Journey To A New Life – Part 4

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

It’s been a few days since I wrote a journal entry. Let’s see – since the last one, we have driven the rest of the way through Arkansas, then through Tennessee (through Memphis and Nashville), and just over the border to Franklin, Kentucky where we camped for the night. Then we drove through the rest of Kentucky to the northern end of the state to a town called Walton, KY, where we are still at a lovely little campground parked under the trees, by a little creek. This is our 2nd night here, so we have had a wonderful relaxed day of reading, talking, exploring the little town here cooking dinner and eating outside on the picnic bench again. These little 2-night stays are what have made it for me – time to relax and just be with no “shoulds” or “musts”. Then the next day we both are refreshed and driving for 4+ hours again is no problem.

By now we are so close to Ohio (Cincinatti is only 20 miles away), and it is about a 4-hour drive to where my sister, Donna, lives in Columbus, and where we will stay again for 2 nights to visit with her and with my niece, Anna, and her lovely little daughter. We are really looking forward to that, as I haven’t visited my sister in many years. She has come to Arizona several times, but I haven’t made it there to Ohio for a long time. Also, it will be fun to see my niece and meet my new “grand-niece”!

After that, our only other day of driving will be on Friday and that is to Pittsburgh! Jan and I are both finding that we are really looking forward to getting to Pittsburgh and settling down to our new life – finding a place to live, getting jobs, etc. Of course, we also will get to have lots more time with my son, Brian, my daughter-in-law, Brenda, and our 3 beautiful grand-daughters (Emily, Sara, and Laura). What a joy it will be to finally be able to share in their lives more regularly!

It’s hard to believe we are almost at the end of our journey. So many memories, so many lessons, and so much fun seeing all the places we have driven through, or camped in. I will say that as we have traveled east and are starting to travel more north, the scenery has changed and been so different. Of course we have enjoyed seeing all the GREEN trees and vegetation. After having lived in the Southwest for 10 years, it sure looks different. We are enjoying that very much. Arkansas was beautiful, and yesterday, driving through Kentucky has been awesome. Lovely, green rolling hills, lots of grass and space between the houses! It looks so idyllic!

Yes, we have had lots more humidity to contend with, and had several days of rain, but that’s what makes everything so green! There are always trade-offs, and it’s all good!

We had a funny incident yesterday I wanted to share. We are taking our 2 cats with us and it has, of course, been quite an adjustment for them riding in the RV, and not having their familiar territory around them. They have done very well adjusting for the most part. We found that they do best being closed into our bedroom while Jan is driving and then letting them out when we are standing in a campground. Of course, we have not let them out because I didn’t want to lose them, so we have been very careful keeping them in the RV. They have not taken at all well to being on a leash, so that has been out of the question.

Yesterday, we were sitting just outside the RV on our picnic bench having dinner, when out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw one of them (Sally) moving under the RV. I thought I was imagining it. Then a few minutes later, Jan saw the other one (Sugar) jump down from the tree onto a shed just on the other side of our site! OMG! Then I realized I HAD seen Sally as she wondered under the trailer and over to the creek, chasing a bug. They had both “escaped”!  Well, I knew I hadn’t seen Sugar in a while, but she has a habit of curling up under our bed in the RV for hours, so I didn’t think anything of it. It turns out Jan hadn’t closed his driver’s side window and they just jumped out of it to get out. I was so worried we wouldn’t be able to catch them and bring them back into the RV. However, they had had their little adventure outside and were happy to come back into the RV, so they “let” us catch them easily.

What’s my lesson in this? I am not sure – maybe it is that to worry does not help anything, and usually what we worry about never happens anyway! Today they have both been quite content to stay indoors since their little adventure yesterday.

So, that’s about all for this segment. Next leg: Columbus, Ohio.