RV'ing The Dream: The Countdown Begins

Not ready yet, but at least there's soda.

Today is August 29^th of one of the worst summers of my life, weather-wise. It started out without a bang, too cool and wet to even be considered summer as far as I am concerned. But then two weeks ago, the heat really took hold, and soon after, humidity followed. Humidity is the middle-aged woman’s enemy, I have discovered. I’ve never been bothered too much by any type of weather, enjoying warm summer rains as much as the next person, but this swampy weather is too much. I find myself wishing for winter even before the fall colors have set in. Okay, so despite my ranting, I must rave about today, for today is a beautiful 73 degrees. The morning was even a little misty, reminding me of many cool summer days I’ve spent at the beach. I absolutely loved it.

Despite my dread of heat and humidity, I had better not wish away the days, however, because we have too much to do before spring.

Six months is the timeline I mentioned the other day. I was “informed” by my sweetheart that it is more like 8 months. Darn. I was hoping for a huge bon voyage party for my 44^th birthday. Since I now know our departure is more like 8 months away, let’s actually count that out and see where it lands. Hmm, if six months would have been my birthday, then eight months . . . wait, let me guess—that’s our 14^th anniversary. I still see a party in our future! Yippee! What a better send off than having the party of a lifetime with our friends? Sounds like a plan to me. Sounds like a bon voyage party in the making!

Can you tell we are getting ready for a yard sale?

We have so much to do, so much so that I easily get overwhelmed by it all. We have to finish selling off all our stuff. Call it downsizing, minimizing, or just plain great bargains on great stuff for the rest of you all, however you say it, it all has to go. We also have to finish remodeling the interior of the Raven. Now, we aren’t doing any major overhauls, just little touches mostly. Ken has been diligently working on all that since healing from his total knee replacement.

For my part, I get to do some interior designing. I get to choose the colors and fabrics and all that fun stuff. I am so excited because I have never had a home that all its parts coordinated. Frankly, I’ve had very little coordination in a single room, let alone an entire home, even if that home is on wheels. I have decided to have that “perfect” home, finally—as in all matching dishes and linens and window treatments. I am so excited to get to create it all. I have never had a home with things exactly as I have wanted. I’ve always had hand-me-downs or garage sale items or whatever was on clearance, not that there is anything wrong with all of that. We survived just fine, but it was always someone else’s taste, not mine.

Where's dinner?

So far, we have agreed on our dishes: Portmeirion. I know. What kind of lunatic takes fine china camping? But we are not camping, per se. This is our home, our retirement home. We also have Oneida flatware and that beautiful stemware which sat in a box in the garage for the majority of our married life. What a shame not to use our pretty things while we can.

I have already reupholstered the sofa and the seats for the dining booth. I settled on earthy tones of greens and faded reds as the predominant colors, for the main living area anyway. The boudoir will be another adventure altogether. (Bring your mind back, front and center.) I pulled the window treatments down in the bedroom already. They are a hideous mix of pastels and a little metallic spattered in. I am trying to figure which decade that fabric came from. I am thinking more along the lines of the ‘80s rather than 1996, which is the year of our coach. Yuck. Before they go back up, recovered of course, I am contemplating making some Roman shades to match. Then I can get rid of those ghastly blinds, too. First, I will need to check out some of the recycled goods stores. We have several that offer reusable building materials, and then there is the main one I am thinking of, the Scrap store, which has craft supplies up the wazoo. I am looking forward to spending an entire day there, if I have to.

Ken has been working on a new center console, one that is not angled, because he knows as well as I do that Her Highness, Princess Tinker Belle, must have a seat of honor while we travel. It is either that or she will claim the dash, which is a no-no while we are in motion.

This week we are working on what seems to be the largest hurdle to our eventual departure—unloading all our stuff. Labor Day Weekend is almost upon us, and the weatherman says we will have almost perfect weather. So the sale is on, starting Thursday.

Hope to see you there!