My wife and I did some traveling early on. We went to San Francisco in January, 1979, and we got engaged while there. We went to Austria for our honeymoon in late 1979. Then in 1981 we went to England because we could stay with Cheryl’s Aunt and Uncle. But then I went into graduate school at the University of Michigan, and that was the end of traveling for a while. From grad school I went to being an underpaid Assistant Professor of Economics, and then my career took a turn and I eventually wound up as a project manager. My focus was to keep working and keep the bills paid. But in 2014 Cheryl told me that I should stop talking about “someday” going to Ireland and just do it. So in 2015 we went with my brother and his wife, and we got the bug. The following year we took a boat-and-bike tour through The Netherlands and Belgium. In 2017 we took a tour out west and brought our niece along. On this trip we saw the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, and Rocky Mountains National Park.
We began talking about buying an RV to do some more traveling around the country, and in 2018 we rented one for a week in the Traverse City area (northern Michigan), and got an idea of what we liked and didn’t like. Then in May 2019 Ford decided I was ready to retire. And to celebrate our 40th anniversary we took a Rhine River cruise with Viking. Then in February 2020 we got away from the winter cold with a 2 week Caribbean cruise. Of course, the whole world shut down shortly after we got home, but now we have bought an RV and we’re looking to take a trip this winter to get away from the Michigan cold.
