Wednesday November 8th 2017

This morning I was reflecting on my last visit to this RV resort in April. I had my entire summers travels in front of me with very few well defined plans. About the only thing I knew in April was that I’d be flying out of Salt Lake City at the end of July for a long weekend in North Carolina. Everything else was just an outline of a plan. I wanted to get to Glacier National Park in Northern Montana. At the time I considered everything else part of the journey.

Another picture from yesterday’s wandering in the Wetlands Park.

I had a great summer travel season. I made it to Glacier National Park by the middle of June. That was a lot earlier in the year than I originally thought I’d be there. On the way I stopped at Yellowstone National Park which was barely on my radar of possibilities in April. Most of August and September were spent at the national parks and monuments in Utah. Every place I visited was interesting and well worth the visit, but I could have done much better planning.

The primary lesson I learned was that reservations are necessary and the earlier they are made the better. Early in the year I was experimenting with travel distances and lengths of stay. This made planning ahead difficult. The down side result was that I often had to compromise on location, duration and timing of my visits to popular areas. For instance, I could only get five or six nights at Yellowstone and Glacier and the locations I picked for the Utah National Parks was often more than fifty miles away from the park. Today I started thinking about next summer. I want to avoid some of this years issues. Many places start booking a year or more in advance.

My area of travel for next summer is primarily east of the Mississippi. I have reservations booked from late February through the first week of April in Florida. I also have the Memorial Day holiday booked at the fair grounds in the middle of Missouri for the Escapees RV Club Escapade. My route of travel during the month and a half from the middle of April to the end of May is the first open question. My travels from there are wide open. The only other constraint is my desire to be back in New England for the fall season.

Today I’ve been researching what I’d like to see and the routes I might follow. One goal is to identify where I’ll be for the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Making reservations for those holidays was a big problem this summer. I ended up in the middle of the Nevada desert for the Fourth and an expensive gravel patch on a hill for Labor Day. The thing I need to keep in mind is that there are more and more people competing for the sites out there and a 35 foot class A motorhome can’t fit in every available site. I’ve already struck out attempting to get a two week stay in New England next October. Shorter stays and other places are available, but it goes to show I’m not looking to soon.