So here we are, just three weeks away from hitting the road for our longest trip ever and the final leg with our son before he starts school.

Typically we only make reservations for the main destination to ensure ourselves a spot and keep every other location spontaneous. It makes traveling a little more fun when things are done randomly. But in the age of COVID-19 we decided to book stops for the large majority of our trip so we could plan out the driving routes better and also hit some of the must see sites along the way.

First, let me answer a few questions and concerns that have already come up about our trip and COVID-19. Yes, we wear masks. Yes, we social distance. Yes, we take our safety and everyone else’s safety seriously. No, we are not concerned about going on the trip.

We are in a 40 foot RV by ourselves so social distance is just a natural way of life during our travels. When we are parked at a campground we mostly stay to ourselves in or outside of our RV. When we do meet or talk to new people it is typically at a distance while walking by and giving a friendly hello to our fellow travelers. That’s one of the best parts of camping and it’s also natural social distancing. And let’s not forget the main purpose of this trip is to get our son to school. The options there are to drive our RV or take an Airplane. Fresh air or recycled air. Mom and Dad or random people in an airborne petri dish. There is no question which one is the safest.

The first leg of our trip is going to be an expedient one. Our son’s only desire is to get to college town a.s.a.p. Because of this we will be driving daily and have the route broken up into six 400+ mile days and one 150 mile day. Our goal is to leave each stop at a time that allows us to arrive at the next stop by early to mid afternoon. This will allow us a half day of rest before hitting the road again.

Once we arrive in college town we will be there for four days which will be a nice break. The day after we arrive we will get our son moved into his dorm room and officially become empty nesters. Wow, it’s hard to even write that!! We will then spend a couple of days taking care of any last minute shopping needs and making sure he is set up for the start of school.

As our son starts his first day of class we will again hit the road and head south for the second leg of our trip. This leg is specially designed to help us get over the fact we just left our only child in a city 2500 miles from home. We plan on having stops in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana. I really wanted to make a return visit to Charlotte North Carolina which is one of my favorite cities but logistically it was very difficult so we had to cut it out. During this leg we look forward to visiting a few distilleries and seeing some great American cities. Of course this is all contingent on the Covid situation.

The third leg of our trip we will have stops in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and potentially one in California depending on the timing. For this leg we have only planned our first stop in Texas. We are looking forward to some Texas BBQ and some site seeing. Everything after that is going to be spontaneous as we need to take note of where we are and how fast we need to get home. We don’t really have a specific return date but since I’m self employed I do need to get back and work at some point.

In total we will be on the road for a full month and travel about 6000 miles. I foresee this being both an exciting time and an emotional roller coaster. We will leave home as a family and return home as empty nesters with an empty calendar for the first time in nearly 18 years. No appointments, no baseball practice or games, no school events and no one asking for money for food or gas. We will truly be starting a new chapter in our lives.

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Until next time………….

Joe