Getting Ready

Hello and welcome to our blog.

Getting ready to leave for seven or eight months is really quite a challenge.  First of all we have to figure out what 'we think' we will need for that span of time.  It's very hard to even imagine that the weather could be cooler as we have just spent the past three months in one of the warmest season in a good many years.  But we are heading north and then west so cooler weather will be upon us before we know it.

This was the summer of tire replacement.  We put six new tires on the truck, four new tires on the 5th wheel, and four new tires on the car.  Yes that makes 14 new tires.  During all this I am thinking there goes a couple of cruises.  We also had the brakes replaced on the truck.....and we filled the truck's two tanks (140 gallons) with diesel.  Let's see at $2.85 a gallon......I'm sure we will have to do that a few more times before we arrive in Mesa, AZ.

We are hoping to pull out of our current park in Spring Lake, MI on August 31, 2010.  Our first stop of the day is scheduled for 9:00am and that will be to have the brakes checked on the 5th wheel.  They told us that it should not take over four hours max.  We will see.  Once that is taken care of we will only have one more task to perform.  That is to store my car for the next seven months.  We are hoping to at least get in about four hours of driving but it will mostly depend on the brake people. 

Another issue that is always a challenge is the mail.  I went to the post office to see just what was available as far as forwarding mail.  Did you know they have a form to fill out that will hold mail for 30 days max, another form that will forward mail for six months, and still another form that will forward the forwarded mail but not more than six months.   That would mean filling out three forms for each of us and the possibility of error would be high.   I looked at Jim, he looked at me, and we decided to have all our mail forwarded to our mail service in Rapid City, SD.  Done!   

I can tell you with total honesty that just thinking of leaving friends and family is making my heart ache.  That's the hard part.  But as my granddaughter, Taylor, always tells me, I am her 'Grandma Mary, the Gypsy Queen.'  So I guess I will be just be fine.  Besides I have learned how to text on my cell phone and I can text often.