191- Goodbye to the Familiar and Onward ho!

 

First week in June, 1986 – our church friends blessed us…

John and Jan invited us to spend the week with them so we could empty out and clean our 1200 square foot house. The boys slept on Kyle’s bedroom floor. Dan and I slept in the extra room, me on a twin bed, Dan on the roll-a-way. One night Janet brought dinner for the whole group!

Auntie Bev gave us a black account book to use as a trip log and to keep a record of our expenses. She wrote: A journal of the events of the Dan Lemaire family while on an adventure across this nation to a destiny of service to our Lord! God bless your journey and each of you!

Our garage sale brought in $200. Bill and Carol had taken the kids overnight and the whole day. Bill and Joyce brought Dan and I a special dinner of Bill’s famous beef and potato pasties.

The church gave us a money gift to add to the garage sale proceeds, and we stopped downtown and sold Dan’s silver dollars to add to our cash stash.

The Suburban was packed to the hilt with kids, camping equipment, coolers, camera, and clothes. We said tearful goodbyes to our friends and headed for the freeway. We could see our church up on the hill, and one of the kids yelled goodbye, and we all yelled good bye. As we passed St. Mary’s hospital where Dan and the boys had all been born, we yelled goodbye! In another mile, Tim pointed to the area where Jackie and John and their girls lived and we yelled goodbye at the top of our lungs.

The boys were 7, 6, 4, 2 years old. They were all in car seats or boosters so they could see the scenery for the next 3,000 miles.

We all felt the pangs of separating from our excellent friends and support system, but we were geared up for adventure!

First stop, just a two-hour drive to spend the night with my high school best friend Nancy and her family. We swam in their pool and had spaghetti for dinner and waffles for breakfast.

Second stop, four days with my family in Oxnard, CA –including a trip to Disneyland! Our brother-in-law Jerry surprised us by treating us to the Disney* tickets!

*In 1986, Disneyland adult tickets were $18 and children’s tickets were $12.95. As I am editing this post, February 2018, prices increased just today: adult tickets are $119 and children’s tickets are $113.