Today, finally, the escrow documents were ready to sign. Happy to get this out of the way, we arrived at the title company at 1:00 PM and got on with signing ceremony. It only took about an hour. Except for the transfer of funds and recording, this was the end of the process. The sellers had already signed and on one of our spy missions, we saw the moving truck parked in front of their (our) house. There really was nothing to derail the transaction and soon enough we would be living in a house firmly affixed to the earth.
Returning to the coach, it really hit us that our excellent adventure is coming to an end. For the first time in two and a half years, we won’t be able to point to a place on the map and drive our house there. It all seems strange. Life is full of these give and get scenarios. We give up freedom of movement and in exchange we won’t have to worry about where to park the rig, where to find the Walmart Supercenter or emptying the black tank. It won’t be the first time in our lives that we achieve a goal and then wonder what comes next.
With the close of escrow so close, we decided to do a little furniture shopping. A priority was replacing the sofa and love seat we sold to the kids. Jeanne always wanted a leather sofa so we focused on that first and started hitting one or two stores each day. We quickly found the stores weren’t bashful about asking a hefty price and in desperation, we went to Sam’s Club only to be underwhelmed by what they had.
Finally, we got lucky. There was spring sale going at one store with an especially hot deal on a floor model leather sofa and love seat. Talking with the salesman, we discussed how we were new to the area and needed to delay delivery until next week. No problem. Then, I also asked for the special New-To-The-Area discount. He shuffled his feet. I asked him to check with the manager and off he went. A few minutes passed. He returned with good news — an extra 12% off. Cool. Before asking him to write it up, I asked for the special free Olive Garden dinner certificate for customers that get an extra 12% off. He made it clear that 12% off was as far as he would go, but hey, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. The leather sofa problem was solved.
The new regarding CeeCee is encouraging. The doctors seem to have stabilized her and have a plan to attack the various problems. We wish her well and hope to see her very soon.
Still confronted with the sale-of-the-coach problem, we made some call to dealers in Nevada, California and Arizona and all quoted about the same wholesale price. After talking the issue into the ground, we decided the cleanest deal would be the dealer in California and started planning accordingly. Complicating the issue, the mattress that came with the coach was in storage. Early on in our trip, we found the original mattress was marginal at best and decided to swap it with the better one we had in storage. Now, we need to switch back before the coach is sold. Further complicating the situation is the interest one of our RV park neighbors is showing in the coach. They want to upgrade and have already walked through ours a few times. Their interest seems genuine, but they are Texas residents and we don’t have a clue how to put the transaction together. We’ll just have to wait a few days to see how all this works out.
With the imminent close of escrow, we can now make calls to turn on utilities. One strange thing is the water situation. We found that household water is purchased from the city but irrigation water comes from the homeowner association. It seems the homeowners own common shares in an irrigation company that were acquired when the land was developed. This is the same water farmers use to irrigate their crops and it is delivered to each house via a pressurized water system separate the city water system. How strange. Bottom line, you can irrigate as much as you want.
In the meantime, these next two days will be two of the longest days of our lives. There is really nothing more for us to do except wait. All events trigger with the close of escrow.