..........the post-trip post.

Wow, it's been a long time since the last post. I took my WalMart road atlas and traced our route with a Sharpie marker. It amazed me at the distance we covered on the trip. We traveled just a little over 9,000 miles! I saw things that I have only dreamed of. People have asked what we enjoyed the most, and my response has always been the Pacific Northwest. Lisa and I are definitely going back to Washington and Oregon in our retired lives. The real joy of the trip was not what we saw, but the time we spent together as a family. Being in the car together for an average of 400 miles each day makes you talk. We had some great discussions with our kids as we saw some of the most amazing sights that America has to offer. Each of us had a digital camera to take pictures by our own perspective. It was fun to see the different pictures of the same site. The 24 days that we spent on this trip was by far the greatest blessing I have received in recent memory. Our trip was made possible by Lisa's grandmother. Mrs. Nash was one of the greatest individuals that I have ever met in my life. She passed away in December of 2006 and left us enough money to finance this trip. We debated on what to do with the money (save it for college, get a car for the kids, home improvement, etc). In the end, the choice was to take a family vacation across America; and what a great choice it was. Mrs. Nash was all about family, and we truly owe her our gratitude for bringing our family even closer. I hope that anyone who reads my ramblings does the same thing with their family some day. This will be one of my most cherished memories for the rest of my life.