We are extremely fortunate this year to see the changing colors of our home state, New York. The brilliant colors came in fast this season and reminded us of the remarkable beauty of our childhood home. It was also a testament of how fleeting these experiences can be and how lucky we are to witness them.
Some of you may know that our plans brought us into New York a little later in the year in an effort to watch the grand-daughter perform in the high school marching band. Second bass was her position this year and the highly respected section leader along with the snare will be her duty in her Sophomore year. We spent most of our weekends attending football games and competitions and Tez was more than elated to be in the surrounds of the marching band vibe. Tez's son was a member of the drum line during his high school stint and as fate would have it, the tradition of the drum line carried on through to the next generation.
A Saturday on the back roads of north central Pennsylvania made for Ken's first ever road rally race. He and daughter, Allison, snaked around some crazy roads for the day to catch a glimpse of pro-rally drivers guiding their suped up Subaru's (and other various makes) over winding roads and treacherous ditches. It was an interesting experience as the celebrities and the fans inter-mingle throughout the day. Unlike NASCAR, where access to the drivers is limited by how much your wallet can afford, there are no barriers to keep your average Joe from walking up to the race teams and begin chewing the fat over the race day shenanigans. It was very cool and a great way to spend the day.
Family is high on the priority list when we are in our hometown. So when we were not following the band around, our down time time was spent catching up on all of the latest news. And what goes best with family gabbing? Eating. We got to load up on the carbs with plenty of Italian food and there was no shortage of pub runs. From Harry Tufts to the Galley, our palettes were in stimulation overload.
Though we were slated to stay in Endicott for two months, the travel bug kept us moving. We took a quick side trip, sans Winne, to Champagne, Illinois to visit Tez's son Ryan, his wife Jami and to get the nickel tour of their new home. It was a short three day affair with, again, lots of gabbing and eating. Ken is somewhat familiar with Champagne as he was stationed just up the road at Chanute AFB. Though we didn't get to tour the airbase (shutdown due to budget cuts) we spoiled the furr babies, sampled the local grocery, took a day trip to a favorite root beer diner and later hit the nearby Lou Malnati's for Chicago deep dish. It was a quick visit, but a visit well worth the time we had.
During some time at Mom's, we sifted through a number of totes that were left behind in storage. The goal was to consolidate our respective genealogy research to take on the road with us. During the past few years out on the road, we had come across places and ideas to incorporate our research into our travels. So much of Tez's family is spread out across the U.S. that we wanted to be able to take advantage of the places we've been and we're going to be to get, head first, into the research. Ken also has family that drifted west, and so we unpacked and repacked to accommodate our mini genealogy library.
After wedding crashing, road rallying, karaoke-ing, salvage yard hunting, parading... it wasn't long before we had to begin packing up and heading down the road for another fun-filled season of traveling. This year our travel decision will not only be guided by our genealogy bug, but also a new way of planning our travel location. In the past it was the campgrounds that directed us where to go and for how long. This year the adventure will tell us how to travel given the state we're in. This will drastically slow down our trek across the states in lieu of exploring in one or two states about every three months. It will take some tuning, but we have a rough idea of how things may happen.
For now, a cold front has gripped most of the U.S. and Georgia is starting to get chilly. So we'll dip down into the Florida sun, and look for y'all on the other side of the holidays.