Once upon a time . . . nope. I had a dream . . . well yes, but still nope. It’s the story, of a lovely lady, who was bringing up one very noisy dog . . . and once upon a time that lady had a dream to pack up her dog, grab the bare essentials, and head out on the open road to see what sort of adventures awaited them. Last week, after several months of day dreaming, bouncing the idea off friends and family, hemming, hawing, and yet more hemming and hawing, I finally sent the e-mail to reserve an Escape Campervan from March 16, 2015 through May 18, 2015. I’ve mapped a basic route, put loads of camping gear on my Amazon Wishlist, read everything I could find about car camping, cross country road trips, traveling with dogs, and solo adventuring, and I’m starting to think it’s really going to happen.

The basic plan is to pick up the camper in New Jersey, head southwest until I get to the Pacific, hang a right and travel north up to Vancouver, and then swing around to head back east via a more northerly route. Along the way I plan to visit a ton of National Parks (and nearby land management areas if the Big Kahunas prove exceptionally dog-unfriendly), check out some wacky roadside attractions, and camp out under the stars as much as possible.