Final pictures posted~

Scroll down to the bottom and click on the link to view our final pictures. Thanks for tracking with us through this amazing journey!

Full circle~

For anyone who is still following our blog, I just wanted to share that we've arrived back in Fredericksburg, finally. Our official mileage for the trip was 12,208. We're both grateful for all that we were able to see and everyone we were able to spend time with. We are also very thankful for our protection as we traveled and not having any major problems with the car. Bastian plans to fly back to Germany on Monday afternoon, and if all goes well, I plan to go and visit him in November sometime; we will also travel to Bosnia together to visit my friends there. Thanks for tracking with us through our amazing journey!

Wyoming and beyond~

It has been a long time since we last made an entry to the blog-sorry about that! Our pace has been so rapid that it has made it difficult to keep up with this. From Wyoming we traveled on to the Black Hills of South Dakota and to Mt. Rushmore. It was wonderful to see that place, and we both considered it a necessary part of our North American discovery trip. The following day we drove on eastward and then northward into Minnesota. We spent the night in St. Cloud, MN the night before my friend David's wedding, and in the morning we drove on up to Brainerd to see everyone and enjoy the wedding; it was a wonderful celebration of Aani and David's wedding! It was truly one of the most lovely weddings I have ever attended. The reception went till midnight, and we headed then out to Emily, Minnesota to the Carlton household where we stayed for the following week; our time there was excellent in every way. We had relaxing days and fun-filled nights with the friends there; we were able to shoot Aaron's guns, ride on Uncle Steve's boat all over Ruth Lake, have a couple of game nights, and much more. It's always wonderful to see the guys up there, and it's difficult to leave as well. We left there and headed over through Wisconsin, and then into Michigan where we camped for the night in the national forest way up north. The next morning we continued onward and into Canada, arriving in Waterloo in the evening. We picked up my sister Deb and her friend Allison on Sunday, and so began our amazing visit there. The Munce family, all six children, their significant others, and my dad's widow, Joanne, showed us a wonderful time through the 12 days that we stay there; our friend Max Carney opened his home to us, so we enjoyed restful reprieves and good nights of sleep throughout the time there. We traveled north to North Bay, Ontario on the weekend, a five hour drive up, and visited our dear friends Jeremy and Tanya Lott and their four sons. Finally on Wednesday evening we drove Allie and Deb back to the airport, then returned to Waterloo for one more night; yesterday we left Canada, visiting the Niagara Falls on the way to Syracuse, New York, where we are currently. We plan to leave this morning and drive over into Vermont, New Hampshire, perhaps Maine, and into Boston. Finally we will travel down to Breaks Park on the border of Kentucky and Virginia to join my dear friends, Kevin and Pari Paluszak, for a few days before finally returning to Virginia. What an amazing trip this has been; it is nearly impossible to describe how wonderful it has been to have seen all that we have, met and spent time with all the wonderful people we have, and to have had safety and health throughout. I've just posted some pictures to go along with this blog-scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link if you want to check them out~enjoy!