'12/#54 Almost Home

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I know we did. We spent 3 days in St Augustine enjoying the decorations, holiday celebrations, the seafood, and the romantic atmosphere of this favorite town of ours. Many of you know, and for those of you who don't we honeymooned in St Augustine almost 23 years ago so this is a special place for us. When we are here we try to make time just for the two of us and the friends who live in the area understand if we don't get in touch sometimes. Romance is for two, right? In all the years we have been coming to st Augustine we have never been here for Christmas. What is already a beautiful town becomes magical with the lights, music, pageantry, and revelry of the season. I'm glad we finally were here to enjoy it but still miss Christmas with family....especially the children, old and young. We will be there soon enough and plan to have our family Christmas then.

Plaza de La Constitucion St Augustine on Christmas Eve

For know we are in Port St Lucie farther down the east coast of  Florida. We are visiting the uncles and just enjoying their company. We also have friends here that we worked with in Cody WY this summer and will get together with them. It is time to just relax and bide our time until we get back to Pinellas County and the rest of our family and friends. It has been a long time time since we have had our Grandparent hugs and I miss them and our children most of all. This may be the only down side of our RV lifestyle but the reunions are that much sweeter.

On a more serious note, I would like to tell anyone who I haven't told yet that I have the greatest wife in the world. Yes I love her but it is more than that. The day we were leaving St Augustine I had some (ahem) stomach issues and was completely out of commission. All is well now but we wanted to hit the road, partly because we had plans but more so because of the storm that was headed our way. While I was dying(a slight exaggeration) Mary got everything in the trailer stowed, the shore hookups disconnected, wheels unchocked, and the truck ready all while I was trying to get dressed. I was thrown in the truck, she hopped in behind the wheel, and headed south. She stopped many more times than is usually necessary for the 200 mile trip so I could deal with what felt like my insides fighting their way out. My point is that all of this was possible because Mary is quite capable of operating all aspects of our rig. There are too many couples with "pink and blue"(women and men) jobs that can't or won't do the jobs outside their "color" zone. Situations arise that don't allow for that luxury. Our predicament wasn't that severe but if it had been I know that Mary or I could have done it all and dealt with the situation. For those of you out there that subscribe to the "pink/blue" job theory now is the time to think twice about it. A couple is a team and both members must be able to work together on every part of the process to be successful. Driving, hooking up, breaking camp, planning routes are all part of our lifestyle and are part of each of our responsibilities. Because of this we and others like us are what I consider successful living the life we've chosen.

With a few more days in Stuart and then a short trip across Florida we will be back home. Yes I know I always say home is where we park it but home is also where the heart is. My heart is always with my wife but it is also with my children and grandchildren so home is also in Pinellas County. So this is goodbye for now from our home in Port St Lucie because ......

Home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary