We had planned to be on the road by 10:00 this morning but by the time I finished "farting" around and we finalized the Internet dish calibrations, (which needed completing since the new modem was installed in October) it was well after noon. Karley called crying before we left and I maintained a brave front to put her at ease, however once we were on the road, I was constantly fighting my tears.

We have XM radio onboard, allowing us to listen to any one of over 100 stations commercial-free and for awhile we listened to a country station, Rick's favourite. Well, wouldn't you know it, they played a new song by a country artist, Billy Dean, "Let Them Be Little". The tears flowed and nothing was stopping them and I realized at that moment just how very much I love my children (step and biological) and my precious "little" grandchild. This departure was much more difficult than I imagined and definitely harder than when we left Ontario in December 2003.

We had good weather for the entire drive and right now we are parked in a rest area just south of Portland, Oregon. We were going to stay at an RV park near Olympia, Washington where we stopped at a Costco to buy some fruit and vegetables, but we really wanted to get into Oregon despite our late start. The rest areas here allow up to 12 hours parking so we stopped around 7:00 PM and we will pull out of here just after the sun rises tomorrow. With that schedule we should be in California sometime tomorrow and then we will decide where to stay and for how long. Ultimately, we are heading for Yuma, Arizona and possibly into Mexicali in Mexico. So we are really back on the road and even though I am heartbroken about leaving Makai, I am also excited about where we are going.

I took this picture through the windshield as we were entering Seattle, Washington.