1/11/2019 11/20-12/31/2018
We spent Thanksgiving with Family at our daughter Lisa & Dan's house. It was a nice day, fun, games, chatting, and eating great food. Barb & Lisa went shopping about 10 pm, I went home. I am not going to get involved in that mess. We got up early, late for me, and drove to the Orange County Civic Center for the annual New Car auto show...lots of new cars to look at, stare at the price tags & be thankful our little car is still going strong with 239,000 miles. The new cars have a lot of bells & whistles and the manufacturers are very proud of but are afraid to warrant longer than 12 mos. We went & had some dinner and then went to Hard Rock Live & Universal Studios for an evening with Classic Albums Live playing Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here...probably my favorite album.
The following Tuesday, we had tickets to see Elton John for the first time. We got emails to be sure we were in our seats by 8 'sharp'. We were there in plenty of time...8 came & went and by 820, we were starting to wonder. At 825 they announced that the show had been cancelled. We have been to 100s of shows, that was the first time they cancelled a show after it was supposed to start that we have attended. Pretty bizarre! We went home and enjoyed the evening together anyway. The story is Elton John had an earache. He has rescheduled the concert for March 18 before he heads to Europe.
December brought a few doctor visits, lunches with friends, a new inverter for our solar system and chips repaired in the windshield of the motor home. We also attended 4 concerts and spent time in between getting ready for Christmas, and planning our trip for next summer. I even took two naps.
One thing to add. About Thanksgiving, things started to disappear from our mailbox. Then someone started messing with our trash cans. We got the post office to hold our mail and we locked up the trash cans. Then one or the trash cans disappeared when I put it out for pick-up. An Orange County Deputy retrieved the can from a neighbor. It was then that we put together that a tenant next door was now a suspect of the mail disappearing. Then we found a trash can full of burned something. But the US Mail Inspectors are not working because of the Government Shutdown...it has been a minor nightmare. We have our mail still being held and we pick it up about twice a week. And we have changed the address on a lot of 'necessary' mail. Unfortunately, we missed a lot of Holiday mail. Everyone has been cooperative, but it is still no fun...38 years of peace, then this.
We have most of the plans done for next summer and lots of reservations completed. We will be leaving here on May 28, flying to Minnesota to spend time with Family for 6 days. Then from there, we go to Iceland for 8 days, Helsinki, Finland for 2 weeks, 3 weeks in Sweden, 17 days in Norway, fly to Barcelona, Spain for 2 weeks, lease a car and spend 3 weeks driving to Paris, train to London & Liverpool, 4 days in Dublin, back to London for 4 days and fly home...whew!! 122 days, 22 countries, lots of boat rides, airplanes, trains, cars, & a heck of a lot of pictures. It will be another epic trip if our health holds, weather is decent, and someone doesn't start a war or something idiotic.
2018 has been a lot of fun, heard a lot of music, seen a lot of beautiful scenery and visited with a lot of friends. We have been healthy, which is the most important issue we face. We are not getting any younger. We have been working diligently on our Europe Adventure to make sure it all works.
Stay tuned, it will be a lot of fun to share with you all.
Steve & Barb Larson
