Winter - Spring travel plans are set. We will leave depending on the weather on the 22nd of January - just two weeks to finish preparations. This is partially the same trip we cut short last winter but with a lot more time in Florida and the sun.
Our first destination is on the Atlantic where we stay a few days at Gamble Rogers then on to Silver Springs and many other state parks, Harvest Hosts and a stint at Disney. We will have six weeks in Florida including a week in the Panhandle on the Gulf and then head to Texas to finish - hopefully - the trip we aborted last year when we had a serious electrical malfunction and returned to Hohenwald for repairs. In Texas we have a brief stop in the East then head for West Texas and Big Bend National Park, Fort Davis, Guadalupe National Park, Carlsbad Caverns (NM) then with a couple of more parks we are on to Southeastern Arizona and the Chiricahua National Monument (soon to be a National Park). Then going north we see six or seven additional parks in AZ, revisit the Big Five in Southern Utah along with three new ones and two state parks, then back to the north part of New Mexico after a short stay for three Colorado parks. We have 11 National Park units on the plan in the general area around Albuquerque. Next stop is Amarillo and the two parks plus a state park in the Texas panhandle, a stop in OK City, a NRA in Centrial OK and our last park in AR, Fort Smith. Our final stop is at the Oliver Rally at Lake Guntersville, AL in late May and an overnight in Knoxville on the way home.
Altogether we expect to be gone 4 months and travel about 11,000 miles and add 33 new parks to the growing list and 12 to enjoy again. We still have some trailer preparation to make, obviously lots of packing of clothes, gear and food. The actual planning is up to the last bit in May but we should be finished with that this week. Most of the reservations are made with some too early to make but we have them alerted on our phones. We also intend to have a few “where will we stay” places.
Our friends, Rusty and Janet, will join us at a few places in Florida and travel to the Texas parks. One concern is my camera. The new one developed a glitch and would not turn off, so they are sending me a new one, just a bit of a race to make sure it is here before we leave as they are in very short supply.
Frozen in place in Waco, Texas shortly before the electric issue sent us home. We hope to avoid both electric malfunctions and the 17 degree ice storms next time around.