To introduce ourselves to those of you that don’t know us very well, we are Roy and Laurie Dando. After meeting 20 years ago we developed a yearning for the outdoors and a way to see the world nearby. As a teacher I regularly had the summers off and wondered what retirement in 20 years could entail. What a better way to “check out” potential retirement life than to lead a practice retirement every summer for two months. She decided to retire early and focus on all the good things in life including longer trips in the summer.
As the photo might suggest we have hiked much of the Appalachian Trail. In the picture we are at the summit of Mount Katahdin which is the northern terminus of the trail in Maine. We have hiked about 1500 of the almost 2200 miles over the past 14 years and we plan on finishing it up next spring ending at Springer Mountain in Georgia.
Shortly after we met in 1998 we purchased our first tandem bicycle but had no real plans with what to do with it. As the Finger Lakes are nearby we eventually set out to circumnavigate all the lakes. After completing them we had a dilemma……What next? Also being close to the Great Lakes we decided that riding around them would be a novel idea. In July of 2016 we cycled around Lake Huron to complete that goal. In between all of those adventures we also cycled The Alaska Highway, The Pacific Coast, The Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive, The C&O Canal and the Canadian province of Newfoundland/Labrador.
We have also walked the 580 mile Finger Lakes Main Trail (FLT) twice. Once as a section hike on weekends/vacations from 2004-2008 and once as a thru hike in 2009 . We eventually hiked all of the FLT “Branch Trails” over a 2 year period from 2010-2011. As this wonderful system of trails goes right through “our backyard” in upstate NY we have spent many long weekends retracing our steps over and over just for the fun of it.
We knew our retirement trip would include both hiking and cycling but are not sure how much of each or where. The only things currently on our itinerary are 1) We will be visiting our sons and their families in Seattle, Alaska and San Fransisco. We also hope to catch up with many friends and relatives who have spread themselves across this great country of ours. 2) To hike The Superior HikingTrail in Minnesota. 3) To finish the Appalachian Trail through Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia. 4) To bicycle the Keys in Florida. ALL GOALS ABOVE WERE ACCOMPLISHED DURING THIS 15 MONTH TRIP.
We hope you enjoy following our travels and that you comment on the blog as it will make us feel less “home sick” to hear from friends and family. Although our home is now temporarily on wheels (2 to be exact as our bullet trailer is a single axle camper) we have recently built our dream cabin in the woods in upstate NY. Our son Brad is diligently guarding it with his sidekick Puto until our return sometime down the road.