Prologue

In our twenty nine plus years of married life. We have enjoyed and sometimes endured  many beginnings. Parenthood embodies both of those, and remains the most rewarding and continues to be to this day. Interwoven with parenthood has been the operation of our own bed and breakfast while still living in Monroe, MI. The opening and operation of Dumont Air Services, LLC in Cadillac, MI for ten years. Of course, we participated in the more mundane activities of life such as jobs at Ford Motor Company and Betty in nursing. All the above provided the path that had led us to where we are today. Not to mention five moves.

An unusual thing happened to us while wintering at Naval Station Mayport, near Jacksonville, Florida last year. We received  an e-mail regarding the availability of our home for sale. Did I mention that Betty and I had discussed selling and moving to a smaller home on one floor prior to leaving for Florida. Back to the inquiry. A business next door to our home wanted to expand and met all our requirements for the sale, we made an offer to sell that allowed us to move to when the weather was warmer and continue our stay in Florida.

We took the plunge and sold our home of 14 years and began directing our lives in the direction of full time RV’ers. First item was to have a new RV to move in when we actually moved out of our Sunnyside home. This required a new RV suitable for full time living for two plus Piper. We had to have it in hand on the day of the sale. Otherwise we would be truly homeless!

Lest you think this move was a spontaneous act on our part. In or defense we have been RVing / camping for all of our 30 years of marriage.  Sometimes it involved bicycles, tents, planes with tents and finally our first RV that was thoroughly used, followed by two Airstreams and a 32’ Cougar we purchased new. The bikes, tents, planes and finally  the RV’s opened up the entire country to us and our family. In short we have been in training for this adventure for 30 years and now are ready to step away from the security and “worry” of our left behind home.

As we went about the business of looking at many units and developing a list of must haves, we finally narrowed it down to two units. A Montana fifth wheel with and office and a Jayco North Point with an office. Both beautiful and priced nearly the same. Betty made the final decision to go with the Jayco. The first part of the plan has now been taken care of. We have a home that is large and comfortable.

Now, what do we do with all that STUFF we accumulated over 30 years. Of course, a moving sale was in our future. We lived on a great street for any kind of sale so with good weather, we  managed to move all that we wanted to sell and saved a few things for that eventual smaller house.

On May 25^th we turned over the keys to our home. I would have thought we would have shed a tear or two. But we had no trouble passing the responsibility on to the new owners. After all, new adventures were waiting for us and we were looking forward to getting started. We were already set up at Mitchell State Park in Cadillac only a mile away. I recall how giddy we were at the end of the day we sold our house and finally entered our new RV, sat in our side by side reclining theatre seats and turned on the fire place. No regrets were visible then or since. Only smiles.

The Adventure Has Begun!