Ah, the hardest part of the journey for me has been telling everyone goodbye.  Such good and dear friends I am lucky to have.  Hard for me not to dissolve in tears – and a couple of times I have.  Darn – I wasn’t smart enough to take pictures of the lovely people in my life, but you know who you are – every one of you are dear and special to me.  Hard to hug my darling son goodbye.  What a wonderful young man he has become – kind, considerate and hilarious!  He finally got me packed up and that was the hardest hug.  He is thrilled that I am off on my adventure.  I’m sort of thrilled that he and his friends are renting my house!  We’ll have to see how that works out, both for them and for me.  Nice to know that Ross will be staying in our little house while I’m gadding about.