HUDSON-PARCHER RV PARK IN RAINIER-OR

May 18th: Holland and I were friends for a year before we married. We have only been married 19 weeks; and in that short span of time, we have shifted two households-rearranged 2 sets of individual holdings-and totally moved out of one place and into another: Holland twice, me once.

From January 2023, to the current date, we traveled through 3 States to get married: and 17 States to purchase a Home we can mold into our space.

And let's not forget Bleu … we also traveled for hours to purchase him, and bring him into our New Life ;-)

That is a lot of {adjusting} in a little over 4 months.

Presently, while we are back in familiar territory for awhile settling accounts (though now living across the Columbia River, in Oregon), we are doing our level best to clear the storage unit; and set up housekeeping in our 5th Wheel.

This is our second day here, at this Park. We need to find another place to park tomorrow - hopefully for a full month, while we tie up loose ends, locally.

The first thing on today's agenda is to get Bleu a flea bath - and his toenails clipped: they are cutting the skin on Holland's arms, to ribbons. So, an appointment was made at THE DOG ZONE off Industrial Way in Longview-WA. We dropped Bleu off there to be dipped and clipped, while we tended to business downtown (Bank drop-by/buying bedding for our new bed/groceries), and grabbed some boxes out of storage for sorting after we get back home, in Rainier-OR.

Bleu watching Holland walk into The Dog Zone.

We drove past this building, and Holland told me he and his brother Mark, did this building. I told him I had been in that building with Bob: we are always amazed at how often our paths crossed, before we actually met.

Holland's favorite colors … with a 'manly' comforter that matches the RV's interior colors.

We had drastically downsized personal belongs before we sold the house in Heron Pointe: but looking at the stacks of boxes and crates in the storage unit, we know we need to downsize more.

There are hard decisions to be made.

The things we had kept (and we chose carefully), and hoped to keep, represented huge chunks of the life we knew individually - things we knew we could comfortably dove-tail and weave into the Life we are building together.

But realistically there is not enough space for much of those things in the 5th Wheel. We will have to sacrificially downsize even more.

I had lived in a 5th Wheel for 8 years, so this is nothing new to me. But my last 5th Wheel had more storage space.

This 5th Wheel has more living space (with the slide-outs), but storage space is skimpy. I'm going to have to get creative to store more.

Thankfully we did not have to cull many more clothes - my shoes and handbags are another thing altogether; and Holland will have to start cherry-picking through his tools, and keep only the absolute necessities.

We keep reminding ourselves that personal scarifies are beneficial to the whole.

There will have to be wise choices made :-(

This relic chimney of the present Hudson-Parcher County Park & RV Site, made me think of how the remnants of our past lives is being reshaped into what we have together now - in the present.

An old-time chimney in the Hudson-Parcher RV Park; remnant of this Park's past life.

As of right now - the only thing we are not willing to sacrifice is what we have found together.

Our life now is a life on the move. And until we get a generator and an 'anywhere' internet hookup, we are reliant on available RV sites.

Holland confirming our Clatskanie RV spot; while I tackle the stuff we brought back from storage.

We are letting go of what we knew … and are actively embracing a joint venture ;-)

Extreme - 'More Than Words' song:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxczAgyhvdM)