Our plans continue to fluctuate on a nearly daily basis, but for now we're planning on leaving Michigan this Saturday, January 16th. It's definitely come quickly! We're finding that we're jamming a lot into our last week in Michigan what with seeing my parents one last time, climbing at our local gym one last time, catching up with a few more friends, starting the packing process, and recovering from some nasty colds.
Our first stop is the Quad Cities for nearly a week. We were able to catch up with a lot of family during the holidays, but missed out on time with our friends there. So, we're hoping during that week to catch up on life with a bunch of friends as well as spend time with Brandon's mom.
After the Quad Cities, we'll be driving out to Colorado for our first snowboarding of the season. We and our friend Nate were able to get an awesome deal on a four pack of lift tickets for Copper Mountain that were are excited to make use of. Nate is flying to Denver to join us for a little over the week, and we'll be able to stay with his family there.
From Denver we'll be driving all the way to our friend Becky in Santa Cruz, California. When we visited her about a year in a half ago we had a hard time tearing ourselves away after just a week. We're hoping to spend at least three weeks out there to live life with her. Her life includes a lot of rock climbing, which we're thrilled to be a part of. I'm sure we'll also enjoy some warm weather and the ocean as well.
As incentive to eventually leave California again, we have our friend Jill to visit in Park City, Utah. It's been far too long since we've seen her smiling face. We'll get to spend at least a week and a half living life with her, which will definitely include some snowboarding.
Our time frames for California and Utah are pretty flexible. We just need to reserve enough time to make the drive back to Colorado for the week of March 7th. That week is spring break for our nephews in Nebraska. The family is headed to Granby Ranch in Colorado for a spring break ski trip, and we get to join them and Brandon's dad there for a couple days on the slopes.
As luck would have it, my good friend Heather is a teacher and her spring break is the week of March 14th. So after some time with family we'll get to spend some time in Fort Collins, Colorado with Heather and Jonathan and meet their new baby. We'll then bring the trip full circle and return to the Quad Cities for the wedding of our friends Mike and Anna on March 19th before returning to Michigan.
Whew! A lot of planning, coordinating schedules, and driving, but it should all be worth it! Of course, the whole plan depends on the ability of our little blue Ford Focus, Lucille, to make it through the weather and the mountains. It's bound to be an adventure!
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| A possible route from Michigan to California and back. That's a lot of miles and a lot of hours. Hopefully the only car maintenance we'll need is an oil change and tire rotation. |
What are your US economy road-tripping tips? Cheap hotels? (Sleeping in hospital waiting rooms??) Meals? How do you do it? (Besides eating tacos...)
ReplyDeleteHah! Well it helps to have friends and family spread out all over the country to crash with. We also brought our camping gear just in case, though we'd need to drive further south to use it. Stocking up on jars of peanut butter and getting meals from grocery stores instead of restaurants also helps reduce costs.
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