It's Tuesday, May 18th, and we have finally moved into our new home!!!
We wrestled our mattress into the back of the RV on Sunday night, and slept in Old Gal for the first time. It was - not bad! We have a queen-size Tempur-pedic mattress (bought in better economic times) and it is so comfortable that it makes any space you put it in better! Not that the bedroom in Old Gal is bad by any means. When we got her the bedroom had two single beds and a small console in the middle. J. took out the beds and built a frame for a queen-size mattress. He built it tall enough so that we have space underneath the bed for storage and for our pooch Freddie's crate. It's like a cozy little nest back there! Ok, I admit that at first I vacillated between feeling it was "cozy" and feeling it was "claustrophobic", but after only 2 nights, I'm feeling the cozy!
Sunday night I didn't sleep so well. J. was out in no time, but I have legendary insomnia, and it doesn't take much to keep me from sleeping. If I come to your house to stay for a night or a weekend? You can bet I'm up late, probably reading to help ease me into dream land. Well this is no different! Same mattress, sheets, comforter, pillows and husband, but stick them all in the back of an RV and there's no way I'm going to sleep anytime soon. So, by 2 am I was back in the house. Practically the only furniture we have left in the house are two reclining chairs, and I slept in one very happily. I told myself that I was like the kid in the children's book who's too scared to sleep over all night at his friend's house, so when he calls his dad to pick him up, his dad tells him not to feel too badly about it - they had a 5 hour sleepover the first time instead of an all-nighter. I decided that I'm like that kid, and I had a 3-hour sleepover in Old Gal the first night. I wasn't ready for an all-nighter.
Last night was much better! We cooked in Old Gal for the first time (portobello mushroom burgers! Yummy!) and then I was the first one to the bedroom where I could stretch out my sore body. And oh, was it comfy! I was out in mere minutes and slept there all night! And I have to say, I think it's gonna be great!
Packing an RV with all of your things is interesting. I underestimated and overestimated how much space we would have for various items, and there's really no way to know what will fit until you're actually putting things away. It's going well, but we're quickly running out of space, and still have many things that need to be packed. Our house on wheels is 23 years young, so we're concerned about adding too much weight. We only have a few days left here (cross your fingers!) and we can't make her too heavy, so some of what I had my heart set on taking will not make it. But that's okay! I've had to prioritize and re-prioritize our belongings, and things I thought were very important before turn out to be mere trifles in the overall scheme of things. We've taken our time in the packing, because everything needs a place, and certain things have to be more accessible than others. This is such a huge life change - it's not like we're just going on a vacation, so if we do a good job now we won't have to repack, or forget where important things are and turn the place upside-down later.
When we first hatched this wacky plan, I set April 1st as our moving date, more as something to aspire to than as a realistic deadline. That only gave us 2 months to move and do everything we needed to do! I knew it would take us longer to move, but I didn't think it would be this long until we were ready to leave! We couldn't have planned for my surgery or any of the other snags we've run into along the way, and I guess it's good we don't have a deadline so that we don't have to take off in a rush and leave things here in total disarray. I am anxious to get going so we can find jobs and start working again, but every day I have to take a deep breath and focus on what needs to be done now to get us toward our goals and not worry about what I can't control. There's a constant battle going on in my head:
"We have to get outta here!"
"We can't yet. We have to be patient and just focus on today and what we need to do. We'll be fine".
"We have to get outta here!"
I'm driving myself insane.
We have to wait until Thursday to get the car aligned (long story but it's in the category of "things you can't control") and we have to have Old Gal ready to roll tomorrow for inspection. She hasn't been on the road since J. drove her up from Florida, but he's taken this time to make sure all of her systems are working before she went for a PA inspection. Other than that and packing the last of the stuff, we're really close to getting on the road!
We're thinking Friday might be the day - but don't quote me on that.
