The Second Trip East (STE) will start in Tillamook OR and will terminate in Naples FL, out home for the winter (if anything is left after Hurricane Irma). It will pass through, among others, the four states that are missing from our map: Utah, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. It then drops down to southeast Texas (if anything is left after Hurricane Harvey) and ends with a trip along the entire US coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The plan is to travel the distance – just about 5300 miles – in 28 hops and 52 days. That is more than one hop every two days, so there will be a lot of traveling and no long-term stays.
Like the STW, the STE is organized into 3 segments.
STE1: Tillamook OR to Moab UT
STE1 Plan
9 hops, 1555 miles, 18 nights.
This segment will add Utah to our map and will give us opportunities to see some great national parks. It also gets us further south, to reduce the chance of seeing more snow.
Highlights:
- Columbia River Gorge. I have never been up the Columbia River before. It is reportedly beautiful. Or was, before the recent forest fires.
- Salt Lake City. I hope to check out the Mormon genealogical archives, to see what they can offer. If they are good (and everyone says they are), maybe we will come back this way to do some research sometime in the future.
- Bryce Canyon National Park.
- Zion National Park.
- North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park. This will be a long day trip, so it might not happen if I am tired of all the driving.
- Monument Valley.
- Arches National Park.
STE2: Moab UT to Corpus Christi TX
STE2 Plan
9 hops, 1936 miles, 16 nights.
This segment will complete our 48-state map by adding Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. It will also give us a day in Denver and a chance to visit an Indian reservation.
Highlights:
- The Rocky Mountains. Hopefully I will be able to enjoy them without dodging snowflakes.
- Denver.
- The Osage Nation Museum.
- Austin TX and possibly a dinner at Café Malta, the fine restaurant owned by Jett’s nephew.
- Corpus Christi and the Texas coast recently ravished by Hurricane Harvey. If the damage is too severe we may have to bypass this area. Hope not.
STE3: Corpus Christi TX to Naples FL
STE3 Plan
10 hops, 1871 miles, 18 nights.
This will be a lot of miles in relatively few hops. I expect that we will be exhausted by the time we arrive in Naples. But we will have at least 5 months to recover.
Highlights:
- South Padre Island. We want to check out the RV parks in the area.
- Mission TX. Ditto.
- Galveston TX. Again, we may have to bypass this area if the damage is too severe.
- New Orleans. Jett has been there but I haven’t. It will be a nice day trip.
- Gulf of Mexico parks in Gulf Shores AL, Port St Joe and Cedar Key FL.