Part 1 is here:
http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2015/12/christmas-greetings-from-cartwrights.html
In looking, we ended
up deciding to get a BlueBird Wanderlodge. It is built on a BlueBird bus
chassis (the same folks who make school buses) and is very solid (and heavy!).
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| We bought the BlueBird in July. |
Right after we
purchased it, we took it to the Talley farm in Virginia and did a lot of
work
on it - including getting 6 new tires for the duals and tag axles. Just
removing
the tires and wheels, and moving them to a trailer to take them to the
tire shop was a big piece of work - so Jimmy suggested that, in
light of our previous motorhome being called "Miss Daisy", that this
one should be called "Miss Doozie", because everything about it was
big and heavy! The thing that Patti really likes about it is that we
don't have
weight problems; with Miss Daisy, we were always close to or over the
weight
limit on the back axle. With Miss Doozie, we don't think we'll ever have
that
kind of problem! She also has a comfortable ride.
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| Dwayne "helping out" on the farm in Virginia |
So, in the time when we were getting Miss Daisy ready for sale, and buying
Miss Doozie, we were also getting our house ready for sale. What a job that
was! We had a friend from church who is a real estate agent, and he came by
with another lady from church who worked for him and gave us input on what we
needed to get out of the house for staging. Dwayne's garage workshop equipment
was going to go to Virginia because we knew we were going to need to do work on
the bus, and other furniture and decorative items were identified by various
family members as pieces they wanted. Everything else we planned to get rid of
at an estate sale. Items that were to go to Virginia were in one part of the
garage and items for the estate sale in another area of the garage; the huge
oversized 3-car garage was packed full! Jimmy came down to help with packing
the moving truck of things going to Virginia and also drove the truck to Virginia.
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| Jimmy and our friend Grant starting the packing of the moving truck |
The house went on the market in August. Our area has a pretty hot housing
market, and we had an offer within about 10 days, which we accepted. However,
that couple decided to back out of deal (there were some odd circumstances) and
the house went back on the market. Though it was getting lots of showings, no
more offers came in. We started praying earnestly about whether God might want
us to do something else with the house, and through a series of events ("God-incidences" instead of coincidences), found a
couple who would value living in our area and help us with expenses and care
for the house while we were gone. That seemed like the thing that God would
have us do with the house, so we arranged for the estate sale to occur near the
end of October, and the new residents to move in early November.
We moved in to Miss
Doozie fulltime on October 9 and headed out. We've met up with rallies with new
and old friends - Coaches for Christ in Montgomery, TX, and a couple of
BlueBird rallies in Georgia and North Carolina. We visited back at the Talley
farm and got some more tasks completed. Jimmy has created a nice pad for us to
use next to his shop.
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| From the kitchen door, Jimmy's shop, the Jeep in the foreground, and Miss Doozie around the right side of the shop on her "pad" |
It is now just before Christmas, and we are at a RV service center in the
DFW area getting some last items completed before, hopefully, heading west to
Arizona for the winter. God willing, we hope to visit friends at Quartzsite,
and then spend a bit of time in Yuma.
We don't have a lot of specific plans; DFW will continue to be our domicile,
and we'll be back through the DFW area probably twice a year for doctor's
appointments and just to keep up with things. We'll continue to visit the
Talley farm -- but we're hoping the visits can become more "visits"
and less "service calls"! We hope to visit the northeast during next
summer. We would still like to visit family, friends, former co-workers in our
travels. And we are praying that God will use us as we travel.
We hope you have enjoyed this update of our year. Patti tries to keep this
blog / online diary updated every day or so with what we are doing; keep up
with us, and let us know how you are doing also!
With Love -- Patti and Dwayne
