The adventure begins…
I was lucky to grow up with parents who showed me what it’s like to love to learn. From an early age, I looked forward to the weekly library trips my brother and I would take with my mom after piano lessons. We were allowed to get half our age in books (rounding up of course) and I could never wait to turn a year older.
That love of learning continued to grow as we had the opportunity to for the pages of the books to come to life. My mom was a teacher so over the summer and on weekends we’d visit historic homes, national parks, east coast battlefields, farming villages, local gardens, and into nature. If there was an opportunity to learn, we were there.
Some highlights from childhood that I still love to visit as an adult are Landis Valley Farm Museum, Indian Echo Caverns, Middle Creek, Strasburg Railroad, Mount Vernon, Monticello, the Lehigh Canal, Shenandoah National Park, Bedford, and Jim Thorpe.
After a brief reading for fun hiatus during college (because college textbooks took over), I got back into the rhythm of reading and started to explore books to help myself develop personally. Topics like leadership, faith, habits, communication, goal setting, began to take over my bookshelves.
As I started traveling on my own after college, I found that I could combine my love of travel and my desire to learn about the area I was traveling to by reading biographies, travel guides, historical accounts, and event historical fiction. Over the years, I’ve read books about the mining in Colorado, the Native tribes of the Southwest, the women of the Oregon Trail, the history of ranching in Texas, how the Grand Canyon was geologically formed, John Muir’s travels through the Sierras and Alaska, and how our first National parks became federally protected. These books make traveling so much richer. Not only can I experience what I see on the surface, but I am able to weave stories about events, people and history together into this layered narrative that I’d never experience without reading.
The Fishers
Adventuring Together
While originally from Pennsylvania, I moved to Florida for two years for work in 2018. I had never really wanted to move but it was an opportunity God called me to and I obediently said “yes”. It was a really refining experience and I learned so much about myself. I lived about 15 minutes from a large airport, and when I could, I would travel. Sometimes for a long weekend and sometimes for a week or more. Many of those trips I’d take completely by myself. I had learned very well how to operate independently during those years.
And then, after returning home in 2020, I met Teddy. I had been independent for so long it was a new change to realize what it would look like to be in a partnership. Teddy and I quickly connected about our shared love to travel, our faith, and our desires for the future. Early on in our relationship, we took a snowy road trip through Pennsylvania together and I knew after that trip that I had a new permanent travel partner.
We took road trips up and down the east coast over the following year. Then, Teddy proposed in Teton National Park on a summer road trip to the Northwest. It was just the two of us by a lake with the most incredible mountain peaks in the background.
At that time I thought our travels couldn’t get any more epic, and then we decided to have a wedding in Alaska. The two of us traveled to my 49th state in the states and took a helicopter out to a glacier to get married. We spent our honeymoon road tripping through the parks and towns of Alaska.
Adding to the Pack
We now have two labs, a black lab named Bailey and a yellow lab named Remington. Teddy had Bailey before we met, so the two of them were a package deal. We added Rem to the family as a puppy and realized that we didn’t want to travel without the dogs (yes, I have become the person I used to judge).
On the Northwest road trip where we got engaged, we started talking about what it would be like to travel in an RV. I’d never done it before but we wanted to find a way to travel, bring the dogs, and still get to explore. After countless hours of research, we went to an RV show and purchased our first travel trailer. This has been such a learning experience for us but we have had some of the best trips traveling together with the pups and exploring our home state of Pennsylvania and the surrounding area.
What’s next in our adventures, we’re not totally sure. For now, we’re looking forward to upcoming road trips, camping adventures, and local explorations.