This notice appeared taped to our door yesterday. It’s warning us about freezing water lines. “Lines must be wrapped by Tuesday, November 11, or you will be asked to vacate the premises.”
We think it’s really telling us that it is time to head south. I hope we will be able to cooperate.
My brother Bob recommended to Jill that she sell her 2000 Toyota Echo herself rather than trade it in on the Honda. He thought she would get much more money for it that way. I will admit that I was skeptical and doubted that it would be worth what I thought would be a major effort.
So after multiple extensive phone conversations between Bob and Jill, she placed an ad in last weekend’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It also appeared, with photos (taken by Jill) including the one above, on the AJC.com website.
She got four or five phone calls before a father and son showed up on Sunday afternoon, looked it over, drove it, and bought it on the spot at Jill’s asking price, $1,750 more than the Honda dealer offered in trade. We meet at the bank Monday morning and closed the deal.
Everyone is happy: the new owner, his father, Jill and me. Thanks Bob!
Although others have seen our coach while it was in storage (most notably Glenn's sister Carol and her husband Alexander, Jill’s brother Bill, and Glenn's navy buddy Nick and his wife Trish), we had yet to entertain in it since we had started living in it fulltime. There were still boxes full of stuff in the front and in the bedroom. It was definitely not ready for guests.
We finally got all the boxes emptied or stored. Jill broke out the new bed coverings and took the pretty pillows out of the closet. It looked great if we say so ourselves!
On Saturday it was ready and Jill’s sister and her husband, Mary and Mark, came to visit us. We gave them the full tour. Mark is restoring a classic GMC Motorhome and it was fun showing him the inner workings of our coach. Jill then drove the four of us in the new Honda to Casa Nuova, a fine Italian restaurant in Alpharetta, only a few miles from here.
A good time was had by all.
At Life on Wheels, we attended a seminar on choosing a home base state. South Dakota was the top choice and we met a couple who recommended My Dakota Address in Madison as a forwarding agent. We used them to register our coach in South Dakota. But we had to appear in person to get drivers' licenses and to register to vote.
Originally, we had wanted to drive the coach to Madison. But with winter coming, and because October 20 was the last day to register to vote in the presidential election, we realized we had run out of time. So on Monday, October 13, we flew to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and drove the 50 miles to our adopted hometown.
110 East Center Street
Looking south on Egan Avenue, the main street.
We registered to vote at the Lake County Court House on Tuesday and were able to vote on Wednesday. Glenn joined the local VFW Post and Jill joined the VFW Auxiliary. We put some money in a local bank and got a lawyer to prepare South Dakota wills for us.
Everyone we met welcomed us and made us feel right at home. But our concerns about winter were not without cause – Tuesday night eastern South Dakota (“East River”) experienced the first hard freeze of the season.
