My "road" started as a kid in the front seat of our family's 1984 silver Ford LTD station wagon.... meticulously checking the old-school, AAA Trip Tik ( to make sure we stayed on-course for our annual spring break trip to Florida). While I *enjoyed* our destination, the journey was what I looked forward to the most -- seeing the changing landscapes, driving through big cities in the middle of the night... and playing countless "alphabet games" to keep us occupied (while listening to a Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons cassette over and over... and over again).
Now, as an adult, the Trip Tik has been replaced by Waze and Google Maps, with my kids occupying the "navigator" role... but the love for being on the road and exploring new places is still the same. Being a home with two, educator parents (me a school counselor, my wife an English-learner teacher), we've taken advantage of recent our summers to get on the road with our boys and explore -- a 12-day road trip west in 2021 that took us through Yellowstone for the first time, a 12-day road trip east that found us sitting on the rocks of Acadia National Park watching the ocean waves crash into the shore, and another 16-day trip west in 2023 that had us whitewater rafting down the Flathead River on the southern edge of Glacier National Park. A lifetime of memories -- of both big and small moments -- came from each of these trips... and we're looking forward to many more!
Books that inspired...
Favorite pics from our trips... that never quite capture the wonder and beauty of actually being there....