We are only one week away from the start of another journey westward. This one will take 6-7 months and cover all of the western states and yes, the itinerary is pretty much drying in concrete as I type - at least for the first 2/3rds of the trip. For you footloose and fancy free travelers, I offer this in our defense. When you choose to camp in the Federal and National Parks with a larger motorhome (oh yeah and want water and electricity if possible, at a minimum) and most of those parks were in existence BEFORE motorhomes so are geared around pop-ups, small Class Cs, truck campers and tents, you want to be assured of a spot that will fit your rig when you finally arrive at some of these off the beaten path campgrounds we like to use. For us that means reservations. Electricity matters to us most of the time because, remember folks, 3 months of this trip will be in summer in the high desert - and the cats are wimps and need that AC (OK, so they make perfect scape goats and we can act like we would not need it it if it wasn't for them and could just show up or dry camp.) Also, with more and more of the state and federal parks taking (and often requiring as in the Grand Canyon during the summer) reservations, you might as well get them early when you have the pick of the sites. So I have been working on this trip for quite awhile, as federal campgrounds will only take reservations 6 months in advance. September reservations could only be made this month- so the summer months were made in late December and on and most people can't think that far in advance to make any plans nowadays, giving old more structured people like me the pick of the parks and the sites within those parks. Recreation.gov (Federal campgrounds and tours/things to do in them) and reserveamerica.com (Used by states and some private campgrounds) internet reservation sites are great and many of the campground sites include pictures. Pair those tools with Google earth where you can almost see the actual site from above and the surrounding areas with respect to traffic (guess that only matters if you are staying for more than a night or two), trees/rocks in the way of slide-outs, winding roads, and more, and reservation making is not bad. In fact, it has become an art and I, for one, think I am well on my way to being labeled a Master (Guess the site reviews as we move through this massive itinerary will be the real test of whether I am just good or actually GREAT!).
Bruce and I spent time looking at most of the available sites in most of the campgrounds to make these reservations. OK - in reality I created the itinerary around the places we wanted to be at certain times, found the parks, located what i thought were the best sites and showed him them for his opinion AND to make this happen would open several windows so he could see the site map and the satellite overhead pictures at the same time so could make other suggestions besides my choices. He would never spend that much time on a computer even if he was willing to learn and even then, after me doing this and then getting his recommendations, he says I come back and second guess those decisions in many of the parks. Maybe I have too much time and too much information - no that would never be the case! Anyway, we made decisions based on where the sun in July and August would be with respect to different sites, whether we would face north, south, etc., were there trees for shade, waterfront for view when possible and wide sites with no impediments, etc. Why is this impediment issue important - well when we first camped at Cheyenne Mountain we ended up in a site with large rocks in the place where the slide-out and bins needed to be. Those rocks were everywhere and we could hardly find a place to park in the site and access the amenities - duh, what was I thinking, Cheyenne MOUNTAIN. This time I spent time finding a site at the same campground that had a wonderful day and night time view over Colorado Springs, plenty of space to sit outside and enjoy adult beverages while Bruce grilled in the evenings and room to maneuver around the rocks.with a long drive to clear any impediments. I found one meeting my requirements and booked it yesterday (they have nice site pictures this time) and even then it was hard since many of the prime sites were already reserved for mid-September. I am not the only one with this reservation fanaticism. .
Finally I get to the Itinerary (no I am not done yet!). Our first stop after leaving Jacksonville will be Crestview, FL for a visit with friends and family. Then we head up to just out of Meridian, MS and then on over to Texas. We will be staying a few weeks in Texas and then heading to New Mexico again, (Carlsbad where I deleted all my pictures that year) and also Alamogordo (White Sands National Monument) where we really want to participate in the Lake Lucero Ranger led excursion on the 23rd of the month. After that, we will be exploring (sound like we are up for lots of exercise - right? No, just the walking tour for us- no crawling around in the dark for me!) a new cavern in Arizona at Kartchner Caverns State Park and finally will spend a few days with Bruce's sister, Charlene in Cave Creek right outside of Phoenix. Leaving AZ will take us over the new Hoover Dam bridge through Las Vegas to a Forest Service campground about 20 miles NW of the city. It was the only one in Nevada I could find with electricity by the way and it only has 15 amp service - so hope those cats don't really need those air conditioners at that altitude. Of course we will go in to Vegas to visit, maybe see a show and hit one or two of the nice restaurants, but gamblers we are not, and even in May, Las Vegas will be hotter than we like. Once we leave NV we are in new territory for the The Beast - California. (You remember The Beast - our 36' Fleetwood Discovery Diesel (ouch, diesel fuel is already $4/gal here and higher in some areas - well it is only money.) Class A motorhome, carrying us, the dog and 2 cats faithfully around the US.)
So - California, the state of many drivers, many people, many earthquakes (please not while we are there), none of which make us happy - so why that state? This trip we wanted to see Yosemite and lucked out getting a few nights in the park, so will stay at some of the other federal areas in California before and after that short stay. All in all, we are only planning about 2 weeks there and much of it will be off the beaten path. Once we leave CA we are off to one of our favorite states - Oregon. We should be in Oregon about 6 weeks and then will stop in Washington State at a few sites, move on to Idaho and then Montana. In Montana we will stay outside Glacier for several weeks, just chilling. After that - we are pretty loose for a few weeks until we head back South towards Zion National Park, a stay at Grand Canyon North Rim (in site 11 actually on the rim- but no electricity), and some extended time in Grand Junction, CO to visit Janet and family. Leaving there we will traverse I-70 towards Denver (what a beautiful drive) and head south to Colorado Springs and Cheyenne Mountain. then we are headed towards home, stopping for some time at my sister Terrie's home in Edmond, OK. We should arrive at her place in late September. How and when we come home after that is still to be decided. So as you can see, just getting to Terrie's will take the better part of 6 months.
OK - enough on where and how we got to this point - tomorrow or later this week I will let you in on what it is taking us to actually get out of Jacksonville in The Beast next Monday!! Until then - Drive Safely and Retire Early!
