Carole and I arrived on the 18th of March in Kingston, Jamaica and it has pretty much been non-stop since that time. This is our first opportunity to provide an update and we will try to get better at this. We have moved twice, to Hellshire and now to Ewarton/Stoney Hill, and have been working out of our suitcase the entire time. Basically using the top layer of clothes as we don't want to unpack all the stuff until we get to our final destination and that won't be until the 3rd week of May.

We are thoroughly enjoying Jamaica, although from a much different perspective that most Americans would ever realize. We have been living with Jamaican host families in their homes so it gives us a great chance to learn the culture and enjoy their wonderful hospitality. We have been trying hard to learn Jamaican Patois at an acceptable level, but that will be an ongoing process for the next two years.

Carole and I are separated now for the next four weeks. She is at a sector specific training for Youth in Stoney Hill and I am with the Health Sector in Ewarton. We both have cell phones and can call each other at no charge any time so that makes it a whole lot easier to deal with. They say separation makes the heart grow fonder and that is so very true. We are both very much looking forward to finally get at our site (somewhere in Jamaica) and working together (although in different sectors) for the next two years.

So far, Jamaica has been very good for the both of us. We have shed a few pounds, although we don't know just how much, and the warm, humid climate seems to agree with us. My blood pressure has dropped down to 110/75 which is really good for me. Eating lots of healthy foods and walking everywhere certainly has helped the whole routine.

We are hitting the road tomorrow to shadow a current volunteer so we are looking forward to that experience and to learning how to navigate around the country using the transportation system. Time to get going for the day but we will get another update as soon as we can.

Life is really beautiful, and uncertain. We are continuing to get things (one box at a time) over to the storage facility. It would be a real tough job, if we had to get it done in one day, but by taking it slowly, it spreads things out and makes it quite a bit easier. There is mostly the "heavy stuff" left in the townhouse, and our son will come over next week and together we will take care of that in short order. After that, it will be a few miscellaneous things to put in a box and our entire life will have been condensed down to three pieces of luggage and two backpacks. Pretty heady stuff really. We will be moving out of our home exactly two weeks from today, March 12th. From there, we are going to check into the hotel out at the airport and just chill out for 4 days before our flight departure on the morning of March 16th.

We don't have any photos to include this time but we will be able to start posting more information sometime after the 18th of March. We are getting more excited by the day.

January was such an exciting month. I officially retired effective December 31st and Carole and I hit the road on New Year's Day for a month long "tour" to visit as many of our family and friends as we possibly could. We finally got back home yesterday. Here is a look at the numbers we racked up during January:

23 - Number of States we visited during the month6,750 - Number of miles driven by car14 - Number of eateries we ate at from "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives"24 - Number of nights in a hotel3 - Number of nights at homeIt all started on January 1st when we took off on our swing of the Western States by car. We went first to visit Cecilia and her husband Ben who both work in Sun Valley, ID.

From there we drove down through Wyoming (in a terrible blizzard) and made it to Denver where we had lunch with former co-worker Mike and his wife Debbi. We ended up in Colorado Springs where we visited with Carole's brother Scott and his friend Kathy. Had a wonderful visit and got all caught up on things. We then headed down to Mesa, AZ to visit Celeste and her husband Tim. We did some hiking and had a nice visit before heading back to Spokane via Salt Lake and Butte. We stayed in Spokane a total of three days before jumping on an airplane and flying back to Washington DC and the second half of our road trip. We rented a car and drove to New Hampshire to visit Carole's Aunt Jean and Cousin Scot. We stopped by my former employer in Keene, NH for an hour or so to say good-bye to some very special people there and then headed down to Hickory, NC to visit Carole's sister Anne. Then it was a dash back to DC where we sat through another snowstorm before finally flying home to Spokane. Even though we racked up a lot of miles, we had a blast.

One of the fun things we did along the way was to try and eat at some of the places listed in the book we got just for this trip. I think we put on a few pounds, but then it was such good food at all the places.Now that we are back home, the real work begins. We will spend the rest of February packing up all of our worldly possessions and putting them into storage. We will be working at selling the car as well. By the time March arrives, we should be living out of our suitcases. Will try to give at least one more update before we head off to our staging event.

Well, the time has finally arrived. My last day of working for the man! It's a bit melancholy to be retiring and leaving so many wonderful people who I have come to know, but it's my time to move on. Not much planned for today other than to be available for anything that might come up. I will need to go to FedEx later this afternoon to send my remaining stuff from the company back to them. I can't wait to make the drive to FedEx. No more wearing a cell phone on my belt. That will be nice. Carole and I don't have much planned for tonight other than a nice dinner together and popping a bottle of champagne to celebrate the retirement and the coming new year.

We will be heading out on the road tomorrow for the start of our visits during the month of January. We will be driving to Sun Valley to visit with Cecilia and Ben, then on to Colorado to visit with the Letners and Carole's brother Scott. From there we will drive down to visit Celeste and Tim in Arizona before heading back to Spokane in a little over two weeks to spend a couple of days in Spokane. We will then fly to Washington DC on the 21st where we will rent a car and head north to visit with Carole's cousin and Aunt in New Hampshire. We are hoping to stop by my employer in Keene, NH as well sometime the week of the 25th of Janary. From there we will head to Hickory NC to visit Carole's sister before eventually flying back home on the 31st of January. We will be packing up the apartment for storage during February before heading to Jamaica in March. Busy times ahead. We will try to make more entries of the events as they happen prior to our departure. Happy New Year to all.

We are now in the process of trying to figure out everything we need to pack for our departure. Not an easy task when you realize that we need to condense our lives down to a total of 80 pounds per person. Actually, it's quite a bit of stuff. We are concentrating on clothes and essentials as much as possible and will make the decision on anything else once we know what everything weighs in at. At this moment in time, what you see on the bed weighs 50 pounds for Ron and 35 pounds for Carole.

We are going to try and get everything possible into one large duffle with wheels and then stuff a carry-on back pack with the essentials we need for our travel to the staging event. I'm sure this process will continue until we actually depart so there will no doubt be quite a bit of anxiety in the packing decisions.

Once I officially retire on December 31st, Carole and I will be doing a lot of traveling during January to visit family and friends prior to departure. I think our current plans call for us to be in Spokane for only about 4-5 days. We are going to be driving a big loop through Colorado, Arizona, and back to Spokane for a couple of days before flying out to DC on the 21st and then driving to New Hampshire, down to North Carolina and back to DC to fly back home on the 31st of January. We will then take the month of February to pack up the apartment in storage, get everything finalized before we finally fly to Miami for the staging event in mid-March. Lot's left to do before we are ready, but it is progressing fairly well at this point in time.

After a sometimes bewildering journey of over two years, Carole and I are making preparations for our departure in mid-March to Jamaica where we will serve 27 months in service with the Peace Corps. Wow! Who would have thought that two 60-year-olds would be taking a leave of absence from the only world we have known and dive into something totally unknown. Well, we are about to do just that. We have formally accepted our invitations for service and while there is a significant amount of uncertainty, there is also a tremendous excitement as to what will lie in store for us.

We really haven't done much yet in terms of preparation as we just finished with the wedding of our daughter, Cecilia. It was a wonderful event.

We will now try to concentrate on the mental preparations, packing lists, and other things needed to get ready to pack everything up and put our normal world "on hold" for two years. We will try to keep you updated on our preparations and then to continue this blog on through our entire PC experience. We will also include photos as often as we can.