Starting off

I guess I should start by giving a little background as to what this blog will be about.  When my wife and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary I surprised her with a blank check to any jewelry store of her choice.  Before you respond saying how nice it must be to be rich, I can assure you of two things.  One, I'm not rich, I work an entry level supervisor's position in logistics.  The pay keeps a roof over our heads and food in our bellies.  Two, I know my wife.  I knew she would not head to the nearest Kay jewelers and throw down on a $30,000 diamond ring.  She went to a silversmith and bought a very nice bracelet and necklace of woven fine silver.  Beautiful pieces for a beautiful woman.

On our 25th anniversary, she wanted a new vehicle.  After 15 years of driving a mini-van, our children were grown and she wanted a pick-up truck, yeah, I married a country girl.  So, I went out and bought her the truck of her choice.  Again, her choice was very simple.  A full size truck with a full size bed.  No fancy paint job or interior she would have to worry about getting scratched up as she hauled lumber or firewood or camping stuff around. 

So, as you can see, I've put myself in the unusual position of having to one-up myself every five years.

On July 2nd, 2013 I will have been married for 30 years ... to the same fantastic woman.  In today's society of throw away relationships, I'm rather proud of this.  Of course, now I needed to come up with something special to mark this milestone.

I considered many things but finally settled on one I knew both she and I would enjoy, a trip to Europe.

And that is what this blog will be about, the planning and execution of traveling to Europe.  I really don't know how often I'll post, I'm going to set a goal of at least once per week.  Since my wife has not been out of the United States since she was a mere child and I haven't been out of the states for almost 35 years, we will be starting from scratch, planning the itinerary and applying for passports, I think I should have something to post each week.  Hopefully, we'll have a little fun along the way and for anyone that decides to follow this blog, maybe you will learn from my experiences in traveling and starting a blog (which I did not see myself doing at all, ever).