October 25, 2019

It’s just after 6 a.m. on Friday morning. There was a time not so long ago when I’d be at the dock to capture photographs of sunrise, but lately there hasn’t been time for frivolous pleasures such as that.

So much has happened recently, and at least five times this month I’ve started writing—but all of a sudden, things would get real busy and writing had to go on the back burner. The last eight weeks have been a blur.

It all started in July when our daughter, who’d been living in our house for the past two years, surprised us by announcing that she’d bought a house of her own. Of course, we were thrilled for her, and couldn’t have been happier for her and the kids. Right around this same time, Dave’s dad passed away.

In late August, Kate and the grandkids moved out of our house. Rather than rent it, we decided to put it up for sale and listed it in September. A couple of weeks later, we had a buyer.

That in itself amazed me, but even more so is the fact that the house hadn’t even been cleared of all our stuff yet! And there was a lot of it: 3-families’-worth. Our stuff, our daughter’s and grandkids’ stuff, and all of my late father-in-law’s stuff that was shipped here from Florida. 1,500 square feet never held so much stuff.

In my mind, the house looked like something right out of “Hoarders.” We took a chance listing it when we did, considering how it looked. But people who’d somehow gotten wind of the house being put up for sale were already coming by, wanting to look at it in spite of all the chaos. News travels fast in this neighborhood.

A woman whose business is tag sales orchestrated ours last weekend because the thought of doing it ourselves was too overwhelming. It was enough just to sort through everything and put it all into logical piles. She took it from there, working for three days staging everything and pricing it all; then she dealt with people, hagglers, and looky-lou’s for two whole days. Her commission was well earned.

So now we’re in the process of packing up and leaving Hillman Ferry Campground. Our plan is to start heading south this coming Monday. The timing couldn’t be better. Temperatures in the low 30’s are predicted for Halloween.

I can’t believe how fast the seven months that we’ve been here at the Land Between the Lakes have gone by! We’ve loved every bit of this workamping experience, being relatively close to our family and friends in Hopkinsville, and discovering how uniquely beautiful western Kentucky is.

Everyone we work with here was surprised to learn that we weren’t planning on coming back next season. It was a very tough and somewhat painful decision because this place is absolutely beautiful, but we just didn’t feel comfortable making a commitment to be here for nine months. We think we might do some traveling next year.

All we know for certain is that we’re leaving Monday. We renewed our membership to Boondockers Welcome, a service that connects RVers with people who are able to host them for free—and already planned our first two stops: first, the Samuel T. Bryant Distillery, https://www.samueltbryant.com/ in Jackson, Tennessee, and then the Candy Cane Corral in New Boston, Texas, just west of Texarkana, later in the week.

Ultimately we’ll end up in Bandera, Texas, where we’ve spent the past two winters. But on the way we’re dropping off Felix in Weatherford, Texas to have its old flooring replaced. That will be at least a 10-day job, and likely more.

That will leave us and our two pups homeless except for the car, and so we’ll just wander and explore. We have no particular plans and zero expectations. It should be interesting, to say the least.

The Juke is going to be packed with us, the pups and all their stuff, luggage, the cooler… Both Biscuit and Victor are senior pups (11, 14) and love to travel.

Unfortunately, Biscuit’s been having incontinence issues, and she just started wearing diapers. Granted, they’re cute, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be putting diapers on a dog!

It is what it is. I guess we’re all getting older, so what can we do but deal with it? Until next time when I’m sure there’ll be a couple of stories, at least…xo ☺️ Maria