Last night a bit after 10pm we put the garage door down on our ex-house and drove away for the last time … in the rain. We have had plentiful rain these past couple of weeks. We’re only half-way through the month of August and already we’ve had enough rain for this August to be the 3rd wettest in recorded history. Global warming or not, our weather here is different.

Back to the house. The plan was to put the house up for sale, fill out the paperwork to go on an LDS Church mission, retire from the Idaho National Laboratory, sell the house, drive the motor home around the country visiting family, and leave on a mission.

And, as plans go, much doesn’t go according to plan!

The house sold in 11 days. Three people came to see the house. The second couple came back a second time, verified that the house met all of their criteria, and bought the house. Our realtor (Gary Seymour, a great realtor in Pocatello if you ever need one) had told us to plan 45-90 days for the house to sell. There were several other houses in our neighborhood for sale, as well as a pretty hefty inventory of houses for sale in the greater Pocatello area.

We close on the house sale in 45 minutes (it’s currently 6:45 am as I write this) at which time we become “homeless” … or “vagabonds” as Nina puts it. We’ve moved into our motor home at the Cowboy RV Park in Pocatello and last night was the 2nd night for us to have downsized from 4,200 sq ft of living space to about 110 sq ft of space. We have stuff everywhere. All of it absolutely essential, I’m sure. The biggest issue at the moment is clothes … where to hang all of the clothes??

I’m sure the next Big Issue will be: “Where did I put that (thing)?” Even in this small space, I’m sure there are plenty of “safe” places where things can be hidden for centuries….

My retirement date is September 12th. We’ve now embarked on a process to figure out how to live together in a very small space. It’s going to be fun!

Our mission paperwork is almost ready to be submitted. One final piece of paper that Nina’s doctor needs to sign (but, of course, he’s not in the office for some reason). Then we can push the “submit” button and wait.

Life is good!! Ta ta for now.