Hi again.  Today is my 29th wedding anniversary.  In a week we head off for our third “honeymoon” – our first was driving out to San Francisco directly after our wedding.  We had some of our wedding flowers in a soda can with water for the ride.  We mostly stayed in cabins along the way, stopping at Mt. Rushmore, The Badlands, Yellowstone and the Tetons.  I distinctly remember having a cabin in Yellowstone with thin walls.  On the other side of the wall was apparently a family.  The kids woke up at an ungodly hour and I remember being really pissed off.  Why couldn’t those parents keep those kids quiet?  Didn’t they know they had an adjoining cabin?  What horrible parents they must be.

Uh, humility check.  Fast forward 3 or four years and somewhere along the line we were called by management to shut our kids up.  It wouldn’t be the last time that happened…

Our second honeymoon was in Hawaii, maybe four plus years into the marriage.  Mom and Dad Horton came to take care of Joe while we went off for a blissful 10 days on the Big Island and then Maui.  The first night we were there on the Big Island on the Kona Coast, the power went out.  The amplifiers of the hotel next door went silent and all that lit up the pier and waterfront were tiki torches for the rest of the evening.  It was quite romantic indeed!

Now we head off to Alaska.  We are like kids on Christmas Eve we are so excited.  As mentioned in a previous blog, we got a great deal at the best time of the year and it includes four days of land travel and a week of cruisin’.  Al goes to Denver for his job gig tomorrow and we meet in Kansas City for niece Lauren’s wedding, then fly directly to Fairbanks.  I have heard from so many people that it’s almost like having a child – no one can tell you what Alaska is like – it is so grand in size and beauty.  So I’m not even trying to imagine.

We will be taking planes, trains and ships on this journey of a lifetime.  I won’t have computer access but I am taking my notebook so I can write quickly and without writer’s cramp as I’m there.  I will also be reading How to Write a Nonfiction Book by Bobbi Linkemer – it’s not so much the writing piece but more the process.  It seems to answer all my unanswered questions.  Where to start? How to find an editor?  How to get started on research?  Blah blah blah.  The subject matter has been chosen – the how and why and who cares of long marriage.  I have now bounced this idea off many people and am getting enthusiastic encouragement and many people who are willing to tell their stories.

As always, if my writing can touch one person I’ll be pleased. If it touches many, so much the better.  One thing I’ve noticed since taking this short sabbatical – I MISS it.  All of a sudden I find myself throughout the day thinking “I’ll have to remember that for the blog.”

Talk to you later….