Salem is Home

I arrived back in Salem on March 13th after a short stay in Memphis.

My last blog tells you of the incredible changes God had in mind for me. You'll read lots more about Carol, Emily and Andrew. But even with this big change, things seemed so "normal" AND wonderful in Salem.

I had breakfast/lunch/dinner with a whole host of friends, most of whom I've known for more than 15 years. I heard "Hello" and "Welcome back" from people at church, clerks at the Post Office, banks, grocery stores, etc. etc.

The first task on arrival was choosing a site at Salem Village. I had a choice of two and both were beautiful. I met both my potential new neighbors and BOTH had motorcycles. I chose the spot next to Fred Saunders. Fred is an 80 yr old living like someone half his age. The motorhome I parked next to is his fulltime home. He plays golf two or three days a week and rides his Honda Gold Wing Trike the others.

By the time I get this posted, he'll be on his way to Alaska.

On his trike.

Pulling a tiny camping trailer.

For the second or third time.

When I told him I was sorry I couldn't go with him, maybe next time, he said, "OH, I'll probably go again next year."

One day he said, "Somebody just told me about a really crooked road near Glasgow. Wanna go find it with me?" Five hours later we were back home after seeing some of the prettiest scenery in the East. And the best part was when we took a wrong turn on US501 and followed the James River where it cuts through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Many of the roads in the Catskill Mountains of NY that I rode as a kid went through passes so narrow there was only room for the river, the road and the railroad. This one doesn't even have room for the road so we twisted up and down where 501 seemed to have been built just for motorcyclists. We could have taken the Blue Ridge Parkway home from there but we hadn't even been on the road we had come to find yet. So we turned around and went back over the mountain to where we'd turned the wrong way. The ride on US60 was as good as Fred's friend had described. But we both agreed that our "inbetween" trip on 501 was much nicer. Then we took a mostly single lane road back south for half an hour and returned home on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Here's a link to the pretty part of the trip.

And here's the James River part - the prettiest part - of the trip from Google Earth



When we got back home, Fred gave the ride what is probably his highest praise, "That was more fun than a round of golf."

Life really is good.

Going Home

It's been a while since I posted. The challenge was whether I could tell you about the events of the last two months without sharing the whirlwind of emotion that went with those events.

OK, I can't separate them, so here goes -

I arrived safely back in Salem on March 13th after a great visit in Memphis. A spot was waiting for me at Salem Village Mobile Home Park, where I've stayed each time I've been in Salem. Chris and Mark always have a nice spot for my Airstream and welcome me back like family. I stayed until May 21st when I left for D.C. for the wedding of Mary Ann's niece, Beth.

I caught up with my Church "family", spending time with the Milan family, seeing all my little ones at Church, including several no longer Little Ones who were home from college for Spring Break.

It seems I'm an intrepid world traveler - for about three months. Then I must return HOME for re-charging. And I discovered that BEFORE God surprised me with a whole new reason to return to Salem.

In my Nov 13, 2007 blog I talked about Carol Wheeler and her two children, Emily and Andrew. We became very close, very quickly when I called to offer to take the kids off her hands for a few hours.

I said in that blog, "They've found a place in my heart that feels like I have a new family."



I had no idea when I wrote that just how prophetic it was.

Carol and I have fallen in love and I really do have a new family. We spent most of the time I was in Salem together.

To use a phrase of Carol's, "We just 'fit' together." Another of Carol's thoughts, "We can talk without an 'edit button'".

And talk, we do, for hours, OK OK - anyone who knows me is not surprised that I talk for hours - but I said, "WE" can talk for hours! Many times we complete each other's sentences, or say something simultaneously, or laugh at a thought that was two or three steps removed from a comment and we got there at the same time, through the same sequence of thoughts. We are so comfortable together it's hard to believe we've really only gotten to know each other in the last few months.

I've struggled to understand all of this, much less explain it, which is why I haven't posted.

Then Beth's Wedding vows provided this poem by Pablo Neruda,

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving

but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close."

Life is so good
and just keeps getting better.