Saying Goodbye to Stephen and Betsy

We had to say goodbye to Stephen and Betsy on Saturday morning. Their moving van came the day before and loaded up all their stuff. They loaded the remaining items into their car (Betsy's, as Stephen sold his the day before) and headed west for Amarillo, Texas. Even traveling at the interstate speed of 65 or 70 miles per hour, it will take 18 hours of driving.

This picture was taken on Friday, with just some of their boxes in the background.

More stuff!

Here is the "after" picture taken when all the stuff had been loaded on the truck. Our basement, back again, and empty! Now I can start looking for all the things I stored away in the spring time.

The moving van arrived promptly at 8 in the morning. Note the nice brick mailbox in front of the truck.

This is the goodbye picture of Stephen's white Camry. We bought it for him ten years ago, when he was a junior in high school.

Whoops!What remains of our mailbox after the moving van got "a little too close".
The Reverend Amy Figg stopped by just before they left and brought some of her world famous blueberry muffins. She calls this "comfort food" and Stephen and Betsy needed some comfort, knowing they faced a long drive with Palmer, the cat in the car with them.
Amy led us in prayer and it was another very touching moment. Jacob had just crawled out of bed so he came down to say goodbye wrapped in a blanket.
Stephen reviewed the directions, which was a joke because you head west on Interstate 40 and make no turns until you arrive in Amarillo.
The last addition to the car...Palmer, the cat!
Jacob has grown so much that he pretty much has to bend down low to see anything.
Finally everyone was loaded in and Stephen gave me a big brave smile before backing out of the driveway. At least he didn't have to worry about hitting the mailbox!