I love to map our travels on Travellerspoint.com. It always makes our yearlong travels look so sweeping and epic with it’s loopty-loop lines. 2018, however, was to be the year of the big Slow Down. We had picked seven or eight stops where we were going to stay for several weeks at a time. I entered our travel destinations and our map was anything but sweeping and epic, in fact, it looked like a, well . . . Steven called it the Organ Trail.
Not sweeping and epic so we scrapped this plan.
It wasn’t the shape of the map that made us change our minds, it just sort of simultaneously dawned on us that we’re not ready to slow down. So 2018 has once again become swoopy and loopy and epic and all is right with our world.
We began our 2018 travels on January 22nd when we left Live Oak Ranch. Since then, we’ve stayed in the Lone Star State and will soon head to Big Bend National Park.This stop is for Steven, as he’s craving some new photographic opportunities.
We’ll then make our way across New Mexico into Arizona where we will land at the RV-Dreams Boondocking Rally in early March at Quartzsite, AZ. Two weeks later we’ll attend a second rally before heading off to explore Utah for a few weeks.
Then it’s on to Oregon and Washington where we will catch up with two of our kiddos and our PNW peeps. Hopefully we’ll find a new sofa for Scoopy and perhaps get some tiling done.
By mid-June we’ll start heading east as we plan to take U.S. Highway 2 through North Dakota all the way to Duluth. From there, it’s on to Wisconsin and with that, we will have earned our stickers for 49 states having spent at least one night in each. Hawaii is not in our plans.
We’ll head south for a fun week in Chicago (where I will visit one of my favorite places ever – Eataly’s!) before heading back west to meet up with Bill and Kelly for a tour of the Teton Valley. If everything works out as we hope, my parents may join us as well.
From the TV we’ll mosey back to the ranch in Texas. Our plan is to then fly to Seattle to spend the Christmas holiday with our kids. Since Zoe works in retail, she never gets to take time off for the holidays, so this year we’re going to her!
And there you have it, 2018 in a nutshell!
NEXT UP: Waco!
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Hahaha the "Organ Trail!" Hilarious! You guys really have mapped out another epic swoopy loopy year. How fun. We're heading back across the country in the spring and early summer, taking a northerly route on our way to Lopez Island — maybe we can figure out a way to meet up? Enjoy Big Bend NP — we were there in January and loved it. Can't wait to see your photos!
That would be awesome if we could arrange to cross paths on our travels! We stay fairly current on FB, so ask Eric to keep an eye out for our location! I'll bet we can make it work!
We are still laughing about the "organ trail"! Hope it's a great year for your guys. We're currently in Big Bend, but I think we'll be gone by the time you get here. The photo opportunities are truly awesome, so I'm sure Steven will enjoy the stop immensely. I'm going to have a hard time picking pictures for our blog. Safe travels!
Thanks for introducing me to Travellerspoint. We are heading west next month and hope to stop in Big Bend for some hiking.
I've heard the Oregon Trail was pretty epic…..just sayin'.
We'll be behind you by about a month, but we're taking the Hwy 2 from Montana to Duluth as well – will be fun to have you scout it all out for us!!
Looking forward to our week together in Q – it's getting close 🙂
Ugh! I posted a reply as a comment! See below! 🙂
We will be arriving in Lajitas on Friday (tomorrow, 2/9) staying at Maverick Ranch! If you're around, look for us and come say hi!
Isn't it the neatest map? I use it to plan out the "big picture" and it's a lot of fun to see it laid out on a big map! Thanks for your comment, enjoy Big Bend!
Nooooo. How did we not plan this better so you would be with us and not behind us an entire month??!! We'll have to chat about this in Q. See you soon!
Great place, wonderful food with modern ambiance and comfortable seating with plenty of room. It is now probably one of the best venues in Chicago in my list. Perfect food, great decor and vibrant atmosphere.