2022 Travel Plans: Mountains, Mountains, and More Mountains

Last year my post was called “2021 Travel Plans (LOL)” because, you know…pandemics and planning and all that. So I’m happy to report that most of our planned travel actually happened in 2021. I did have a couple of sad moments reading back through that post and remembering the things that didn’t happen–like how we didn’t get to do our stop in DC thanks to kid AP exam scheduling weirdness. But, overall, it was a return to a pretty full year of travel, and that was lovely.

And now we hope our luck continues to hold in 2022.

And yet, the first thing I have to talk about is a trip that won’t happen (I found this out while I was writing this post in fact). Milo is a senior this year and is applying to music schools next year, with a plan to major in clarinet performance, so he’s supposed to be going to a bunch of auditions this year. We had a big trip to Ohio booked for late January, but we just learned that his Oberlin audition at least (the earliest one) will be virtual. This isn’t a surprise, given the current situation, but it’s a bummer. Milo didn’t get to do all the college visits we’d planned last year, either, and I was hoping the audition trips would make up for it a bit. So I won’t be talking about our fun audition road trip after all. There might be a spring college visit road trip instead, but that all depends on how auditions go (and covid).

So far Milo and Dave still have plans for an audition trip later in February (on airplanes instead of pulling a trailer), and we have a hotel booked in Athens, GA for a weekend in March for All-state band.

But then there is spring break! We’re planning to drive the Natchez Trace Parkway for spring break. We’ve wanted to do this for awhile without managing to make it happen, so maybe this is our year. We have everything booked anyway, so that’s a good start on making it happen. The parkway follows the old Natchez Trace, a trade route that runs through Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee that’s been in use for hundreds of years. We have stops planned in Natchez and Jackson, MS, near Florence, AL, and then in Nashville to finish the drive before heading home. This trip will involve a lot more one night stays and stopping along the way to see things with the trailer (and the dogs!) than we usually do, so I’m curious to see how we like it.

Incidentally, while all this travel that might or might actually happen is taking place this winter/spring, Ari, our oldest kid, will be off in Budapest for a study abroad program. This is exciting and also pretty nerve racking at the moment, but fingers crossed it goes smoothly and he has a great time. He’s in his third year of college in Saint Paul, so we’re used to him being far away, but not THAT far away and not for so long at one stretch.

I will try to get him to send me pictures to post!

The next (and only other) firm plan we have left is our big summer trip. Yay big summer trip! The title of the post gives you some hints; we’re going to be spending an awful lot of time this summer traveling through the Rockies, and we’re all pretty excited about it. We’ll spend about 8 weeks doing this:

I had to cheat a little to make this map, because we have too many stops for google maps to handle. So many stops!

There used to be a plan to fit the Pacific Northwest into this trip, but, after coordinating with my sister-in-law and planning some stops with her family, this is what we ended up with. I’m a little sad to need to save the PNW for another time, but I also think this itinerary will allow for a more reasonable pace and more time to spend in single locations.

Here are the planned stops:

*Birmingham, AL: just because we like Birmingham, haven’t been in awhile, and don’t want to drive super far on our first day. I want to see Sloss Furnaces again, because The Remains of Industry is my favorite. And we’ve actually never camped in Birmingham before, so we’re also excited to check out Oak Mountain State Park (where we’ve hiked, but not stayed)

*Memphis, TN: we’ve never managed to make it here with the RV before, though Dave and I have both been pre-kids, and Ari and I made a quick stop on a college trip to see Graceland a few years ago. This time we will likely not see Graceland, because it would cost a zillion dollars for all of us, but we want to see stuff like the National Civil Rights Museum and maybe the Bass Pro Shops pyramid.

*Hot Springs National Park: our first national park of the trip!

*Tulsa, OK: we’re hoping to see some friends here, but if that doesn’t work out there’s a bunch of other stuff to see, too: like the Gathering Place and the new Greenwood Rising museum

*Amarillo, TX: a quick overnight on the way to….

*Santa Fe, NM: our first stop with Dave’s sister and family and his parents. We’re staying here for a week, and I know there’s tons to do in Santa Fe and lots of natural beauty in the area and all that, but I mostly keep thinking about how excited I am about Meow Wolf

*Durango, CO: this is the other place we’re going with all the in-laws. My BIL has been wanting to visit Durango, and we’ve never made it to Colorado at all somehow, so that sounded good to us. My SIL found an Airbnb that has an RV pad with hookups in the driveway, so that will be a lot of fun. As will the train ride…or at least it better be, because it looks like it’s up there with a day at Disney World, price-wise.

*Helper, UT: our first night ever in Utah! We’re checking off a lot of new states on this trip. This is another overnight, although the campground offers special sites designated for “train watching” so I’m pretty excited about that.

*Brigham City, UT: Dave really wants to do a big southwest trip with all the Utah national parks, but I keep putting him off because I really don’t want to do it in summer, with the crowds and the heat. So we’re going to drive right past all the parks, but spend a day north of Salt Lake City, seeing Golden Spike National Historical Park and Spiral Jetty, of AP art history fame.

*Bozeman, MT: we’re spending a pretty big chunk of the trip in Montana, starting with a few nights near Bozeman. We’re staying in one of the RV sites at The Inn on the Gallatin. It might just have the most glowing reviews I’ve ever seen, so I’m expecting great things.

*Butte, MT: this is maybe our least traditionally touristy Montana stop, but there are a few things I wanted to see, like the mining museum. I love a good mining museum (like the one on Cape Breton in Nova Scotia):

*Missoula, MT: I need to show the kids A River Runs Through It before this summer. We’ll be here for the 4th of July; it looks like they do fireworks at the mall. So American! But I hear there’s a lot of other great stuff, too.

*Glacier National Park: likely to be the big star of the summer, from what I hear. We’re spending a few days on the west side and then a few on the east, so we should have plenty of time to see things and do a bunch of hiking. We will try not to be eaten by bears.

*Great Falls, MT: we’re mostly going here for the Lewis and Clark stuff. We never pass up Lewis and Clark stuff!

*Theodore Roosevelt National Park: another new state (North Dakota) and another new national park!

*Jamestown, ND: another overnight stop on the way to…

*DeSmet, SD: our triumphant return to the Ingalls Homestead! This is especially exciting because we’ll be there for the Laura Ingalls Wilder pageant, which might be almost as great as the kittens! (maybe)

*Grinnell, IA: Gus is going to be in 11th grade next year, so this would be a nice summer for college visits, but this is the only one that really made sense with our route. Grinnell waitlisted Ari, so I’m determined to make them accept ONE of my kids, at least. Just kidding, but it’s a nice school even if they were too dumb to get Ari, and I think Gus would like it.

*Hannibal, MO: Ari and I visited Hannibal and saw all the Mark Twain stuff when WE went to Grinnell, so now it’s time to show it to the rest of the family.

And then home! Phew!

So obviously that’s the big trip of the year, and, honestly, I haven’t thought much past that yet. This past year we traveled over Thanksgiving, and, honestly, we probably won’t do that again for awhile. It was a great trip but logistically difficult because of Ari’s college schedule, and next year we’ll have TWO college schedules to juggle (!) So who knows? We’ll try to fit in some long weekends somewhere, and we might be doing some college visits for Gus (! again)…but in these days of intensive kid activities we’re resigned to the fact that the summer trip is THE trip and visiting the trailer in the driveway for most of the rest of the year. And, of course, the summer is trip is a lot, and we’re really grateful that we get to do it most years (and it makes up a bit for how extra-challenging teaching has been for Dave the past couple of years).