2026 Season of Travel

 

Our drive through the Badlands in South Dakota in October 2025.

We are approaching our season of travel. It is an even year, so following our plan, we will be traveling within the United States for our big trip.  Big trip? You are traveling all the time, April through October.  Yes, we are but for us there are 4 different types of travel.

1. “The Big Trip” is a trip 7 or more days in length which alternates annually between international and United States travel.

2. “Camping” which are 2 or 3 day long trips within a four hours from home.

3. “Traventure” which is an annual 1 week road trip with friends.

4. “Seeking Better Weather Trip” which is a pop up trip to a warmer climate for a week in January, February or March.  This has typically been a last minute cruise, but we are open to suggestions. 

So what does 2026 travel look like?  Well it is still in the production phase.

We knuckled under and booked a back to back cruise coinciding with my daughter in-laws spring break. Since I am the primary pick up of my grandson at preschool while my son and daughter in-law work, my school time schedule has to be well coordinated.  So by some fluke we found a cheaper than a hotel price for a 4 night cruise in the Bahamas and then tagged a 3 day cruise on, prior, to make it a 7 day cruise.  We have challenged ourselves to only pack a carry-on and treat it like a weekend get-away though we did book the exclusive Royal Beach Club for one stop.  For me, it is about seeking the warmer weather and for my husband it is taking some time off from his business. So when all is said and done and the bill was paid, the full cost is the price of 7 nights in a moderate hotel in our area.  But our price includes airfare, one hotel night, 7 nights of cruising with meals and entertainment provided.  So it is a win for us.

Our Big Trip is a combination of a big trip and camping.  We are taking the majority of the month of June for a cross county road trip. We are taking our dog, Kenobi, and our travel trailer and hitting the road though 10 states and visiting 8 National Parks along the way. It is a bucket list trip for sure. We began discussing it in August, and confirmed and began planning in October.  It is still a delicate tetris of planning, but we have a good route and schedule.  Do we wish we could spend more time visiting the national parks? Absolutely. We have been trying to get to this location for over 15 years and never found the right timing.  Now we can get a nice overview of the parks and area and have an adventure at the same time. In the future, if time allows, we can go back and visit the highlights for a longer period of time.

As for camping, we will have a "shakedown trip" in April before the "Big Trip" to make sure that the trailer is in shape and ready to hit the road for teh cross country drive. Since we are doing a month-long camping trip in June, I do not have any other camping plans at this point confirmed.  But I am certain we will take a long local weekend trip or two in August and September. 

As for Traventure, well that is a bit trickier now that my grandson is in preschool. We have done Rt 66 and the upper midwest from Ohio to Idaho and the 6 states in between. We are looking at the east coast or Southeast.  It is harder to plan this far out and coordinate everyone’s schedules and the area of travel weather.  So that planning is on the back track for the moment.

So will we be traveling in 2026? Yep.  Stay tuned.