Organize, Organize, Organize.

The last we left off on our journey, I told you all about our fight with General RV in Draper, Utah that sold us our RV and did a shoddy/dangerous job on installing our lithium batteries. Fun fact: we are still very much in the thick of it with them and asked our nephew, who is an attorney, for advice.  Not only was this bad customer service, but it was also an incredibly dangerous situation they put us in. Rest assured, we will keep you posted on how this progresses. I know my niece and nephew get the popcorn ready for every new chapter of this particular story.

Onto the next phase in operation: Just One More. We made it to Sacramento and met with Jerry’s high school friend, Joe. He is an incredibly talented carpenter we hired to do some work on the RV. I swear, no sane, organized person has ever been a part of the RV design process. All of the cabinets were one large, gaping hole. Just imagine the tall cabinets you have in your kitchen where you put all of your plates and cups. Now imagine if there were no separate shelves and it was just one large space. How would you have enough room for all your important kitchen stuff? Exactly! Thank God for Joe. He did an amazing job by adding not only shelves but also sliders in cabinets to make things like canned food, cutting boards and spices more accessible. 

Joe also helped create a working space for me. We decided to take out one of the couches to replace with a desk. Our thought process was that we are only 2 people and we didn’t need two recliners, a couch that opens to a queen bed, plus another whole couch that also opens to a queen bed. So we bought a table and two cabinets from Ikea and Joe installed them into that new space and secured it. I officially have a desk to work on all these blogs, videos, bills and taxes. You know, the fun stuff. 

While Joe was hard at work on the RV, Jerry and I were busy unpacking and organizing. The entire undercarriage of the RV, also known as the basement, is where most of our belongings are stored. We picked up everything we had at the storage unit and proceeded to unpack it all and find a home either in the RV or in the basement. This is no small task. It’s basically like moving, but in a more compact area where everything needs to be easily identifiable and accessible on short notice. We are doing all of this in July in Sacramento, meaning lots of triple-digit days. Infact, we had record breaking heat while we were there that put us behind for a couple of days. Thank God for deodorant, long marriage, and perfume. 

During this organization process, we got rid of a bunch more stuff we realized we either didn’t need or didn’t have room for. I know! Even after all of the selling and donating, we still had more to purge. I donated three more bags of clothes! Jerry is still working on his tools. Fun fact #2: Tools are much heavier than clothes. Just saying. 

And of course, a week in the life of Jerry and Susan wouldn’t be complete without some craziness. While in Sacramento, Jerry noticed a maintenance light came on in his brand new truck. He had to take it to the Dodge dealership and wait three hours for them to fix it. Just a minor issue, thank goodness. The same day, my old faithful iPhone 8 met its demise and I had to go to the Apple store for an upgrade. Buying a new phone is at  the top of my list of “despise to do.” Just our luck. 

During our week in Sacramento, we had a blast seeing lots of friends and family that came out to see the new RV. It was wonderful seeing everyone after selling our house and driving off into the sunset, hoping we would return with a house on wheels. We also connected with a bunch of Jerry’s high school friends at a July 4th party. It was a great way to spend the holiday and we had a blast! 

We spent a total of 10 days in Sacramento and then drove north. We ended up on the border of California and Oregon in a small town called Hornbrook. We didn’t have camping reservations because we didn’t know how long we would be in Sacramento. And it being in the middle of summer and high camping season, we had a tough time finding an open spot that would fit our giant RV. But, luckily we found one in Hornbrook and have been here for 5 days. After that, we head into Oregon on the 18th, where we will spend 3 weeks, and then on to the Grand Tetons.  

We are looking forward to being in one place for a few weeks after the constant travel of the last month. I am especially excited about being able to cook my own food in my own kitchen. It has been challenging eating out almost every meal since we left California in June, but I am getting back on track and happy to be cooking in my incredibly organized kitchen! 

Can’t wait to tell you about the next phase in our journey! 

Just One More… shelf. You can never be too organized! 

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Our first of the bi-weekly vlogs is officially up where we give you an in depth tour of our new home on wheels!