WE ARE HOME!

November 1^st, 2019 to March 3^rd, 2020

       4 months, 3 days

               6,105 total miles driven

Autumn to Summer to Spring 

We left with a vague idea of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see, and a Google map full of pushpins marking anything and everything, that after 30 seconds of research, sounded like it might be interesting. 

We came back with lots of amazing experiences and about a million photos. So many things exceeded expectations. 

This is the original planning map. Blue indicates something we didn’t get around to. We updated a pushpin to green if we went there. Yellow marks a shul. A tent icon marks a place to camp. Knife and spoon is Costco, Trader Joe's, or restaurant (just a few). Bicyclist or hiker icon - self explanatory. Etc. 

This map shows what we did. 

And this shows just Florida, where we spent 12 weeks.

It's very weird to be home.

Surprising Connections on Our Trip

There were lots of surprising connections between various parts of our trip. Some examples:

1. We expected Forrest Gump trivia in Savannah GA as well as in Beaufort SC. But then there was an unexpected reference in NC - signs for republican Lt. Gov Dan Forest’s gubernatorial campaign: “Run” ”Forest” “Run”.

2. At Monticello VA, we learned about how Uriah Levy, first Jewish Commodore of the United States Navy, saved Jefferson’s Monticello. 
    Later, in Savannah GA, we learned how (long story short) in 1733, 5 months after Savannah was founded by James Oglethorpe, a boat of 41 Jews including 34 Portuguese Marranos, landed at Savannah. It was during an epidemic, and the colony’s doctor had died. Oglethorpe originally was not going to allow the Jews to land, but when he found out there was a doctor, Dr. Diego (Samuel) Nunes, on board, the colony policy of “No Jews Allowed” became “Welcome Jews!”

    The connection between the two is that Dr. Samuel Nunes was the great grandfather of Uriah Levy.

3. The really cool connection between the Kennedy Space Center and the Wright brothers was pointed out to us at Kitty Hawk by ranger Amiee Ginnever. “Orville Wright lived long enough to learn of Yeager’s breaking the sound barrier. Also, Neil Armstrong, on the Apollo 11 mission, took fragments of the Wright brothers' 1903 flyer took to the moon and back.”

   Here is Ranger Amiee holding up the famous photo of the first powered flight on the field where the flight took place, with the markers showing how far the first four flights went.

From the slideshow in the visitor center 

 Bob taking flight at the monument, 

Assisting Orville (or was it Wilbur? I always get them mixed up) on the first flight,

And doing stunts on the first flight 

Kennedy Space Center 

Beam me up, Scotty

Here's a tie in from another trip. This was on our way home from New Mexico last June, taken on I 70 in Indiana, near New Lisbon, birthplace of Wilbur.