We will be signing a lease today to rent the house.  This was the last known impediment to our Great Escape and by tonight it will be out of our way.  There is nothing to stop us now.  Or, more to the point, now we HAVE to go because as of September 1 we have no other place to live.

It is premature to give notice, but I am SO tempted.  58 more working days.  And if working wasn’t difficult enough already, I now have to submit my 2013 goals by the end of June.  Is “getting the f**k out of here” a legitimate professional goal?

We are increasingly feeling like visitors in our own home.  A rubbish removal guy came yesterday to clear the basement.  Some other stuff from the porch stash went to the AmVets.  Rita’s brother was with us most of the week painting the living room, dining room and basement.  I almost don’t recognize the place anymore.  And, as Jett noted yesterday, “I think there is an echo in here.”

We also had one showing from the “for sale” ad and a couple of phone calls from the “for rent” ad.  Whichever produces a commitment first wins.  When we know for a fact that the house will pay for itself next year, either by sale or lease, then we can work hard at getting rid of the remaining furniture and I can give notice at work.  I hope that happens soon, because my heart is increasingly in NH with our new lifestyle.

But there are still some chores remaining.  The big ones are the back deck repair and the hardwood floor in the main bedroom.  I am hard at work on the floor and have passed the two-thirds point.  But it is slow going.  Ever board has to be positioned and stapled in place.  And then I have to use a hammer and screwdriver to drive all the staple heads further down.  Without that last step too many board crack when hammered into place.

Pictures taken this morning:

As for the deck, Jett’s son is flying in from VA on Tuesday to help. He is a carpenter by trade and will be immensely helpful.

With some luck (from the weather – it is supposed to be “unsettled” all week) and a lot of hard work the two big jobs will be done within a week or so.

Then maybe Jett can start to relax.

Well, it COULD happen.

The first night in the fiver was mostly successful.  We brought up a whole truckload of stuff (about 300 lbs – we weighed it all) and got “settled in” in a minimal sort of way.  We cooked our first meal – mac and cheese on the stove and burgers on the grill.  The refrigerator is working fine – the beer was frosty and the freezer kept our bag of ice well.  The dogs were pretty comfortable with the metal stairs, though Cha-Cha needed some encouragement in the form of a hand on his collar to start the descent.  We met two dogs on our morning walk and neither produced a fight.

Pretty successful, overall.

But… we had a lousy night’s sleep.  The mattress is too thin and we didn’t bring enough blankets.  It gets COLD in NH at night.  Who knew?

We will get a foam “crate” for the mattress before our next overnight.  If that doesn’t work, we will get a new mattress.  As for the cold… we could try closing the windows before we go to bed.  And maybe bring another blanket.  We could even think about turning on the furnace (which I tried, this morning, successfully), but it is fairly noisy and I will avoid that if possible.

The other significant problem is the water.  Yes, we have water – no problem there.  We just don’t have any cold water.  Hot water – VERY HOT – comes out of both spigots.  I am told there is a “mixer” valve somewhere, but I have no idea where.  I may have to email the seller to figure this one out.

In the meantime I am not sure I want to chance a shower.  Can you say “scald”?

The Wi-Fi is also kind of “iffy”, as is the cable service.  It took about 15 minutes to get the Wi-Fi connected this morning and the cable went out without warning during breakfast.

But I expect that the Wi-Fi will be iffy just about everywhere.  We will get our own Wi-Fi before we hit the road.  I just have to arrange that with Verizon.  And we will get DVD capability in the bedroom as well as the living room and have a supply of DVDs that we can play if we get bored.

It will work.  I just need to figure out how to sleep and take a shower.  Little things.

No, not New Year’s Ever, silly… our FIRST NIGHT in the fifth wheel.  This is when we find out if we can sleep in the thing.  Or maybe we find out that we need to upgrade the mattress.  And the dogs try to figure out where they will sleep.

Should be interesting.

Sunday was a beautiful day in Medford, MA.  The sun was out, the birds were singing and all was right with the world.  It was a great day to lounge on the deck and have a couple of brewskis.

But we weren’t on the deck.  We were sweltering in the 100-degree attic, doing a second round of cleanout in preparation for our second yard sale.  So instead of thinking about those brewskis (though they would come later), I passed the time thinking about all the things we will regret not having done while we lived here.

I don’t think there are many things that I will regret having never done, just because I have done most everything at least once, I think.  I am sure there is much I will miss, but it is more along the lines of “Gee, I wish we could _________ again” rather than “Gee, why didn’t we ever _________?”  There are a few things, though, that I have never done and would like to do before I go:

• Spend a day on Nantucket.  I have been to Martha’s Vineyard and Block Island, but never Nantucket.
• Visit Amherst.  I have heard nice things about it but have never been.  Maybe we can drop in on our way west.
• Visit the Museum of Natural History at Harvard.  I think I was there once, but Jett has never been.  Gotta see them ol’ dinosaur bones.  And the glass flowers, too.  And while we are there we can pop over to the Peabody Museum, which neither of us has ever seen.

There are lots of other things on my B list: Fruitlands Museum and the Higgins Armory, for example.  But there is little chance that we will find the time to see these before we leave.  No tears will be shed.

But I will see if we can allocate a day for Nantucket.

After the attic is clean.

I am making progress on my To Do list, but it has become clear that I can’t do it all myself.  Fortunately we won two painting jobs at a charity silent auction, so I have a day’s worth of painting available for “free”.  I will have the pros to the bathrooms.  I also have a brother-in-law who loves to do odd jobs and painting, so I will hire him as well.  Then I can sit back, watch and eat bon-bons.

Well… maybe not.  There is still plenty for me to do.  That hardwood floor is only 20% installed and a lot of yard work has gone begging.  No rest for the weary.

Yesterday I made my third trip to the fiver in NH.  Jett made her second.  The dogs made their first.  Yes, we introduced the pups to the fiver.  Grace took to it like she owned it and even decided that the floor of the closet was a good place to curl up while we cleaned the place.  Cha-Cha was more hesitant and seems to have not yet decided whether he likes it.  But the good news is that both made it up and down the metal stairs without assistance, which will reduce the pressure on me to build a staircase or ramp.  Even Jett seems to be relatively comfortable with getting in an out. She likes the big handle at the edge of the door that she can hang onto as she navigates the steps.

She is less enamored with the screen door.  It has a little sliding plexiglass door at the handle that has to be slid back to open from the inside, but is difficult to close again once outside.  I suspect that we will learn to close it before exiting.

What did we accomplish yesterday?  Besides cleaning the place and introducing the dogs to our new home, we also:

• Set up (and tore down) the screen room.  It is larger than I expected – 10 x 10 – and in good shape.  It is somewhat tricky to assemble, but, like most things, I will get better at it with practice.
• Set up the cable box. We now have DirecTV in all three rooms.  I discovered (and this really shouldn’t have been a surprise), but we can tune just one channel at a time.  So we can watch the same program in any room.  And to change the channel in the living room I need to go into the bedroom.  Not ideal, but tolerable.  We expect that the kids will mostly watch DVDs and we expect to have DVD capability in all 3 rooms.
• Weighed the contents of the basement.  We are trying to keep a running tally of all the cargo that will be carried and the first step was to compute the weight of the “extras” that came with the unit – screen house, levelers, etc.  Not much cargo yet – maybe 100lbs total so far.

Things we haven’t done yet: sleep in the bed, cook any meals, try the freezer, take a shower, empty the holding tanks for the second bath.  And we haven’t heard back yet from Ron about the platform.  Those will all be things on the agenda for next weekend.

We haven’t had much fun yet, either.  But we will.

Yup, we have our fiver on our campsite.  It wasn’t easy, but what do I care?  I didn’t do the hard work.

Saturday turned out to be pretty crappy, weather-wise, which meant that both of the other major activities of the day – Jett’s huge yard sale and my softball games – were cancelled.  So, with those impediments out of the way, I was able to arrange for an earlier meeting with Bill the Tow Guy.  I got to the campground at 10:30am (instead of the previously-arranged 1pm).  He didn’t arrive until 11am but that was ok – it gave me a chance to meet the hosts and a few of my new neighbors.

The campground is owned and operated by Les and Nancy.  Nancy handles the business side and Les does maintenance, just as Jett and I would split our duties if we take on camp host jobs next year.  They assured me that the campsite was ready and waiting. They had recently upgraded the electrical to 50 amps, which turned out to be a good thing as I discovered that our coach had only 50 amp and 20 amp connectors (note to self: get a 30 amp adapter).

Les had just finished his other job (or, as Nancy put it, his “fun job”) the day before.  Both would work the campground full-time for the season.

Les, along with site #3 neighbor Ron, admired my truck.  I think Les’ exact words were “Now THAT’S a truck!”  There were many kudos for the tires, which surprised me.  Apparently both the rims and the tires were, in their eyes, special: the rims being a high-quality aluminum and steel pair and the tires being extra wide.  I took a look at Les’s dually and, sure enough, my tires were wider than his.  Better traction and higher replacement cost, I suppose.

When Bill arrived I immediately grabbed my little bag of goodies (containing, most importantly, the license plate for the fiver and some tools to attach it) and off we went.  The trip to Tyngsboro was uneventful, but I learned a lot about Bill, his business and his health.  For example: Bill had had 9 heart attacks and a stroke since 1996.  My response: “but none today, right?”  Always the sympathetic one.  I just flashed on a vision of Bill slumped over the wheel and me, in the co-pilot seat, trying desperately to prevent my new pride and joy from being transformed into a ruin. And crushing me in the process.

But Bill had no heart attack on this trip.

His business consisted of leasing travel trailers and hauling them to/from campsites.  He and his wife owned 20 trailers which, in his view, was the right number.  He said they had had as many as 25 but found that with more than 20 they had to hire help.  And no motorhomes.  “Too much trouble and too expensive.”

The Open Range was still in Daryl’s driveway when we arrived.  Bill immediately backed the truck into position and, on his first try, snagged the fiver’s pin with the hitch with a loud clang.  Daryl was impressed.  “He’s a pro!”

I immediately attached the plate and then did a quick walk-around to make sure everything was ready to go.  Turns out I should have locked the cargo doors as one swung open as we pulled onto the Route 3 expressway.  But no big deal.  Bill finished hooking up the electrical tow connection and with a handshake to Daryl, off we went.

The return trip, excepting the cargo door, was also uneventful.  Bill took the shortest route, up NH 43, which I intended to avoid in September because it is narrow, hilly and has one hairpin turn.  But Bill handled it with aplomb.  He had to swing wide on the hairpin, but his view is “take the space you need; others will get out of your way.”

I got some good advice on hauling the fiver.  On adjusting the electrical brakes, he said that just using the fiver’s brakes should slow the truck, but not stop it.  On using the “tow” setting on the gear shift stalk: “I don’t like it and never use it.”  On whether I should keep below 65mph: (with a glance at his speedometer) “I am going 67 now.”

The struggle to get the fiver backed into site #7 attracted a cadre of helpers, gawkers and well-wishers.  Getting the unit threaded between the trees on the narrow approach was difficult, but the only real problem arose at the top of the hill when the fiver leveled out and the truck was still on the incline.  At that point the tail of the truck made contact with the nose stabilizer bars and the truck lost.  There was a loud clang as the left top rear edge of the truck slid off the bar, breaking a small piece of plastic off the truck edge in the process.  Bill cautiously moved the truck forward, Ron removed the bar, giving the truck a couple of critical inches of room, and Bill tried again.  This time the edge of the truck made contact with the underside of the fiver’s nose, but the covering was vinyl and had some give.  The journey was completed with no further damage to either vehicle.

Here is a photo of the back-in adventure, with Ron providing direction.

I spent a couple of hours getting everything hooked up, taking measurements (Jett wants to build a 12×16′ deck, which is entirely feasible – at least until we find out how much it will cost), and figuring out how to hook up the utilities.  The electrical connection was a breeze, but the sewer connection was not: Ron had to dig out an extra plastic adapter to make it work.  Even then, it wasn’t totally secure.  Les says it needs a “donut” – whatever that is.  He said he would take care of it for me this week.

I like people who take care of stuff for me.

I gave Ron and his wife Sheena a tour of the unit once I got the slides out.  Ron continued to be helpful, showing me where the circuit breakers were located and helping me figure out how to operate the roof vents.  Sheena loved the unit (watch out, Ron – you may have an expensive upgrade in your future).  I also showed it off to the three tent campers from the site above ours (two women and a man… hmmmm).  They also loved it.

Everyone loves it.  Including me.

I tried the bed out (which, you would think, I would have done before buying it, but you would be wrong).  It was bouncier than I expected.  Not air mattress bouncy, but definitely more rubbery than our current mattress.  Hopefully we will get use to it, but I am pretty sure that Jett will add an extra layer of foam before we move in.

I also tested the water heater – another thing I should have done before buying – and fortunately it worked.

I was smart enough to shut off the water and the water heater, pull in the awning and lock the doors before I left.  I chatted with Nancy for a few moments (the cable will be ready next weekend), then off I went.

A very successful day.

Oh – and I called Jett to tell her that the Eagle has landed.