Dear Faithful Followers:
After a month and a half back home and off the road, we're finally settling back into the homebody rhythms. But before we settle down for a long winter's nap, I thought I'd first review our seven months on the road (which will also mostly double as our Christmas card letter) and then get you all excited about 2015 by letting you know what's in store for us and AB1 next summer. Here goes:
There were a lot of numbers for AB1 involved in 2014:
-nights on the road: 214
-miles driven: 10,945
-miles our golf clubs vacationed and were never used: 10,945
-states visited (in which we camped at least 1 night): 24
-new states visited: 13
-total states visited over last two years: 30
-new states to visit in 2015: 7 (leaving us just AL, AK, AR, CT, DE, KS, KY, MS, RI, VT, VA, WVA; Hawaii doesn't count for obvious reasons))
-campsites: 42 (stayed in same Flagstaff, AZ, campground on two occasions)
-crossword puzzles done while driving between campgrounds: 65 (of which we got 46 correct)
-baseball games watched: 19 (10 major league, 6 minor league, 2 Little League World Series, and 1 vintage (1864 rules and uniforms))
-major league stadiums out of 30 yet to visit: 4 (Angels, Giants, Padres, Mariners-we'll see all 4 next summer)
-stage plays seen: 19 (of which 8 were on Broadway and 3 of those were Tony Best Play winners)
-concerts attended: 10 (including visits to both the new and the classic Grand Ol' Opry's, Nashville, TN, and concerts by The Oak Ridge Boys, Branson, MO, and Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons, Hyannis, MA
-relatives visited: 31
-friends visited: 16
-Carleton College alumni visited: 8
-softball tourneys played in: 2 (one champion and one third-place)
The highlights of our Marco-Polo-like trek were many and varied. We stood on such hallowed ground as the San Jacinto battlefield (TX independence); Fort Sumter (Charleston, SC-Civil War start); Cameron Indoor Arena (Duke University basketball, NC); the Wright brothers 1st flight take-off and landing sites (Kitty Hawk, NC); the Boardwalk (NJ); the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park (NY); Pilgrim's first landing (Corn Hill, MA); Marconi's first transatlantic broadcast location (Cape Cod, MA); and the original London Bridge (AZ). History, boy, it was everywhere.
We visited famous homes such as O'Henry's (Austin, TX), Thomas Edison's (Ft. Myers, FL), and President Taft's (Cincinnati), and also some quite historical buildings: the President Lyndon Johnson Library (Austin, TX), Jean Lafitte's blacksmith shop (New Orleans), Independence Hall (Philadelphia), The Anchor Bar (Buffalo, NY, home of the original "Buffalo Wings), and the Hershey (PA) chocolate factory.
Diedre and I also managed to take in the great outdoors, always necessary when one is roughing it in a 35' motorhome complete with fireplace, microwave, two flat-screen TV's, refrigerator, and oven. We swam in the world's largest natural spring pool (TX), endured a tornado (FL), climbed Stone Mountain (GA), toured the beautiful Acadia National Park (ME), walked on Goat Island (Niagara Falls, NY), climbed down into a majestic slot canyon (UT), walked a loop around the iconic Left Mitten of Monument Valley (UT), and finally made it to the ultra-scenic Canyon de Chelly (AZ). We paid our respects at the following graves: golfer Bobby Jones (Atlanta), baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson (SC), Arlington National Cemetery, statesman Ben Franklin (Philadelphia), President Ulysses S. Grant (NY), the World Trade Center Memorial, and novelist James Fenimore Cooper (Cooperstown, NY). We visited a few museums (The National Archives, The American History Museum, and the Holocaust Museum, all in Washington, D.C.) and saw remnants of the Civil War ironclad ship, "The Monitor," at The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum on the Outer Banks, NC. We (make that "I") even made it to three national halls of fame and museums: baseball (Cooperstown, NY), golf (St, Augustine, FL), and track and field (New York City). We also were able to either actually touch (T) or at least come within a foot (F) or two of The Gutenberg Bible (F-Austin, TX), the Ebbets Field (T-Brooklyn Dodgers stadium) 1913 cornerstone, the gravestone of my great-great-great-great-great-
But beyond seeing all these great sites, it was really the more personal events that are most memorable to us: Diedre meeting Broadway legend Tommy Tune ON-STAGE (Houston); me scraping the side of Air-Barty One against an all-too-narrow bridge (Cape Cod); our RV park manager bringing freshly-caught-and-steamed lobsters right to our door 3 nights for the ridiculously low price of $7/pound; for a moment, Diedre being the easternmost person on land in the U.S. (Eastport, ME); long-time friends Mary Harberts and Jo Gemmill surprising DK on her 65th birthday by showing up unannounced (of course it was unannounced ... it was a surprise!) on a showboat in Branson, MO; zip lining for the first time in our lives on the actual day DK qualified for Medicare; volunteering for a week at Best Friends, the largest animal rescue in the country (UT); and me burning my fingers on a Navajo stove in a native hut called a "hogan" (I luckily recovered in a day or two.)
All in all, it was a great time, but we were exhausted when we pulled into the driveway at our Cave Creek, AZ, home. Luckily, we have our memories (such as they are) and this blog to remind us of all the great times. We are so thankful to have been able to make it this far and that we didn't wait any longer to go after our dream.
Now for 2015. Here's our tentative schedule below. If we're going to be in your area, make sure to put us on your calendar and let us know what days work for you to be annoyed by us. Also, if any of you have any suggestions of places to see or great restaurants in the following areas, please let me know. We do keep a list.
2015 (TENTATIVE) AB1 ITINERARY:
April 24-26 - Yuma, AZ
April 26-May 3 - San Diego, CA - Padres Game
May 3 - May 10 - Anaheim, CA - Angels Game
May 10-May 17 - Los Angeles, CA
May 17- May 18 - Fresno, CA
May 18 - 24 - San Francisco/Oakland area - Giants game
May 24-27 - Klamath Falls, OR
May 27-31 - Cannon Beach, OR
May 31-June 7 - Bainbridge Island/Seattle area - Mariners game - last of the 30 stadiums!!
June 7- June 13 - Coeur d'Alene, ID
June 13 - June 20 - West Glacier, MT
June 20-June 22 - Bozeman, MT
June 22-June 25 - Custer, MT
June 25-June 27 - Williston, ND
June 27-June 28 - Minot, ND
June 28-July 1 - Fargo, ND
July 1-July 26 - Minneapolis, MN
July 26-August 2 - Dyersville, IA
August 2 -August 9 -Sioux City, IA
August 9 - August 13 - Rapid City, SD
August 13-August 16 - Sheridan, WY
August 16-August 23 - Yellowstone, WY
August 23 - August 30 - Grand Teton, WY
August 30 - September 6 - Jackson, WY
September 6- September 13 - Twin Falls,ID
September 13-September 20 - Provo, UT
September 20 - September 27 - Canyonlands, UT
September 27- October 1 - Bryce Canyon, UT
October 1-October 4 - Mesquite, NV - softball tourney
October 4-October 10 - St. George, UT - softball tourney
October 10 - home to Terravita
So till the next blog starting our year 3 on the road is posted in early May, take care. We'll talk to you then.
Diedre and Alexx
