Advance Reservations

When I started making lodging reservations a year in advance, I know it seemed a little crazy.  But let me tell you why it hasn't been. 

1. We only made reservations that we can cancel should our plans change.  So we won't be out any money if something happens and we aren't able to go, or if we decide enroute to  stay longer in one place or skip somewhere altogether.  

2. The prices of the rooms have, for the most part, been better with our earlier bookings than if we were to try to reserve the same type room today.  In fact, even the "pay in advance, no cancellations" prices today are the same or more than what we've currently reserved.  We have had two locations where we have been able to modify our reservations for a slightly lower rate, so it's been worth the time to periodically check.  

3. Actually having lodging in the places we want to stay!  A couple of the boutique hotels we selected didn't have their booking window open for 2024 when we were originally making our reservations, so I made alternate plans just in case we weren't able to stay where we wanted.  We added ourselves to a few waiting lists, and today one of them called to see if we were still interested in making a reservation.  So that was good news; we confirmed the reservation and then cancelled the one we had at the cookie-cutter chain hotel for the same town.  The boutique hotel cost is only $16/night more.

We will continue to monitor the hotel rates, and we'll also keep an eye out for new hotels and lodging options in some of the places we're going.  But for now, I'm just happy to know we have a place to rest each night as we traipse through the Middle States.

~ Cindy D.  

Car service, Medication refills, Mail holds, Library books...

This post could very well just be a "to do" list, but since our blog might be a point-of-reference for other trip planners, we'll just put this right here!

Last week when we took our car in for its 60K mile service and new tires, it got me to thinking about needing to manage the mileage we put on her before we embark on our Middle States journey.  What we want to do is have her ready for getting her next check-up a few weeks before we head out so that if there's anything she needs, we can get it taken care of pre-trip, and so that she won't need a service mid-trip.  But just in case, I've also looked up service centers.

In addition to getting the car's service schedule to fall at the right time pre-trip, we're also thinking about whether our medication renewals schedule will align with our departure so we don't have to try to get something refilled while traveling.

Another scheduling issue to sort out is our mail hold.  The U.S. Post Office will hold mail at the local post office for up to 30 days; after that, we would have to start a new hold (and hope for the best).   But that means we also need someone to collect the mail once it is delivered.  Thankfully we have really good neighbors who could do that for us.  I was curious about how people who RV fulltime get their mail; there's actually several options for that, so if you're wondering, too, a Google search should put you on the path to finding out!

We also check out books from the local library, both physical and digital editions.  We'll need to make sure we have returned any physical materials to the library before we go and we'll need to suspend any active hold requests we have for the time we are traveling.  We love that we can request and obtain digital editions of books through our public library.

We're just over six months from departure, so I feel like it's not too early to start thinking about these logistics.  What other areas do we need to be attentive to?

~ Cindy D.

Touring State Capitols

You may not know this about me, but I'm a bit of a state government nerd.  I earned my Masters of Public Administration nearly a third of a century ago, and I started my career in state government while working on my degree.  And as I work across the street from Florida's Capitol, you may occasionally find me on a Friday lunch break touring the state's Old Capitol building which is now a museum.

Photo Credit: DXR, CC BY SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

We've been known to spend a morning touring a state capitol building (sometimes known as a state house, depending on where you are) while traveling.  One of my favorites is the State House in Providence, Rhode Island.  They have a cannon from the civil war that has an interesting story that you can read about if you do their virtual tour online.

Our Middle States route is going to take us through or on the outskirts of six state capitals.  I don't know much about architecture, but I do find state capitol buildings to be both architecturally and historically interesting.  In alphabetical order by state, here are the state capitols we may see during our journey.

Alabama

Photo Credit: SSL Architecture

Georgia

Photo Credit: Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress

Illinois

Photo Credit: Office of the Architect of the Capitol, Illinois

Oklahoma

Photo Credit: Oklahoma Arts Council

Tennessee

Photo Credit: 

FaceMePLS from the Hague, The Netherlands, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Wisconsin

Photo Credit: Dick Ebert via EncirclePhotos

So what about you?  Have you visited your state's capitol building?  Would you recommend a tour of your state's capitol to a tourist?  What state has your favorite capitol building?  And if your state is on our itinerary, should we take time to do a tour?

~ Cindy D.