Going to the moon ...

Good neighbor Larry came over the other night ... walked through the yard with a beer in his hand and all choked up. He needed to talk to us, he said. Larry is one of the good guys. He is a sweet, sweet man with a huge heart who is a ferocious defender of his family and a guy who would go to the wall for a friend. We will miss him when we head out.

He was in his back yard, grilling a steak, when he looked up and saw the absence of furniture in our house through the window. He said it just hit him that we were going to be gone. He took the time to walk over and let us know that we would be missed. And he was choked up and so sincere and it was such a gift to us that he took the time to let us know what was in his heart. We were almost crying right in front of him.

One thing that neighbor Larry said just made me look at our adventure a little bit differently. He said,"I know you guys are doing the right thing for you. But ... but ... I could NEVER do what you guys are doing! You guys are ... you guys are going to the MOON, man! I could never go to the moon!!" That just made me stop and think about the way other people may perceive our change in lifestyle. I guess we are really doing something that many people would consider as crazy as going to the moon. We are giving up almost everything we have tried desperately to accumulate in the past 25 years ... and do something that we have only an inkling of experience with. The astronauts had a lot of science and technology behind them, but when the first rocket ship took off, they were taking a leap of faith. And faith means that when you come to the end of all that you know, and you leap off into the unknown, you have faith that you will find a soft place to fall. Now ... it is truly a stretch to compare our little effort of living full time in a motor home with the first astronauts ... but in our own little way it truly is like going to the moon! I'm really going to the moon!