Headed for the North Eastern Part of the USA. Neither Gary or I had spent much time there so all is pretty new. Gary was born in upstate New York but left when he was 10, little recollection of the area. I worked in Philadelphia and spent time on the Jersey shore in my early 20’s but certainly seeing it much differently this time. We left Chicago and spent one night one Lake Erie not too far from Toledo and enjoyed it so much! We stayed at East Harbor State Park which sits on a peninsula on the waters of Lake Erie – just a bit of geology –  Lake Erie began as glacial sheets, which left a deep depression and this depression was filled with melting water, and that formed the Great Lakes. Just can’t quit being the science teacher:-) OH… I almost forgot about the mayfly hatch at the campground, that is what is all over the side of our camper!

Lake Erie

Campsite at East Harbor State Park

Mayfly hatch….incredible!

We are in Acadia National Park and it is so gorgeous, if they didn’t have winter here I probably would consider living here! The Atlantic Coast with all the cliffs and rocks are breathtaking, the weather can’t be beat (highs in the 70’s, lows the upper 50’s) and the lobster is delicious. Bought 2 medium sized live lobsters, half a dozen oysters and half a pound of scallops yesterday for $32. Life is good! Pictures are from a coastal hike and from Shannon’s visit here last week!

WOW, I’ve been on the road for 5 months now. It can be so hard to just stop and take the time to put a post together but it is long overdue and either one long post is on the way or multiple posts. We are in Upstate New York but the travels to get to this point is what I want to focus on! My last post was a quick documentation of where we had been but you missed the great pictures of our travels! Hope you enjoy seeing the sights of our trip! The slide show is from the many parks in Arkansas, what a beautiful state, it definitely is a Natural State! Many of the trails, dams and campgrounds were part of Roosevelts CCC in the 1930’s. The men were roughly between the ages of 18 and 28 and they were given room and board for their work and all but $5.00 was sent home to their families – $20. It was a lot of money at the time.

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From Arkansas we traveled to Tennessee to visit my brother and cousins. Memphis was our first stop and the International Barbecue Cook off was happening on the banks of the Mississippi. So many booths, each decorated to wins trophies, this is the booth of my brothers friends and their barbecue was delicious.

We left Memphis and stopped by Shiloh National Military Park, one of the  bloodiest battles of the Civil War took place here, a turning point for the Union Army.                 April 6 and 7, 1862

Onto the Northern Point of Alabama to the address of 1 Tranquility Base, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Quite an impressive museum. well worth a stop. The only museum with more space memorabilia is the Smithsonian in Washington DC.

Onto family visits in Eastern Tennessee.

Last time we will park our RV at someone’s house! WOW, coming and going was exciting!

Judy, Susan and Sally(Uncle Dick and Aunt Helen’s daughters)

Susan and Tony Gary and Judy Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Cousin Ann and husband Frank, outside of Knoxville, TN Ann is Uncle Joe and Aunt Mary’s daughter

Wow, I thought this blogging thing would be easy but it all takes time! Funny when you travel, all you have is time or so it seems. We have been on the road for almost 16 weeks, hard to believe! The hardest part is the planning, we try to have weekends planned at least a month ahead, we can find places during the week without reservations. We stay at least 3 days in each place so we aren’t always on the road. Just so much to see and do!

The past month has been lot of family time, Gary has met and visited so much of my family – my brother in Memphis, 6 cousins and their families in Knoxville, Tennessee, another brother and sister and families in Evansville, Indiana! Plus my childhood friends….I could go on and on. I’ve loved it but I do believe my patient husband is ready to move on. So, that’s what we are doing.

Heading up to the Wisconsin Dells today to get a bit of a relief from the heat and hopefully the bugs and enjoy some hiking and kayaking. We bought two SeaEagle inflatable kayaks and have only used them 3 or 4 times, looking forward to being on the water.

We will be returning to just outside Chicago next week so Gary can be with friends while I go do some teacher training in South Korea. The Department of Defense purchased science curriculum, FOSS, and with each purchase professional development is included. I get to go to to a military base in Osan, South Korea, to train teachers how to teach science using FOSS. (The same curriculum we used in Cherry Creek School District) I’ll be there for just a little over a week. Crazy – all DOD schools around the world purchased this curriculum, there are about 100 of us doing this training, everyone else from Denver will be going to Europe, somehow I got the short straw. Should be very interesting and I am excited.

Once I return we are headed toward upstate New York, Acadia and Cape Cod. I hope all of you are enjoying the beginning of summer!

It is always so darn amazing when you try to recall what’s been going on in the recent past. After we returned from our windjammer cruise, I got a call from my daughter, Shannon, and it seems her fiancé will be reporting to the Air Force 9 months earlier than anticipated. For them to receive the most benefits they need to be married and the only available date with their schedule is May 4th. So Shelley and Chuck worked on the details and Gary and I headed back to Denver. The wedding was a small family affair, which means the real ceremony and celebration will be taking place at another time when Matt’s family can attend – Breckenridge, August, 2019. But Shannon did wear the gown I wore when I married her father and she looked so beautiful. Just have to share a few pictures.

So much fun being with Gary’s sister and husband in Queen Creek just SE of Phoenix. We arrived on Thursday, I left for training in Berkley on Friday morning.

I’m doing science curriculum training for Department of Defense schools the middle of June for three days, I find out where I will be going sometime within the next two weeks.

  Gary and his sister had some time together and I returned Saturday night. Quick trip, I have one more training trip the end of April but that one will be to Atlanta.

We visited, did family things Sunday and Monday and headed south toward Tucson on Tuesday. Oh, what a talented sister-in-law I have. She makes doll clothes for the American Girl Dolls and sells them at huge craft shows here. The shows are in the RV parks where the snowbirds spend their winters!

We plan on sight seeing in this area for the next couple of days: Tombstone, Pima Flight Museum, Biosphere 2, and there are supposed to be some good wineries we plan to check out too.

Finally feel like we are getting into the travel mode. No matter how much you pack away in storage and tips you read, it’s just so draining physically and emotionally leaving a house and settling into a RV. I still am trying to organize cabinets, clothes and food! Figure I’ll have that mastered after about a month. I do love our 5th wheel, it is so comfortable.

We spent two days at the State Park in Fruita near Grand Junction,

 stocking up on Colorado wine and organizing ourselves.

A couple of days of skiing in Durango before heading to Arizona.

 We were hoping for warmth in Arizona but it hasn’t happened yet. Spent a windy day walking around the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. Pretty amazing seeing logs turned to stone that are over 200 million years old. Saw what looked like a piece of off white wood and picked it up, it was so heavy, completely turned into stone – so cool!

Mostly staying in RV parks so that we can have electricity with the cooler nights, lows have been in the teens and 20’s. Yesterday we stayed in a State Park with a nice lake, so windy that thuge ponderosa pines tree trunks were swaying in the wind… but much nicer to have the wilderness around us as opposed to an RV park.

On our way to Phoenix!