I have been home for the past few days with an upper respiratory infection with my husband who has been home for a week with a more acute one.  When the two of us have any time together, our conversation always leads to travel, where we’ve been, where we hope to go, and how many days until the next big trip (41 as of today).  We have planned our spring trip which is family oriented — our son and his family in Amarillo, Texas, Johnnie’s sister and a myriad of nieces and nephews in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a 5 day stay in Tucson, Arizona.  We have also planned our summer trip.  This is the more adventurous trip.  Our trips always revolve around national parks but there are so many to choose from that I thought I would share our process of deciding.

Last summer, we visited the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.  I knew that we would see petrified wood and the remnants of a petrified forest, I knew that we were close to the Painted Desert so we might see some of that colorful landscape, but I was surprised to find badlands.  (I didn’t know that the Painted Desert was a type of badlands.) At one of the information stands, it said that there are four badlands in the United States:  Petrified Forest National Park, El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico, Badlands National Park in South Dakota, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.  We had already been to Badlands National Park in 2005.  We had passed signs for El Malpais National Monument but the roads became too narrow and rugged to comfortably travel with our 40-foot motorhome.  This would need to be visited when we stayed in New Mexico and it was a daytrip in a rental truck or SUV.  (We now tow a Jeep, so we can visit on a future trip through that area.)  But, I didn’t know anything about Theodore Roosevelt.  A quick search of the atlas showed that it was off of I-94 near the Montana stateline.  I tucked that information away for future use.

When we plan our 18-day (longer if we can get the time off from work) trips in August, we choose a major destination where we will stay for 5 – 7 days and a minor destination for usually on the trip out. This August our major destination is Olympic National Park in Washington.  We have been to Washington twice together.  In 1992, we flew to Seattle, visited Mount St. Helens, drove to Vancouver, WA to see my sister, put out feet in the frigid Pacific Ocean in Ocean City, then went home.  In 2004, we managed to get a 27-day trip and drove to Washington, this time staying in Spokane, then heading to Vancouver by way of the wheatfields in Eastern Washington and the Columbia River Gorge.    It is impossible to see everything in one trip or even two and Olympic National Park with its rainforest has been on my list of places to see.  Then I read Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.  I loved the book for the Edward and Bella, the main characters, but I especially loved it for the details of the setting which are in the area of Olympic National Park.  So, in our trip this summer, our day trips will be to Forks, La Push, First Beach, Second Beach, and Third Beach.  We will stay in Port Angeles.  These are my contributions to the trip.  Johnnie wants to take the ferry to Victoria, British Columbia and to drive as much as possible along Highway 101 — his contributions to the trip.

Getting to Washington, we have a number of options.  We could take I-94 from Wisconsin or I-90.  I-90 would take us through South Dakota and we could go back to Mount Rushmore or we could go to Devils Tower in Wyoming.  I-94 would take us through North Dakota and we could stop at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  So, I-94 it is and we will have seen 3 out 4 badlands area.  (El Malpais will be either 2009 or 2010.)

So, 2 days in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, 5 – 7 days in Olympic National Park, and perhaps on the way back we will take I-90 and stop by Devils Tower or go to the Crazy Horse Monument that is being built.  What I love about RVing is that you don’t have to plan every single day and can go with the flow.  All we know for sure are the day that we are leaving and the day that we need to be back.  And sometimes that means pulling into our driveway at 7 am on the day that we need to be back so that I can get a shower and dress for work.  Life is good!