Odds and Ends

VISITORS TO OUR HOME!

Tom's older sister Cheryl and our brother in-law Dave came to visit one evening. We had a great evening talking and remembering the kids growing up together... lots of memories of our kids "the cousins" growing up together! Dave retired a few years ago and they stay busy with various responsibilities in their church. We have a lot of shared memories and it was good to get caught up!

Cheryl and Dave

We met this next great couple in 1986. Our girls were ages 4 and 6 and we were building a house in Wichita on the west side. It was a new neighborhood with lots of building going on. We had the same builder, Earl Sawyer. He built solid homes that were full brick! Joe and Virginia were building their house just kitty-corner from ours. Our back yards touched each other in the corner. We helped each other put in our yards. We enjoyed coffee on our patios together. We went out to eat at Town and Country together. They were great influences on us and on our children. When their kids were grown, they retired early. They traveled a lot. They rode motorcycles, they caught huge Halibut in Alaska and just explored this country! Then, they shared their enthusiasm for travel with us! They are the ones who encouraged us to take vacations when the kids were younger and money was tight. They said we would be making memories for our kids, things they would always remember. And they were right. They are in their 80's now and still just as active as ever and still traveling!

Virginia and Joe

A LEARNING EXPERIENCE!
Recently we took our new home about 9 miles away to have a generator installed. Even that short trip taught us a lot! We have so much to learn. We have started to make lists or check-off sheets, of things we need to remember to do, but we haven't finished the lists yet. Here are the check-off sheets we need to complete:
1. Things to do inside, to secure everything for travel.
2. Things to do outside, to secure for travel.
3. Things to do to hitch the 5th wheel to the truck.
4. Things to do to unhitch.
5. Things to do to park and hook up.
Since we don't have the check-off sheets done yet, we missed one detail. When we returned to the RV park, I opened the front door and there, on the floor was a MESS. I had forgotten to secure the refrigerator doors. A bump in the road and the doors must of have popped open. The salad bowl and contents were on the floor. The new water pitcher with filtered water was broken on the floor (it was full with 10 cups of water!). The pickle jar was unbroken but I must not have had the lid on securely so all the pickle juice was on the floor. Another learning opportunity! I'm sure there will be plenty more in our future!

NEW BIKE RACK!
We added a Thule bike rack for our new bikes! Here are pictures of it! It's super sturdy and the bikes don't bounce around at all. It fits both of our bikes very well. The locking system is unique and would be so very difficult to break into. We love it!

Happy Mother's Day to ALL women who mother a child! 

What a great weekend it was! We were so lucky to have both girls, our son in-law and Parker with us for the whole weekend! It was a busy and wild couple days and Parker wasn't happy that her routine was messed up! So, photos with all of us looking great, were hard to come by! We visited Tanganyika Wildlife Park where we had made memories with Haley and Drew 5 years ago. So, here are a few photos of our mother's day weekend.

We are in transition!

This is a weird place to be. We have lived in Honalee, our new 5th wheel and our home, for over 3 months. We have no traditional home. We live in an RV park. We only have 2.5 weeks before we retire. We are almost there!

You know how life just kind of happens? You know, you grow up, you go to school, you might meet someone, you may get married, you have a job, you might have kids and life just keeps going on and on. Tom and I have never set a big goal and worked toward it. Maybe little ones like when we needed a new vehicle, researched and bought one. Or we wanted a new job so we applied for jobs. But never a huge life changing goal. We lived and worked in Kansas because that's where we were and where Tom's family lived. Even having our daughters was an easy decision. We got the jobs we could find out of college. We never set our sights on something out there that was huge and different!! We just never set a goal for something that would take years to plan and accomplish, and that would turn our comfortable world upside down. We just kept working, day after day, year after year. We raised the kids as they went to elementary school, then Middle School, High School and college. We dealt with obstacles along the way. We enjoyed the fun times and the challenging times. We just never planned for anything that would take us out of our comfort zone. Something that would change our life completely in ways we couldn't possibly imagine.

Three years ago we began to plan and research and we set a goal. And here we are, on the cusp of reaching that goal. We did it and although it was very emotional at times, it feels good!

We have sold everything except for a few items that we put in storage. I look at photos of my life 6 months ago and I see table and chairs, dishes, decoration and clothes in our home. That vase I bought in Minnesota while on vacation 20 years ago. That bread machine I thought I couldn't live without. The earrings I made when I was into making jewelry. That china buffet my mother passed on to me. The one that I dusted when I was a little girl. All that fabric in my sewing room! I look at pictures of Tom's woodworking tools. The metal Tonka trucks that Tom played with when he was little. The bedroom set we bought when the kids were little. The sweater I loved so much 8 years ago. The Christmas trees and decorations. Where is all that stuff now? I have no idea. I have no idea who has them or who is wearing them. I'll never see those things again. I wonder why it is that I don't miss any of it?

When we started looking into travelling full time, we knew we would be downsizing. At first we thought we would put everything in storage and only travel for 6 months. That morphed into traveling for years. We knew we didn't want to have a stationary home (In the RV world that is called S & B, meaning Sticks and Bricks.). We didn't want the maintenance, the upkeep or the cost. We knew there was a lot to see in North America so why not just keep going. Now we think we will travel until it's not fun anymore or until our health gives out.

I belong to and read many blogs and groups about people doing the very same thing every day. One discussion group I belong to is called "Graduating Class of 2017" through Escapees RV. I belong to Facebook groups about Full Timing (when people live in their RV full time), Full Tim Travel, Living Full Time in an RV etc. Seriously, EVERY day, someone posts, "We did it! We went full time today!" EVERY day someone writes, "We had our estate sale and sold everything!!" There are literally many thousands of people out there doing this same thing. Sometimes someone in a group will ask if anyone regrets selling everything and traveling full time. Out of hundreds of responses such as, "we don't know why we didn't do it sooner!" "This is the best decision we ever made!", there is usually one lonely response that says, "We have been full timing for 4 months and we want a real house again." So, we don't know if this is what we will love or not but so far,... we LOVE it!

The RV rigs I see are all so vastly different!! Some people full time in travel trailers from the very small to the very long. Other's drive motor homes that range from Class A to Class C. They range in price too! Some are large and stately and over a million dollars! Others are the more common motor homes that are around 30 to 40 feet in length and around $60,000 to $120,000. Some people have 5th wheels like ours and pull it with a truck. Some people are young and raising a family as they travel around North America. They home-school their kids and work at their jobs from their motor homes or they have consulting or traveling jobs. Others are middle age and when the kids left home, they left too! They usually are "work-campers" a term for those who work while they camp. They are not old enough for Social Security or retirement. They find jobs at National Parks, Independently owned RV parks, etc. Actually, many people work-camp as they travel! There is a huge network of people who offer or accept jobs for a couple months or up to a year or more. When one job ends, they move on to the next. They usually get their RV location for free, plus pay. And on their days off, they get to explore their new location. Then there are people like us who are older and retire and do nothing but travel!!

We haven't traveled anywhere yet. We have been in the same location for over 3 months now, waiting to retire! But, we love the people we have met. We love coming home every day. We love the simple life we have. We love the unclutteredness (not really a word) of the RV. We have everything we need. NOW WE JUST NEED TO RETIRE!!

As we wait to retire, we have begun to look into where we want to go. We a few thing we have lined up. We know we will go to Indiana to get some Warranty work completed at the factory. While that is being looked at, we are flying to Los Angeles to my uncles 90th birthday. Once we return to Indiana, we plan to head North to relax and see what we see. Upper Peninsula of Michigan? Ontario? In late August we will be in Kansas City Missouri for Parker's 2nd birthday. In late September we will be at an RV rally in Tennessee for 7 days. The rally is put on by a couple who have been full-timing for many years an from what we hear, they have a wealth of information to share. The rally is called, "RV Dreams Fall Rally in Seierville, Tennessee. We are really looking forward to this rally. It's all about living full time in your RV. Maintenance, upkeep, weight of trailer/loads, tires, emotions, equipment needed, domicile, organizing the space etc. Plus lots of social time to meet others doing the same thing! These rallies are offered several times a year. There are several groups that offer this type of training but some fellow RVers are at the RV Dreams Spring Rally right now and think the training is spectacular! They just bought their 5th, 5th wheel and said they are learning a lot! Then we head a little north to meet up with Karis and watch the fall leaves.

That's all we have so far. The in-between times will be just us exploring and finding new spectacular scenery and new ways to relax.

South Dakota Domicile

We decided to become legal residents of South Dakota. We have to "live" somewhere and since we no longer own property in any state, we have to file federal taxes somewhere. South Dakota does not tax our income. Since some of Tom's retirement has already been taxed in Kansas we don't want it taxed again. South Dakota is also located closer to areas that we hope to travel.

So, Tom and I took a few days off work and drove to Rapid City, South Dakota. We drove almost 700 miles in one day. Somewhere in Nebraska we drove by a private home that must collect windmills! What a beautiful front yard!

Windmill collection in Nebraska

Later, in South Dakota we began to see lots of Buffalo which we later read are really Bison.

Google Maps took us up from Wichita KS straight north to Grand Island, NE and on North through Nebraska and into South Dakota. Somehow we ended up going north on South Dakota HWY 63. Google led us there so we figured it was okay. Well, HWY 63 was fine until a sign said, "End of Pavement". We were following a school bus but after about 10 miles, the bus turned around. We kept going on this highway that was a dirt road with a posted speed of 55mph. This highway is along the boarder of the Rosebud Indian Reservation and near the Badlands. For 21 miles we drove through turrain that was desolate but beautiful at the same time, and no homes, buildings or people anywhere. Why did Google Maps send us this way? Here are some photos of this unique area that we stumbled upon. We discovered later that there have been many dinosaur bones discovered in this area.

We stayed at a Hampton Inn in Rapid City. On our drive to Rapid City, we had contacted a Bank of the West branch in a nearby town and asked if we had to drive there in person to open a bank account. We already bank with Bank of the West but we need to open new accounts in SD so we can show we actually are doing business in SD. The branch manager said she would meet us at the Hampton with all the paperwork!! So, as soon as we drove in, we met with her and opened our new accounts! That was easy and very nice of her to meet us!

The next morning we drove to the DMV, armed with various legal documents: social security cards, birth certificates, passports, marriage license. We forgot to get our receipt from our overnight in SD so we had to go back to the hotel to get it. We returned to the DMV and filled out an application for a SD drivers license, showed our various documents and paid the fee. And, here we are with our new drivers licenses!

We are now true South Dakotans!

We then drove to Pennington County Vehicle Registration office. We had our registrations but they wanted our titles so we were out of luck. We were not able to get new tags. We'll have to request the titles from the State of Kansas and send them to SD.

We had the rest of the morning to kill. Rapid City turns out to be a really nice little town! It has new construction, beautiful parks and friendly people. We decided to drive south 20 minutes to Mount Rushmore. We both visited there when we were kids and again in 1982 when our kids were very little. Boy has it changed!!! It's all parking garage and paved walkways. Still a wondrous sight and impressive story behind the sculptures. We stopped and took pictures along the drive.

It was cold and there is still snow on the trees!

Year-round visitors to Mt. Rushmore!

We stopped at a State Farm Insurance office at random to get a SD quote for our truck. We either have to add it to our Progressive policy with the 5th wheel or transfer with State Farm to SD. We also drove by our "Legal South Dakota Address". Yes, we have to have a legal domicile. Well, we found it! Our new home is in a run down strip mall that has various offices, most of which are empty and in disarray. Below is our new "HOME". We peeked under the gap in the mini blind and saw that it is an empty space with some boxes. There is a mail drop in the door! I called the company and they said it's only a place for mail to go and they rent the space but no one is actually there. Someone comes by twice a week and picks up the mail and mails it to our mail forwarding service in Texas. Seems a little sketchy but it's legal!

We sold everything, so we could call this... our new home!?

In the afternoon, we decided to stop at the Museum of Geology on the campus of South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City SD. This is where we discovered how rich SD is in dinosaur fossil findings. So very interesting. This area was a goldmine in dinosaur bones!!! Many over 65 to 80 million years old!! Pretty much blows Creationism theories out of the water!

We left Rapid City and began our journey back. We got as far as Oacoma, SD, on the banks of the Missouri River. We found a resort right on the water and stayed there overnight. The Missouri is wide and beautiful here!

The next morning we crossed over the Missouri River to Chamberlain SD, ate breakfast and went to the Akla Lakota Museum and Cultural Center on the campus of St. Joseph's Indian School. The museum celebrates the rich history of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people. The museum is so well done! The artistry was beautiful! This residential school was originally created in 1927 to take in Native American children in the early 1900's and teach them how to be white. Of course this really turned me off and I was hoping they weren't still doing this!! Sometime in the 1960's, the school realized their error. They realized they needed to embrace the Native American's rich culture and so they began teaching these native american children their own native language, native dance and spiritual beliefs. Today, parents send their children to this free residential school to keep them safe from the reservations and help their children learn their native culture. This is a very impressive campus on the beautiful banks of the Missouri River!

As we drove away, we found this huge 50 foot sculpture of a native american woman on the bluff overlooking the Missouri River. She is named Dignity and it was erected in 2016. The sculpture honors the culture of the Lakota and Dakota peoples.

What a beautiful tribute to the Lakota and Dakota people!

The statue Dignity, is on a bluff, overlooking the Missouri River

YIKES!!!

We ended our trip with a two day stop over in Kansas City Missouri to see our daughter, son in-law and little Parker. She sure loves her grandpa!! We also went to the Park Hill School District Art Fair where Haley had some beautiful art work! A great way to end our South Dakota trip!

Haley's beautiful butterfly in the Art Fair!