Happy Thanksgiving- 100 days and counting.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family.  We miss you all and look forward to seeing everyone upon our return home (sometime in the middle of next year).  We hope all of you are enjoying your holiday and are able to surround yourself with those you love most.  This Thanksgiving will be the most unique Thanksgiving of our lives, away from both family and home.  We are grateful and thankful for all of you and though you are all far away physically, you are close to us in our hearts.  To our great blessing, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day in Nashville Tennessee with our Child Ambassador friends, Paula and Wendy Hemphill, and for this we are grateful.

We were privileged with the company of some of Mel’s family for an early Thanksgiving Celebration on November 10th.  Mel’s parents flew to Pennsylvania, where we all met up with Mel’s Aunt Patty, Uncle David & Aunt Kathy and Uncle David.  It was such a joy to spend time with family away from our own home.

Our apologies for getting behind on our blog (again) and leaving you all in the dark.  We are still healthy and well and we are still on our projected course of travel.  No different than “normal life” back home, we are busy, busy, busy, trying to balance the demands of our new lifestyle while raising our family.

I will try to give an abridged yet insightful account of our last weeks of travel.

After leaving NYC we headed down the coast of Jew Jersey and took some down time from the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple.  We spent an afternoon on the board walk and beach of Atlantic City, NJ.  Mel’s favorite movie as a young middle school girl was set in the city of Atlantic City, and she was able to realize a childhood fantasy of visiting this “magical” location.

Next we headed to Philadelphia, a city that I (Josh) liked immediately because of the well developed bike lanes throughout the city and points of interest.  After I toured the city alone on my bike, peddling 30 miles around town in the early morning hours, I rode back to our motor home and convinced Mel and the kids that biking was the best way to travel around the city.  We rode to and from the historic districts of Philadelphia that day together as a family.  We saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin’s former property, and original manuscripts of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation.  And, by my request, we finished off the day with a delicious Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich!

Valley Forge was our next stop, where we participated in a ranger lead tour through part of the historic landmark on a cold, sunny day.  We walked through tiny shelters in the same location where revolutionary soldiers camped the winter of 1776.  We hid out on the high walls of a redoubt, visited the winter location of the then Commander-in-Chief, George Washington, and ended our day in the Washington Memorial Chapel.  Though we would have liked to stay longer, the one day we had there was well worth the time.

We traveled to Delaware for a short respite as we hung out with Mel’s friend Javy, enjoying a picnic lunch, a clean shower at their house, and an evening of spaghetti and beer.

Almost as busy as NYC, we spent 3 days in Washington D.C.  I could endlessly drone on-and-on about all that we saw- just look at the pictures and you will know that much fun was had and that 3 days is not long enough.

Also, while in D.C. we went out to dinner to celebrate our 100th day on our national road trip (Nov. 8th).  It’s hard to believe that it has already been so long since we have been home.