"Homeward Bound"

Hi there!  Anybody remember me??  I have absolutely no excusable reason for my total disappearance from Mellodee Musings.... for the last year and a half (give or take several months!)  Having felt as though I told every story from my life, and discussed all the things I felt driven to write about, and generally felt as if I had nothing more to say.  And then of course, there was the major upheaval in my life. 

After having left the state of Florida at the age of 17 in 1963, over the next 50 years I lived in Chicago, IL, Sunnyvale, CA, and Austin, TX.  All during that time, I had an on-going desire to return to Florida, because I always felt like it was home.  Circumstances over those decades never were conducive to making that move.  So I had pretty much accepted the fact that I would never again be able to live in my favorite place. 

That was pretty much true for a long, long time.  I never thought I would be able to convince the Big Guy that Florida was a good place to live.   But all of a sudden in October 2013, things changed!

I went to the 50th H.S. reunion for the class before mine.  Before I left Austin I thought this would most likely be the last time I would travel to Lake Wales, the town where I went to high school.  I traveled around the area, went to all the events that were part of the reunion, saw many old friends that I hadn't seen since those high school days and generally made a farewell visit to all the places I loved.  I had a great time, reconnected with several people I knew from back then, and still felt like it was home.

A few months later, I met up with my oldest friend (I known her since the third grade!) and we decided to take a trip to the ocean in  the area were we grew up (Vero Beach).  On my way back to Austin then, I drove through Lake Wales again and actually saw a house for sale that I really liked.  And that was the start of whirlwind year in which everything turned upside down and inside out!

Mike had decided that he would retire in January of 2014 after having worked 4 years beyond his "retirement date".  But it was definitely time for him to stop working and enjoy life.  We talked and I told him about the house I had seen.  We agreed that Austin was getting way too crowded and we didn't want to deal with the bad traffic and crowds anymore.

Somehow in those discussions the option of moving to Florida came to be our mutual choice!!

WOW!  After 50 years, I was "Homeward Bound."



I truly will try to finish the story tomorrow....I swear!!