Hello Family and Friends!

Elizabeth:

Gary has taught me, over the close to 40 years we have known one another, and I have learned to appreciate, being flexible with one’s plans is what keeps life interesting!

We just made the decision to postpone our Camino in Spain until next May/June 2023…for a number of reasons, in no particular order.

1. We have always gone to Spain to walk the Camino together. This time, due to my travel schedule with corporate meeting clients I was going to miss the first 200+ miles of walking with Gary in Spain.
2. I do not enjoy getting up at 5AM to train/hike before the sun gets too toasty! We’ve hit 115 a couple of times and early AM’s are usually in the 80’s, at the lowest on average, in July. I was walking at the malls and going to the gym, but actually hiking is the best way to train for the Camino. The springtime will be a much better time to train/hike in Phoenix!
3. The heat in Europe/Spain and even here in the US is real.  We are hotter here in Phoenix than Spain has been, and are used to the heat, but getting away to a cooler location seems a bit more enticing. We walked the Camino de Santiago in May and June in 2019 and loved the cool mornings and very reasonable day time temps. So, we will keep you posted next year re: our forth Camino.
4. Wild fires in the EU are a challenge, especially in France and Spain right now. Very sad for all involved there. The air quality around Arizona and California lately has been poor as we have been affected by fires here as well. So, again, going from one hot/wildfire location to another doesn’t seem to make sense.
5. COVID has been making a strong come back all over the US, and in Spain. The new variant and the “regular” COVID has been hitting people close to us. We know several people who, after traveling abroad, tested positive upon their return. Our youngest son and our eldest son’s mother-in-law both got it after over 2 years of being very healthy. Our son is fine now and the other Mother-in-law is getting better slowly. It doesn’t seem to matter whether or not you’re vaccinated…COVID doesn’t discriminate.
6. We have very generous friends who would take Rangeley while we are gone, and we hope to leave Rangeley with them in May/June if at all possible. But for now, our 2+ yr. old Silver Lab puppy has decided to regress a bit and has taken a dietary liking to book covers and cardboard boxes as well as carrying our socks, sneakers and visors from one room to the other while we are out of the house. I think our packing has made him nervous. He is rebelling a bit : )

What’s next? We will take Rangeley with us on our next adventure. We are talking about another road trip here in the US instead of going to Spain. I am working in NC in August and we are thinking Gary would drive cross country and meet me in Asheville. We could then drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway, continuing up to New England, to visit family and do some Trail Magic on the Appalachian Trail!

We will post again as soon as plans are firmed up…well…as “firm” as our plans get! : )  

We wish you all good health and send smiles to encourage you to MAKE it a great day!

“Adventure is allowing the unexpected to happen to you…” 

– Richard Aldington

Camino, round four, is about ready to start. I (Gary) leave in 2 weeks with Elizabeth to follow a couple weeks later. Click the link below for an update.

Here we go again.

We made a quick trip to the Grand Canyon to get a pin for our National Park map. OK, we did do a few other fun things as well. As usual, click the link below to read about our latest adventures.

Grand Canyon

What a fun 6+ weeks this has been. We now just have to visit 5 more Parks in Alaska. Rangeley and I (Gary) will drive back to Phoenix starting tomorrow after dropping Elizabeth off at the airport in the morning. We continue to find out of the way places to enjoy our Parks with Rangeley. Glacier is very strict on dogs, but we found several places to be alone so he could swim. We also visit the much more dog friendly state parks in the areas we visit. Rangeley is also very well behaved making it easy to let him go loose. As always, click the link below to read about our latest adventures.

Glacier National Park

We have spent the past 3 days driving west on US Route 2, on our way to Glacier National Park. We continue to love rural America, the people and sights. Click the link below to follow Rangeley’s adventures.

Route 2 Road Trip

Our penultimate park visit (not counting Alaska), with only Glacier to go. Another beautiful area of the country that we had not been to. Visiting all the Parks is really about the journey and all the sites and people we see and meet. The flooding here in Northern Minnesota is causing all kinds of problems. Many resorts are partially underwater and tourists are cancelling their reservations to come here. The water has risen several inches since we have been here and no one knows when the levels will drop to a reasonable level. Hopefully they get some dry weather for the next several weeks. We have joked with several locals that it would be nice if we could bring this extra water with us to the west.

We leave this morning to drive the 1,134 miles to western Montana, then we will have 1,300 miles home. Thanks for reading along with us.

Voyageurs

Another wonderful National Park. Rangeley had to stay on the mainland while we had fun on the island. This entry includes our other adventures in Michigan. Click below to read and see.

Isle Royale

Rangeley continues to be a rock star traveler. He is amazingly adaptable. He had his first exposure to an infant, meeting two sub 3 month olds. He was great playing with our 3 year old Amish friends daughter and our niece’s older kids (sub 10 years old). Click the link below to see the pictures and read Elizabeth’s stories of our continuing adventures.

Vermont and Ohio

Rangeley and I picked up Elizabeth last Saturday and we have been cruising around Virginia enjoying the beautiful scenery and wonderful people around the Appalachian Trail. Click the link below to read our stories and view the pictures.

Virginia with Elizabeth

Rangeley and I (Gary) took off from Phoenix 12 days ago. We pick up Elizabeth in Roanoke, VA tomorrow as we continue to roam about, exploring the good ole US of A. The link below will bring you to our page with a recap of what we have done as well as pictures. We do plan to visit the last 3 National Parks on our list that are not in Alaska – Isle Royale, Voyageurs and Glacier on this trip. I do realize Virginia is a bit out of the way. But like I told my mother, we need maple syrup, so we are headed to Vermont to pick some up. Figure we may as well visit family while we are up there. (My mom and two sisters live in Vermont.) Maybe it is the other way around, get syrup while visiting family.

Rangeley on the Appalachian Trail