Gypsy Journal Rally - Celina, Ohio

Dianne here -- 

  We got the little house ready for winter, and took off for at least eight months, with the first stop being the Gypsy Journal Rally in Celina, Ohio.  We left Pendleton HOPING that our Main Street house closing would go through as scheduled on September 30 while we were gone.

   After 16 months on the market, it was really fitting that the closing took place while we were at a rally attending seminars on full-timing!   It was also ironic that a new full-timing couple who were parked right behind us (from Tennessee) had their house closing on the exact day and time as ours!   Theirs was actually scheduled for 4:00 p.m. and ours at 5:00 p.m., but with the time change taken into account we truly did have simultaneous closings.  We even got the final phone calls at about the same time, letting us all know it was FINALLY over and we were truly home-free!!!!   Boy, what a great feeling!   There was celebration all around. 

     Roger here... At about 6:30 p.m. after our 5:00 closing, our phenomenal realtor, Andy Liechty at FC Tucker, based in the Nobleville IN office, called me during the rally pizza party.  I went outside to take the call, leaving Dianne in the pavilion wondering whether or not the closing was a done deal, OR if there were problems. 

Andy is an old friend and one of the people that I hired as a teacher, before he skipped to realty.  So......... We talked and laughed for a while before I returned to Dianne.  She was white!   

(Dianne here:  I waited and waited and WAITED,  and as time went by I became more and more convinced that something terrible must have happened!)  

I gave her a thumbs up and the color returned to her face.  Nick, the organizer of the rally, had both couples stand up, to the applause of everyone.  It was a good moment.   Just as an aside, if you live in the Indy area and are in need of a realtor, NO ONE is better than Andy!

If you wonder what the Gypsy Journal is all about, there is a link on the left side of our blog page, "Gypsy Journal," that takes you to their web site.  Nick & Terry Russell are full-timers who publish a monthly newspaper that we subscribe to, all about living and traveling full time in an RV.   Nick has written several books on the subject, and over the past two years or so I have purchased them all.  He has thousands of people who read his daily blog and his monthly newspaper, so twice a year they put on a rally; one in the eastern part of the US and one out west (in Arizona).  Celina, Ohio is only a couple of hours from Pendleton, Indiana.  We signed up for the Celina rally last winter, and have been looking forward to it ever since.  We were not disappointed!!

Here are a sampling of the classes Roger and I were able to attend:  RV weight safety, RVing Alaska, Managing Digital Photos with Picasa, Hosting in State Parks, Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems, "Don't Replace, Refurbish," Google Earth, Highway History & Back Road Mystery, RV Travel & Camping Tips, Blogging, Beyond the Basics, Optimizing your RV Storage Space, and Volunteering at National Wildlife Refuges.  There were many more seminars available, so we needed to pick and choose those that were of most interest to us.  

Roger here... as a result of one of the seminars, we purchased a tire pressure monitoring system so that we would get an alarm if any of the tires on our motor home or dinghy lost pressure.  What a relief to know ahead of time of an impending blowout.  Unfortunately, I pushed too many buttons during the self-installation.  The ultimate result was that the vendor came to our RV, rectified the mistakes I made, and gave me a mini-lesson for the future.  Definitely an advantage of purchasing a product at a rally where the vendor is on-site.

Each evening the attendees gathered together and Nick and Terry made announcements and gave out door prizes.  The first night we won $10 off dinner at a local restaurant, which we made good use of the next night.

Nick has the rally thing down to a science!   As we pulled in, volunteers helped send us to the right place to have our motor home weighed before we even got parked.  We had signed up ahead of time to be weighed, because it is hard to find a place that will weigh all four tires separately and help you calculate changes that should be made for optimal weight distribution.

Another irony is that we were parked right next to an exact duplicate of our Mountain Aire.  If we'd had too much to drink, it would have been easy to go to the wrong one!

Each morning they served complimentary coffee and

 doughnuts, and on Wednesday evening we even had a giant pizza party!   I was amazed at the efficiency of that pizza party.  How on earth did they serve pizza to well over 150 people and it was still hot and delicious!!   I still don't know how they did it.   Terry Russell is truly a model of efficiency.  

One aspect of the rally we utilized was a book exchange table.  We had a whole bag of paperback books that we had recently read, and we were able to exchange them for another stack of paperback books.   We do love our Kindles, but we never miss the chance at a book exchange table!

 We purchased some DVDs which will help us plan a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Alaska someday, and others that will help us learn new tricks for the computer.

  

I especially learned a lot at the seminars presented by the "Geeks on 

Tour," who are also full-time RV'ers and gave classes on computer education geared to the needs of travelers.  They have their own web site, www.GeeksOnTour.com,  which is filled with tutorials and videos to help you learn all kinds of neat stuff.  We had used Google Earth before, but didn't realize all the things we could do with it.   Same with Picasa for photos.  I also learned some new tricks for our blog, and when things settle down I'll try to implement some of them.   

Roger here....   The last night of the rally, Dianne insisted that I take a picture of her and Nick.

  Nick constantly refers to the pretty ladies that he knows.  Should I be jealous?

There were vendors at the rally and we did our fair share of shopping for RV-related items.  

 All in all, it was a great experience, and we are already looking forward to next year's eastern Gypsy rally, which will be next August/Sept. in Elkhart, Indiana.

"Working Like Dogs" + Yet ANOTHER Garage Sale!!

Roger here....  We took these pictures at our VERY LAST garage sale

 that took place a couple of weekends ago, but have been too busy to write about it until now.  Today was the day that I planned to work in the yard at our new little house, bringing in outdoor hoses, planters, chairs, etc. before leaving Indiana until next May, but on a day that was supposed to be partly cloudy and dry, it is raining.  I was able to wash the motor home, including the roof, in the rain, but I refuse to do the other yard work until the rain stops.  (I was interrupted in the middle of this.  It is now 5:30 p.m. and it is STILL raining.)  So it is a good time to get the blog up to date.

To use Dianne's oft used expression, we have been working like dogs to get ready for our departure.  There was still a lot of "stuff" to get rid of (ours and our daughter's) in addition to some of our valuable antiques.  Soooo.....  Reluctantly, we had another garage sale.  This time, we timed it to coincide with Pendleton's Fall Heritage Fair, which always draws hundreds of out-of-town people.  It was a good decision.  About two-thirds of the "stuff" was sold after the two-day sale.  All of the remaining items were loaded in the car and taken to Goodwill.  Our new garage is now clear!  

We have also completely emptied the house and garage of the house that we are selling.  Dianne listed the last antiques on Craig's list and one very valuable 1830 nine foot tall-case clock on Ebay.  The clock was purchased  by a clock expert from Cincinnati, who assures us that he knows how to get the wooden works to once again keep time.  All of the other items are also gone.  The house and garage are totally empty.  What a relief!  We can now live the rest of our lives only being concerned about the few items we have in the little house that we will visit for a couple months each year and the motor home.   We also decided to keep our red 

Adirondack chairs so that we can enjoy the views of the soy bean field and woods across the street.

  The second floor of the little house is totally devoted to the storage of the items that we could not part with (photos, etc.), and the items that our daughters and granddaughter wanted us to keep for them. 

 Speaking of our grandaughter, Kaia called us today.  She just got her first report card from her new school in Fort Myers ---  nine A's and 3 B's.  Not bad!  We are so proud of her and can't wait to see her and her mother in our travels.  

We had the motor home serviced at Mt. Comfort RV yesterday - a VERY good place for service.  We have come to depend on their advice and trust the service that they have done for us.  Good people!  While we waited, we wandered through the store.  Dianne found an extension to add to our batwing so that we could, hopefully, get all of the local channels.  (There is a tree in front of our satellite's south view that needs to be addressed when we return in May.)  We have only been getting one of the three major networks.  I installed it, and it actually works!  Now we can keep up on the new network shows.  Too bad we did not get it earlier, since we are leaving on Sunday.  

I will end with what I think is a funny story.  (Dianne may not.)  We both have a laundry list of tasks to accomplish before we leave for the Gypsy Journal Eastern Rally in Celina, Ohio on Sunday.  One of the items was to address the locking of our new front and garage doors.  Since we did not have a key for the garage door, nor the ability to shut the storm door in the front without it blowing open, both needed to be repaired.  We made a quick trip to the local hardware store and purchased a new handle/lock (with new keys) for the garage door, and a new handle mechanism for the storm door in the front.  Dianne and I agreed that we could each install one of the items.  Dianne took the storm door, so I started on the garage door.

We have a photo of the new garage walk-in door lock  installation.  It works REALLY well.  After I finished, I went into the house to see how Dianne was doing.  

Let's just say that despite the smile on Dianne's face (with the drill), that things were not going well.  Evidently, the installation require the drilling of a couple of new holes in the metal storm door.  As you can see,  Dianne drilled at least five.    

 Fortunately, they are all now covered by the new installation, which, I must admit, was much more involved than mine.  Oh well!  Everything now works.  It's all good!

Our next entry will probably be from the Gypsy Journal Eastern Rally in Celina, Ohio.  We have been looking forward to this for far too many months.  It should be both fun and educational as we learn some of the new skills of our adopted lifestyle.  WE CAN'T WAIT TO GET THERE.

Dianne here:  Boy, do we need a break, and we REALLY need to soak up this rally and remember why we've been doing all this work this summer, and what we're working towards.  We have both reverted to our former stressed-out selves, and can't wait to get all this behind us and hit the road once again!!    

Labor Day Fun With Friends

oger here...  It has been a while since our last entry.  We continue to be saturated with all the details of changing houses, and moving toward a closing on our house.  The frenzy of activity has prevented us from spending much time doing anything else, but we are getting close to where we want to be.  

Dianne here -- I'm VERY excited to report that as of today, we are officially "furniture-free"!   After three years of working and planning, the last furniture items left our Main Street house yesterday, leaving it TOTALLY empty!  I just an hour ago finished the final "exit cleaning," mopping my way out the back door, which we promptly locked, hoping never to enter again.  I'm so glad that I never again have to clean and maintain a three-story Victorian house!!   All garage sales are over, house is empty and clean, and we are ready to start the rest of our lives.   More on that in the next blog.

We did get away on Labor Day weekend with a few of our RVing friends; Chuck and Cindy (plus Sophie

 - the world's strongest dog), & Pat and Audrey.  We spent three nights at the Hidden Paradise Resort on Flat Rock Creek near St. Paul, Indiana.  

A private campground of this type was unique for Dianne and me.  Instead of backing into a designated site, we were assigned to a hook-up pedestal that served all three of our rigs. 

 The pedestals were located in a huge, football-like, grassy field.  We could park the rigs in any configuration, so we opted to "circle the wagons" to allow for easy communication and access to the continuing supply of 

food that we always consume too much of. 

 (Sorry former English teachers.  I know that the last sentence ended in a preposition.)

It was the first college football weekend of the year. 

 IU had already beaten Eastern KY on Thursday, so we were able to concentrate on the Purdue game on Saturday.  We agreed to put both the IU and Purdue flags on the flagpole 

- an effort in good sportsmanship.  We watched the game on the outside TV screen while consuming appropriate refreshments.  Purdue handled Toledo very well.  Maybe a better season?

We intended to pump up our inflatable kayaks for a trip on the Flat Rock River, but the water level was too low.  We would have spent most of our time dragging the kayaks in shallow water over the rocks.  It didn't sound like much fun, so we skipped it, opting to play games and watch movies instead.  It did rain much of the time, giving us an opportunity to watch Lucy and Desi in the LONG, LONG TRAILER.  We all had forgotten how funny that movie was.

We did also have a unique experience while sitting by the campfire.  (Dianne, the pyro-queen provided the 

kindling.)  Any way, it was pretty late, around 11:00 p.m. when a rig pulled up next to our circled rig.  A campground staffer asked us if they could plug into our hookups.  After we agreed, Chuck jokingly told the new couple that they had to provided beverages for breakfast in the morning.  Soon after, the couple came over to the campfire with Budweisers for the guys and white wine for the ladies.  As it turns out, it was a German couple in a rented RV traveling the U.S. to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.  How cool.  They did not know about the need to have reservations on Labor Day weekend and were desperate to find a place to park for the night.  It was great fun talking to them for a few minutes.  What nice people.

Well that's all for now.  The next post will be about our final efforts in moving into a smaller house, selling our remaining furniture and "stuff",  and getting ready to hit the road again - something we have missed these past few months.

R

Indiana State Fair, House News, and Yet Another Garage Sale!

Roger here....  

It has been another busy week.  Since we have been back in Indiana, we seem to be working harder than ever, at least physically harder.   I am really looking forward to January when we will be spending a couple of months at Bentsen Palm Village in Mission, Texas.  Staying in one place for two months will be a different experience for us as full-timing rookies.  Should be fun.

In the midst of all the work, we did take a break last Thursday evening to attend the Indiana State Fair with our friends, Jay and Nancy.

  The State Fair was always a big deal for those of us who grew up in Central Indiana.  My dad used to show cattle when he was a kid, and slept in the stall with the livestock.  His dad (Grandpa) showed apples from his orchard every year.  The walls of the apple barn next to Grandpa's house used to be covered with all the ribbons that he won over the years. 

 I personally, growing up as a townie, was not into 4-H, showing livestock, or growing produce (except for one year in 4-H with an insect collection - blue ribbon at the county fair),  However, I loved the State Fair, My memories of the fair from my youth included the midway rides, great food that sometimes made you 

sick, looking at all the animals, watching the high school bands perform, and wandering around with my family and friends.  Actually, when Dianne and I were dating, we spent a day wandering around the State Fair.  

It was a nostalgic day.  Many things were the same.   Some were different.  The world's largest hog was still on display, as was the display of grotesquely-large pumpkins

 (see photo).  The rows and rows of apples that I remembered from my grandfather's day had shrunk to a couple of tables.  The walking and walking and walking

 to see everything was still a challenge.  We did not ride the plentiful tractor-pulled carts

 that have operated for at least 50 years, because the exercise was good for us :).  The greasy and yummy food was everywhere.  We did pretty well, health-wise, eating a ribeye sandwich and a loaded baked potato for dinner.  However, I must admit that we did sample some very good and very greasy onion rings, and the mandatory cinnamon-sugar-coated elephant ear.  We passed on this year's specialty, deep-fried, chocolate-coated bacon -- just too weird.   In passing, Jay said that a lot of the food was deep-fried.  I challenged him to find something that was not.  He did - lemonade shake-ups and pineapple whip  :).

The highlight for me was walking through the horse barn and petting those magnificent animals.  The gigantic draft horses were amazing.  There must have been some sort of horse show in the coliseum, because we passed several silver-ladened teams of horses pulling a variety of carts.  

Lots of fun.  Lots of memories.

Back to our hectic lives:  Our house has sold, barring any unforeseen circumstances.   The closing will be in late October when we are in Kansas, so we will have to use technology to sign the papers.  This is wonderful news for the two of us - something that will truly enable us to enjoy our new lifestyle as full-time RVers.  Yippeeeeeeeeeeee!   We have been working toward this for three years.  Things are finally moving in the right direction.

Just to keep things interesting, our daughter and granddaughter have moved to Ft. Myers, FL.  We may have already posted this.  Dianne and I own (no mortgage) the small house in Pendleton that they have lived in for the past several years. 

 In addition to selling the antique furniture from the house that we just sold, we are now getting rid of the "stuff" that Amanda and Kaia did not take with them to Florida, and in the process giving the house a GOOD spring cleaning (in August).

We had a yard sale last Saturday that included items from both houses.  We did get rid of a lot of the bigger (size-wise) items - one of the goals.

  BUT, on a day that only had a 10% chance of rain, it rained off and on all day.  (Note from Dianne:  I hurried up to get ready for a garage sale this day because the forecast all week was for BEAUTIFUL weather, sunny and high 70s.   We were outside by 5:45 a.m. hauling things out to display in the yard.  You guessed it -- as we were putting the last items out around 8:00 a.m., it started to drizzle.  It turned out to be a really lousy day, and the WORST garage sale I've ever had!!   We spent all day trudging things in and out, tracking mud on the floor, drying things off only to have the drizzle begin again.  It was miserable!!!!!)

 A few things, none valuable, were ruined as we hauled things into the house, then out of the house, then into the house, ad nauseam.   I must reveal that there was some snipping between Dianne and me throughout the day (an understatement -- D.), and the garage is still packed with items that we must dispose of.   We are planning to do it all over again with better advertising and a nicer day hopefully (weather-wise) on the weekend after Labor Day. 

 This will coincide with the annual Heritage Fair in Pendleton, so there will be a lot of out-of-town traffic, which usually helps.

In the midst of all this, our older daughter, Robyn, who is currently performing on an NCL cruise ship in Hawaii through Second City (Chicago), called.  We have not seen her FOREVER.  We are storing her car in our garage until she finishes her current stint.  Anyway, she is pretty sure that she wants to try things out in Los Angeles.  She has been very successful acting and doing improv comedy in Chicago, so this seems like a logical step.  It is a good thing that we can easily bring our home across the country to visit both our daughters (Florida and California).  

Finally,  Dianne and I have made a pretty major decision:   We have decided to keep the small cottage-style house that our daughter and granddaughter lived in.  Our original plan was to buy a parking spot with a Florida/Arizona room in a warm area that we would leave in the hot months.  Now we plan to arrive in Indiana in August so that I can continue to do HR consulting for my former school corporation, stay through the early fall (beautiful in Indiana), then travel for the other ten months.  Financially, this makes sense for us, since we already own the small house, and know that right now we could not recoup our original investment.  

Property taxes are low on a small Indiana house.  

We would have a place to land when we can no longer "walk".  And besides, we love Pendleton, IN.  It is a beautiful hidden secret that the people of suburban Indianapolis will soon discover next to interstate 69. 

  (Dianne here:  What Roger forgot to mention is that his parents used to own this little house as a rental.  When we were newlyweds in 1972 we lived here for almost a year, rent-free.   Then Roger's brother lived here when he first graduated from Purdue until his marriage.   This little house has a lot of family history!   Roger's uncle purchased the house from Roger's parents, and lived here until just before his death.  We purchased it from his estate for our daughter and granddaughter to live in as long as they needed a home.   As we were painting the upstairs trim yesterday, I remarked to Roger that if someone had told me when I was 23 years old and painting this room that I'd be re-painting it when I was 58 years old, I wouldn't have believed them!   I guess we've come full-circle....)

The house, which looks great (quaint) on the outside, 

needs a little (not a lot) of work on the inside.  We will probably return for a couple weeks in May to put up some bead-board walls in the main room and put new flooring in the bathroom and laundry room.  It already has a new foundation and substructure flooring (due to an unfortunate termite experience about 3 years ago).  The main room and kitchen have nice-looking laminate flooring that Dianne installed a couple of years ago, after the termite fiasco.  We will put our bedroom furniture, a wicker couch, a Lazy Boy recliner on the first floor, and use the second floor for storage.  The views are of a forested vacant lot and a large soy-bean/corn field with a forest in the background.  Falls Park on the falls of Fall Creek, one of the best small-town parks (including hiking trails) in the midwest, is only two blocks away.   (Dianne again:  It is also right down the street from the Every-Saturday-In-Summer farmer's market, walking distance to the local library and the center of town, and just down the street from the community swimming pool.   Location, location, location.   We will call it our "glorified storage unit.")

Last week we had a 50-amp outlet installed so that we can run both air conditioners in the motor home.  (We intend to sleep in the motor home when we stay here.)  We may cut down a small tree and have a pad, that allows our dish to face the southern sky,  installed so that we can resume our satellite coverage during the few weeks we are here.   

 (In this neighborhood, there is not a problem, expense or hassle with covenants or homeowners' associations.   We already pay someone to keep it mowed, so it seems to be the perfect solution for us to be able to travel as much as we want and still live mostly on Roger's pension.  -- D)

My life as a school administrator was always challenging, rewarding, stressful, and busy.  Right now my life seems to be the same (without the income).  The good news is that we are very close to having the challenges, the rewards, and the busyness, and leaving the stress behind.  As I said before, I can't wait until January.  By the way, the dogs don't seem to be nearly as busy as Dianne and me!

Kayaking with Friends on Sugar Creek

Hi everyone....  Roger here....  It has been a while since our last blog.

Sorry for the delay.  We have been busy in Pendleton selling furniture from our house and now our daughter's house - that we own.  She will not be needing it with her recent move to Ft. Myers, Florida, so we are clearing everything out and doing a spring cleaning at the same time.

  We are currently parked in her driveway and had a 50 amp outlet installed so that we can run our air conditioners.  I must say that with all the work we are doing, it is far more convenient to be parked in the town where the work is, rather than several miles away in a state park.  

We really enjoyed our last days at Turkey Run State Park.  The stay, which had been planned last January, involved having friends (Chuck/Cindy, Audrey/Pat, Ed/Karen) in the adjacent sites for the weekend.  The festivities began Friday afternoon with a goodly supply of Chuck's "breakfast juice" (a/k/a Bloody Marys).

We ate extremely well every meal - barbecued chicken (Cindy brought at least 15 birds!), barbecued ribs, homemade pasta salad, pork burgers from Prophetstown State Park, and outstanding breakfasts that included french toast casserole & sausage, sausage and gravy (the best I've ever had) with potatoes, and yogurt cups with fresh fruit & nuts (Audrey gets an A+ for presentation).

The occasion reunited Chuck and Cindy's dog, Sophie, with Auntie Dianne.  Dianne, of course, loves Sophie and even washed and saved the dog toy that she played with in Florida.   

Sophie (the brindle dog in the photo) is a designer dog, half dachsund and half boston terrier.   (Dianne here:  if you want to see some cute puppy photos of Sophie, check our prior blog(s) under the category "dachston puppy" in the left-hand listing).

 The last time we saw Sophie was at Ft. Myers in March when she was a puppy (Sophie - not Dianne who is my age).  We were amazed at how big she has gotten.  She weighs almost as much as our dogs, in the 30-pound range, and is strong as an ox - especially on the leash.  She gets along extremely well with our whippets and truly is a sweetie pie.

We have met Chuck and Cindy at Turkey Run during the same time frame for the last four years.  The highlight of each trip (other than the food and breakfast juice) has always been an 11.5 mile kayak trip down Sugar Creek.  This year's trip was outstanding. 

 It was a beautiful, sunny day.  We made a couple of stops as we paddled along - one for a picnic lunch, and one for a surprise cache of

 margaritas that Pat had hidden in his cooler (under the beer).  

 There usually is a mishap of some sort during the trip (Dianne's near spill a few years ago was a memorable one).  This year there were a couple:  Karen's kayak had a hole in the bottom and was taking on water - a lot of water.  After draining the water (half hour process), we did a band aide job of covering the hole, literally, with a band aide that I had in my waterproof box.  It seemed to work, at least well enough to finish the trip.  Chuck DID dump his kayak.  Unfortunately, a good pair of his prescription sunglasses are now floating somewhere along Sugar Creek.  

We said goodbye to Ed and Karen quickly after the kayak trip ended on Saturday so that they could rush home to attend Symphony on the Prairie at Conner Prairie in Fishers, IN.  We enjoyed everyone else's company for the rest of the weekend.

We have some good news (knock on wood).  We accepted an offer on our house!  We know that nothing is final until the closing, but we are ecstatic about possibly putting a major hurdle behind us.  

We will not be doing anything too exciting until Labor Day weekend and another kayak trip with the Gemmers, so the blogs may be infrequent and probably not too interesting for a while. Keep with us, though, because we will have a lot of good things to report as we continue to enjoy our new lives.