First of all let us take a moment to reflect on what took place on this day, September 11, 2001, and pay our respects to all of those who lost their lives and to give our thanks to the people who never gave up to find all the lost ones. It was truly a very sad day in America, something that I hope I will never see again in my lifetime.

Today is also a day that puts my forever love, Roland Clarke, and myself one day closer to our long journey, which has been in the works for over a year, across the Atlantic Ocean on the Queen Mary 2. She is a mighty Ocean Liner not a Cruise Ship, that was built to take the storms that occur on her journeys of which she has had many. Her construction started on July 4, 2002 and she was launched March 21, 2003, completed December 23, 2003, christened January 8, 2004, and made her maiden voyage January 12, 2004.

 

On September 15^th the movers will come and pack up the belongings we are taking with us and the next day September 16^th they will be here to move everything into a 20 foot container which will then be taken to Liverpool where it will begin its 8 week journey to either San Francisco, California or Seattle, Washington. We are not sure which port it will go into yet.

We will be leaving our home in Harlech on September 19^th bound for Southampton where we will spend the night at a Hotel then the next day September 20^th we will go to the Ocean Terminal to embark on the Liner. We have to be there no later than 1:30 pm and the Liner leaves the Terminal at approximately 4:30 pm. She will sail past the Isle of Wight where Roland spent most of his childhood standing on the shore and watching the ships come in. It will be a bitter-sweet moment for him and I am sure it will be an emotional one. We will be at sea for 6 days and on the 7^th day, September 27^th we will reach the Brooklyn Terminal in New York where we will disembark the ship, go through customs and immigration. Two of my sons, Jason and Ryan will meet us there after having driven from Boise, Idaho to meet us and then we will begin our cross country trip to our new home. We will be stopping in Roy, Utah to see my family there and then onwards to Boise. It will be an exciting adventure for Quetzal and Treeky as they are going with us.

I feel both excitement and sadness before this journey. Excitement to see my family again after 5 long years and sadness to leave a beautiful home that we thought would be our forever place. It seems that some higher power had a different idea about where we would be spending our Golden years. I have been living here in the UK for 6 years and it is time to go home……part of the reason is health. Both Roland and I are feeling the aches and pains of old age and Roland’s is compounded by his having MS. The damp cold weather here is not good for his illness and hoping that the dry heat of Boise will have a different effect on him and help him to feel better. But the best thing of all is the love that is felt by my kids and their families. After all love heals all!!!

We re-homed the 2 cats with a very nice American lady who live next to us and they have integrated into her home with no problems, other than hiding from her and making her frantic thinking they got outside and ran away. Poor Mary-Louise……I hope they bring her as much joy as they have given us in the time we had them. They are very good cats and seem to adapt well to new surroundings.

I will miss this country, it is very pretty and there are many places that I didn’t get to see, but maybe in another lifetime. The one thing I won’t miss is snooty people who think they are better than anyone else and people who can’t even call to see if you are okay…..I always thought that is what neighbours were all about but I guess in this day and age that is a forgotten art like so many other things that have been forgotten.

I really can’t think of anything else to write at this time, except that we will not have computers after the 15^th other than a very small one to keep up on emails and such. So think of us while we sail across the Atlantic in the lap of luxury aboard the QM2, we will definitely be thinking of all of you who matter to us and will be looking forward to our journeys end and seeing those we love the most. So till next time from the Duskweald……

Juanita