First an apology because I’ve slacked on these posts. The reasons are several, as are the motivations to write these entries, both of which will likely be the subject of a future post. But I do have partial entries for several of the adventures last year that followed our big Florida trip, so I’ll try to post those with appropriate dates when they occurred last year. So look for those in the near future, but I’ll set that aside for, and give you a preview of this year’s adventures.

Route 66!

Our big trip this year centers on the old Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles, and we’re pretty excited. This trip is classic Americana, and is littered with stereotypical and random roadside attractions. Not much of the original roadway exists, but there are many areas where the random trinketry has been preserved for the sake of nostalgia. We’re happy to have the opportunity take in as many of these little attractions as possible.

The entire trip will take us north across I-90 to Chicago, then down Route 66 to Los Angeles, then north up I-5 back home. However, much will happen along that big loop. First, along the northern portion, we plan to visit Glacier National Park in Montana as well as the various national parks within South Dakota. Also, when we hit Los Angeles we’ll be spending some time in Disneyland the last few days of October and first few days of November, which is planned to coincide with the decorative shift from Halloween to Christmas, so we will get to experience that transition in the parks.

There will be many other lesser excursions along the way, including adventures in Chicago, St. Louis, Flagstaff, and more. In contrast to the big trip to Florida last year, we’re planning to build in much more flexibility about where we stay and how long. Particularly as we make our way down Route 66 itself, we want to retain the ability to adapt based upon the individual daily experiences. So in many places we are not booking sites or excursions in advance, which will itself be something of a new experience. We’ll make sure to post pictures along the way.

Rallies

In addition to the big Route 66 loop trip, we’re planning many other rallies with our fellow Airstreamers, including two oceanfront rallies here in Oregon, the Region 10 rally in Coeur D’Alene, and the International Rally in Sedalia, which is conveniently just off Route 66. Micki has learned a great deal about towing and parking the trailer, so it’s possible she’ll be handling portions of these individual rallies as solo. She did that a couple times in the fall last year so it won’t be new to her, but she’s becoming more and more confident with each adventure.

Family Camping Trips

In addition to the bit trip and the Airstream rallies, we’ll be taking other more ordinary camping trips with family and friends. We had a week long trip to Pacific City planned for Spring Break but as of now it appears that’ll be cancelled, but we also have a week long trip planned for Wallowa Lake in July. That’s one of our favorite places to camp, so I’m glad we could keep it on the agenda despite the larger trip down Route 66.

Preparation

Fortunately we’ve now worked out many of the kinks in the Mouse House, so the list of planned work items is modest. I’m still struggling with the DC Power Converter, so I’ll probably swap that out again this year (see my prior posts on that issue….). Other than that, we’ll probably leave our set-up as is.

One sad bit of preparation is that we don’t expect our little Sophie to be with us much longer. She’s on the precipice of 16 years, which is a good long run for any pup, so we feel good that she’s had a a good life. Nonetheless, we’ll be sad to have any adventures without her. Bella will still be with us for at least a while longer, so she’ll probably be extra spoiled.

I’ll start rolling out those other posts soon hopefully past-dated to when they happened, and we’ll see you down the road!