Trip Planning

Amid the more than 27″ inches of snow we’ve been blessed with this week (ah, winter finally!), significant other and I have been elbows deep in trip planning, finances, and still for me, job seeking. Not too thrilling for the outside world, but for us, it is so exciting because it feels like we’re really moving forward.

Speaking of moving forward, the YMCA has been having a 2-week trial of free facilities, so while the rest of the world is caught in a swirling mess of snow, rain and wind, I have been luxuriously swimming laps in a 81-degree pool. (And by laps I mean swimming to one end, resting, then dog-paddling to the other end. I’m no fish but I love the water!) I envision swimming in oceans just as warm, frolicking on beaches with Josie and paddle-boarding the day away. With a few hours dedicated to work, of course. The more I see it, the more I believe it, and the more I want it! Of course, our trip will be across the United States with more hiking in forests than swimming in bath-water oceans, but you’ve got to let your mind go to that place when it’s in the single digits here in Maine.

Since the idea of our Wonder Drive sprouted, we’ve been doing a lot of research of families who have also hit the road, either for short or long periods of time. One site we’ve come across is Discover. Share. Inspire., a sort of how-to site dedicated to families who travel, specifically financing travel and what they call ‘world-schooling’ their 6 children. Our biggest obstacle yet in trip planning has been obviously how to fund it and this website is a great resource. It’s got us really thinking about what we can do, what we can learn and doing the nitty-gritty legwork like working on our budget (which in a weird way is kind of fun.) What better way to spend a cold winter day!

We just got our brand-spankin’-new Nat Geo Adventure Atlas today in the mail and I’ve also been strolling down memory lane looking at photographs I took while driving across the country in 2009 and ’10 (soon to be on the Prints page), so it’s easy to find the sunny brightness in all this cold weather. But ’tis the weekend and I fully intend to embrace the Maine winter: play in the snow with my toddler, dye some snowmen molds (Josie says thanks Auntie for the birthday gift!) and make snow ice cream with sprinkles. And then maybe hit the pool.

There’s a change of scenery around here: my little girl, after spending nearly every day together for the past two years, is starting daycare this week. So at the moment I have 2 hours to myself, which means I can sit and write this blog with only the dog for company and the dishwasher for noise. It feels strange to say the least. But good. I think about writing every day, as this blog is also a change for me. I have always written privately in a journal but now we’re going public, people!

The big reason behind this blog is to document a huge change we’re planning for our little family – we’re packing up the Forester this spring and heading out into the big wide world! (Or at least the big wide country of America!) The seed of this idea was planted what seems like a long time ago, but now that seed is sprouting and consuming our thoughts on a daily basis. Trying to plan for such an ambitious endeavor has been scary and stressful, but exciting.

The PLAN: a 3-month long road trip of the National Parks, integrated with this blog and a mini-web series of travels with a toddler.

Just why do we want to do this? I’ve been trying to be nonchalant about the why part, as in why can’t we just do it because we want to? Although well yes, that is a reason, there is more to it than that. We want to be inspired – me, to write a children’s book of the Parks, and Tyler to create a documentary of our travels. We want our child to be in nature, exploring new things every day, sleeping under the stars. We want our dog to have excitement too!

But before we pack up and go, there’s prep work to be done. This is where I’m glad my significant other is a sane, logical person. I’m the type of person that once the idea is in my mind, I just want to do it now! But Tyler is more organized and thinks ahead, particularly since we do have a young child and dog to think about here too.

There’s so much to think about: where to go, when to leave, which vehicle to use, what kind of shelter do we use, how to finance such a trip, should we take the dog (we were so discouraged to find that most National Parks don’t allow dogs on the trails. Boo!). Meanwhile I’m thinking about ways to entertain a 2-year-old in the car and reading family travel blogs every day. It seems every day we think of something new, which is great brainstorming but mentally taxing.

But all in all, Wonder Drive is something we truly want to do, and if there’s a will, there’s a way. Things may not be falling into place at the moment, but I’m convinced the more real we make it, the more they will.

“After making an extreme effort, after pulling out all the stops, one is still unable to score Tibetan peach pie, take it as a signal to relax, grin, pick up a fork, and go for a slice of the apple.”

– Tom Robbins, Tibetan Peach Pie