In 2017 we went on a 5 week road trip out west, took a quick trip to Gettysburg, and an even quicker trip to Shenandoah NP. We love traveling and exploring, but unfortunately we are not yet to the point where we can travel full time. Our 2018 travel plans don’t include a month-long trip (that’s an every other year thing for us), but we do have several shorter trips planned. We’re still deciding what we have time (and money) for and what will have to wait until next year, so this is by no means a comprehensive list.

Great Smoky Mountains NP, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Shenandoah NP

In 2014 I ran the inaugural Great Smoky Mountains half marathon, and while we were there we explored part of the GSM National Park. It’s a large park, though, and we were only able to visit a small portion. This fall I’ll run both the Great Smoky Mountains half marathon and the Shenandoah half marathon (I ran it this past fall), which are a week apart. We’ll drive down to Great Smoky Mountains NP, run the race, and explore the park more extensively. The Blue Ridge Parkway extends 469 miles from Great Smoky Mountains NP in the south to Shenandoah NP in the north, making it an ideal scenic drive, as long as we don’t mind going the speed limit of 45 mph. We haven’t had time for that in the past, but we’re making the time for it this year. Once we get to Shenandoah NP, I’ll run the half marathon, and then we’ll head home. We live close enough to Shenandoah that it’s an easy day trip and we’ve already made multiple trips to explore the park, and will go again in the future.

New York State

We had planned on visiting New York in July so we could attend the Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyra, but it looks like Jeremy has some work commitments that will prevent him from taking time off then. We also want to visit Niagara Falls, and stop in and see some friends at Fort Drum, so we may make the trip another time or put it off until next summer. The boys would get more out of it if we wait another year, but we’ll have to see.

Gettysburg (Again)

We went to Gettysburg this past October, but we didn’t have time to see everything. Plus, it was cold and windy, and we’d like to go when it’s warmer. Luckily, Gettysburg is close enough that we can easily visit it, so it’s on the schedule, though we haven’t decided when yet.

Philadelphia (Again)

The kids and I visited Philadelphia a year and a half ago, but Jeremy wasn’t able to make the trip because of work commitments. We plan on going back and doing some more exploring of Independence NHP, probably in the late summer/early fall.

George Washington Birthplace National Monument

A friend told us about this attraction, which I didn’t know anything about. George Washington was born on the Virginia coast in an area called the Northern Neck of Virginia (I’m not sure why it’s called that, but it’s on the coast, on the border of VA and MD). We’ll go for the historical aspect, but apparently the beaches nearby are great for finding shells if you go early enough in the day, so we’ll be sure to take advantage of that as well. This is another trip we haven’t scheduled yet, though we do want to go when it’s warm, but not too crowded, so it’ll probably be late spring.

Virginia Creeper Trail

The Virginia Creeper Trail is a bike trail on an old railway bed, close to the Virginia-Tennessee border. You can take a shuttle to the top and basically coast for most of the next 17 miles. It sounds like a fun family adventure, and I think it should be beautiful in the fall, when the leaves are changing.

Highland Maple Festival

The Highland Maple Festival is one we’ve been wanting to attend for years (we tap our maples, after all), but the timing has never worked out. I was really hoping this would be the year, but it’s looking more and more like it won’t be: our schedule is just too crazy.

We may add some other short trips in and cross a couple of the ones listed above off our list, but we are making it a priority to spend time together as a family, exploring and trying new things. In all honesty, we’d like to spend a lot more time exploring (don’t we all?), but we have a busy schedule with a number of other commitments, so it’s not feasible for us to be gone all the time.

Renting out our RV

Since we can’t go on road trips every weekend, we’ve decided to list our RV on a couple of RV rental sites. They’re like AirBnB, but for RVs and travel trailers. Who knew there was such a thing? I didn’t. These sites are a cheaper alternative (and more personal!) to mainstream RV rental places, and they give people like us the opportunity to share what we love while making some money on the side. I’d actually never thought of renting out our RV, until I ran across a mention of it in a blog post about side hustles.

We haven’t had our RV listing live for very long, but already have three reservations that will bring in a nice amount of money. Since we never thought of making money from our RV, this is basically found money- almost pure profit after our RV payment is covered.

Want to learn more? Feel free to leave any questions in the comments below. If you use my Outdoorsy link (or click one of the Outdoorsy images) to rent an RV or travel trailer or to list your own RV or travel trailer, I’ll make a commission, but it won’t cost you anything. Another rental company to check out is RVShare, which operates very similarly to Outdoorsy.