Talk about 1st world retirement problems. Having to drink down all the premium top shelf bourbon in glass bottles since not all of them can come along for the ride in the RV. Sigh, the woes of downsizing, but it’s got to get done. So everybody, sing along with me now! “99 bottles of beer bourbon on the wall, 99 bottles of beer bourbon, take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of beer bourbon on the wall”
The “draft” route has been mapped out. Only one reservation made so far, that’s for Colter Bay in the Grand Tetons. I get stressed out about committing so far in advance, but yes, I know, availability drastically decreases the closer you get to actual dates.
And the February and March Calendars are up on the Refrigerator (Plan the plan!)
Our journey will start on April 1st, no joke. We are going to do a 7 month counter-clockwise circle around the States. First stop will be in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Swing through North Carolina to see some friends, then drop back down into the beautiful Smoky Mountains to see family in Hiawassee Georgia. From there, we travel northward to hit a few spots in Illinois, then over to South Dakota to boondock in the Badlands. Onward to North Dakota for a visit to Teddy Roosevelt National Park, then westward bound to see Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Late May will take us on up to Glacier National Park in Montana (we will get to ride our e-bikes on the Going to the Sun Road, this will be just prior to the time when they open the road up to cars). The month of June takes us on over to the Pacific Northwest; we will get to spend some time with Caleb in Seattle, take the RV on a Ferry ride over to the Olympia National Forest, and then travel southbound hugging the Oregon coastline on Hwy 101. July we should be in California to see Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. From there, we go into Nevada to enjoy Death Valley at it’s hottest (are we crazy?), and then go down into Arizona to Lake Havasu. Grand Canyon will be next, then a dip back into Nevada to visit the Great Basin National Park (designated as an International Dark sky park). By this time, it will be near September, and time to visit the Mighty 5 National parks in Utah. Moving on to Colorado, we will spend some time near Denver to see Blake, and then head on down for 10 days in Albuquerque New Mexico for the annual Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in October. After that, we will be traveling through TX, OK, LA, to hit Alabama for more family visits, which should take us to November where we will hibernate in Florida. That’s a very ambitious itinerary, huh? The journey will be over 10,000 miles, taking over 200 days, with stops averaging about 3-5 days in length (some will be quick one-nighters, while other stops will be 15+ days). And of course, there’s not much wiggle room in there to allow for contingencies which are bound to arise, so it’s a loose route at this point.
After that in 2023? Who knows? Year two may be a trip up to the NorthEast region and the Great Lakes area. Can’t wait!
The Tampa RV Supershow is held every January at the Tampa Fairgrounds in Florida. You can see literally hundreds of the newest models of every kind of camper imaginable (from ultra high end diesel Class A motor homes, gas-powered motor homes, fifth-wheels, travel trailers, off-road expeditioners, travel trailers, and tiny teardrop pods). All electric concept rigs were shown; super cool technology and certainly the wave of the future. But our purpose in attending wasn’t in seeing new units to purchase (although that was fun!), but rather to go shopping for various accessories to prep our rig for full-time use, particularly a Washer/Dryer combo appliance. Mission accomplished! To celebrate that (and other purchases), as well as our 14th Anniversary, we had Champagne and Hot Dogs.
Not sure yet how to best manage the various media types I’ll be capturing along the way (such as photos, videos, GoPro vids, etc.) but for now you can see some more vids I did at the below link. Enjoy!
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B145qXGF103d6w
You Tube videos up on our new channel! https://youtube.com/channel/UCSVCR5l6d0tu-8cbJCt3qjQ
Business cards were ordered today from Vistaprint. Why do we need them? We’ve found they are super handy to hand out to new friends we meet while camping. Instant contact info! Also, I placed a pic of Darcy on the back; hopefully she will never bolt out of the RV and get lost, but if so, we’ll already have a ‘Lost Cat Flyer’ to distribute out to fellow neighbors in the campground.
