August Days

August 7, 2018

Twin Springs Update

We sold the house. Well, technically it’s not sold yet but we have a contract with a contingency for our buyers to sell their house. We are getting through all the inspections and stuff. It looks like we can remain here until October at which time we will be ready to go back to Texas and get our new mobile home set up for the winter. Things are going pretty much according to plan though we are still waiting for the motor home to sell. I’m sure there’s a buyer somewhere.

The clothes at Costco – August – summer

The other day when we went into Costco to shop for vacation supplies, the displays at the front of the store was of dark colored, long sleeved, cold-weather clothing and back to school wear. It came as kind of a shock since we came in from a blazing hot August afternoon. It kind of knocked me over with the suddenness at which summer comes to an end around here. In another month or so, we could have frost. But we still have a summer vacation planned with our children and grandchildren at a cabin up north and I’m looking forward to some more hot summer days. The place we are going is called Camp Deer. It is an old fishing camp that my Aunt married into 60 years ago or so and my cousins still run the place. We took our children there when they were little and it pleases me that my grandchildren will play there. It is one of the very few places that hasn’t changed much since my childhood. We will use our recently retrieved boat as a trailer to haul up our groceries to Camp Deer and then go fishing on it.

Napping on way to waterpark

Edie

Basic full-time attire with keys clipped to
belt loop and zipper pocket for cash and plastic

The Fat Chance Jug Band at Global Market

Siding Ludwig's garage

Peggy and Edie taking it easy at
our fish fry

At the wave pool at the water park

It’s not over just because there is a contract –

So we’ve had inspectors and appraisers walking around the place and checking everything out. Each one brings about a certain amount of stress as they examine the foundation, the well, the septic system and anything else that could be inspected. Of course they have found things, some minor and some not so minor but we will get through this and these buyers will be happy to own this house and to live in this place. One thing we’ve known but didn’t really know it’s value is the fact that the house comes with a free parking permit at the boat launch on the St. Croix River, about a half a mile down the road. We finally had time to get up to Brainerd and retrieve the boat that we gave to my brother and he has stored in his barn for the last 4 years. We outfitted it with my other brother’s motor that works and a new battery and brought it back here. Last week we cleaned it up, put some gas in the tank and took it for a test ride on the river. What a beautiful place and what a treasure for the new home-owners who have a pontoon boat.

MBOTMA

We purchased our motor home on August 9, 2014 and on the 10^th, we drove it up to the Minnesota Blue Grass and Old Time Music Festival (MBOTMA) where we slept in it for the first time. At that time we knew very little about what we had. Don and my brother pushed buttons and tried a variety of things to get the fan to work and had given up, figuring that was one of the things that needed to be fixed. At that time, I came in and suggested that maybe they could turn on the switch. They did and it worked. There never was much wrong with the motor home. It was and is a superb machine. So each year since then we’ve taken the camper to MBOTMA for 4 or 5 days during the festival. Last year we had finally earned a site in “reserved camping” which had full hook-ups. That was special. This year we just went up for Saturday night and stayed up on Old Wash Machine Hill, a no-generator zone, and stayed in a tent by my brothers. This is where we always stayed in our pre-camper life.

Homeless goal reached - The end of the slow lane

Saturday while we were going to the bluegrass festival, we drove by Shoreview RV (Now Lazy Days) and looked over to see if our motor home was in the place that we left it. It was but we could see that the lid over the engine compartment was up. Don said, “I bet they found a buyer.” Sure enough, about 15 minutes later we got a phone call with an offer. We told the sales manager we’d like to get more if he could get it and he got some so we accepted the offer. Today, we will hand over the title to the motor home and we should get a check in a couple of days. The buyer is coming from North Carolina to get the motor home. Sadly, that is how it ends. Without much fanfare. So this is the end of Life in the Slow Lane. There will likely be a new blog with a different title in the future. Our daughter once described our pre-retirement life as “constant industry”. After this summer I know it won’t be that though the next year promises to be pretty industrious as we put together our mobile home and build on a sun-room (Texas room). We’ll see where life takes us. The next year or two will be a time of transitions.

I wrote too soon. This morning we learned that the buyer came from North Carolina and wasn’t happy about something minor and he turned around and went home canceling the sale. So we are back on the market. Stupid buyer.

August 26

Camp Deer - Effie, MN

Baby Jett

Greg on his paddle board enjoying Deer Lake

Kelly and Jason with Baby Jett

Greg and Edie watching the sunset

More time has passed and we have now returned from our week at Camp Deer. I should probably just go ahead and post this because every day our situation changes and the news I just wrote about is now changed. Greg took many pictures with his new camera and now I have to figure out how to get pictures from Drop Box onto the blog. Nothing is ever easy. We had a wonderful time Up North. The weather cooperated and everyone stayed healthy and we all returned home with no problems. I’m a worrier and that tends to be my criteria for a good vacation. But much more than that. As Edie pointed out on day 2 of our vacation, “There is nothing to do at Camp Deer but fishing and swimming.” So that is what we did in addition to cooking and eating and watching that amazing sunset over Deer Lake. We went for walks. And some went to Big Fork to get more provisions and to go someplace where they could get a phone signal. And during that time Baby Jett slowly warmed up to us so we could hold her and Kelly could get 10 feet away from her without her crying. She also took her first steps. Edie demonstrated her swimming prowess and we played 1-2-3 Bellyflop in the lake. Don and I had “The Big Cabin” which has 4 beds and during the week my brothers and sisters came for a day or 2 here and there. We saw Elaine, Byron, Doug, Ludwig and Bob. Dick had rented a cabin and Ken, Lori, Colleen and her girls Helena and Paige were there for a few days. Elaine’s daughters Aleatha and Allison came up for our first weekend and Aleatha caught a nice bass to take home with her. She has a great husband who kept her 2 toddlers so she could get away for a couple of days. Greg brought his stand-up paddle board which I tried standing on but immediately fell backwards in the water. I intended to try again but never did. It was really more fun just to watch him out floating on top of the water. We did not catch enough fish for a fish fry until the last day when Dick, Ludwig and us were the only ones left.

Dinner!

On day 2, I took my phone up the hill to check to see if we had any phone calls from the RV place. There was none but we did have a text from our home-buyer saying that they sold their house for the second time and wanting to know if we could close on September 6. That disturbed my peace of mind as I thought about what we would need to get done to be out of here by then. But then yesterday when I found a signal we had another message that basically said their buyer canceled the sale and never mind. While it would be good for Kelly to sell sooner rather than later, it was a relief for me to not be homeless quite so soon.

Edie starts school on Monday. Our job for the next few weeks will be to pick her up from school on Tuesdays and get her to gymnastics class on time.

Note: These are not Greg's pictures. His are much better but getting from Drop Box not so easy. I will continue to try.