julietookoff

Whew, we just finished having our first garage sale.  There is much more space in the garage now.  I am pleasantly surprised at Corny’s willingness to let go of the clutter he’s hoarded for 25 years.  He just expressed vehemently tonight how much he HATES old antiques.  He got stuck with a bunch of them.  His mother had an antique footwarmer, butter molds and mortar & pestal, among lots of other useless things.  Instead of selling them for a quarter apiece, we have been setting them aside to take to a dealer and have them appraised/sold.  We sold the leather family room furniture.  We made $1900+ Friday and $1700+ Saturday!  It was ca-razy busy with cars lined halfway up the block.  At one point our bitchy New Yorker neighbor came out screaming at a slow-moving elderly man with a cane for parking in front of her driveway.  She didn’t even need to get her car out!  She really embarrassed herself.  I was getting an adrenaline rush, thinking if she comes up into my driveway with her tongue swinging, I was going to get to punch her in the mouth.

I had to let a few people into the filthy/trashed house to look at furniture.  We posted pictures of each piece with prices on a board in the garage.  Each person that looked said “Oh, it’s too big” regarding the headboard and footboard.  We plan to put the two king bedroom sets, dining room set, and recliners on Craig’s List. 

Several people looked at my motorcycle and wanted to pay for one with 70,000 miles instead of 7,000, but I refused.  Three people told me $1700 was a good price, and a few came back for a second look.  One guy lectured us because he obviously knew everything there was to know, but we did learn that the chain was loose and the fork seals need checked.  G tightened the chain and also charged up the battery.  After starting it again and again for gawkers, it wouldn’t start when G was going to go get cheeseburgers in the afternoon.  We had to push-start it down the sidewalk, which had me laughing like a fat woman at a “free ice cream” sign. 

The Ranger had been running kinda rough for about a week and the morning of the sale, the engine light came on.  That day three guys asked if we were selling the Ranger.  I thought that was odd.  Come to find out, Corny had put the Ranger in the yard sale ad on Craig’s list!  I haven’t washed the truck for several years!  It’s been months since it was vacuumed, and the window tint has faded and needs to be scraped off with a razor.  Plus it should like, run, if its for sale.  Oh well.  I offended a few people and a few people offended me.  We had the dude at Auto Zone run a check and it said “misfire cylinder one”.  The wires weren’t loose so we got spark plugs and hopefully that will correct it.

We were so worn out by Saturday evening, we decided not to open the garage door Sunday.  Around noon we had to open it briefly to move things around and get the motorcycle towards the front of the garage, and when we did, three people stopped by!  One wanted to see furniture, one wanted to see the motorcycle, and one bought a tool chest.  We closed the door as soon as they were all gone.  We’ve got to do this again in a few weeks…

Lord Willing, within the next few months.

I quit my job in November 2011 and we bought the rig in December.  Now we are working on emptying the house into three piles:  keep in the RV, keep in storage, and yard sale > GoodWill.  It has taken me about a week in my office and I’m not done yet.  I had too many files and drawers full of office supplies.  I found about six keys that I don’t know what they belong to and several locks without keys or combinations.  I have about a square yard of boxes of old photos I need to scan (in my spare time?).  Now that all my travel souvenirs are in Ziploc bags and boxed up, I wish I would’ve taken a picture of them while they were displayed!  I’ve collected quite a few handmade dolls from the countries/islands I’ve visited.  I’ve got about 4 bins of McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys I need to get in order.

Once we’ve emptied the house, we’ll give it a good scrubbing, keep the dogs (and hoomans) out, and put it on the market.  Unless it sells immediately, we will then take off toward Indiana towing a U-Haul, where we will be storing our “keep” stuff.  We’re going to build a shed at my sister’s house.  Hopefully this will all happen by April, when I would like to do some more hiking on the Appalachian Trail - Corny can dump me off in Virginia (…and pick me up in Maine???)

We’re hoping the house will sell quickly because of the in-law apartment.  When we were looking for a house with an in-law apartment for Corny’s mother, all we could find were converted garages - no windows, sink or bathroom - just throw down some carpet, add a TV and a fridge.  This apartment is separated from the house with a locking door (thanks to me), has a private entrance with an unofficial wheelchair ramp, has  a separate bedroom, bathroom and living room/kitchen with lots of cabinets, a small sink, and fridge.  From the living room window you can sit and watch the squirrels in a big oak tree and traffic going by at the 4-way stop.  Anyone looking for an in-law apartment will buy this house regardless of the rest of it.  Then again, it could sit empty for a year or two…

LMK your deep, dark, burning questions and I will address them in future posts.  Next topics up will be Where, How and Why.

The Plan:  travel around the country in a motorhome until we’re dead.

We plan to hit as many Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives as we can (http://www.foodnetwork.com/diners-drive-ins-and-dives/index.html).  I have a big notebook on his restaurant reviews and Corny has an app on his Garmin.  We have a science museum membership.  We’ve had a hankerin’ to return to Texas and the Big Bend area to check out the stars at night.  Corny is drawn to the west coast; I have never seen Big Sur or the giant Redwoods.   We’ve never tried In & Out Burgers or been to Trader Joe’s.  We may winter in Oregon before spending a summer in Alaska.  And I need to hike the Appalachian Trail from Virginia to Maine before my knees give out. 

And…I MUST GEOCACHE!  Geocaching is my hobby/obsession.  It involves using a handheld GPS to locate tupperware in the woods - kinda like a techy scavenger hunt.  There are geocaches placed all over the world, so it is a very travel-friendly, inexpensive, outdoorsy hobby.  If you care to sign up for a free account at geocaching.com (https://www.geocaching.com), you can see where it has taken me by reading some of my logs.  My handle is “tallglenn”.  To find me, type GC2XG7Q into the “1. Browse” box on the main page, then under “Oh Heavens” click on my handle.  My profile there explains how I got my name and lists my favorite geocaching experiences.  Corny’s handle is “MostDevious” but he hardly ever logs his caches or events.  I have about 3700 finds (or smileys); he has about 150. 

If you wonder what kind of boring journaling I do, check my posts on TrailJournals.com under “midgetmom” (http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=172525) for 2007.  It is the chronicle of my first 500 or so miles hiking the A.T. from Georgia to Virginia.

Follow along, ask questions, and offer your constructive criticism. 

I (Joolie) am a 40-something Registered Nurse.  I grew up in northern Indiana, and moved to Florida’s Tampa Bay area when my son was young.  Corny is a 50-something Industrial Engineer who grew up in Massachusetts and has lived in west central Florida about 20 years.  We met online due to our mutual interest in travel.  We’ve been to many places/countries/islands both separately and together.  We have each recently quit our jobs and are presently clearing out a 3200 square foot home to squeeze into a 37 foot motorhome.  Corny is a bit of a clutterbug, but fortunately I have always been a bit of a minimalist.  We have three dogs:  a terrier mutt named Ruffles, who I call Bubbles because she loves people; Poco, a chihuahua rescue who is infatuated with me; and Dolly, a matching chihuahua who is very special (as in soulmate special) to me.  Follow along as we explore!