*After We Packed Our Bags (A Step Back in Time)

Friday, February 13, 2026

So know that the New, to us, Home on Wheels announcement is out of the way I am going to catch up. Starting with what happened after we "Packed Our Bags"...lol

We were up early, on December 23rd, finished packing, said goodbye to the Stinger "B" and the Jeep With No Name, got the luggage and ourselves into Melissa and Lyle's Jeep, and headed to the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. After a pleasant ride chatting with friends they dropped us off under the Delta Airline Sign and we headed in to get our boarding passes. After passing through security we stopped for lunch before heading to our gate to wait to be called for boarding. We eventually landed at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport where our son picked us up and we rode to his home which was the best part of the day. A long but successful day.

We have landed.

♥️The reason we made the trip!♥️ 
This picture was taken at a lunch where we exchanged our 
Secret Santa Gifts on December 31, 2025.
The inserted little guy on the lower right is our youngest
grandchild who did not join us.

 

St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church

Christmas Eve Mass
Again our youngest grandchild was not with us.

We spent two weeks back in Michigan. The first week with our son and his family and the second week with our daughter and her family. The fact that they only live about two miles apart makes it nice. Below are pictures of our time visiting with all of them.

Christmas Morning with our Son and his family.

The sunset on Christmas Day
Plus, pictures on various days.

During our time there our oldest grandson had two wrestling tournaments. As a freshman he is wrestling with the Varsity Team. We are very proud of him.

We both saw him win this match.

Tom took these at the second tournament.

Our daughter bought us tickets for a Trolley Ride to see Christmas Lights in Detroit on December 28th. We made three stops and in between we played some trivia, none of which we won...lol They allow adult beverages on the trolley and we may have had some hot coffees with a little RumChata slipped in to keep from getting a chill...😉 It was a rainy cool evening but we still thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Our first stop was on Woodward  and we walked
over to take a selfie with the "Spirit of Detroit" 
behind us.

We were given time to walk down to the tree but the rain was coming down steady so we opted to zoom in for a picture and turn back at the corner of Congress and Woodward. Our goal to get out of the rain and into the warmth of the trolley.

The Detroit Christmas Tree at Campus Martius Park.
The lights through the rain drops on the window as we rode by.

This was a small plaza filled with lighted Christmas objects.
We have no idea where we were and as we walked around with
the other passengers no one else knew either.
For what ever reason none of us asked.

Our third stop was the Detroit Zoo and luckily by then, even though it was damp and you could see fog in the air, the rain had stopped. It was a lovely walk through the zoo to see all the lights. No live animals this evening on our walk through but the lights put on a beautiful show. Below is a small sampling of what is there.

The bottom center picture is the exit out of the zoo.
The top middle was the wishing tree, as I recall, that we stopped
and chatted with. I wished for snow. Yes, I really did! 

Side Notes: they gave us glasses that when you looked through made lights turn in to Christmas Packages. Secondly, the really nice thing about this ride of lights was when we stopped we were given the amount of time we had to return to the trolley but we were on our own at our own pace.

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No snow and then on December 29th there it was

Picking up our Daughter's oldest at the Airport.

Pictures from our Christmas Lunch

where we exchanged our Secret Santa gifts.

It was wonderful to be able to spend the Christmas Holidays with our family. When we look back at this time it will be with love and smiles. Last year we drove home and we are glad we opted to fly this year. It made for a less stressful and less tiring trip. I love our lifestyle but the one thing I really missed was spending Christmas with family. So we are hoping it will turn out to be a yearly trip for us.

Even though it is now February we hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Christmas and the New Year is already filled with wonderful memories.

If you have enjoyed the pictures I have put out there 

or the words I have added that makes me smile. 

If you have time to leave a comment they are always special to read. 

No matter what I am glad you stopped by!