Merry Christmas 2016

Victoria and I wish you all the best as 2016 comes to a close. Here's a quick recap of our year...

We rang in the New Year at Christ’s Church in Bellbrook, Ohio, with our friends the Walthall’s.

In March, we enjoyed a two-week spring road trip to and from Corpus Christi, Texas, to visit Darren for Easter. More details of the trip can be found at this previous post. Darren has since relocated back to Florida for advanced helicopter training.

During the month of April, I started my 5th year supporting C-5 aircraft modernization programs for the United States Air Force. During the year I traveled to both Georgia and Delaware several times.

In July, Victoria celebrated one year in her private practice, VTS Physical Therapy, LLC. We marked the occasion with an open house and enjoyed spending time with her patients and supporters. The learning curve has been steep, but the climb exciting and worthwhile.

On August 20th, Victoria and I celebrated 28 years of marriage by somewhat re-creating our first date - we played racquetball. Let's just say that we were a bit more nimble in our 20s. However, we still know how to serve up oodles of hilarity and follow it up with a good dinner.

In October, over the Columbus Day weekend, we enjoyed a road trip to and from Boston, Massachusets, to visit Kayla. 






She was an awesome tour guide and showed us a good time. One highlight was exploring Walden Pond where Henry David Thoreau lived from July 1845 to September 1847. Thoreau’s experience there provided the material for the book Walden.

Throughout the year, using our recently vacated nest here in Xenia, we were able to host a dozen travelers through our Airbnb listing. It was fun to meet new and interesting people and to achieve Airbnb’s Superhost status.

As we write and post this update, Victoria and I are preparing for our trip to Paraguay, South America, to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with Victoria's family.

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas…

Day Eleven - Tupelo MS to Xenia OH

We awoke Thursday morning to the sound of heavy rain as storms rolled through northern Mississippi. By the time we showered, ate breakfast, packed up, and checked out, the rain had stopped, and clear skies were visible to the west. Our plan for the day was to drive the northern part of the Natchez Trace. Before doing that though, we stopped by The Elvis Presley Birthplace.

Of course, there was the house Elvis was born in...

...the actual building where the Presley family attended church services...

...the Memorial Chapel...

...the Fountain of Life that illustrates the years of Elvis’ life with thirteen upper waterspouts representing the years that Elvis lived in Tupelo and 29 lower spouts symbolizing Elvis’ life in Memphis...

...and, of course, the outhouse :-)

After completing our brief tour of the Elvis Presley Birthplace, we headed west through downtown Tupelo and entered the Natchez Trace Parkway.

After stopping at the Visitor Center and Parkway Headquarters, some of the sites we visited along the Parkway included Twentymile Bottom Overlook...the Parkway runs through the middle of the picture...

...the Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis & Clark fame) Monument...which is the actual gravesite of Lewis, who died "mysteriously" in this spot in 1809...

...Fall Hollow...

...and Baker Bluff Overlook...

We exited the Parkway at the Northern Terminus at TN Hwy 100 and began our Interstate travels again around Nashville, through Franklin, Bowling Green, Louisville, and Cincinnati. Our decision to push on brought us home a little after 11pm.

The purposes of this Spring Break Road Trip have been accomplished, plus a few bonuses along the way. We got to spend a long Easter weekend with Darren, enjoyed visiting with family and friends in MO, KS, and TX, and crossed off 2 of the 3 remaining states on Barak's list of 50. Now that Louisiana and Mississippi have been visited, only Alaska remains.

Thanks for following us along our journey.

Day Ten - Hammond LA to New Orleans to Tupelo MS

We awoke Wednesday morning in Hammond LA. Both Victoria and I liked Louisiana and especially the Hammond area. This is the view from our hotel window.

After eating breakfast and packing up the car once again, we headed south to the Big Easy. Upon arriving at the Visitor Center, we were informed how easy it would be to walk the entire French Quarter from there. We parked the car and made our way across many streets, including the well-known Bourbon Street...

...to Jackson Square...

...over to Cafe Du Monde...

...where we got our obligatory bag of three beignets...

...and ate them while they were still warm on the Moonwalk with a beautiful view of the Mississippi River and New Orleans.

As we started to walk back to the Visitor's Center and the car it began to sprinkle. We made it back to the car without getting too wet and headed north out of Louisiana into Mississippi. We drove across Lake Pontchartrain on I-10, picked up I-59, stopped briefly in Hattiesburg (without seeing Hattie), picked up Highway 45 in Meridian, and ended our day in Tupelo MS, the birthplace of singer Elvis Presley. More about that tomorrow, I'm sure.