We are back with a journal update as we are ready to start year number two on this nomadic journey. We’ve been in the States for almost two months and have had a fantastic time. The highlight was the time we have been able to spend with friends and family in different parts of the country. It’s also been nice because it has felt like a vacation to what has become our normal life out on the road. Being familiar with the customs and locations, not having to translate labels in grocery stores, knowing where to find things in grocery stores – it really has felt like a vacation. But at the same time, we are ready to get back to the life we are now living, seeing as much of the planet as we can, and meeting new friends along the way.

Highlights for both of us over the last couple of months include:

• Florida family get-together our first Saturday home
• Pickleball mornings at Longwood Run, our 52-mile bike ride on Legacy Trail and running our old four-mile route in Sarasota
• Cookouts at Brian’s and Holly driving down to visit for one of them
• Spending time with A’Drea
• Thanksgiving with our Florida family
• Dinner at Bill and Jen’s with Duane and Kim
• Lightning hockey game with Brian. Camper, and Kip
• Melting Pot and Siegfried’s dinners with Mom
• Lunches at Main Bar Sandwich Shop
• Dinners and seeing the crew (Johnnie, Tonya, Steph, Leah, and Mike) at Wings n Things
• Buccaneers football game with Mickey and Rusty (and finding out that Dee and Neil were also there)
• Lunch with Vince and Lesley – she wrote a nice newspaper article about our journey so far following our lunch visit
• Dinner at Todd and Kelly’s
• Dinner at Thai Seed with Tim, Roy, Nick, and Jacinta
• Dinner with the family who bought our house in our old house
• Dinner at Michael and Donna’s
• Dinner and EPCOT weekend with Doug, Sara, and Jackson (including dinner at the Morocco pavilion at EPCOT)
• Wallyball night with Todd, Mike, Rick, Shawn, Chase, and Chad
• Haircuts by Beth
• Dinner with Rhonda at Wings n Things
• Florida family Christmas
• Spending time with Heather and John and their hospitality in Minneapolis
• Northern family Christmas and Becky’s hospitality
• Dinner with Dennis
• New Year’s Eve at Heidi and Jim’s with Pauline, Jonette, Raul and neighbors of Heidi and Jim – also their hospitality
• Sandy’s girls weekend with Sarah, Kathy, and Kathy in Stillwater & Sarah’s hospitality
• Lunch for Mike with Bob in Chippewa Falls
• Spending time with Janeal, Tim, Oliver, Phyllis, Norma, Matilda, and Hazel and their hospitality in Tempe, Arizona, dinner with Lori and Dave
• Spending time with Kevin, Jenn, Russ, and Sandy in Salt Lake City, Utah and their hospitality
• Dinner with J9
• Dinner with Jerame, Mandi, and Tori
• Spending time with the Coleys and their hospitality in Bozeman, Montana