A couple of weeks ago Ilene and I were talking with a travel advisor and got on the subject of our travels. This is a nutshell of what we talked about.
Travel
We met in Hawaii while we were both on vacation there 46 years ago. We spent the first couple years before our oldest was born, traveling by car, from Chicago to North Carolina to Washington and back.
After leaving the US Army we drove to Washington and worked there for a year before heading to Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and then back up to Tacoma, Washington where we lived for several years before driving to Arizona in our new Volkswagen campervan with two sons. Betsy, our van, was dropped off in Philidelphia and shipped across the Atlantic to England where we were stationed for the next 5 years.
Along the way, we stopped in Anaheim, CA, and visited Disneyland, Universal Studios, and Sea World with our young sons. While training in Arizona for a few months, we got involved with Volksmarching and spent many mornings wandering through the Sonora-Arizona Desert around Tucson.
Up to that point we’d traveled and seen almost every state along the “fringe of the USA. We visited National Parks, like the Olympic National Park, Mt. St. Helens, state parks, memorials such as Washington Crossing where General George Washington made his historic crossing of the Delaware River on his way to defeat German mercenaries in the American Revolution. The fun thing was, it was just before Christmas, the actual day of the crossing and battle, and local reenactors were rehearsing for their annual crossing.
Adventure
In England, we joined The National Trust and English Heritage and visited sites in England, Scotland, and Wales. We crossed the English Channel a couple of times with Betsy on ferries and traveled and toured through Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Luxembourg.
More Travel and More Adventure
When we came back to the states, and Arizona, we decided we needed to show the boys a bit of “Americana” and we all flew out to Kissimmee, Florida for a Disneyworld and Epcot Center adventure. As the boys grew up I was blessed to take my oldest son to Philmont Scout Ranch for a 10-day 50-mile hike. Later, when my youngest was old enough and we lived in Nevada, he and I took a 6-day Colorado rafting trip down the Colorado River into the grand canyon.
We Expand Our Travel and Adventures
After the boys went off to school and jobs, Ilene and I took our first cruise from Long Beach, California to Catalina Island, San Diego, and New Mexico. A short three-night cruise that just whetted our appetites for cruising. Since then, we’ve cruised to Alaska, Hawaii, and the Caribbean.
We learned to ski and snowshoe, visited The Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Gettysburg, and Colonial Williamsburg while Ilene and I worked in our last jobs. We traveled throughout southern Utah and Northern Arizona where we experienced Zion National Park, the North Rim, and Bryce Canyon.
When we both “retired” we boarded our 40 foot Winnebago Vectra RV and lived in it full time where we took our time and traveled all up and down the West. More national parks, state parks, and interesting points are too numerous to name in one blog.
Since settling in Fredericksburg, Texas a few years ago, we’ve flown to Israel where we toured the Holyland, Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan. We’ve seen Petra, and Amman, and Jerusalem.
But the adventure hasn’t stopped. Despite the Covid pandemic, we’ve had the opportunity to camp in a couple of Texas state parks, and Terlingua, Texas just on the outskirts of Big Bend National Park.
Travel and Adventure Are Far from Over
Oh…and the adventure is FAR from over. In less than two months, we’ll be boarding the Norwegian Gem in Miami, Florida for the first of two seven-day, back-to-back cruises in the Caribbean. February we jet up to New York and board the Norwegian Jewel and sail to Panama City which means a Panama Canal crossing.
Oh…but we’re not done. On October 31st of 2022, we board the newest ship in the Norwegian fleet in Galveston for an inaugural sailing out of Galveston to Miami.
Yes, we’ve had a life of adventure and travel! You might say we’ve spent life as barnstormers traveling from one adventure to another. So why stop now? On to the next adventure, let’s grab our goggles and prop the engine!
God Bless you all.
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