All the Details

I AM SO EXCITED!

Okay. I tried typing the opening to this post like five times yesterday and I couldn’t figure out a sophisticated, professional way to open it without being boring and still expressing how I feel right now. So, I finally decided to just be honest, even if it looks too sappy or juvenile. I am seriously so excited.

In case I haven’t mentioned it yet, Daniel officially got permission to telework from the road, so this June, Lord willing, we will be hitting the road to fulfill one of my lifetime dreams! But wait, there’s more! Not only will we be following the California Trail, but we will also be fulfilling like three other bucket list items. We are detouring to several of the big national parks, hitting Las Vegas (for the first time!), and camping at the Grand Canyon! **insert multiple disbelieving faces as I actually write this down and it sinks in**

You all know, if you know me at all, how much I despise camping. As noted in my post Pioneer Days and Camping, I haven’t camped in like a decade, and kind of thought it was probable I would never set foot inside a tent again. But I’ve discovered something. When it comes to research, authenticity, and life-long dreams, I will do basically anything. I have agreed to not only drive an SUV across the country so that my husband can work during the days, but to camp most days both to save money and because, I mean, if the emigrants can do it, surely I can do it as well! I hope you will be following me on social media for that adventure.

Quick clarification on Vegas, since the honesty bone in my body has to be 100% clear – technically, I have been there before, but for a campaign, so my only “experience” with it was after hours, looking at the Bellagio fountains, and a cab refusing to take me and my campaign-buddies back to our car. And Daniel has never been there. So I’m still claiming first time.

So, I have created a spreadsheet that is 292 rows, and includes columns for the “event”, the day we will be there, the address, state, category, estimated cost, actual cost, what time we will be there, how long it will take to get to the next place, whether we can skip it if we run out of time or money, the website, notes, and confirmation numbers for reservations.

I’m currently running through it and color coding the rows to indicate whether it will need reservations, and whether it is currently closed for COVID and establishing dates to follow-up to see if it has opened.

Am I obsessed? Possibly. But I just like to call it detail-oriented.

We have officially reserved all lodging and campsites for the trip minus two that are a little up in the air, which might seem a little overly-ambitious or overly-cautious, but based on how many campsites were already full, I think it was probably the right move.

And because I am quite proud of my spreadsheet, below is a screenshot of part of it:

Next steps? Beginning to pre-write my instagram posts and tweets based on the stops we are using–not prewriting it ALL, of course – but the history of a spot doesn’t change, and I am terrible about social media in general, so I feel like preparing a few things ahead of time to make sure I actually share when I am there is a wise course of action.

Now, if only I could make myself continue editing this book so that I have snippets ready for use as well, I would be really happy. Anyone want to have an edit-your-book night with me?