OK, Here's The Plan

April 23, 2009
Peoria, AZ

OK, I've finally finished an actionable version of our travel plan for the summer. Whew! I've updated the small map at the left, but still have problems with the sequencing of the stops on the display. ZeeMaps has had some upgrades since last year that I need to sort out (Get it? Sort out. Like the sequence is wrong. OK, I've been looking at this too long.) but, what the heck, it's free so how much can I complain?

Here's a version of the route from Streets & Trips:


As you can see, we're starting off in the wrong direction. Well, not really, as I've already reported that our first stop will be in Yuma. We'll catch up with the Clarksons and have some solar panels installed. From there, we head more or less due North. In Nevada, we'll explore "The Extraterrestial Highway", passing Area 51. Maybe we'll see Mulder and Scully on the road.

We'll spend a couple of days each in Twin Falls, Idaho, and Kalispel, Montana, before we cross into British Columbia where we'll "take the waters" at Fairmont Hot Springs. We'll do day trips to Banff and the general area before moving to Jasper in Alberta. We'll spend a week or so there before heading North again, aiming for Dawson Creek, where the Alaska Highway starts. From there, we'll meander all the way to the end of the Alaska Highway in Delta Junction, then make a loop of Fairbanks, Anchorage, The Kenai, and Valdez between mid-June and late-July. In August, we'll start heading South, with stops in Skagway, Stewart/Hyder, Whistler, and Vancouver before crossing back to the US. Our next stop (other than Junction City, OR, for coach tires) will be Lake Tahoe, the start of a 17-day caravan through portions of California Wine Country. Post-caravan, we'll spend some time in the Central Coast and Santa Barbara County wine areas (our teeth should be suitable purple by then) before heading to our last stop on the trip: Las Vegas (where I think I've scored some pretty good tickets for the U2 tour in late-October). From there, it'll be a quick hop back to the "stick house" in Arizona for a short while stop before the NASCAR races in Mid-November.

We'll hopefully catch up with quite a few family and friends on this trip. Streets & Trips maps this out at 9,421 miles, although we'll likely put on a few more miles due to side trips, and this route doesn't include day trips in the car. Here's hoping for reasonable fuel prices and stable exchange rates!