Since we moved to Virginia a lot has happened. Most notably being that Michele retired as of March, 2002 after 32 years with the Postal Service. She is so happy being out of the office and having time to do what she wants. It's a very well deserved retirement. We went on our first cruise ship to celebrate her retirement. It was a Caribbean cruise with Holland America & we loved the experience.
In November '03 Michele & I moved into a brand new home in Fredericksburg, VA. It's a great location near lots of historic sites and close enough to the DC area without being caught up in the daily mess of Beltway traffic. Our home is in a 55+ age restricted community & we have so many nice neighbors and wonderful ammenities. We love the indoor pool/hot tub and gym. There is also an outdoor pool, along with bocchi courts and tennis courts. Come & see us!
Jim is doing volunteer work at the National Air & Space Museum's new Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport. He gives public tours every week. It is such an honor to be involved in the Air & Space Museum. Look for pictures on our photo pages.
Our beautiful puppy, Mercer, grew up and learned his lessons so well. We returned him to Canine Companions for Independence in August, '03. He did well in training and graduated in May, 2004. Now he lives near where we live and he works for a wonderful little girl named Shea. She's 10 years old and just loves Mercer & he loves her. What a happy pair they are. You can see more at www.walkforshea.com where there are pictures and other links.
After Mercer we raised another CCI puppy, Heidi. She went to advanced training in August of 2005. But, alas, she didn't make the grade. Heidi decided she wanted to play, not work. She's been placed with a wonderful family in Virginia. She has two teen-age boys to play with & they live a block away from the city dog park. Heidi is the star of the dog park & knows all the other dogs. She's got a great life & we get to see her once in a while.
In August, 2005 there was a great story in USA Today about Mercer and Shea. You can link to the story at http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-08-14-canine-companions_x.htm You'll see links on that page to lots of pictures and other sites with information about service dogs. We're so proud of Mercer & Shea.
Pup number three, Burney, is the sweetest dog. He went through training classes in short order, learning his commands readily and working at the courthouse when Michele did her volunteer work. After our winter trip to Florida in February, 2007 we noticed him exhibiting fear of idling car engines. Trucks & busses really freaked him out. So, we tried to work with him on this problem. We had the professional trainers from CCI evaluate him. Eventually, they decided to release him from the program. So, guess what? We decided to keep him - one of the great perks of being a puppy raiser - we have first right of adoption. So now Burney lives with us & is helping raise pup number 4. We're very happy to have sweet Burney & he is quite satisfied with "his" decision.
Now, we're raising our fourth pup for CCI. His name is Wheeler & he just turned 9 months of age. He's a delight to have around the house. Right now he's going through his "stubborn" period. They've all had this to one degree or another. We're working with Wheeler on it & he seems open to change. Once again, we have high hopes for this pup. We'll have him till next summer, so it should be fun.
You can see our dogs at Dogster.com. This is a great free site for dog lovers of all kind. You should go there and put up a page for your dog! www.dogster.com/?51113 From the first page you can link to each of our dogs.
Last year, we bought another motor home - a bit bigger & newer, with a big diesel engine. It's really nice. See the picture posted on our photo pages. The extra room inside helps us keep our sanity on these long winter trips. It has many more features than the Brave had and that makes things so much more relaxing & fun. We took it all the way to California & back over the '05 - '06 winter. In '06 - '07 we went all the way down to Key West. It was a lot of fun. This winter we're starting out at Jekyll Island, GA, then heading down into Florida again. We'll be moving around several times, with stops planned in Ft. Lauderdale, Disney World and Pensacola. The plan is to return to Virginia the first week of February (if the weather permits) and then take the Amtrak train to New York City for the annual Westminister Kennell Club dog show. That will be Michele's birthday present this year. We've always wanted to see this big dog show & it looks like '08 will be the one.
In addition to all our motor home travels we're also finding time at home to get involved in the new Lions Club that started in our community. It was chartered in 2005 and has done well so far. Jim did a one year term as club president & Michele is "just" a Lion, but she keeps things organized, as you might expect. We've gone to two International Lions Conventions, one in Boston, July ;06 and Chicago, July '07. We represented Lions Project for Canine Companions for Independence. Burney worked the booth at both of these huge conventions.
Michele is also very much involved with the Red Hats in our community. They have such fun & are able to find the most interesting places to eat, drink & be merry.
The summer of 2006 we took our second cruise. This time we went with two other couples from Falls Run, Steve & Pat and Earl & Marcia. We went on another Holland America cruise, this time to the Baltic Sea. It was a delightful trip and we saw so many amazing places. The best was probably St. Petersburg, Russia. It's amazing all the beauty there is to be seen in their musuems. Catherine's Palace was a highlight, as was the Hermitage Museum, which is sort of Russia's version of the Louvre.
In the summer of 2007 we took a motor home trip to Minnesota, where we visited Michele's two sisters & families. We went to the great Minnesota State Fair & ate the fabulous cinnamon rolls, all the "food on a stick" and Tom Thumb donuts & whatever else looked good. Our good friends Dave & Cheryl from Ohio joined us with their motor home too. Look for pictures to come.
While we were in Minnesota, we met up with Michele's sister, Kerry & her husband, Joe. The four of us boarded a plane in Minneapolis & flew to Europe, where we toured four Eastern European Capitols, Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna & Prague. The tour company was Tauck Tours & the arrangements were really first class. What amazing places we saw. We even went to the opera in the famous opera house in Budapest (now I won't have to do that again!) It was an Italian Opera about a Jewish tragedy with Hungarian subtitles. We were really at a loss to understand the dialog, but the performance was very good, the music excellent and the staging in the old opera house was superb.
We also toured the death camps at Auschwitz & Berkenau in Poland. Very sobering & sad, to say the least. Poland is beautiful & we really enjoyed Warsaw. It's a university town & there is a lot of construction being done to improve the streets & infrastructure. This is largely a result of European Union membership and will be great for tourism in this great city.
