Sympathico

A couple month before returning home, we started creating a to-do list of things we'd need to do when we got back. We used one of our favorite apps, Wunderlist, and noted down all the big and overwhelming things we could think of. Each item on the list was something that we'd have to do to reintegrate into life in a home. We often do this exercise when we start feeling worried about something. It feels like putting those things down on paper (or in an app) allows us to let the paper worry about remembering the worries instead of us.

In the end, we came up with 22 major tasks including things like: selling the truck and RV, buying a car for each of us, moving out of the RV, storing the RV, empty our storage units, updating mailing addresses, reactivating utilities, and so on. This coming week we hope to cross a major milestone. If all goes to plan, we will check off the very last item on that list: selling the RV. Over the preceding 3+ months, we've whittled down the other 21 tasks, but this one last task has eluded us.

The timing of this sale comes as a bit of a surprise. Anyone that's lived in the Midwest knows that people are not thinking about camping right now. Just a few weeks ago, I winterized the RV. This could accurately be interpreted as and act of giving up hope that we would sell it any time soon. Now, just a couple of weeks after blowing out all the water lines, putting antifreeze into the drain lines, and unhooking the battery, some local buyers contacted us ready to commit.

With this last check mark in place, I feel like we're entering a new chapter. We're losing one very major physical connection to the experiences we had. But more than that, it feels like we can no longer say we are "just recently back" from our trip around the country. As the trip starts to recede into the past, it becomes "a thing we once did" instead of something "we just completed."

One other change may be just around the corner that also signifies the beginning of this new chapter. We promised the kids a dog when we returned home. Readers of this blog will remember that we recently had a heart-breaking failed attempt at adoption. But now, with some time to mourn that loss and a couple out-of-state trips out of the way, we think it's time to open our home to a new dog.  

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