Originally Posted August 20th
Phew! We finally made it! August 14th has come and gone in a flurry of activity and we are finally on the road. While it seemed that we were never going to be ready in time, I’ve never been so glad to see a day arrive. It feels like we’ve been saying goodbye forever and its time to get on with it already! The farewells started when Claude finished work at the end of June we said goodbye to his coworkers and colleagues. Then came our “Go Away” party/Claude’s 40th birthday party on July 15th (an entire post unto itself) and then my farewell dinner with my coworkers. Finally, we were treated to a series of dinners out with our closest friends as our departure date approached. The end result was that we realized just how many great people we have in our lives and how much we will miss them. Six weeks, however, is a long time to keep saying goodbye – it gets emotionally exhausting. Between packing, selling stuff and tying up loose ends, there was so much to do that we didn’t have time to get reflective about leaving. Besides, we were so excited about the trip that it was almost impossible to be sad.
Since I worked until August 10th, we had very little time for the final crunch and spent 72 hours straight packing, moving out of our house and into the RV. Monday morning, I decided to take a short break to walk down to the end of the street one last time to get the mail. As I strolled through our neighbourhood, I reflected on the beautiful morning and how lovely our street was. I realized that I had been so busy preparing for our trip this summer that I hadn’t really taken the time to enjoy our own little corner of the world and now our time there was ending. All of a sudden, a wave of sadness washed over me, and tears started rolling down my cheeks as I took a moment to mourn the life we were leaving. Just then, my neighbour, Brenda, drove by and stopped to say hi. When she saw the tears on my face, she stopped her car in the middle of road and jumped out and gave me a hug (who’s gonna do that in India?).
The hardest part was saying goodbye to our neighbours, Karen and Kevin and their kids, who have been our dearest friends in Belleville since they moved in across the street from us. Over the past four years, we’ve shared a lot of laughter, tears and wine as we watched our children grow up together. It really hit home when Karen gave each of my kids a small photo album to bring with them so they wouldn’t forget their childhood friends. I got a little teary as I looked at pictures of our boys when they were only toddlers and compared them to the boisterous best friends they are now. Their girls have been like sisters to Alexa (in every sense of the word) and the pictures of their final sleepover together were priceless. Then Karen gave me beautiful leather-bound journal in which she wrote a heartfelt goodbye (5 pages!). The final straw came the morning we left when they came over to say a last farewell. As I hugged Kevin, I said, “Thanks for being such wonderful neighbours.” He managed to choke out, “So much more than neighbours…” in a husky voice before wiping his eyes and making a hasty exit.
At long last, the big moment had finally arrived and we were in the RV and on the road. However, it still didn’t feel like the trip had really begun. We still had one last party with Claude’s family in Quebec and a visit with my family in Nova Scotia. We decided that it wouldn’t feel real until we had said our last goodbye and finally headed for somewhere we’d never been before (or maybe even when we take our first flight and leave North America). Claude’s family threw us a great party complete with a globe cake with our itinerary on it and a packet of letters, each marked with the month they were to be opened. We’re really looking forward to those little connections to home as we proceed on our journey.
And now, as we finish our last round of family visits, it’s finally starting to feel like our adventure is about to begin. Tune in next time as the Road Trip 2006 cross-country tour begins!
Check out our farewell photos on our web album
