Texas Via South Carolina Or Bust

Okay, I didn't get these posted at the time I wrote them so am adding a picture of our graduate!! We had a great time in South Carolina with grandparents and grandchildren (oh, and children). Just to let you know I am posting this while driving down Interstate 10 next to the coast. What a beautiful site! We haven't seen any of the oil spill mess but may up a little further up the road.

Yep, we are on our way to pick up the Bighorn. Whooo hoooo!!! But first we must make a pitstop in South Carolina. Paul is graduating from University South Carolina—Aiken on May 6 and we have to go partake of the festivities and let him know just how proud of him we are. We are busting at the seams with excitement and joy. Oh, and we also are taking the items we wanted to give to them out of the house along with some to Randy’s parents. We look fairly interesting pulling the Cougar camper with a washer and dryer in the bed of the truck. Some would say we wanted to travel prepared!!

This is actually written on May 5 -- I must share the highlight of our day since not too much can excite us along this route as we have traveled it several times. We needed to stop for diesel before we got into the heart of Birmingham, AL. So we found a station which had it for $2.99/gallon but it was in one of the lower end neighborhoods of suburbia Birmingham. Now, remember once you make a commitment to turn with pulling the trailer changing direction is a little difficult. So off we pull both scanning the area for the diesel pumps only to discover they are in the back of the building. Okay, no problem but little did we know we would have to dodge meteor craters (picture) to get to the tanks and with no way to back up. My super skilled driver took them on like a slalom course and skillfully made his way to the tank. Oh—it doesn’t end here. This station required prepayment before pumping so Randy went into the station to pay but the door was locked and had to ring a bell before allowing entry. Once inside he noticed the front door was also locked with a buzzer to allow the patron in. On top of this, the clerks were behind about two inch thick Plexiglas with small slots to hand them either the card or money. Then Randy needed to wash the diesel fuel off his hands only to discover the bathroom was locked up tight with cameras right outside the door for monitoring. You can decide for yourself but we think we will bypass this station on future trips as there were just a few signs that this wasn’t the safest most comfortable place to be.

One Garage Sale for Sale

After a very chaotic Friday night of severe (I guess I should really capitalize “severe”) thunderstorms with several tornados touching down, we weren’t quite sure how successful, or if at all, our Saturday garage sale would be. But I must say, garage sale shoppers come from some strong stock. I really don’t think a sited tornado at Magness Creek would have stopped them. Oops, getting ahead of myself, so let me start you at the beginning.

After four weeks of sorting and preparing for the big annual neighborhood garage sale, I had as much as the garage could handle in the garage along with three other piles in the house and then the yard pile in the backyard, all priced and ready to go. Friday afternoon Randy needed to take some packages to the post office for mailing and I was going to stay at home to scan over things one more time. He went out the garage (which we hadn’t been doing since everything was set up in there) and left while I pulled out a couple tarps from behind the tables we had set up. He hadn’t been gone for 5 minutes and I had a gentleman ask if he could look through our items. Well, I didn’t mind as I really didn’t care if it went Friday night or Saturday morning as long as it sold. Get this, by the time Randy returned I had had 15 customers and sold $200 worth of stuff. It was the craziest 45 minutes.

Karl and Angela drove through the storms Friday night so they could help with the sale the next morning. We are so very grateful they did. We arose at 5:00 a.m. to shower and start our day knowing it would be busy. Randy went outside at 6:00 to move the truck down to the school parking lot and there were already cars lining the streets. So at 6:15 we opened our garage door and, no kidding, before we could pull the extra tables out to line the driveway, we were swarmed with customers. We probably made half our profits during the two hours before the garage sale was even suppose to start Saturday morning. All four of us were helping people, answering at least four questions from different customers at the same time and trying to make change as fast as others would hand us more money from what they were purchasing. Patience was not one of the customer’s virtues as it seemed they were trying to have a race to get to the next sale to grab up the bargains first. We were inundated with interesting, unique Arkansas natives all morning long. I wanted to get lots of pictures of the busyness but couldn’t break away from shoppers long enough to snap the camera. I have included the few I was able to get. Along with the multitude of customers, we would have to take time to cover the outside items with tarps when the small rains would come through. It sure didn’t stop the shoppers though as they would just lift the tarp and look underneath; sometimes even purchased stuff from underneath. We were able to close up the sale around 3:00 pm. Then, again, the skies opened up later that night with more heavy thunderstorms and tornados. We thank the Lord that all we know are safe and only property damage was sustained. We are also grateful to belong to a church that willingly gives service so help is on its way this weekend.

The garage sale was a great big success and we took total advantage of resting on the Sabbath to recooperate and attend church.

Piles, piles, piles...But I still know where everything is!

After four stressful weeks, every item in my house has a new home (pile). This process has burned quite a few brain cells, caused more grey hair, and even made the temper flair a time or two. But...there were also many times when smiles crossed our faces while memories were recalled making it the most precious moments up to this point of running away. Each item was placed in one of nine piles -- garage sale (huge, huge pile), long term storage, storage in Cougar travel trailer, take in 5th wheel Bighorn trailer, Karl's, Paul's, Sylvia's, give to friends, or just plain trash. Every room in the house is filled with piles which doesn't do a thing for my organizational, put it in its place brain.

Of course, after everything was sorted, the garage sale items needed to be priced and placed out in the garage in a somewhat organized manner. Our garage is stuffed to the gills. Garage sale day will be several someone's lucky day for bargain hunting!!

Oops...I forgot another pile I had going which kept Randy well employed. We had several items laid aside to list on Ebay and then our big furniture we wished to sell on craigslist. What an undertaking in itself. We have become great fans of craigslist though and know exactly how we will refurnish a home when we settle down again.

I can hardly wait for the relaxed part of this great adventure...

It's Not All Up for Grabs

Okay, I am hoping this works as I am trying to add a couple pictures. Not sure how to put the caption on the pictures though. Guess I am ready for Blogger 101 and a half!!

After we had announced to the children our plans of full-time RVing, we hoped there would be some requests for items from the home that meant something to them. After all most of us have a since of nostalgia and want things to remind us of our past...the happy parts anyway. What we didn't expect was some home invaders, while we were gone, labeling the items with big signs that just couldn't be missed. This is only a couple of the items (TV and BBQ grill) but we discovered 10 of these signs placed on various items of furniture. What do you think, should I honor the requests?

I Have Survived

Yes, going through my clothes and shoes to downsize was absolutely the hardest thing to do. I shed tears, snapped at my husband, and even said things I really wouldn't have if not placed in such a situation. I now only have a six foot length of closet for both Randy's and my hanging clothes. Oh, and did I mention that this has to include our coats also. I currently have all my wonderful work clothes on my dinner table waiting for a way to hang them in the garage for the big sale. Now I have to get serious about pricing the items for the garage sale. I will try to get pictures tomorrow!!