First Trip in Final Planning Stage

{editor's note:  I have changed my mind and will try to blog daily from my iPad on my return trip}

Things are falling into place rapidly. It's to the point I am beginning to wonder if there are enough hours in a day before I leave on Sunday morning. I spent the past few days trying to plan around my job, but like most jobs, there is never an end to ongoing or unexpected tasks, requirements or meetings....it never ends. There is never a time to leave because at work there are constant roadblocks popping up for any personal schedules.

So today I got started early and sent off my request first thing in the morning for 5 vacation days starting Monday. After it was accepted by my corporate manager, I sent out an email to my department about my absence next week....LOL  (duck)...from the flood of return emails to the notice and one visitor at my desk within 45 seconds after sending out the email .... you would have thought the whole world was ending, just because I was taking 5 days off.

Some of these ... "But what about....", "you can't...", "who is going to do ....?" etc, etc, etc.

So the great news is, I will spend tonight and tomorrow, tweaking the travel plans. I will leave early Sunday morning for the 588 mile trip to McGaugh RV in Springdale Arkansas, where the trailer was being sold on consignment. I will be taking all freeways to get to my destination. After picking up the trailer early Monday morning, I will start my 1st trip traveling with a trailer and the hounds, driving the back roads through Missouri, Illinois to southern Indiana. The return trip will be much slower and I will probably be staying at camp grounds on the way back so I'll have full hookups. It will give me a chance on the road to learn about the trailer and time to see how the hounds do, plus how I do.

Some of my return trip, just by coincidence,  will follow some of the highways I took in the summer of 1976 on my solo cross country bicycle trip, going east this time instead of west, through the Mark Twain National Forest into the farm lands of Illinois and Indiana.

I am really looking forward to this trip. Not only am I excited about picking up my trailer but also enjoying some much needed peace and quiet. I think by the time I finish the return trip of over 600 miles, I will have a much better idea what will work, what doesn't and what I need to bring with me. All of these 22 months of reading, studying, looking at pictures from other people traveling and asking them a million questions...will finally be on the road.

I will take pictures along the way but I may not post about my trip and the pictures that will go with it until I return home. I am going to try to attempt the trip "computer free".

As I sit here looking at all the maps the computer, on a large Mac monitor ... there is still something about holding, turning the pages and looking though a USA road map sorted by state with all the campgrounds marked, etc. That is coming from a computer geek, that has his whole life on his hard drive, iPad or iPhone.

So as of Friday night, that is the plan. I must say that after the events this past week when I decided to make a purchase, everything has fallen into place at the right time.

If only the hounds knew what they were in for this weekend. They get excited just for the short trips around town, barking, jumping and then sprinting to the truck knowing they are going to go. Only this time I have a feeling they will be sprinting to the wrong vehicle.