catching up

catching up, a set on Flickr.

CATCHING UP
I am sure some of you wonder what has happened to us. Have we settled and not let you know, have we fallen off the earth? Well, here is brief summary of what we have been doing. Our last year can be summed up in one word – TRAVEL. So far, we have put nearly 30 thousand miles on the truck and 4-5 thousand miles on the Jetta. Those miles do not include the 3 thousand mile round trip from Louisiana to West Virginia which we made in Melanie’s car for a funeral last January.
If you have followed our blog, you know that we have been from Key West, FL to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and back since Sept 2011. It was a great trip. In September of 2012 , we put our camper in storage in Lawton, OK where we thought Melanie might be needing it in December. We were now living out of our truck. Another adventure was beginning.
We had volunteered to work at the training facility near Richmond, VA late September. On our way there, we had to stop in WV to pick up our Jetta and the “topper” for the truck. Now, we could live in both the car and the truck.
From late September thru mid- December, we enjoyed working at ILC. We were privileged to work there. Not only did they let us work with some of the greatest people ever, but they also took great care of us at the same time. It was a great experience. We also got to spend Sundays worshiping with the church which we attended while living there before. We even got to help the church with their Bethlehem Walk which is a major outreach to the community. More than 13,000 people went through the event in just 5 nights.
After that, we went to MO and visited friends for short time. We spent Christmas in Oklahoma City with Judy’s brothers Jon and Jeff. After Christmas, we visited Melanie and her family. What a joy to be grandparents again to little Kyla.
In amongst all of these travels, we have visited Branson, MO twice and Pigeon Forge, TN where we have places in a vacation club membership. We have also been sensitive to where we might settle down when our travels are completed. Said in another way, we have been actively searching for that place.
From here (Pigeon Forge), we are going back to ILC and volunteer for another month before going over to visit Matthew and his family near London, UK. We plan to be there until sometime in May. THEN we will be getting serious about settling down in one location.
So, we have not fallen off the cliff, but are still around. Take care of yourselves and be safe. We’ll catch up later.
Dave and Judy