The First 5 Days (Golden, CO)

Wow, I think we're really doing this!!

We have officially been full-timers for 5 days! And what a stressful time it has been. I thought we were through the hard part before the house sold, but that roller coaster of emotions is still going strong.

We'll start with day 1. We picked up the rig on Friday and it never really dawned on us that Fridays would be their busy day. We could have easily postponed until Monday if we had known. But anyway, it took us about 5 hours from start to finish to get out of the dealer, with probably half that time waiting in the customer lounge. The closer we got to completion, the more anxious we were getting. I "let" Tracy have the inaugural drive and she handled it like a pro. We made it the 2 miles to the campground with ease. Our reserved spot required parellel parking. We knew this when we made the reservation and expressed concern, making it very clear that we are newbies, but were assured that there would be help. So we tried it (with help), but couldn't quite get it in straight. Of course there were trailers on either side of us. So the fairgrounds staff member offered us a 50 amp site that was a back in. We jumped on it. We got hooked up just before the snow started falling.

The weekend was pretty busy with getting moved in. I really thought we had done a good job purging, but as we started bringing boxes and bins in, it quickly became apparent that not everything was going to fit. Here we go again. What can we live without? It is quite disheartening that we worked so hard to get rid of so much already and then realize that we have to do it again. So the weekend was primarily spent back and forth to storage, exchanging stuff. And for every box we opened, there was at least one or two things that didn't have a place (yet) and ended up in the middle of the floor in the way. I hate living in a disarray and that's what the last several days have been.

Monday afternoon rolls around and we are informed that we have to move back to our original spot. There's a high school rodeo coming in over the weekend and all the spots are resevered. What?? Why did they offer to move us in the first place? If we'd known we were going to have to move, we would have tried harder in the first place. There's no way that we're prepared to move this rig anywhere. With stuff spread everywhere, the slides can't be pulled in. We were just a bit irritated, to say the least. But ultimately, there's nothing we could do about it so we arranged for the fairgrounds staff to help us move it on Tuesday afternoon. In the meantime, we worked tirelessly getting everything into a place, a lot of which was on top of furniture or back in the truck.

So that brings us to today, Tuesday, day #5. I got up early and did some more prepping and then had some appointments to attend. When I returned in early afternoon, I noticed the power was not working in the coach. Hmmm, I know it was working when I left. So we tried some basic stuff, no luck. So we checked to see if the other RVs had power. Yep, no problems there. So I called the dealer and worked with the tech over the phone for probably an hour and a half. Still no luck, so he finally dispatched a tech to come out since we're just down the road. I was very happy about that because they typically don't make house calls and I was afraid they were going to tell us that we needed to bring it in. So the tech finally showed up and quickly determined that the coverter was burned out. He has no idea why it happened but he's certain that a new converter will do the trick. The only problem is that they didn't have one in stock. Figures. The parts guy will hopefully be delivering one in the morning. It's still unclear whether they will make a 2nd house call to install it. The tech said it would be up to the service manager to make that decision. I sure hope so, but I guess ultimately it won't make too much of a difference because we have to move tomorrow anyway. Due to our technical difficulties, we got a reprieve today, but we absolutely have to be out tomorrow.

I know these types of problems happen and this is the exact reason that we chose to stay close by, but I swear someone is testing us. This entire transition has been far more stressful that I even imagined. Selling a house is stressful enough. But it's not just a typical move. And then you add the financial stress. It's not like we didn't know we would be ending our income stream, but when it actually happens, it's a bit of a slap in the face. And then add the anxiety of towing something that you're not quite comfortable with yet. And if that wasn't enough, we've also been dealing with family health issues. I have no doubt that at some point we'll look back on this and say it was all worth it, but right now there are moments when I wonder why we've made the choice to put ourselves through so much. When does it get easier? Please tell me it does...