Goodbyes are hard!

It is January 3rd and today we said goodbye to our friends at church and more importantly to our daughter Julie and her four children here in Modesto. We said goodbye to our youngest son Joe and his wife Daunielle on Friday. I thought my heart would break and I must admit ... I wasn't looking forward to today at all. I knew this would be tough, but Friday showed me just how tough it was going to be. I know I will get used to it, and I am positive Wayne and I will enjoy ourselves in our new, simplified lifestyle, but at the moment it is all about painful emotions ... even for me (Wayne calls me Mrs. Spock sometimes.). I have done more crying in the last 48 hours than I have done in years.

Oh well, enough about that. We had our first mini-crisis today with our 5th wheel. When we came back from Modesto and turned on the heater, Wayne found that the pilot light would not stay lit. He investigated and found a small leak (outside ... no danger in the trailer) that he will have to repair tomorrow when we get to Bakersfield. Hmmmm, sounds like home ownership again! I am sure there will be many more episodes like this, but fortunately Wayne is handy and should be able to fix most of the potential problems that could occur.

As I mentioned, we are headed to Bakersfield tomorrow ... Orange Grove RV Park to be exact. We have stayed there before and just loved it. The park is really an orange grove, and when the oranges are ripe, one can pick them for free - or course only as much as one would use in a day or two. I am not sure they will be ripe yet, but we will sure find out tomorrow.

No additional pictures yet. We have had our hands full just getting moved in and ready to go. Check back with us again. In the meantime, God bless you all and please keep in touch.

Sue (& Wayne)

Thangsgiving Update

It's time for an update. Lots of things have changed since my first post. Today is Friday, November 27th. Wayne is at work ... for the last time. He will officially be retired by midnight or there about. He is one happy man. I have another month to go as I am retiring on December 31st. I will have been working for Cranbrook Group, Inc. exactly 15 years. Lots of good memories, but it is time to move on.

We plan to leave Modesto on January 4th and head straight to Texas to become Texans. That sounds so weird. We have both lived in Texas before -- me when I was 2 yrs. old, and Wayne when he was in the Air Force. We will be coming back to Southern California mid-February to go to Disneyland with family. Then back through Arizona, New Mexico, up through Colorado to see family, east through Iowa to see more family, and then finally to Union, Illinois mid-April to begin our summer job at Chicago NW KOA. How that plays out timing wise only God knows -- weather will determine our schedule. I can't even begin to tell you how excited we are.

Once we get on the road, I promise to update more than once every 2-3 months! Until then, hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and pray God's blessing on you and yours.

First ever blog post

Well, this is my first attempt at blogging. Probably won't be much to talk about for a while. However, this blog will help us keep in contact with everyone we love once we are on the road. We still have lots of time before we leave next March. Too much time ... and yet, not enough. Not enough time to spend with my grandkids. It will be so hard to leave them here. The Lord and I have to work on my faith ... truly believing that He loves them ever so much more than I do. Of course it won't be hard just leaving the grandkids -- my own are still in California. I wish they could all move around the country with us, but video cam will have to do.

That's it for now. Sue