Reserved or dispersed?

New term for me: dispersed camping. When trying to determine campgrounds along our route, I found that what I would normally refer to as primitive camping is better known by the National Forest or Park Service as dispersed camping. Camping in the outback. No water, no toilets, no fire grates. Pitch your tent anywhere in the National Forest.

We have determined where we’ll be camping the first 6 nights of our trip so far. After that...your guess is as good as mine. Here’s the itinerary so far:
We plan on leaving early Saturday morning, June 29. After almost 500 miles, our first night is reserved at Big Sioux (like that name) Recreation area, just east of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This will probably be our longest driving day. Sunday night we plan on grabbing dispersed camping in the Black Hills, after driving through the Badlands. We’ve got Devil’s Tower on a list of things to see so we’ll head out Monday morning and check it out. Monday night puts us in Cody, Wyoming. Made a reservation at the pet friendly Cody Motor Lodge. Highly rated by pet lovers on Trip Advisor. Maggie approves.

I reserved a last minute campsite in Yellowstone for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. It wasn’t our first choice but we didn’t have many options. Yellowstone Park has campgrounds that you can reserve sites at, and also those that are first come first serve. As it’s a holiday week, I felt safer reserving. The woman I spoke with told me we could move to an unreservable site after the first night. According to their website, campsites fill up very fast.

It’s a good thing: I can get a Senior Pass into the park with a heavy discount! That entitles me to reduced rates at any National Park for the rest of my life. Such a deal. Being a senior citizen does have some advantages. These wrinkles and gray hairs should be good for something, right?

Flying by the seat of our pants

It's almost here. Jack casually mentioned that he wanted to take a road trip west this year. I jumped at the chance. No concrete plans. Just pack and go. But where? What was our final destination? Did we have one?

As I'm the planner, I suggested Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. I hadn't been there since I was a kid and I wanted to go again. Jack mentioned Northern California, Washington State, and Idaho. Maybe Montana? We settled on the Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and southern Montana region. Good, we now have some sort of plan. Not concrete, but something. So we marked the calendar and decided to take advantage of the July 4th holiday.

We contacted the tourism boards of the states we'd be traveling through and soon our mailbox was jammed with road maps, and vacation guides telling us of all the things to see and do along the way. Let's see, that would be Wisconsin (been there, done that), Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. I looked for apps that would find free wifi along the way, possible campground locators, and anything else that might be useful. I mentioned the idea of posting a travel blog to Jack but he doesn't agree with this blog business of spending time telling the story of our trip along the way when we should be out and about doing other things. Isn't that why we're taking this road trip? To get away from all that?

So we've started to gather our camping gear, shop for food and other items that we figure we'll need, like a comfortable chair, a hitch for the back of the car to add extra storage, and most importantly, an air mattress! Gone are the days of wanting to sleep on the ground. Jack and Susan like cushy.

So this will be the journal of our travels west with the child of our elder years - our dog Maggie. Should be some sort of adventure. Stay tuned.