Wandering Wahls

It’s great to have an RV again!

Tom and Joe arrived from picking up our new (used) Class C on Tuesday of Spring Break, and Wednesday we were on the road taking her on her maiden voyage. Not enough time left during spring break to head somewhere warm, we decided to try it out in the mountains and get some spring skiing in at the same time. Tiger Run Resort and RV Park is a fantastic winter (and summer) spot 3 miles from the base lift of Breckenridge, Colorado. Our previous RV travels were intentionally spent in warmer climates, so this was really an experience. We were surrounded by the beautiful snow covered Rocky Mountains.

OK, winter RV travel is not quite as comfortable as warm weather travel. Since our tanks are not insulated, we did not take any chances on using the water or “plumbing” in the RV. Fortunately, there was an exceptionally clean and spacious shower room in the club house, along with an indoor pool, two hot tubs, game room for the kids, and a wine and cheese party for the adults!

We got along fine inside the RV with hand sanitizer, microwavable meals, and paper plates. The furnace worked great (although noisy), and clever Mom even put an electric blanket on the parent’s bed…we were toasty warm. Even the dog enjoyed it.

The best part of the trip? Most hotels and condos in the ski towns run about $200 a night during ski season. For a mere $50, we had our own ski chalet—on wheels!

We are an odd family. Here we are in our “late” forties (I won’t say which male has the big 5-0 coming up), with tweens and teens, and we have only been homeowners for a year. During our 22 years of Air Force service we rented off base or lived on base. Each assignment we contemplated buying a home, but our timing and the market were never in sync.

I’ll admit, during our tours I got tired of white walls and never being able to make home improvements without the rare approval of some frugal landlords (or, with on base housing, worrying that we may have to bring the house back to the old form if there are no new tenants to approve the changes: we were once required to uninstall a garage door opener and automatic sprinkler system – go figure).

On the positive side though, our plumbing issues were taken care of, and moving out only entailed a thorough cleaning to get our security deposit back. Most weekends we locked up the house and took off on adventures, experiencing cultures in Asia and Europe. We really were carefree.

Now that we are homeowners, I’m realizing those rental days were not so bad after all. In the 8 months we have owned the house, we have steadily scraped wallpaper and painted 8 rooms, replaced carpet, modified the kitchen, added an outdoor pergola, refinished the deck, and replaced 14 windows that were whistling Dixie on windy days.

Although we love our home, our enthusiasm to continue home improvements is slowly dwindling with our checking account. I’m hoping this spring we will finalize the high priority jobs, and get back to our love of locking up the house and taking off on an adventure or two. We need to explore beautiful Colorado!

In 1986, when I moved from Phoenix to New York City, began my dad’s annual 3 or 4 visits to wherever I was living. These trips took him to NYC and DC, and, after I married into the military, the trips included more exotic locales like Okinawa, Japan and Germany (seems like an Axis World Powers Tour). In Okinawa, it was fascinating to watch my dad, who flew B-52s over Okinawa in WWII, talk and drink with our Okinawan neighbors, who watched the B-52s fly over Okinawa in WWII.

My dad didn’t even have a passport when we went overseas. I still remember my mom planning to visit and my dad telling her to go alone. My mom told me that a neighbor shamed him into getting a passport and visiting. My parents lived in a 55 and older community so I can imagine everyone knew everyone’s business and some woman in the community saying to him: “You’re not traveling with your wife to Japan!?”

So, he came. And, even though my mom passed away a while ago, the visits didn’t stop. This summer, he came to Colorado Springs. Given that he was missing out on 110+ degree weather and dirty air in Scottsdale, he really enjoyed his time up here. He also had an incident where he temporarily lost sight in his good eye.

Thus, at 87 he thought it would be a good time to move into an Independent Living facility with access to Assisted Care if needed. I told him what a great idea it was. Little did I know that he decided he find a place in Colorado Springs! This will be a good move though. He’ll be closer for visits with our kids, and, after 24 years away, it’s only fair my brother in Scottsdale get a break after faithfully taking care of him.

So, after a few visits to different communities, he found a perfect spot: Bethesda Village’s Viewpointe. But, his permanent arrival will be awhile because he first has to sell his patio home in Scottsdale.

Here we are in Colorado Springs: new home, new job, new school, new life, new neighbor.

Ah, life on the farm. We found a field mouse in one of our window wells. I was about to get Joe’s pellet rifle, or at least one of the dogs, but Mary Claire handed me a shovel and a bucket so that I could save the mouse and let him go in the scrub oak. That’s easy for her to suggest, she doesn’t have to carry the bucket with the mouse, wondering if the darned thing can scamper up and onto her. She also didn’t consider that this little guy might end up in our house come winter.

The mouse was a distraction from school registration: this process is another transition to life back in the US. Previously, our children have experienced a Japanese Montessori school, German public schools, and home/road schooling. So, when they enrolled in the school here last January, it was their first time in a US public school (though we selected a charter school).

Now, as we experience the beginning of the school year for the first time, we’re going through the whole back-to-school registration and buying sprees. We have the lists and we’re off to the BX, Kohl’s, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. for binders, pencils, uniform clothes, etc. This is not a very “green” process though, which is surprising considering how schools teach the kids about respecting the environment. I wish the school had a less extensive shopping list or process. In Germany, the school registration was much easier – and “greener:” Registration was done through the mail, the kids met the teacher on the first day, and for supplies we made one trip to the local bookstore, told the clerk our school and grade, and he returned with all books and supplies: One stop shopping at its best.

Things are good though. The kids are excited. The 8th grader is in Honors Science, the 6th grader is in 8th grade math, and the 3rd grader is in the same class as his buddies. And, the only whining we hear is that cross-country practice is too hard on the older two. I can live with that.

Yes, you read that right.

We recently had a bit of experience with the local non-military medical system – you know, the one that is in disarray. This was new to us. Living in Germany, we had all medical appointments and such on base. Well, let me add that we did experience one medical appointment on the German economy – and it was a great experience. We were visiting Garmisch, Germany and my mother-in-law needed a doctor’s appointment. The British hostess of our B&B called the local doctor and we had an appointment within an hour, and only a two block walk.

We saw the doctor; didn’t have a wait; he did some tests; and, we walked away with the prescription: all for about 30 euros. The best thing though – the doctor’s name was Dr. Seuss (insert Green Eggs and Ham jokes here: would you like your shots in house, would you like them with a mouse…).

Back in Colorado, my father is visiting and we had to go the local ER due to an eye problem he had. The doc was nice but couldn’t see behind my dad’s retina, so he sent us to one of their specialists. In the military clinics, I’m used to walking down the hall to see the specialist. Here, I have to drive five miles to see the specialist.

At specialist #1, we fill out the same forms we did at the ER and the doc takes the same initial tests as at the ER. Finally, we get to the “behind the retina” exam – he can’t see anything, so we are referred to specialist #2. (Isn’t this the reason we were sent to specialist #1 – are these people in cahoots?)

After a six mile drive, we arrive to more of the same forms and the same tests. Finally though, specialist #2 gets behind the retina and prescribes a blood test, and suggests bed rest and a follow up appointment.

We drive five more miles to the blood test (forgive me Landstuhl Medical Center for complaining about long walks down your corridors) and we’re done.

While the docs were all nice, the experience made me thankful for our military medical system – even if just for the electronic records system that eliminates filling out redundant forms and allows the specialists to know what has been done previously.

Oh, and my dad is fine.

We have friends in Colorado Springs who are getting ready to retire in a couple of months. It’s interesting watching from the outside as they go through the house cleaning, garage sales, landlord dealings, planning the retirement ceremony – as well as planning for the new location: schools, house, etc. In a few months, I’ll be interested to watch as they experience post-retirement.

Post-retirement, for us, has been frustratingly interesting.

For one thing, buying the house has brought “joyful” moments dealing with large organizations regarding our loan, particularly with the bank’s 800 numbers. Dialing a bank’s 800 number and waiting on hold reminded me that when I was in Germany, I used to wonder how much of my life was wasted at the Shoppette’s gas pumps waiting for the inside clerk to clear the pump so I could fill my car. I have now found a new and greater source of wasteful moments – phoning our bank regarding our loan.

We weren’t informed when we signed the loan documents that calling the 800 number would result in forty-five minutes of hold time, only to be transferred among three agents and end up back with the original. The only thing worse though is having the 800 number labyrinth bring one to the patronizingly sweet female computer voice responding with replies such as: “ookkaayyy, that was banking, right?” She does not help calm the frustration of an 800 number.

If I could only reach into the phone and shake her – or better yet, talk to the financial institution and ask who approved this? As with all big organizations though, I’ll bet the people who approve these procedures are high enough that they never have to use them.

Well, the time has come. The “Wahlstar” (our Newmar Allstar 4154 RV) is being put out to pasture in a sense. We’re driving it to Steinbring Motors in Garfield, MN so that they can try to sell it for us on a consignment basis.

This doesn’t mean that our RVing adventures have ended. Far from it: Two of the discoveries we made on our RV journey were that we truly enjoyed our countries state and national parks, and that we liked the RV life. “Roughing it in style” was how one RVer put it to us. So we want to buy a smaller version of an RV (a Class C for those who know) and explore the national and state parks within reach from Colorado – from Rocky Mountain National Park to Bandelier National Park to Grand Tetons National Park to Custer State Park. Seeing the parks in this fashion allows us to hike the trails, see our country’s unique natural beauty, and still sleep on a comfy mattress.

Speaking of Custer State Park, that is where I’m writing this entry. We’re here for 5 nights on our way to Minnesota. This is a wonderful park in SW South Dakota that you should consider seeing. It is where Lt. Col. George Custer surveyed before his little adventure at Little Big Horn up the road. This strikes me as interesting coincidental since Custer had his last stand in this area, and we’re having our last stand in the Wahlstar.

I hope our “last stand” has a better ending though.

Well, the naming game has been settled. We had some good nominations, and endless conversation with the kids. Choosing a name seemed to put everything on hold for a whole weekend, as everyone wanted a name they liked. We tried to take a vote on a list of names, but that produced hurt feelings. Then we offered to have Mary Claire and Anna name one dog and the boys and I would name the other. Then Sam dropped out and didn’t care – until we it looked like there would be a name he didn’t like.

We also had to address names not fitting: I liked Fuji for the German Shepherd but my daughter thought it odd calling a German Shepherd a Japanese name – I tried to explain that they were allies.

Finally, with the weekend over, and the PetsMart training approaching, we settled on names. Gone were names such as Blackjack, Eiger, Teddy, Bryce, Zion, Timo, Fuji, Kuro.

In were Rocky for the light colored German Shepherd (and part Lab) in honor of the great time we had at Rocky Mountain National Park (not an homage to the movie series); and, Marcus for the Weimaraner/Lab (pronounced “VYE-ma-rah-ner” everyone wants to call him a “why-mah-riner,” but there’s no “I” in the name). We chose Marcus as a good solid German/Austrian name for a breed from that area. Plus, we have a good friend in Stuttgart with that name – both the dog and our friend are really nice.

Who would have thought that our transition back to the states and civilian life would be occupied for a time by naming a pet?

We chose 5 acres because of the view and the ability to have an abundance of land to run around and, well, just do things on. I’ve built a tire swing for the kids and a climbing wall is up next (still deciding on Craftsmen tools vs. Home Depot’s brand though, and watching “This Old House” – I started with “Home Improvement” but realized I knew all of those tricks).

Another area the kids were excited about is that we could now have animals. Our German neighbors had dogs, cats, rabbits, and goats. One neighbor told us that we should have a rabbit. When I replied that the idea wouldn’t work because we couldn’t move it, she promptly replied that we could have it for dinner (she might have used the German word for “duh” at that point). This explained why we kept seeing changes in her rabbit stock.

As we’ve moved though, we always told the kids that we couldn’t have a pet; it would be too hard to PCS overseas and back. Now that we’ve settled, we’re getting requests for dogs, cats, chickens, goats, horses, and alpacas. We finally jumped into the fray and got not one, but two puppies at the pound – they were so cute. We adopted a 6-month old black Weimarner Lab mix and a 4-month old German Shepherd mix.

Now comes another transition – pets, and training them. Any suggestions? Mary Claire and I hadn’t quite prepared for this transition.

As a final note, the dogs came with the names of Thunder and Bimmer. We’re trying to think of new names. We’ve covered Jack, Snoopy, Marcus, Fuji (we’re trying to think of a name that relates to Japan or Germany) – but we’d like to ask our readers (reader?) for ideas. Any good names that fit these cute guys (they are both guys)?

Tom doesn’t remember this, but I certainly do: We were warned by other RVers that when we moved back into a “stick house” (home without wheels) we would have some misgivings.

I really did not believe that, especially after we had hit our one-year mark living in the RV. After all, five people sharing 400 sq feet is cozy to say the least. At times I couldn’t wait to get back in to a regular house—to have more than one bathroom, kitchen space to cook, and my own closet!

Well, here we are now living in a 4,300 sq ft house with 5 bathrooms (yes, 5!). It was way more than we wanted, but that’s for another blog. When we moved in from the RV, we still did not have all our household goods, so we dragged in our RV mattresses and set up camp in our bedrooms.

It didn’t take long before the kids were dragging their mattresses into the master bedroom. (A little loneliness blamed on strange noises.) Soon it came time to do a little house cleaning. Oh, how I miss having only one bathroom!

Now that the household goods have arrived we are in more chaos just trying to find places for all these things. Yes, life was more simple living in an RV. But we are determined to take our RV way of living with us to our stick house.

I realize I don’t need so many clothes just because the closet is bigger. And we’re already in the habit of taking shorter showers.

My dilemma now is  how to clean this monster house as quickly as I cleaned the RV. Any suggestions?