About

Hello and welcome to our blog. This blog details the travels of Gunther and Kara as well as their human family Neil and Connie Laubenthal.

Gunther is a stuffed bear that was won by Connie Laubenthal’s father during a cruise to the Bahamas for her Mom. Origin of Derby hat unknown. Gunther took up residence on Connie’s parent’s sofa until their passing. Since that time, Gunther has lived part-time in VA with Connie and part-time in SC with her sister. Due to family circumstances Gunther is now full-time with the Laubenthal’s and will accompany them on their travels. Gunther is kind of a homebody and while he will travel along won’t go on a lot of outdoor excursions.

Kara is a small stuffed Golden Retriever that was given as a present to Connie by her son and daughter-in-law. Kara is named after their family pet who passed away some years ago but is still with the family in spirit. Kara loves the outdoors and will participate in almost all family outings.

The remaining members or our little roving family are Neil and Connie Laubenthal.

Neil was a Naval Officer in the submarine force; retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Commander in 1991. Following retirement he worked in a series of jobs for Department of Defense contractors until retiring in 2011.

Connie is a Laboratory Scientist. She worked in a variety of hospital and doctor’s office medical laboratories following Neil’s Navy transfers until 1988 when we were transferred to Washington DC. She then worked for the Commission on Office Laboratory Accreditation (COLA) which inspects laboratories for government accreditation under the CLIA regulations for 10 years. Finally tiring of the long commute from Fairfax VA in the DC western suburbs to Columbia MD she changed positions and became the Director of the Medical Laboratory Evaluation (MLE) Program for the American College of Physicians and worked for them an additional 10 years until before retiring in 2011. She almost immediately got a part time job with the Northern Virginia Community College as the scheduling coordinator for the Medical Laboratory Technician (MLT) Program. This helps keep her fingers on the pulse of the laboratory technician field, keeps her from getting  bored, and brings in a few bucks to help offset the cost of our retirement lifestyle.

After our retirement in 2011 we sold our house in Fairfax, bought a 39 foot long 5th wheel RV and a dualley pickup truck and hit the road for a life of travel and adventure. We tend to spend the winters in warm climates where we can still wear shorts and never have to shovel snow and the spring/summer/fall traveling our great country seeing all that it has to offer. Follow along as we travel, hike, kayak, attend symphony concerts, and do our best to sample all of the great beers that are brewed in the country.

Cyas.