Jerry and Diane Hayka
Jerry and I met in 1973, just after I had graduated from high school. He was working for a building contractor at that point and I worked for Besser Company, a company that makes cement block machines. His career later took him to Abitibi, which has undergone several ownership changes (Abitibi, Abitibi Price, ABTco, Louisiana Pacific and currently Decorative Panels). He has over 32 years with that company. I worked for Besser's for a little over a year before they had a slump and was laid off. I then worked for General Telephone Company for 17 years, a psychiatrist's office for 4 years and have been employed at a community mental health agency for the last 10 years.
We have been married for 32 years and were married for almost 8 years before we had any children. We have two children: Jodee (a.k.a. Harvey) who lives in Baton Rouge LA and Kerry Jo who lives at home.
This will be our 2nd cruise. We will be driving down to pick Jodee up in Baton Rouge and then on to Galveston. Last year, we had originally booked our cruise out of New Orleans and had to change to Galveston due to the port closure.
Last year, we were fortunate on the last day of the Rhapsody cruise (the wavy day) in that Jerry won $2,880 on a $1 slot which paid for that cruise and enabled us to book this one. We also had free hotel rooms on the way down and on the way back thanks to casino stopovers. Evidently, when you live far away, they send promotions to entice you to come back and give you a free hotel room. It works out perfectly as our first stop is in Michigan City IN and our second stop is in Tunica MS.
This cruise I will try to relax more. I never really got to use the balcony last year or sit and lounge by the pool. It just seemed that there was so much that we would be missing if we did that.
We do plan on attending the pre-cruise gathering this year. Last year, we weren't sure when we would arrive and the kids wanted to do a Fuddruckers dining. This year we hope to be there earlier in time to meet everyone before boarding. I do believe that we met Robin and Dirk at the Meet and Mingle but Linda was lost in time.
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Page last modified:
July 22, 2007