The adventure begins...

4/25/05. Here we are in front of our rig, a 1996 Fleetwood Prowler 5th wheel and a 2005 Ford F150. We're leaving May 1 for Camden, Maine, where we'll be Workamping. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, it means that we'll work part time for a campground in exchange for our site, water, sewer hookup, electricity, cable TV, WiFi, laundry and a small salary.

View from the campground

Doesn't it look gorgeous?! It's right on Penobscot Bay. We're looking forward to exploring New England.

Right now, we're vascillating between excitement and terror! We're trying to rent our house, but so far our applicants have not had good credit. We just had a likely candidate view the house tonight, and we're really hopeful about her. It would just be her and her fiance--no kids or pets--which is a big plus. She'd also like to rent partially furnished, which would save us a lot of trouble, and it would mean we could keep some of our favorite pieces. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we get someone who'll love our home as much as we do!

We've spent the past six weeks having an estate sale, storing our sentimental items, donating what didn't sell, and generally purging a lifetime of "stuff." Then we started painting, repairing, replacing carpeting and cleaning the house. We've also been visiting family and friends that we won't see again for 5-1/2 months, and doing all the paperwork involved in changing our address and canceling services. It's been very stressful, but we're done with the worst of it now.

It's very exciting to be making such a dramatic change in our lives. We've dreamed of this for 19 years, and now it's really happening! We'll be posting details about our adventure as often as we can. In May we'll be taking our time driving from Orlando to Maine and seeing the sights, so we may not always have internet access. Once we settle into the campground, I hope to be able to post more often (including pictures). Stay in touch--we'll be back in late October!

4/30/06. We rented the house! We're so pleased to have a nice young couple. They were enthusiastic about our house and garden, and we think they'll take good care of it. They have a small terrier, and we weren't keen on having a dog, but they were such a stable pair that we decided they were the best fit.

Well, we're all done packing the camper. We leave tomorrow! Wiley built shelves in the little closets in the bedroom, and we put all the clothing that would usually go in drawers on the shelves (there's only one drawer in the bedroom area!). We knew that we could only carry about 1000 pounds of cargo, not including water and wastewater, so we put our bathroom scale in the driveway and weighed everything as we loaded up. It looked pretty funny--our neighbors already think we're crazy, so this just confirmed it. I took a picture, but I'm too tired tonight to download it.

I found it kind of interesting how the weights turned out:

Food: 85 lbs.
Pots, Pans, Dishes, Utensils: 46 lbs.
Truck Items and Tools: 21 lbs.
Paper Goods, Kitchen Cleaning Supplies & Batteries: 56 lbs.
Small Appliances and Electronics: 62 lbs.
Books and Office Supplies: 30 lbs.
Bathroom Cleaning, Toiletries: 11 lbs. (more to be loaded tomorrow)
Sewer/Sanitary: 22 lbs.
Patio Stuff (Chairs, umbrellas, etc.): 58 lbs.
Tent Camping Equipment: 97 lbs.
Canoeing, Fishing, Hiking Equipment: 48 lbs.
Tools: 84 lbs.
RV Equipment (cords, levelers, handles, jacks): 27 lbs.
Bedroom Storage: 39
Linens (bring your own towel when you come to visit!): 19
Clothing: 161

Grand Total: 874

That leaves us a little room for what's not packed yet (refrigerator stuff, camera and a few small things), plus we can carry a little fresh water. Not too shabby!

We visited Wiley's parents after our long day of packing and ate pizza and delicious apple cake (thanks Ed and Teresa--we want that recipe!). It's been very difficult saying goodbye to all our friends and neighbors. Even though it's only for the summer, we're used to visiting often. We know we'll be seeing friends and relatives we don't see often, and we know we'll be making new friends, but it's still hard. Wish we could bring you all with us! We do hope that many of you will visit us this summer. We can sleep a couple in the camper, or we can rent a primitive cabin for overflow.

We're going to clean house and load a few last minute things tomorrow morning, and hope to leave by early afternoon. We will stop in Ocala tomorrow afternoon and spend the night with our friends Julie and John. We hope to be in Richmond by Wednesday (we'll call you when we get close, Art and Ginny!).

May peace and love abide with you.