you in your travels & always nice to see new folks out here in Blogland embracing the adventuress & exciting RV lifestyle.