Planning for the next RV year

Jennifer and I went to the local office supply store over the weekend and picked up a new planning calendar for 2014. It's one of those big, poster-sized ones with the entire year laid out in neat little blocks for each day of each month. It's erasable – a good thing with our propensity for last minute trips and change of plans – and right now, it's blank.

But we're about to start filling it in. We've gone through and listed all the places we want to go, the things we want to see, the people we want to meet and if we to start entering them all on our new calendar, there would be no space left.

We need to do some culling.

But, so far, here's what we're pretty agreed upon for our RV travel goals over the next year:

Next trip is Tuesday when I'll head up to the top of the Michigan Thumb and spend a couple night parked in the middle of a marsh doing somd duck hunting with a friend.

Then, Dec.3-5, we'll head to  the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association annual trade show in Louisville. This is an industry only show, not open to the public. We had planned to attend it last year but it just didn't work out. I was recuperating from a knee replacement and all that walking would have been tough. But this year, with my bionic knee, I'm more than ready.

Come the new year, we're planning a winter camping trip. Maybe Tahquamenon Falls in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where the state DNR plows and keeps open about a dozen spots. We stayed there last year with 28 inches of snow on the ground and had a ball.

Come the 25fth of January, we're tentatively penciling in a trip to northern Minnesota to follow the mushers on the historic and legendary 400-mile long John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. Our Roadtrek is equipped with amateur radio two-way communications and we've been asked to volunteer our Roadtrek and radio gear to help with communications in the northwoods wilderness out where the cell phone signals disappear.

In February, we're looking to hit the Gulf Coast, follow it to Gautier, MS and something called “Smokin' on the Bayou,” being organized by our Facebook Roadtreking Group buddy Paul “Pogo” Konowalchuk. After that event ends, we'll keep moving west to the Texas Hill Country and then Arizona to chase down several stories sent in by readers.

March 17-20, it will be the Family Motorcoach Association's Family Reunion and Motorhome Showcase in Perry, GA.

Those are the trips planned over the next four months.

Then comes spring and summer where we want to visit Yellowstone, as we do every year, and then Glacier National Park. That far west, it would be nice to go all the way to the Oregon coast to see what our pal Campsjunk has been raving about.

Either late June or early September, we also want to do a big trip north and east to the Canadian maritimes.

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico also has us intrigued for early October 5-13.

So many places.

We have several different colors of erasable ink to use on that big new wall planner. We'll list RV shows, unique festivals and special events that sound interesting in orange. Our must-attends will be in black. The potential trips not yet cemented down will be entered in red. And short weekend getaways that we can plan out will be in blue. Added to that will be special family events and holidays will be green.

And we'll keep the eraser handy.

This past year, we have put 33,000 miles on the Roadtrek eTrek.

Next year looks like it may even be more.

 

 

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