To all of you finding this for the first time, and it must be because this is the first real post, Welcome! Tomorrow is our “Open Rig” party, like an Open House, but not, and we’re excited for all our friends to see where we will be for the next 1-2 years! They just started an experiment in Russia where 6 volunteers (at least I THINK they are volunteers) have been sealed up in a windowless “spaceship” for the next 500 days to simulate what it would be like for a round trip to Mars. We will keep them in mind while we enjoy the sunshine, new sights, smells, and sounds, and seeing our extremely large backyard in as much detail as we want!

Our final, final departure date is Sept. 2, 2010. We have lots to do between now and then: finish sorting and packing those things we either need to sell, dump, store, or take with us; interview and secure a tenant for our place (did we mention we are offering an extremely low down lease with an option to buy?); clean said place (we are definitely going to HIRE someone!); and we have 3 trips for grandchildren and a business trip to Dallas planned in the next 2 months.

We had a GINORMOUS garage sale over Memorial Day weekend. Furniture, tools, toys, clothes, books, and a bunch of household stuff. We didn’t do well enough to pay off the 5th wheel, but we did very well. We are still in the process of selling a few final furniture items – thank God for Craig’s List!!

We got busy in the last couple of weeks, in addition to packing and the garage sale, and replaced a carpet section in the rig with hardwood floor. Cleaner, we don’t trip on it, and gosh darn it, it just looks better. We also continue to take a little time for ourselves walking around the Shores and enjoying it while we can!