*First of all – been having photo upload issues since moving into the RV in January of 2021. This post should have twice as many photos, but for whatever reason only half upload without errors. Will fix this issue when this chapter is over and we’re back to having “real” internet access.
We had a great summer in Illinois and Wisconsin. We got to see and spend time with family & friends and enjoy our familiar places after 6 months away. The local pool. Our old neighborhood gang of kids. Life at the lake. It felt familiar and different and foreign all at the same time.
It will be interesting to see (and feel) how future visits will be as we truly start to build our new life, have the feeling of “home” down here, and stay away for long periods of time.
Anyhow…
We did a lot of rearranging, cleaning, and maintenance at my parents’ house. They’ve been storing my brother’s stuff since he graduated high school – despite him having gone away to college, law school, his 1st job in California, and now owning a house a few miles away. It was stored in a prime location in the basement that basically rendered that part of the basement unusable. Who wants to sit by boxes of junk? So we moved it into a storage closet – which required cleaning said storage closet and moving that stuff under the stairs – which required clearing the random things under the stairs and getting rid of it. It all looks so much better now, is organized and sorted, and makes the prime area of the basement livable again.
We also built a new king-sized bed in the basement guest room, moved my dad’s new (heavy) sit/stand desk down into his basement office, rearranged their upstairs living room a bit, replaced the moldy basement bathroom ceiling, other random tasks, and a bit of general organizing/cleaning. We definitely left the place better than when we came – even if some of the changes are mostly for our own future benefit like the king bed and liveable basement space.
After about 5 weeks up north, it became time for me to take the dogs and a truckload of our stuff down to Florida by myself. Just as when we headed north, the kids and Karissa would fly and I would drive.
I was tempted to drive the ~20 hours straight through, but took the advice from everybody to stop for a night somewhere. I got to Forsyth, Georgia, which is about an hour past Atlanta for the night. It was a 14-hour day of driving.
I left the next morning refreshed and happy to only have 6 hours ahead. I got to the RV in the early afternoon and relaxed.
Meanwhile, the kids & Karissa enjoyed their last few days and said their goodbyes. They had an uneventful flight and we were back together a few days later.
Saturday was Adelaide’s open house. We got to meet her teacher(s) and a few classmates and see her classroom. They converted the old covered/outdoor cafeteria into a classroom because of adding 200 new kids this year and needing more space. They’re combining 3 classes of 1st graders into one giant room – which gives us jitters, but the school is excited to experiment with a co-teaching format.
Also, the open house was a bit surreal. Despite rising covid numbers in Florida, the school was wide open. No masks, social distancing, time spread of people. Just a really “normal” open house. Not to foreshadow to heavily, but this open house really threw a wrench into the start of the school year.
Adelaide & Emerson start school tomorrow. And we’ll begin our new life in earnest.
PS: The house continues. It now has drywall. Lots of progress expected in the coming weeks! We can’t wait to move in!