Month: February 2016

Countdown – 51 Days To Freedom

~ Wanderlets ~ 8 Comments

Cannot wait and nor can Steve who has roughly 20 workdays left going to a job he hates like no other. He likes all the people and managers he works with but the job itself is awful.  His job entails suiting up several times a day to work in a clean room with some very nasty and dangerous chemicals. On top of that his days are 12 hours long. It’s jut too much, especially when he is making not much more than Walmart wages while the top guys rake it in. But that is work life in the USA the past 15-20 years.

Steve is one of those people you read about that makes 2/3 less than what he made 15 years ago due to downsizing, outsourcing, the owner of his company buying a basketball team, etc. Thank goodness he CAN quit. I feel so sorry for all the poor workers that are trapped in these low paying, soul sucking jobs. All I can say is save, save, save. And don’t spend, spend, spend.

Much has been accomplished this past week towards freedom day. Within 24 hours we sold a massive three piece desk and also my sewing cabinet that I had tried many times before to get rid of. The contents of those two are sorted and packed into the “keep” and “sell” piles.  Steve has organized the garage into the same two categories with the vast majority ready for a garage sale. Other than a bedroom set, every large piece of furniture will have a home, thanks to my family.

Our spare time has been spent perusing the motorhome ads. What a dilemma that is! I go back and forth, back and forth.  My ideal motorhome would be a 30 foot diesel in order to camp wherever we want.  However, every time I think I have found one that would work, the reviews are negative on top of the fact there are not many in that category to begin with.

We want a quality brand and that leaves many out of the running. It looks like we will have to go with a longer length, but no more than 34 feet.  We made a list of  wants such as pantry, low mileage, a window on each side of the bed, washing machine, larger than average kitchen, a non-booth dinette, and year 2005 through 2007 because of the requirement for non Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel fuel in order to travel in Mexico. That leaves zero in the entire country! Okay, so we delete washing machine and there are two to choose from. We delete wanting a bigger kitchen and there is one that meets all the other criteria. The three we have targeted are as far from us as possible, either in Florida or Washington State.

And that leaves another dilemma: Trade in Tulip or sell her ourselves?  Steve is leaning towards keeping her AND having a bigger motorhome but I can’t see that unless we are committed to shipping  Tulip to Europe for summer travel but Steve says he will never, ever drive in Europe again. After no less than five fender benders over there the last time, I would agree.

I forgot. In addition to getting rid of the bedroom set, there is also this bookcase to sell.Bookcase-1

 

 

 

 

Caribbean Wrap-Up

~ Wanderlets ~ 2 Comments

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The next stop after Antigua was Grand Turk.  Grand Turk is the capital island of the Turks and Caicos, (population 5,000). It is here that Christopher Columbus first made landfall on his initial voyage to the New World in 1492. Almost 500 years later, US astronaut John Glenn “discovered” Grand Turk himself, after he became the first American man to orbit the earth and splashed down a mile off shore.

The Carnival Corporation has developed a cruise terminal here that is a destination all it’s own.  There are retail shops, a beautiful huge pool, a Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville, and of course there is a beach all set up with many chairs.  And the water! It just keeps getting prettier and prettier on each island.

untitled-19It’s not as crowded as it looks. I’m the last person that likes to be around many people at one time but have to say taking a cruise with 3,000 people and probably 1,000 crew members is really not bad at all. The ship is so big that once on it, there is plenty of space and it’s easy to be alone somewhere. Ask my daughter. She lamented the fact that each night that she went “bar hopping” there was no one to socialize with except the bartenders. Fortunately, she met a woman her age from the Ukraine towards the end of the cruise and they did things together.

Next stop was Half Moon Cay, an island in the Bahamas that Holland America bought in 1997 for 6 million dollars. The 2,400-acre island serves as a private retreat for passengers  of Carnival, Princess Cruises, and Holland America. This was the only island where we had to take a boat to the shore. Normally the cruise ships use their lifeboats that hold about 150 people each. But Half Moon Cay has some much larger open air boats permanently located there to transfer passengers and therefore the process goes much quicker.

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Carnival Corporation invested $15 million to spruce up Half Moon Cay, but just two percent of it has been developed. Located less than 100 miles southeast of Nassau, the island houses its passenger facilities on less than 50 acres; much of the remaining land serves as a preserve for migratory birds.  Physically, the island boasts a 2.5-mile-long crescent-shaped beach — the source of the name Half Moon Cay.

untitled-24Crew members from our ship ferried our lunch to shore and set up buffet lines. There were covered picnic tables for everyone that are each surrounded by tall hedges.

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Actually the hedges surround everything and when it was time for me to head back to the ship I had no idea what direction I was going. Here again, it was possible to be all alone because I didn’t see a soul until I wandered into the shopping area. From there, I knew where I was.

untitled-36Bartenders from the ship set up several bars in the area including in this ship that was built by a whiskey company but I can’t remember their name.

untitled-31My daughter Lauren  decided to see a little sun but she was so slathered in sunscreen that she came back to Colorado as white as she left.

untitled-33Fireplace

Back to the cold. But not for long.

Under Contract!

~ Wanderlets ~ 1 Comment

I have been home from the Caribbean cruise for five days and not had a chance to write a post for the last two ports we stopped in.  The internet on the ship slowed down to the point that reading email was about all anyone could do.

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Alison and Susan

The cruise ended in Galveston, Texas and friends Alison and Susan were at the port waiting for us.  Steve and I met these two cousins on our free cruise to Australia September 2014 when we were assigned to the same table in the dining room. Then coincidentally, Alison and her sister-in-law were in the cabin right next to us on our second free cruise which was to Hawaii December 2014.  After going out for brunch and a bit of shopping in Galveston, Alison and Susan drove us to the Houston airport.  These two cheerfully drove all the way from north of Houston to Galveston and back to Houston for us, probably 200 miles altogether.  Southern hospitality at it’s best and I hope we can repay them someday.

I have to mention that Steve and I have made so many fine friends since we started traveling 6 years ago.  On the other hand, in 9 years of owning our home here we don’t know the name of a single person on our street and no one says hello or is so much as willing to even make eye contact.

I had my phone on airplane mode while out of the country in order to not have roaming charges but once at the Houston airport I checked my phone messages.  For a bit of background, we had listed our house for sale by owner back in November. A full week before I flew home a real estate agent came to the door and told Steve he had some buyers who found our house online and contacted the agent (instead of us–not smart) to see it. Steve asked what the commission would be and he said 3%. That’s $13,470 to do some paperwork and coordinate inspections and appraisals which I could have easily done.  Steve told him I was not at home and he would talk to me about the commission. When Steve sent me an email about it I blew it off.

When I checked my phone messages there were three from the realtor which at first I wasn’t going to respond to. But since I was bored sitting in the airport I decided to call and before he could say anything I told him no we would not show the house to his buyers as we were not going to pay any commission. Evidently, he must have known the buyers were very interested because he said he would check with them to see if they would pay the commission. He called back a few minutes later and said yes they would pay all of it and we set up a showing for the next day, Sunday.

On Tuesday we received an offer and it was exactly 3% less than our asking price. Can you believe it?  However, one half of the married couple buying the house signed the contract as Doctor ……………..  That wasn’t a very smart agent to let her do that because we knew they didn’t have affordability issues when we made a counter offer. It was accepted. Now we just have the hurdle of inspections and the appraisal which I’m not too worried about.

Closing date is set for April 8th and then we will be FREE of property taxes (that subject alone warrants a rant post), homeowners insurance (another rant), a water bill that is an absolutely gouge when we barely use any, sewer bill, natural gas bill, electricity, trash removal, cable, and internet bill. And of course never ending maintenance costs.

The next two months are going to be very busy getting rid of almost everything we own before we take off in our little motorhome Tulip. It is too small to full time in and sooner than later we will buy something larger.