Suggestions for Retirement Trip

[summersaway]

My husband and I are retiring in May! Our plan is to sell our house and moving into the fifth wheel full time for a few years. We have some work to do on the house before it is ready to sell so our summer is set with "housework" but we thought it would be nice to take a few weeks in May for a "retirement" trip before we start the work on the house. Our problem is thinking a someplace worthy of being the retirement trip. We don't want to go to our regular campgrounds and sit around for a few weeks. We would like to have a destination trip where we could explore something new. We live on the coast in Virginia so our travel radius could include East of the Mississippi. We are saving the big across country trip for full timing and we are saving Florida for next winter. Anyone have suggestions? We love historical sites, some city is okay, mostly beautiful landscape. We camp in a fifth-wheel so most state parks are out. We need full hookups. Wow, that's a lot of info. Please let me know where you have been that you thought was spectacular. Thanks so much.

[qadlo]

If you go to Kentucky, Old Frankfort Pike, Versailles, KY, runs through the spectacular horse country between Frankfort and Lexington. Also, the Bourbon Trail is interesting, especially Maker's Mark distillery.

[rexlion]

I agree, Michigan is great. See the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. Then head west to the Lake Michigan shoreline and take your time meandering north. Silver Lake SP has sand dunes and a nice, brick lighthouse to see. Ludington SP is one of the state's favorites, and you can take a leisurely stroll about a mile and a half to another lighthouse. Visit Sleeping Bear Dunes and drive to the top of the dune for a wonderful view of the big lake below plus a small lake in the distance. Check out Charlevoix's small shops and Petoskey's "old money" homes. Drive the Tunnel of Trees north of Harbor Springs (no big RVs though, it's a narrow road). Enjoy the shops of Mackinaw City and the view of the mighty Mackinaw Bridge, tour the fort, and get some homestyle cinnamon bread and pecan rolls at the little bakery just north of the main drag. Ride the boat to Mackinaw Island and enjoy a place with no automobiles, where you can rent bikes and ride all the way around the island with no traffic and plenty of lakeside scenery.

Cross the bridge and head into the Upper Peninsula, where there's even more to see, like Kitchi-Ti-Kipi (the Big Spring) and the historic Fayette SP and Tahquamenon Falls and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Copper Country and the Porcupine Mountains SP.

[2gypsies1]

The Traverse City area of Michigan including Sleeping Bear Dunes Nat'l Lakeshore. Many RV parks in the area.

Good luck fixing up your home for your new lifestyle. Hope you'll like it as much as we did for 16 years! (We volunteered at Sleeping Bear nine fall seasons)

[tomman58]

Go to Michigan. Great festivals. Great camp sites on the big and small lakes. The UP has the locks and good camping along the picture rocks and many other state and national parks. the UP has over 183 waterfalls and wonderful hiking and wild life.
Just go to PureMichigan website and see the endless beauty of Michigan.

[summersaway]

Thanks so much for the suggestions. We've traveled quite a bit every summer so that is what is making this so hard. We did the New York to Canada to Maine trip several years ago. Loved the area and I'm sure we could discover more on a return trip. We are both from North Carolina so Asheville and Biltmore are like old home places but we love both and maybe we should go again. We did a trip last year to Oklahoma. We went through Memphis (Elvis) on the way out. Visit Branson and traveled back through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg on our way back. We have not been to Kentucky. Maybe that should be our destination. Our daughter just mentioned Nashville. We didn't stop there on our trip to Oklahoma. You've all been so helpful. It is so nice to share the ideas. If we headed to Kentucky what would someone recommend as not to be missed. What about Nashville? Thanks again.

[padredw]

It would be an easy two day trip with a fifth-wheel over to Western North Carolina--not just Asheville, but the entire area. If you have not been there a good overnight on the way would be Appomattox with an afternoon visit to Appomattox Courthouse.

Of course this would all depend on where you have already been. There are many other possibilities.

As for history, we enjoyed a visit to Appomattox, Yorktown, Jamestown, and Monticello in September. But you have likely been to those places. Maybe even live nearby.

One other possibility of almost equal distance would be to visit the Bluegrass area of Kentucky--around Lexington. Nice camping at the Kentucky Horse Park Campground north of Lexington. If you go that route, a good overnight might be at Stonewall Jackson Resort State Park in West Virginia.

I could probably give you dozens of other possibilities -- OK here's one: the Lancaster, PA area in the Amish countryside. Lots of nice parks there. We stayed last at Beacon Hill in Intercourse, PA.

That's probably enough from me.

[Tripalot]

What about Branson or Gatlinburg area. Lots of shows, great restaurants, mountains, etc.

[midnightsadie]

just go with the wind, enjoy yourself and wind down, congrats,

[magnusfide]

Off the top of my head I'd say you might enjoy visiting the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. You could stay at Mama Gertie's nearby. Their gardens should be blooming in May and there are plenty of great places to eat and visit as celebration destinations there. Nice shops in and around Asheville too :w

[dahkota]

Maine. Take time to make the trip up, stopping in Cape Cod, The White Mountains, maybe the Adirondacks on the way back. That is how we are spending the summer...