Feb. 27-28 - two days of intensive overlap/orientation with my successor at Goshen General Hospital: Shawn Gerber (who can't actually move here until mid-April)
Feb 28 noon - last meeting with the Goshen Ministerial Association
Feb. 29 mid-day: embark on my 8-week sabbatical, together with Carole Anne!
Feb 29 - Mar 7 - Southwest United States - Las Vegas, NV (highlight will be seeing the March 2 performance of Cirque du Soleil's "O": www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/O/O-Las-Vegas.htm ) and traveling in the countryside hiking/seeing canyons like Red Rock Canyon National Conservation area, Valley of Fire State Park, and the Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks and time to meditate/retreat in the wilderness...
Mar 7-9 Los Angeles, CA and vicinity
Mar 9-16 - on Kauai, Hawaii
Mar 16 - April 10 - Australia - based initially in Noosa Heads, theSun Coast of Queensland, a block away from Carole Anne's sister Linda and her husband Graham. We are still developing plans to visit other parts of the country such as Brisbane, then Canberra (our time in your city is, of course, already blocked out for March 25-28 with air travel you, Jim, helped us arrange), then Sydney, Cairns (the Great Barrier Reef) and Alice Springs/Ayres Rock (Uluru - Outback)
April 10-23 - New Zealand - various parts (initially in the north:Auckland)
Arrive at South Bend, Indiana airport @ 11 pm, April 23 - rest for two or three days at home - (DO NOT DISTURB!)
Attend son Jordan's college graduation in Kalamazoo and daughter Megan's 25th birthday party (Kalamazoo, MI April 26-27)
April 27 - evening - farewell/service at Faith Mennonite Church inGoshen (the last Sunday we can really count on being there)
April 28-29 - Packing/storing/sellingApril 29 - "closing the sale" of our home (rental after that, until we actually leave)
April 30 - May 13 -- two-week auto trip. We plan to visit my brother Lee and his family in North Carolina, my uncle Alan in Williamsburg, VA (taking along my father's two sisters for that first leg of the trip, then just the two of us onward to) Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, and on up to Worcester, MA (Carole Anne's home area) to visit her children and grandchildren plus attend the wedding of Becky Everson, a special friend, on May 10. We will return via a visit May 12-13 with special friends I have in New Hamburg and Stratford, Ontario, where I served three years in Mennonite Voluntary Service, right after college.
May 14-16 until ??? -- final storing/selling/packing of our things...and waiting for our visa/work permit for Australia -- unlessallowed to come in beforehand with our tourist visa, before the work commences. (The very earliest we could fly over is the weekend of May 17-19, but more realistically, it will be a week later.)
Again, we can be reached, even while "on the road" via our "Skype In" phone number and voice mail service at (508) 762-4226
