Today is Thursday, May 30. Tomorrow morning, we leave for the first leg of our massive road trip. First stop, Gunnison, CO.
I’ve been told I shouldn’t post details about our adventures online as it 1) indicates that we won’t be home for a specified amount of time, and 2) it invites people to find us for nefarious reasons, but my arguments to that are 1) We have people that will be stopping by the house regularly to mow our lawn, collect packages from our porch, start my car and just maintain the well-being of the house, 2) we have security cameras to keep an eye on the house in between those visits, 3) no one cares enough about us to track us down, and 4) no one reads this blog anyway.
Anyway, our trip starts tomorrow as we head toward Gunnison. We plan on checking in to our AirBnB Saturday then we will be visiting Crested Butte for a farmer’s market and general trinket shopping on Sunday.
I will be working the following week; Brandy will be taking a day off to hang out with her friend and mom. I do plan on finding a hiking trail nearby to visit at least once during the week.
We will be returning home to drop Sue then for a brief four day stay.
Oregon
We then depart for Oregon. We will be stopping in Boise on the way to spend an afternoon with my parents before finishing the drive to the west coast. We will be spending I think 11 days in one of the cabins at a property that Brandy’s company just acquired.
The property is right on Cannon Beach near Ecola State Park. Some of the things we plan on doing while in Oregon include
- Visiting Ecola State Park
- Visiting Astoria where much of The Goonies was filmed
- Visiting Portland (Brandy did not like Portland and likely doesn’t want to go back, but I have a very specific reason for wanting to go there.)
Not a lot of time to do a ton but I do plan on enjoying the relaxing atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest.
Vermont
Once we leave Oregon, we will head east for a few days stopping once more at home for a three day stay. We will recuperate and prepare for the longest leg of the tour which starts in Vermont.
We will be stopping near Cooperstown, NY, on our way where I will finally get to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a forever bucket list item for me.
After that visit, we will continue on our way, stopping at Niagara Falls on our way to our AirBnB in Stockbridge, about an hour and a half from Burlington.
There are many hiking trails near the AirBnB, planning on hiking at least some of them, and of course, spending a weekend day in Burlington.
Maine
From Vermont, we plan on heading further east to an AirBnB in Wilton, ME. We will be there for about three weeks, during which time we plan on visiting Acadia National Park, the east coast Portland, and hiking trails near our lodging.
Kentucky
From Maine, we will head south, through Salem, MA, make a brief stop there to see what there is to do, then will continue on our way to Cave City, KY. Along the way, I plan on stopping us just outside of Cincinnati where I will expose Brandy to Cincinnati style chili.
Once at our AirBnB in Kentucky, we plan on exploring Mammoth Cave National Park and, I will likely make a solo trip to Louisville to tour the Slugger factory.
New Mexico
After about three weeks in Kentucky, we will make the drive to the southwest for our annual trip to Albuquerque. As always, we will be staying with Alan and plan on making my annual green chile run, seeing Jarrod (will be seeing Beetlejuice 2 with him and Brandy, which excites me no end) and will try to head to Santa Fe to visit Meow Wolf.
Depending on how Alan feels about it, we’re going to see if he wouldn’t mind us sticking around for just under 2 weeks so we will have the weekend in the middle to do that Santa Fe run, but if he’s leery of it, we have no problem departing after our week’s stay.
That will be the deciding factor on when we return home. If he’s OK with us staying that long, we won’t be home until probably September 28. Otherwise, we will probably skip Santa Fe and will be home on the 21st.
Pre-Trip Thoughts
I know this summer is going to be a test. We will be putting over 10,000 miles on the truck on this trip, will literally drive coast to coast, will be crammed mostly into queen sized beds (that will really be the biggest test for me) and being in the truck with Brandy and Ash for days on end like that will possibly bring an end to our marriage.
I jest, of course, but we will encounter challenges, which I readily welcome. I love overcoming adversity.
All of that is to say, I cannot begin to express just how excited I am for this trip. We will be visiting states I’ve never been to, and states I haven’t been to in 40 years. We will get to see things like Niagara Falls, Salem, Massachusetts, the baseball Hall of Fame, at least two national parks, countless hiking trails and will cross off a boatload of states on my fucket list.
I’m extremely grateful to Sue and Hilary for offering to mow our lawn, move our car, collect mail and packages, and just keep up on the house while we’re gone.
That’s about all I have for today. I still have a lot to do once my work day is over.
I will check in from Colorado!
-Phil