Last week seems like a whirlwind now. Wrapping things up at work, dealing with the estate sale and trying to carry on as normally as possible. I’ve read about the stress a major life change can create. Well, we’re making multiple life changes at once.

Retirement – I’ve held various jobs since I was 15 years old. If I only count the years in the auto industry, I’ve been getting up and going to work for more than 1,800 weeks. Now I’m counting down the last week – 4 more days as I write this. It’s a little weird to think I won’t get up and go to the office after Friday. A colleague asked me what I would miss about working – I couldn’t think of anything other than some of the people.

Selling our house and its contents – I’ve bought and sold several houses over the years and it always creates some stress. Add to that the prospect of selling all of our “stuff.” Our three-day estate sale concluded successfully last Saturday. Successfully in this case means we no longer have any furniture in the house and the cupboards are bare. We still have a few items left over that will be donated or distributed through Freecycle.org. While this was going on I still had to go to work. We had the spare bedroom closed off and I kept a few work clothes in there. Most of our clothing, kitchen utensils and whatnot are in the motorhome where we are sleeping now that our bed has been sold. But we’re still showering and cooking in the house. It will be better when everything is in the motorhome and we’re not running back and forth trying to find things.

Hitting the road full time – This is something we’ve never done before. We think we have a pretty good idea of what it will be like, but the truth is we’re venturing into the unknown. Somewhere I saw a quote that said “If it excites you and scares the crap out of you at the same time, you should probably do it.” After the events of the past few weeks, I think hitting the road will be a relief.

Yesterday we were able to relax and unwind with our friends, Tom and Nancy. We went to their place on Long Lake and took a couple of relaxing cruises around the lake on their pontoon boat.  Then Tom pulled us around the lake tubing behind his Malibu ski boat. I’m feeling it today, will probably really feel it tomorrow. We grilled steaks and enjoyed dinner on the patio. It was great way to unwind and spend our next to last weekend in Michigan. Tom and Nancy are really fun. We’ve only met them recently but it feels like they’re old friends.

Michigan was always intended to be a temporary home for us. When we moved here in 2009 due to a work assignment, we always figured it would be a four-year stint. A friend of Donna’s asked her what she will miss about Michigan. She replied that she really won’t know until we’ve gone! But despite not being altogether thrilled about leaving Arizona for Michigan, she found a lot of things to like here – from cycling through lush green summer landscape to discovering Eastern Market, Belle Isle and other gems in downtown Detroit to gourmet food shopping and enjoying Michigan cherries and peach pie. And then there was that motorcycle tour through the UP, and of course, the great friendships. I guess we’ll have to come back and visit!

Nancy and Donna

View of their dock and Long Lake from the deck

Steaks off of the grill!

After dinner cruise with Tom, Donna and Nancy