We did it, we are officially on the road!
Enjoying Chesapeake Crabs on the deck at the Pointe Crab House and Grill in Arnold, MD
We never thought this day would come. For weeks it just felt like a dream, an arbitrary point in time. A point in time that never seemed to get any closer. Each day that passed took almost everything we had just to get through them. But we finally did it.
In retrospect, it should've been an unrealistic plan with so many moving parts that we should have thought better of it. Moving is hard enough by itself, and we should know as we have done it enough, but we had to make it extraordinarily more difficult.
1.) Sell your house (luckily the first family to visit made an offer and we were able to make some good money off of it)
2.) Finishing a major kitchen remodel (started before we made the decision to do this but still had a ton of work to do)
3.) Buying an RV and doing everything needed to get it legal and road ready. Get it inspected and registered. We had to take it back three different times (!!) to replace one of the AC’s and then we needed to get it fixed because it wasn’t installed right the first time. We also needed to get the draglink replaced (at a different garage) so that it could pass inspection. Then when we finally got it back after all this was completed; get it loaded up with all our stuff and customize it to make it our own.
4.) Now let’s throw in a major overhaul of the Jeep both by myself and the dealer and it just starts getting ridiculous. All shocks, brakes, bump stops, ball joints, and full exhaust was replaced along with a bunch of minor fixes and upgrades. I also installed new AEV front geometry correction brackets, changed most fluids, and rotated the tires. The good news is it drives better than it has in years. She is ready for adventure!
5.) Did I mention that we are also working full-time jobs, and the good news is that it is extremely busy but it made things even more difficult.
Everything that could go wrong, did! The "RV Specialist" had the RV for over a month which limited our access when we needed to get her loaded up. The dealer ordered the wrong parts for the Jeep and they took forever to come in. I didn’t get the Jeep inspected until the Friday before we left. U-Haul moved our pickup location 30 minutes away and when we get there they tell us it was moved again an hour and a half away. By the time we got back, the movers that we had hired for two hours to help, had already left after just moving some boxes and furniture out front for us. Oh, and our cat ran away!
We didn’t get to storage until 4:00 pm on Saturday. We realized about halfway through that we would need another storage unit. Of course, they were closed for the night and would be closed Sunday. So my wife literally commandeered the open space next to ours and thankfully management didn’t seem to mind once she called on Monday.
Did I mention that it was mid 90’s with extremely high humidity the last week of our move? It was ridiculously hot! Let me put it this way, we both threw out two outfits that my wife refused to wash.
We didn’t get out of the storage place until 12:30 am, and we could barely move, heck I could barely stand. We still drove the first night to Exeter, NH, and didn’t get in until after 3:00 am. We spent the night in a Walmart parking lot. After sleeping in until 8:30 am we hit the road again and finally made it down to Capital KOA in Millersville, MD at 9:45 pm for our first official stop.
Looking back all that keeps popping into my head is WTF were we thinking? Not the overall idea, but trying to do it all at the same time the way we did it. The plan ultimately came together, and ended up being doable, but took days of literal blood, sweat, and tears. Was it worth it? Probably, but please don’t ask us for a couple of weeks. Needless to say, we are still bitter about it. We have been in the DC area for three days now and haven’t done much other than drive through the city and explore Annapolis a little bit as none of us had the energy to do much walking and could barely deal with the continued extensive heat. It has been close to 100 degrees most of the week with incredible humidity. Storms tonight should cool things off some, and hopefully, we will get out and explore more tomorrow.
BUT IT’S DONE! And we can finally get started. The adventure begins!
The harbor off of the Point Crab House & Grill
It was good for us all to relax, take a break, and finally smile.
