Timing has never been a strong suit of ours, but Who Knew that the biggest pandemic in over 100 years would descend on all of us and close down almost all human interaction in this country and right as we sold our house?
We were homeless with money, but could not go anywhere. We moved into Kay's (Wendy's Mom) apartment for 3 weeks to hide out. We searched and researched for motor homes for sale and States that were open enough for us to get into and buy our new home.
After 3 weeks and suffering from the anxiety that comes from inertia, we said the hell with it, rented a car and took off for Austin, Texas and the lure of a big, slightly used, beautiful diesel motor home.
The interstate was empty except for 18 wheelers and seemingly devoid of State Troopers. Our trip was fast and uneventful except for the fact the RV that was promised as "nearly new" was actually a filthy, rusted, money pit waiting to suck in some poor unsuspecting buyer.
Broken and tired, we went to a downtown Austin 5 Star hotel that Wendy found for a fraction of its' usual cost. When we checked in, the young man behind the counter asked if we could leave before noon tomorrow morning? Turns out that the hotel was closing because of the pandemic and the only people in this luxury 20 story hotel were us, the guy behind the counter and an airline pilot staying 2 floors below us!
In the middle of the night Wendy wakes me to say that we are going back to Tampa, Florida to see another motorhome. She goes on to say that she has made an appointment for us to see it in two days! For those of you not keeping score that is approximately 1200 miles to be driven on top of the 690 just driven! In a grand total of 56 hours!
We made the trip in record time. Knowing that the roads were empty of cars and cops, we hammered through Texas, never stopped in Louisiana or Mississippi! Our only hold up was a checkpoint that had just been set up at the Florida border.
We arrived early in Tampa and discovered our new home. Yes, it had some issues and we did some heavy duty inspection that cost a lot more money than what we expected, but our new Journey was proving herself to us!
We dumped the rental car at a crowded rental car lot in Tampa and drove our new home, home! Well, home, at least for a month was Charlie and Glenda's backyard (Wendy's Dad and Stepmom) in Summerdale, Alabama. They recently bought a home in Florida and had moved, leaving their Alabama home for sale and in our careful hands for month.
Wanda is the name given to our Journey by Wendy and she re designed her to be both our new home and work studio! This retrofit wasn't quite a difficult as first thought except for the massive need for storage!
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