Settling back into the swing of things. . .

Hello, again! This blog has been an interesting experiment in communication. When I was traveling, I wasn't sure if anyone was reading it, but since I've been back in the States I've been pleasantly surprised at how many folks were keeping up with it. I'm so glad you all were keeping tabs on me while I was down in New Zealand. In my mind, I was keeping the blog fairly up to date, but after taking another look at it just now, I realized that I only really kept it updated for the first month, or so, of my trip, and then just sort of disappeared. . . sorry about that!

I arrived in Portland mid-January, spent a couple of weeks there with my sister, visited some friends in Seattle and BZ Corner, and then started working my way cross-country towards South Bend, IN. Along the way, I visited friends in Gooding, ID, Jackson Hole, WY, and Chicago, IL. Despite the winter storm that was traveling just ahead of me for much of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa, I made it safely to my parents' house on February 15th. I'll be here in Indiana for a few months before returning to the Northwest for the summer.

Here are some pictures from my stop in Jackson: