Old Friends, Weddings and Enjoying Seattle

Everett, WA

Sept 26

We just returned from a beautiful wedding. Our friends Carl and Carolyn Beddingfield's daughter Tracy got married today. She was a beautiful bride; matter of fact, she is a beautiful woman. We were with Carl and Carolyn in Saudi and have remained friends all these years. It was fun to see other old friends at the wedding at well...Joyce and Rudy; Sarah and Keith and many more. We had a nice, albeit short, visit with Carolyn and Carl, as you can imagine they were pretty busy. It was nice to see them again...it has been a few years since we saw either one of them.

THEN, on Thursday night we had dinner with another set of old friends, Paula and Lew Hustead. What a great visit we had with them. They are friends from Saudi days as well. We haven't seen them in years...10 at least. I want to know why they haven't aged! They look wonderful and just as great as they always have been. We got caught up on each other's family as well. Jenn and Sherrie joined us for dinner as well. As Jenn said, they were some of our favorite people in Saudi. What a neat time for us.

Jo, Lew, Paula, Al, Jenn

We still have a busy schedule in Seattle. Tomorrow we are going to breakfast with Jenn and Sherrie; then tomorrow evening we are having dinner with Ric, Janet and Ashley. Late birthday dinner for Janet and Ashley and early birthday dinner for Ric...who will be 50 this year!!! How does this happen????? Monday are a full day of doctor visits again. We did some of that last Thursday as well...arg. Tuesday I am having lunch with old friend Ginnie and Wed is Nancy day and lunch as well. I should burst by then!!!! It is so fun seeing all of these people tho...and some I can't see due to schedule conflicts I have at least gotten to talk to on the phone.

I was just sitting here thinking that we have been living this lifestyle for 10 years now. And how things have changed! I remember having to lug my laptop to the RV park office to dial up to the internet. Then RV parks started putting phone lines at selected sites and we would always try to get on of those sites so I could hook up the internet. Then wifi started, but at first you had to be fairly close to the hot spot; now most parks have wifi available and if they don't I have my aircard and can connect just about everywhere. I can only imagine what it will be like in 10 years from now!!! And we are still driving the same rig....99 F350 and Alpenlite 5th wheel. They have really served us well, we have had our share of problems, but that is all part of the lifestyle. Matter-of-fact, said truck is at the Ford dealer now being fixed and we are driving a rental car. We looked at the new F350's and if we win the lottery we will buy one, but otherwise I will have to beg, borrow and steal enough money to buy one! They are absolutely beautiful and we would love to have one, but man, it's a lot of money!! OUCH! So our 99 F350 will just have to run a few more years! Unless anyone out there wants to give me a few thousand dollars; about 50 thousand of them please!

The weather here has been incredible! Sunny and clear and warm during the day and nice and cool at night. Love Seattle when the weather is like this and I have thoughts of moving back to this beautiful place; then my brain kicks in and I remember the many, many days of rain and gray. UGH!

Dogs are missing the freedom they had in Odessa....they now have to be on a leash at all times and be walked everywhere. At least I am getting some excercise! However, we found a place to play "ball" so I have managed to let them off the leash and play for a while every day. This park we are staying in is nice, however, I like the park next door better...more room. We are kinda squished in here.

So for now, we are wroamin and will be wrolling towards Portland on next Thursday.