Arkansas and Beyond

Saturday we made our goodbyes to our extended family in Arkansas, both two- and four-legged. We had a great time there, petting cats and humoring Holly the dog, and exploring a little of Northwest Arkansas.

We now sit in a hotel room across the street from LAX gathering our stuff and strength to go back across the street to do battle with the bustling crowds and quasi-stationary lines. Our plane leaves tonight (July 3) at 11:30 PM PDT. This means it will already be July 4 in Australia (Brisbane is 17 hours later than LA) and since our flight is 14 hours long, we nearly skip the 4th altogether, getting no more than eight hours of it in the air before we cross the International Date Line and fly into the future.

So, for the first time, we are preparing to be real "time travelers" and board a plane to the future. The past is not forgotten, of course. We have spent the last couple months visiting with friends to "seal in" the memories that we take with us. As Antonio asserts in Shakespeare's The Tempest, "What's past is prologue."

We carry more baggage with us that what we are checking at the counter this evening.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

William Shakespeare