Goodbyes.....

.....are tough.


But, I suppose it's good that they're tough.


If they weren't tough, well, that would mean those who you are departing from haven't really touched you all that deeply.  And that's ok too, sometimes.


It was tough to leave our friends in Austin.  It was tough to leave our friends in Colorado. But what's surprising me now is that it's turning out to be really tough to leave some of the people we are meeting along the way.  The connection with and even attachment to people has been surprising to me.  To us.
We've only been on the road a little over a month and we've had two heartfelt and even tearful goodbyes already.


Today we said goodbye to two couples, both I've mentioned before.


If you'll recall, we met H&K during our first 2 days here at the Tetons.  They were our neighbors at our first campsite. Even after we relocated about 30 minutes away from them, we continued to visit them and they visited us.  We enjoyed their company tremendously and learned a great deal from them both.  The kids loved talking and playing with them and they enjoyed the kids as well.  We knew H&K were going to head out around now so saying goodbye to them was no surprise, though that fact didn't make it much easier or better.







Saying good bye to M&S, our neighbors of 3 weeks, was a different story though.


Here they are on our pita making day -


Their original plan was to stay until the end of September.  We were going to be leaving them however sooner than that.  Well, like they say, the best laid plans....On Sept. 5th we got notice that the national forest service was going to conduct a controlled burn fairly close to our campsite.  That got everybody's wheels moving, quite literally.  M&S packed up and left well before their scheduled date.  Our plan was to leave very soon after that.  Who wants to be so close to a fire, controlled or otherwise?
This is the fire marshal explaining to us exactly where the fire will be -


Anyway, it was truly a sad day.  We had many things we still wanted to do together that now we wouldn't be able to.  None of us were ready to say goodbye, and so quickly at that.  We parted ways with hugs, prayer and tears.  It was so sad to watch their RV drive away, the campsite just seemed completely empty and listless without them.  As other people occupied their spot we said to ourselves that they've got some pretty big shoes to fill!  No one even began to come close of course.  The kids miss them as well obviously.  Whirlwind has even built his own toy RV and wrote on it 'Rose Air', the name of M&S's RV.....


As difficult as this day was with all it's goodbyes, we are happy and looking forward to seeing both H&K and M&S in AZ sometime in January!  There's a big RV gathering there (also a gem and mineral show! You know we can't stay away form those) and we all plan on attending.  And if not, well, then we'll stop by and visit them at their respective homes on our travels in AZ and CA.