Where did all this stuff come from…..

Oct 16, 2008 7:45pm

Before the Keystone Montana Fifth-Wheel arrives, I wanted to give myself a chance to down-size. I won’t need that much in the RV and I can always buy something down the road if I really need it at that time. But you just can’t carry everything in a home in an RV. There’s plenty of storage in the RV, but you’ve got to use storage wisely. That would be lesson number three, if you are following along from my recently blog entries, lesson number three is: Use the space in your RV wisely. And if you run out of space, you’re in trouble. I know you’ve all heard this one before, but after today, I’ve got to say it: Where did all this stuff in my home come from?? It’s officially Spring Cleaning in the middle of October! I threw out so much stuff that I acquired over the last few days, months, years, because “stuff” turned into clutter and became buried in between piles of other stuff and I’ve found old junk mail that “almost” made it to the trash. I’ve got boxes of this stuff, boxes of that stuff, and why do we hang on to so much stuff that takes up so much room. First off, I took all my books, there must of been about 75 to 80 books I had on shelves that I’ve read, great books, and I enjoyed reading them, but they are just sitting there collecting dust. I gave all my books to the local library, they thanked me numerous times and I kissed that part of me good-bye (I just love books) but I’ll buy new ones and the stocking up on books will start again sooner than I think. Second off, I went through papers, piles of papers, on my computer desk. I found papers of orders that I placed back in 2006! Oh, boy, tossed those all away. I still had my receipt of my desktop computer I bought back in 2005…..I should be ashamed of myself. And lastly, I went through my closet….I laughed at this chore……because before I even touched an article of clothes, I just asked myself, “How much clothes do I have in here that would immediately put me on anti-depressant pills because I would not fit into them any more?” Anyways, while I was tossing clothes out that I no longer wore anymore, I had to close my eyes. I just couldn’t look at all those clothes that I know use to fit me. Close my eyes and toss, close my eyes and toss. That was a challenge, because I look at these clothes and think, “Maybe someday I’ll fit into them again!!” Then after the damage has been done and my closet is more than half empty, I topped off the trash bag full of clothes with the bathroom scale. Won’t be needing that anymore either! Well, I thought twice about it and saved the scale but we are still not the best of friends. So cleaning up, cleaning out, and cleaning house is what I did today. I’m proud of myself, but man, was it painful. Have a good night and thanks for checking in on me! 🙂

Well, that was painless….

Oct 13, 2008 – 4:30pm

Shopping for an RV is alot of fun but a tad stressful due to an over-whelming amount of amenities that these new RVs come with. Got to remember what you really liked in the old RV and try to duplicate that while taking in all the extra features of a new RV. Well, we found one we all liked. On Sunday (yesterday) we took the trip to Kingston and visited Campers Inn. I am going to plug the salesman name in here only because took great care of what out needs were to live in a new RV and he also never rushed us and his personality and company was enjoyable. Russell Griffin helped us with any questions we had and thoroughly went through what this RV can do for us. We settled on a 2009 Keystone Montana 3400RL. Model number don’t really mean anything anymore, I mean, it doesn’t tell you how long the unit is or anything even pertinenting to the unit itself. The RL at the end of the model number is for Rear Living (Room). This particular unit is 38 feet, 4 inches long and 12 feet, 9 inches tall, sitting pretty with four slide out walls. Four! This is a big boy and a beauty is nothing short of what it really is. And this fifth wheel sure has bragging rights – it comes with a remote control and just with the push of a button on this little hand held device, it will slide out the four walls, lower and raise the awning, and control the landing gear to level the unit out. It just about sets itself up short of hooking up the sewer hose. The layout of the unit is very convenient and comfortable. Click on here to see the exact floor plan of our unit. I will be taking pictures of this new rig once we get it in our possession. Well, got to run and get errands done. Thanks for checking in on me!

Shopping…..Oh, how I love shopping….

Well, it looks like my parents sold their lakeview home in Northwood. My mom quit her job for good. I have to say “for good” because this would be her third job that she “retired” from. My dad will quit his job in two more weeks. I’ve been helping them move stuff out of the Northwood home listening to my dad telling everyone around him that he is now officially “homeless”. They have a fifth-wheel now and they bought the 34 foot Sportsmen brand new back in 97. Just as I was there to help them shop for that one, I am fully participating to assist RVing shopping this time around. We drove down to Merrimack to the Camper’s Inn this afternoon and wandered around. There was practically no one there, I think I counted four people – one receptionist, one salesman, and two general managers. The salesman hurried right over to greet us (of course he did!) and my parents told him that we were just looking around for a new fifth-wheel, and, of course, I was just along for the ride…..ya right! We looked around at alot of 2009’s and saw alot of different options that weren’t around back in 1997. Can you believe they make RVs that come with an electric fireplace! In my opinion, I would just rip that right out of there and put some doors there and, voila, more storage space. When you live out of an RV, there more storage space the better, and you learn this pretty darn quickly (within the first week). Anyways it came with a big window that takes up the top half of the back of the fifth-wheel which is one of my favorite features of an RV…….got to look out the big window and see what’s going on, especially when you are on the laptop or eating dinner. No, I’m not nosey, just curious! Another cool feature to this unit is that it had a desk in the corner with a chair which I claimed that space to be my office! It’s got closet space to put in a washer and dryer……if anyone has never seen a washer and dryer in an RV, it’s not exactly one of those two separate machine set-ups. It’s one machine with the door in the front and when you put your clothes inside it will wash and then dry your clothes with one push of the button. Pretty neat huh? Lesson number two about living out of an RV: (remember lesson 1 – the more storage space, the better) Lesson 2 – when you realize that using the washing machine and dryer at an RV park has you waiting until 10pm for a free washing machine or dryer, you will find space in your RV to install your very own unit! Well, we were exactly satisfied with the RV selection at that particular Camper’s Inn, so our salesman checked inventory at the other Camper’s Inns locations and found one that will suit our level of comfortability needs. A Montana 38 foot Fifth-wheel, picture window in the back, well, click here for a view of the exact floor plan of this Keystone unit. This unit is sitting down at the Camper’s Inn in Kingston and it was too late to go there today since they closed at 5, but they do open at 11am tomorrow (Sunday) so stay tuned for the continuation of our RV shopping excursion……