WE HAVE A NEW ADDRESS. YAY!

This may not be the most lovely scenery, but it's something DIFFERENT! We'll take it!

Almost all of Odel's prior 44 radiation treatments were in the late afternoon or evening but, at his request, treatment 45 - the LAST ONE - was scheduled for 7:00 this morning. We were both awake before 6 am, and he was out the door at 6:30, on his way to LLUMC for the last time.

All the pre-departure work was finished yesterday, both medical and otherwise. While Odel played a last round of golf with the Wednesday proton golfing group, I visited Costco, Trader Joe's, Clarke's Nutrition (where I got the multi-colored carrots), and Von's. After golf, we had the final visit with Dr. Grover (where Odel got his "graduation" certificate and gold pin), and Odel had taken cookies and muffins to his Wednesday afternoon treatment as a "thank you." for his tech group.

Early to bed, early to rise. Treatment at 7 am, then a final trip to the gym and one last-minute stop at the grocery store for Odel. I did a bit of last minute food prep (while I still had unlimited water), hooped, and did my pushups (I haven't told you about the 100 Pushup routine yet, have I?). Vacuum, pack everything up, corral Luna and - finally - we brought the slides in, started the engine, and headed out. Two short blocks to Interstate 10, turn east, and stay on the freeway for 200 miles.

A side effect of the proton beam therapy is that Odel now has to take a bathroom break almost as often as I do, so it was easy to talk him into a rest stop. Scoopy looked so shiny, so lovely, so ready to travel.

To me, it felt almost as exciting as our first day of travel, April 1, 2003 - but without the apprehension. Scoopy looks almost brand new, and we have nothing standing in the way of traveling. We know SO MUCH more than we did on that first day, and now have so many full-timing friends... and were on our way to see them.

We settled in our site in the desert - Boomerville - 10 minutes before happy hour began at 4 pm. We leveled, put out the slides, grabbed the fresh pineapple I had peeled and chunked yesterday, poured a couple glasses of vino and treked across the stony ground to the campfire/happy hour circle. If you double click this photo to enlage it, you will recognize Scoopy in the center of the picture, behind the relaxing Boomers.

We were greeted with shouted hellos and lots of hugs. It feels so good to be out in the open space again, with our tribe - and healthy. :)