The last time
I entered anything into the blog was a long time ago, actually we were in
Mississippi ( Oct 2012 ) working at a campground. We finished the job and
headed to Vero Beach Florida to do a short term retail job in a mall. This was
something we have never tried before so it was a whole new experience for us.
We ran a kiosk in the mall selling sport related items for the Christmas
season. The job lasted about 7 weeks then it was time to move on. We ended up
working the rest of the winter months at a very small county park just south of
Tallahassee, Florida. Spring arrived and it was time to head north to visit
family and friends.
Our son Aaron and his wife Laura, who lives up in Minnesota
were expecting their second child (April 2013), so grandpa and grandma headed
to visit them and wait for the arrival of the new one. Unfortunately the baby
was late for his arrival and we had to head back to Indiana to start our summer
job in the Shipshewana area. Guess what, a week after we left the little guy
decided it was time to make his entrance into this world. We were not there for
his birth but they did make a trip down to visit us in May and our other son
David and his girlfriend came from Ohio so we all were able to be together for
a few days.
Let me back up just a little to fill you in on our
decision to come to Indiana and work. After spend 4 years on the road I just
felt a need to come back to Indiana and maybe be a little closer to our family.
I wasn’t sure why but sometimes you get this feeling in your gut and for
whatever reason you go with it. This is what led us to come back to Indiana.
Like I said at this point we had been on the road for 4 years and up to this
point everything had worked out great for us, we had been able to see our
family and friends between jobs and all went well.
We started working at our new job in April, 2013 and
in June Cindy’s father ended up in the hospital and my son was involved in an
industrial accident where he works, he got his right hand into a machine press
and ended up crushing and breaking some bones, thankfully he did not lose it.
We were only a little over 2 hours away from both of them (they both happened
close together) so we were able to drive back and forth to Indianapolis to the
hospital to visit with them. I guess there was a reason I felt the urge to come
back to Indiana to work, we could have been a whole lot farther away than the 2
hours that we were so all worked out well. Cindy’s father recovered and Jims
hand is still in the process of healing.
While working in Indiana, our house, which had been
on the market for over a year+, sold and it was time to empty out what was left
and decide where our journey would lead us next. I had been living there for 40
years and 32 with Cindy, and we raised 4 boys there, so needless to say it was
a very emotional part of our lives, leaving a place that had been our whole
life, so many memories both good and bad. I guess it was one of the hardest
things I have ever done in my life, saying goodbye to the place, but also
knowing something better would be out there for us.
We decided after finishing our job that we were
going to take a break and not work for the winter, we wanted to be able to
visit some southern states and think about trying to find a place we would like
to call home. It makes it so hard when our kids are located in Ohio, Indiana,
Colorado and Minnesota to be able to locate in a central place so we can visit
them. (consider yourself blessed if your children are close by) So for the
winter of 2013/2014 we became “official snowbirds” and ended up spending time
in Texas, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee. We are currently taking this summer
and visiting family and friends. We are also keeping our eyes open to any
possibilities of finding a place to call home (at least for the summer months).
Our son and his wife in Minnesota are expecting a new arrival in June ( #3) and
our son in Columbus, Ohio and his fiancee Shawna are getting married in August, so as you can
see we have a very busy summer laid out for us. After all of this we will be
heading back to Florida where we will work at an rv park for the winter.
This is the end of July and we need to add some
updates. Aaron and Laura have their 3rd child now, we were blessed
with a little girl, Savannah, born on June 7th . On a much somber
note Cindy’s father passed away on June 28th. This past year has
been a year of ups and downs, happy & sad but we have survived it all. The
passing away of Cindys father was a unexpected sad time for us but it was also
a happy time in that I got to see all 4 of the boys together at the same time,
something I did not ever expect to happen since the great amount of distance
between them. As I finish this up we are getting ready for a wedding next
weekend, an opportunity to see all of the kids together except Randy and his
family, then it will be time to enjoy what is left of the summer and start
planning our trip back to Florida.
