Fighting the pull into depression, fighting the days disappearing, I am allowing myself to dream of a goal for myself and my son – a year-long road trip to experience all of the United States National Parks. I am all too aware of time passing and my own mortality to know that even a year-long “field trip” will pass in a blink of an eye, so I am mindful that most of the richness of this adventure will come in the planning of it.
My son is 5 and in kindergarten. I love exploring new places and I think I have succeeded, thus far, in inspiring him to love newness, discovery, and adventure as well.
We are lucky to live near Shenandoah National Park and we have begun exploring there. Our other tools for planning include:
- The Rookie National Parks books
- National Parks map which we have hung on a wall bulletin board in our kitchen
- The National Parks passport book
- National Parks Opoly game
I have ordered some push pins and flags that we can use to begin tracking which parks we have read about and talking about their location, climate, and the best time of year to visit. I thought it would be ideal to use a blog format to begin to tag and track our thoughts about visiting each of the parks.
I have no idea how we will travel at this point — I feel too old and tired to camp, to be honest, but I’d love to stay as outdoors as possible. If we had an unlimited budget, I could see doing this in some kind of small RV van. But we don’t have the budget for that. I’m imagining that we will mostly be in a car for this, and obviously packing would be a huge challenge if so. I hope to use some time in the next few years to try out different options. We can’t afford to stay in cabins most of the time, so finding cheaper options for lodging will be imperative.
I think I can build a network of friends and friends-of-friends around the country who might be willing to host us at times, which would give us some wonderful personal connections as well as help with budget and comfort. So having a giant map of where we have loved ones and friends will help as well.
Budget, of course, will have to be a big part of our planning, and having our son participate in some of the thoughts around budgeting for this adventure could really be useful.
If we are going to go during H’s fourth grade year, I have only 3 years to plan this trip, and that time is going to FLY. Do I really have time to maintain a blog about this? I don’t know, but here goes my first experiment.
National Park Road Field Trip 