2021 Year-In-Review Stats…fully retired and wondering how I ever found the time to work…
I’ve been on the Forum regularly during the year, but you may have noticed I haven’t been very active. I found myself suddenly retired at the end of December last year, and this year has been filled with using Flint as a cargo van. Trips to the dump, trips to and from storage, trips to the lumber yard, the list goes on.
67,248 – 62,616 = 4,632 miles and 27 nights spent in the van in 2021 (vs. 18,185 miles and 79 nights in 2020). We didn’t drive enough miles this past year to even need to rotate the tires! There was only one “fun” fishing trip in 2020, most of the rest of the nights were spent when the house was staged and we couldn’t stay in it or when we were living out of the van between houses. In 2021 we prepped the house for sale (big job), sold it, moved everything we owned into storage, found another house (1953 original construction) and bought it, moved everything out of storage, and then dove into a large grading, drainage, hardscape (66 yards of concrete poured) and landscape project. We are nearly complete with the exterior work, with CA rain currently holding up the last of it.
As part of the move, Flint lost his nice backyard covered parking spot. We poured a pad, installed gates, and I am currently finishing up new fencing to enclose his new parking space, which is easily seen right outside the kitchen door. Gone is the overhead cover, but I may have future thoughts about this once other priorities are met. We will see what the future holds.
We still have plenty of work to do around the new place, but hopefully 2022 will see the utility trailer left behind as we use the van once again for its intended purpose. We will be starting off with a trip to AZ in a couple of weeks, it’s time to put some desert sand under the wheels! I will say this, having the van available as a home on wheels and as our cargo hauler during this transition has been a real stress reliever. We were able to “go with the flow” and not worry about being between houses as we searched for the home we finally found, which we plan will be the last one we will ever buy. We will see how that plan works out!
First on the van to-do list for the year is to empty EVERYTHING out, deep clean and re-stock, getting rid of everything that hasn’t been touched in the last few years. I’m sure there will be some surprises as we dig into the deep recesses ….
Wishing everyone a HAPPY, SAFE AND PRODUCTIVE NEW YEAR. Now it’s time to find out what 2022 has to offer!
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