Finally Sharing RV Wanderlust Travel Plans for 2017

Some of you have probably been wondering whether we’re ever going to get back on the road. Now that we have a baby with us, maybe we’ll decide to put down roots and abandon the fulltime RV lifestyle.

Eeeek! Even writing that sentence grates my sensibilities like fingernails on a chalkboard. We have been dying to start traveling again!

Let’s backtrack. We arrived in Central Texas at the end of July 2016. I was at the end of my second trimester and needed to be close to my OBGYN for appointments. After Caspian Theodore was born on Dec. 3, 2016, we had to stick around for his doctor’s appointments and vaccinations.

…We were itching to travel somewhere around August.

Oh, we’ve ping-ponged around a bit. San Marcos, Austin, Fredericksburg, Corpus Christi, back to San Marcos. It’s all been good and necessary, but we haven’t sniffed out any new trails in forever.

So we’re definitely traveling again. That’s settled. But when, and to where? Plans for the rest of 2017 are still tentative, but we have an idea of our general route. And we’re ready to share it!

2017 Travel Plans

We went west in 2016, so we’re going east again this year. We’d especially like to revisit a couple of our favorite places, including two cities we had short stops at in the past and want to explore in more detail this time (Asheville and Savannah).

Here’s the plan as it stands right now:

• Leave Central Texas on June 2 for Hot Springs, AR. We love Hot Springs and can’t wait to go back! In addition to revisiting Bathhouse Row and enjoying delicious burgers and cocktails at The Ohio Club, Eric can’t wait to go wheeling with our Jeep at Superlift ORV Park.
• Make tracks to the Bowling Green/Mammoth Cave area. If anyone has recommendations for this area, we’re all ears. We need full hookups, and a solid Verizon and/or AT&T connection.
• Head to Somerset, KY, where our friends live. We’ll basically be there for all of July.

• This is where our plans get tenuous. We might go to Asheville, NC at this point. We were originally planning to take the Blueridge Parkway south to Asheville, but that really doesn’t make sense since we’re coming from the west and the parkway runs from the east. I’m thinking we’ll go straight to Asheville and day trip up the parkway with the Jeep.
• From Asheville, we may go back to Savannah. Some of you may remember our 24-hour visit in 2014, when we stayed in the visitor’s center parking lot. Some of you may also remember that we always include Savannah in our Top 3 list of places we’ve visited since we started fulltime RVing.

• At this point, we’ll continue making our way south to Florida. Maybe St. Augustine again, which we always enjoy. Then we’re considering going down to Key West for the first half of October. Let me preempt the “you’re way too late to find a camping spot” comments by reminding everyone that we can stay on the military base.
• If we don’t go to Key West, then we may go back to Myrtle Beach after Asheville and before going south. We stayed there for a month in 2014 and absolutely loved it (off-season = the best time to go).

• Either way, we need to be in Kissimmee (Orlando area) by Nov. 5 for our timeshare week.
• After that, we’ll make really quick tracks back to Corpus Christi to arrive in time for Christmas. Some of you may laugh at the fact that we consider traveling 1,200 miles in six weeks to be “really quick.” But at our typical rate of travel (250 miles every two weeks), it would normally take us until Jan. 21 to get back…a little late for Christmas.

Why Did We Pick This Route?

There are three overarching reasons for our 2017 itinerary:

1. We can only be away from Austin for six months this time. Caspian turns one at the beginning of December and needs to return for his vaccinations. We also want to spend Christmas 2017 with family in Corpus Christi.
2. We want our “big kids” to be able to spend their summer vacation near our family friends in Kentucky. These kiddos have grown up together, and we want to continue to give them opportunities to spend time together while they’re still young. They’re building lifelong friendships, which we adults know to be priceless.
3. We want to use our timeshare in Orlando this year. We’ve been banking since the last time we were there in 2014, so we’re way overdue. Plus, I’m itching for Disney World!

Share Your Suggestions

We would love your suggestions! Should we make any detours? What are your favorite camping spots in the locations we’ve mentioned? Which National Park Service places are don’t-miss?

We’re still in the beginning stages of making travel plans, so your thoughts are absolutely welcome. We hope to see many of you in our travels this year, and introduce you to Baby Nomad!

-B