Welcoming Home Our Hero.

It came as a total shock. None of us saw it coming.  Our son-in-law, Brian, a LT in the U.S. Navy Reserve was called up to active duty to serve a year in Afghanistan...with the U.S. Army!

It turned his family upside down.  His boys, Andrew and Owen (our grandsons) were too young to understand the sacrifice they were making in support of their daddy.  Heather was going to be a single mom for the year Brian was gone.

It was really hard, Marti and I and Brian's parents stepped up and tried to fill the void, but we couldn't replace him.  Brian did keep us all updated with emails and pictures of him in Afghanistan.

He even got a fancy set of wheels to drive around in.

An occasional picture came showing some of the lighter side of his deployment.

Brian and his team dressed in the local garb, called "Man Jammies".

No matter how much the emails and pictures helped, it wasn't the same.  We even tried to included Brian via a webcam for his son Owen's birthday party.

You could see the homesickness in Brian's eyes. 

But the day came!  Heather had a great surprise in store to welcome Brian home.

The city hall had a big banner put up.  Heather had a huge surprise party set up at the town's VFW hall.

Everybody pitched in, Andrew's class at school made the American flag by using their hands to paint the red, white and blue colors.

 

Heather decorated each table with a theme of important events that Brian missed, Halloween, Independence Day, even Andrew's first soccer game.

Andrew and Owen were dressed to match their daddy's uniform.

It was a great time, many friends and relatives turned out to welcome him home.

But the best part was to see Brian and Heather together again.

Brian came home okay, he did his duty and served his country. We are so very proud of him.

  This Memorial Day, let us not forget all the brave men and women of all the wars that were not able to come home and be reunited with their families.  We are blessed with freedom and security because of their sacrifices.

Long may the flag wave over our country because of all who served!

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Marti's Musings - Altered Thinking

Before you get the wrong idea on 'Altered Thinking', let me clarify.  I am not referring to drug altered, nor alcohol altered thinking (sorry to disappoint some of you, LOL)

Rather, I am referring to how we, Paul and I, are thinking these days, as we make purchases and plan for improvements for the 'stick n brick' house.

In the past, we purchased rather randomly, and at a whim (within reason - unless we were buying for the grandkids *wink*).

These days, however, when we are shopping for things for the house, or even for ourselves, my mind immediately goes to: "'Can we take that with us?" "What will we DO with it when we are ready to hit the road?" And invariably, if we STILL feel we need to purchase whatever-it-is, I have already half decided which child would want or could use whatever-it-is. 

Our conversations invariably go something like this: 

"Do you think we should get whatever-it is?"

"I don't know, what do you think?" 

"Well, the grandkids would love it (hee hee), but what will we do with it when we hit the road?"

 "Good point." or "We could sell it on Ebay" or "So-and-so could use it" or (rarely) "We could take it with us".

More often than not, these days, we walk away from it.  There have been a few exceptions this year however.  In great anticipation of the grandkids visiting this summer, we purchased an above ground inflatable 4' x 18' pool.  (Of course, we had to get HOA approval, grrrr - don't get me started on THAT topic!)

This weekend, as we are RV-less, we have cleared the ground and will begin setting up and filling the pool, so it won't be frigid when the kids get here.  Yup, I have already half decided which child will want this pool when we hit the road (anticipating it will still be in good condition at that point in time).

This is a change for us, or at least for me.  It let's me know that the reality of full-timing has actually hit home.  Even as I sit home in the evenings, de-stressing from the day, my mind invariable goes to different areas of the home that need cleaning out, and we have already discussed who-will-want-what when the final stages come.  That line of thinking can get overwhelming, as we have 12 years of accumulated junk - proof positive that I have pack rat tendencies and difficulty letting things go.... (See my previous post regarding our decision to not get rid of EVERYTHING when we finally hit the road)

Events from this past week may be early warning signs that the time may be approaching sooner rather than later.  At times that causes a quickening of the heart, part fear and part excitement - at other times it creates a deep longing for that time to come very soon.  The times of longing are happening much more frequently, and that, my friends tells me that my thinking has altered from the past.

The get-ready-task for this weekend is weeding out our overstocked coat closet.  Our goal is to complete at least one task a weekend, and get rid of one box in the basement a weekend.  (OK, we will have to speed THAT up, or we wouldn't be able to head out for the next century!)

 Last summer, we spent weekends travelling, relaxing and doing little else. See? Altered thinking.

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Number 106100

I put it off just too long.  I always had an excuse, no time, budget too tight, I'll get to it later.

However, the closer and closer we get to our full time adventure, it couldn't be put off any longer.

What am I talking about?  Escapees RV Club, we finally joined.  And we are now number 106100.  Just a few people have joined before us.

I know many of you folks out there are already Escapees (aka SKPs), but there are some that are not aware of the club and what it has to offer, so please bear with me.

I went to the Escapee Website and joined online.

                                                   SKPs

It was easy, filled out the form, sent my dues and a week later I got a package in the mailbox.

It contained the following items:

Two very nice club stickers.

The Escapee magazine with some really excellent articles.

The member handbook with all the scoop on what benefits you have by being an SKP.

The Escapee Travel Guide, listing all the SKP  Rainbow park, Co-ops and other campgrounds that offer discounted camping to SKP members.

The information about the various parks in the SKP system are listed state-by-state.

And last, but not least, our membership cards.

So what good is all this for $70 the first year and $60 annually after that?

The Escapee RV Club is an organization dedicated primarily to full time RV travelers.  They have many services to offer, from mail forwarding, to a dedicated forum where you can get outstanding advice from  experts that have been on the road for many years, real been-there-done-that folks.  Along with rallies, called Escapades, where many seminars are presented, there are also fun activities.  Escapees  also hosts CARE, where RVer's that have health issues and cannot travel are able to still live in their RV and receive professional help to do things they are not able to do themselves.

The most important reason to join is you will have a voice in legal and legislative issues that affect you as an RV owner.  Numbers count and our number is 106100.

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