Our plans for 2015 are coming together quite well.

We will be whale watching in the Sea of Cortez next spring, Cruising the Greek Islands in early summer, and meandering through Tuscany in the early fall.

In mid 2015 we expect to purchase our first RV to tour the U.S. We will most likely purchase a Winnebago View or Itasca Navion 24J built on the Mercedes sprinter chassis with a diesel engine. To help with trip planning and to provide inspiration, I ordered “the most scenic drives in America” and “Off the Beaten Path”. Both are large format “picture” books with good information for trip planning.

My plan is to criss-cross the US running north to south, following the weather for a few months each year. Being on the west coast, it makes sense to start in Fairbanks and work down toward San Diego. Alaska is huge with a vast amount of near pristine wilderness to explore. With two months allotted for RVing each year, Alaska will consume all 2016’s RV time. We plan to drive from Fairbanks to Anchorage, drive/ferry to Juneau for an inland passage cruise, return to Anchorage and fly to the Privilof islands for a few days, then return to Anchorage and drive to Seattle. I will be driving from Seattle to Fairbanks, “delivering” the RV for our Alaska adventure. Ellen will join me in Fairbanks, arriving by air. She will have the option of driving back to Seattle with me, or flying.

We were thinking to go in late spring, but a birding tour that uses the ferry from Juneau to Whittier in the fall, is pushing me towards an early fall trip. Here is an overview of our fall Alaska trip

Zip up to Seattle
Ron ferries RV to Fairbanks
Ellen flies to Juneau
Drive George Parks Highway Fairbanks to Anchorage
Explore Kenai Peninsula
Store RV at Anchorage for a month
Drive to Haines and ferry to Juneau
Take inland passage cruise from Juneau
Two week parking @ Juneau necessary
Ferry Juneau to Whittier?
Drive Whittier to anchorage to pick up RV
Privilof Island “tour”, rt from Anchorage Optional
Drive Alaska Highway to Victoria/Vancouver

We’re allowing two weeks to drive the George Parks Highway visiting Denali National Park and other sights along the way and one week to tour the Kenai Peninsula, The insland passage tour may be 9 or 14 days.

These plans (overviews really) will be shelved for a while and fleshed out once we have an RV.

Logistic planning is fun, though a bit frustrating. The best time to take the inland tour may not be the best time for pelagic bird/whale watching on the ferry back to Anchorage. Should we plan for spring or fall migrations? When will the weather open up and/or close down? Is it more advantageous to work from north to south typically in late summer and early fall, or to work from south to north following spring? That probably depends. New England in the fall is spectacular. Spring in Alaska is probably amazing with wild flowers and wildlife everywhere, but spring accessibility varies year to year.

I would really like to visit all the states, though Hawaii is “right out”; it’s prohibitively expensive to ferry an RV round trip to Hawaii. (Ferrying the RV one way and selling it in Hawaii might just work.)

It looks like Alaska 2016; Washington & Oregon 2017; then what? Idaho & Utah; Arizona & New Mexico; Colorado, the Oklahoma panhandle, & Texas; Oklahoma, Arkansas, & Louisiana; “the south”; “eastern seaboard”; “North East”, Ohio Valley; mid west; Dakota’s.

That’s eleven years out!

Little by Little

Ron