The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

        We've relived lots of memories over the past couple of weeks as we have sorted and packed and thrown out things so we can go on the road full time.

 

        I reread some of my mother's letters written while I was in college.  She talked about how she and Daddy quoted poetry to each other as they washed dishes.  When she was writing to me about my upcoming marriage to John, she talked about the depth and importance of her relationship with my dad.

 

        I found something I had written two days after our second son was born and remembered what a tremendous event that was for John and me to share.

 

        We have met two of the nicest people as we worked at selling some of our antiques.  We walked into an antique co-op in Denver and the man at the front desk welcomed us, showed us around, and discussed how to put a value on some of our things.  He suggested we email some photos to Judy, one of the women who is part of the co-op.  Days later she came to our house and we instantly made friends.  She bought some things, agreed to share our photos with another member of the co-op and gave us the name of another dealer who might consign some newer furniture.  As it turned out, the other co-op member was Steve, the first man we met.  He, too, has come to our house and bought some things.  Both people gave us advice on how to price what we want to sell at our moving sale.  And they are both wonderful people. We feel very blessed.

 

        John fought tears as he dismantled his HO train layout.  He was thinking of all the time he has spent playing with the train with our grandchildren.  And how they play with the train and remember him when they come with their parents to check on our empty house.  Now it will be rented out.  We hope the train set can make it to heir house, but it will be different.  The more we are gone, the more we miss out on knowing our grandchildren.  That is the only real downside we have found to traveling the country in our RV.

 

        The ugly part of all this is the total mess in the house, the growing emptiness and the huge piles of trash.  All of this brings us closer to being on the road.  But it certainly has its ups and downs.  And it is a lot of work.