People and Places, and A Stroke of Luck

What a month, I say.  July is ending at last.  At this writing, we are staying under yet another roof that is not ours.  We are "homeless" still.  Oh, it's a voluntary situation to a certain extent--we sold our home and have not successfully found a new one to either purchase or rent.  We have been our own worst enemies in this regard, choosing to travel to a couple of far-flung weddings, instead of staying where we were and staying on task.  We sold and/or gave away a lot of "stuff," packed the rest into storage, and left town with a pending contract on a new place to live.  For reasons that are irrelevant here, that contract did not close and we have come full circle, back to the island where we have lived for ten years or so--still with no place to live (and once again, relying on the kindness of family for a place to sleep).

We covered somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,700 miles.  We stayed in the homes of friends or family 28 nights out of the last 37.  We stayed at six hotels, but in the homes of eight different friends or family members.  Our thanks to all of you.  

We passed through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Illinois again, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario, New York again, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York again, New Jersey again, Maryland, DC, Virginia, North and South Carolina (That's nineteen different states/provinces).  We visited or dined with fifty-seven people who don't live near us, and most were glad to see us, in fact, those who weren't concealed it quite well.  Our thanks to you as well.

At one of the weddings, I remarked that I would never willingly make such a trip again.  I meant it, but my feelings have softened a bit.  I have not driven in the past two days, which has allowed some of that to subside.  Like most of life, the trip had its high and low points, days of stress and days of fun.  We saw famous sights and sites, some were delights, and some not.  But the people we managed to see made it all feel like a stroke of incredible luck.  Some we see only on rare occasion, some we had never met in person before, and some we might never have the opportunity to see again.  I guess that last piece may be true every night our heads hit the pillow--there are people in our lives we may never see again.  With that said, I'm thinking this summer will be one we remember for a long, long time.