The Move – October-November 1997

Every journey must begin with a first step, and we had certainly taken ours. Less than 3 weeks later we had two offers on our house – one for the asking price, with the option to stay on as tenants for a few weeks. What a perfect scenario!

With the closing safely behind us, we were able to have a Moving Sale and get rid of most of our “stuff” (have you ever heard of a disease called “stuffitis”? It’s incompatible with the RV life!). I priced all our furniture, advertised in the local paper, and for one whole day people came and wandered through our home, buying everything from china to chairs, pots and pans to patio furniture. By the evening the house was looking pretty empty. One of our biggest challenges was surviving the next two weeks without a washer, dryer, fridge, freezer or microwave. The following day we had a Garage Sale getting rid of all that clutter that accumulates over the years.

That evening, I looked at Mick in our empty house and asked, “What would you say if I told you I’ve changed my mind? I want to stay?” We both fell about laughing!

Fortunately our bed was going to Ben in Colorado, so we still had somewhere to sleep. A friend who was buying the living room furniture said we could keep it until we moved, so we still had somewhere to sit. We had no TV, but then we were too busy to watch it anyway.

Several people asked if it was hard seeing all our stuff go, but it really wasn’t. Partly, I suppose, it was because we had a deadline, after which there would be nowhere to put it all. But also, from the time we arrived in the States from England 10 years ago, I had looked upon this period of our lives as temporary. Not that I wasn’t happy – far from it. Life in Dallas had been wonderful, but in the early years there was a strong possibility that we would have to return to England. More recently, since both our sons had moved away to college, I knew that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life here. The house was too big, and I was really beginning to miss the countryside – the trees, the mountains, the ocean. Nothing lasts forever and it definitely felt time to be moving on.

Meanwhile, we had stepped up the pace of looking for an RV. We visited dealerships, spoke with experienced RVers on the phone, and even visited local campsites to talk to owners.

We knew we wanted a 5th Wheel that would be pulled by a truck, and finally we settled on a brand new Hitchhiker Discovery, partly for its reputation, but also because of its floor plan (including a built-in computer desk), and, well, it simply felt “right”.

We thought finding a truck would be a simple matter, but how wrong we were. Our research steered us towards a Dodge Ram 2500 V10, yet there didn’t seem to be one to be found anywhere, new or used. Finally, we located a dealer in Ada, Oklahoma, who had exactly what we were looking for (except color – it was silver instead of white … oh, well!), so we arranged to drive up and collect it.

By this stage we had really lost focus on our Juice Plus+ business, but thankfully, due to the nature of our business — whereby our group remained active, and the company serviced our customers for us, shipping product, invoicing, plus taking care of commissions — our monthly checks continued to grow. What’s more, we found that we were attracting many new customers, which, after all, is the foundation of our business. Everywhere we went, people would ask, “What do you do?” After explaining that we own our own business in Preventive Health Care, we would loan them an audio tape and, with the right follow-up, many of them got started on our products – moving sale visitors, realtors, RV salespeople, truck salesmen. If ever we needed another sign that we were doing the right thing, maybe this was it! And how true the saying “You don’t have to go out to do this business, you simply do this business while you are out!”

So our move was completed and our Hitchhiker was delivered to Hidden Cove Park, north of The Colony on Lake Lewisville (some 40 miles north of Dallas). We spent one night in it and the following day headed off to Colorado for Thanksgiving – leaving our new home behind!

On the road and “homeless”?! Read on ………