After vowing to scale back our travel this year as we were planning on attending both of the Blue October getaways, the summer one in Portugal and a return to Cabo in the fall, we quickly made liars out of ourselves.
As soon as the Blue October getaway announcements were made, we scrambled to ensure we got our spots, as the getaways last year sold out very quickly.
This year proved to not be the case, even now, as we sit a mere 10 days before the Portugal getaway, the website announces that they are only 73% booked. I’m sure there are a bazillion reasons this year’s getaways are slow to fill, including a crumbling economy in the US, fears of travel due to the ongoing conflict in the middle east and perhaps more, but Brandy and I are grateful that these were not issues for us and we are booked and ready to launch on June 8, kicking off the Accidental World Tour of 2026.
After my short week in Verona, WI, followed immediately by our weekend in St. Louis, we figured that would be it until June, which still stands to be the case, but the remainder of our summer is quickly filling with more adventure that we swore we would abstain from…
Itinerary
After returning from Portugal, we will be home a mere week before I turn around and make my way, solo, to New Mexico for a real camping trip with Alan, a sleeping-in-a-tent-on-the ground-style camping trip… except I will be on a cot, not on the ground, but close enough.
Once I am back from that trip, Brandy will make her way to Arizona for the closing of a new property her company is acquiring, then the moment she returns from that, we will head to Iowa City for a Savannah Bananas baseball game.
I will be making my way to Des Moines Garden Bros Nuclear Circus, and I have been wanting to make a return trip to the Amana Colonies for a while now so I will make an effort to make that trek too. Hopefully Brandy will come with me on that trip to Amana (she absolutely will NOT be joining me at the circus…)
If she doesn’t, or maybe on a separate trip, I will make a trip through Swedesburg, to the American Gothic House in Eldon (which I’ve been to before, but the visitor’s center wasn’t open that day so I’d like to go back and get me a little trinket), and a stop at the Bethesda Methodist Church cemetery in Fairfield for some pictures (I have ideas for some spooky-ish pictures there).
After the active break at home, our next stop will be in Arizona where we will spend a couple weeks in August, during which I will be checking in to my eighth MLB stadium Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The return home from there will take us through Albuquerque so will stop there for a night so I can get my green chile for the year before making the rest of the drive home.
We will have a couple of weeks of rest at home before making our triumphant return to Cabo for another Blue October Getaway in late September.
And finally, I am outlining a whirlwind birthday trip for me that would see us follow the same route Ash and I took when we drove to Vermont while Brandy was stuck in Oregon in 2024, skirting just under the great lakes, stopping in South Bend, IN, and Buffalo, NY, a visit to Niagara Falls before making our way to southwestern Massachusetts for a visit to the Lizzie Borden house and a day trip to Salem, then on to Sleepy Hollow, NY, and a day trip to the biggest of Big Apples, New York City. The trip would then see us venturing to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia before returning home.
During pedicures with Sue, the three of us began discussing a fall trip to Colorado for some leaf peeping, but with the timing of our other trips, it would be extremely difficult to cram a worth-while trip out there for colors.
Good Times, Good Times
As always, I am incredibly grateful that we are in the position that we are in, to both have jobs that allow us to work from wherever there is an internet connection, offers the flexibility that our jobs offer, and provides us the financial means to be able to do all this crazy stuff.
I’m finishing this post up now early the morning before our departure. The last week has been a whirlwind of preparation, between packing, cleaning, rearranging, gathering supplies… I still have another day and a half before we take off and a pretty stout list of things yet to do, but every item I check off of the list is one small step closer to crossing the Atlantic.
With that, I leave you here. As it was in Cabo a mere 8 months ago, I will be sure to snap plenty of pictures and I’m sure I will come back with a backlog of stories to share here.
Until then!
-Phil