I honestly don't think we're going to find the Grand Canyon on this road

As GG alluded to below, we are both going places…to the west to be exact. As many of you know we have not been real thrilled with our current jobs, living in the DC area, and doing the same old thing day in and day out. Fortunately we have a few bucks saved up and have decided to junk the jobs, pack up the bus and head to the Rocky Mountains and Desert Southwest for a couple of months of camping, hiking, and backpacking. I’m sure there are plenty of questions, so I’ll try to answer most of them.

Q. Um…so you’re just quitting? What, are you made of money?
A. No, we’re not made of money, but we have a bit in the savings that’ll last us for a few months, we hope. But money doesn’t run our world, and when it comes right down to it, you’d be amazed at how little one can get by on. And if we bottom out on cash, we can always sell the house and cash out on the great equity the DC area has built in for us the past few years.
Q. What are you doing, where are you going, and for how long?
A. The general idea is to leave in early June for 6 weeks or so. When deciding where we wanted to go, several factors came in to play. 1) Sage wants to visit as many National Parks as possible; 2) We don’t want to just drive through places in a day, but when we can we want to spend a few days exploring the areas; 3) if we decided to go all the way to West Coast we’d probably have to add another month. So with all that we are concentrating our trip on the Rockies up to Glacier, and then down to Southern Utah and the Grand Canyon. Yosemite, Sequoia, and Olympic will have to wait for another day (maybe in the fall if we still don’t have jobs). We have a rough itinerary/schedule, but we want to keep everyone coming back to see where we’ve been, so we’ll let you know as we go along. Also, since we’re not on any time frame, we get to be flexible…stay somewhere longer if we really like it; raise up stakes if the weather is bad somewhere else.
Q. Why just the National Parks? There are so many other great places to see out there, and the Parks are so crowded with yahoos during the summer.
A. That is very true. However, there are several reasons. First, as I said before, Sage wants to visit all the National Parks, so we might as well hit as many as we can while we can. Also, except for a few parks in Southern Utah, most of the areas we’re going to we’ve never visited before. Finally, there is a reason why these places are National Parks – they generally protect the best wildlife and natural areas the nation has to offer. True, the crowds will be bad, especially in the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. (Ooops, I’m giving too much away!) However, this is why we’re trying to get out there before the big rush in July and August. Also, we are not “pull the camper over and let’s take a picture” type of people. Most of the yahoos who visit the parks hardly ever venture more than 100 yards from their car. We’ll be doing plenty of hiking into the backcountry, and while I’m guessing most of our time will be spent car camping, we do plan on getting some backpacking in (as much as I can get Sage to do, anyway). Finally, we won’t just hit National Parks, as there are a few other places that interest us as well. As Rick Steves always says, “Assume you’ll return”. We won’t get everything done that we could, but I’m hoping we’ll be back soon to get to what we missed.
Q. What are you doing with your house while you’re gone?
A. Thankfully Ashley and Uncle Bert will be house sitting for us, so we’ll have that peace of mind that someone will be living there while we’re gone. Though Steve still might have to mow the lawn.
Q. And what are you plans when you get back?
A. Don’t ask us that question! Seriously, we truly have no clue, and for me, I’m trying not to think about it. For the short term we’re just going to enjoy the time we have off and all the great things we’ll see along the way. And maybe, hopefully, while watching the sun set in Canyonlands overlooking the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers (more clues!), the future will come into focus. And if not, I always have my frite shop idea.

Our planning for the trip is in full swing. We’ve got all of our maps (thanks Alisha!) and plenty of books to suggest places to stop, mountains to climb, and trails to hike. Our equipment is all ready to go: 3 tents, 3 sleeping bags, 2 sleeping pads, 1 air mattress (no one ever said Sage doesn’t like her comforts of home), 4 backpacks, 2 chairs, a cooler, extra blankets and pillows, and tubs of food, backpacking supplies, first aid supplies, and general bric-a-brac. I have no doubt that within our first few days we’ll find 20 things that we forgot to bring, but I think we’ve got enough for a good start.

We’re taking the good ol’ VUE with us. I did a preliminary test, loading it up, and everything should fit very nicely, without packing it all to the ceiling. The spare tire is in good shape (we’ll be hitting a few dirt roads, I’m sure), and we just got 4 new tires (after 55,000 miles on the old ones), so hopefully those will hold up. A lot of people have commented how we picked the wrong summer to do this trip with gas prices so high, and while we will be paying twice as much in gas as we would have 3 years ago, we still think it’s a good deal compared to where we’re going and what we get to do. We’ll pay a lot more than we would if we took the Hybrid, but it’s just too small for all of our stuff.

We’ll have our laptop with us, and while we probably won’t find a wi-fi connection too often, we’ll make sure we put up updates every chance we get, so check back regularly. We’re throwing our pictures up on kodakgallery.com…if you want to get updates, email me and let me know and I’ll put you on the distribution list.