How it all started...

Before marriage Case floated an idea: "Why don't we sell the house and take off and travel for a year." My response: "Sweetie, I need a little more stability than that at the beginning of our marriage." So, dutifully, Case set about creating a safe, stable environment for me. After a wonderful wedding and honeymoon (www.joleneandcase.com) from March 24 through April 16, 2006, we happily settled down to life together.

And so...

One day, after a few months of safety and stablity, I looked at Case and asked, "Sweetie, why don't we sell the house and travel for a year?" Case's jaw dropped to the floor and, nearly in shock, he exclaimed:"When I mentioned selling the house and traveling a while back, you said you wanted safety and stablity! And now we've got that, you want the other?" "Oh, yes," I replied, not missing a beat, "It's what's called 'balance' in a marriage!"

Fortunately, Case has a pretty good sense of humor and, besides, has always wanted to spend time as a beach bum and vagabond. So, now "balanced" together, we've embarked on the wonderful adventure of making the dream of a "one year sabbatical" come true. You are invited along on our adventures through the planned and expected, the planned and unexpected, and the flat out unexpected, as our lives unfold.

This blog takes it's name from an Irish drinking song that Case first heard in a bar in Sitka, Alaska, where he washed ashore after sinking a sailboat in the Inside Passage (but that's another story). We sort of hope the lyric will set the stage for our a year ahead:

The Ramblin' Rover
(words and music by Andy M. Stewart, see www.andymstewart.com)

Chorus
Oh, there's sober men aplenty, and drunkards barely twenty,
There are men of over ninety that have never yet kissed a girl.
But give me a Ramblin' Rover, fra' Archney and to Dover,
We will roam the country over and together we'll face the world.

Verse
I've roamed through all the nations, turned a light on all creation,
And have tried a wee sensation, when the company did prove kind.
But when parting was no pleasure, we've drunk another measure,
To the good friends that we treasure, for they are always on our mind.

(Chorus)

There's many that feign enjoyment from merciless employment,
Their ambition was this deployment from the moment they left the school,
And they save and scrape and ponder while the rest go out and squander,
See the world and rove & wander, and they're happier as a rule.

(Chorus)

If you're bent with arthritis, your bowels have got colitis,
You've galloping bollockitis, and you're thinking it's time you died,
If you've been a man of action, while you're lyin' there in traction,
You may gain some satisfaction, thinking, " Goodness, at least I tried!"

(Chorus)

Happy ramblin' & rovin' to you!