This is just a short post to lay out our rough plans for the rest of the year, and note that our Where Are We Now page is up to date.

In our first three years of full time RVing we alternated between west and east coast circles of the US, managing to hit all 48 states while doing so.  For this year we decided to continue that pattern with another circuit of the east, but doing so with a slightly altered route, a different pattern of stops, and the inclusion of a cut through part of Canada.

As to the route: in 2016 we hugged the east coast all the way up to Maine before winding our way below the Great Lakes over to Ohio and Indiana before turning north into Michigan.  This year we started with a more inland route until we reached Atlanta then started our cut over to the coast, reaching it in Wilmington, NC.  We will remain close to the Atlantic as we work our way up to Maine, then cut through Canada’s eastern provinces towards Michigan’s UP.

In our first couple of years of RVing we tended to have a lot of short, perhaps 2 to 4 day stays, so as to get a taste of each and every state or region.  In our third year we shifted to more of a sprint and stop pattern; one or two day stays in places we had previously been or perhaps just had little interest in, with longer stays in “destination” places.  That’s what we are striving for this year as well.  Our meandering exit from Florida excepted, we have up to five day stops with family and friends planned or completed in Atlanta, Wilmington, Virginia and New York, punctuated by short one to three day stops in between.  Starting in early June we will begin a one month stop in Bar Harbor, Maine, followed by approximately three weeks of travel through Canada, and then a one month stay in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula during August, though that will be split up between two or three UP campgrounds.

We have not yet sorted out our return route to Florida, but we assume that in early September we will start a two month sprint and stop in a general south east direction with stays to visit family, friends, and favored locations along the way.  Leaving Michigan earlier than last year will allow us a more leisurely pace as well as room for deviation from the nearly straight shot to Florida we made in 2017.  November will see us doing our usual bouncing around The Sunshine State to see friends and family until Thanksgiving, after which we will have a one month stay in Sanibel, by far our longest in seven years of visiting there.  Then Christmas with family before starting another winter in Key West.

So there you have, our 2018 plans, mostly solidified through Maine, a little rougher after that.