Shifting into our other life

©2013 Lydia Hinshaw

The sign is weathered, but the food is great

 LAKE PARK,  GA -- We've had a lot of practice at it now.  Still, it's hectic and frantic and stressful to prepare to leave home for five months.
 Over the past week, we've carefully calculated what items we cannot do without between now and October, because whatever won't fit in the Magic Bus can't go with us.
 We worked, room by room, to clean the house in preparation for our house-sitter's arrival Friday.  It requires careful planning to get everything done in the proper order.  And it requires patience when, after I've made the kitchen spotless, Prince Charming sets something filthy on the counter.
 Anyhow, the packing and the cleaning were finally done Friday afternoon.  Our house-sitter arrived right on time.  We introduced her to the Cat From Hell, and gave her the tour and about an hour after she arrived, we pulled out of the driveway.
 Just like that, seven months at home was in the rearview mirror.
 Since we got away from Ormond Beach at 5 p.m., we settled for three hours of driving on our first day, stopping at a familiar campground five miles into Georgia along I-75.
 One of the best things about the campground is its location just down the road from the Farmhouse Restaurant, a down-home sort of place that serves plentiful southern food.
 The last time we were here, it was also a Friday night, but we were too late for the weekly fried mullet special. This time, there was plenty of mullet, and cheese grits, and fried okra.  I shouldn't have eaten so much, but it will be a long time before I can have a meal like this again.
 We will visit some relatives, wander the west, and eventually land in West Glacier, MT, in mid-June.  It will be our third summer as shuttle bus drivers on Going-to-the-Sun Road.
 The paychecks will be nice, but the scenery will be priceless.