Now and Then

This trip is not the first epic road trip John and I have taken. In 1987, the hardware store where he worked was closed due to the owner retiring. John and his sisters were classmates of the owner's daughters,and he was 16 when he started working for Everett. Except for his Army stint, most of John's working life had been there.  It was going to be a big change for him and we decided now was the time to move to Maine if we were going to do it. So,we put the house on the market and figured the best way to keep it presentable was to take our four young kids across the country for six weeks.

My parents generously lent us their new Ford Econline van, and we left July 2nd. It seems a lot neater packing job for the six of us than the one for our current trip.

Then

 

                                                                      Now

This trip has certainly been quieter than that first one, and while we are enjoying the freedom to eat what and when we want, as well managing the bathroom breaks for two instead of six, we kind of miss the kids.

When we got to Gettysburg in 1987, we found reenactors getting ready for the July 4th celebrations and that was really fun. We went to the museum and all jumped when the supposed wax figure soldier suddenly moved and spoke.  I had willing posers for pictures.

John may have willing to pose at the cannon, but we never even made it there today. Our GPS brought us right to the visitor center, which is very nice, but was not where the old museum had been....I think. It was built in 2008 and just seemed a little slick to us. We drove around a bit of the auto route and decided we preferred our memories over the current reality.

Plus, the whole selfie thing I mentioned in my previous post?  Yeah, I am not ready for prime time.