Our final national park of this trip was Mount Rainier National Park which was our 47th national park to visit together. It was stunning. Every pullout on the scenic road gave us amazing views of Mount Rainier. Our first stop was in the Longmire Historic District.

North Cascades National Park was our 45th park that we have visited together. North Cascades is about an hour northeast of Seattle. North Cascades is the 2nd least visited of the national parks in the US. It is the least visited of those parks in the 48 contiguous states.

We both woke up not feeling great but after a small breakfast we started our 2 1/2-hour drive to our 44th national park, Glacier National Park, in Montana. We saw mountains, glaciers, tunnels, waterfalls, lakes, and streams as we traveled the Going to the Sun Road on a cold (55 degrees), cloudy, and rainy day.

This day was about Wall Drug Store, Badlands National Park, and a half day car ride to North Dakota.

Today was a travel day to get us 400 miles from Cody, Wyoming to Rapid City, South Dakota. We started our day exercising in the fitness center then began our drive. I was able to drive 8o mph for the first time, legally.

We began this day by driving 1 1/2 hours to Yellowstone National Park which became our 40th national park that we have visited together. We started our day at Yellowstone with a brisk 45 degree viewing of Old Faithful Geyser. There was a good crowd, but we were able to get a front row viewing.

We had been planning a national park trip to the west and northwest United States for about a year. Our plan was to visit 7 states, 3 national monuments, and 9 national parks in just less that 3 weeks.

We spent a lot of time this summer with our daughter and our three grandchildren. Here were some of our favorite activities.

Did I mention my granddaughter loves to swim. I try to invite her over to our community pool at least once a week to swim. She is a fantastic swimmer and loves to jump, dive, and get tossed around in the pool. We have also been known to stop at Pink Mama’s for ice cream after swimming.

Throughout the month of May we made good use of our Summer Fun Pass at Topgolf. We went together, with our daughter, and with our grandsons. While I hit the ball farther, Tammie is more accurate and hits the closer targets. She beats me two out of every three games. So far, we are having a great time together.

It was our honor to attend the Bob Jones University Faculty and Staff Retiree Dinner hosted by students in the Culinary Arts major. The students did a fantastic job of cooking and hosting the dinner. It was nice to see the 94 faculty and staff retirees who attended.

March came in like a lamb with beautiful weather. We took a hike at our local state park, Paris Mountain. It was a gorgeous day with temperatures in the upper 70s. The trails at Paris Mountain still showed damage from Hurricane Helene.

We were originally planning to come for the month of January, but because of Tammie’s mom’s surgery, we postponed until February. Our last monthly stay was also at the Anderson Ocean Club in December of 2023. We got a very good offseason and monthly rate. The Anderson has a well-equipped fitness center, suites have full kitchens, nice ocean view balconies, indoor and outdoor pools, and indoor and outdoor hot tubs.

The day after Christmas, Tammie’s mom broke her hip at her assisted living apartment. A few days later she had surgery, and we arrived in Pittsburg, TX on New Year’s Eve. Tammie’s mom was in a hospital in Longview, TX about an hour away.

We had a relatively quiet Christmas with our grandchildren and daughter-in-law at home. Our granddaughter attended our church’s Christmas Eve service with us. She wore the same dress her aunt last wore 25 years ago. After Christmas we were resting up from our trip to Florida and planning our one-month trip in January to Myrtle Beach. However, things didn’t quite work out that way.

We continued our Florida trip by driving to Orlando. While driving we stopped at a rest area that had a very interesting alligator statue. Before getting to Orlando, we stopped at the Bok Tower Gardens.

Toward the end of November and early December we planned to drive to Florida and visit the three Florida National Parks. All three of these parks are built around water. We also planned to stop at Key West.

Our October began with pickleball. Tammie and I try to play once a week. But we also have been helping our grandsons learn to play. They have gotten pretty good. Our first time playing in October was just two weeks after Hurricane Helene.

September began with a trip to Darlington, SC. One of my bucket list items was to get my wife to attend a NASCAR race with me. Mission accomplished thanks to our daughter-in-law who gifted us with tickets to Darlington Raceway and the Southern 500.

In mid-July we took a morning trip to the northernmost part of Greenville County in South Carolina to hike and investigate two waterfalls. Our first stop was at Twin Falls. As the name implies there are two separate falls at one location. From the parking area, it is about a 1/4 mile easy hike.