Knox Knox… Who’s there?

WE ARE! Side note: If you know anything about me, you know that a. I have been dying to type this subject line, and have had it in my head for about a week and b. You know how much I love cheesy jokes.

Anyhow, yes we are in Knoxville, Tennessee. Kind of, I think? We are in Sevierville. Ask me how to say it… Sever-ville, See-vee-er-ville, Sauvier-ville. I have no idea. But, we are here. Before I get all sentimental on myself for this amazing adventure we have embarked on, let’s get to the brass tacks and talk about what it has looked like leading up to this point.

So, I love telling stories (duh, that is why I have 3 blogs). Some stories are better than others, and this one is going to be one of those stories that 2 years from now I will laugh about. Not now though, I am not at that point. Let’s take a little journey back into time on what the last 2 (?) weeks have looked like.

November 27th was a big day for me. It was my last day in “Corporate America” and boy was I excited. The world, now my oyster. But first, there was a whole lotta packing going on. As it was our last night in Minnesota, and in our first home, we had packing and cleaning and organizing to do. And wine- ok, we had to have that too. And so it was, with a full to the brim UHaul trailer on my truck and a full to the brim trailer* on Justin’s, off we went to Appleton to have Thanksgiving dinner and unpack everything except the few boxes we had to put into the camper, and “our life” for the next however long (* Yes, we downsized a LOT, but we are building a cabin over the summer, so I saved a bunch of stuff to decorate and furnish the place, once that is done- everything that is left goes). That, my friends, was a long wobbly drive with the trailer swaying about. We made it safely, had dinner with family, and stayed at gramma Dolly’s house with the pups. This entailed us unpacking the boxes for the camper into her house until we packed them up again to unpack them in the camper, to then unpack the boxes. Mark my word- my next move, I will have packers and movers.

December 2nd was also a big day. It was the day we formally closed on our house. It was a nice day- and Britney Spears’ and Aaron Rodgers’ birthday to boot. Around 3:30, I got a panicked call from our realtor.

“Hey, so did you guys get your septic inspected every 3 years?”

Huh? Wasn’t everyone in the closing meeting signing paperwork right now?

“Well, I know we got it pumped every 3 years…?”

I will spare the details, but after a lot of phone calls to the neighbor, and repeat dials to the city of Rosemount, it was confirmed that yes, we did. But dear lord baby jesus in heaven did that give me a panic attack (because if the closing didn’t happen, then I had no job, and we had no where to go). And the closing went well.

Off we went to Gary, Indiana (a lot like Vegas if you ask me…) to pick up our new home. I was so excited. Us, the pups, a tiny UHaul on the back of my truck with all of the “things” we decided were important to us from now until, well, whenever I suppose. And a gorgeous day. We got to the camper place, checked out our new rig, signed the paperwork, unpacked (yep- again), and now we were en route to Lexington for the night.

Of COURSE we weren’t done with our house-closing mayhem, and at this point, we were informed that one of the gals who wrote everything up made a mistake. A mistake of which she deemed needed to be resolved AT THIS VERY MOMENT. So now, we are on the road, me driving through hills and mountains and it’s dark and we are trying to figure out what to do. At the same time, we were on the phone with the title company, we were also trying to figure out our camper loan logistics… like, what you do when you have a permanent address, but it can’t be found in any legal system (the DMV was the place we first figured it out, and perhaps the best place to run into that kind of issue. I know you are sensing my deep sarcasm and can probably feel my eye roll) but you don’t actually get mail at said non-existent but existent- according to the gal who put in the request for our address to be a real address’ insistence, because it is too rural. So then you decide to use your in-laws PO Box but that also doesn’t work when trying to get license plates for your rig. Oh, and where do you send them? These are the issues that Justin and I didn’t anticipate would be a big issue, but my word almighty, they won’t stop (also when you try to update your address on all of your credit cards and such and you can’t use a PO Box, but that is a whole different bag of worms).

Home closing mayhem, vehicle registration mayhem aside, we arrive safely in Kentucky. There are limited places one can stay with dogs, especially with 4 of them. And so, we found ourselves at the classiest establishment one could imagine. Yep. Super 8. And they aren’t lying when they say they’ll leave the light on for you. Unless that was the last person to occupy the room. Maybe they did? Either way, it was dark. I had been driving (and dealing with a lot of this crap) for the better part of 12 hours, and I was tired and hungry and hanging on to the excitement of what was to come. I don’t know what it was about this part of town, but I was absolutely convinced we were going to be robbed or shot or both at some point in the evening, but I was also so beat, I just didn’t care. Morning came, and as we were to head on our last leg of our journey- we got a much needed, and special treat. Becca, the gal we got all of our babies from, lives in Lexington, and met up with us for a bit to see Gus, Mika and Arnie (Trixie too, but she had her anxiety meds and was passed out in the back). It was so cool to see them interact with her. Of course they were a bit apprehensive at first, but I can’t blame them (Arnie). Some of the times they see her, it is because a family is giving them back to her. That said, we had a nice little hang out at the park and off we went.

I am not generally a mean person, but Tiffany at the title company tested every frayed nerve I had left throughout the day, and needless to say, in the event we move back to Minnesota, I certainly will not be allowed anywhere near Burnett Title. So, if you were wondering how THAT 4 hour drive went, I think that sums it up nicely. To make this journey even more fun, we also didn’t know where we were going to plunk down to “live” for the next few months. That was part of the fun, but also a HUGE risk. Much like the previous week of this journey, we began to run into a lot of issues. Our requirements for an RV park were pretty simple:

– Monthly rates (or reasonable daily/weekly ones)

– Reliable internet

– Access to sewer/water/30-50 amp electric

– Dogs allowed

– Ah, yes and most important, availablility

The Stones have a nice little ditty aptly named “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which I found to be far too true in this instance. Of those requirements, we kept hitting a wall.

Folks- this is the part in a roadtrip where one has what I will call a “meltdown.” The part where you just say “fuck it” and resign yourself to sleeping in your car and nothing in life will ever go right and why did we do this and why did we choose Tennessee and I’m over it. And of course, this won’t be the first of said meltdowns.

We found a place, and it’s nice. Not nice like “oh we can stay here forever,” but nice as in, ok I can stay here for a month. Yes, it’s nice, but we also accidentally stumbled upon Dolly Parton’s hometown (or something like that) and this place is busy as the dickens and touristy. Whatever. It’s a place to put our heads down for now. A quick note- when we got here, we still had 1 day until the camper was to be delivered to the RV park, so we stayed in another hotel for the night. Wanna guess where? Yep, and once again, they left the light on for us.

The moment I had been waiting for was finally here. Our new home was arriving!! I watched as Jeff, our driver pulled her up the hill, swung around the park and put her on the pad that was to be called home for one whole day. I will get to that. We introduced ourselves, and he unhooked the rig from his truck. And ladies and gentlemen, this is where the magic happens! You literally push a button, called Auto Level and boom, it’s done. With our old camper, we had a drill and would run from front to back levelling up and down and then I would run into the camper with a level and check to make sure everything was good. But no longer. Now, I just pushed a button. So, I did just that. Pushed it. And watched the magic happen.

Until the red flashing light came on. That is the part where in a cartoon, there is a dream or wish bubble over one of the character’s heads and another character has a needle and with an evil grin, pops it.

Long story short, it didn’t auto level. And so, here I am, on the phone with the camper people walking me through how to manually level our $85,000 brand new, home. Oh- it is important to note that we are on a cliff. My heart was in my throat. I pushed the buttons they told me to push (coincidentally, what’s app, facebook messenger video and FaceTime all, ALL were not working. And, wait for it… there is an app that you download to control your whip that I downloaded that. Yep. Also didn’t work). So, I am pushing the buttons. Heart pounding. One side went up. The other side wouldn’t. I will spare you, but for an hour I tried my best to level this beast, but it just wouldn’t work. So, our first night was spent in a wobbly whip on a cliff.

The next day, we had to move our camper to a different site. Jeff, our delivery guy, was kind enough (like, seriously kind enough) to drive up from Georgia on his way back to his own home, to move it again. And again we tried to auto level. And again, it didn’t work. And again I thought I was going to cry. So instead, Justin and I decided to take the pups for a much needed hike. We were right next to the Great Smoky Mountains- this was heaven for us! We found an awesome first spot- with a waterfall! Got out of the car… harnesses and leashes on.

And there was the sign. “No dogs allowed on trails.”

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

In case you are curious, dogs aren’t allowed on any trails in the mountains. Like, zero. There also aren’t paths to walk dogs where we are. And again, I wanted to cry.

Justin and I travel really well together, but by this point we’d had some “moments.” Of which, we let our frustrations get to the best of us. I think for most people, this would be the case, but it still adds misery to mayhem, so we promised each other we would just try to approach these situations better.

Ever the GIS-mapping guy, Justin called everywhere to ask where we could hike them. And a park was found, an hour drive one way, away. It was an absolutely awesome hike. 8.5 miles. We needed it so bad. On the drive, we called around asking how we get someone to look at our camper and how to fix the auto level. I want you to close your eyes and imagine the camper place (that we bought it from), Jayco Customer Support, and Lippert (the manufacturer of the leveling system) all standing there with their fingers on their nose- the symbol for “not it.” Yes folks, all of them say it isn’t their problem. And again, I almost lost my mind.

That brings us to today. And the whole reason for this post. Shit goes south sometimes. And in our case, it has gone so south I think I am in Antarctica. I left out a lot of added details, because that would make for a MUCH longer post… you get the idea from what you have already read. As I said, shit goes south. But in the bigger picture, Justin and I are learning some important lessons. Lessons that we would have learned at some point or another, so why not just get it out of the way all at once? I have never had a camper like this before, and I feel pretty smart in troubleshooting this here home of ours, and if I am being realistic, this isn’t the first time I am going to run into a problem. We also learned what we need to look for in a destination, and in a park to stay in.

And, what melted us down when the gals at the front desk said “y’all can stay, but you have to be out by December 26,” (yes, the day after Christmas) and felt like another defeat, now means we are able to move to our next destination that will hopefully be better for all of us. I don’t hate Tennessee, but I also don’t think it is the place for the Meyers crew, and am thankful for the place to stay- but excited for the next spot.

I wouldn’t change anything. I am so much happier in a smaller space, our camper is really nice- despite being a little wiggly right now. But that, the issues with the closing of our home, the issues with finding out where our mail is supposed to go… that is all very temporary. In the long term, we are still in the absolute infancy of this whole journey. Justin and I are learning better ways to work together, and for every downfall, we are getting better at saying “I am sorry,” getting better at learning how to take on an issue when the other person just can’t. We have been working out together every day, and made a menu of healthy meals to cook together. Big picture, we are doing really awesome. He hears my frustrations and tries to help how I need him to and vice versa.

This lifestyle isn’t always pretty. But neither was the previous one.

My point is this… First and foremost, you can’t always get what you want. And you have to learn to let go of the things you can’t control. And second, there is absolute value in not having a Plan A. Because that shit will not, no matter how hard you try, go as planned. You really shouldn’t even have a Plan B. In my opinion a loose idea of a plan is good, but just let everything go and it will all work out in the end. And so, I am finishing my coffee, headed to the fitness center (which Justin really loves) to get worked out by my best coach, and head on a hike with the pups. It’s an hour away, but the scenery is beautiful. Also, it snowed last night. Our goal was to get away from all of that mayhem, but I also learned that when it snows here, it is gone the next day. So cheers to the snow melting, but enjoying it while it’s here, and to our next (mayhem filled) adventure.

Stay curious friends, and let that shit go.

Nikki