We leave here mid-Oct and head for:
Myrtle Beach - 1 week
Charleston - 1 week
Jacksonville, FL - 2 weeks
West Palm Beach, FL - 1 week
Marathon, FL - 2 months
Naples/Marco Island, FL - 1 month
Cedar Key, FL - 1 month
Panama City Beach, FL - 2 months
This takes us to June 1, and we have a month to kill before we need to be in Austin/Lake Travis for the month of July (my son is getting married). While in Austin, Monello is trying to get to Alaska for a week to salmon fish, during which time I want to take my grandson to a dude ranch. After we leave Austin, we're not sure which way we're going. We're thinking Grand Canyon, and we're also considering doing our Texas tour. I've been to Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Galveston, but Monello had the idea to take several months or a year and explore the whole state.
How we set our itinerary is we choose a major destination (this past summer's itinerary began with Bar Harbor, ME; this winter's began with the Keys). Then we see what's going on on the way there and back, choose a few places we like, consider how long we want to spend in each location, and start filling in the blanks. We rarely have a "stopover" that isn't a destination in its own right - like, last spring we journeyed from Panama City Beach to Austin via Biloxi and Galveston, spending a few days in each.
Not every destination has to be some grand tourist mecca. Our month in Burlington, VT was great - just living and enjoying the area, becoming regulars at the coffee place and setting down some (temporary) roots, not runrunrun touring. It's amazing what you find, though, when you go on walkabout. Burlington, for example, is not only a nice small city in its own right, it is also a short drive from Stowe, Montpelier, and several other super cute towns that are worth a day of exploration. I enjoyed that more than Boston.
We are starting to become creatures of habit, though. PCB, for example, is my true love and the campground we stayed at is perfect (Emerald Coast RV Resort), so I want to go back frequently and I want to stay in that campground. My second true love is Gatlinburg, and Camp LeConte where we stayed was so great there's no reason to park anywhere else. There are a few places where I could have done better with lodging - Bar Harbor and Toms River, NJ most notably. But that's one of the reasons I blog about our travels: so you don't make the same mistakes I did, and also so I know better should we decide to go back to that area. Bar Harbor is probably a one and done, but I can see us going back to the Jersey Shore in the future and you better believe we aren't going to be in no Toms River Clarion hotel.
Myrtle Beach - 1 week
Charleston - 1 week
Jacksonville, FL - 2 weeks
West Palm Beach, FL - 1 week
Marathon, FL - 2 months
Naples/Marco Island, FL - 1 month
Cedar Key, FL - 1 month
Panama City Beach, FL - 2 months
This takes us to June 1, and we have a month to kill before we need to be in Austin/Lake Travis for the month of July (my son is getting married). While in Austin, Monello is trying to get to Alaska for a week to salmon fish, during which time I want to take my grandson to a dude ranch. After we leave Austin, we're not sure which way we're going. We're thinking Grand Canyon, and we're also considering doing our Texas tour. I've been to Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Galveston, but Monello had the idea to take several months or a year and explore the whole state.
How we set our itinerary is we choose a major destination (this past summer's itinerary began with Bar Harbor, ME; this winter's began with the Keys). Then we see what's going on on the way there and back, choose a few places we like, consider how long we want to spend in each location, and start filling in the blanks. We rarely have a "stopover" that isn't a destination in its own right - like, last spring we journeyed from Panama City Beach to Austin via Biloxi and Galveston, spending a few days in each.
Not every destination has to be some grand tourist mecca. Our month in Burlington, VT was great - just living and enjoying the area, becoming regulars at the coffee place and setting down some (temporary) roots, not runrunrun touring. It's amazing what you find, though, when you go on walkabout. Burlington, for example, is not only a nice small city in its own right, it is also a short drive from Stowe, Montpelier, and several other super cute towns that are worth a day of exploration. I enjoyed that more than Boston.
We are starting to become creatures of habit, though. PCB, for example, is my true love and the campground we stayed at is perfect (Emerald Coast RV Resort), so I want to go back frequently and I want to stay in that campground. My second true love is Gatlinburg, and Camp LeConte where we stayed was so great there's no reason to park anywhere else. There are a few places where I could have done better with lodging - Bar Harbor and Toms River, NJ most notably. But that's one of the reasons I blog about our travels: so you don't make the same mistakes I did, and also so I know better should we decide to go back to that area. Bar Harbor is probably a one and done, but I can see us going back to the Jersey Shore in the future and you better believe we aren't going to be in no Toms River Clarion hotel.