Late Update

I haven’t posted anything for a while, because there hasn’t been much going on relative to our mission to get going full time.  The biggest hold up has been selling the existing sticks and stone house.  Bottom line on that, after consulting with three reputable real estate companies on how to price the house, we priced it way too high.  The illusion of easy money can cloud one’s judgement, which it did in this case.  I think the end result was that we had to cut the price of the house, over time, below where it might have sold a lot quicker had it been a realistic price the first time.  Live and learn some more.

The real good news is that we do have a contract on the house, and a back up offer to that one.  All we have to do now is get to the close, and we’ll be free of that obligation.

On another front, we’ve been doing some maintenance and upgrades for the Monaco (I really need to update the picture on this web site).  The first problem was with the slide “toppers” (basically canvas tents that roll out when the slides are deployed).  Some folks think they are for rain protection, and they do help keep some of the direct water off the roof of the slide, but their real function is to keep debris off the tops where you can’t see it, but where it could damage the seals or slide mechanisms if not removed before pulling the slide in.  Ours are 9 years old and beginning to deteriorate from sun exposure and wind stress.  One was completely torn and not working, another partially torn and about to come off. The other two showed serioius signs of degradation.

I bought one to make sure I like the quality of the material and put it on myself.  It worked out fine but there was a lot of ladder climbing and moving to get one of the smaller ones replaced.  So we hired a moblie RV service company (RV Specialists) to do the other three.  They did them for a resonable fee, and I didn’t have to do it.

We found that two of the slide out top seals were shot and they will have to be replaced as well.  That will happen as soon as the parts come in, and the rain stops.  They will also be doing a scrape and seal of the roof to rejuvenate the waterproofing up there.  Nothing can be more destructive to an RV than a water leak!  And one more thing that I won’t have to do.

With all of this going on, I informed my employer that I will be retiring as of July 31.  So now the date is official, and I will be wrapping up 50 years (less about 3 weeks) working since I completed college.  There are really mixed feelings about that, but it is time to go while I still enjoy it and it hasn’t become drudgery.  I’m sure I’ll have more to say about that in later posts.

Bye for now.

Somehwere in Texas.  April 21, 2016