One step closer.....

Photo courtesy Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village

It's almost a reality! Soon The Lily Pad will be in my driveway. Can you believe it? 18 longs months of preparation, delays, research, delays, investigation, delays, planning, delays....LOL!

Yesterday morning I stopped in at the Toyota dealer where I bought my Rav4 (last January). My salesman took me over to the used car manager and introduced me. They discussed my car and my situation. They looked it over, amazed at how clean it still was (what's to be amazed about - it's less than 9 months old). Even the mileage of 12k didn't bother then. They did the usual paperwork scramble, made some phone calls, asked me to come back in a couple of hours, called me less than 10 minutes later and asked me to come back at my earliest convenience.....well, they bought the car at a price I could live with (what I was willing to sell it for outright). They took me to Hertz and I picked up a rental car that will get dropped in FL.

Today I picked up the check, took it to their bank to convert it to a cashier's check and then deposited that in my bank. Tomorrow morning I pick up the cashier's check for the dealer and head south. I'm scheduled to take delivery on Friday morning.

So this afternoon I will start packing up the minimum I need to live in the RV for 5 days...started making my list this morning. I think this will help me pare things down in the long term...seeing how little I really DO need.

Once I get back (assuming all goes well), I will start moving things into the RV in preparation of living in it permanently. Not everything will get done next week...I have to be in Goshen, IN for the Fall Escapade on Saturday the 8th. That is going to be an awesome learning experience for me...I will have RVing friends all around me that can help me with the gazillion questions I know I will have.

There are still a lot of things that need to be done in preparation of moving into full-timing. I need to change to electronic statements for all my credit cards and bank accounts. I need to start changing addresses, especially those that can be done now online rather than waiting for a paper statement. I need to try to find a trailer for the BMW!! That is a biggie....I don't need the trailer until October so at least I have a little time to look around.

I still haven't managed to get doctor, dentist and eye doctor appointments squeezed in....I think those may be delayed a little. There is the utilities to take care of, mail forwarding to arrange. I've been advised to not use the USPS mail forwarding, it encourages spam mail (I did just register to opt-out of direct mail programs). My plan is to move everything to my new SD address, have my neighbors check my mailbox from time to time and leave them envelopes to forward first class mail to SD for me. Then I will get the mail forwarding service to send my mail every couple of weeks.

Well, enough rambling for one day....just wanted to keep everyone in the loop. Until after Labor Day my Internet access may be limited till I get home.

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Froggi/Donna