A year ago we were waiting for repairs on GeeWhiz to be completed so we could resume our life on the road. We were recovering from our trip to South Africa and neighboring countries and thinking about our travel west. Today Rosh HaShanah is behind us and we are in the interval before Yom Kippur and we are taking stock and making amends for any wrongs we have committed. If by my actions or words I have harmed any of you my readers, I apologize, and beg forgiveness and If any of you have inadvertently injured me I forgive you.
The arc of our travels in the past 12 months is fairly straightforward. We drove from Rochester to Jojoba Hills SKP Resort in 11 days, a record crossing of the US for us. We saw nothing. Other than a stop in Las Cruces to visit dear friends we, just, kept, moving. Once we got to Jojoba Hills, we planted ourselves. We took a week in Palm Desert with friends and a couple of weeks in Arizona including Escapade near Tucson. Other wise we were content in Jojoba Hills SKP Resort (here after JJH). Our travel back East had a couple of interruptions. First a stop in Flagstaff for Josh’s graduation from NAU and then a stop near Kansas City to fly to Ashgabot, Turkmenistan for the beginning of our trip to the Stans. Four countries – we had an overnight stop and a day in Istanbul and back to Kansas City to pick up the coach and return to Rochester for Jazz Fest!
Whew, Avi, our youngest grandson, flew in to spend 4 nights of Jazz (46 Performances) with us. and then we were off to NJ where we picked up Corey, and NYC and Cape Cod and Boston where we put Corey on a plane home, and NS and finally the ferry to Newfoundland (emphasis on land). and another ferry back to NS and returning toward Rochester via Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. I’m getting tired just writing this all down. The details can be found in the blogs along the way.
Our next travel should seem a bit more relaxed. Rochester to C’ville and four days with Dan’s family – Happy Birthday Dan – you can’t be that old, we’re only . . . forget it at least its a square. Then on to Hilton Head, OMG a real resort, for a Tiffin Travelers Rally and then across the country to JJH arriving before Oct 25 if Murphy will leave us alone. There is more foreign travel booked, but that can wait.
Lessons learned, keep moving. We try very hard not to let the ailments of body and coach slow us down. We both feel better if we can move, get out and take a walk, or take a hike or just saunter and enjoy the day or the evening. The coach is easier, a generous application of $$ seems to keep it working just fine and every now and then some elbow grease to make it look nice and to fix the little stuff makes me feel better about myself.
I have skipped over the most important part of our life, after family, that is community. We keep addressing the question of why we return to Rochester, so many friends and acquaintances have moved on. The question can be found in our community in Rochester. Carol and I still belong to the synagogue where we met in kindergarten 70 years ago. We can walk in after a years absence and be greeted with hugs and kisses from people who know us almost as long as we have known each other. I am going to a board meeting of the Jewish Community Federation where I was President 30 years ago and I will know many of the attendees and be welcome to take a seat and participate as if I never left. And then we rush across the continent to Jojoba Hills SKP Resort where we have found a new (to us) and wonderful community that will welcome us with hugs and kisses when we arrive and we can’t wait to get together with them and share our tales of the summer just past.