It's Now or Never - 1 year country tour

Chock Full o' Nuts wrote:
How wonderful! I'm glad you are doing this now, while you can. We never know what life will throw at us, so we?

We took our kids on a 2-month cross-country trip in 2007 and it was the best vacation adventure of our lives. DHs health has declined to the point that we could not do that trip now. But not a week goes by that one of us doesn't mention or reminisce about that trip.

Go forth and conquer!

So sorry to hear about your DH's health. I am a firm believer in doing things while we can (or are young and dumb enough to think they're good ideas at the time!).

OutdoorPhotographer wrote:
Here is great photography forum that you might find helpful. Use the search feature and you can probably find out where to go for photos on almost any of your destinations. There is a cityscape subforum and a landscape among others.

And you are good to go on your camera but I recommend a tripod if you don't have one. Ideally a good carbon graphite with ball head. You can find one for a couple hundred these days if you don't need one to support heavy lenses. You can also probably pick up a used aluminum one relatively cheaply. Aluminum is actually stronger it's just heavier so its cheaper. Either choice is better than a $20 Walmart tripod but even that is better than nothing. For a one year trip though, I would get a good one. Fred Miranda will also have plenty reviews and links to B&H.

Fred Miranda

Thanks for the tip! I'll have to check around for a tripod. I have a really crappy one from back when Ritz was open. I tried using it for product photos for a friend's charity, but I found it would slowly sink and move. I'll checkout the forum.

fanrgs wrote:
We live in the West and have been to nearly all the areas you are visiting here. But we just returned from a rare RV trip east of the Mississippi. Two of our favorite places visited on that trip are the Natchez Trace Parkway and Mammoth Cave National Park.

The Parkway runs from Natchez, MS, all the way to Nashville, TN. The road is two-lane, is controlled access with no stoplights, has 45 to 55 MPH speed limits, and is nearly deserted much of the year. But, because it avoids or is screened from most of the towns along the route, you really feel like you are traveling through a remote area. The NPS even has a Web page for RVers at Natchez Trace RVing.

Traveling the Trace is a great way to study early "western" American history, since this really was the first "American West." You can visit the inn where Meriwether Lewis committed suicide. I know it sounds morbid for kids, but it brings a new realization to the stress that he was under during his multiyear expedition. You can also see Indian mounds, sites along the Trail of Tears, antebellum plantations, Civil War battlefields, and many other historical attractions along or near the road. Riding bikes and hiking along portions of the Trace with your kids will give them a feel for how long it took to travel even a well-worn, heavily traveled, 450-mile trail in the early 1800's. And traveling the Trace in the spring with the dogwood, redbud, magnolia, and other spring flowering plants in bloom really puts the frosting on the cake!

Mammoth Cave is the largest cave in the world and is very different than Carlsbad, Wind Cave, or many of the other national park/monument caverns. Maybe the kids would enjoy one of the tours where you have to wear a hardhat, light, and crawl through passageways. That would really give them a feel for spelunking that they wouldn't get many other places.

Thanks for the ideas! We did Mammoth Cave last summer as we drove home from Alabama. Beautiful area and would have liked to have spent more time there.

I've been doing reading about the Natchez Trace trail. I originally had a route planned from Natchez, MS to Memphis, TN but that has shifted around somewhat. I may need to see what can be re-arranged.