St. Louis MO Cloudy 57 Degrees
Here we are headed south for the third year now. We talked the other night about how leaving the kids doesn’t get any easier. In fact, it gets harder. This year we had the good fortune of spending our vacation with our oldest son and his girlfriend as part of the group. He is so busy raising is own family including 6 of his own grandkids, we don’t see him as much as we’d like when we are home in the summer. Upon our return from our trip, we met our other son Chris, Samantha and little miss Nora for the afternoon and had a great visit. When I start getting weepy on that final hug, my son always reminds me how much we didn’t see each other during the cold winter months. He’s right I know; his cavalier way sets me at ease long enough to get away without crying in front of him. Boys hate that you know!
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Last night was spent with our daughter Kelsy and JP and the boys. It was beggar’s night and the evening was warm for this time of year. Champ and I took the boys trick-or-treating around their neighborhood and had an absolute blast watching them. It had been a very long time since either of us had escorted any goblins on beggar’s night. The goodbye was tough as it always is. Especially now that Hunter is old enough to understand what it means when we say we are leaving for the winter. JP sent us an audio of the boys wishing us safe travels this morning. That made a lump in my throat!
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I think one sign that we are becoming more comfortable with the lifestyle is this year we don’t have the entire 5 months etched in granite like the past years. We will be working the first half of winter so won’t have the insulating emotional blanket of the snow bird park for the holidays to distract us. Neither one of us are sure what to expect this year when Christmas rolls around and we are doing our thing and the kids are all in Iowa freezing, but together. We will be in Plains with other RV volunteers. Maybe something will get organized for the two holidays, maybe not. We are trying to prepare ourselves emotionally. After January 31st, when our commitment ends with the Jimmy Carter Historical Site we have no firm plans. For this compulsive planner that’s a bit hard. We may go to Alabama and do an 8-week stint at a Corps park that may need a fill-in. We won’t know till mid-December about that. We truly have no plan for February or March and it’s liberating in a way. Even though Britt the planner nearly hyperventilates occasionally thinking about it.
It’s been a hell of a summer. Extreme weather, flooding and two evacuations. Lightning strikes frying major appliances, little annoying crap wearing out like the generator and water pump. In between all the junk we forged deeper friendships with our Volunteer Village companions and met new friends who will return along with us next year. We spent lots a great time with the kids and loved our part time work. I got involved as a volunteer at the new Jester Park Nature Center and hope to do more with them next summer. My new way of eating has made me leaner and much healthier than I have been in decades and I’m loving that.
Today we embarked on our journey to an area new to both of us. There is a lot of excitement knowing we have new people to get to know, rich history of the southeast United States to soak up and who knows what else lies ahead. As our years go by in this life our network of people grows. We will know three couples who will be in Florida for the winter, maybe we’ll head that way after we finish our gig in Plains, Georgia. One never knows. That’s the best part.
Until next time…
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