ROAD TRIP !!

January was such an exciting month.  I officially retired effective December 31st and Carole and I hit the road on New Year's Day for a month long "tour" to visit as many of our family and friends as we possibly could.  We finally got back home yesterday.  Here is a look at the numbers we racked up during January:

• 23 - Number of States we visited during the month
• 6,750 - Number of miles driven by car
• 14 - Number of eateries we ate at from "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives"
• 24 - Number of nights in a hotel
• 3 - Number of nights at home

It all started on January 1st when we took off on our swing of the Western States by car.  We went first to visit Cecilia and her husband Ben who both work in Sun Valley, ID.

From there we drove down through Wyoming (in a terrible blizzard) and made it to Denver where we had lunch with former co-worker Mike and his wife Debbi.  We ended up in Colorado Springs where we visited with Carole's brother Scott and his friend Kathy.  Had a wonderful visit and got all caught up on things.  We then headed down to Mesa, AZ to visit Celeste and her husband Tim.  We did some hiking and had a nice visit before heading back to Spokane via Salt Lake and Butte. 

We stayed in Spokane a total of three days before jumping on an airplane and flying back to Washington DC and the second half of our road trip.  We rented a car and drove to New Hampshire to visit Carole's Aunt Jean and Cousin Scot.  We stopped by my former employer in Keene, NH for an hour or so to say good-bye to some very special people there and then headed down to Hickory, NC to visit Carole's sister Anne.  Then it was a dash back to DC where we sat through another snowstorm before finally flying home to Spokane.  Even though we racked up a lot of miles, we had a blast.

One of the fun things we did along the way was to try and eat at some of the places listed in the book we got just for this trip.  I think we put on a few pounds, but then it was such good food at all the places.

Now that we are back home, the real work begins.  We will spend the rest of February packing up all of our worldly possessions and putting them into storage.  We will be working at selling the car as well.  By the time March arrives, we should be living out of our suitcases.  Will try to give at least one more update before we head off to our staging event.