Post 1000

 Blogger has kindly informed me that this will be my 1000th blog post, so just like my 500th post, I thought I'd commemorate the occasion with a different type of post.

My goals for the blog have changed a bit. The first goal has not changed: I want to provide information that will encourage and motivate people to seek out places they would like to visit and then to go. 

My second goal changed after my parents passed away. Dad had hundreds of slides and lots of silent home movies, but he and Mom just put them in boxes and stored them away without much context other than a year and a state. My sisters and I spent hours going through those images trying to figure out more than a label such as "Pacific Ocean 1966." So I still want to provide a sense of what it is like to experience a place, but I want to provide some context for my daughter when she has the task of sorting through the snippets of life I will one day leave behind. Hopefully, this online journal will make that task a bit easier.

My parents provided me with a great start in life and beyond. On Post 500 I wrote:

Some of the many legacies my parents have provided for me include a love of reading, a love of travel, and a sense of place. I grew up and still live near Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Some of my earliest recollections are of camping in Cades Cove in the Smokies and later at Myrtle Beach, SC. When I was a kid, my parents took the family on four road trips across the country to visit family on the west coast. In those days before the Interstate Highway System was essentially completed, imagine two adults and four children in a sedan pulling a travel trailer on a two-lane road. I'm sure it wasn't a vacation for my mom, but I loved it. Along the way, we visited several of the western national parks. Including other trips over the years, they have taken me to all 50 states. I am so blessed that they have provided me with so many wonderful memories in childhood and beyond.

When I started the blog, there were 58 national parks in the United States. Now there are 63. I've been fortunate enough to visit 55 of them. Since starting the blog almost 10 years ago in May 2012, we've visited and I've written about:

37 National Parks

12 National Monuments

11 National Historic Sites

6 National Historical Parks

4 National Memorials

5 National Seashores

3 National Battlefields

3 National Military Parks

3 National Preserves

2 National Lakeshores

and 9 other NPS sites

In addition, we've visited 6 National Forests and 1 National Grassland administered by the US Forest Service.

I've also written about locations in the 35 states in green below.

About three years ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. I've seen what a toll the disease takes as both my Dad and my father-in-law had it. While there is no cure, medication has helped keep many of my symptoms under control. We've had to make some adjustments such as driving fewer hours per day, using a tripod much more often, and hiking less strenuous trails. We plan to continue traveling as often as we can for as long as we can.