27 November 2017 REVISION: To make it easier to read multiple posts, they are now displayed with the oldest rather than newest on top. On the list in the left margin, under ARCHIVES, click on the month & year for the posts you would like to see, and they will be in chronological order (there is usually a lag between the date described and the posting date). Here is the very first post, from spring of 2015:
We will start across the country in mid-June, with a list of over 25 people or couples to visit, our bicycles, hiking boots, and national park passes. It’s our first post-retirement adventure. Our long-term goal is to camp, hike, and bike in each of the lower 48 states and 10 Canadian provinces over the next several years, focusing on national parks and rail trails.
We want to be able to periodically update the folks we will be visiting (as well as many other friends & family) on our progress and to share some of our experiences with them. Sending e-mail updates to a long list seems like a cumbersome and intrusive way to do it, so we’re trying a blog. That way you can check up on us whenever you feel like it without us cluttering up your in-box. Be patient, though: we are rank beginners at blogging.
Our camper is a hard-sided A-frame pop-up camper that we tow behind our car. It’s about 6.5 feet wide and 12 feet long (excluding the tongue). Check it out at Aliner.com (their Classic model).
We’ve taken our Aliner for a two-week vacation plus a couple of weekends in each of the last three years, but this year’s 16-week (3.7-month) trip will be more of an odyssey. Our basic plan is to travel to southern California and back, passing north of the Great Lakes on the way west and south of them on the return trip, with stops in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Minnesota, Manitoba, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, California, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota again, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania again, and Vermont.