As the title suggests there are some things that one should check and double check in life.  It's like your parents asking "did you pee" before a long road trip, or the advise to always wear clean underwear in the event of an accident (vehicular or otherwise).  "Always take the keys" is another that should be added to that list.  This may sound a bit unnecessary as you would never get where you were going without your keys.  However, and more importantly, you may never get back.  So begins my story . . . 

We were heading out for a nice evening with friends and loaded all of the dogs into Toothless (the truck).  Toothless has a habit of randomly locking himself up regardless of whether the keys are in the ignition or not, running or not.  So we have learned to always take the spare set of keys with us.  This afternoon was no different and Julie grabbed the spare set on the way out and put them in her purse.  We arrived at our friends' home in Edmonton and began unloading dogs.  This can be quite an effort and if not orchestrated properly can turn into an exercise in herding cats very quickly (terriers are terriers).  So typically one of us stands at the truck, the other at the destination and we send dogs, one by one, in between.  So, on this occasion I was at the truck and Julie was at the fence to the back yard letting dogs in, one by one, as they were sent to her.  Our friends were on the other side to ensure no one escaped after being put in the yard.  After the last dog was sent I decided that there was no reason for me to take my purse with me and casually tossed it back in the truck and closed the door . . . . I closed the door . . . . with my purse inside . . . . with the keys in my purse.  I knew that Julie had also left her purse inside, with the spare keys in it.  You know that sudden rush you get, sometimes good, sometimes bad depending on the circumstances.  Some people like to call it butterflies or an adrenalin rush.  I call it an "oh shit" moment.  When I gingerly pulled on the door handle it was an "oh shit" moment.

So, with my head down and rehearsing my answer to "why would you do that?" (which, by the way, there is no good answer) I went into the back yard and was immediately met with chaos.  All three people and eight dogs (our six and their two) were running around the yard, poo bags were scattered like little black pylons on the lawn and each person had a watering can or a hose as the dogs were unloading what they apparently had been holding for some time.  And heat and stress can cause this to become quite messy.  Also, one of our friends was bleeding because apparently during the running of the gauntlet and her attempts to keep the dogs on the proper side of the gate she was bitten on the thumb.  I surveyed the literal shit show that was happening and then calmly said "is this a bad time to tell you I locked the keys in the truck?"

After the initial shock of hearing the words we realized all was not lost, we have AMA!  That's what they do, they help you when you have a flat tire, a dead battery or lock your keys in your vehicle.  So, I called AMA.  The dispatcher was quite nice at first, ensuring that there were no pets or children locked inside the vehicle and ensuring that we were in a safe location.  She asked, "and what type of vehicle is this?".  I answered "a Freightliner, but not a commercial one, this is our private vehicle".  "A what?" she asked, obviously a bit puzzled.  "A Freightliner", I said, "you know, a semi".  At that moment I was put on hold.  After what seemed like an unusually long time to be put on hold during a roadside emergency, the dispatcher came back and said "I'm sorry, we don't service THOSE types of vehicles".  THOSE types of vehicles?  I explained to her that this was our own personal vehicle, we don't drive any other vehicle and we have paid our AMA membership dues for many years.  It's just a locked door.  She then restated that they don't service those types of vehicles and she was really sorry but she couldn't help us.  I asked her if I found someone who would come and unlock our door if I could then claim it and she answered, no, we don't cover semis.  I was a bit taken aback.  A locked door is a locked door whether its a semi or a Mini Cooper, you just may need a ladder to reach it.  I wasn't asking them for an oil change or to check a head gasket . . . just unlock the door.  That's what they do, they're the AMA, they help in roadside emergencies . . . unless your personal vehicle happens to be a semi.  Thank-you, AMA, thank-you. . . . 

Fortunately we also carry roadside assistance for our trailer, Coachnet, which offers roadside assistance for your tow vehicle as well.  That was our next call.  That dispatcher, Ricki, was also very kind and ensured that we were in a safe location and that no pets or children were locked inside.  I explained the situation to her and very nearly told her that we tow our fifth wheel trailer with a Honda Civic.  But, as I have learned in life, honesty is the best policy and fessed up that I had locked my keys in a Freightliner.  Ricki said "no problem, I will have someone there right away".  Within 2 minutes I was contacted by a local tow company who advised he would be there in 25 minutes.  During that 25 minutes Coachnet called back several times to ensure that our service provider had arrived and helped us out.  He did arrive, he did unlock Toothless and I did retrieve my purse with the keys inside.  Thank-you, Coachnet, thank-you!!

So, regardless of whether you think you need your purse or not, my advise to everyone is ALWAYS TAKE THE KEYS. . . . and don't rely on AMA.

Life has a way of showing us, or rather "suggesting" to us, the road to follow.  We had slowly become slaves to our assets and realized we had lost sight of the important things in life and had basically lost ourselves.  We were so busy working to keep up with the crazy lifestyle and expenses we had created for ourselves that we couldn't breathe and stress and anxiety were creeping into every aspect of our country home living.  Don't get me wrong, we absolutely loved living in the country on our acreage with our multitude of critters, but we were burning out, slowly imploding and didn't realize it.  It took a couple of life events to "suggest" to us that maybe we should choose a different path, even if just for a moment, a path that would perhaps allow us to sit back, reload and take a moment to exhale.  We have always been able to find ourselves again when we would escape to nature and go camping and we loved the simplicity and calmness we felt when we parked our camper in a site, whether it be boondocking or in a fully serviced site.  We then stumbled upon a YouTube video of a couple full-time living in their RV and travelling the continent.  We decided (well, I decided) at that moment that life was too short, we are young enough, healthy enough and financially secure enough that we, too, could do this.  Although it was a crazy notion, with the support of our friends and families, we took on the seemingly impossible -- to sell our acreage and move, full-time, into an RV.

We made the decision to change our lifestyle sometime around October, 2021.  We set about making the necessary arrangements to make this happen.  We both officially retired from our jobs (myself from my second job as a veterinary technician, formerly an RCMP officer, and Julie from 26 years of policing with the RCMP).  We purchased a new-to-us 2018 Grand Design Solitude 375-RES fifth-wheel trailer and traded our pick-up truck in for a Freightliner M2 Sport Chassis (affectionately known as "Toothless").  We had an elaborate solar power system added to enable us to be fully self-sufficient even when boondocking.  We took a financial coaching course to better manage financially with a lesser income.  We sorted and resorted all of our belongings into various piles, one with things to keep and put in storage, one with things to keep and take with us, one with things to not keep and go to a garage sale, and one with things to not keep and go to donation.  These piles were forever changing right up until the very end.  We rented a large disposal bin and everything that didn't go in one of the piles went into the bin.  We carefully selected good homes (both temporary and permanent) for our animals that we were leaving behind (we had decided that the dogs, all six of them, were coming with us), sold our home and acreage, and on May 30th, 2022 there was no turning back.  The movers arrived in the morning and transformed our lives into many moving boxes and wrapped in moving blankets and on the 31st everything was moved into 2 storage units in Calgary.  We turned over our keys to the happy new family on June 1st and for the first time in both of our lives we were officially "homeless", of no fixed address.  As we drove down the driveway for the last time there were many emotions and tears that squeezed themselves into the time frame of the 250 meter drive. . . fear, excitement, sadness, doubt, happiness, relief and freedom to name a few.  The thought that once was "we can't do this" became "we can do this, and we will do this to the fullest!"