This morning, while I was sitting out on my lanai, enjoying the early morning breeze (early-ish, it was maybe 7:30), I had a million ideas for blog posts. (<–hyperbole). Two hours later, sitting in my room, having done an assortment of organizational and internet-related tasks, all of those ideas are totally gone. What did I want to write about again? Oh, right, Serenity first.
I picked her up last Wednesday, YAY!, and when I wrote my blog post last Thursday, she was sitting in my driveway, feeling something like an overwhelming Christmas present, needing to be unwrapped but almost too scary to touch. So much to learn, so much to do, so much stuff to move in and organize and…
…that all became irrelevant Thursday evening, when in the midst of a torrential rainstorm, I discovered that it was also raining inside Serenity. I am trying to count this as fortunate in so many ways — it happened while I was here, still with a dry bed to sleep in. It happened in a big way. If the weather hadn’t been so extreme, it might have taken me weeks to realize that a few drips were a symptom of a serious problem. It happened before I’d moved much stuff into her, so she could go back to the dealer without inconveniencing me unduly. All good things. Of course, they’re sort of counter-balanced by the rather bad thing of it raining inside my future home, but hey, glass half-full. It could have been so much worse. I would have been very unhappy to learn that she leaked at 3AM when I was sleeping under the leak.
So, yeah, Serenity is back at the dealer and I’m really, really hoping to get her back sometime this week. Obviously, one of the dumb issues that I’m going to have to figure out how to deal with when my home needs repair is that she’s also my vehicle. I need to find a ride to get back to her, a ride to get home when I drop her off. It’s not so convenient.
In other things — my weekend felt bizarrely chaotic and overwhelming. The house is a mess and I’m still needing to get rid of more stuff. I’m definitely at the point where the decisions get harder and harder. I have approximately 50 shirts. This is too many shirts. In so many ways, this is too many shirts! But I’ve already said good-bye to all the ones that I didn’t really like, that didn’t really fit as well as I wanted them to or weren’t as flattering as I thought they’d be. I’ve also gotten rid of all the ones that I loved, but that were showing signs of their age. (Almost all of those, a couple are going to get worn until they’re literal shreds. I have a Lehigh University t-shirt that is probably fifty years old, maybe older, faded, with holes, and I still love it.) So, yeah, hard choices about stuff going on.
Also much trying to plan. The house closes three weeks from today. Where am I going to sleep that night? For that matter, where I am going to sleep the night before that? I will have needed to get the furniture out of the house before closing, because it’s not like I’m sticking it on a truck and moving it to the next place. But Serenity needs power to run the air-conditioner, and the guy who showed me around warned me that house power (i.e., not 30 amp) was not sufficient to run the AC. And in Florida, in July? I need the air-conditioner. I can run it on the generator, but probably shouldn’t all night. So the house closes in three weeks, but I need to be staying elsewhere before then, and elsewhere needs to be close enough that I can conveniently come to the closing. Decisions, decisions.
And yeah, somewhere along the way, I’d really like to get back to writing regularly. I’ve missed too many days in a row, because of the distractions of camper ownership, camper repair, and house chaos. But one day at a time, right?
Today’s goal: well, some words would be nice, but I need to get simpler than that. Email! I don’t know how many emails are stacked up in my inbox right now but far too many of them are real emails that deserved real replies. So today’s goal–clean out my inbox, do some more work on cleaning out my house, and remember to enjoy the moment that I’m in. Also, yoga. It’s been at least three or four days, which is too long to go for something that always makes me feel more settled and joyful.
Happy Fourth of July!
One thing I have seen recommended is RV repair insurance, which pays for towing, if necessary, and a motel or hotel, plus meals and transportation while your RV is being repaired. Might be something to look into.
Thanks for the suggestion! I will look at what I’ve got. I did get full-timer insurance, which has roadside assistance and coverage for my belongings, including the ones I will have in storage, but I don’t think it covers repairs or expenses for repairs. But I’ll see what I can find out!
Maybe you should consider pulling a small car. It’s very convenient to have a car to go shopping etc. when you don’t want to take your “home” with you. The only drawback with that is you can’t back up, with the car hooked up. Are you going to travel, or stay put? Sorry if you have already explained all
this.
One of the reasons I got the small RV was so I didn’t have to tow a car — I can park Serenity in a grocery store parking space pretty easily. She’s only 21 feet long so she’s like a big mini-van. I hope I will not have repairs often enough for it to be a problem! And if I do, it’s probably easier to rent a car for a few days than it would be to bring a car along in case of emergencies. And you know, I have no idea whether I’ve ever written about what I’m going to do! But travel, definitely. Lots of travel, I hope!
If you don’t yet have the RV and Tent Camping app from Allstays, it’s worth the $8 or so. All kinds of campgrounds, which WalMarts let you use their lot, repair places…it’s a gold mine. I use it all the time!
Also, the Good Sam Club.
Thirdly, will your brother & sister-in-law let you store some of those difficult decisions at their place? If you didn’t have to make all the decisions before embarking, give yourself time for a shakedown cruise, it might help.
I will grab the app! And look into Good Sam. I joined Passport America, and I thought they were overlapping, but maybe joining both makes sense. As for the stuff, my very first road trip will be straight to my brother’s house so that I can store some of it with him, but that’s not the difficult decision stuff, that’s the “I cannot let this go” stuff — my mom’s cedar chest, scrapbooks, Christmas tree ornaments, china. But that alone is more than I can fit into Serenity on a single trip. I did get a storage unit so I’ve got time to make decisions about everything else, but that has mostly just increased the complexity of my piles — there’s the Serenity pile, the Serenity-if-possible pile, the storage pile, the goodwill pile and the probably trash day pile. I am fairly sure that more items in the Serenity pile have to move into the Serenity-if-possible pile and the real question is which pile the Serenity-if-possible items move to when it turns out to be not possible. But I’ll figure it all out! And you’ll be really glad Serenity is not overflowing when you come to stay with me. 🙂
Sorry your roof leaked. I think you’re right about the timing. Good that you discovered it before you were out on the road in a leaking house.
Yeah, imagining waking up in the middle of the night while I was 500 miles away… it makes it almost easy to be grateful. (Almost! I still wish it hadn’t happened at all. But all RVs have initial glitches, according to my reading, so at least I got one over with quickly.) And thanks for the sympathy!
Places to stay — if you don’t have Serenity back before your escrow closes, your option is either friend or motel. Transportation without Serenity is again, friend or public transportation (cab, bus, ?) If you do have Serenity back, check out campgrounds in your town that are close to the dealership. Walmart parking lots are free so you might consider that (always). Go to the Library and see if they have a copy of Good Sam’s Campground Directory. Or, if you have Automobile Club membership, get yourself a supply of maps and guidebooks — they’re free as part of your membership (which isn’t a bad thing to have if you’re going to be on the road from now on). The guidebooks will help you find campgrounds and places to eat. I’m sure you already know most of this stuff — just brainstorming here.
Thanks! I joined Passport America so I’ll have their book of places before then, I hope. There are no campgrounds right in my vicinity — the nearest one is about 30 minutes away, I think — but obviously, I can stay at a campground, or park in a friend’s street, or definitely use the Walmart or Cracker Barrel parking lots. I know I’ve got options, it’s just figuring out what the best option is! Although, that said, I also remembered that the buyer was interested in keeping the daybed in the living room, so even though all the rest of the stuff should be out of the house by then, I would actually still have a bed available to me.
More yoga is always the answer. 🙂
When I was making replacing the water pump on my van (the one for pumping water to the shower and sinks, not the one for the engine), I thought the same thing, “I am so glad this happened in the driveway and not on the road.” But then I thought, if this happened on the road, I could come up with many different solutions: getting a motel for a night or two, driving to the nearest RV store and working on it in the parking lot, taking it to an RV repair shop, going without water for a couple of days and finding showers at a State Park or other RV park, etc. In the end, whatever challenges present themselves on the road, you’ll figure out. Of course, I do agree that it’s nice to get some things taken care of before you’re living in the thing.
Yep, there are always solutions! Some of them more comfortable than others, though, and staying in my own nice dry bed while the RV gets repaired is definitely top of my list!