2019 Holiday Newsletter

I am so far behind on my travel updates that I decided to sum up the whole year and send out my Holiday Newsletter along with my wishes for everyone to have a happy and healthy holiday season.  Photo above from Siesta Key Beach in Florida, a bit different than our many cold Chicago Christmases!

OK, deep breath and here we go!  In January we headed south to sunny Florida. Spent New Year’s with good friends from Chicago in Naples and then onto Sarasota.  We stayed at our favorite RV resort, Sun N Fun, for a month. Our Son Ryan came down for a visit in late January and then we rented a house with Ray’s sister Judith and her husband Dan in February.  We really enjoy spending time with friends and family whenever possible as we travel the country.

Sue’s new hobby and dinner at cousin’s restaurant in Venice

Early March we headed off to Texas where we bought our new home on wheels, an Airstream Classic, and met up with some friends that we have made along our journey. The new rig took a lot to get used to, mostly backing into campsites.  Driving down the road was a breeze but it was a bit of a challenge to park it (and we’re still getting used to that!).

Then further west to one of the places that had been on our bucket list for a long time, the Grand Canyon.  I have learned that a lot of places you see pictures of you really need to be there in person to really appreciate it’s true beauty.

In May we started our Utah National Parks adventure.  This took us a complete month to see all 5 parks and again, they are amazing.  I never realized how different each place would be, after all they were just rock formations for the most part.  But different and amazing each one was!

As I had shared in my previous post, we went to “work” in Ridgway State park in Colorado until late August.  I hesitate to use the word work because it was a really fun time.  The other volunteers were so nice and we really formed some special friendships there.  Looking back we do really miss our friends and those snow capped mountains!

Our next destination after leaving Ridgway was the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks.  On our way there, we stopped at the Dinosaur National Monument and the Flaming Gorge, both in Utah and recommended by our fellow volunteers in Ridgway.

Stayed at a great campground for two weeks right between Yellowstone and Grand Tetons and feel like we pretty much got to see all of Yellowstone’s “must sees” as well a good amount of time in the Grand Tetons.  Got to go on some amazing hikes in the Tetons and the wildlife in these parks, wow!  We saw bison, black bears, elk, long horn sheep and Moose!

Amazing Yellowstone

“Grand” Tetons

After leaving Yellowstone we headed east thru South Dakota stopping at Custer State Park where we visited Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Devil’s Tower, and the Badlands.  So glad we got to experience each place.

Mt. Rushmore, Devil’s Tower and the Badlands

Then headed back to Chicago for a visit with friends and family. We were able to mark off a couple states on our way that were not filled in on our United States camping map, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.  It’s a challenge to work on filling in the blank states, but we’re getting there!

Wisconsin was really fun as we met up with my cousin Tracy and her partner, Mike, at Peninsula State Park in Door County Wisconsin.  All my life living in Chicagoland and I had never been to Door County before.  It was a really beautiful campground and state park.

Stayed in Chicago suburbs for a few days at two different forest preserve campgrounds that were really pretty nice.  Got to see old friends and had what is turning out to be an annual sibling reunion with Ray’s sister Judith and husband Dan and his brother Alan and wife Lori who came in from Ohio.  Unexpectedly, Ray’s niece, Katherine her husband Adam and daughter Alex and his nephew Mathew came in as well.  I have to say visiting with family and friends are the times that mean so very much as we travel around the country.  I think as I get older and as we travel this country mostly just the two of us and deal with the loss of family members, we really cherish the times with those who are close to us.

Me and my best friend since childhood and reunion with siblings and family

We then went to the Airstream factory in Ohio for some warranty work to be done as well as a tour of the factory.  The factory tour was interesting, all of the rivets on the Airstream are literally installed by hand.  It’s quite an anomaly in this day and age of automation.

Gold Airstream made in 1956 for owner’s wife 

After the airstream stop over, we headed to Pennsylvania to visit Ryan and Liz.  Along the way we stopped at the Flight 93 9/11 Memorial and Gettysburg.  Flight 93 was an amazingly moving memorial to that fateful day in our history.  They had an architectural contest for the design of the memorial and the memorial building was built following the flight path as the plane crashed into the field.  It was quite moving.

At Gettysburg we were able to stand on one of the actual battlefields and where President Lincoln gave his famous speech. History just comes alive in places like this.

Flight 93 Memorial with names of all who perished & field from Gettysburg

Enjoyed our visit with Ryan and Liz and got some amazing news, we’re going to be grandparents for the first time!!!  So excited, so we right away changed all our winter plans.  We originally were going to head back west and stay in Arizona and southern California but now we are going to stay on the east coast, spending the winter in Florida and go back up to Philadelphia for the baby’s arrival in the spring

So as we headed south we met up again with friends on the Blue Ridge Parkway just in time to see the peak of the fall colors.  Along the way, stopped at Mt. Airy which is where Andy Griffith grew up and basically is a duplicate of Mayberry.  Then decided we needed to hurry farther south as the temperatures were in the 30s and that’s just too cold!  So off we went to Charleston and Savannah.  Found Charleston to be another charming southern town.

Blue Ridge Parkway colors, Mt. Airy & colors of Charleston

Then off to Florida for some warm temps and sunshine.  The problem with this plan was that we didn’t have reservations and as most snowbird rvers know, you really have to book winters in southern Florida many months ahead of time.  As we were stopping here and there in central florida, we filled out an application for volunteer opportunities in the state parks hoping that something would come up that would give us a place to stay for a couple months and low and behold, we got a phone call for a volunteer spot in Weeki Wachee Springs State Park about an hour north of Tampa.  This is the park with the mermaids!  And here we are until February exchanging hours worked for camping.  Funny how things work out sometimes.

One of my many favorite pictures that Ray took, this one off the gulf coast

I do want to take a minute to remember all the loved ones that we’ve lost and are not able to be with us during this holiday time.  I know we have all lost someone close to us but I believe that we will always have our cherished memories and can keep our loved ones close at heart.

So, Happy Holidays and Wishes for Good Health and Happiness and Safe Travels in the Coming Year!

Christmas Boat Parade in Venice, FL