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.

Our busy summer began by returning to one of our favorite places when we toured South Carolina as part of our Ultimate Outsiders experience in 2023. Oconee Station Historic Site was one of our top five experiences last year. However, when we went the two historic buildings were closed.

Our 31st national park was Lassen Volcanic. It has a lot of geothermal activity like the pictured boiling mud pot. We planned to do a lot of hiking to see all the geothermal activity. Unfortunately, the main park road was only open for one mile because of snow accumulation.

After our trip to Channel Islands, we decided to take a rest day. We traveled to Bakersfield where we spent the day with Tammie’s niece and her family. That evening we drove towards Pinnacles National Park. This is the smallest of the nine California national parks.

This was our longest and most national parks visited trip so far. We planned to visit 12 national parks, 2 national monuments, a river, a bridge, and a road. All of this in about 2 weeks.

When did going to the Zoo become about things other than seeing animals? We took all three of our grandchildren to the Riverbanks Zoo but for the express purpose of doing the ropes course and the climbing wall.

In April we planned a trip to see 4 national parks in the southwest and do some sightseeing on our way to Texas.

2024 started quiet and slow. But it soon became the busiest year of our life.

In 2022 we spent the month of November in Myrtle Beach. This year we decided to mix things up and try spending the month of December in Myrtle Beach. We got a really good off-season rate on a two-bedroom condo at the Andersen Ocean Club and Spa.

A week before Thanksgiving we drove to Tammie’s mom’s house just outside of Pittsburg, TX. We had Thanksgiving dinner with Tammie’s mom, two cousins, and her aunt.

In October 2023 we had a trip planned to Missouri to attend the C.O.P,S. Parents’ Retreat. While there we also planned to visit Hot Springs National Park and Branson, MO.

It was a busy fall for travel. We started off in September with another trip to Dollywood but this time our daughter went with us. Can you tell we purchased a 1 year pass to Dollywood?