For the past couple of years, our RV trips have taken place in late spring and summer and we've kept to the Northern U.S. and Canada to beat the heat. We're going to mix it up for 2024 with a 3-4 month adventure. Our hope, however, is to largely avoid the cold (and winter driving) by heading south and west.
Final packing happened on January 23rd...
...and we've gotten underway on the 24th, leaving the snow behind (we hope!).
We'll spend 7-10 days navigating over to Arizona. Along the way, we'll visit our son Mace in Charlotte, NC for a couple of days, meet up with the Gulf of Mexico in Alabama, and push west to Tucson, AZ. It's one of our favorite camping spots and we look forward to hiking through cactus landscape again.
We'll spend 4-6 weeks focused on southern California, bagging some more national parks like Joshua Tree, the Channel Islands, Pinnacles, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Death Valley (see stock photos below, in the same order).
We'll also be taking a week-long small-group van tour through Baja California. In the past we'd considered taking the Ciaowagen into Mexico, but given the current crime levels we thought it would be safer to leave it San Diego and travel into Mexico with an experienced guide. As part of our tour, we're hoping to interact with the gray whales who will be there with their calves.
In late March we'll head toward Texas, visiting Big Bend National Park, San Antonio, and Austin where, on April 8, we hope to see the solar eclipse!
We'll then begin a mad dash east toward Florida, where we'll spend about 3-4 weeks traversing both coasts, visiting some more national parks (Everglades, Biscayne, Dry Tortugas), the Florida Keys, and Disney World (where we will, as it happens, celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary).
We'll return to Virginia sometime during the first half of May.
Along the way, we hope to connect with some friends and family.
We hope you'll follow along on our adventure. As usual, our blog posts will be mostly photos with some words to tie them together.
Was hoping to read you'd be srteing in Florida, as we'll be in Siesta Key for February and March. Have a great trip!