Hi again. This is Gerry the very recently retired (a little over a week) and new RV owner (see previous post). My last day of work was awesome with many thanks to all the team members at Arbutus RV who gave me a great retirement send off complete with food, gifts, and lots of memories. Check out the attached photos. Some of the great hand-made retirement gifts included; a 3D RV’ing diorama plate (complete with an RV and hammock), a cookie gift that spelled out a message, apple muffins that contained the spice of a favorite memory, great cards from each branch, “home is where we park it” wine glasses for the new RV, and a photo trip to Palm Springs (thanks Craig and Rose). I had a truly wonderful time. In fact, it was so much fun I was trying to think of ways to retire twice although I don’t want to have to work twice to make that happen.
Both the new RV (Thor Citation Class C 22B) 
and I made it home through the light snow on my last day. I planned on finishing loading the RV on the week-end which meant I was setting myself up for a major shopping event. I can share with you that RV’s need a pile of stuff to arrive at the “ready to go” mode. I had already loaded the RV with items I shopped for at the Arbutus RV Parts department including a large outdoor mat, a portable stainless steel bar-b-que, shelf liner, a water hose, etc. but then I learned that I was not even close to being done. We needed dishes, cutlery, pots, pans, a portable table, a tea kettle, an ice cube tray, and much more. It takes a brave guy to shop for these types of items solo but “I am man!” so off I went. What I learned is that filling an RV requires a whole pile of tough decisions. What pattern and color for the dishes, how much cutlery, what size water glasses, what type of salt & pepper shakers ??? . .. . aagh …. I soon came to my senses and quickly drove home to pick up my wife. I have become a strong believer that “happy wife – happy life” isn’t just a cute saying it is an actual real rule that wise men follow. I pretended to care about the color and design of the ice cube trays while I kept adding up the weight of everything that we would soon be loading into the RV. We shopped and we shopped then then we shopped a little more until we were finally done. Although I was required to let my wife make the decisions about what we purchased she (with lots of direction) authorized me to load the shelves provided that I followed her plans. Before I could begin I had to measure, cut, trim, and lay down the non-slip shelf liner. The RV was like a bottomless pit sucking up roll after roll of this material. I did learn the secret of successful shelf liner installation which is to follow the pattern imbedded in the rubber to cut straight lines, it works every time. After I thought I was done “she” did an inspection and we only needed to reorganize about 4 shelves and drawers to pass muster.
My actual 1st day of retirement was last Monday and I eagerly woke up 
with some heavy duty choices to make. Choice number 1; should I wash and wax the new RV …. or choice number 2; help my wife re-organize the kitchen. Over the years I had noted several areas where kitchen efficiency could be improved. Simple things like
organizing the spices alphabetically (see attached photo for evidence of failure to do this) or even arranging the pots and pans by size and metal type. When I mentioned these helpful ideas to my wife I was surprised when she volunteered to drive me back to Arbutus and “perhaps” pick me up at 5pm.
It is always better to pick your battles so I made the decision to do the “wax-on / wax-off” thing and away I went to buy some for the RV. I bet there were over 50 types of wax on the shelves (I have come to the conclusion that nothing is simple anymore). I started to read all the labels but eventually gave up and bought the old tried and true Turtle wax (although it was the new and improved version). It took 2 days (with a few interruptions) to 
complete the waxing. It likely took a little longer than normal since I was often stepping back to admire just how nice the RV looked in super shiny mode (see attached photos).
We are now 100% ready, willing, and anxious to go. I expect that the first trip will be within the next week or two and will be up Island to do some photography. Perhaps Tofino area or maybe up to Elk Falls. I will let you know how the inaugural trip goes, until then keep smiling!
