Depart: Florida

We've left sunny skies, green grass, short-wearing Santas and headed north. Played the last round of golf with our dollar Goodwill club, waved goodbye the jobsite and loaded up.

Lucky us, we got to stop and see the lovely Wards on our way. They welcomed us into their great home and treated us to a wonderful meal with great conversation with them and their visiting friends. Go figure - they were from Idaho too. Mini Idaho reunion for one night. It was so good to see them, it'd been more than three years, and one night was just not enough. Better than nothing though.

When you drive 5K+ miles, you are bound to encounter some interesting sights.

Our first true attempt at geocaching was when we got to Bonne Terre. This picture pretty much sums it all up. Wandering around staring at a little device. And no, we did not find the damn cache. Argh. Gave it our best try though, but Papa Joe and I were ready to go way before Cujo and Blue were. No Amazing Race for us.

We got to Omaha and immediately tried to acclimate our fair weather skin. The tub helped. And suddenly the Christmas decorations and music that we'd been seeing and hearing for a month fit. Gotta have that weather to feel like the holidays to me, I guess. And trimming the tree took on the literal meaning, too. Finally got to meet beautiful Lydia in person.

Our first week home was spent in a hurried repair/remodel project that was not optional. Curtis was my very own Ty and did a fabulous job at all the crappy shit that had to be done. Bright side is we now have a shiny new fitting on our water main pipe right outside the house, as well as new cabinets and sink in the kitchen.