Labor Day. The last day of summer. The last full day on the OR coast. The last of our volunteer gig for 2016 on the Siuslaw National Forest. The last local seafood meal on the coast. The last of a lot of things and at the same time the beginning of the rest of our lives. Tomorrow we head eastward ultimately toward New Mexico where we will be volunteering at Bitter Lake NWR in eastern NM. But it will be several weeks of traveling and visiting before we settle down again.

Today was a day of packing, repacking, rearranging, throwing out, cleaning and washing, and starting things to make sure all systems will fire when we leave tomorrow. This phase is always exhausting, but the exhaustion is tempered with the excitement of moving on. We ended the day by driving on top of the Cape (highest point one can drive to on the OR Coast) to see the sunset. We were surprised to see the other RV volunteer couple, Mal and Jerry, also staking out a spot in the rock shelter built by the CCC's to witness their last sunset. They also are leaving this week, and both of us had our last day of work on Sunday.

We have been on the go since coming here. Kedric and Paul live in Portland which is about a 3 hour drive (based on my driving), and we have traveled to Portland a number of times while Kedric and Paul have come to Cape Perpetua twice. We visited Crater Lake and agreed it is one of the iconic National Parks and everyone should visit if they have any chance at all. We visited the redwoods in CA but we're a little lacking in awe since we had spent several days earlier in the year visiting the sequoias. We traveled to Mt. St. Helens and were awed more by the sights and experiencing the story of the eruption and the aftermath than of all the other places we visited in OR and WA. We spent time in northwestern OR and southwestern WA learning new aspects of the Lewis and Clarks saga than we tend to ignore or gloss over when thinking of their journeys further eastward. And the cream of our travels was a visit with grandkids and their parents in MN. Along the way we renewed acquaintenances with former neighbors and work colleagues. It has been a summer on the move.

Along the way and even before we arrived here. I have lost a significant portion of my hearing. I actually didn't have an abundance of hearing to lose, but I lost some anyway. I have not had an explanation as to why the hearing loss, but an MRI did reveal that there were no tumors involved. And the MRI looked fairly normal. The result of my worsening hearing is my inability to do visitor services work. And, my hearing loss is a source of frustration for Shannon because I can no longer converse readily with her. We do have some volunteer gigs lined up this winter and into the spring that involve campground hosting and landscaping work. Being able to hear is not as critical when doing these jobs compared to  visitor services. Not being able to hear as a campground host may be advantageous. I won't be able to hear all the raucous noise in the campground. Anyway, we are not sure what my hearing loss portends for our future as full time RVing volunteers. As usual LIFE is unpredictable, throws curves at you, and keeps you on your toes. And so it goes.