We leave in twenty-four hours. Maybe.
On Monday, July 15, at 9:00 a.m., we set out on this year’s Great Western Road Trip. We’ll end up at the family cabin on Lake Inez in Seeley Lake, Montana, where we will stay for a couple of weeks.
We’ll cross Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. On the route, we’ll be staying in three campsites, two cabins, one hotel, and one motel. We’ve prepped meals. We’ve got the car serviced. We got all of our provisions and gear.
It should be about 2,763 miles, but it will be more. Because we like to plan things meticulously so that we can pivot and make lots of changes on the fly. It works for us to have a solid framework of a plan so that we can have a little structure when we start to call audibles on the interstate.
It should take, from start to finish, 49 hours and 43 minutes, but it will take a lot more. We consistently drive the speed limit, maybe +5. We are right-hand land the whole way. We don’t usually travel more than 500 miles a day, and we try not to drive after dark. These rules of ours are as much for safety as they are because we like to be chill and relax. For some people, getting there as quickly and efficiently as possible is a big part of the road trip thrill, and we get that, we really do, but that is not our vibe.
So we are looking at about 8 days on the road. We’ll be visiting two National Parks, at least one National Monument, some hot springs, some museums, a set of caverns, several roadside attractions. New for this year, we’ll be driving the Beartooth Scenic Highway, which has been something we’ve wanted to do for years.
There will be five of us on the trip: Angie and I, our two sons, and our nephew. We have a well-seasoned car and a brand-new tent.
The biggest change for us this year is a very well-thought-out food prep and storage system. We’ll see how it goes, but last year the prices of food in restaurants and fast food went through the roof, so we are trying to own that process. When I told my oldest son what food we had prepped — spaghetti with meat sauce, pulled pork for sandwiches, tacos, chicken cutlets — he was as excited for dinners on the trip as the trip itself.
It has been a week of lists with items getting steadily crossed off, and today will be a day of final preparations.
Our goal will be to go skids-up no later than 9:00 a.m. tomorrow… though in all the years of doing this, we have never been close to our desired departure time.
Maybe this year will be different. Maybe not. Who cares, really, either way.
The highway is calling!