2020 A Pandemic For All ; A Life Change For Us

2020 was some year, huh? The pandemic pretty much ground our country and the world to a halt. 
We all experienced it. Our hearts go out to all who lost their lives or loved ones while we have considered ourselves lucky to have been able to stay safe. In the meantime, after two years of "snowbirding" in Florida, we began to realize our home of 33 years in NJ would sit unoccupied for 5 or 6 months and now might be the time to sell and make the move to Florida permanent.

BA and Mike at a stop along their retirement journey
During those two years we looked at homes in the area we were staying known as The Treasure Coast and after much consideration we narrowed it down to the Vero Beach/Sebastian area south to Port St Lucie.

It was April of 2020 with the pandemic raging on and we were scheduled to head home to NJ, but along with many unknowns, such as some states not allowing overnight stays in campgrounds or RV Parks, we decided to extend our stay at Sunshine Travel RV Park in Vero Beach until we had a handle on traveling back. While we bided our time searching for TP, paper towels and just staying safe we made the decision that selling our home in NJ would be a priority. 

By mid-May we were ready to travel back, had our travel itinerary set and we headed home. You can check out our route and trip home by viewing this video on our YouTube Channel. The trip home turned out to be safe with no issues and soon after arriving we set out to make our lifestyle change. In mid-June, we listed our home of 33 years and by mid-August we closed on the sale. It was fast and furious as we had an offer almost immediately....and for much more than our asking price and the closing was less than 8 weeks away! Plenty of time to whittle down our memories of all those years and decide what to keep and what to take. Finally after selling, giving away, and many trips to the dump we had to call a haul away service for the remainder and we closed the sale of our home the third week of August.

BA and Mike On Closing Day of 20 Hunters Run
Having the motorhome was an efficient place for us to move as we would be traveling to Florida after the sale and starting the search for our new home base so we chose Butterfly Camping Resort in Jackson. You can view our walk-around of the park on our YouTube Channel

Now, we really weren't homeless we were just "houseless" so on the 8th of September we began our journey south to Florida. You can follow our journey south "NJ to Florida 9 Campgrounds/RV Parks" by viewing our YouTube Channel.

Our plan was to hook up with an agent in Port St Lucie we had spoken with to tour pre-owned homes in the St Lucie West Area. We made a plan with her while on the road to set a date when we arrived. We had specific requirements such as over 55 and a gated community and large patio/lanai. When we arrived on September 23rd we contacted her to set up a time to meet but she wasn't available for a few days. BA had been looking at a new community called Del Webb at Tradition. Their website mentioned they had spec homes (ready built) available to tour. We had looked at new homes in the area in the past but they were either not gated or too expensive so we figured what the heck? Why not visit? What we didn't expect was falling in love with the community and lucky for us we had a choice of about 6 to choose from and found a home that was perfect for us. We headed back to the motorhome and when we arrived we just looked at each other and said we think this may be it. We called them back saying we wanted to look at the home again the next day and sure enough we signed a deal! On a brand new home!

Our New Home and Home Base!
Where is the motorhome you ask? "He" is tucked "snug as a bug in a rug" in a nice storage facility in Stuart Fl about 25 minutes away. We visit "him" often and we will use our home base here as a great starting point for trips to RV Parks in the area and of course we plan to go north in the summer. For how long? Hey.....we are "Rollin' Into Retirement" Time is not a factor.
We will have more articles about our new home here at Del Webb at Tradition in future blog posts and more videos on our YouTube Channel so don't forget to subscribe there!

Mike and Betty Ann Dalberg are avid RVers for many years having owned at one time a trailer, Class C, 5th Wheel and now a 38ft Georgetown XL Motorhome. 
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