When our family moved from Brussels, Belgium to Falls Church, Virginia in November 1995, the plan was to retire in ten years after having built up enough equity in our home to be able to pay cash for a home in a lower cost area. From 1995 to 2005 we visited all 50 states to find the perfect place to retire. We didn't consider anywhere that was hot and humid; i.e., anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains. We finally decided on Woodland Park, Colorado, as it met most of our criteria: good climate, beautiful scenery, friendly people, centrally located, plenty of activities and places to visit nearby. I retired on August 3, 2005. As we were packing our household goods to move, our cat Prissy, who we got in 1984 just after moving to Brussels, and ... read more

9 April 2004 Friday. We slept in and after a wonderful breakfast at the Holiday Inn restaurant. I had forgotten to call my credit card companies to tell them I would be in Europe, and by now was on my last card; the others having been cancelled. I called Linda to have her call the companies and tell them where I was and to reactivated the cards. She was well aware that the cards had been cancelled as she tried to pay for groceries and the cards were not accepted. We hit the road about 10 am, taking the autoroute north to Belgium. We arrived at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) near Mons about noon and told the guards that we needed to go to the hospital, so that the kids could see where ... read more

In November 1995, before leaving Belgium, I promised the kids we would visit our former home in Overijse before Tamara graduated from high school. As Tamara would be graduating in June 2004, I bought tickets for the entire family to fly to London and tour London, the Cotswolds, and Kent in England; Paris, France; and Brussels and Overijse, Belgium; and then Basingstoke, England to visit friends before our return flight. When Linda saw the itinerary she stubbornly refused to go with us. She stayed home to garden and spring clean. She was right; she never would have survived the trip. 4 April 2004 Sunday. We set our alarms for 5 am and made it to Dulles in time for the daytime flight on British Airways to London Heathrow. This was the first time we took the ... read more

Tamara was in her junior year of high school so we decided to check out colleges in which she had shown some interest in the Southeast. 12 April 2003 Saturday. Our first stop was Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. She wasn’t impressed, but Rosanna and Will were. Rosanna eventually went there and graduated in 2010. From Blacksburg we drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to Asheville, North Carolina, where we spent the night. The girls stayed at the hotel and got supper from room service. Will and I explored the town. We stopped at a Chinese restaurant and ordered. Will told the waitress this was the second best meal he had ever eaten. She asked what the best was. He replied, “I haven’t eaten it yet.” Back at the hotel, there was a prom ... read more

Over Spring Break 2001 we visited my sister Sue, husband Rob, and their kids Alyssa and Brendan, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. We went to Sanibel Island and then to Disney World and Universal Studios. As summer approached we didn’t have any vacation plans. We had sworn off road trips, but as I contemplated the map of the U.S. I realized that we had been to every state except for Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Alaska. This would mean at least one more road trip; but we decided to cater to the kids activities and not stay at B&Bs. So we decided to go camping and stay at nice hotels with swimming pools. I check the internet and made reservations for the campground at Bear Head Lake State Park, near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. 28 ... read more