This post may contain affiliate links. See our affiliate disclaimer here.
Ah, summer travel.
Since Heath and I work and travel full-time in the RV, summer isn’t as magical as it was when I was a kid. When you’re young it means swimming pools and no school. But now it means traffic, crowds, and calling ahead with reservations for RV parks.
On our 14th day of marriage, Heath and I ended up in a mechanic’s parking lot calling hotels within walking distance because our home/only vehicle was in the shop and we needed a place to stay. Ever since, we treat our “travel plans” pretty loosely. We may say we’ll be somewhere on June 23rd, but as long as get there in one piece, we’re happy. Right now we’re chomping at the bit with excitement to get back out on the road (after sitting in one spot for five weeks. We are spoiled).
Our summer travel in 2015 was full of big plans: we wanted to spend two months in Oregon and Washington and make our way back down the Pacific Coast Highway. But Franklin was giving us major issues: our brake lights went out and THREE mechanics could not figure out how to fix it. So we couldn’t travel and stayed in Texas. It was a huge disappointment. Months later, guess what we found out? It was just a blown fuse, which the mechanics said they checked. The fix cost $4 and 15 minutes. Talk about frustrating! So this summer we are making up for it in a big way.
Our goal this summer is three-fold:
- We’re attending our first RV rally–Winnebago’s Grand National Rally–this July, plus we’re speaking! Heath and I are giving a talk on what it’s like to work from an RV. Finding clients, making the space, figuring out what types of work are possible, etc. We are pumped!
- World Domination Summit–While it’s not 100% confirmed, we are possibly doing a sneak peek preview of Hourly America at this conference in Portland. We’ve attended the past two years and it’s a great place to meet fellow travelers and entrepreneurs. We can’t wait to reconnect with friends and possibly share our film!
- National Parks Galore! This summer, we are visiting scores of national parks. Okay, maybe not that many. But the more we plan, the more national parks we keep adding to our route.
As you can see, our summer travel route is a little crazy, and we are probably biting off more than we can chew. Just looking at this map makes my eyes bug out.
Our stops are a little like this:
June
- Tyler, Texas
- Denton, Texas (last chance to pick up and drop off anything from my parent’s house before we hit the road!)
- Trinidad & La Veta, Colorado
- Longmont, Colorado
- Jackson, Wyoming
- Grand Teton National Park
- Yellowstone National Park
- Glacier National Park
- Banff National Park (Alberta, Canada)
July
- Jasper National Park (Alberta, Canada)
- Touring/repositioning across Saskatchewan, North Dakota, and Minnesota
- July 17th Chicago, Illinois
- July 18-23th Forest City, Iowa for GNR
- Badlands National Park
August
- Coeur d’alene, Idaho
- August 10th-20th Portland, Oregon
- Silver Falls State Park
- Crater Lake National Park
After August, things get pretty up in the air. We plan on slowly making our way south to eventually end up in Texas before Thanksgiving. We tentatively plan to hit Redwoods, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Arches on our way back, possibly even staying in Colorado for a while in October. (I suppose the beauty of the RV life is that you never know where you might end up!)
Those are our plans. What do you summer travel plans look like? Will we see you on the road?
Hey, maybe Coeur d’Alene in August! You watch me; I’ll watch you; we’ll figure it all out when we get there…
Sounds like a plan! We’ve only driven through once. Excited to spend a few days there!
We’ll be heading towards Coeur d’Alene the last week in July. Maybe we’ll see each other again!
That would be awesome! Y’all diving in the lake there?
Ha, we hadn’t even thought about that. We’ll have to look into it. Brandon IS planning on diving at a missile silo in Washington just before we get there. And we’re making a stop to say hello to his former employer (previously based in San Diego, we didn’t live in Idaho).
We may be in Utah and Colorado at the same time. We must meet up if so! 🙂
That would be awesome!!