Search This Blog


Sunday, September 25, 2011

Making God Laugh

And our plans will have him splitting his sides.  Man plans, God laughs.

Back when we were getting ready to put the house on the market and I was wearing out paintbrushes, we were sure the house would have been long gone by this time and we'd be free as a breeze.  Of course as you know, that hasn't worked out the way we wanted.  However, we're pressing on in case a miracle should occur.


To start, I've already had to declare South Dakota as my intended new home state with the Coast Guard for my retirement purposes.  I may at some point either have to make a flight out there and set up things like getting an address, drivers license, register my vehicles and open a bank account, or I have to completely trash that and change everything over to Virginia where the house is until such time as it sells.  Dragging the house sale means I will have to get a job and, lucky me, start paying Virginia income taxes. 

Many have asked why don't we rent out the house, a good option, but not one that would work for us because the rental market here would not cover the mortgage and we'd have to supplement house payments from our pension, which would crimp our full time travel plans.

If the miracle of selling the house does happen, then we can kick things into high gear.  Our plans would be as soon as we get a contract and closing date on the house, the estate sale would go forward.  We'd have to rent a U-Haul for a trip to New Jersey for items our son Corey is getting and another truck to take the items our daughter Heather is receiving as well as the few things we're going to store at her house  in South Carolina.  Then the biggie, upon closing, Marti will give her notice at work and retire.  We will live locally in the Journey until she works out her 30 day notice.

We have plans to be with Heather's family for Thanksgiving,


 then head West to Oregon to spend Christmas with our son Ryan's family.  Along the way, we'd get our South Dakota residency requirements taken care of.


New Years will have us heading down the West Coast to visit my two cousins that live near San Diego.  After that, we want to head to Quartzsite for the RV show and the follow on craft show for Marti.  While there, we want to make a run for the boarder and check out the dentists in Mexico.  If it looks good, we'll go ahead and get some checkups there.

We have some down time to play around (maybe even a Disney World visit with our grandsons Andrew and Owie)  until March, when we have to be up in New Jersey.  Our daughter-in-law Amanda, Corey's wife, is due with their first child and our fifth grandchild.  They're excited and we are, too.

By May we will need up to be back in Oregon, the reason?  New news here, Ryan's wife Amber, is also expecting, our grandchild number six.  We want to be there to help out, be able to babysit our granddaughters, Taylor and Kierra and come June help them pack up and move to Ryan's new Coast Guard assignment, which at this time is unknown where that will be.

After the move and getting Ryan all set up, we hope to take Andrew and Owie out West for a couple of weeks to see some of the great things like the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns and Hoover Dam, to name a few.  We have to have them back by mid August so they can get ready for school, so we'll be heading North to see Corey and Amanda and my Dad and family in New Jersey and then to Rhode Island to see Marti's sister Gail and brother Bob.

That is our "Semper Gumby" (Always Flexible) plan for our first year.  We're hoping the heavenly guffaws will stop and our home buyer will come along so we can put our tentative plans into reality.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

18 comments:

  1. Wow, you best get the house sold!!

    You have a wonderful year planned out and need to make it happen!!

    We are sending positive vibes that you will sell ASAP!!

    Of course, you know how well our positive vibes are working for us ;o(( On second thought, we will just keep those vibes down here. We think you will be better off without our vibes ;o))

    ReplyDelete
  2. Holy moly! You DO have the year planned out. I laughed..we had a few plans ourselves :) I'm not sure at this point if God answered our prayers or not!? Well, we got our fifth wheel sooner than we thought :)
    You guys are certainly in our prayers for that sale.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is an ambitious plan. We have yet to plan that far far ahead. We go out a couple of months and then only in general terms. We would rather have.flexibility.

    As for mexico for dentists, I will stick to mine I think :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm thinking December might not be the best time to be driving through South Dakota. Good luck with that. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. The only thing I hope for you is that you write your plans in chalk so they can be easily erased! That's not because your house might not sell but because once you get on the road you'll find all kinds of fun distractions that might make you a tad late (or a tad early) here and there. Lots of luck and keep your faith!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow! Now that is planning!! Good luck with the sale of your house! We'll keep our fingers crossed and send you guys good wishes. It is an awful process!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow some plans. We had no plans. Well some plans. Be at the RV Dreams Rally in Tennesse in April, go to the Smokeys after that. Head toward the Grand Canyon and Glacier and break your ankle.....no no. But get out of
    South Dakota before it snows.

    I'm going back and check about how many times you are going to cross the country in that year.

    Have my fingers crossed you'll get to give this plan a whirl.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, that's a lot of traveling! We tend to go slower and less distance, but that's just us. Everyone has their own travel style.
    I hope your house sells soon so you can get on with your plan.

    And congratulations on the soon-to-be 2 new additions to the family!

    ReplyDelete
  9. God is rolling on the floor laughing at us too..dang it anyway!..hope your house sells soon and you can get on with things..the kids and grandkids are waiting!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's good to have a plan as long as you are flexible. Over the ten years of my RVing life, my plans became shorter and shorter in range. Now we're not sure where we're going tomorrow, although since we now have a winter home in Mesa, we figure we'll get there sometime in November.

    I got all excited when I saw your sold sign - I thought it sold!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yeah, don't tease us with the sold sign. It may be okay to rent for a while if the house is appreciating as much as the mortgage payment exceeds the rent. (Just some friendly CPA advice...)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh and DO NOT use America's Mailbox as your mail service. They are AWFUL!!! I have talked to MyDakotaAddress.com and they seem great, but I haven't actually used them.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow ... talk about having plans in place. So far, we've not gotten past the retirement date being set ... next year, the jello plans will start being molded.

    ReplyDelete
  14. All this talk about freedom and the open road is a big bluff. You guys are just trying to be the world's best grandparents.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I called Terri at MyDakotaAddress and got my SD address set up before I moved and closed on my house.

    ReplyDelete
  16. whoaaaaa there big guy, stop and smell the roses alittle!!! Thats one heck of a first year. If it works out enjoy....:)

    ReplyDelete
  17. HI,

    WELL, WE ARE GETTING CLOSE TO THE CLOSING ON OUR HOME - SHOULD BE ON WEDNESDAY 9/28 AND FUNDS TRANSFER ON 9/29 OR 9/30.
    IT TOOK US THE BEST PART OF 7 (LONG) MONTHS TO SELL OUR HOME. WE HAD SEVERAL LOW BALL OFFERS AND JUST IGNORED THEM. THIS BUYER SEEMS VERY SERIOUS - THEY HAVE SOLD THEIR HOME IN WASHINGTON STATE AND SEEM QUITE EXCITED ABOUT THEIR MOVE TO SANTA FE NM. SHE IS AN ARTIST AS WELL SO THE HOUSE WILL CONTINUE TO BE FILLED WITH ART WORK.
    I HOPE YOU SELL SOON - I AM SENDING YOU GOOD VIBES FOR A BUYER TO COME TO YOU GUYS REAL SOON.
    HANG IN THERE - NEVER GIVE UP HOPE.
    MY BEST TO YOU GUYS -

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hopefully you'll be able to carve out some time to meet up with us somewhere along the way.

    ReplyDelete