Planning the Trip

We had great hopes that this trip could be free-flowing. Kind of like waking up in the morning, looking at each other, and deciding where we might want to go that day. Well, it is a good thing we decided to check a few places on our itinerary to see if we could find lodging. (Smoky wasn't too sure he wanted to attempt to sleep in the Prius if we couldn't find a place to stay!)

The result of the lodging check showed that motels near a number of places we really wanted to visit were already full, and this was almost a month ahead of time. So we decided to ditch the "go with the flow" approach and actually plan this trip! What a concept! Here are a few of our planned stops:

Yellowstone National Park. We'll be staying in Gardner just outside the park and exploring with two good friends who live nearby in Bozeman. Hopefully, we'll have some amazing wildlife and scenic shots to post after several days in this beautiful location.

• Grand Tetons
• Flaming Gorge
• Arches
• Canyonlands
• Dead Horse Point
• Monument Valley. Here is an example of lodging being completely unavailable for the days we wanted to visit. So we elected to take the scenic drive through the Monument Valley and head on down the road to Chinle, Arizona, where we'll stay at the Sacred Canyon Lodge, close to the Canyon de Chelly. Several years ago a good friend visited Canyon de Chelly and raved about the experience. We're staying a couple of nights there. I expect we will be wishing we could stay longer!
• Mesa Verde

As a child, I rode the train a lot with my mom and grandmother. My grandfather worked for the railroad, which in my child's eye was really neat. I have lots of memories of long rides on trains, including nights in the pullman car, and meals in the dining car. So when Smoky asked if I wanted to ride the Durango to Silverton Narrow-Gauge Railroad, I jumped at the chance! It is just a one-day trip—3.5 hours to Silverton, a break for lunch and back to Durango. The scenery we'll see as we ride this 1880's era train through the Colorado mountains is supposed to be spectacular!

Before we make our way west of the Mississippi, we'll be visiting Smoky's mom for a few days. She lives in a small Illinois town right on the river. She is 94 years young, and one of her favorite things to do is look at maps. We've plotted our trip on pages of an Atlas that we'll leave with her, so she can follow our journey.

More coming soon, I hope!
—Shann