About Us
The Wittmans at the Colosseum
Hello and welcome to The Twisting Road. My name is Scott and with my wife Amy we started this blog to share our travels and hopefully encourage others to travel as well
So, where to begin? I think it all started around 2000. I found I needed to attend a conference for work and it just happened to be held at one of the Disney World hotels. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to combine work and play for the two of us and our 2 year old daughter.
That first real trip as a family started us down a path that saw us returning to Disney every January so that I could attend my conference and we could get our Disney fix. Once my son hit 2 years old he joined us on our annual pilgrimage to the Happiest Place on Earth.
Sometimes we flew and sometimes we would drive down from our home in Green Bay to Orlando. It all depended on home much was in the travel budget for that year, but somehow we always found enough for that Disney vacation.
Our First International Vacation
In 2011 we decided we needed to expand our travels. I had accumulated a decent amount of frequent flyer points and hotel points from my work travel and it allowed us to set our sights on Europe. Since this was to be our first foray into a foreign country we thought it best to speak the language, so England it was! It didn't hurt that both our kids were into Harry Potter and we could keep them interested by sprinkling in Harry Potter sites as we toured England.
That whirlwind tour around England and Wales was worth every penny we spent. The memories from that trip will last a lifetime. From my son's fear of the spiral staircases in the castles, to driving down Penny Lane, to touring Professor Snapes' potions lab we experienced so many things that we would never have even conceived of had we not taken the plunge and traveled.
It was all worth the countless hours we had spent planning the trip. Not everything went smooth of course, but that just enhanced the memories of that trip. Just ask Amy about my little adventures with our GPS!
A little windblown at Stonehenge
Journeys through the US and Canada
In the years that followed we traveled more and more. We still managed to hit Disney World most years (and even Disneyland once), but as the kids got older that became less of a priority. Instead we started exploring our National Parks and other interesting places in the US and Canada.
This is where my love for road trips really came through. Our poor little SUV has taken us through 30+ states along with 5 Canadian provinces over the past 7 years. That SUV has been from Quebec City in the East to Yosemite in California in the West. In the North it has been as far as Jasper National park in Alberta and as far south as Orlando Florida.
Along the way Amy and I rekindled our love for camping. We had camped quite a bit when the kids were young, but had given it up for a stationary "cabin". Our summers became a time for a great road trip and that often meant a national park.
From the glacial fields in the Rocky Mountains of Canada to the forested peaks of the Appalachians we found some great places to camp and hike.
I am not sure that our kids were as enamored with our trips as we were, but the good times outweighed the bad. We did find out that we are not allowed to just hike for the sake of hiking. There just better be a some rock scrambling or kick-ass views as part of that hike.
We played tourist as well. There is nothing like a good walking tour through a new city with local guides who explain the history as only locals can. Boston, Quebec City, Washington DC, San Francisco - there are some great cities to explore in this country.
A Senior Trip and Some Travel Hacking
Ok, so I will admit it. I really didn't know anything about travel hacking. I mean I had seen all the Capital One commercials and got the offers in the mail, but I really didn't understand there was a whole world of travel hacking out there.
We got that first travel card and we earned the prized bonus miles. Now we just needed to figure out where to go. As my daughter entered her senior year we thought it would be great to give her (and us!) a trip for her graduation present.
Amy I developed a rough budget and then asked Taylor where she would like to go. I am not sure if Italy was her first choice, but it was right up there. We really did not think Italy would be possible. We knew how expensive our flights to England were before we used our miles, and that would not have fit the budget.
Then one day Kayak came back with a ridiculously low price on tickets to Rome on Turkish Air. We just weren't ready to jump - we didn't even have a plan or know if it was really going to work. We feverishly planned for a week to develop a rough itinerary and costs. It would work!
Of course the tickets were no longer there, but we did get creative and actually found an open jaw flight for a similar cost. Subtracting the Capital One Venture miles from the cost brought the tickets in at a great price.
Needless to say, our second European vacation left an indelible mark in us and had us craving more.
The Slow Transition to Empty Nesters
It didn't happen all at one, but we now find ourselves planning and taking trips for just the two of us. We came to the realization during our first Cruise over this past spring break, that this was likely our last trip as a family of four for some time. When the kids would rather work their summer jobs to make money for the coming school year instead of going vacationing with us we knew it was time to venture out without them.
While it is saddens us a bit to not have the kids with us, it is amazing how easy it is to travel just the two of us. The travel budget goes much further when it is just two people to buy all those tickets for. Suddenly the world seems to open up for us, and we can't wait to explore it!
Both of us still work our full time jobs. I am a security systems designer and Amy is a buyer for the same company. It can be challenging to fit everything we want to do in the limited amount of vacation time we have, but we are up for that challenge.
Starting a Blog
So, why start a blog? There are numerous reasons.
- I have always wanted to write, but I know I am not a novelist.
- I have time now that I am not running the kids to their activities.
- People seem genuinely interested in our trips and want to find out more about them. Facebook posts about our travels are OK, but here we can share much more.
- To help and inspire others to travel, so that they can create the same type of great memories and have the wonderful experiences that you only get by traveling
- Lastly there is the hope that someday I can turn this blog into something that can allow us to be location independent travelers.
I hope you enjoy sharing in our journeys. I welcome any comments or questions. We are here to help!
Scott (and Amy)
