Jim and April's Roadtrips

One of the most important criteria for an enjoyable vacation is making it stress free.  Sometimes that means eliminating points of interest.  Trying to pack too much activity into a given day means you don’t have the time or energy to enjoy any of it.

When we took our first major roadtrip in 2011, we scheduled 6 to 8 hours a day of driving.  In theory, that would have left us 4 to 6 hours of site seeing time in a 12 hour day.  We should still have had 4 hours for buying gas, eating meals, and so forth with ample time to sleep.

Unfortunately, it didn’t always work out that way.  Sometimes, the driving took longer than anticipated.  In others, the site seeing and picture taking became extended.  When you check out of the hotel and start on the road at 9 am and don’t reach your next destination until 9 at night, the day is just too long.

At several locations, we didn’t have time for any site seeing.  Pictures were snapped quickly, sometimes from a moving car.  Sometimes we spent hours driving along empty roads to reach an interesting spot when it was too dark for good photos.  

As we have gained experience along the way, we have learned to make the drive times shorter and space our stops better.  Hopefully, this time, we will arrive before sunset.  Spend a couple of hours checking out local points of interest and then take time to go back and photograph them the next morning before moving on to the next location.

Toward that end, we’ve scheduled multiple days at major locations like the Yosemite area, San Francisco, and New Orleans.  We are also returning to some previous places like Phoenix where we weren’t able to spend any time looking around on the last trip.  In 2011, we passed Saguaro National Park, but we got there at dusk.  We could see the forest of cacti around us, but it was too dark to explore and the photos we tried to take didn’t even begin to show the mystery of the scene.

The park is between Phoenix and Tucson.  It’s about 2 hours from Phoenix where we’ll be spending the night.  So, we’ll spend the morning exploring Phoenix, then start for the park after lunch.  We should be there with plenty of daylight left.  It’s another 5 hours to our El Paso hotel, so we’ll have a long day.  But the pictures will be worth it.

 

Whenever we plan a big trip, part of that process is researching points of interest along the way.  In anticipation of September’s excursion, I spent several hours last week online with a list of stops on one screen and Google open on the other ordering brochures, downloading PDF files and bookmarking websites.

This week the ones I ordered have started arriving.  Colorado Springs, Utah, Arizona, and San Francisco  all tempt me with myriad adventures.   Unfortunately, we’ll never have enough time to do it all.  That would require a stay of about a month per location.

So, the next few weeks will be spent reading through the information and making lists.  Then consulting Jim on his preferences.  Of course, I know anything that includes a train will be a definite event, but there are many other criteria: expense, time, and distance being the main ones.  So much to do and so little time to accomplish it.  Half the fun is in the planning.

As decisions are made, I’ll add a short paragraph to that week’s post regarding our anticipated activities so that you, our friends, can have an idea of what we’ll be doing.  If you have suggestions, feel free to comment.

You’ll see in the sidebar the big trip for this year. We will be spending the whole month of September traveling from home to Los Angeles and back. We are excited. I’ve planned the itinerary, mapped the route, and found our lodgings. Jim has even made some of the reservations. Now, if only he can get his knee surgery done in time to be recovered by then. He’s got a torn ACL and Meniscus. How soon they do the surgery depends on the doctor’s schedule. Then it will probably take six weeks to heal enough for him to drive and hike. We may need to adjust our travel plans somewhat if things don’t go well.

In the meantime, we’ll be heading back to Ohio for our annual family reunion in June. The plans are all made for that. Then there’s another trip to Ohio later this summer for the dedication of a bench honoring Jim’s Air Force unit. Those are definitely on the calendar. Plus a July trip to Holiday World for Damion and Elaina’s birthdays which should have ample photographic possibilities. At some point, I’ll be going to Charlotte as well, since my youngest grandson has expressed interest in visiting one last summer before he becomes too involved in the working world. Those are the ones that are, at least, tentatively on the schedule.

I’m thinking of asking one of my granddaughters who is going to New York with a friend to do a guest post. She plans to be a professional photographer and I’m sure she’ll get some interesting shots. We’ll also be going to festivals and other summer activities. Be sure to check in from time to time and leave some comments on the photos.