Bush's Visitor Center Amounts to More than a Hill of Beans

This post represents another installment in The Big Switcheroo series – tales from last spring’s epic journey from the northeast to the Florida Keys and back – involving family, friends and an extraordinary range of adventures.

“Life is a journey, not a destination.”  I don’t know who said it, but I’ve heard that quote quite often, and I do believe it’s true.  So many times, we’re looking ahead to the next thing, the next year, the next smartphone, the next project, the next destination.  I’ll counter with another quote, one that has always struck a chord with me:  “Yesterday is history.  Tomorrow is a mystery.  Today is a gift; that’s why we call it the present.”  I don’t know who said that one either, but it hasn’t prevented the quote from remaining one of my favorites.  The savviest travelers among us know that, while our destination is the goal, the journey along the way can be just as rewarding.

The Big Switcheroo of 2019 - and How it All Worked Out

Around this time last year, Alan and I were suddenly in the midst of swapping out our vacation plans for the spring of 2019.  The year before, I had begun planning a camping loop through the states in the southeastern quarter of the U.S., not realizing that we would be out of town (WAY out of town) on the day Anya, our son Ryan’s girlfriend, graduated with her Master’s Degree after years of hard work.  We consider Anya our “bonus kid” since she and Ryan have been together for more than six years.  After learning the date of her graduation on Christmas Day in 2018, we rang in the New Year of 2019 by cancelling most of the reservations we already had in place for our spring 2019 travels.  Luckily, plans for the new trip – a journey through a number of Eastern states and all the way down to the Florida Keys – not only fell into place quickly, but also felt completely “right.”  I hadn’t yet achieved that level of comfort with the original plans for touring the southeastern states so, it seems, this trip was meant to be.