November Starts With Rain

Going into the last ten days of us staying around here we are getting eager to get everything ready. And “ready” also means getting to those medical appointments like Bea had in St.Andrews today. Ready also means paying all the last bills, ordering phone suspension for the winter, suspending insurance for vehicles not being used during the winter, and finally completing my conversion project for our travel van. Of course, packing stuff we want to take along is also part of it. To get some order into things Bea has made out a long list of things we want to take. Whatever doesn’t fit into the van goes into the U-Haul trailer. We were just heading back across the border into the US, when it started raining. We had to make a stop at Wally-Mart to get an array of plastic containers, sized after the storage available in the van. Looking at the horrible pictures from New York and New Jersey shows the full extent of the damage caused by “Sandy”. These pictures leave you in total disbelief of what has happened. Entire infrastructures are destroyed and it will take months to get them back to operation.   We feel sorry for all those whose homes are destroyed and who now have to face a nasty cold winter. It was still pouring when we got home and we got ourselves a hot coffee and a few home-baked muffins. I still remember the fall when we were heading out for our first journey south. Here is what I wrote in 2005 for our old webpage: October 13 It's getting serious, tomorrow we are taking off for our journey south. Everything is packed in the trailer, hopefully we didn't forget anything important. Our house sitter will arrive tomorrow, the utilities are taken care of and our dogs are so excited that they can't sitt still anymore. Maybe that's why Boomer had to chase that porcupine the other night and forced us to make a run to the vet's office 30 miles away in order to get all the quills pulled out. Of course first we had all his blood in the kitchen. Good heavens.... what's gonna happen if he meets that Arizona rattle snake or runs into the Texas Cacti.?  Lots of concerns but ...... Wow it's a battle to leave old sweet home. I never pictured that. A million things to be done, organized, thought of. Tomorrow a sigh of relief will escape me and I will look at Beatrix and see the same thing happen. See you down the road October 14 Still packing.....  But at 10.30am we are ready to leave.  I start the engine and it runs loud while still cold. Bea takes pictures of me pulling out on the road. And then we are suddenly rolling. And I feel a sudden grip around my arm and a pad on my hand. Congratulations we made it together. We stop at our neighbours to take a Good Bye. They have a nice gift for us - for Christmas as they say. It's pickles and pudding.....and a card. These people are too nice to be true.  Next stop at Ardmore to say another farewell to Sally. It's early afternoon already when we are making miles on a wide open road. Won't make it further than Edmonton today. We phone ahead to the Lions Camp ground in Leduc. It's their last day before winter closure, but we are welcome. Leduc has a huge off-leash area for the dogs. After our arrival there at about 4.30 vi make a walk with the dogs. The camp ground caretaker, a very friendly lady, tells me that they are going to Yuma, AZ as well. We might as well see them again in Arizona. In the evening Bea discovers something on Boomers nose. Something sticks out of his skin on top of his nose. We find a last quill of the porcupine he's been dealing with a couple of days ago. We decide to call the vet in Leduc next morning. And that was what it was`like to start the life of a snowbird. The desire for it will never cease. It’s one the strongest wishes I have had my entire life. And they say that if you really want something bad enough it will finally happen.   And as usual: Thanks for spending time here!