Hi everyone,

From July 16 – August 10 we traveled the country for our honeymoon road trip and it was an amazing time! These are just some of my favorite photos from the excursion, but we took many more. We camped two nights in Middleville, NY where we mined for Herkimer Diamonds and had great success. We stayed with family in Ohio and Michigan and then took the 4 hour ferry ride across Lake Michigan (wow!). We visited friends in Wisconsin before heading out to the Badlands in South Dakota. We played dress up at 1880 Town and had a sarsaparilla at the Saloon. We visited Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful and the Grand Prismatic Spring. We saw tons of wildlife, including Bison, Prairie Dogs, Coyotes, Pronghorn Antelope, Mule Deer, Moose, Elk, and various birds and plants. Sadly, we didn’t see a Grizzly bear! But I guess that means we were doing something right. We saw Woolly Mammoth and T-Rex and many other fossilized creatures of the past. We saw the Crazy Horse Monument as well as Mount Rushmore. We won $10 at a casino in Deadwood, SD. We hiked all around Devil’s Tower and watched through binoculars as people climbed to the top. We went on many hikes through canyons and mountains, swimming in ice cold water to cool off. We ate at some delicious restaurants and drank quite a few local brews. We swam in the hot springs. There’s so many little moments and thoughts that I wish I could convey to you all.

One thing that occurs to me after all our travels and museum visits is that we are living in the future. I have a sort of strange feeling of awe when I think about all the men and women of the past who lived incredibly difficult lives. We are so spoiled in the modern era, despite the fact that we have challenges of our own. We lift a handle and clean water (relatively speaking) comes out. We flip a switch and the lights come on. We drive to the store and we can expect a huge variety of food to be available for purchase. This is not the world of two hundred years ago. We rarely think about the incredibly complex economic system that makes all of these conveniences possible. Furthermore, I am struck with sadness when I think about the plight of the American Indian people. Similar to how I feel when I see how much of the wilderness has been clear cut by human beings. The challenge of our modern era is to strike a balance with nature; to try to live in harmony with the natural order instead of trying to control nature (which never works). The challenge of our era is not that we are starving to death, but rather we are poisoning ourselves to death with pesticides and heavy metals and all the rest of it. Our ancestors many have had the challenge of staying alive in the wilderness, but now our challenge is to restore some of that wildness before we lose it entirely…

All in all, we had such an amazing time, I am still processing it all. I am truly blessed to have found this woman who I call my wife. We make a great team and we continue to learn from each other. I am blessed to have her in my life and I am blessed to have amazing clients who care enough to ask how we are doing and how our lives are going. I wanted to share this with all of you for that reason. Thank you all.