Two Weeks Down

I would love to say that the past two weeks have gone by without any hitches, hiccups, or hardship, but if I said that, it would be a complete lie. Let me start from where we last left off...

Our first three days in the RV it rained. And rained. And rained some more. Enough so that our kids had a new "pond" to play in just outside our doorstep. And while this put a major kink in our move from the house to the RV, it provided them with a source of endless entertainment, so I guess it balanced out.

In spite of the rain, we only had until the end of the week to be out of the house, so we moved what we could when we could. You would be surprised at the amount of "stuff" we have accumulated over nine years of marriage! We had three garage sales, made at least 8 trips to Goodwill, donated several truckloads full to our church garage sale, gave items to a needy family who's house had just burned down, loaned out items to family and friends to use until we return, stored most of the clothing we aren't taking with us at my parent's house, and filled up our storage completely (at right), along with half of a storage that my in-laws graciously allowed us to use, and we still had items that needed to go. Needless to say, last week was a little stressful. But, after countless trips, we finally had everything we needed at the RV and everything was out of the house - we were officially moved into the RV!
This past Sunday, June 1st, was our first official day of being completely moved in. While getting ready for church, the hanging rack in our closet, which was apparently overloaded, completely pulled away from its mount and promptly dumped all of our clothes on the floor in the process. While I was pretty bummed that this happened right out of the gate, I was also a little excited at the opportunity to prove that I could in fact handle any repairs that would be needed. One trip to Home Depot, two early Father's Day gifts to myself (new drill and screw gun), and several packages of appropriate screws and nuts later, I had that bad boy securely mounted back in place.

Since we knew we would need the experience of breaking down and setting up, we had only planned to stay in the park we were at for a week, so Monday morning we starting prepping for our first move. While Molly was inside packing and making sure everything loose was stowed properly, I was outside draining tanks and making sure all of our hatches were shut and locked. Then we rolled in our slide-outs, hooked up the truck, raised jacks, retrieved parking blocks, and we were off! Ten minutes later we rolled into RV park number two. (Hey, I said we needed practice breaking down and setting up, not driving!)

While our first parking spot had been a pull-through, I purposely booked a back-in this time so I could gain the experience. Communicating over speakerphone with Molly helping in the blind spots, it went smoothly. Forty-five minutes after arriving we were completely unhooked from the truck, set up, leveled,  hooked up, and slid out.











While Molly worked on getting the house set back up inside, the kids immediately set about exploring their surroundings. The park is located right on Lake Conroe, and it has a small island that you cross a little bridge to get to, which the kids thought was pretty cool.















Here they are, just hanging around...

Our cat, Hiccup, on the other hand, was not thrilled with the change - I think she was confused, because the house was the same, but this was not the same place!

 

The rest of this week has gone by pretty smoothly; Molly has been working to get everything in it's place, and I've been in the office trying to wrap up loose ends before we hit the road permanently. Tuesday night Molly cooked our first dinner in the RV, chicken stir fry, and it was fantastic. I'm sure getting used to a tiny stove wasn't quite as fantastic, but she rocked it nonetheless. Our only other issue (so far) this week happened today, when Molly let me know that the lights in the kid's bedroom weren't coming on. After checking the breaker and fuse box, I discovered a fuse had blown. Off to the store I went. With the new fuse installed, everything was back to working order. 

While nothing major has gone wrong, the minor things we've had to deal with have served as a good confidence boost that we'll be able to handle whatever happens along the way on this journey. A little patience and hard work solves most things, in RVing and in life. :-)

~Jonathan