When I decided to leave my full-time job as a middle school principal this spring, one of the things Ann and I wanted to do in this interim stage was spend more time with our families. For years, our jobs have dictated when we could travel and how much time we could spend each year with the people we love most.

So, as my colleagues are returning to their offices at school and attending a three-day conference for administrators, we thought it would be nice to take a short road trip vacation with my parents, John and Gayle Teget.

My folks live in Iowa part of the year, but spend the cold winter months in warm and sunny Florida. We don’t get to see them as often as I’d like, so we’re really looking forward to this week’s travels.

As Ann and I have traveled our home state of Nebraska, several towns and attractions have sounded appealing to my mom and dad and we’re excited to have the opportunity to take them to some of those places this summer.

We’re planning stops at Bailey Yard in North Platte, the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey, and Smith Falls near Valentine. We’ll be giving my parents their first view of the incredible Nebraska Sandhills and seeing a few things that are new to us, as well.

We’ll plan to post some updates on our social media pages and will write more complete blog posts about our adventures when we return. We hope you’ll come along for the ride and when you have the opportunities, you’ll go places, too.