Three months out - working on the details

It's been a while since we began planning our next adventure to the Northeastern U.S., but now we're just over three months away from launch!  So that means it was time to start filling in the itinerary with options for each day and location.

If you've followed along with our previous road trips, you'll know that we like to find things to do, not just at our overnight location but also along the way.  We try to stay off the interstates when possible, and if my map skills are accurate, we'll be able to do that for this trip, too.  And that makes it possible to add some interesting things to do to the itinerary.

For example, one of our early days will take us by the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park in Wilson, North Carolina.  I found out about this place when I did an internet search for "things to do between {insert departure location} and {insert destination location}" and one of the top results was from wanderlog.com. I used this same search for every other leg of the trip and was rewarded with a variety of activities and experiences we likely would have missed.  I will try to remember to mention when I'm blogging about which things were the result of our internet search.

One of the challenges of traveling is managing my celiac disease by finding gluten-free food options.  My greatest disappointment is how celiac disease keeps me from being able to freely enjoy travel food finds.  It means for every meal we have to have a plan ahead of time - no just finding something along the way.  For this trip, we're not staying at any Air BnBs, so we'll be dependent on restaurants and hotel microwaves.  Of course we can pick up some things from the grocery stores that we can pack at the hotel for next day's lunch.  I was worried about keeping things cool because even though we usually bring ice packs with us, not all hotels have a freezer in their little refrigerators to get them ready for the next day.  But I found a solution on Amazon for making our own ice packs that are supposed to be leak-free.  (I invariably end up with pin-holes in ziploc bags when I try to DIY it.)  I'll let you know how they work out!

So with these things sorted out, next step is to just enjoy the summer!  We'd love to hear what adventures you have planned.  And if you're visiting Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Shenandoah National Park, or Acadia National Park, we'd love to hear about your experiences and recommendations!  Drop them in the comments! 

~ Cindy D.

Just checking in

It's been a while since I last updated the blog, but that doesn't mean our planning stopped for our Northeast Road Trip.  It just means I've gotten more efficient at road trip planning and don't have the need to document every single decision point like I did when we first started taking extensive road trips.

That said, we're under six months from departure, so it won't be long before we start making activities reservations and adding details to our daily itineraries.  I have the lodging all sorted, and some general idea of things we may want to do along the way, but if you've followed us before, you'll know I like to have a list of options so we don't waste precious time deciding what to do because we don't have any options.

~ Cindy D. 

The Fate of the Day - overlaying American Revolutionary War battles on our itinerary

I have always had an amateur interest in Colonial American history and the period of the American Revolutionary War.  In school, one of my social studies curriculum fair projects was a map of key battles that my dad helped me rig up so you could press a button and a Christmas light would show where a battle had occurred while you could read a brief description on the side.

When we started planning our Northeast states road trip (which I'm now abbreviating as NERT - NorthEast Road Trip - my sons tell me that's a ridiculous acronym), we kept adding sites to visit that were significant during the American Revolution.  One of these is Fort Ticonderoga in New York.  In fact, we were going to just pass through on the way to Vermont, but once I started looking at what all there was to see there, we adjusted the itinerary to allow us much of the day to explore.  (On our Middle States trip, we had a few late additions to our itinerary that I wish we'd had more time for, so I'm thinking about that now.)

Anyway, DH brought a book home from the library the other day:  The Fate of the Day - from Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston - which is 2nd of a trilogy, beginning in 1777.  I'm not so much for reading about history - I'd much rather watch a documentary or visit a museum - but I started flipping through the book and reading the descriptions of landscape, terrain, logistics, etc., of how troops moved in, through, and about the parts of New York, Vermont, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania we'll be visiting.  I'd already been studying the Google maps and AAA maps to become familiar with the area, so it was pretty cool to look at the old maps from the late 1700s and think about how what we'll see next year would have looked like 250 years ago.

The stories the land could tell....

~ Cindy D.

Accommodations? Check!

We've had some cooler, dare I say it, fall-like weather this week, and that put me in the mood to take action on our Northeast States trip.  My social media feeds have filled up with the blazing colors of leaf-changes and cozy photos of New England in the fall.  While we'll start our trip while it's still summer, we'll still be traveling over a week into autumn.  

The calendar said I could make our accommodation reservations for most days, so my travel credit card got a work out holding rooms at hotel chains and independent motels throughout the 14 states we'll be visiting.  We also have two nights at Skyland in Shenandoah National Park - it's on the way home but will be a nice resting place before the last push... kinda like when we spent a few days in Gatlinburg as a last hurrah on our Middle States trip. 

We're also splurging on a night at the Hotel Hershey.  In 2015 we made a trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania, and had the opportunity to walk through this historic hotel, and at the time agreed that it would be very cool to stay there.  We didn't think then that we would ever actually make it back to Hershey, but Google maps presented a route that would take us through there.  And don't worry, I've budgeted shopping money for while we're there - and we're taking ice-packs to keep any chocolate we buy from melting on the way home!  DH is excited about getting a new Hershey t-shirt and a new Hershey's souvenir cup.

I still have a few more reservations to make because for some reason, the specific hotels haven't opened their booking windows yet.  And as per usual, I'll be re-checking the ones we've made to see if I can catch a lower available rate or special offer before we travel. 

~ Cindy D.

Tourism e-mails and gluten-free waffle bowls

If you've followed us for a while, you'll know I like to look for information about the areas we're planning to visit well ahead of actually going.  One thing I frequently do is sign up with state, regional, and local tourism organizations (think Visit Florida!) for their e-mails.  They are full of ideas for places to see, things to do, events that are happening, and off-the-beaten path suggestions.

TIP: use a separate e-mail address for trip research; that keeps your regular inbox from getting cluttered and keeps travel-related e-mails in one place.

I signed up last week for Portland, Maine's e-mails, so as I was browsing the one I got today, it led me to find out about MaineFlavor ice cream.  What's of interest to me is not only do they features flavors from Maine, their shop in Portland is a certified gluten-free location where they make their waffle bowls and cookies for their ice cream sandwiches.  As someone with celiac disease, this immediately put MaineFlavor's scoop shop on our list of places to go in Portland!

Even if you're not actively planning a trip, if somewhere new is on your radar, it's worth signing up for the tourism e-mails. They can spark an interest or help you decide what time of year to go.

~ Cindy D.

Planning for 14 states in 31 days

Hello friends!  We are less than a year from traveling which means the booking windows for accommodations are opening, so we've been busy getting our itinerary firmed up for our trip to explore the northeastern states.  Before we make reservations, I wanted to go through the itinerary visually with Google maps to show DH the route - and to give him the opportunity to look left and right of the planned route in case there was something along the way that we wanted to add.  As it turns out, there was!  We ended up adding two days to our return trip to have opportunity to check out the historical places in Appomattox and Harper's Ferry.  

Our Middle States trip took us through 17 states; this one will take us through 14 with only Georgia being in common. Friends gave me a 50 states bucket list water bottle that you add stickers to for each state you go to, so I'll get to add 11 more stickers!  We'll be going through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and West Virginia.

We will mostly stay in hotels, motels, and local inns as the few cities where we are staying more than one night have a 3-night minimum on the affordable Air BnB's.  We did have to alter a few towns we originally thought we would spend a night because there just wasn't anywhere to stay.  This is why I plan the route and select lodging for the entire trip before making any actual reservations so I won't have to shift and re-shift.  It's also why I don't book accommodations that are not refundable - in case something comes up along the way.

Next up, I'll be working on places of interest so we have an idea of what we might want to see and do ... after all, we've got 14 states to see!

~ Cindy D.

Introducing: Exploring the Northeast US

Hello dear readers, old friends, and new followers!  If you're just joining us, welcome to our retirement travel blog!  We started this blog a few years ago when planning an epic vacation through the middle states of the US for our first retirement road trip.  I use the blog to help with planning, organizing, and soliciting ideas and recommendations from you all!  Our Middle States trip was a great success.  So earlier this year we made a not-quite-as-ambitious trip along the Edges of South Florida.  And with each trip, we've learned more about how we like to travel and what our limitations are.

Now armed with that information, we're ready to get our next trip planning underway!  We've both had a goal of getting to all fifty states; I just need to visit Vermont while DH still needs Vermont, Maine, New Jersey, and Delaware.  (I say I need Delaware, too, because I was under the age of two when my parents took me there.)

We're calling this trip Exploring the Northeast US because we're going to visit all four states that DH needs as well as some in between that we've been to before.

We live in the southern US, so we're choosing Virginia Beach to be our launch point.  We'll have a few travel days to get there, but we're saving South Carolina and North Carolina for another trip... or we'd never get started on the Northeast before we would need to be home!

Our loose itinerary at this point looks like this:

• Virginia Beach
• Southern Delaware including Fenwick Island where I hope to meet a 3rd cousin
• Northern Delaware
• American Revolutionary War stuff on the way to and through New Jersey
• Albany, NY
• Saratoga Springs, NY (our DVC friends, IYKYK)
• Burlington, VT
• Montpelier, VT
• Cross New Hampshire on the Kanc
• Bangor, ME
• Coastal drive Down East, ME - and cross over to Canada
• Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park
• Coastal drive to Portland, ME
• Ogunquit, ME
• Derry, NH to visit my uncle, aunt, and cousins
• Bennington, VT and Germantown, NY
• Hershey, PA
• Shenandoah National Park

There will be lighthouses, battlefields, and forts, of course.  Cheese, creemees, and syrup. Boat rides on lakes and intercoastal waterways.  Scenic drives, winding roads, mountain-scapes.  State parks and museums.  And maybe some leaf-peeping if we aren't too early.

If you have any recommendations of things to see or do, hotels or inns to stay at, or places to eat - or anything else - let us know in the comments!

~ Cindy D.