We’re 4 days away from leaving on our big 6-month RV trip, so we should probably have at-least a vague idea where we’re headed.  Plans will likely change, but here’s what we’re currently thinking.

The loop is 8,600 miles.  Over 6 months, that’s an average of 50 miles per day of travel (this, of-course, doesn’t include excursions, which I’m sure will add significant mileage).  When we came up with the idea for this trip 6-months sounded like an eternity.  Once I started mapping out routes it started feeling like a short amount of time to see everything we’d like to see.

Here’s a brief outline of where we think we might go, month-by-month:

October

  • Make our way from Portland to the Utah National Parks, stopping along the way in Boise & Salt Lake City
  • Visit Zion, Bryce, Grand Escalante, Capitol Reef & Arches before it gets too cold

November

  • Tour through New Mexico– visit Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Roswell.
  • Go to Carlsbad Caverns
  • Head into Texas and visit Big Bend National Park
  • Make our way to the warmer parts of Texas (Corpus Christi?)

December

  • Enjoy some warmer weather in Southern Texas
  • Possibly take a there-and-back trip to New Orleans
  • Visit Austin
  • Head up to Denver to stay with friends for Christmas

January

  • Head from Denver down through New Mexico to Arizona
  • Possibly attend an Xscapers Convergence (RV group meetup) at Lake Havasu City, AZ … or maybe the one in Mexico?
  • Possibly attend Full Time Families meetup at the Quartzite RV show

February

  • Hang out in the San Diego area
  • Check out Joshua Tree

March

  • Slowly make our way up through California and back to Oregon
  • Hit up Lassen Volcanic National Park on the way

If, after some time on the road, we decide this is all too fast paced, then we could cut out the Texas / New Orleans loop of the trip and really slow things down.

I’m guessing that our actual path will bear little resemblance to this map, but it feels good to have a rough plan none-the-less– it makes the seemingly infinite possibilities of where we could go feel a little less overwhelming!