A few years ago, Rebecca’s wedding and engagement rings were stolen from our house. Rebecca’s kids had designed the basics of the ring; the jeweler and I embellished the design to turn it into a pretty cool engagement ring. Fortunately, we still had the original drawings from Aaron and Melissa.

The thief’s boss paid for the loss, but we waited to have it replaced so we could do it right. Last year, we traveled to Southern California together to re-visit the jeweler who had made the original – Cliff and Austin Claydon from Claydon Jewelers in Redondo Beach – they are creative, talented, patient, and wonderful! When we received the remake, however, we were bummed: the diamonds were not at all dramatic, and the jeweler had forgotten to engrave the ring. Despite the imperfections, Rebecca wore it for a year. Recently, thanks to a wedding in Ventura County, we found ourselves in Redondo Beach again.

This time Cliff and Austin hit a homerun. We picked out two new diamonds – old cuts that stood higher – and finished the engraving. We think we like the replacement even more than the original.

Throughout the experience, I was pretty darned proud of myself: taking my wife to California to visit the original jeweler who made our stolen wedding ring to have it replaced. Whoa. That was like really romantic!

Today, Day 3 of our adventure, we are at it again.

In 1999, before we married in Urbanna, Virginia, we stopped at the Spotsylvania, Virginia Courthouse for our marriage license. (After all, how could anyone pass up having a marriage license issued by the Spotsylvania County Clerk? Really, it is just so Rocky and Bullwinkle!!!) From there, we lunched at the Piankatank Country Club on the Piankatank River where we liked the crabcakes so much, we held our wedding supper there.

Today, after two fun days in the car with Joanna, a great evening with the Duffy’s in Chester NJ (including good scotch, plenty of steak, and lots of laughter), a smooth trip to DC, a memorable Moroccan supper in Arlington with Joanna, Tanner, and Lou, and a short drive to a motel in Manassas, we are off to Spotsylvania for a celebratory game of cribbage and then to the Piankatank Country Club for some crabcakes.

Maybe it’s not quite as romantic as the ring, but as Duffy would say, “It won’t suck!”

In 1968, at the end of my sophomore year at Tulane, I had to declare a major.  A decision that might be relatively simple to many overwhelmed me with existential angst and crippling uncertainty.  A pathetic freshman math teacher closed that door for me.  Science courses entailed way too much memorization.  Somehow sociology rose to the surface.  The fact is, I rather enjoyed it and even did OK in it.

Now, as I enter my dotage, I understand a little more about why.  Observing is just damn fun!  People are nuts and hilarious.  Politics is so absurd as to be laughable.  Yet the pathos of the human condition tugs in a very real way, adding an edge to the humor and absurdity.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving 2015, my wife, Rebecca, and I will embark on an almost 4-month drive around the U.S.  It will involve lots of family and friends, a fair amount of work, and, I hope, lots of moments that tickle my still-emerging inner sociologist.

This blog will be the tool we use to document our adventures.  Join us for the ride if you want.  It’ll take us from Boston to Florida, Florida through New Orleans to San Diego, San Diego to the Oregon Coast, and from there back to Boston and then to Vermont.

With gas prices low, New England getting cold, and the presidential candidates getting crazier and crazier, it should be a fun ride.