‘HAPPILY SAD’ IS ABOUT THE BEST WAY FOR ME TO DESCRIBE IT

A FEW PHOTOS TAKEN WITH MY CANON POINT & SHOOT CAMERA  FROM ATOP THE MOTORHOME THIS MORNING
“Brrrrrrrr” we were bouncing off the freezing mark first thing this morning.  A crystal clear desert night sky descended a lot of cold air upon us.  Looking forward to losing some altitude and heading for warmer temperatures soon.


OUR SOUTHEAST FRONT YARD CACTUS GARDEN
Today was crunch day for us and we had a full slate of last minute ‘to do’ things ahead of us.  Wanting to get one last short area Jeep ride with Pheebs in I had intended to do the loop drive out to Stanton, up the Weaver Mountains along Old Stage Coach Road to Yarnell then tumble ourselves all the way back down the mountain along the twisting and turning Yarnell Hill to Congress.  However, that’s not what we did.   Realizing I had forgot to pick up a couple things at Bashas Supermarket a few days ago Pheebs and I instead made a flying trip into Wickenburg’s Safeway.  From there it was down to McDonalds for a coffee to go and straight back to Congress.  Maybe we can rustle us up a short drive in the morning, we’ll see.

FRONT GATE ENTRANCE WITH THE WEAVER MOUNTAINS ON THE DISTANT HORIZON

NORTHEAST CORNER OF OUR FRONT YARD
Kelly transferred the majority of our fridge stuff from the house to the rig.  I climbed up on the Motorhome’s roof and cleaned the 4 solar panels.  Had to re-clean all the outside glass after Friday’s storm left a dusty mud residue all over the coach.  The time I spent washing and cleaning the exterior over the past few weeks turned out to be a complete waste of time and I wasn’t about to expend a lot of time and energy in washing it all over again today. 

FOOT HILLS OF THE DATE CREEK MOUNTAINS NORTHWEST OF OUR HOUSE

SMALL CACTUS GARDEN OUTSIDE OUR FRONT DOOR
Closing date for our house is Monday December 19th so as soon as we pick up our final papers and see that the house sale money has landed in our bank account we will roll out of town.  We’re hoping that will be sometime Monday afternoon.  If we have to wait until Tuesday morning we’ll just boondock ourselves somewhere around Wickenburg for the night.

LOOKING SOUTH TO OUR SOUTHGATE WHERE THE MOTORHOME DRIVES THROUGH

LOOKING SOUTHWEST TO WHERE WE PARKED THE MOTORHOME AT THE END OF THE HOUSE
The sooner we are on the road the better it will be.  For us once a decision is made to do something we just like to up and get it done.  Waiting to act on a decision is always the hardest part and it’s been a long wait for us.  We made this house decision about a year and a half ago and here we finally are less than 24 hours away from that long wait being over.  I have used the word sad a few times lately but today I have to add a word to that and the word is happy.  Happily sad is how I would best describe my feelings this afternoon.  When we first stumbled upon this house and property in late February of 2012 it was an absolute mess but we knew that with a little hard work and imagination we could do something here, and we did.  We depart our house and property soon with a warm feeling inside knowing we leave it in much better condition than when we found it.  The house came along just at the right time in our lives and I feel we came along just at the right time for the house to save it and the property from possibly becoming another one of Ghost Town Roads junkyards.  That alone for us is a rewarding feeling and something we can always look back upon knowing what we did here was the right thing.  Highlight of the day for me came when Kelly and I took a break and went out to sit in the warm sunshine on our backyard patio.  We talked about the house and how right we both feel about leaving.  We reminisced a bit about our efforts here and that is when a feeling of happily sad came over me.  And I liked when that happened…………..

ANOTHER SMALL CACTUS GARDEN NEAR THE HOUSE
If your all getting a little tired of all this house talk as of late I can tell you that after Monday my attention will be shifting away from our life and times here in Congress and focusing on our travels ahead once again.  We do have some things coming up but I’d rather write about them when we are doing them rather than get ahead of myself like I sometimes do then have to backtrack when things don’t go according to plan.  And having things not go according to plan is something all RV’ers well know about.

I FONDLY REMEMBER BUILDING THAT FENCE THE FIRST WINTER WE WERE HERE
And before I forget, a note about this years upcoming Bloggerfest in Quartzsite Arizona.  I copied the following paragraph from Shadowmoss at In The Shadows  “Lorne and Sue Green who blog at A Place Called "Away" have stepped forward to host Bloggerfest this year. I am so happy that it will happen again. Date has been set as January 28, the last Saturday of the big tent in the Q. It is a great chance to meet in real life some of the bloggers we read online. I hope as many bloggers as possible will be there”.

WHAT MUST THIS ALL LOOK LIKE IN THE SUMMER WHEN LEAVES ARE FULLY OUT AS WELL AS THE MANY CACTUS FLOWERS….DON’T KNOW, WE HAVE NEVER SEEN ARIZONA IN THE SUMMERTIME AND LIKELY NEVER WILL….AND THAT TOO IS JUST A SIMPLE REALITY
GROANER’S CORNER:(( Shortly before Christmas, a business man was anxious to get home. The business trip had been grueling and he was not in a particularly good mood. The airport loudspeakers blared Christmas carols he was sick of hearing. He thought their decorations were tacky. The worst decoration, he thought, was the plastic mistletoe hung over the luggage scale.  Being in a grumpy mood, he said to the woman at the counter, "You know, even if I weren't married, I wouldn't kiss you."  "That's not what it's there for," said the attendant. "It's so you can kiss your luggage goodbye."
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Q. How is the Italian version of Christmas different?
A. One Mary, one Jesus, and 32 Wise guys.
Q: How come you never hear anything about the 10th reindeer "Olive" ?
A: Yeah, you know, "Olive the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names"
Q: What was so good about the neurotic doll the girl was given for Christmas?
A: It was already wound up.
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When you consider Christmas, there are four stages in your life:-
1) You believe in Santa
2) You don't believe in Santa
3) You are Santa
4) You look like Santa