Life’s Latest Curve Balls

A Heart Attack, A New Home, and Why Won’t the Airstream Sell…

After two years on the road, we made the hard decision to sell the Airstream, buy a home in Florida, and create a new chapter. After two years on the road, we have been spoiled and had forgotten how life throws curve balls which stop you in your tracks.

Changing from living full-time on the road to buying a house and selling the Airstream has been challenging to say the least. It has been downright stressful. In fact, it was much easier divesting ourselves of our belongings, finding an Airstream during Covid, and learning how to live on the road.

I have experienced every cliche phrase there is during the last few months .
*I wished we had ________
*We should have _________
* Be careful what you wish for…
*What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
*Only time will tell.
You get the idea.

1. Why Won’t The Airstream Sell
   We should have started the sell of our Airstream back in January or February, she would be gone now. Instead we waited until the market is flooded and prices are falling so now we are having trouble selling her at any reasonable price. I tell myself it is because emotionally I am having a hard time letting go, or maybe because Betty Jo (the Airstream) just isn’t ready yet. We took her name off the window. We have stopped referring to her as Betty Jo. She is empty now and we are no longer living in her, so maybe (fingers crossed) it will speed things up and she will find a new home soon.

2. We bought a house in Port Richey, Florida.
After a month of looking at over seventy houses, we finally found the ONE. A well-maintained home in a nice neighborhood. The sellers were Canadian Snowbirds who have lived in the house six months each year for seventeen years. The house came complete with the furnishings, dishes, and a lot of things we would have needed to buy since we divested ourselves of most of our belongings back in 2021 when we hit the road full-time. Sometimes, during the 30-day-to-closing period, I thought, “Be careful what you wish for, or it’s too good to be true,” because it often felt that way. Buying a home, even though exciting, can be very stressful. Problems arise, as they often doing when buying a house, so each issue we tackled and solved as they came up.

During the 30 day closing period, we lived in limbo. We weren’t Florida residents, yet, so we didn’t have an address which made some issues a bit challenging, like opening a bank account. We had to sell our beloved Ford F-250 because we had to eliminate debt, so we traded it in on a less expensive (and smaller) vehicle. We weren’t quite Florida residents, but we were able to use our future home address to complete the transaction. We were shocked by the cost of auto insurance, we had heard it was high, but it is ridiculous here. We had to get a storage unit so we could start moving out of the Airstream and have somewhere to store the items that were once in the back of the truck. After living in a small space for two years, our “stuff” was now scattered and we could no longer remember where it was. :-)

3. Heart Attack
The 28th of April, Closing Date, was fast approaching. All of the paperwork was completed on Monday the 24th so we should have just chilled and focused our energy on finding someone to buy the Airstream. That is what we should have been doing. That night, my husband had a heart attack. We were fortunate we were not on the road, we were close to good medical facilities, and he got to the hospital on time. There was a clot in one of his valves, they managed to dispose of it and put in a stent. His heart suffered no damage and is doing good. They only kept him in the hospital for a couple of days and sent him home with medication and instructions to take it easy and no strenuous activities, including lifting. Our son flew out and helped us move what was left in the Airstream and out of the storage. What didn’t kill us may eventually make us stronger, only time will tell.

I am not very good at Curve Balls, especially when there are so many. But as they say, “Life Happens” or in this case, “shit happens (a simple existential observation that life is full of unpredictable events).”

Let’s just hope this next chapter soon calms down a bit. I like sitting on the sidelines better than playing Curve Ball.