12-8-18 Paris and an Update

For the last 18 months, Janeen and I have been “on the road”. This road has taken us across the USA twice, around Europe for 4 months (and 9 countries) and up and down the East Coast from Savanna Georgia to Prince Edward Island Canada. During these travels we have visited lots of friends, made new friends and toured all kinds of places from Castles to Kentucky Bourbon producers. Throughout this time we have been together virtually 24/7 and I can safely say we continue to communicate with each other and have a good time.

One of the things that have been a constant is “where to next” and we keep finding new places, and old, to visit. As of the end of November, we no longer own a home in California and that prompts us to begin thinking about new places to live – or at least to call “home” when not on the road. However, a final spot won’t be critical until sometime in June or so of next year as we have lots more to do over the next 6 months.

Since the last update, about a month ago, we have stayed mostly in Virginia with some brief times visiting friends in Asheville NC.

We also did a day trip to Charlottesville VA both of these areas are places we might find a landing pad. There are a number of positive things about Asheville – we know some folks there, the community has a lot of activities including walking trails and even a wine tasting group and the place would be brand new.   The Downside is it’s 475 miles away from Springfield VA and our granddaughters – making it somewhat undesirable as a result. Charlottesville is closer, 100 miles or so and we have an agent looking at properties that might work for us that we will check out when we get back to Virginia.

Right now we are in Paris. Yes, Paris France again for Christmas and New Years. We are in the same apartment we had last year in the 18^th arrondissement (currently well away from the protests that have been happening, which is nice). Our youngest son, Ryan and his husband Chris are completing their Masters Degrees (Ryan in International Business and Chris in Hospitality) and Ryan has signed on for an internship which will have him first in Bordeaux and then in a couple of other cities outside of Paris. So, as Ryan and Chris are in Paris, our other son Jason decided he should come here for the Holidays too. He and his family show up on the 18^th and are here until after the first of the Year.

Prior to our arrival a few days ago, Chris and Ryan had gotten the keys to the apartment and stocked it with the critical items – wine and cheese plus some other food items and they now have spent a few hours helping to get the Christmas Tree up and decorated.

Next up, our friend Beth will be joining us tomorrow for 2 weeks! She has never been to Europe and it will be exciting to take her around to the unprotested ($$$) wonders of this great city.  She will be here when the Lee’s of Virginia arrive and will move out of our apartment and into Ryan and Chris for a couple of days before she heads home.

More soon!