Mission Accomplished

Home Sweet Home! For those of you who have been with us since the inception of this adventure, you may remember the original mission was simply to hit the road as school got started so it didn't seem so strange that we weren't going back there. We made that happen. If you are considering retirement ("going-thru-the-change" as I titled this whole blog) I highly recommend you do something off the cuff and out of your normal routine and comfort zone to get you going. It doesn't have to be a massive road trip but I can tell you it has been a heck of a ride!

The next part of the mission was to do a honeymoon of sorts making sure we could survive all this new togetherness. Once again, "winning!". It was remarkable talking about our adventure and our day, and making new memories together (even as they already start to blend and overlap) and not talk about work, money, politics - we really tuned out and focused on living in the moment for the most part.

Somehow over the last school year, what started as a joking comment of "wouldn't it be fun to do our own amazing race and let other people tell us where to go" became real so in summary, here goes:

40 days
17 states
29 National Parks and National Monuments visited
12 major cities explored
Over 600 photos
Just under 12000 miles

Things we "shoulda" done:

Packed binoculars
Taken a "welcome to ...fill in state name here" photo each time we entered a new one so our photos would be divided that way
Packed a set of flannel sheets
Kept track of each individual National Park entry fee so we knew what we saved with our Annual Pass purchase


Things we did right:

Let others make choices and plans - we did and saw things we never would have without their participation.
Lived without a long term plan - increased our communication and working together skills
Cooked meals - we lost weight!
National Park Annual Pass
Gas Buddy app - saved as much as $.40 a gallon in places
This blog - to help us remember each day

Now, on to new adventures. I doubt that we'll do another six weeks any time soon (we have too many short trips coming in the next 6 months and a grand baby on the way) but we'll certainly be willing to throw gear in the back, hop in the truck and hit the road on a minute's notice when an idea or offer crops up. We already are talking about a ballparks tour next summer :)

Our next challenge will be settling in at home together (getting back on a tight budget and paying off the credit card-if it wasn't for gas this trip would have been REALLY inexpensive), continuing to eat right, getting in some good hikes when their isn't something brand new and "way cool" to entice us on, and finding our new roles in our rural community. I promise to drop in here every so often to let interested readers know how it all progresses. Thanks for reading and for following us as we explored and learned!

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