Advanced Planning

The Last Supper (Milan)

One thing we have learned from traveling is that you really do need to make advanced reservations if there is something that you definitely want to do on a trip. We learned this the hard way by going to Milan to see The Last Supper and then finding out when we got there that 1) you need to get your tickets days or even months in advance and 2) that the painting was closed to visitors on the day we went. Since then we have tried to buy our tickets in advance whenever possible. So for this trip, we have already booked two cave tours (Great Basin National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park), bought tickets to see a play in Vegas, a concert in Reno, a comedian at the Kansas State Fair and a tour through Hearst Castle in California. Of course this forces you to keep to a schedule, but this approach really works better for us.

By the way, we saw The Last Supper in Milan last year, after an 11 year delay.

Cross Country 2016

We are now less than two weeks from departure on our third cross country driving trip and I thought I should start the blog by outlining a few of our objectives:

1. 14 National Parks. In the past we have toured many of the major, more well-known National Parks and now we are going to visit some of the lesser known ones. The parks on our list for this trip, in order, are Great Sand Dunes NP, CO (#1), Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, CO (#2), Canyonlands NP, UT (#3), Capitol Reef NP, UT (#4), Great Basin NP, NV (#5), Lassen NP, CA (#6), Pinnacles NP, CA (#7), Channel Islands NP, CA (#8), Joshua Tree NP, CA (#9), Petrified Forest NP, AZ (#10), Carlsbad Caverns NP, NM (#11), Guadalupe Mountains NP, NM (#12), Big Bend NP, TX (#13), Hot Springs NP, AR (#14). With these parks, our total number of parks visited will now be 44 (out of 59).
2. Hikes. One of the great things to do in a National Park is to take a hike. It is the best way to see nature and something we are going to try to do in each one of the parks. Of course these aren't going to be super long, all-day, back country hikes, but hopefully they'll be long enough for us to get a feel for the park and to see some sights.

3. Southern route. In 2010 we drove the central route across the country and in 2014 we took the northern route. The time we will take the southern route, going as far south as the Rio Grande in southern Texas at Big Bend National Park.

4. State Fairs. These are always fun to visit and we are going to both the Kansas and Texas State fairs. The Texas State fair is the largest in attendance in the US.

5. Statistics. Eighteen states, 40 days and probably about 9,000 miles.

Of course our main objective as always is to see this great country, up close and personal. It's something we feel is best done on a cross country drive where you take your time and see the sights.