Even though Spring has barely sprung, many of the RVers we know are already on the road, starting their summer travel adventures. Some have been sitting still all winter long in one snowbird roost or another from Florida, to Texas, to Arizona and southern California, and have a bad case of hitch itch. Others have been on the move all winter long, pausing here and there for a week or two or three, then moving on.
Terry and I will be on the road to the Verde Valley Thousand Trails today, and we’ll spend a couple of weeks in the Camp Verde area, doing some exploring,and getting the new issue of the Gypsy Journal printed and mailed. Then we plan to go to our old hometown of Show Low, and get our grandkid fix. I’m sure looking forward to that! We’ll hang around there a couple of weeks, getting underfoot until my daughter and her husband need to get back to their normal lives, or we’ve spoiled our granddaughters enough, whichever comes first.
From there, we want to go to Coarsegold, California for a visit to the Escapees Park of the Sierras Co-op, and to check out Yosemite National Park, if the weather cooperates. We have never been to either place, and have wanted to get to both for a long time. We also want to check out the Gold Rush country along State Highway 49, and we’ll probably do that in a series of day trips, instead of taking our 40 foot diesel pusher down a road that several people have told me is drivable in a rig that big, but no fun at all.
Once we’re done in that area, we plan to get over to U.S. Highway 101 somewhere north of San Francisco, and follow it further north, into Oregon. From June 7 through July 19, we have three reservations, in two week intervals, at three Thousand Trails preserves, from Florence, Oregon to Long Beach, Washington. We love the Pacific Northwest coast, and are really looking forward to spending some extended time there. There is so much to see and do along the coast that we could spend a couple of years there, and never see it all.
After that, we will probably go up to Grays Harbor County, Washington, where I got my start in the newspaper business, then up to the top of the Olympic Peninsula to the charming little waterfront town of Port Townsend, and back down the eastern side of the peninsula to stop in Bremerton for a few days. Bremerton makes a great base from which to explore Seattle. We park our truck at a public lot in town, then walk aboard the ferry for a ride across Puget Sound to the Emerald City. The ferry dock in Seattle is just a short walk from the Seattle Aquarium, Pike Place Market, and the waterfront, and a quick tram ride away from Seattle Center and the Space Needle.
By then, it will be time to start making our way back east toward Traverse City, Michigan for Terry’s annual oncologist checkup, and then down to Muskegon for a visit with Berni and Rocky Frees. If we have time we’ll stop in Elkhart, Indiana for a few days at Elkhart Campground, and then it’s over to Celina, Ohio for our Eastern Gypsy Journal Rally the last week of September. Whew, it’s going to be a busy summer! I’m tired just talking about it!
So how about you? What are your summer travel plans? Are you among the many RVers we know who are planning an RV trip to Alaska? Will you be covering as much territory as we are planning, or do you have a slower paced summer planned, maybe visiting with family, or settled down in one of your favorite campgrounds among friends? It’s always fun to hear what everybody else has planned.
Thought For The Day – Aging is the process of learning more medical terminology.
Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
In the CA Gold Country there is an Elks in Shingle Springs and a TT park in Coloma. It is right on the South Fork of the American River but might be too rough for your kayaking (Level 3-5 rapids). There are guided tours. You’ll be passing thru our home turf when you take the toad on Hwy. 49 north to Auburn, Grass Valley & Nevada City. If before the end of May, give us a shout for a personal tour of Cool. After that we’ll have to send back a virtual wave from our trip to Alaska. Don’t know how much time you’ll have for your trip to MI, but how about heading across the border thru BC, Alberta and the Canadian Rockies; topping it off with Banff and Lake Louise. You can drop back down into MT and Glacier NP then across Hwy. 2 to MI.
Enjoy your trip!
Our niece wants us to head up to Newport, OR from West Des Moines, IA to visit her part of the world in July. Then back home in Sept. for a wedding. Our winter plans include somewhere without snow.
JC
Nick,
We took a trip to Death Valley this winter, while there we decided to go to Lone Pine, CA so my hubby Bill, could get his cowboy fix. Lone Pine is our next favorite to Monument Valley. We stayed at the Ridgecrest Elks and day tripped from there. The film musuem is great, the little cafe where all the movie stars signed the walls and best of all the Alabama Hills. We were lucky enough to be the only ones walking through the hills. Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Gunga Din and all the early western tv shows and movies were made there. There was a lot to see in the area. China Lake Naval Base has a free musuem and the nearby relocation (concentration) camp for Japanese decendants during WW II is very interesting. While you are over that way, you should stop if you haven’t seen this area.
We sat too long all winter (5 mths) so we’re on the move this summer. From Fla to NC, up to Ottawa, Canada, MI, WI, MN, IA (just because we want another state on the map) then to ILL to see the kids, MO to see my sister, IN to a wedding, TN for a get together of RV’ers, back to NC then FL for the winter, Whew, I’m tired too. Safe travels, we may pass you along the way.
Coarsegold is a beautiful Escapees park. We enjoy staying there when we are in CA. We think you will like it.
Our year started on Feb 28 when we left our home base. We then attended 5 BAC (Beaver Ambassador Club) rallies and the FMCA in Perry. We were rally masters for 2 of those rallies, and volunteered in various capacities at other BAC rallies. My husband was Captain of the Computer Help Desk and ran the Bits and Bytes meeting at FMCA, meanwhile I ran the 4 o’clock BAC socials at our rig every day for 7 days. We are presently “relaxing” at Raccoon Valley for about 10 days. This means we are doing income tax and various projects we let slide while we were rallying.
Our future holds the following: up to PA to finalize plans for a rally site for next summer, visit Maine relatives, go to NJ to do genealogy research, down to SC for a genealogy conference, back to home base in mid May. Fly to Hamburg, Germany for a 30 day RV caravan to Scandinavia, return to home base at the end of June. Get back on road, go to PA to run a rally in July, then run a rolling rally to Wisconsin, attend another BAC rally and FMCA. Travel west to visit relatives in KS, attend Escapade in Gillette, then Salt Lake City for a SKP Genie week long rally. After that we mosey around until an early October BAC rally in Albuquerque for the Balloon Festival. Visit a sister in TX, see my cardiologist in Ashveille, NC, back to home base late October for next winter.
Our friends couldn’t understand why we wanted to retire early. They said what will you do? They now love to get our Christmas letter because they enjoy seeing what we do and many wish they could do the same. We are having a great time and are never bored. There is always so much to do.
We are going thru CA and western OR & WA before returning thru Reno & Las Vegas back to Cottonwood to pick up the trailer we are leaving behind. May bump into you besides here today.
The Elks Lodge in Shingle Springs that Judy mentioned is our “home” lodge, actually the Placerville Lodge. Very nice campsites, very friendly people, and a good home base to explore the areas of 49 that Judy mentioned. And I second all of Jan Mains comments on Lone Pine – it is on our short list of GREAT small towns (which includes Port Townsend). Odel is determined to get us to Port Townsend this summer, for clam chowder at Fins on the water – the best we have every tasted.
Our plans are similar to yours, though we may approach the PNW from Montana – thinking we might go from Sacramento (Odel’s knee surgery is set for this Monday, so we hope to get out of here before June) back to the NP’s in Utah, through Grand Teton NP, up to Glacier, then across the top to the PNW in late July. We like to do as you do to sightsee Seattle – stay in Bremerton and take the ferry. Your post really woke up my travel bug!! Where the heck is my atlas??
middle of June heading to Whidbey Island, WA. to visit son in Navy. It’s been 5 years.. Also spending as much time as I can in the NW coast area as it is a long way from Florida.
Waiting for the weather in the middle of the country to clear up, then we bust out of Florida June 1. Up to PA and MI to see family, then out to Colorado for 2-3 months. Leaving CO we go to NM, TX, and back home to S FL by Nov 1 to sit out the winter. Can hardly wait to get started!
Oh my I am jealous! We will stay in the RGV where I am recovering from some pretty intense back surgery. We have a family wedding in Muskegon MI in early August and hope to be back on the road by then. This is the year for family but not in a good way…my mom has become legally blind due to her macular degeneration issues and now her husband is in nursing care and the family must make decisions regarding future care.
I will be following those of you who blog with interest, and noting where you travel so we can put those places on our bucket list.
Tavel safe.
Since I’m retiring from teaching on June 2nd, we don’t have to come back from our summer trip in August like we’ve had to do for decades. So, on June 3 we’re heading north – we’ll be in the Canadian Rockies for the rest of June and the first week of July. Then we’ll go to Prince George and then Dawson Creek, and MOSEY LEISURELY up the Alaska Highway. We’ll stop whenever we feel like it, fish as many rivers as we can, and head back home when we’ve decided we’ve had enough. We don’t know if we’ll make it to Tok, or to Fairbanks, or wherever, as those decisions will be made on the road. Sooooo excited about this. I”ll be sure to post as many updates as I can on my blog.
We will leave Desert Trails here in Tucson mid-April, then head to Clarksville, TN, to see our son. Then on to the Atlanta area to visit his daughter. We will then head toward Wichita, Ks to see our daughter and family and check on “The Acre” and see if the 30′ x 50′-16′ building is up by then. Mid June head over into CO with the 11 year old twins to teach them about the outdoors. We then have a Silver Eagle Bus rally in Cody mid Aug. so we will go early to visit Yellowstone and a HS friend of Anne’s. Then after the rally back thru NE and down ito Wichita. Then head maybe toward Yuma for the early winter and an Eagle rally in Q come Jan. Some of that is in stone some plans have not jelled as of yet.
Happy trails and see ya on the road, drive safe.
We think we will be traveling similar to you except we’ll stop in Minnesota when you go on to Michigan. Then we’ll probably head back to Wyoming for the Escapade then down US 95 to Arizona. We expect to move much slower this summer than we have in the past. We’ll see how that works out. 🙂
Have fun on your trip up 101, just wanted to tell you of a couple place to eat while in Seaside. One is Creekside Restaurant the best Broasted Chicken and the other is “Mo’s “, the best clam chowder on the west coast. Have fun we really enjoy the 101 drive from Californa to Washington. Oregon has some of the best ocean views.
June-July we will head to Nova Scotia. In Aug I have been asked to present seminars on Genealogy and RV Tires, some more than once, at Madison, WI FMCA Convention. In Sept I am organizing a small group visit of 6 to 10 RVs to Celina, Ohio where I will be giving three seminars, two on Genealogy and one on RV Tires for some guy named Bad Nick or something like that.
I don’t know… What were his parents thinking to give a kid the name Bad. Bet he had a great time in school.
Hi,
We saw you at Orlando TT and you passed a Motorhome and then us in our truck and fithwheel today just before nyou got off I 10 to fuel up. Glad to see everything is going well. Good travels.
Give a wave as you go through the San Francisco area. I’m on temporary assignment for work here this year and after that I’m going to the house for my start of semi-retirement. Hopefully replacement RV will be parked in our driveway back in TN this fall. Sounds like you’ve got a packed summer. Enjoy all of it…I’m envious but happy for ya.
Nick,
You and Miss Terry have a great time in the northwest. Wife and I grew up in Washington – now live in Texas. Some friends went to Portland last year and I mapped out a 700 mile trip for them up through Puget Sound, they had a great time, except for being May, they had a little rain. They did get to see Mt. S. Helens. Have some other friends leaving TX in May and going to have their MH worked on in the Redmond, Or area. Have a 2200 mile trip mapped out for them that will take them back and forth across Washington – with ample time in the Olympics.
Wife and I still work so can’t enjoy a lot of travel, but did have the trip to AZ in February, now some trips in TX, then to the Balloon Fiesta in October.
Safe Travels – Maybe see you on the road.
WOW! Reading of everyone’s travels just wears me out. Or maybe it is the 380-mile day we just drove. We are hurrying back to Nebraska to see the sandhills cranes. Then after medical checkups in Lincoln, we’ll meander out to Gillette for the Escapade. After that to Winfield, KS, for the Walnut Valley Music Festival. I think we will just have a few days to get to Eastern Gypsy Journey rally on our way to
Pigeon Forge for a rally. Then somewhere south for winter.
We have spent several summers on the Olympic Peninsula. We always enjoy Chimacum SKP park. We know one really neat place to boondock (one of my favorites).
We’re on our way to Prince Edward Isle and Halifax this summer/fall. Then it’s down to Hersey, PA for the RV-Dreams rally. Then a quick hop up to Niagara Falls before we head east for Celina, OH and the Gypsy Rally. See you in September!