Yikes! This is hard.

We have now decided to leave on Friday morning since saying goodbye to people is just plain hard to do. Our ancestors who headed west knowing they would never return and might not even be able to get mail -- well, at least they had the internet -- were definitely made out of stronger stuff.

Last night we went to Exeter, NH to have dinner with and say goodbye to Kathy's father Kelvin and his "GF", Cherry Taylor. I am sort of cheating because this picture is actually from about a month ago but it gives the right sort of impression and we didn't have the camera last night.

The only thing that keeps us moving forward is the excitement about where we are going. So I included a picture just after the tile went down in the dining/living room. It's still not done but it will give you an idea of the Santa Fe style we will be living with.

Our home away from and in between homes

You may wonder about driving across the country with both of us and our dog, Jackson. That's Jackson by the way. In any event, we are dragging along our trailer. The rest of the pictures are obviously of our traveling home. Once we are settled in Santa Fe we are planning on dragging her (the trailer, not Kathy) along as we explore the south west. So many places to see -- so much time! Ahhhh!

We are one week away from departure. Kathy's organizational skills have overcome my procrastination and much of what can be packed is packed. Today I took my last ride on the motorcycle. It was, of course, necessary so that there would be no gas in the tank when it gets placed on the moving van. I was forced to just ride around on a beautiful back rode for an hour. Honest -- I had to do it! More later.

School and Kathy

O.K., sending out a mass email was more complex than I thought. I am finding lots of old contact information that will now need to be cleaned up. But of course, cleaning up and packing away old stuff has been our life since June 30 and the last day of school.

Speaking of school, many former students have been asking who will work with Becky now that I am gone -- like the bumper sticker says, "The only constant is that change happens." Becky will be teaching Odyssey alone. For those of you from the Kathy generation, Becky Ledig took Kathy's place and is, as the newer kids know, just as good at keeping me in line as was Kathy. Now she's on her own and I am certain she will appreciate letters from alums telling next year's class what to expect, what not to expect and why they made a good choice in signing up for the class. Her school email is rledig@aps1.net .

Now back to our move. This picture is from our trip out in April. Kathy figured we were spending a fortune on the various earth digging and moving machines. This is one of four that have been on the site since mid-December. Maybe we should have just bought them! Anyway, it seemed like we might as well get our money's worth with a bit of a cheesecake shot. Do you think we could create a calendar to sell to grubby auto mechanic shops? Hmmm! We do need to think about cash flow and this is a good beginning.

And now we are off to continue with the packing. More later.

July 19th

For the past few evenings we have been saying goodbyes to friends. This is the hard part of leaving an area in which we have lived for nearly 30 years. Our hope is that many will decide that visiting New Mexico will now be a priority. Santa Fe has a lot to offer -- from a world class opera to a kind of wild rodeo (at least I think the rodeo is still being held). Last week was a huge Folk Arts Festival. In August the Plaza will host Indian Week and something else -- we've actually never been there for these events. Maybe we could all go together. There are also a ton of museums including the Georgia O'Keefe.

Continuing with my effort to show some photos of the house progress I've added another shot. This is from March and shows the crane lifting one of the beams that support the roof. Later I will add an interior shot from a couple of weeks ago that shows the finished look of the beams. They are pretty cool.

We are now about 10 days from departure and definitely are jumping from feelings of nostalgia to frantic efforts to get everything ready to exhaustion to excitement to fear to wonder. And I keep thinking I should be getting ready for next September's classes. Go figure!

We leave on August 1

Kathy and I have been packing like crazy (actually she did much of the packing before school was out and now I'm trying to catch up). This is the first day of our blog so it will be tentative. I am hoping to begin to add some pictures of the trip and, of course, of the house. Then we will have to see how it develops.

For now, I will add one picture that may explain why we are going through all of this. It is from the house site looking south toward the Sandia Mountains. Enjoy.