Wednesday we went to pick it us and the ground was even softer than when we drove it into the lot in February. With the rear tires mired in mud, Gary tried to gently back it out, but it was slow going and then stopped. I checked and his rear tires were not spinning in the mud but were turning steadily and not getting any grip so that he could move backwards. I told him to move forward a bit and ‘GUN it backwards. Gunning, a 35,000 RV, backwards? Whooo-eee. But, my Big Gar did it and got the rear tires out of the mud. Whew. Only to back the front tires into it as he was turning the wheel to get into the roadway. Oof-da. Finally, we had it safely on top of the rock that was in the roadway and ready to ‘rock’ and roll.
Note the front tires in the mud in the first picture and the mud he left behind in the second.
We then went to a funeral in Minneapolis on Thursday with Gary’s Aunt Darlene. On the way we stopped at a truck stop to get some coffee and found these cool hats.
Funerals are not pleasant especially when it is someone as young as Gary’s cousin was, 63 years old, 33 years younger than his father, Johnny who is still alive. We got to spend some time with Johnny and his daughter, Susan and we also met his grandaughters whom we had never met before.
Friday and now today we have spent in packing the RV. Much more difficult packing than usual since we don’t plan to come back here to live and need to take clothing for all seasons. Usually we take clothing for 3 seasons: fall, winter and spring. We will need lots of summer clothes this time around. It was also more difficult since we had to make some hard choices: 
what to take
what to give
what to store and
what to toss
Obviously the largest category is what we are taking with us. The smallest is ‘what to store’ and we are only storing some since we’ll have a storage lot because we’ve got some furniture that we’re keeping. We've made several trips over to Goodwill to give them some of our clothing. But that last category? Toss? Why in the world are we tossing some clothes? Does that mean that we have some clothes that are stained, ripped, thin and/or the wrong size. All of the above. Why are we keeping these? Why haven’t we tossed these long ago? Who knows. Besides, everyone needs some old clothes to do gardening or home maintenance. We just have more than many others.
Making these choices made packing take more time than usual. That shirt with the small rip was not difficult but the sweater that I loved years ago but is stretched now was more difficult. Gary, on the other hand, has a hard time tossing anything - it’s so hard that one time when he tossed a pair of jeans, we memorialized the occasion with a picture. Today I thought he was lost in his closet. But it is completely bare now.
Which brings up a strange vision: imagine visiting a home for show and contrast looking in the closets (empty), the refrigerator (cleaned out), the pantry (bare) with checking the cupboards (loaded with dishes), the silverware drawer (a complete set) the house (filled with furniture.) Do people live here or not? Dishes but no food? Furniture but no toiletries? Silverware but nothing to eat with it. I doubt that anyone could imagine that the people who lived here have gone to live in their RV, that is so far from most people’s experience. But they certainly must wonder what happened to the inhabitants of this house. ‘It seems like people live her but…”
It took us two days to pack - did we forget anything? Tune in later for the answer.
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