Happy New Decade!

Happy New Year Everyone and Happy Decade as Well! I thought I would take a look back on the previous decade over the next few blogs. A nostalgic trip for me and hope I don’t bore you all to death.


The Decade (In installments)

2000

When this decade started it is safe to say I was a “home boy”. Other than an all expense paid trip to Viet Nam I had not ventured outside North America. I was very content and busy working and enjoying life in the NW. My dad and mom had been doing lots of stateside RV traveling and my older brother and sister were experienced world travelers but it didn’t seem to be in my genes.

I think a trip to visit Meghan in Honduras in July 2000 opened my eyes to the joys of travel and the wonderful people out there waiting to meet you. Actually I had applied for a tour of duty in Europe with my agency about this time and was accepted just as Tatum and I left for Honduras. Suzy stayed behind to start the packing and details for selling our home of 26 years in Seattle.

I left for Germany in October and Suzy followed in December of 2000 after retiring as an educator after 30 years (she started teaching at age 10). We spent New Year’s Eve 2001 in a small German village, just getting our feet on the ground in a strange but wonderful country.

2001

What a great year this was as we settled into our little row house in Naurod, Germany and Tom started his work travels on the European continent. Suzy started volunteering at the local DODS high school and worked that into a full time teaching job; so much for retirement. Meghan joined us in Germany on her return from the Peace Corps and Tatum graduated from WWU and went on to a volunteer job with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Nashville. 9-11 found us blown away by the German peoples’ compassion. We spent New Year’s Eve 2002 in Austria at a farm house above Kitzbuhl. Then it was on to the Czech Republic and Kharlovary for some spa and snow treatments.

2002

Suzy converts her teaching job to a high school counseling position and we spend lots of time in Belgium looking for old worn out things. The whole family spends spring break in Cinque Terra on the western Italian coast. Tate returns to the states afterwards. Tom expands his travels off the continent to Africa and on the continent to Bosnia, the Ukraine (accompanied by Meg and Tate), Moscow accompanied by Meg and again with Suzy. Suzy and Tom travel to all the Scandinavian countries in July, Tom’s running buddies from the states join him and Tatum for the Berlin Marathon in September. Meg’s Achilles injury keeps her sidelined. My mom died in November and the family circled the wagons in Cincinnati and supported each other and my dad.



To be continued……..