I feel very pleased with the path the new year is taking off on! I have our trip planned to the route and dates we leave and return, and the day Matt flies home.
Here is the route with planned stops:
Day One: Head out to Oklahoma and pick up Route 66.
Day Two: Albuquerque and a visit to the Lowell Observatory.
Day Three: Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, staying at Holbrook in the tipis!
Day Four: Grand Canyon, South Rim.
Day Five: Grand Canyon, South Rim.
Day Six: Las Vegas (Hoover Dam)
Day Seven: Death Valley
Day Eight: Zion National Park
Day Nine: Bryce Canyon National Park
Day Ten: Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument
Day Eleven: Capital Reef National Park or Canyonlands NP
Day Twelve: Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Day Thirteen: Drive to Denver
Day Fourteen: Rocky Mountain National Park
Day Fifteen: Denver
Day Sixteen: Denver and Matt flies home
Day Seventeen: Thermopolis, WY
Day Eighteen: Yellowstone
Day Nineteen: Yellowstone
Day Twenty: Yellowstone/Tetons
Day Twenty-One: Tetons
Day Twenty-Two: Tetons
Day Twenty-Three: Devil's Tower National Monument
Day Twenty-Four: Mt Rushmore National Memorial
Day Twenty-Five: Badlands
Day Twenty-Six: Drive to Lawrence, Kansas
Day Twenty-Seven: Drive until we get home.
That's: Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri
15 of those will be new states for the kids, 6 for Matt and 4 for me! And we STILL will have not been to Louisiana. hahaha!
I have budgeted $200 a day for food, gas and lodging. I will buy a national parks pass before we leave and we have AAA plus with extended towing and all of that. I will head out with new tires and a full tune-up and lube and fresh fluids. The only other things we will need money for will be souvenirs (I have a moderate cash budget and an empty credit card in case of auto repairs/medical emergencies), which will work out since we won't go through $200 a day every day. Most days will be less, especially when we camp or use groceries or don't drive a whole tank of gas. I don't want to assume we will hit EVERY stop, we will have to have some down time, and time to do laundry and recharge batteries and upload pictures. But that's all that is possible along our route, plus ghost towns and swimming in the hot springs and science centers and nights with so many stars it makes it hard to sleep, your eyes just want to keep looking. And wildflowers and wild animals and things like sheep and moose-things the kids have never seen. And snow. And geysers and paint pots and waterfalls and canyons and desert vistas. And Pike's Peak and...
I am so excited I am about to fall over. We had to change a few things, Matt was flying out from San Diego, but Teresa ships out at the end of April and without her to visit, going into Southern California lost the appeal. People there drive so scary. The Pacific Ocean, yeah, but the water is cold and truth be told, we are all terrified of the ocean. It did not make sense to endanger the van to say we had seen the ocean that no one is keen to get into. We will save that for when we are in Oregon to see Crater Lake for Ben's high school trip.
Okay, well, rambled on and on. I will try not to run it into the ground, but I can not deny that I am VERY excited about being able to finally get back out west and to take my family.
Last time I was in the Rockies!
I turned 17 out there, working with the SCA.
I turned 17 out there, working with the SCA.
