MUDDSCAPE

We’ve been talking about the MuddScape for quite a few years. Just talking. It wasn’t possible to do because there were some roadblocks. Work. Money. Time. And an appropriate rig. All those barriers began to melt away with Wendy’s decision to retire after the 2009-2010 school year. Amazingly we suddenly had no WORK to worry about. Which gave us the TIME. We figured out a solution for the MONEY by amping up our retirement “career” as real estate investors. And we took care of the last little bit by finding and buying a used truck (thank you Costco CPO Auto Buying Program) and then lucking into a perfect house-on-wheels for us, the Wilderness Adventure AX6, which unlike most 5th Wheels has the “lounge”, or family room, up front to give it a much more spacious feel. We loved it immediately.

It, of course, needed some Muddifications: we removed one of the two family room sofas and built in a large workstation to accomodate Wendy’s sewing stuff and our laptops (we DID mention that retirement career we take on the road with us, didn’t we?). And new window treatments, and some improved flooring, and of course a new High Def TV! This, after all, is camping at it’s finest!

Oh yeah, back to that beach thingie. It was all Wendy’s fault. She had this epiphany that we could, in fact, get to the beginning edge of the MuddScape with very little effort. So we did. Here’s our inaugural cruise in the new MuddDigs. Hang Ten!

Well, after threatening for many months we finally held the open house. We tucked the rig into a corner of the parking lot for a small group of offices and held sway for 3 hours on June 6. A good time was had by all 12 guests who enjoyed mimosa’s, juice, Starbuck’s coffee, a ginormous fruit platter and Wendy’s signature banana-cinnamon-chocolate chip coffee cake. Oh yeah, and lemon bars!

Lots of Oh My God’s, Oohs, Aahs, and “I’m so jealous!”. Where were these people when we had to refurbish the trailer? Clean out the garage? Pack up the house? Hold the garage sale? I’ve got your jealous right here! Really though, we appreciate all the well wishes, and are glad you are enjoying the blog. As we get a little better at video editing, especially adding audio, return to see some of our first creative attempts at travelogue! Of course, we continue to add some photos from each post. And new starting with this one, Video with Soundtrack! Check back for our frequent additions for even more media! Enjoy!

Gail, Mary, and Elda kibbitz, scarf goodies, and imbibe

W&W

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!