We're off!

 As some of you may know, the Youngs in our ward are buying a home in Orlando to turn into a vacation villa.  They have offered to let us live in it while they prepare it over the next year as it is easier for them to furnish only part of it right off the bat.  So our bedroom and the public areas will be done and the rest will be done over the next year.  So Thursday evening Brad Young and our wonderful "handy guy" Landon  came to pick up our boxes (no furniture) full of stuff we decided we couldn't live without.

 This is the garage where we are storing our stuff.  A great place and Anna is very kind to let us do this.

 Landon's statement to me as he is looking in the garage, "Boy this is sure different than the 1st time I saw this place."  And yes it is.  For those of you who don't know this is quite a large area, it was to have been a place for my father to keep his truck and have a workshop in but the workshop never materialized because it was so full of "stuff" he couldn't part with that he couldn't use the tools.  It took 4 loads from several family members, 1 load from the Resale store from Habitat for Humanity and 4 large loads from Got Junk to finally clean this place out.  Landon helped with the family loads so he saw it at it's worst.  He is a great young man and will make a fabulous missionary.  He is the caboose of 7 and has 4 older brothers who all served well.

This is the end.  Our "stuff" is loaded and they are strapping it in!

We are off tomorrow, Friday,

UP Date:  It is now Sunday evening.  We drove to Aurora CO that 1st night and I had a wonderful post ready to go.  Some how I hit a key on the laptop and it disappeared so  what you are getting is some what shorter.  Colorado Mountains are gorgeous, even I was impressed and I am no scenery buff.  I drove or we might have been in the canyon because Pat was enthralled.  We went through all the towns you have heard of, Snowmass, Vail, Golden, Aspen and others.  They are beautiful.  
Saturday was not quite so much fun.  We were out across the plains, grass, grass and more grass.  It may have been fabulous when the real grass was there 200 years ago and the buffalo roamed free, but it is basically boring now.  Flat as far as you can see.  The sad thing is there is a drought and so the fields are dying because there is no water to irrigate with.  There was one several mile stretch where the north side of the freeway the corn was brown and dead and the south side was green and growing.  This went on for several miles until we realized the south side had oil well pumps going on and we decided that the "black gold" was paying for the water to keep the crops alive. We made it to Independence for the night.  We plan to got to church and then hit the Visitor's center, and some of the other church sites.

 This is the room in Independence MO.  The desk clerk was really excited to offer us this wonderful up grade.  Some how a jacuzzi for two right in the room is not my idea of an "up grade"!   I would rather have a couch and a chair, thank you.

Dad on the Temple lot.  The RLDS or Community of Christ's "conference center" is behind him.










We ate dinner at the Cracker Barrel some where, I don't remember, but a guy was walking by me as I was putting something back in the car and said, "my, you've really got it packed in there, don't you?"
So here are some pictures of what the beamer looks like.

No words really necessary are there?!

We each have a suitcase that we take in at night and we get the next days clothes off the rack behind the drivers seat. 

Needless to say we are getting very good at using the side mirrors rather than the rear view mirror.






To night we are in St. Louis and hope to stop by the Arch tomorrow for some pictures and then off to Atlanta.  We are into the home stretch.