Merry Christmas 2024 and Happy New Year 2025!
Dear Friends & Adopted 'Family':
It
seems like just it was just yesterday that I was putting the 2023 Holiday
letter together; however, here it is nearly the end of 2024! It has been a very hectic year for us, I will
save you the boring details and try to hit on just the highlights!
We spent last winter in Florida at Sunkissed Village RV Resort in Summerfield. It is a 55+ Community that we like very much. In January our dear friends (and adopted ‘family’) Darren and Rozz Housley came to visit us for a week. It was the first time we have ever had overnight guests in our RV. We had a great time with them and meeting up with our “other” Wyoming friends, Jerry and Sue Hazen, (who were spending the winter in Florida visiting their family here) sightseeing and finding fun places to eat. Sadly, their trip was just too short.
Shortly after Darren and Rozz left to go home, Bill had an “episode.” He came out of the bank one day and was so exhausted when he got to the truck that he did not have the energy to get in and had to lay down next to the truck in the parking lot for about 20 minutes. We headed straight to the VA Outpatient Clinic. By the time Mary parked the truck and got into the building, the Techs had surrounded him and called EMS. So, on Monday, January 29th, Bill was admitted to The Villages UF Regional Medical Center. After stabilizing him they began running tests, which indicated that he had Blood Clots in both lungs. Further tests indicated that he did not have any clots in his legs, which is where the clots usually start. His Doc put him on blood thinners to treat the clots. So, he has been on Eliquis since January. At some point they will probably take some tests to see how the clots have reacted to the Eliquis. But we learned a very valuable lesson form this experience: we needed to be closer to medical care than we were in Wyoming.
On the way to Wyoming from Florida in May, we went through Decatur, IN to have warranty work completed on our RV. The rear Passenger side slide was making popping and cracking noises when the morning sun hit it. The Engineers determined that the slide wall was delaminating and that the slide would have to be rebuilt, a project that would take about 3 weeks. So, we made an appointment for September 30th and headed to Wyoming for the summer. The house went back on the market and we spent most of our time completing projects that were designed to make the house more attractive. We took one day to travel to Jackson to pick up some souvenir “merch.” With the mortgage rates so high, it seemed that there was very little buyer interest. We finally had a few showings in July and August. But nothing exciting.
By the latter part of September, we had given up any hope of the house selling this year and prepared to leave to head back to Indiana to have the slide repair done on the coach. We left some furniture in the house as well as other personal items. The realtor called us the day of our appointment in Indiana to tell us she would be showing the house that day. We said O.K. thinking that that would be the end of the conversation. That night she called us with an offer!! We countered the next morning and by that evening we had an executed contract. Excitement!! Except, we still had a lot of stuff in the house. So, leaving the RV in at Decatur in Indiana, we jumped in the truck and drove to Wyoming. The timing was great, because it gave us something to do while the coach was in the shop.
We were in Wyoming 2 weeks, clearing out the house and cleaning it up. The Home Inspection identified some items that needed correction, and the ones that we could not handle ourselves, our friend Darren (a GC) and his Electrician completed them for us. Bill was not about to go up 30 feet onto the roof peak to repair a bent ridge cap, and Mary certainly was not going up there either. Darren said: “No problem” and had the issue corrected in about 10 minutes. Thank you, Darren.
Closing happened on November 14th. It was a cash sale and the entire transaction was smooth. By this time, we were back in Florida and at the Sunkissed campground again, looking for a house to purchase in The Villages. We spent a lot of time looking at homes, but were not going to purchase until after the election, assured that with a Trump win, there would be sanity in the world, again. Since Florida had just had 2 bad hurricanes in a short period, we knew that we wanted a block and stucco house with a golf cart garage, as opposed to stick built with vinyl siding, but block and stucco homes were more expensive, so we settled for a block and stucco over the golf cart garage, and will have to keep the truck on the driveway. And THEN, within 2 days of the election, we started to see homes go pending almost as soon as they hit the market. So, we changed our planning, deciding to contract a house before all the best ones were gone. We found one in the area that we wanted to be in, that had been on the market for 7 months. We looked at it several times, and finally decided that it checked enough boxes that it would work for us, if we could buy it for the right price. Bill used his experience as a realtor and came up with an offering price. They accepted it, with no counter offer. As a Realtor, he was also able to get a commission for buying it, which helped reduce its cost. We closed on November 25th. It has been less than 30 days since we closed, and we have had all new flooring put down, purchased bedroom, living room and dinette furniture. We also took advantage of Lowe’s Black Friday sale to obtain some new appliances. Things are finally coming together. Oops, almost forgot, we bought a rebuilt 2018 golf cart… a necessary staple for living in The Villages!
We tried to get a covered storage space for the motorhome, but all spaces are full. So, for the time being, we will be leaving the motorhome at the RV park. We still have house projects and motorhome projects that will keep us busy for the next month or so.
Our future plan is to probably rent a car to travel to Wyoming in the Spring, after the Wyoming snow has all melted. We will pick up our furniture and other items we have in the warehouse, as well as the Explorer and transport everything back to Florida. Once that project is completed and everything put in its place, we are thinking of doing some traveling with the motorhome, for a change.
We hope that everything is well with you and your families and that you have a Happy, Healthy and Safe Holiday Season.
Bill and Mary
Merry Christmas 2024 and Happy New Year 2025!
