Well, here we are – about 10 days before we leave our temporary home to embark on the trip of a lifetime. Time has flown by and reality is staring us in the face – are we really doing this thing? ARE WE REALLY DOING THIS THING?!?!?!?!?

We are currently on our farewell tour saying goodbye to family and friends. Before I get into how amazing all of these people are, let me catch you up on what has happened over the last 6 months. Our last blog spoke of the new backpack and Mount Everest Base Camp. Unfortunately, Richard got an infection in his knee in March and we decided that it was prudent to cancel this portion of our adventure. So, this resulted in a different turn to our travel planning.  We changed our backpacks from hiking packs to travel packs (less straps, more compact and airport friendly), added a side trip to Tanzania, and started booking flights. Our first leg will take us to Hinton, Alberta to visit family and do some camping in and around the mountains. This will be considered as Farewell Tour – Part 2.

Then off to San Francisco via plane and train, then Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Tanzania, Asia, Israel, Europe and the UK. Obviously, this is just a teaser. I want you to keep reading!!

During Part 1 of the Farewell Tour, we camped at Bird’s Hill Park, Manitoba for a couple of nights. While there we watched my oldest niece Tessa graduate from University of Winnipeg with a degree in Education. She is an amazing young woman and we wish her all the best in her future endeavours!!

The weekend of June 15 and 16 were spent at our friends, Lawrence and Evelyn Roer in Ste Anne, Manitoba. We parked our camper there and they were generous enough to put on a farewell party for us. They even let us shower in their house!!! Thank you to the Roer’s, their two daughters and sons in law, and all of our friends that brought food and drink and made merry with us for one last time.

Father’s Day was spent at Richard’s daughter Robin’s house. She and her family hosted a gender reveal party. They will be be adding another girl to their growing family of beautiful girls. If we have any regrets about this trip it is that we will not be here for the birth of our 9th grandchild. We will miss many birthdays, concerts, recitals, soccer games and of course Christmas with these wonderful children. Thank goodness for Facetime and Skype!!

The rest of the week was spent in Pine Falls visiting family and friends. A wonderful day at the beach with Robin and the girls, a wiener roast with Richard’s parents, brother and sisters, brothers in law and sister in law. Lots of laughs as they reminisced about being kids and growing up carefree and happy. These are the people that formed the foundation that is my husband. To them I am eternally grateful.

A day in Winnipeg with our oldest granddaughter Madison. She will be graduating from high school in June of 2019. She made us promise that we will be there for her grad and that is something that we would not dream to miss!! An evening on the boat with our good friends Jack and Kim Bonekamp and Denis and Leah Boulet rounded off the week in Pine Falls. Thank you Jack and Kim for a wonderful evening on the Bear River. We couldn’t have asked for better weather or company!!

Back to Selkirk to finish off our farewell tour – Part 1. We camped with our grandsons Luke and Logan and watched Luke score two goals in his soccer final. These boys are amazing people. Can’t wait to see them fulfill their potential!! We managed to catch up with a few friends that we missed on our first swing through the city. I even got a horseback ride in the park. Thank you Terrie for the horse and Janet for the boots. It was an amazing couple of hours!!  We are so fortunate to have all these wonderful people in our lives. You have been so supportive as we make this journey of ours. You are in our hearts and we will miss you while we are gone!!

We are back in Russell now for a week. We will have a BBQ at the farm on June 30 to say goodbye to my family. With this final party in Manitoba, we then hop into our camper and head west to Alberta.

Is this crazy or what!?!?!?!