Going My Way...

 

If you said, "Wow, Jim, you are really reaching - that is an old musical (1944) staring Bing Crosby," you get 50 bonus points.

On the way out to our storage unit (the big one, with the motorhome in it) this morning, we had a discussion.  In my mind, it was a very serious discussion.  Right up there with deciding to make this move to Arizona.  (Yes, that was a very big deal to me.)  The topic: I want to go north this summer... to get out of the sub-tropical heat and (most importantly) get to some good motorcycle riding.  For me, that means: Hart Ranch in the Black Hills.

Hart Ranch allows you to make reservations 60 days in advance.  Today being the 4th of May (Star Wars Day - "May the Forth be with you."), that would put me making a reservation starting on the 4th of July... good luck with that.  Joan didn't want to leave here until mid-July (due to all this moving stuff, which we continue to work at)... I would prefer to go much earlier than that.  She compromised and said, "See if you can get us in there around the end of June."  I called immediately, got through to Reservations, and was told: "There are two sites left in the pet area during that time..."

"I'll take one!"  You can only reserve for 21 days at a time.  That time puts us there over the 4th of July.  They have a policy now that you have to pay for the whole reservation in advance if it spans a holiday... and no refunds.

This is a commitment.  The nice lady in Reservations asked, "Do you want me to go forward with this reservation?"

"Absolutely!"  An executive decision on my part, as Joan was out loading stuff into the car while I was in the motorhome, with a calendar and a site map.  Done!  Less than two months, and I get to do some truly fine motorcycle riding!

With that done, Joan asked me to book something in Phoenix for November and December.  That is tougher to pull off... the places we have stayed in the past don't take reservations for monthly stays until June 15th or July 1st.  I gave it a go.  I had a plan: be willing to pay more for a weekly rate, and skip past the "you can't book until ___ dates for the monthly rentals."  The lady at this RV park told me she would "get in trouble" for doing that.

I said, "You will get in trouble for making the company more money?  That doesn't make sense."  She had to think about that for a minute.  I continued, "You will get almost twice as much rent from me, and I will be in a site that I know you have space in, since these are the less desirable sites."  (The sites are at the far back end of the park and are close together - they use them mainly for overnighters, or (as of last year) weekly rentals.  I was using my best combination of persuasion and desperation.  She had to go talk to someone there about this proposal.

She came back to the phone and said, "The manager OKed it."  I booked the dates and gave her a deposit.  Joan will be relieved that we have a place to say in Phoenix until the new house is finished.

Things are going my way.  Ducks are lining up.  Leaving the big storage unit, we drove to the new small storage unit (we are paying a lot of rent these days) to drop things off that will eventually go into a U-Haul Cube.  On the way there, Joan asked, "How would you like to do pizza - we can pick it up after we drop off stuff at the thrift store?"  Another big score for me!

One painful moment at the small storage unit: I had to toss a couple of night stands that Joan had made for us in 1978...

 They have been sitting in storage since we left Spearfish in 2006.  I have a sentimental attachment to them, because Joan made them.  Really, she took a cabinet-making class, and the pair of these were her project.  They are built solid, but would need to be "rehabbed" to make them usable and would still likely be too small (short) for our bedroom in the new house.  I said, "Keep," she said, "Toss."  We compromised and I tossed them.  It hurt.

But... Hart Ranch and pizza!  I'm calling today a win.  We have places to be when we want to be there.  I got Russo's pizza.  We picked up the pizza on the way home from the thrift store... the lady there was delighted to get a portable ice maker and an air compressor (with a tank) to resell.

Two more bins came home for us to go through, as time allows.  Pretty sure it is mostly RV stuff.  As of today, the only things left in the big storage unit are the motorhome and a few RV related items that we will load into the motorhome.  That was another big "done" today.

We are definitely "beyond the hump" with this packing stuff.  Oh, there's still more stuff in the house, but most of it is stuff we will use until the day we leave.

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Memories...

Yeah, a zillion artists and songs by that name.  One of the boxes for me to go through is old photos.  My goal is to get these copied digitally, so when my time comes, Steph and Joan don't have to sort through them.  My old band days (several different bands).  Three airplanes.  Photos of Joan and Steph when we were all young.  Several photos of my Dad that I don't remember seeing before.  A VW bus.  A Dodge Street Van that I converted into our first "Class B Camper" (that term didn't exist back then).  Our first house.  Our first studio.  Scads of contracts from band gigs.  The contract that I signed with American Management Enterprises that gave them the publication rights to any songs I wrote back in the day (when I was in the Flippers).  My birth certificate (proof that a Gypsy didn't throw me up on the porch and then ran like hell... as my Mother and sisters used to tell me.  Yeah, that's funny because people were afraid back then that Gypsies would steal their babies - apparently, they didn't want me.).  Ski trips (see, I used to be a "winter person").  A Mustang II (yes, I am still embarrassed by that one).  My dog Bonnie that I had as a kid... yeah, the dog that bit the neighbor and my Mom told me "Bonnie is going to the farm"... when what she meant was: Bonnie bought the farm!!! (I didn't find that out until I was in my 40s.)  

Hundreds of images and papers.  I shot until the light gave out.  My back was close behind (on giving out).  I made it about 2/3 of the way through that box.  This may be the toughest part of packing all this stuff up.  This takes a lot of time... probably because I would say to Joan, "Hey - look at this!"  Frequently.  ;-)