Travel

Growing up in a small central Texas town made my family wish for something bigger which has carried over into my adult life. The highlights of my earlier years were the annual "lets get out of Texas as quickly as we can" treks in June, July or August (the hottest part of the year in Texas). Our travels always sent us West, but the quickest way was through Amarillo, Texas. Since mom's uncles, cousins etc. lived in the neighborhood, it made a good first day out on the road with our camper in tow. After you've been to the Panhandle of Texas once, you've pretty much seen everything there is to see. Interesting sites from a scenery perspective would be Palo Duro Canyon, Lake Meredith, and well, miles and miles of Texas ranch and oil country.  Despite all my travels in earlier years I did not learn this lesson and ended up after high school graduation going to school at Lubbock Christian College (now University). God Bless Mac Davis for writing a song that will always be dear to my heart, "Lubbock, Texas in my Rear View Mirror."
If you want to see the natural beauty of the Western United States then you need to head into the National Parks. If you can only visit one, it should be Yellowstone National Park.  This is one of the most incredible places I've ever been.  But on the other hand, if you've got lots of time to travel and see our wonderful natural resources, check out the list of National Parks and Monuments listed below which I have visited.  Grand Canyon is called 'grand' for a reason; Crater Lake is the bluest blue I have ever seen; the biggest trees in the world are in Sequoia; and the most visited National Park is of course Rocky Mountain National Park.

On our annual treks, were were never daunted by a few miles on the car (one summer we drove over 4000 miles in 40 days).  So traveling outside of the continental United States, but still by car, you can visit the Rocky Mountains in Canada.  I would highly recommend Glacier National Park and Banff National Park. 

National Parks and Monuments I have visited:

Alibates Flint Quarry - Amistad - Antietam - Apostle Islands - Arches - Assateague - Badlands - BW Parkway - Bandelier - Bent's Old Fort - Big Bend - Black Canyon of the Gunnison - Bryce Canyon - Canyon de Chelly - Canyonlands - Capulin Volcano - Carlsbad Caverns - Chamizal - Colorado - Crater Lake - Craters of the Moon - Death Valley - Devils Tower - Dinosaur - Everglades - Florissant - Fort Davis - Gila Cliff Dwellings - Glacier - Grand Canyon - Grand Teton - Great Sand Dunes - Guadalupe - Hawaii Volcanoes - Jewel Cave - Lake Meredith - Lincoln Memorial - Little Bighorn - Mesa Verde - Mount Rainier - Mount Rushmore - National Mall - Natural Bridges - Olympic - Petrified Forest - Rainbow Bridge - Rocky Mountain - Saguaro - Scotts Bluff - Sequoia and Kings Canyon - Shenandoah - USS Arizona - Vietnam Veterans - Washington - White Sands - Wind Cave - Yellowstone - Yosemite - Zion

International Travel

I have continued this wanderlust of travel into my adult life.  Of course a career in the United States Army helped to broaden my travel perspective.  I have lived or worked in South Korea, Germany, France, Austria, Nigeria, Italy, Japan, Panama and El Salvador.  All of these places have created many memories and have helped me fully understand how different and yet how much the same people are all over the world.