Sixteen days away

Today we are 16 days away from leaving.  This is just a short update on what is going on with us right now...

We have had the Inspection and the Appraisal on the house, but it will be another week or so to see if they all went ok.  We are confident, but in the back of your mind you still wonder if my last post might have jinxed everything.....LOL

We have started to pack up items into boxes for the move over to the condo on May 2nd.  Regardless of the house sale being completed or not..we are moving stuff, probably everything we don't need in the motor home, into the condo.  We visited the condo yesterday and passed our "interview" with the association board which will allow us to move in.  It really is more of a "these are the rules, will you agree to follow them...." type of interview.  They keep very tight controls on the condo area, and when you see the outside of it (will try and get pictures later), you would be surprised that they are over 30 years old.  

We have opened a PO Box so that Marcia's brother can handle our mail.  We have applied for our passport cards so that we can enter Canada and Mexico is desired during the next 18 months.  (note: Mexico would only be on foot near Yuma for cheap medical needs "IF" needed.)  We do intend to travel across Canada during the summer of 2014, and come down through New England during the Autumn of 2014 following the change of season colors as we head back to Florida.  During the winter of 2013/2014, we plan to be in the desert of eastern California and western Arizona, with a visit to Quartzsite, Arizona during the annual RV party held there. (From Wikapedia:

Quartzsite is a popular RV camping area for winter visitors, and tourism is the major contributor to Quartzsite's economy. Nine major gem, mineral, and 15 general swap meet shows are very popular tourist attractions, attracting about 1.5 million people annually, mostly in January and February.

As I post this blog I am at the local Chevy dealer having work on the HHR.  One is a recall item, the other is a check engine light which turned out to be a sensor which needs to be replaced, there goes another $250 or so....   On Tuesday we are having the oil and filters changed on the motor home at the new Camping World about 10 miles north of us.  Although I could do this myself, and in fact I carry the filters and oil with us, but having the space in which to do the work is problematic....sure don't want to leave the new owners with a huge oil spill on the driveway!

Other than having lunches with family and starting to say goodbye to everyone, all of our focus has continued to be on the house, and on getting the motor home ready for our trip.  I did do a new webpage for the dogs some of you read before I made the correction about Bubba not escaping lately.  Well, both dogs went through the fence about two weeks ago.  Skruffy alerted us that something was up by going to the front door and bark.  They could not have been out for more than 4-5 minutes...but Bubba was gone.  After a 45 minute search of the surrounding area, including a fairly busy street, I drive up and find him sitting out in the shade of the motor home panting.  Well, that night he started limping on his bad leg...and by Thursday it was a very bad limp.  We have now put him on some medication for his joints, which he will probably need to take the rest of his life...but it does seem to be working, and he is doing much better now, but not back to how he was before the great escape.  

To end, I promised pictures of the eagles...most of which are now gone....but here is the best one I could get from our back yard.  Just two months ago the sky would have been filled with 3 or 4 more eagles....soon, they will be like us...gone for the summer just to return next winter...but Marcia, Bubba, Skruffy and I are going to skip a winter this time.