Sunday, June 22
Happy 50th Anniversary to our friends Bob and Nell in Georgia!
We awoke this morning early to find that the rains from last night and early this morning left the trees all sparkling and clean. With the windows open, we could smell the piney woods and the crisp, fresh air. It was a beautiful start to the day.
Since today is our last Sunday at the J Bar J Country Church, Jim and I decided to really get into the swing of it early and weren’t disappointed with our efforts. The entire service was just great! 
After church, Jim and I visited with the pastor, Charles Clary, before I roamed around taking photos both inside and outside the church.
Pastor Clary’s story in many ways paralleled with the life of my father. He was a school administrator (Dad an insurance agent) when he felt the call to the ministry. It was very frightening to him since he was the father of three daughters (so was Dad), but he was convinced that it was what he should do. However, he became a pastor of Baptist churches…Dad, of Methodist. As he continued to visit with Jim, I set out to capture at least an essence of the church we came to depend upon so much.
While waiting on Jim to finish visiting with Charles, I was entertaining myself with taking pictures of the plant and insect life around the church.
Monday, June 23Carol and Cal came up today for one last visit. It has been so awesome to see them weekly, sometimes even twice a week. For this reason, it’s even harder for us to give up our mountain living. Eventually, it was time to bid each other farewell since it will be at least 4 months before we’re back in New Mexico. With good-byes hanging rather heavily, Jim and I began the process of getting Big V ready to move back down to the flatlands of Artesia and the Pecos Valley.
Tuesday, June 24
With Jim in Big V and me behind the wheel of the Vibe, we got an early start for Artesia where we’ll begin the finally stages of preparing Edith’s home to move out of on the 30th. After arriving home safely and getting our house in order of sorts, we headed over to Edith’s to visit with the family and catch up on any last minute changes.
Wednesday, June 25
We had another one last time moment when we had lunch with Jean and Susie at Chaos. (Jerry, Nancy, and Becky are on their way home from her brother-in-law’s funeral.)
Since there are only so many ways one can say “we packed boxes”, I just won’t even try.
Thursday, June 26
Rain! It hasn’t rained in forever and now that we’re leaving Artesia a monsoon seems to be coming!
Jim used his time in the afternoon to begin switching trailers around in the boat barn. With three different trailers and a motorcycle in the barn, we take up one full bay with our “toys.” His work was to pull out the car hauler (which has our medium sized trailer on top), get the medium trailer off the car hauler and put it back in the barn, and then make sure that the car hauler is ready to load the Vibe and the motorcycle when the time comes. It isn’t really complicated, but it does take time and patience; add in a generous of hot sunshine and higher than usual humidity, and it becomes quite a chore. I helped with shuffling boxes around and assisting Jim in getting the motorcycle cargo trailer loaded on the medium trailer so we wouldn’t be taking up so much floor space.
Friday, June 27
Once again, rain and packing…all of you who have moved, whether across town or across the country, know that certain things can only be done at the last minute, and the last minute is quickly approaching.
Saturday, June 28
Today was a grandbaby shower over in Hobbs for Susie; so Jim and I rode over there with Jean and Becky.
The shower was held at the Kountry Korner, a really unique tea room and gift shop. Before the usual shower activities, we “girls” had fun trying on hats and posing for photo op sessions!
After the shower, it was over to Susie and James’s to meet up with the guys who spent the day bonding and relaxing.
Before, and while the hamburgers were cooking, Jim, Jerry, and James (the 3 J’s) partnered up to play Trivial Pursuit against Becky, Gina, Joyce, Susie, and Nancy. Much to the guys chagrin, they lost after a hard, valiant fight…According to Jim, the 3 J’s made a great run at the end, but just couldn’t overcome!
Our decision that it was time to head home came about the same time that another storm rolled in which meant that we were accompanied home by rain, but not so much that it was a worry.
Therefore, we were totally unprepared for what we found when we arrived back in Artesia. The streets were flooded and water was rushing over the curbs and through the low spots. Obviously, we missed the worst of the storm. Rain continued to fall throughout the night giving the ground a real soaking!
Sunday, June 29
Jim’s middle brother Jerry and his wife Jane came over from Roswell to visit with Edith. With all the moving activities going on, lunch was prepared by KFC.
After saying farewell to everyone, Jim and I ventured out the mud swamps to see about getting Big V moved in case it rained some more.Since we have the concrete pad for Big V to sit on, we weren’t mired in the mud; but, once we leave the pad, we have about 20 feet of mud to wade through before getting to the graveled drive in front of the boat barn. We were pleasantly surprised to find that not only were we able to get out without destroying Jean’s property too much, but we were also still able to plug into the electricity for the night.
Ernie and Billee came out so Ernie could help Jim get the motorcycle and the Vibe loaded on the car hauler. They hooked the trailer onto Little Red for stability and then got both vehicles loaded and secured. Billee and I watched from the living room windows of Big V and gave verbal encouragement while the guys made sure everything was set.
While Jim did the hundreds of the moving chores that have to be done, I finished making the chicken salad, cookies, tortilla rolls, and other sundry snacks for all of us to take on our trips tomorrow. Billee and Ernie will be leaving with the puppies early in the morning while Edith, Jim and I will oversee the moving of Edith’s belongings.
Monday, June 30
Jim: Moving Day!!!
We got up early and headed on over to the house at 8:00…got there just in time to watch the moving crew start doing their thing. We were totally impressed with how well the crew worked together and the concern they showed about packing and loading all of Mother’s things. They were like a well-oiled machine.
While the movers were organizing the stacks and taking things out to the truck, we packed the “final last minute” items and got them ready to load. As the rooms began to clear out, we fired up the carpet sweeper and moved from room-to-room to do some last minute cleaning before we vacated the place.
When the crew took their lunch break, we ate some sandwiches that Barbara had made, and then I took Mother out to Big V so she and I could take a nap while Barbara stayed at the house. Since our plan was to leave Artesia as soon as the truck was loaded I needed some sleep so we could get as far down the road as possible.
Barbara called about 2:30 to say that the crew was about an hour away from being finished, so I got up and began closing Big V and getting it ready to hook up the trailer and get back to the house.
Ironically, we pulled out of Artesia at nearly the same time as we pulled away from Liberal two years ago today to begin our retirement. As we did then, we drove until dark and stopped at a rest area to spend the night…this time along I-20, about 20 miles east of Big Spring, Texas. Again ironically, this rest area was the same place from which we sent our first emails that eventually became our journal series. History really does have a [sometimes] funny way of repeating itself!
“God will direct your footsteps, but you must be willing to pick up your feet.” – Church Signs
On the move from Artesia, New Mexico, to Mineola, Texas…Jim & Barbara
POSTSCRIPT
It’s hard to believe, but this journal entry marks the end of not only another six months of our writing (some might call it rambling), but also the end of two full years of retirement. As we wrote earlier in this entry, it’s somewhat ironic that a major phase of our retirement plans, moving from Liberal, Kansas, to Artesia, New Mexico to be close to Mother, should come on the anniversary of a new phase, moving Mother to Mineola, Texas, to begin a new phase of her life. It can’t be easy, at age 85, to start all over again, but she is being a real trouper about it. Like so many of us, she said when she left there 75 years ago that she’d never move back; but like so many of us, that was then and this is now, and here we are.
While the planning and preparation for this move have taken up a large part of these six months, they certainly haven’t been the total focus.
Since the dawning of 2008 we have shared in countless celebrations of events relating to our family members, both blood and “adopted.” Having time and opportunity to share birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions has been a very real blessing of retirement.
While we didn’t attend any weddings during the last six months, we did receive with great joy the news that son Mike proposed to Kelly and that they will be married in Virginia in October…what a wonderful blessing it has been to be able to watch those two young people as they moved toward this stage of their lives.
In our travels we have been able to visit four of the children and four of the grandchildren, connect with old friends, and develop new friends. In March, we even got to fly to Puerto Rico to visit with Margarita, Maria, and Francisco, acquaintances from our teaching days in Liberal. By the time the visit was over, we were far more than friends, they became, in almost every sense of the word, our Puerto Rican family.
During May we experienced overwhelming grief when we learned that our expected grandson, Jameson Dudley McQuitty, had died and was later stillborn when we were in Liberal with Leah and Ryan. The outpouring of love and friendship from countless friends and family helped us through that very difficult time. We were so very grateful for the food, flowers, hugs, and other expressions of sympathy and support that we received through that time. The Lord has truly provided us with the richness of a beautiful extended family.
And how about all that time on the road?...It seems, in review, that we didn’t travel quite as much in the last three months, but a look at our mileage chart shows that we still covered a lot of miles along the way. Totals since April 1 included Big V – 1,892, the Vibe - 4,508, and the Voyager (motorcycle) – 613, for a grand total of 7,013.
For those who like to read the larger numbers, mileage totals since January 1 of this year included Big V – 1,902, the Vibe – 9,720, and the Voyager, 763, for a grand total of 12,385 (just have to get to work bringing the cycle mileage up). Add in 6,000+ air miles for the flights between Houston, Texas, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and we’ve covered a little over 18,000 miles in six months (slightly more than a football season’s worth of band bus miles in Liberal).
We thank each of you for your prayers, praises, expressions of concern, and encouragement during all of these days, weeks, months, and miles. It has been a pleasure to hear from you as we open up the pages of our lives to you each week…thanks for traveling with us.
Love and best wishes to each of you…Jim and Barbara
