We're Stephanie and Bill Henkel,  happily married since 1961.    We both grew up in Hunterdon County, New Jersey where, as kids, we developed our love of nature and the outdoors.  We met in high school when Bill was a senior and Stephie a freshman.  Three years later, we began dating, and the rest is history.

Just a few years after we were married, we relocated to raise our three sons in the beautiful Finger Lakes area of New York State... where it snows A LOT!    In our younger days we enjoyed year round outdoor activities.  We took our boys tobogganing, cross-country skiing, and winter hiking.  We made maple syrup and grew vegetables for the Ithaca Farmer's Market. Although we didn't actually farm our 100 acres, we grew our own vegetables, picked wild grapes and berries for jams and jellies, and cut wood for heating our home.   It was fun for the first 35 years.

Bill worked at Brockway Motor Trucks building trucks until the company closed, then as a truck mechanic and finally as Service Manager for a large truck dealership in Syracuse.    He enjoyed hunting, fishing, woodworking and gardening.  Meanwhile, Stephie took up china painting, taught classes and sold her work at craft shows for 10 years until she decided to go back to college.  One thing led to another, and she ended up working at Cornell University for 20 years until retirement.  Though we both enjoyed our  kids, our jobs and our hobbies, and traveled when we could, vacations were always too short. Our wish list of places to go and things to see grew longer each year and we wondered if we would ever satisfy our wanderlust. 

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