One Thing at a Time

Recap of yesterday

Our send-off in Washington couldn't have been with better people. The family looked over the camper and remained excited for our journey. I held off REALLY crying until giving my sister in law Brandi several hugs. Reality was setting in for everyone. When you realize you're actually living in the moment, some of these moments seem surreal. Or, you just want time to stop so the moment never ends. There were times during the hugging and tear wiping when we just wanted to stay a little bit longer..okay, just another minute. Just one more hug! Time just keeps moving along. Time is precious.

We made the 6hr+ drive to Mistletoe State Park and arrived here right at 5p. As I was walking up to the main office to pay for the night, I heard the office door lock and the blinds close. Really? My watch read: 5:00 and 12 seconds!!! I turned to look at Trevor and thought "Well, that's about right." and laughed to myself. The park ranger came out a few minutes later and told us we'll be able to take care of payments the next day. Sweet!

This park is really awesome. Brandi, Ryland, E, & Mike..well, any of you who love to be outdoors...check this place out. You'll really love it if you can get away for about3- 4 days. As soon as we plugged the camper in, T started dinner. We realized there were about a million things we wanted to do, and finally told each other to take one thing at a time. The excitement of making it here made us want to do everything all at once AND still check out the campground before dark.

Nearly comatose after dinner(a normal state for us) we forced ourselves up to take the dogs out for a walk. The sun was setting and the lake was calm. The after dinner dip was nice too. As the sun set, we had our fire going and were able to witness the lightening show off in the distance. Couldn't have asked to end the day on a better note. It did eventually rain during the night, Trevor told me. I didn't even know. Lights out meant lights out for this girl. Thanks to tightening the bolts holding the a/c unit, we are leak free! Happy campers :D

peace,
~m

Our family bunch

We had a bunch of stickers I asked everyone to help put on...adding more as we go along!

Dee and mom marking the outside shower unit with a Momemtum sticker

Two honks and a wave

On the road to Mistletoe

Farmville seems out of commission

Not this time Wilmington

Lucy and me

Somewhere in South Carolina

Georgia border

Made it to Mistletoe..wanted to get in the water right away..it was so nice!

Our view from the camper

Camp site #47...very nice

we hungry!

Thank you Rob and Marni for the cucumbers! This salad is lunch tomorrow also.

Pasta with pimento beans, onions, tomatoes and garlic

this is going to be good for lunch tomorrow!

Dinner by sunset

tuckered out

sunrise at about 7am this morning

a little fruit and vegetable to go with our grits.

chill dogs

No good-byes...just hugs and smiles...

Leaving Manteo 06/24/2011

Alas, the day has come. We leave North Carolina in the morning. This past week has gone by so fast. Time with family has been essential, especially for Trevor. I choked up a little when I hugged Bill Warren good bye; a preview of what's to come in the morning. I don't know what it's like to see your oldest son/nephew take off to a place unknown...but I do share that feeling for a brother leaving. It's a scary feeling, a loving feeling, and you just hope for the best and feel relieved & encouraged when you hear from him.We have been looking forward to this trip for quite some time, and can hardly believe it's already here.

Home is where your heart is and if it's with the people you call or have adopted as family, you'll always be home, always. Elisabeth wrote a very sweet note on Facebook last week about the changes happening in her life and of her thoughts on our departure. She and her husband Mike married on the waterfront of Washington, NC yesterday. There are pictures I'll share, after this little tidbit from E's special note(love you sista. This time has been special):

"While driving from the city that nurtured me to the city that is shaping me I thought about all of these changes occurring in my groups world - then I thought...when my brother and his wife leave Little Washington, NC on Sunday, they will honk the horn two times, give a wave and that will be the last time I will see them for some time.

Goodbyes, changes and transitions are wonderful, powerful and scary all at the same time and to all parties involved there is always a little bit of uncertainty.  For me and my change and transition….I am ready to be a wife, for my brother and his wife’s transition I am not quite ready for the last two honks and a wave, but I know it means I love you and we are on our way."

We're so lucky to be a part of a very special group. I'm glad to have people in our life who are so loving and supportive. It's made planning and following through with this crazy adventure soooo much easier. We are so grateful. And if I can offer any advice on how to say farewell...well..we're all just going to have to do what comes naturally. Let's not say goodbye, but give each other a hug and a smile. To our familly: We'll see you again soon, and we love you.

peace,
~m

AC Unit Problem hopefully solved...

After an hour of research for ac leakage troubleshooting, we have determined the bolts holding the unit down needed to be tightened. There were a lot of maintenance videos to sift through on YouTube, until I found an old blog post from RV Living Magazine stating a similar problem. The gasket looks good from the inside and out, everything is tightened and now we need it to rain again to test this thing out :) ~m

Monday June 20, 2011

Hello! Sorry it has taken so long to post an update. Here we are! We are currently in Manteo, NC. A small bustling town with a $5 movie theater and the Food-A-Rama...The Lost Colony is here too. Every town has it's thing, where we're going, Santa will be the thing 24/7..anyway.

This last week was a whirlwind. We had a great Send-Off party hosted by the wonderful and gracious Kaye. We had a great time eating great food, playing Cornhole, and watching the pups and kids play together.

Hostess with the mostest!

Amanda, Jennifer, Joann

Sir Dudley of Ashton(AKA: Dudders)

Jo & Ma

Jo & T

Lil' Mateo with Ry

Men and the Cornhole

Best Buds: Trevor and Will

Dudley loves attention

Will and Amber :)

Shelly and Marie

Whitney, Kaye, Wilson, T, Estepanie, Mateo, Amber, Ry, Brandi, Heath, Shelly, Dain, Henry, Ester, Kaz, Kathy, Brandon, Marie, Erin, Pete, Dog 1, Maverick & Lucy(showing their tail)

We had several 'last dinners' with friends and family. Both T and I feel about 20lbs heavier. We started the week with dinner at Nikki's Sushi downtown Wilmington. Cousin Erin met up with us(Ryland and Brandi) after work and we ate sushi up to our eyeballs.  I ended work with L.E.D., Inc June15th as we said our goodbyes. I'm very grateful to have them as a part of my life. Thank you for everything!

We ended that night by meeting Erin and Kyle at the Brooklyn Arts Center for the Galactic Concert.

Erin sporting her hand made beer holder necklace!

Galactic

Danced away for about two hours and ran into a lot of our downtown friends we had not seen in while. Always feels good to be loved. Much love! We were met with a very nice steak dinner Thursday night with Ida(last owner of the camper truck) after getting the camper loaded onto the truck the very first try! Trevor showed friend Daryll the new wood floors in the camper. His eyes were gleaming at the thought of a new project..(Thanks Mark for helping us with your carpentry expertise!) Ida and John, this camper's going places!

Ending the week at The Brasserie du Soleil Friday, we enjoyed cheese and meat plates, top of the line entrees and the best raspberry sorbet EVER.  You're certainly treating yourself right if you eat here!

Shrimp Ravioli...mmmmmmmmmmm!

Big steak for a little lady ;)

We decided to take our time to go through the last bit of stuff. Made two last trips to Good Will Saturday; they have about 75% of the things we didn't sell or give to friends. Taxes are going to look good next year..Good thing I'm a stickler for saving receipts.

We started with all this....about 1/4 of the stuff we had. This is from the first yard sale.

With three successful yard sales, great friends who either bought or delightfully accepted free items, we were able to completely clean out our house. The dogs were confused for a while, but they have been good sports throughout the whole ordeal.

Clean as a whistle!

Mav hiding from the madness.

So with Wilmington now behind us we are currently going over the camper and realize there is an illusive leak coming from the a/c unit. Might have to replace a gasket or just duct tape around it..we'll see what happens :) For now we are enjoying time with family and look forward to a wedding weekend in a few days. Woot!~m

Down sizing

I am sitting in my house this calm Sunday morning looking at what is left.  Yesterday, Marie and I put all of our personal belongings out in the yard and had a good old American yard sale.  Setting up early to allow complete strangers and professional "pickers" to rifle through our life and make an offer.  We enjoyed perfect yard sale whether that allow for four uninterrupted hours of, "how much for this?"  A steady flow of people of all walks of the road taking a piece of our life and making it a part of theirs.  Getting ready for the event took some planning and made me realize how much a person can accumulate.  We took the time to remember where, when, why, and with whom the items were obtained to help keep the memories intact.  There will undoubtedly be more stuff in the future and I hope that we can use it to enrich our life instead of control it.  Unloading our house and household items is a big part of this trip and once those items are gone, they're not coming back.  We are planning on living simply, enjoying what matters most to us, family, our animals, the earth, and each other.  My wish for any one to be able to let go of what is comfortable and learn more about themselves as opposed to what they surround themselves with.   

Happy Camper

We woke up early Saturday(5/7) to pick up the camper. Usually, with the finicky jacks and the countless tries at getting the truck centered, it takes quite a while to even put the camper on. Yesterday was different. The jacks tried to give us a hard time, but luckily we have back up(hand cranks)...and Trevor was able to back the truck up, centered, on the first try. Wahoo!

Our friend Mark has been kind and generous enough to help us fix the rotted skirt section on the passenger side. Story on that...Last October, we were coming back from a pond party in Hendersonville, NC. Looking out the window, I noticed in the mirror the back of the camper flapping in the wind..."Oh no, Trevor!!The camper is coming off!!!" We took the next exit, and bought the only roll of expensive-cheap duct tape from the gas station. Needless to say, it was no good..must not have been true duct tape after seeing our turn signal cover fly off onto the highway. We ended up having to take another exit to rip the paneling off. The thought of having to fix this weighed down on us..what else is going to happen??

So, back to Mr. Fix-it(we love you Mark!) After close examination, Mark and I started cleaning out the rotted wood. These next series of pictures show the extent of the water damage:

The outer cover T and I initially ripped off is called filon, missing here :/

Removing the sewer hose container

Hmmm..where to start?

This spout is where we thought the leakage came from..Now, maybe not so much. We don't even know what this is or goes to

from the inside

Removed the jack clamp. Also pictured is the base of the ladder. Trevor also started sanding down the rust on the jacks.

What the ladder and jack clamp were barely hanging on to..love all that dry rot!!

Mark removing the base trim. 98% of the screws were rusted and rotted.

At this point we're discovering more than what was anticipated. I noticed the outer metal sheath was also eroding from all the rusted staples and screws holding it in..yeeeeesh!

Just came right out! Too easy!

Lower back panel. Mark needed some leverage.

We determined camper's are heavy enough. Keep it light. Notice the thin plywood. We guess acts as a partial shield to the elements..but, come on! We discovered the rot didn't go all the across the base, but there is some sealing to be done once everything is screwed back into place.

exposed screws(from base of the ladder) after all the rotted wood has been removed, save the filon

last bit of rotted wood to remove under the brake light.

There was much discussion about how to go about replacing wood and where. We decided to replace all the 'dead' screws with exterior deck screws and then cover them with all weather silicone for extra sealant. The sealant is going to become our best friend. All that's left to do is install the outer template with the light and order the filon cover(thanks Daryll!). We've decided not to add back the sewer hose container. We're still keeping it, but storing it in the storage compartment.

taking measurements

Our original template(3/4" weather treated ply wood-cut from a 4'x8' piece i had to buy at Lowes). This piece has since been cut down to size

New wood framing and support for the brake light and license plate holder. Thinking of what we can add for a new inner wall.

Stopping point. Looking forward to the finished product.