My wife Stephanie and I have been fortunate in our 50 years of marriage to travel often. This year, we logged our 50th state.

    Over the years, we've had to make plenty of compromises in our travels - as in our marriage. I prefer quiet backroads and out-of-the-way places while Stephanie is drawn to the Big City lights. We've found a way to balance the two.

    Our first road trip after we were married was from my Army duty station back to Ashland. I wanted to see Native American ruins, she wanted to experience Las Vegas. We did both - heading first to California and then crossing the middle of the country. Most recently, we went to see the March of the Ducks at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis and then drove the backroads to Oklahoma to snag that 50th state.

    Other highlights from our life of travels include meeting in Honolulu in 1969 when I was on leave from Vietnam. We had been married less than a year, so it was a second honeymoon. One year, we took a train from Chicago to San Fransisco to Seattle and then back, making a massive loop through the center and then northern states.

    But the most cherished trips were shared with our children and my sister and brother-in-law. We took many trips to the northeast together to check off the New England states.  
Over several years in Snowmass, Colorado, we all learned to ski together. The scenery was beautiful but the memories we created together, and still talk about today, are what is most memorable.  

 That is the point of travel afterall: To see and experience something new and different and bring it home in your heart.