Welcome to Our Blog

We are starting this blog in November 2019 as a way to document our journey as we visit all of the 61 US National Parks. We will include links to many of our previous and future adventures as well. This website is mostly for family and friends, but also as a way to have documentation for ourselves.

Last month, my wife Elizabeth and I (Gary) were looking for a quick getaway. We ended up flying to Denver, CO and driving the 75 miles to Estes Park, to experience Rocky Mountain National Park. This was actually the 13^th park I personally had visited, but during this visit Elizabeth said we should start over and visit all the parks over the next 20 years or so.  My reply was, that it is a great idea, but I want to do it before I turn 65 in 4 ½ years. So the seed was planted, a goal with a timeline. On day 2 of our visit to RMNP we stopped at the visitor center and purchased a passport book and got our first official National Park stamp.

We have always had a bit of an adventurous spirit. I worked construction out of college. When Elizabeth and I first became a team in the mid-1980’s we lived in 9 different locations the first 5 years we were together. It was during that stretch we got married. Kids soon followed, after which the moving slowed a bit. After 8 years in Vermont I again was looking for something new, so I resigned my position with the only company I had worked for out of college. They responded by offering me a new position in Arizona, so off we went. Our moms were not too happy with us moving two of their grandkids across the country.

That was 20 years ago. Now the kids are grown, we have no dogs and no grandkids, so why not start a new big adventure. We are both self-employed, with flexible work schedules, are healthy, and have saved and invested well, so now is the time to travel!

Some of our previous adventures include: I through hiked the Appalachian trail in 2014. Elizabeth loves the hiker community and the towns the trail goes through, but is not keen on hiking up big hills with a heavy pack and sleeping in the woods. Sooo, 2015 we traveled to Spain and walked the Camino Frances, 500 miles across Spain. We both loved it. In 2016 we returned to Spain for another Camino. In 2018 I started a second through hike of the AT. After 1,000 miles I returned home, purchased a bicycle, flew to the Canadian border and pedaled 1,000 miles south along the Pacific Coast to Monterrey, CA. 2019 brought us a third trip to Spain and we had another awesome 550 mile walk on the Camino Frances. I then flew to Ohio and pedaled my bike 1,000 miles along the Great Lakes in Canada, ending up in Maine.