As some of you may know, in November I retired from the Air Force and began a year-long "around the USA" trip with my wife and 2 sons (ages 10 and 12). It has been an AMAZING trip so far, and the last 4 months have flown by. I thought some of you might be interested in hearing how the trip has gone.
We started in November from Tucson, AZ and traveled in/through the following states - AZ, NM, TX, LA, MS, AL, FL, GA, SC, NC, VA, DC, MD.
We have taken our time traveling, staying as often as possible in military campgrounds (with varying degrees of comfort and cost but they have spanned the gambit from White Sands missile range to a campground right on the water in Key West).
We have been home-schooling our boys along the way- mostly topping up Math, Science, and history while visiting as many national parks and museums as possible along the way (we have visited 40+ so far and the boys have done 35+ Jr. Ranger programs) They are both also keeping journals of their experiences and I believe that I am learning almost as much as they are!
I haven't gotten to do much woodworking, but in Pittsboro NC I did attend a 5-day class taught by Roy Underhill and Bill Anderson (the benchwork class) and it was AWESOME.
We are actually UNDER budget so far... though we have not skimped on "big" experiences such as charter fishing in the Keys etc. we tend to live fairly frugally otherwise. (for example, we only occasionally eat out, and when we do it is to a "destination" or local restaurant where we can experience cuisine unique to the area or just plain "special". We've found that it is much more practical to carry pack lunches into national parks or even (as we did today into DC) into a major city... we get better food for the most part too!
We are blogging on Facebook if anyone is interested in following along
https://www.facebook.com/RichardsrvtripI have also put some of the pictures I have taken along the way onto photobucket (in case anyone interested is Facebook-averse) - however, the photos there aren't labeled so you may not be able to tell where they were taken.
http://s171.photobucket.com/user/ldr_kl ... rip?sort=3Next we head north (after another 3-weeks or so in the DC area) towards New York, Boston, and on to Acadia National Park in Maine. We'll then head West, eventually (hopefully) reaching Yellowstone/Glacier etc in late July/early August. Then we hope to get across the Rocky Mountains before winter before heading down the West Coast. We have gotten to (and still hope to) see several friends and even a few "imaginary" (online) friends, though not nearly as many as we would have liked to.
Just thought I'd give y'all an update- thanks for the words of support you've given in the past and for any that are offered now.
V/r
Lawrence
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