A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES

Jun 12, 2017 | Flotsam

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

R.E.D.

We’re all ready to hitch R.E.D. to our tow beast, wrapped and strapped for Armageddon because baby has never before been on a road trip this far and that’s how Captain rolls.

Goodbye Marcel

The club guys have been careful to place her in a location to make it easier to hook up and go.  Easier to hook up and go.  Easier to hook up and go.  Easier…to go…

Goodbye Guy

This is SO not going to be easy. Really going to miss this place. And saying that makes me realize just what we will be missing.

Good friends and family for sure but as I’ve said before, you keep in touch with the ones you wish to keep in touch with and I’m sure the times we visit in the future will be treasured even more because of the distance between us..

There are also the things we won’t be taking with us. Things we’ve sold and donated. But they’re just things.  Yes, certain posessions are attached to a lifetime of memories but they are in the end just physical objects…. just sutff.

This exercise has made me realize it’s not those things that I’ve had trouble letting go of.  What’s a good deal more painful  is the nest we created together  that I’m finding so very difficult to leave behind. Memories of the time we first visited and Francois had to put his hands firmly on my shoulders to keep me from excitedly jumping around, saying to me quietly: ‘poker face, Kathy. We’re negotiating’. All the little love notes we left inside the walls of our renovations.  My footprints accidently left in the flooring glue.  The epic wine and cheese parties after which we would be asked how one could get on the guest list. The dinner parties that continued into the wee hours…the conversations and laughter that went with more bread and a little bit more cheese and just one more sip of porto.  The six months without a kitchen, functioning only with a coffee maker, a rice cooker and a borrowed boat cooler while Francois was on a mission in some far away desert for the third time. And the more mundane yet treasured memories of morning coffees in bed…till noon…those occasional (read, frequent) bottles of champagne…in bed…celebrating whatever.  There was never, for us, ever a reason not to celebrate. So many memories.

We are leaving our nest in good hands though to someone who fell in love with it just as we did thirteen years ago.  She will create her own memories here surrounded with family and lots of love I am certain.

We have no idea what’s ahead of us, only that we are heading east.  We no longer have a land home but we have a boat. We’ve mentally created three doors to choose from but what lies behind those doors remains a mystery.

Our journey of a thousand miles has begun with this single step…steps taken before and steps yet to come.

…..I’ll close now to allow my eyes to dry, to let our wheels cover a bit of ground and leave you with a smile from my very literal man who remarked about the quote at the beginning of this post: ‘but Kathy it will be much more than a thousand miles.’….

…!sigh!….

Ideed it will my love. Indeed it will!