3/21 Where to go, what to do?

I am staying in a very quiet Corp of Engineers' campground just over the border from Florida.  It is a nice, quiet place (with no Spring Breakers) on a pleasant lake.  Just a lot of old, retired people with not much to do except fish and canoe or kayak.  Except for me, of course.  I teach college classes online, so I have a lot of work to do before the end of the semester.  It is something I mostly enjoy, and it pays my bills.

So, as I am hanging around here and working inside, I have been taking periodic breaks to plan my travels.  I will be heading north soon to visit family and friends, and then heading slowly west through Illinois, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico, reaching Grand Canyon in June.  I travel very slowly most of the time, driving a couple of hundred miles one day and then sitting in a campground for several days, driving again, etc. until I get to where I want to go. 

I plan to spend most of July in Colorado and northern Utah, sticking to mountain areas to avoid the heat, and then in August will head to far northern California. September will be coastal Oregon, and I have all of this plotted out and reservations made.  

So, now I am stuck.  I would like to go to Yosemite for a few days, having been snowed out the last time I went there.  Early October would be a good time of year--fewer crowds during the week, but hopefully not snow or extremely cold weather.  The other place I would like to go is San Diego and maybe over to Death Valley.  Christmas will be in northern California with family, but after that, where do I go??  Guess it will be time to head for Nevada and Arizona for the winter.

The really nice thing about living in a motorhome is the ability to go where you want, but the trick is to end up somewhere where the weather is nice--not too cold and not too hot. 

I have learned over the years that you not only have to consider location, you have to consider altitude.  I once made and cancelled a reservation in a mountain area near Las Vegas in January.  Sounded good until I called and discovered that it was a ski area and heavy snow was expected!!!  Not what I had planned for.  And can you imagine what the two coldest places I have been in five years of traveling the country were?? 

Death Valley and Las Vegas!  Really. 

There was ice on Furnace Creek one morning in Death Valley, and it was too cold and windy one day to go for a hike around a volcanic cone there--about froze to death even bundled up in winter coat, hat, and long pants.  I ran out of propane and had to drive 45 miles to get a refill.  And one morning in Las Vegas, ice fell off my slide awnings when I put them in.  Brrrrr. 

So, will it be San Diego?  Or the Anzo Borrego Desert?  Or maybe Death Valley in November and December??  Stay tuned.