Take Off Date Set

We now have a tentative start date for our trip thanks to a couple of great planning apps. Baby Blue (Our new name for the Chinoook) will hit the road on June 27.

Planning this trip is a real challenge. I have gone through this app Wonderlog and entered all the parks we know we want to see and it shows hows the distances between them. If you put in cities it recommends other sites you can add to your itinerary. Then you can rearrange your stops.

It was pretty simple to put in the cruise and work backward to Banff, the Great Lakes and Shenandoah (as well as a few family visits on the east coast). Finally got Dan to sit down and walk through the first half of the trip. He has to use physical maps because that's how his brain works. So we are in agreement on the trip to Alaska and the cruise but we haven't gone through the return trip together yet.

Dan did a trip to the Grand Canyon last year so we might not go that way home. Hopefully I can get him to sit down today or tomorrow to go through the return trip. I've booked most of the camp sites for the trip out and would like to do the same for the trip back because the park campsites fill up.

Another app I've downloaded is RV Life. It's specific to finding campsites and things like clearance for your route. So we'll have maps in 2 apps and on paper. We shouldn't get lost!

One other thing we've done is start outfitting Blue. Since we are finishing our kitchen remodel in the house I got a new set of dishes. The old set? Now in Blue! We also found a pair of backpack Tommy Bahama chairs at a great deal. Envision us leaving the rv with our electric bikes, carrying our chairs (which have a convenient cooler attached) to a lake or beach. I know I can see it now!