Step by Step in our Countdown to Fulltiming

We've been making progress in our preparation towards fulltiming, and getting things ready for our  trip to Florida for the winter.

A few weeks ago we went ahead and signed up for Directv's Distance Network Service.  I was a little confused about it, but now I think I've about got it figured out.  For an extra $15 a month, we will be able to get CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox when we travel away from here.  Currently when we go just a few miles from home, and get away from the "spot beam", we lose those channels from our Directv satellite.  I was told it would take between 14 and 45 days to get it started, and a lot of people had a lot of trouble getting it done.

I know we could just put up our antenna and pick up the local over the air channels,  but Al and I have become spoiled after having our Tivo.  We don't watch commercials, unless on a rare occasion a cute one sneaks by.  Al prefers to watch his football game at least half an hour after they start, so that he can watch the game at his own pace and skip the commercials.  He can watch the play again only if he chooses and can slow mo, pause, or back up anytime he wants.  If we used our antenna for over the air channels, we'd lose the ability to buzz past commercials, pause or rewind live tv.  We're spoiled, so the extra $15 is worth it to have our Tivo all the time.

I've been checking to see if we got the DNS service connected, and today I found it had been done. That's one more step in the process of becoming fulltime rv'ers.  All I had to do is fill out a special waiver that I got directly from the Directv website and send a copy of the Motorhome registration.  It only took a few weeks to get it set up.  There is some kind of law stating you can only get this DNS service if you are mobile.  The DNS channels are located in the 380's.

Our Saturday garage sale went pretty well after getting off to a very slow start.  At one point I wondered if we'd get over $10.  It was cold, upper 30's but damp and windy.  We almost froze!  We did some price slashing and managed to get rid of one Christmas tree and decorations and a several small kitchen appliances.  We felt good when we left, and made about $72.  Not much money, but we got rid of a lot of stuff.  We also took a few boxes and dropped them off at Goodwill.  Next Saturday will be our last sale at the storage lot, unless we get a contract on the house and then I don't know what we'll do.  The advantage to having the sales in town is we attract a lot of drive by traffic that we wouldn't get at our home in the country.

We talked to a guy today that told us about a local man in town that buys furniture and household items for resale.  He will come to your house and make you an offer for everything.  I'm sure he won't pay top dollar, but it may be something to think about if we get in a jam.  If we were smart we would stay here for the winter and sell more stuff, but we just hate it here in the winter.  It's just too cold for our thin blood!  We may live to regret that decision, but Florida here we come!