I’ve been done with work for 12 days. One big change, is I’m a lot more active than I was at work. I don’t wear a fitness tracker, but my phone shows a big increase in my steps. I’m trying to get up first thing in the morning to take Hoagie for a short walk before everyone else gets up; Hoagie is loving having me around and is now getting one to two walks a day.

Monday morning I met up with a friend and enjoyed a nice morning hike through the Shunock River Preserve in North Stonington. We didn’t see any other hikers on the trail and enjoyed the beautiful views. It is early enough in the year that the bugs weren’t bad and cool enough that it was pleasant. It is certainly a trail that I’d like to return to. The hike was just under 3 miles and took a little over an hour to complete. Surprisingly, Hoagie didn’t wind up too muddy.

It has been quite an adjustment. I’m used to having a schedule every week day and now I have to work to remember what day of the week it is. Not that I’m sitting around. I haven’t really had much time to sit around and relax. We are busy getting our house ready to sell, get everything ready for the move to Sweden, and drive Izzy to and from her rehearsals.

The house is slowly coming together. We have rented a storage unit to store furniture for the kids to take when they get places of their own. We have been making weekly trips to the dump and Goodwill to clean out things we won’t be bringing to Sweden. The first project I need to finish is replacing the back stairs. I was able to get the second set of balusters installed today. If the weather holds tomorrow, I’ll finish the painting and then install the new stair treads on Friday.

Yesterday I took Hoagie to Middletown to the only veterinarian in the area that will do the paperwork for him to fly to Sweden with us in August. Flying a pet overseas has seemed like a huge hurdle to overcome. However, the vet was very reassuring; she said she does this all the time and it won’t be an issue. I have tickets for him to fly with Izzy and I on the 1st of August. I hope to be able to leave his crate at the airport, but if not, Susanna is planning on meeting us at the airport in Copenhagen when we arrive to help with luggage, the dog, and possibly the crate. Susanna has her tickets to fly to Sweden a week before Izzy and I fly so she should have everything ready for us to arrive.

Izzy and I are planning a road trip around the states this fall. As a family (all 3 plus dog), we will head to Sweden late summer, settle into the apartment we have rented, get a car, and I’m sure a lot more that we haven’t figured out yet. Susanna will be looking to start working, hopefully as a preschool teacher; she needs to work to sponsor my residence permit. Izzy will have to repeat 3rd grade, and I’ll have to be out of Sweden for Susanna to apply for my permit. Our current plans are for Izzy and me to fly back to the US in late August.

We’ll spend a week in Connecticut catching up with friends and getting the mini-van ready for our road trip. Once ready, we will head west towards St. Louis and family. From there, maybe Colorado, California, and back. We’ll have time to plan it as we go and see where we feel like wandering.

I’ll put in a rudimentary DC electrical system for the trip. We’ll need to power a refrigerator/cooler, computers and phones. I’m planning on putting a solar panel on the roof and use a 50Ah lithium battery that I already have on hand. I ordered a 100W solar panel and a 30A PWM charge controller to start early testing of the system. I’ll eventually build a box for the battery and associated connectors.

I hooked up the solar this afternoon and was getting 2-3 amps of charging current even with the overcast weather. The next challenge for the electrical system is to figure out how to run the cables into the mini-van without having to drill a hole in the roof. I have some ideas, but will have to spend some time looking more closely at the van.