“The journey is my home.” Muriel Rukeyser
Carol writes: Departure day arrived March 16,
2013, and we were underway at last on our hoped-for 500-plus-day European RV
adventure. There were times when it seemed
this day would never arrive; then toward the end the countdown seemed to
accelerate too much. Many aspects of
preparation for this trip could not be finalized until the last minute, and so
it was a sprint to the finish.
The thing I
worried about the most was what to do with our house—leave it empty? get a
renter? find some other option? Good ole
Internet surfing finally paid off one day when I discovered a national company called
Caretakers of America. We had been advised against obtaining a
renter for many reasons —chief among them, getting locked into a long-term lease
with a tenant over which there would be no supervision. A caretaker, however, would present a far
different situation. We would be able to
leave our furniture in the house and would have to pack up only our personal
items, a huge convenience! Most
caretakers with Caretakers of America are living in houses that are for sale by
owners who want their property staged, occupied and cared for when they cannot
be there. It is a month-to-month
arrangement, an important consideration for us, not knowing for sure how far we
will go with our plan. The expectation for
caretakers is that the home will be kept in show condition at all times. Caretakers also have background checks done
on them, and the homes are inspected once a week. Seemed the perfect solution for us! We met our caretaker the day before we left
and had an instant feeling of comfort. It
meant a lot to be able to leave without worries of our house being an obvious
target for burglary, undiscovered broken pipes, unkempt lawn, etc.
The other
issue that occupied a lot of my time was the whole medical/dental issue. Dental was easy—there is no coverage abroad
under our insurance provider. We will
have to rely on the local economy for any dental issues that arise unexpectedly,
so we actually delayed our departure by one day because our dentist in Colorado
Springs was willing to fit us in for a last-minute cleaning and checkup.
As far as medical care, Medicare does not
cover you when you are out of the U.S., so medical travel insurance or a
Medicare supplement that will be effective abroad is mandatory. Obtaining refills on our routine
prescriptions was another issue that I wrestled with for many weeks. Not every country in Europe allows
prescription drugs to enter by mail, especially Germany. The best advice I can give concerning
prescription drugs is to obtain as many refills as possible before leaving the
U.S. and to carry these medications in your carry-on luggage in their original
labeled bottles. It’s also a good idea
to have hand-written original prescriptions written by your doctor to carry
with you as a backup plan.
One comment
about RV insurance… We were told it is
pricey (it is), it can take a few months to arrange (took 2-1/2 months for us
to get a quote) and there is only one company that will arrange this for
Americans who want to ship their RVs abroad (fairly accurate statement). Luckily, the middleman who arranged this for
us here in the U.S. was a pleasure to work with, and our German insurer was
kind enough to raise our deductible to a point we were comfortable with but
which in turn brought the year’s premium down to a “tolerable” number. Like most of the issues we dealt with, there
always seemed to be a solution at hand if you worked it long enough.
Well, Willie
Nelson’s On the Road Again just started
playing on Al’s iPod as we are rolling down Route 412 in northern Oklahoma…made
us both break out in laughter. We are
starting to feel a little more relaxed and are slowly leaving the last-minute
preparation stress behind us. We spent last night in a rural campground in the
Oklahoma panhandle with cows in the field as our view for the night. This week we are looking forward to
connecting with a few friends from our past along the Gulf coast, then spending
some time with our daughter in Florida before we head up the east coast to
Baltimore for shipping day on April 12th.
Sunrise in the Oklahoma panhandle
Al
writes: Carol told you a little about
the details that she researched, so I will tell about my areas of preparation. Mainly, I had the responsibility for all RV
matters. One of the main concerns I had
was how to prepare for the European power grid which is 220 volts, 50 Hz,
instead of ours of 110 volts, 60 Hz.
Fortunately, there were several blogs by very experienced RVers in
Europe that I could learn from. We will
see how well I learned in a month.
Anyway, I chose to put on a 140-volt solar panel to keep our battery
charged. I also got a small catalytic
heater that runs only on propane (no electricity) to use instead of the
electric-guzzling installed furnace.
With our LED lights, we will consume little electricity and hopefully
the solar panel will keep us charged up when not driving. Finally, I purchased a 3000-watt converter
which will allow us to use our RV plugs and maybe the microwave if there are
enough amps coming out of the campground.
The blogs are full of stories of Americans blowing fuses in the
campgrounds, so I will have to be careful not to get the French, Dutch, Germans,
etc., mad at us.
Another item
I obtained was a motorized macerator, or what I affectionately call a "poop pump." Most European motor homes have sewage cassettes which can be wheeled to the dump station. I might have to pump my sewage to an elevated
position, so now I can with my trusty macerator.
Did you know
that there are three different propane adaptors necessary to travel in the
Eurozone with an American RV?
Living in a
small RV for a year made me take a close look at space savers. Now we have a collapsible trash can, collapsible
tea kettle, and children's plastic sippy cups for my wine glasses. It helped that I found a small storage area
under part of the bed area that I did not know existed. I keep looking for another secret storage
area but no luck lately. I took the TV
out (would not work in Europe anyway) and now the space is a cool book
rack.
This is
probably more detail than most would want except for those who would like to
take an RV to Europe. At one time Carol
and I had about 10 lists organized by topics to prepare for this
adventure. I even had to have a list of
my lists (old joke).
“There is a
kind of magicness about going far away and then coming back all changed.” Kate Douglas Wiggin, New Chronicles of Rebecca
I posted on an earlier blog, but will repeat that it was great to see you both and to catch up. This adventure and journey you both are undertaking is more interesting than even the details of the preparations, it a wonderful affirmation of your life partnership. Anne commented that she would not last very long "cooped up" with me! We are really impressed with the planning and preparation which I sure will minimize the unexpected problems that may surface along the way. Bon Voyage and keep the postings coming!!
ReplyDeleteCarol & Al--Great to hear that all is going well and you are "On the Road again!" Looking forward to hearing lots of fun stories. Corrie
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