This Millenium Project went smoothly for the first four years, even when the states were far away. My friend and I managed to hit each state alphabetically while juggling constraints of budget, time, and my escalating responsibilities in caring for my father following the death of my mother. We were challenged in 2005 by two things: first, my fellow traveler finished law school and needed to study for the bar while also working in the field. Second, my father’s health hit a major setback which kept in him hospitals for six months of that year. To accommodate, I took leave from school, sold my home in Pennsylvania, moved back to Ohio and got us set up for the next stage of his life without a stable income. Obviously, it was not a good year to take on California as planned, which requires time and money because of the size and cost.
With 2006, we decided to catch up by deferring California and seeing both our home states. My fellow traveler was a resident of the next state in our alphabetical list, Colorado. So we would split the flight time and cost, she would come to Ohio, where she traveled regularly for work, and I would visit Colorado. Unfortunately, she was not able to break away during vacation season–summer in Ohio–but I needed some breaks from the care of my dad, so I took on my home state alone, sometimes taking day trips and sometimes traveling overnight while others stepped in at home.
There’s a lot that I do not remember about recreation during those busy, responsible days, so I look forward to revisiting it here.