Having just recently retired from teaching elementary physical education for twenty-nine years and my husband from hospital work after thirty-two years, raising three sons, welcoming daughter-in-laws into the fold and a grandchild (finally!!), we are about to embark on "The Next Chapter" of our lives.
We have always loved traveling and have done so extensively with both our children and without. Having family in Idaho provided us with an occasion to travel throughout the western United States. Traveling to Idaho every other year for thirty plus years gave us an opportunity to "get to Idaho" using many different routes. We have traveled the northern route across Canada and the southern route to California and up the California coast to "get to Idaho". We were able to expose our sons to so many things on those trips. My boys could probably get you to Mt.Rushmore themselves as youngsters...,they have been there at least 7 or 8 times! It's on the way to Idaho!
We have always loved traveling and have done so extensively with both our children and without. Having family in Idaho provided us with an occasion to travel throughout the western United States. Traveling to Idaho every other year for thirty plus years gave us an opportunity to "get to Idaho" using many different routes. We have traveled the northern route across Canada and the southern route to California and up the California coast to "get to Idaho". We were able to expose our sons to so many things on those trips. My boys could probably get you to Mt.Rushmore themselves as youngsters...,they have been there at least 7 or 8 times! It's on the way to Idaho!
We did the eastern states with my mother-in-law who had only been east of the Mississippi to Illinois for our wedding and subsequent visits. We introduced her to 13 different states and it was the trip of a lifetime for her! In all of our travels, Gene and I have visited all 50 states and our sons have been to at least 48.
On our trips we have moved up over the years in modes of travel. We have traveled with just a car using hotel rooms, a big van with a mattress in the back that we all piled on, a tent,a pop-up camper towed behind a small truck with the bed fixed up with bean bags for the boys, a slide in truck camper and finally a class A motor home.
One thing that I do regret is that on all our travels with our sons I didn't keep a journal. Yes, we can recall most of our trips and what we did, where we ate, even what we ate, but a lot of fun information and times have been lost over time. When we do talk about our trips everyone remembers something different which is good, but we could have remembered so many more things had I just taken the time to jot down the highlights of the day each day. But in my defense, traveling with 3 kids, sometimes 4 when my little sister traveled with us, sometimes at the end of the day the last thing I wanted to do was take time to write in a journal. But as I look back I SHOULD have taken a minute just to make a brief note of who, what, when and where.
When we bought our motor home in 2004 the first thing I did was start a journal! I would enter who, what, when and where! I would jot down where we stayed, what the place was like, what we did, even what we ate sometimes, just a little bit of everything. Most of the time I actually have something entered everyday. I have continued with my journal to this day and have recorded many trips.
My husband has been after me to blog about our next trips to continue my journal and to keep those interested up to date about where we are and what we are doing. So "The Next Chapter" has been created. Within this blog I will hope to continue to report who, what, when and where. I hope to share some info about the places we are visiting along with some pictures that might actually make it interesting.
