Day #56 – Unfinished Tasks

Sarasota FL

We’ve unpacked and caught up with laundry, planned some meals and done some shopping, returned some library books and found some new ones.  Our trailer is fixed and ready to go - it’s time to get serious about returning to the road.

We have many tasks that need to be completed before we can put rubber to the highway.  Many friends have asked us why we’re still here and it’s been difficult to explain.  Pat had some medical health issues that required us to stick around a while, but those were resolved today.

Here’s a short version of what needs to be done.  One task is related to our physical safety and the rest fall under the main goal of making our lives more simple and less physically cluttered.

1) Determine whether the truck can really tow our trailer and gear.  We’re kissing the limits on weight and we sure want to keep our transmission and axles in the Rockies.  I don’t want to tell any stories of what happened to us in the Donner Pass!  Addressing this issue involves determining whether we need a different truck, where the money would come from for a new vehicle, and how that will affect other decisions after we finish this trip.  Until we weighed our rig in Virginia, we thought we were OK.  Now we’re not so sure.

2) We want to become Florida residents.  There’s no real reason to keep our Pennsylvania residency and several reasons to switch it.  We own property in Florida now, and nowhere else, so it makes sense to become Florida residents.  Florida has no state income tax – that’s a biggie for me.  Florida vehicle insurance covers all windshield damage – no deductibles.  Florida currently has no vehicle inspection requirements.  In general, we think this is a bad idea, but in the short run it works to our advantage.  If our vehicles are registered in Florida, we avoid having to return to a “home state” for inspections while on the road.

3) We want to set up a secure storage area in the garage.  When Kelly was fixing up the Sarasota house, she moved some cupboards from the laundry room to the garage and modified them for storage.  They have to be scrubbed before we can move the tools and other items she accumulated over the summer into them.  We also have to install lock hardware to protect the contents until we move here permanently.

4) We want to sort through our belongings before we get back on the road.  Now that we’ve been travelling for a while, we know we have lots more stuff with us than we need.  We tried doing this de-cluttering task at a campground and it was just too hard.  It’s easier to store, give away, or throw away from this location than from a campground.

5) I’m due for my yearly diagnostic (rather than screening) mammogram.  Since we’re here, where I will be living in a year or so, it makes sense to get it here.  It’s also easier to find a high-quality facility, schedule, and handle logistics from here than on the road.

6) Misc. other stuff:
•    Get our bikes from the repair shop
•    Get an oil change
•    Get Kelly a haircut
•    Return many erroneously purchased items to their origins, in the hopes of getting some money back
•    Hem some pants
•    Make a curtain for the trailer
•    Write thank-you notes from way long ago (we’re so late, it’s shameful)
•    Finish up 2009 tax issues

7) We have not yet planned the next part of our journey.  We know we want to travel up the west coast of Florida, through the panhandle, and then continue westward along the Gulf coast.  But, we haven’t picked a route, found attractions, or investigated camping options.  We said we wanted to live without a plan, but some rudimentary ideas are necessary for pleasure.

We’re wondering whether there’s an informal pool about our departure date.  Linda nailed the last one.  Keep us posted on who gets this one right.