The kids are back in school, and as was the case when I was a child, I wanted to report on what we have been doing this year since our travel to New Zealand. We have repeated many of the same travels in 2023 as we did in 2022. My family is in the same places. As we visit these places, I will point out a few new sights along the way as well as a few favorites. We have been to Massachusetts and Rhode Island as well as to North Carolina. One such change was running a half marathon with my two oldest in Providence this year.

We were able to celebrate Christmas with our grandson and his birthday (two already!).

Visiting Block Island, which is part of Rhode Island, was a new experience for us. It was a nice day to walk the beach and bike around the island. Happy that one of our sons took the day off to enjoy the adventure with us on the Island.

We did learn about fog warnings. The boat taking us to the island used a fog horn several times. We were safe and enjoyed the island. I was pleased to stop in the visitor’s center and receive a discount on the rental bikes. We also received good information on where to go and what to see at the center.

After the sun came out and the fog cleared, we had a satisfying bike ride, including riding to all four points of the compass on the island. At the end of our ride, we enjoyed some ice cream before going back to the harbor and turning in the bikes. All in all, a good day at the beach and on an island.

The way to and from our house to visit family in Massachusetts and Rhode Island is through Pennsylvania. We have gone several ways, including going though Erie, PA, the most northern edge, and taking I-76 on the southern route as well as I-80 through the heart of the commonwealth.

As we get older, we cannot drive straight through (like our kids sometimes do) for a 15-hour (not including stopping) car ride. We break it up. Where to stop in Pennsylvania is a planning challenge; it can be fun to think about alternative stops in the state.

We often take a different route home than we did on the way to Massachusetts. I have a friend who lives near Wilkes-Barre, not too far out of our way. It helps to have a place to spend the night. He and I recently stopped at Ricketts Glen State Park for a hike before continuing home for me. It was beautiful to hike, and had so many waterfalls. I am not sure I would have ever stopped at this park without Rob pointing it out for me. In reading about this park, it was slated to become a National Park before the Depression era budget cuts and WWII began heating up. Pennsylvania has turned this into a magnificent and underappreciated park.

We stopped to hike here in July as well, but we did not make it back to the car before the rain came. Fortunately, we had a set of dry clothes in the car.

I ran the Great Appalachian Valley 10K, which also counted for my virtual Big Ten 10K run. As we were driving to Massachusetts, we enjoyed the Shippensburg campus and the disc golf courses. The Great Appalachian Valley run was small (about 250 runners); we were happy that we could all start early even though we were running on a rail trail. It worked out great for us.

We have been back to North Carolina visiting our newlywed couple. Again, a fun trip and not too much new. We did get a family trip to one of the Charlotte area disc golf courses. 

Other repeated travel this year has been to visit my mom and my in-laws as well as family and friends along the way.

Other fun:

Traveling on holidays can be interesting. We were in Pennsylvania for Valentine’s Day and had a great meal out; and I spent the day (in the car) with my lovely wife.  Even more creative, on Christmas day we had dinner in the hotel in Pennsylvania, as all the restaurants are closed on Christmas day. My wonderful wife planned ahead, so we had all the trimmings for a fancy dinner in the lobby, alone. It was great.

I participated (a repeated story) in the Tri-State Running Group. This year the Frozen 5k went off as planned. The Heart Mini was cold but provided the right distance training (a 15k run) as we prepared for the half-marathon. We had several runs in and around Cincinnati with the running group.

As part of my training for the Providence half-marathon, I was able to do a training run in Providence. It was an eight-mile preview of the half-marathon course. This is a similar process that my running group was doing in Cincinnati on their half-marathon course. It was only 11 degrees when we started, but it was my opportunity to train and experience running on the Providence course.

I ran the Red’s Run, a 10K as part of my training that benefits the Cincinnati Red’s Foundation. This run made my training schedule to get ready for the 10K in July.

I played disc golf at a few new courses (for me). My favorite from my recent travels though Pennsylvania is the Faylor Lake DiscGolfPark. This is the top-rated free disc golf course in the world according to the 2023 UDisc ratings. I agree.

I did get to play the number one UDisc course in the world, Maple Hill. Based on my game, I decided to move up from Red (easy course) to White (moderately difficult course) and when I did, I was so excited to see that I was already playing well at the next level on this course.  I needed to move up. I am not yet ready for the next two harder levels on this course.

We were able to visit friends as well on our travels. It is wonderful to reconnect with friends in person.

The summer means bikes, and we took our bikes to Massachusetts. We enjoyed (again) the ride to Dighton Rock and the East Bay trail in Rhode Island.

We spent the evening at the Old Silver Beach on Falmouth (Cape Cod). The water was refreshing and we got to see our oldest play ultimate Frisbee while we played with our grandson.

Lessons learned:

We have choices on what road to travel, flying or by car. It is important to explore alternative options. In May, on the way home from Massachusetts, I stopped at a disc golf course at a brewery and picked up some tasty beer. It is a better experience to be open to the possibilities.

See you on the road.