Thursday, November 6, 2014

Alaska Road Trip...Down the Road

You only live once, so my daughter and I are planning a really big road trip, one of those once-in-a-lifetime trips that get my blood pumping just thinking about it.  I made a deal with Melody that I would take her to all 50 US states before she graduates from high school, and, so far, she has been to 34.  We still need a few in the Southwest (Utah, New Mexico, and Texas), the Northwest (Washington, Oregon, and Idaho), the Plains (North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Kansas), and the deep South (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama), plus the two biggies, Alaska and Hawaii.  And since we can't drive to Hawaii, we're going to figure out something else in order to get there.  But we are planning to take the ultimate road trip to Alaska!

The trip won't be anytime soon.  We're thinking that the Summer of 2016 will be our target, with a lengthy three weeks of time off for the trip.  While it's still in the early planning stages, I'm starting to plan the route.  Since we still need to cross off North Dakota, we'll likely take the northern route out of Chicago and travel across Minnesota and North Dakota and into Montana, with a stop at Glacier National Park.  I'd like to hit Calgary, Alberta, Banff National Park, and then travel north to the Alaska Highway and up into America's Last Frontier.  After a week in Alaska, I'd like to come back down to Washington and Oregon before heading east across Idaho and eventually across Iowa.  We'll knock out a lot of states on this trip.

I can't help but feel excited, even if we're still a year and a half away from actually taking the trip.  It will be the biggest trip I've ever taken, by far, and I've been on a few big ones.  I started taking Melody on road trips when she was two, with a fun trip to Florida and Universal Studios.  A few years later, we went to Disney, and then we took our first trip Out West (Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming, and a few miles into Montana just to cross it off the list).  It was an awesome trip, and we saw some amazing sites, including the Crazy Horse Memorial, Mt. Rushmore, buffalo in Custer State Park, Deadwood, the Badlands, Wall Drug Store, Devil's Tower, Wind Cave, Chimney Rock, and Rocky Mountain National Park, to name a few of our favorites.  Melody's latest favorite trip was way out west, to Southern California (and Las Vegas).

So we're ready for another big trip.  Since this one is going to be SO big, and it's going to be a long time until we go, we'll have to fill up the gap with a bunch of little trips.  We're going to the Smokies, to New York City (again), maybe to Pittsburgh, another trip to Chicago, Ocean City, and Busch Gardens!  So take a trip, folks!  It does a body good.

I'm going to bed.  Have a great evening, everyone!<><

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like an amazing trip, Eric. Be sure to post about your planning because that's fun for fellow road trip junkies to follow along with.

    I'm up to my eyeballs planning for my big month long trip next summer. We're visiting 8-9 states and so many National and State parks that it is hard to keep track. I am so excited! I've got the route planned out (more or less) and am working on lodging until Southwest releases its summer dates. The boys and I will have our starting off point in Denver and my husband (and possibly daughter) will be joining us in Utah to head over to the Grand Canyon and Vegas. After that, we will continue on without them.

    I'm so excited that it almost doesn't feel real!

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