On The Road Again…

In a couple weeks, we’ll be on the road to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a vacation with my side of the family. Mom, dad, myself, Turkey, my middle sister, her husband and their three kids and my youngest sister and her boyfriend. We’ll be sharing a cabin in Sevierville and while Turk and I will be doing some day hiking trips in the park and an afternoon of trail magic somewhere in there; it’s going to be a relaxing vacation. I’m making sure that I actually take the time to do nothing (well, I’ll probably blog a little…) but enjoy my family, good food and drinks and pool time in the mountains.

This is the first vacation we have taken all together in 11 years. For Christmas last year, we decided instead of gifts, we wanted an experience, so we chose a private cabin tucked away in the Smokies.

All day last Sunday, I spent booking tent sites and Airbnbs for our trip to Wyoming in July. We’ll be spending 12 days driving from Illinois to:

Western Iowa for 1 night

South Dakota to the Badlands for 2 days

Wyoming/Idaho 4 days for Yellowstone and Grand Tetons (and 4th of July!)

Back to South Dakota for 4 days for Black Hills, Custer and Wind Cave National Park

Then finally Nebraska or Northern Missouri for 1 night then on to home.

Or, in true Turkey fashion, we just may drive straight through from South Dakota…he’s a man on a driving mission when there’s coffee, snacks and an audiobook or podcast!

As soon as we get home from our roadtrip, we will go back to work for 2 days and then head up to Chicago for Outside Experience! Then, the following weekend I will be celebrating my 35th birthday. What a busy 3 weeks that will be!

I am so looking forward to all the fun plans this year! I’m also looking at flights to Seattle with some of my girl friends for a long weekend exploring the Washington coast and Vancouver.

I have some summer Illinois Park Project events in the works as well! Along with a family wedding in November in Indiana, we have lots to do between now and the winter holidays. One of my favorite things to do in the world is to make lists and prep for trips! I am READY!

—

Next weekend, I’ll be chunking off another 30 mile section of the River to River trail with the squad.

That will likely be my next blog post!

Until then, you can read about the first section we did here.