We are on the road again. As most of you know, our new “mission” in retirement is to get our National Park Passport stamped at all the U.S. National Parks before we run out of gas, metaphorically of course. There are about 59 U.S. National Parks and that doesn’t include, National Monuments, National Historic Sites, National Forests, etc. We are specializing only in the U.S. National Parks which are plentiful enough as it is and, because of some of their locations, a formidable challenge to say the least.
To date, Debs and I have “officially visited” (Passport Stamped) 12 U.S. National Parks but we have actually (virtually?) visited a total of 22 of the U.S. National Parks. On this trip we plan to add to our “official” list 7 National Parks, two of which we have previously visited (Badlands NP & Acadia NP).
We know from the onset that we are unlikely to ever visit all 59 of these Parks because some of them are just a bit too difficult to get to. Alaska, by itself, has 8 National Parks, and most of them cannot be reached by car. I can honestly admit, I have a little trouble picturing Debs and I climbing aboard a DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver and flying to some remote location where the majority of inhabitants will happily eat you. I also have almost as much trouble seeing us going to the U.S. Virgin Islands or American Samoa, but not quite. At least the last I heard, the natives are reportedly friendly on the islands.
So, our plan for this trip is to make a bee-line for Providence, RI where we will meet one of Deb’s high school classmates for dinner. We will then make a leisurely drive to Bar Harbor, ME where we will visit Acadia NP, the first National Park on our list. We plan to swing by Gloucester, MA where “Wicked Tuna” is filmed and what seems to be a beautiful part of the northeast. At this point, we will be in our “…don’t worry, be happy…” mode which doesn’t mean we will be sampling any Colorado Gold, but does mean that we will be in no particular rush to get anywhere. We have made no reservations for anything but anticipate no problems because the end of the vacation season should be over.
As I have done during our past trips, I will try to keep a daily diary where I will chronicle our experiences along the way and shoot some photos to send along to verify that we were actually there and not at home making up a fairy tale.
'Cause We Can 