The Ides of March

For years, I’ve heard the expression, Beware of The Ides of March.” What the heck is the Ides of March and what exactly does it mean: Ides simply referred to the first new moon of a given month, which usually fell between the 13th and 15th. In fact, the Ides of March once signified the new year, which meant celebrations and rejoicing. Yet when heroes in movies, books and television shows are faced with the Ides of March, it’s always a bad omen. Hey thanks Google!

So obviously we are past the Ides for this month, but since it is nearing the end of the month, I thought I would do an update. I have to admit, a monthly update is not as exciting as when we were on the road and I updated the website with each new stop, describing what we discovered. But as I started typing this, I got to thinking about the last three years’ end of March:

March 2019: we were still living in our beautiful home in Venice. We didn’t sell it until April and didn’t purchased the coach until May. There was a germ of an idea about traveling across America, but the plan was still in the not too distant future. What we did do was to start downsizing. The mantra was “down size not down grade.” It’s really hard to part with your stuff! Everything you own faces a fate of what to keep, what to sell, what to donate and what to throw away. I mean we are going from 2,500 square feet to 400 square feet of living space. We had an idea of what we were about to undertake, one of the most dramatic changes in our lives, a complete change of lifestyle, but phew!! Moving from New Jersey to New Hampshire, moving from New Hampshire to Florida was big, but this is REALLY BIG! Thanks Kathryn for joining in my fantasy! We did manage to hit the road in June and had a fabulous trip, learning “how to motor home” along the way. “What does this button do?”

March 2020: Mid month I was having lunch with friends and looking forward to our second trip across America to the Badlands, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Utah, and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta when it all came crashing down. Remember wiping down groceries before you put them on the shelf? Letting the mail sit to air out? And not going anywhere? We cancelled, I mean postponed, the trip hoping this will all pass quickly. We didn’t move from Creekside. Not a bad place to be and wait it out, but we did sell our home to travel . . . Really, I am not complaining. We are healthy and alive.

March 2021: COVID seemed to be manageable and we rebooked our trip hoping to leave mid June. Actually we booked the first stops out West in October of 2020 arriving there in mid July, as reservations were becoming hard to get in the more popular areas. Then we filled in the how do we get there by then, later in March, hoping the trip would happen this year! And what a trip it was. Even better than the dream I imagined as you can see on the postcards page!

“Change The Way You Look At Things And The Things You Look At Change.” Wayne W. Dyer

Which brings us to March 2022: Everything is perfectly on track and on schedule. It’s scary! Every time the phone rings, I am worried there is some big change about to happen. We are to receive the keys to the Villa in Venice on April 15th. The movers came last week and took the furniture out we purchased from the outgoing tenant to our storage unit. The Villa MUST be empty so the unit can be cleaned and painted. Kathryn wants to change out the carpet in the bedrooms with the vinyl floors to match the rest of the unit. The flooring has been ordered and is scheduled for installation. The movers will bring back our new to us furniture after that. And Kathryn has been scouring Facebook Marketplace for what else we need. She found a great dining room table and chairs! The motor home is sold and the new owner is agreeable to wait for all this to happen. We ended up selling privately and not going consignment with a dealer, which worked best for both of us. He paid less than he would have with a dealer and we made more. And all of this will happen before the end of April so we won’t have to renew the registration and insurance. I don’t know why God is so good to us but I say thank you every day, twice a day!

Stay tuned for the end of April update. It should be exciting!