Getting ready for next trip

We started planning 2024 trip last year and during winter, we started firming up the plans and making reservations.  It’s interesting to think about how you would want to see in this trip.  We know that we need to get south from NJ as quickly as possible, since the weather in late March is still not predictable.  Picking some key locations to stop helped the process.  I used “50 States, 5000 Ideas”, which is a great book, to help along in laying out the route.  Tom filled in the rest, great stops in Virginia (how did Hungry Mother State Park get its name?) and Tennessee.

On this first leg, I wanted to see Santa Fe and Taos (I’ll be eating out a lot!) , Sedona, Mesa Verde and Monument Valley.  All these are such iconic places, but there’s more to the trip.  We will stop in Huntsville, AL to visit NASA’s space center and in Roswell, NM to check out the UFO situation (we are camping at Bottomless Lakes State Park).

We are also in the process to confirming the last campgrounds on the second part of this trip. That has some great stops, including Grand Tetons NP, West Yellowstone, Black Hills, Grand Canyon South Rim, Moab UT and Zion NP. We visited some of these before, but it will be nice to have extra time and be able to explore more.

Now, it is time to start packing the camper, Tom’s finishing up his improvements (solar, new desk) and we should be ready for the road on time.

In the meantime, hiking with friends has kept my legs active. We had couple of great snow hikes, amazing how much easier some trails are, once the snow packs in and flattens all the rocks. I’ve visited Amanda in Seattle, Tanya in Tampa, my work friends in NYC and more. It is all about the journey!