#61 January 1, 2022 "Moving" and "Living" Nomad-Style: Between Airbnb's. Important Relationships.
Friday thru Sunday Driving Denton, Texas to Anderson, Indiana.
Friday 6 1/2 hour drive from Denton to Springfield, Missouri. Breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and lunch at Braum's, an Oklahoma Dairy and restaurant chain. We arrived to our hotel just before 3pm, made 5pm dinner reservations at Cafe Cusco, napped, and relaxed in our room.
Cafe Cusco in Springfield, Missouri.
House made hot sauce. Darrell's Seafood Escebeche and my Chicken Para Rayos. Delicious.
We each packed an overnight bag to get us through two hotel nights, and lighten our carry in and out loads.
Darrell is working on our small sized, shared computer. New Brita water filter bottles gifted to us by our niece, Casey!
Our hotel room is better than expected! Yay. It has a king bed, a fridge which we put a few items in, wifi, tv, microwave, coffeepot, breakfast at 6-10 am, coffee and tea with pot, no weird smells. All a great deal found on www.booking.com for under $80!
Our Calendar Plan. How Long to Stay.
Our "move" from Denton to Anderson has been part of our big plan to visit Darrell's folks in Texas and then my folks in Indiana one last time before heading out of the country for several months on May 26th. A few months ago, we roughly decided on the length of our annual stays for: Grandson(s): 2-3 visits of 2-3 weeks per time; Darrell's folks: about 2 weeks; my folks: about 3 weeks. Determining how long to stay has been subjective and a learning experience. We want to stay long enough to have a memorable visit, enjoy some weekly activities and meals together, and be available for a few days for any special request projects or side adventures. Darrell and I like to spend some of our time exploring locally as our lengthy stays build in a tempo of diversions and rests.
This past week: Darrell's Folks Still Downsizing.
On Friday morning, December 31st, we were ready to leave our "Okay" airbnb in Denton. We have had a sweet time visiting here. This week we helped get a big project completed with Darrell's Mom. She has maintained a rental storage closet containing the last of her downsized household items for more than 3 years. This week we did a final clean out of this closet with Mom, Cyndy and our two trucks. Our muscles and trucks took 1 load to a trash dumpster, and 3 loads to local thrift stores. This will save Mom $900 per year. Mom felt great getting this completed and giving herself more cash and less bills. Cyndy did have to take on a storage shelf into her home storage garage space, but this was doable for now. Darrell was also able to help Cyndy move around her heavy stored items within her storage space.
Cyndy and her Mom at storage closet cleaning day.
Darrell sorting the items into piles of his Mom's stuff to haul, donate or trash.
Truck getting full for donations.
With this closet cleaning effort, I was reminded how, in my own downsizing experience, I often came upon an item that was difficult to part with, or even to know where to send it. I hold value in an item that has no value to another person. The decision points of whether it will go to the trash, a thrift store or a willing family member get easier with practice and new perspectives. The story of my items, and the story of Mom's items are our memories of love for our children and others in things. It comes down to what is important to me and how do I experience and tell this love story of my life without the things that I have held dear: the items my loved ones made with their hands and gifted to me? that I have always used as my cues to remind me who I love, and who has loved me.
In Mom's case, her top treasured items of family photos that her eyes must use a lighted magnifier to view and oil paintings from her firstborn son have space in her and Dad's apartment rooms. For Dad, his mind isn't as sharp in current discussions, but he can open his treasure box of computer-fixing tools from 50+ years ago and the memories and words flow. He tells the entertaining stories of being a 1950's original IBM repairman for a football field sized computer. He had to wear a suit and tie to work and then sprint between areas of adjustment within this giant computer that in current terms is all in micro-chips.
Our Travel Plans:
1. Check out of the airbnb on Friday morning by leaving a pile of sheets and towels for the maid, taking out the trash and putting all dirty dishes into the dishwasher with soap and start it.
2. Have our truck packed up and our overnight bags ready for Friday and Saturday hotel night stays just off of the highway. Meals will be at restaurants along the way.
3. Total estimated drive time is 14 hours. We have a hotel reserved in Springfield, Missouri and in Plainfield, Indiana. We plan to meet my family members on Sunday morning early at their regular breakfast get-together at Panera's in Noblesville, Indiana. Then head to church with my Dad and his wife and plan our day visits.
4. Late Sunday afternoon, drive 40 minutes to Anderson. Grocery shop then to our airbnb home and check-in.
How did I select our Anderson Airbnb?
With our less than spectacular stay in the Denton airbnb, and our Indiana airbnb not yet selected as of Wednesday this past week, I had some things on my mind about what I really wanted for our next stay.
Since we have been living in airbnb's since September 2020, I have had a practice of shopping and booking airbnb properties up to 4 months ahead of our stay. Darrell and I have been practicing our experience of booking our stays closer to the time of our stays, and this is a close booking to check-in experience for us.
Pros and Cons of 'last minute' bookings.
It seems like there won't be as many properties to compare and choices available. This may be true, but in contrast there are some last minute properties that will show up that I didn't or couldn't see 3-4 months earlier. New and renewed (since closing in 2020's pandemic) properties are coming onto the market every week.
I have also gotten more flexible with check-in and check-out dates, and the possibilities of moving between properties within an area we are staying. In addition to the Airbnb app, I also check 2-3 other rental apps, google listings, and hotel pricing in the area we want to stay as well. Only once, I have saved twenty dollars on a two night stay to book a dual-listed property through the non-Airbnb listing.
As I was exploring the airbnb properties in and around Noblesville and Fishers, Indiana, I could see what the rates were and what the hosts were offering that agreed with with what we value. The properties and amenities vary widely.
I came up with a radius of how far I was willing to drive to my Dad's house as my area of searching. Using the Airbnb map search locator, I spent two days and about 6 hours learning about properties, in this area. The reason I was looking at so many places and not choosing one is because nothing was a perfect fit for us. I have my 'perfect' list of amenities, location and price, which didn't happen equally. I gave up distance and found a place farther away to get more amenities of value to us, namely: privacy, a full kitchen, and a washer and dryer.
Our living and comfort needs vary depending on the season, how long we are staying in one location and our expectations for why we are there. For this stay, we are in Indiana in the winter time. Going in and out to a laundrymat isn't comfortable in this season. Darrell is still working remotely Monday through Friday and needs internet and privacy for business conversations and meetings.
Saturday Highway Driving Springfield, Missouri to Plainfield, Indiana.
Comments
Post a Comment