Tracks of 2 Tumbleweeds

 

Journey Preparation

We began by researching truck campers. A truck camper would give us living quarters, while still allowing John to tow a recreational vehicle for his transporting job. I made a list of truck campers and we eliminated them one by one - after extensive research - until we came down to a winner. It had to be a 4-season truck camper with a bed, bathroom, sink, shower, refrigerator, and stove. John also wanted it to be low-profile and lightweight, for towing purposes and for gas mileage. In the end, we went with a spacious truck camper that is 4-season and has all the necessities. It is built to last, which is exactly what we needed. Where is the truck camper factory? Colorado! We couldn't get to Colorado to look at the truck camper we chose, so we watched every video, read every article, and then scheduled a video chat with the truck camper company for an overall and in-depth description of the truck camper. We then took a leap of faith and signed a contract with Supertramp Campers to build our truck camper with our chosen options. Afterall, isn't this entire journey a leap of faith? The lead time to build our truck camper was 5-6 months. So as not to put the cart before the horse, we also researched a new truck. We wound up with a GMC Sierra 3500 HD. (More detail will be forthcoming on this in our From the Driver's Seat posts!). John traded in his truck for our new GMC. 

We put our house up for sale and got a 10 x 10 storage unit for sentimental and must-keep items. We had two huge moving sales and made numerous trips to Goodwill, The Habitat Store, and the recycling center. My Mom had just passed away a few months prior, so this was not only physically tough, but emotionally tough as well. But she would have wanted us to move on. Her belongings also encompassed some keepsakes that belonged to my brother, father, and grandparents.  Then we had our belongings, along with items we were holding onto for our two daughters. This, needless to say, is A LOT of belongings! How do you decide, when you are emotionally drained, what qualifies to be stored in a 10 x 10 storage unit? Physically and mentally exhausted, starting your day with necessary calls, working full time, and then coming home to do more separating, packing, recycling. The last few sentences cannot express the exhaustion! But we kept the End Goal in mind, and that is what got us through. We brought my younger daughter her belongings, including some hand-me-down items. We used camping chairs in our living room to watch television until we closed on our house. We also had to figure out how to handle our older daughter's belongings and hand-me-downs as she lives in San Diego. More on that coming up!

 

 

 

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GP and Kirk

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In the end we needed to be left with just our new GMC truck and the new truck camper, so all of our vehicles would be traded or sold before we closed on our house. I was using what originally was my Mom's Kia to commute to work, so we sold my Colorado pickup. Knowing my Mom's Kia was on the list to be sold, my younger daughter and I traded vehicles, so we could keep my Mom's Kia in the family a little longer and it was also a newer vehicle for our daughter. After the trade I was now the owner of my daughter's 2003 Jeep Wrangler named Kirk (named by my daughter after Kirk in the television series Gilmore Girls). Luckily, we were able to find the perfect buyer for Kirk. The buyer was a nice girl who was willing to wait til I no longer needed it to commute to work and she was a big fan of Gilmore Girls, so it was a perfect match!  We also had a 1999 Jeep Wrangler named GP, AKA Jeepie. We bought him used and had him for about 18 years! He is a story in and of himself! When we bought GP our girls were young, so GP was considered a family member - their brother. GP had his own voice and had many magical adventures that we shared from reality and from our imaginations. When my Mom was alive, she strongly encouraged a series of books be written about GP's adventures, which may still come to fruition. After 18 years, our daughters' childhoods, a lot of adventures, and a lot of laughs, it was extremely difficult to part with GP. But John found him a good home with a mother and daughter, so GP can continue to bring laughs with a new family. We also sold a Big Tex utility trailer and a John Deere 4-foot walk-behind mower. Both of these John had since the 1990s. 

Meanwhile, we are still sorting, packing, storing, donating, recycling, and working while our house is on the market. At this point, we are trying to coordinate the sale of our house in South Carolina, with an unknown pickup date for our truck camper in Colorado, along with bringing our older daughter's belongings and hand-me-downs to her in California. This was a bit stressful! 

Although this is probably more information than you bargained for, it shows some of the difficulties of parting with treasured belongings and difficulties with logistics. This does not even go into everything involved with listing items for sale, texting with potential buyers, test drives, coordinating and advertising of moving sales, and so forth. Neither does it delve into selling or parting with items that created loving memories with your husband and children, or my Mom's lifetime of treasures. Not to mention parting with my often-used elliptical. This transition is not for the weary. It is, indeed, a transition like no other. We are changing the entire way in which we live. For better or worse, in sickness and in health, we have committed whole-heartedly to this adventure!

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  House with Sold Sign

 

Our House is Sold!

Our house in South Carolina is sold. Ideally, it is best to sell a house in the Spring, but we could not wait that long.  But, no matter......Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall......it didn't matter to us.  We were excited to begin our next chapter.  After we closed on our house, we rented an AirBNB near my job for 17 days. During that time I continued to work, we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with our younger daughter, Rory, and her significant other, Alan, and tied up loose ends.  

From this point, for several months, our base was with Rory and Alan in South Carolina.  This allowed us to keep our residency and our doctors.  Down the road, we established a South Dakota residency with a virtual mailbox.  We fell in love with South Dakota when we vacationed there back in 2022, so we were happy to become residents of South Dakota.​​​​​​​​ 

After a heartfelt goodbye with our younger daughter, we packed up a small tow-behind U-Haul containing our older daughter's belongings. Also in the U-Haul were the items destined to go into our new truck camper. We left South Carolina and journeyed the Southern route to California - Interstate 10 - interacting with Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and then California. Even though it would add extra time and miles to our trip, we wanted a less familiar route!

 

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​Our Stopover In California

Upon our arrival in California, we checked into our hotel and moved our items destined for our truck camper from the U-Haul to our hotel room for safekeeping during our visit.  Afterward, we drove the U-Haul to our daughter's storage unit to drop off her belongings.  Then we returned the U-Haul and went back to our hotel room.

​Our older daughter, Montana, was nice to do all the driving during our stay. She showed us some of her favorite places in the San Diego area and also places she felt we would enjoy.  She treated us to a sunset dolphin cruise, where a superpod of dolphins swam along our boat!   ​​​​​​​​