Before the Trip

2018-08-25
PA

What is he thinking?

I am going to take a month off and visit some of our National Parks. I decided to camp as much as is practical, and I'll be driving all the way across the country by myself. It's a hare-brained idea; I'm not young, I'm not in that great shape, and I've never really camped. On the other hand I'm not getting any younger (I checked again this year and still no dice), and I have been to 15 National Parks out of the current 60 so I know I'll enjoy them.

I'm a planner. It's what I do. I made the decision to go about eight weeks before departing which has the side benefit of not letting me plan too much while I had enough time for Amazon to supply me. I chose to go in September because I think it's the right balance of weather and crowds. Once Labor Day ends, most people head home after their holiday and send the kids to school making it the best week to visit many attractions. On second thought, forget I said anything.

Today's preparation is just to set up this blog. Yes, I'm going to have an actual blog. I bet you didn't see that coming. I'll try to post lots of pictures because they are more fun, and besides many of my hikes are just excuses to take my camera to someplace where I might get a cool picture. Here's a gratuitous one from Zion National Park to help me learn the ropes...