In the beginning

It has occurred to me that after living in Indiana for over 13 years, other than the area where I live and the town where my in-laws live, I don't know the first thing about this state.  I grew up in New Jersey.  When I was a little girl I would wake up on a Saturday morning and my mom would have the car packed and all 5 of us, my mother, grandmother, aunt, brother and I, would hop in the car and take off for the weekend.  This was a time before airline tickets, hotel reservations and car rentals.  This was a time when you pulled out a paper map and looked up a city and decided "we've never been there so let's go and check it out".  That is how many of our weekends started.  Other times we would get in the car and my mom would ask my brother and I which way to go and we would yell out left, right or straight.  We ended up in many an interesting place.  By the time I was 10 I had hit every state from Massachusetts to Georgia and as far west as Ohio.  We had also been to Canada several times.

Fast forward 30 some-odd years and my family and I are stuck in the same routine of work, school, after school activities and chores.  Come the weekend we would plop in front of the TV and veg out.  This is not how we like to spend our time.  Time for a change.

Hi, my name is Cynthia.  I am a wife and mother in Indianapolis, IN.  I am a travel agent that works for our After-hours Service on the graveyard shift.  I have 3 boys ages 22, 21 and 6 and a fantastic husband, Joe, that has put up with me longer than I can even imagine.  Our weeks are pretty jam-packed with things to do from work, errands, shopping and school, to karate, cub scouting, volunteering and birthday parties, oh and trying to squeeze some sleeping time during the day for the few precious hours that everyone is gone.  On the weekends, however, everything slows down and after an occasional Pack meeting or birthday party, we pack up and leave town.

Now being a travel agent has afforded us quite a few opportunities for travel through out the years.  We have been on at least 7 cruises, been to Denmark, Germany, Austria and France, traveled our way through the Caribbean and Mexico and even been to South America.  But still other than Florida, Hilton Head and Las Vegas we know very little about our country.  So we have decided to explore. 

Joe and I are really into creepy and scary.  Surprisingly so is our 6 year old, Keyan.  So we have decided to become Jr. Ghost Hunters.  We usually try to get some ghost hunting done wherever we go.  Occasionally our 2 oldest boys, Andrew and Matthew and their girlfriends, join us.  Come Fridays our bags and car are packed.  We are armed with an itinerary, a GPS and some snacks and we're off...