Monday, March 29, 2010

Wow! So much has happened in the last 48 hours, I hardly know where to start. To begin with, I had no way of knowing that getting ready for this trip would drain me as much as it did, nor could I have predicted that the things which filled me up were the friends and neighbors that we left behind. The "island", for those of you unfamiliar with Nela, is a little piece of serenity amidst the bustle and chaos of Orlando. It is tucked away in a rather unexpected area and is home to some of the most welcoming and friendly people I have had the privilege to call neighbors. Every month we get together and invade a family's home, trading stories and eating food so good it makes you beg for the recipe, and of course, we indulge in a little liquid refreshment. Torben and I attended our last party the night before we hit the road. Late into the night the party moved to our motorhome, parked across the street. During the party I admitted to a friend that I had always wanted to jump off the bridge leading to the island. My friend Roy is never one to back away from an adventure, and if there is a little risk involved, all the better. He held me to it, despite warnings that it was illegal. An hour before we left Nela I trotted down to meet him at the bridge, having no idea of the crowd of eager spectators that had gathered to both cheer us on and laugh at our idiocy. The water was cold, but the jump was well worth it. So much so, that in fact, we did it twice. Each time our friends hauled us up in the boat and toasted us with champagne. I couldn't have imagined a more thrilling send off. The farewell is a treasured memory I hope I never forget. God bless Nela and her lovely inhabitants. p.s. On our first hook-up I tried to be all smart and strong by volunteering to hook-up and drain the grey/black water tanks...What's Dad's motto about no good deed going unpunished? Yeah, you guessed it...the howl of my husband's cackling is still ringing in my ears as he hooted with glee at seeing the poo water explode on my arms while I tried not to vomit. Camping is great.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Out with the old...

Who knew that in a lifetime you could acquire 36 extension cords, 5 incomplete decks of cards, 4 broken VCR players, 3 dead tv's, and half dozen unmatched socks? The stuff that hides in the dark corners of our closests is SCARY! My question is not whether or not it is normal to acquire such things...but why did I feel the need to keep them? Seriously, at some point in my life I looked at that half-chewed piece of hubba-bubba and thought "I'll keep that for later" and chucked it in the back of a drawer. Gross. Anyway, in preparation for our big journey we cleaned out every closet, drawer and envelope. I am proud to report that my husband has finally let go of his tax returns from 1995 (that's the year I graduated highschool, for those of you who are keeping track) and my treasured James Taylor cd collection has thinned itself out (moment of silence please). Several trips to a storage unit, snake eggs, and one mother of a garage sale later we have gotten rid of everything that we won't be taking with us. Ahhhhhh, freedom. When I dropped that last load off at a local charity I felt such a huge weight lift. I never really stopped to think that the stuff I had acquired was weighing my down, but it was. And I feel cleansed. I think I could get rid of just about anything at this point. My husband is cautiously guarding his Gator memorabilia from my disposal addiction. I'd love to post a picture, but I seem to have thrown out the cord connecting my camera to the computer, opps.