We are currently meandering up the Mississippi River trying to stay ahead of the summer heat although we seem to be loosing the race. Photos of our current travels are posted almost daily on the Instagram feed @RambleJohn. We really do not have a plan other than which ever way the wind blows but on August 21 we will be just south of Franklin, Kentucky to see the total solar eclipse. After that we still need to be back in Columbus, Ohio in October to see doctors and friends before heading someplace warmer for the winter.
This third iteration covers our travels through the end of 2008. I'm still trying to get about a year a quarter depending on how much time I can break free. So far I've managed to sort through about 6000 pictures and describe almost 1300 on the various pages included in the site. Generally I'm organized by year, state, city, and attraction like the menu bar above. When I can find some external links I think might be interesting I've added them in the standard blue color. Links to other parts of this site are in green and using the menu bar you can basically get from anyplace to anyplace and maybe get totally lost. Have fun.
This site is planed as a work in progress. After retiring in 2006, we started sending reports back to the wonderful lady that had always watched the house while we traveled. Unfortunately Ruth Lambert is no longer with us so the major incentive for the reports is also gone and sending color copies to all our friends and relatives does start to get rather expensive hence this more convenient website presentation. As in our rambling, the reporting tended to be rather erratic and although it only got into 2010 it was reaching 300 pages and filling two 2 inch notebooks. That puts me seven years behind and four years to convert so its going to take considerable time if ever to get everything posted.
We retired in mid 2006 and decided to wander the USA to actually see what it really looks like. In some 40 years of actually working for a living John has had extensive travel but rare opportunities to see an area. Usually it's dark going into the plant and dark coming out so most of the scenery is the inside of a plant, motel room, or restaurant. Actually in the last six months before retirement John put in two 34 hour days; ya walk into the plant and walk out 34 hours later. So we sold the house and the majority of the "stuff" and are now OLD (medicare recipients), UNEMPLOYED (retired), HOMELESS (not destitute), and enjoying the nomad lifestyle. NO! we don't have an RV; we sold the house, we're not driving it. We have two tents to camp when we want, but mostly motel camp. Staying a week or a month tends to be economical most places and we are definitely budget travelers. Look for us where its warm but not real hot with a reasonable cost of living.