Taking this show on the road!

School’s (almost) out for summer! The last day on the school calendar is June 13, and bright and early the next morning, we get started on our three-generation road trip. Tall Paul, the kids, Mom-in-law, and I are piling into the Wagon Queen Family Truckster (Grandma’s SUV) and making our way to Yellowstone National Park, and stopping by the Grand Canyon on our way home.

We have been planning this trip for literally a year. We need the large vehicle to accommodate five people and enough stuff to get through nine days away from home. Even though the price of gas has jumped over a dollar a gallon since we began thinking about this, we’ve got the route worked out and the hotels booked. We’ll try to keep some of the other travel expenses down where we can, but we’re not calling this off just because of some really expensive fuel.

None of us have ever been to Yellowstone before. We’ll be spending three nights in the park, and haven’t planned much in advance for our days there other than a horseback ride (for Tall Paul and the kids – I’m scared of horses). The kids and I have never seen the Grand Canyon. My husband enjoys driving, and he’s planned a pretty flexible route; he has the destinations mostly set, but he’s not one of those single-minded “guy drivers” focused on “making good time” to get there as fast as possible. We’ll stop along the way at places that look interesting, if we want to…or we’ll keep going and make the drive time shorter. We may make some detours, but hopefully we won’t get lost.

Are we coming your way? Consider yourself warned! Oh, and if there’s anything interesting that we should check out while we’re in the area, please let me know in a comment or e-mail. This is the plan:

Day 1: Cedar City, Utah by way of Las Vegas. Believe it or not, I have never been to Vegas before; we had talked about going for our wedding anniversary last October, but went to Catalina instead. We plan to be there by lunchtime, and may spend part of the afternoon; or else we’ll eat and run, detouring through Zion National Park before we hit Cedar City.

Day 2: Logan, Utah. If we don’t do the Zion detour on the first day, we may take it on the second; we may also stop off in Salt Lake City.

Day 3: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. We’ll probably stop in Jackson, Wyoming for a look around on our way to the park. We check in at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel on Monday evening, and we’ll be in and around Yellowstone until Thursday morning.

Day 6: Destination unknown, but probably Provo, Utah. This is the one day that’s not planned at all yet – we’ll just hit the road and see what happens.

Day 7: Flagstaff, Arizona. We’re spending three nights here too. I have stopped over in Flagstaff before and am glad to be going back again. We arrive on Friday night, and will drive to Williams on Saturday morning to take a steam train to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon; we’ll return later that afternoon. We’ll explore the Flagstaff vicinity on Sunday, and drive home on Monday evening.

Tall Paul and I both have the first day back home as a “recovery day” before we go back to work on Wednesday.

**As for the blog during my absence:

I actually compose most of my posts ahead of time, and use Blogger’s “scheduled posts” function to determine when they’ll actually hit the blog (did you ever notice most of the weekday ones post at 6 AM?). There may not be a full slate of posts while I’m gone, and it may take a few days after my return to get back on the accustomed posting schedule.

My MacBook is coming on the trip with me, but I don’t know what to expect as far as Internet access (other than I’m pretty sure I’ll be totally offline at Yellowstone). That means I may miss some of the weekly regulars (Weekend Assignment, Ten on Tuesday, Friday Q&A), because I either won’t get the prompt in time or just won’t have a chance to get the posts written and scheduled. It also means I’ll probably be slow to respond to comments, but I’ll get to them as soon as I’m able. If and when I can, I’d like to post some dispatches and pictures from the road, so I really hope that will work out! If it doesn’t, you’ll probably get a few after-the-fact “trip diary” posts.

I’ve had some generous responses to my request for guest posters – and not all from people related to me, believe it or not! More details to come…

As far as my Google Reader subscriptions are concerned, I may end up having to do the “mark all as read” thing on some of my folders at times, and you may not see many comments from me. Please know it’s nothing personal, and I’ll pick back up once I’m settled back in at home!

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14 comments

  1. You’re leaving all ready? 🙂 Are you going to see the meteor crater near Flagstaff? I want to go see that some time, but I might have trouble convincing the family that it is interesting. Take pictures if you do!

  2. Mike – Yep, we’re hitting the road bright and early (ugh) this Saturday morning!

    What meteor crater near Flagstaff? I’m pretty sure that Tall Paul and The Boy would find that interesting. If you can find a link to some info about it, please pass it on via comment or e-mail me. Thanks!

  3. Saw you over at Momocrats and popped over to check out your blog! I have to say my husband and I did a trip through Utah before our kids and I fell IN LOVE with that whole area. I am so jealous of your trip! Please try to include Zion if you can! (We also did Bryce and Moab and they were all heaven heaven heaven.) Have an AMAZING trip!

  4. It sounds like fun and you planned it very well! I wish we were going on vacation this year but are instead paying for my daughter to come visit us. That’s good too.

  5. Caroline – My husband has been through Zion once before and I think he’d like to take the rest of us there, so I think the chances of our making that detour are pretty good.

    Thanks for stopping by, and hope to see you here again! I’ve added your blog to my feed reader, BTW.

    Jaimie – The planning credit goes to my husband :-). Hope you have a great visit with your daughter! I probably won’t see my son until the holidays.

  6. The Tour Manager and I were in Yellowstone over New Year’s. Yes, it was cold. Yes, amazing doesn’t even begin to cover it.

    Be sure to cruise up to Old Faithful and the Lamar Valley while you’re there. You’re staying at the other end of the park from the Valley, but that’s where the wolves hang out. You may not see them, but it’s my favorite part of the park, by far. All those mountains… it’s simply gorgeous!

    Have fun and take me with you, can you?? Please?? I’m already ready to go back.

  7. Susan – I can’t imagine going to Yellowstone and not seeing Old Faithful. Our time there is pretty open, so we’ll see whatever strikes our fancy, but we’re hoping to spot a lot of the wildlife.

  8. have a great trip!

    we spend some time in Cedar City every year for the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Cedar Breaks National Monument is nearby – and absolutely worth seeing! (you should be able to find some posts and photos on my blog.)

    as you drive up I-15 between Provo and Salt Lake City, you can wave my direction – although it looks like i’ll be in Montreal on your first pass-through and in San Diego on your return. 🙂

  9. Alisonwonderland – Too bad about the timing; my first time in Utah, and you’re not there :-)! I hope your travels go well, and thanks for the heads-up about Cedar City.

  10. Sounds like fun. I’d love to visit the Grand Canyon someday. I hope you have a great time and I’m looking forward to seeing pictures.

  11. Tanabata – We’re actually not going to spend much time at the Grand Canyon, and I doubt that any pictures I get will do it justice :-). But I’m sure there will be pictures all along the way!

  12. Literary Feline – I’m replying to your comment from our motel in Logan, Utah on Sunday night. So far (mostly) so good… Tomorrow we arrive at Yellowstone!