Back on the Road — This Time Without the RV

 

After completing some of our renovations on the Park Model, we knew one thing for sure; we didn't want to spend the summer in Arizona. We made plans to head east for an extended stay with our daughter and her family in North Carolina.

We packed up, locked the Park Model, and hit the road. However, this time, there was one big difference—we left the RV behind with its new owner.

Traveling in a car is definitely different from traveling in the RV. After all these years of being on the road, we got used to limiting ourselves to about 150 miles a day. That's a pretty easy pace when you're traveling in a motorhome. In a car, though, 600 miles in a day doesn't seem nearly as crazy. I have to admit, it's a little strange to look at the mileage and realize just how far we can go in a single day.

Our first stop was Texas, where we spent some time with our son and his family. It's always nice to be able to slow down for quality time with family. Our grandson, Cameron who just graduated from High School was happy to show us his new car and took us out for a spin in it! We also managed to make a few stops at some of our favorite places, including Luckenbach and the old River Road in Central Texas. Some places just never get old.

While in Texas, we headed over to College Station to take care of our rental house. We decided it was probably time to exit the rental business, so we spent some time fixing the place up and getting it ready to put on the market.

Of course, nothing is ever quite as simple as it sounds. We're going to try to sell it, but if it doesn't move fairly quickly, we may decide to rent it again. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Our next significant stop was in Mississippi, where we spent the night. There was an important reason for stopping there—we needed to share a delicious, massive shrimp po'boy before moving on down the road.

From Mississippi, we continued east until we finally made it to North Carolina and that's where we settled in for quite a while.

One of the best parts of retirement is the ability to spend an extended amount of time with family, and this trip gave us the opportunity to really soak up some time with our grandchildren, Allie and Emmy. It was fabulous to experience day to day life with them making priceless memories while also enjoying time with our daughter and her husband.

Of course, when the kids were at school and their parents were at work, we had to find something to keep ourselves occupied. Naturally, we played quite a bit of disc golf and visited a few places for craft beer.

Those who know us probably aren't surprised by that. Disc golf and finding good craft beer are two of our favorite ways to spend our free time. 

I won't bore you with all the details of everything we did during our extended stay in North Carolina. Let's just say we had a blast. There was plenty of family time, plenty of fun, great food and plenty of memories made. But, as it always seems to do, the time eventually came for us to move on.

Now it's time to slowly start making our way back toward Arizona. We're planning to take our time, make a few house sitting stops along the way, and, of course, find a few adventures along the way.

After all, that's what this life on the road of retirement is really all about.

Next Up! Dining Room and Living Room Facelifts!

With the kitchen renovation finally finished, it was time to turn our attention to the dining room and living room. The dining room definitely needed to be painted, but the living room was in pretty good shape and we really liked the color that was already there. We felt there was no reason to paint it just for the sake of painting it.

For the dining room, we chose Agreeable Gray, which was the same color we used in the kitchen. We also decided to paint the walls in the hallway leading to the bedroom. Just painting over all the little grooves and imperfections I had to spackle after removing the splines that ran up and down the walls made a huge difference. The room looked so much better and actually seemed to open up the space quite a bit.

To finish off the dining room, we added a light fixture to the ceiling fan. This appeared to be a pretty easy job, but let me tell you, it was a pain in the butt! Of course, while I was at it, I also replaced a few broken electrical outlets. 

While all of this was going on, Sharon was using ChatGPT to help us figure out how to decorate both the dining room and living room. We already had a beautiful dining table, so we really just needed to figure out what to put around it. Before we could put the finishing touches on the dining room, though, we needed a new sofa. The one that came with the place had seen better days. It took us a while to finally find one we liked, and even after we bought it, we still had the old sofa sitting there until we figured out exactly where we wanted everything to go.

We also bought a couple of ottomans to make the swivel chairs a little more comfortable. We decided to keep the chairs already there when we bought the place because they were really nice. Once the major pieces of furniture were in place, it was back to ChatGPT for more interior decorating advice. It gave us lots of ideas for using things we already had and also gave us some suggestions for things we didn't have.

There's a boutique/thrift store nearby we  heard about, and one Monday everything in the store was half price. Let me tell you, it was amazing! We found so many things there that we could use to decorate the house. We had been looking for artwork for the living room for quite a while, and we really scored. We found lots of artwork at some seriously discounted prices.

Once we brought our bounty home, we started putting everything together. We moved things from one place to another, moved them back again, and consulted ChatGPT along the way. Eventually, we finally placed everything where we wanted it. We only had to buy one more piece of artwork, which we found on Facebook Marketplace, and then we were done. And I have to say, it's starting to feel a lot more like our home!

    

We still have plans to paint and decorate our bedroom and the spare room. The bathroom, however, is going to have to wait a while so the budget can recover! But for now, Phase 1 of our redo is finished.

It's amazing how much of a difference some paint, furniture, artwork and a few other changes can make. When we first moved in, it still felt like somebody else's place. Now, little by little, it is starting to feel like ours. Of course, we won't be sticking around to enjoy it for too long. We're going to escape the desert heat and head to North Carolina to visit our daughter and our grandkids.

And that's not a bad way to celebrate finishing Phase 1!