The first day of the rest of our lives

Friends, family, and innocent bystanders--welcome to our blog! We are excited to share our adventures and misadventures with you--sometimes through short lists of highlights (and lowlights,) at other times through narrative descriptions of the diverse landscapes and lifestyles we encounter in our travels.  

  

August 23: A day of transition at the Benton County Fairgrounds

Benton County Fairgrounds

• Finalized moving out of 2904 NW Angelica Drive. Last trip to storage unit!
• Overwhelmed with organizing what we are taking on the trip. Thank goodness for close friends who helped us move all our final belongings into the motorhome from the house. Just when it seemed we were finished packing boxes, more stuff kept appearing. I said more than once: "I never want to have this much stuff ever again!" Please let me remember this assertion.
• Happiness is Bed, Bath, and Beyond crates that fit in all our shelves and for special hangers that work well in our closet.
• Feeling disbelief that the time has really come to start our walkabout.
• Mantra of the Day: I can say my hellos and goodbyes to people, places, things, and events.

August 24- Leaving the Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis, Oregon

Today marked the beginning of our new life on the road. After spending the last few weeks taking time to say goodbye to all our friends, reducing all our worldly belongings to one (double) storage unit, and ending a ten year chapter of our life in our beloved home on Angelica Drive, Vic and I pulled out of the fairgrounds and started our journey eastward. After almost a year of scheming and dreaming about this adventure, it was incredibly hard to take in the reality that we were actually on our way with only one commitment in our future, my mother's memorial to be held Sept. 4 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The weight of this impending date, coupled with the growing euphoria of our new freedom, created a surrealistic mood as we left home. Our only itinerary for the first week was to arrive in Houghton, Michigan in time to complete the plans for the memorial. This meant that the trek across the Rockies and eastward would not be one full of explorations; we made Missoula our first main stop--a place where my first love affair with the West began in college and the early years of my first marriage.