Wendy and I love to take big leaps into new adventures.  One of our favorite movie scenes is when Indiana Jones must overcome the third of three trials of faith to reach the Holy Grail (cup of the Nazarene) by leaping from the mouth of the lion. Do you remember that scene?

Well, Wendy and I have pictured that moment in our minds as we have held hands and taken that first step into the unknown together.  Marriage, first baby, Air Force, graduate school, second baby, medical school, building airplane, first flight, formation flying, selling house, closing medical practice, buying motorhome, going on the road.

Tomorrow, January 2, 2016, Wendy and I will hold hands and once again take a step into another new adventure.  We will board an airplane from beautiful sunny Tucson, AZ and at the end of the day we will arrive at our new digs for a 4-month stay in Lewiston, ME.  “ME” as in Maine (you know, that state that half-belongs to Canada).  We’re in shorts and sandals today.  Tomorrow, we’ll be in long underwear.  It will be a major shock to our bodily systems.

This transition reminds me of one of the brilliant stunts my high school buddy, Joe Young, pulled our junior year.  Four of us would get up every morning and play racquetball and lift weights at a club before school.  On this fine morning as we were all soaking in the hot tub after a hard workout, Joe said “Hey, let’s all get really hot in this hot tub and then run over there to the showers and take a super cold shower”.  We all looked at each other and said, “OK Joe.  You first”.  So Joe jumps out of the hot tub, turns on the cold water and we watched as he immediately keeled over like an ironing board.  Splat!  Out cold.  We thought he was dead.  It took a lot of face slaps before Joe came around — and he was messed up the entire rest of the day.

So Wendy and I are going to leave the Tucson hot tub and jump right into the Maine cold shower in the dead of winter.  Somebody get ready to slap me in the face!