Gap Year travels – first 2ish months

I quit my job in June 2021, just as things seemed to be opening up to travel again (thanks Vaccines!) but before the myriad of variants started showing up and making things difficult. But I’m going to start a little bit earlier, since my gap year travels actually started before my last day of work.

May

In May 2021, I purchased a National Parks pass. This was perhaps the best $85 ($80 plus $5 shipping and handling that can be avoided if you buy the pass at a national park or other federal lands) that I spent all year. The pass is good for the month of purchase plus the next 12 months after, so you get almost 13 months of use out of the pass. That is, unless you are age 65+ in which case the pass is good for the remainder of your life! I actually had planned to buy one for my dad on his 65^th birthday and never had a reason to do so until November 2021 when we visited a national historic site, but that’s jumping ahead to Part 2.

Since I live in Southwest Florida, I am only a few hours drive away from 3 national parks (ok, maybe a plane or boat ride are involved with getting to Dry Tortugas). One Sunday morning, I woke up early and decided I wanted to put my pass to good use, so I hit the road by 7am and set out for Miami-Dade County, site of the Biscayne National Park. But when I got to the Miami area, it was raining over the coastline, so I stayed on the highway and kept going south until I entered the Florida Keys. I had been to Key West before, but I had arrived via the Key West Express boat from Fort Myers Beach, so I decided to explore the Overseas Highway, taking in the sights of the various small towns and villages through the Keys, and traversing the famous 7-mile bridge. After reaching the key landmark of the Southernmost Point, I circled back and headed towards Miami once again. Biscayne NP was a really cool spot along the shoreline south of the high-rise buildings in Miami/Miami Beach, but I missed out since 90% of the park is actually underwater! Biscayne became federally protected as a way to avoid more filling and development of low-lying offshore sandy islands. As a former city planner and floodplain manager in coastal areas of Florida, I was thrilled to see such foresight from President Lyndon B. Johnson to declare the area a national monument in 1968 and later Congress made it a National Park in 1980. All told, I spent 13 hours driving that day, but it was so worth it for everything I got to see.

The next weekend I drove over to the east coast again to visit with my friend Lisa Duke in downtown Stuart for the monthly ChooseFI local group she hosts there. Only 1 other person showed up, so I got to visit quite a bit and share the details of my upcoming gap year/sabbatical, since I had turned in my 2-week notice just 2 days prior. But the following weekend, I finally visited Everglades National Park, which I am ashamed to admit I had never previously visited in my 15+ years living in Southwest Florida, despite being about an hour and a half away from my home. I stopped in at the Gulf Coast Visitors Center near Everglades City and then continued east on US-41 to Shark Valley Visitors Center. Everglades National Park is a massive chunk of land at the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula, including the famous Ten Thousand Islands. I also visited the adjacent Big Cypress National Preserve during my day trip.

June

On June 4^th, I worked my last day and said goodbye to my coworkers from the past 3 years. I went home that evening and packed my bags, knowing I would probably be staying away from Florida for several months, and I hit the road the next morning. Two days of driving 8-9 hours later, I was back in my childhood bedroom at my parents’ house in Indiana. This would become my home base for my travels throughout the summer and fall. I spent the night on the north side of Atlanta, where I used a “35k free night certificate” from my Marriott Bonvoy (formerly SPG) credit card to stay in a suite at the Le Meridien hotel, part of the Marriott chain. This certificate was actually a holdover from 2020, since I didn’t have an opportunity to do much travel after the pandemic began. I also tried to incorporate a few touristy stops along the way on day 2 of the trip to Indiana, so I stopped at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, along with Fort Knox and the historic first capital of Indiana at Corydon.

I spent the bulk of June in my hometown, spending time with my parents and grandparents, and I attended my 20-year high school reunion while I was in town. It was interesting to catch up with some folks I hadn’t seen in 5-20 years, and to see both how much, and how little, has changed for many of us. It was a fun night with old classmates, even if none are the type of friend that I would hang out with once more during my 5+ months in Indiana.

The last weekend in June, I drove 5+ hours roundtrip for pizza. Let me explain, I went to the Columbus, Ohio area to finally meet a couple Twitter friends, and try the pizza from @TheFoodTruckCEO. I wore my Farm Fired Pizzas t-shirt I had ordered from his store, and met up with Kristy, Ben and Owen from @Our_Hytreks, along with Chad Methner and we all had Brent’s delicious pizzas.

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A couple days later, I would kick off my biggest road-trip of the year, a 20-day, 6,000+ mile adventure through 11 states.

July

Even though I hit the road June 28^th, I’m putting this into July, since this trip is how I spent the majority of the month. I actually started the day by being part of a panel of flood experts at a national conference of insurance agents, but finalized packing and spent 5 hours on the road to reach Peoria Illinois for the night. I did take a detour through Champaign-Urbana to see the University of Illinois, but I didn’t stop because it had already been a long day. I stayed in a Springhill Suites (part of Marriott) and booked a government rate, since I still have my county government ID badge and that rate can be used for personal travel as well as official business travel. I wasn’t even asked for my ID, just asked if it was for personal or business travel, and I paid for the night with my newly-upgraded Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant credit card, which has a $300 annual travel credit, so the room night was refunded to the credit card as part of that travel credit.

Up next was a trip across the Mississippi River in the area of the Quad Cities, then past Iowa City to see the University of Iowa Hawkeyes stadium, a quick detour to see the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum (closed), and on to Ames to visit my friend Sarah at a delicious BBQ restaurant in an historic railroad depot building.

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After that, it was back south to Des Moines where I unfortunately missed out visiting with Kristin Knight and then several more hours of driving as I went through Omaha, Lincoln and approximately 2/3 of Nebraska. It was at this point where I tried “car camping” for the first time, and while the location was a great city park in North Platte ($10 donation per night), I am too large and/or my Toyota Camry is too small to comfortably sleep in the driver’s seat. If I try this out again, I will empty everything out of the back seat and try sleeping in the fetal position on the larger cushion back there. Live and learn, but I definitely saved money that night.

Day 3, I was awake very early and knew I would not be getting any more sleep in my car, so I hit the road and took a scenic drive along US-26, where I passed by the gigantic Lake McConaughy State Recreation Area and continued west to Scottsbluff. Along the way, I saw Chimney Rock and I stopped at Scotts Bluff National Monument, and I sought out the local Walmart for some free wifi since my cell signal with Mint Mobile was non-existent for almost the entirety of Nebraska.

Once I got close to the Wyoming border, cell signal re-emerged and I was getting texts and notifications like crazy! I continued southwest until I got to Cheyenne, where I grabbed a quick early lunch and made my way south into Northern Colorado, which would be my home for the next couple days.

I saw a Wyndham promotion that promised 6,500 points on top of the points you would earn by staying a minimum of 2 nights in one of their hotels, and 7,500 points is enough for a free night at their lower-end properties, so I booked 2 nights at the Travelodge in Longmont. They had an indoor pool and laundry facilities onsite, so I took a chance and also got caught up on a load of laundry. Later that evening, I drove down to Denver to visit my friend Piggy and to meet Michelle Jackson. We went to a local microbrewery/pub, that it turns out Piggy is a partial owner of, and we hung out for a few hours over beers (and Sprite for me, thanks!). I was still pursuing a “Dry 2021” at that point, and halfway through the year, I was not about to give that up due to some (very convincing) social pressure.

The next day I got up late and explored around Longmont and Boulder, but mostly had a very relaxed day with as little driving as possible. I even ordered a pizza for delivery instead of picking it up a mile or so down the road.

But Friday was the day to head down to Colorado Springs for the annual CampFI Rocky Mountain. I started the morning by scrolling social media in bed, and I saw my friend Becca had just posted photos of Scotts Bluff National Monument, where I had been 2 days ago. I sent her a message asking where she was headed, and it turned out she was going to an RVers hangout in the mountains of Colorado. We arranged a meetup in the parking lot of a Trader Joe’s in Colorado Springs, and I got to tour her home on wheels, where she visited all 48 of the contiguous United States this year. We sat and talked about my gap year plans, her travels, the future of remote work arrangements, and she even suggested I hit her up whenever I want to get back into the working world again, because she does similar work to my past couple jobs, albeit for a private sector firm versus my state and local government experience. After we took a selfie in front of her RV “BB” for Becca’s Bus, I drove a couple more miles to arrive at the Franciscan Retreat Center for my 4^th CampFI, but first one outside of Florida.

CampFI is always a blast, making new friends and catching up with old ones. Speakers at this CampFI included Carl Jensen, Mr. Waffles on Wednesday, Lynn Frair, and Diania Merriam (who had the unfortunate experience of having her flight canceled, so we improvised and she presented to us over Zoom). There is always a lot of down time in the schedule for hikes, breakout sessions, meals, and relaxation, but I spent the majority of the weekend sitting on the patio outside in the sun, chatting with fellow FI enthusiasts and sharing my plans for my gap year, which was 1 month old as of that weekend. We watched the 4^th of July fireworks from above the city, and slowly said our goodbyes on Monday, even as we desperately pleaded for folks to buy their tickets to EconoMe Conference in November so we could have a mini CampFI Rocky Mountain reunion in Cincinnati. (Spoiler alert, lots of the attendees did make the journey to Cincy!).

I stuck around Colorado Springs for an extra day, so I could be sure I had decent wifi for a morning conference call the next day (narrator: the wifi went down multiple times during the call), but I used 5,000 points from World of Hyatt for a free night at the Hyatt House (which was so poorly operated that it lost its affiliation with Hyatt sometime between July and mid-December when I am writing this post).

After checking out of the hotel, I made my way to the Red Rocks Canyon Open Space area for a short hike, as recommended by my mom. I left there to go to Garden of the Gods, but parking was in such short supply that I left after circling the parking lot for 15 minutes. From there, it was a short drive to Pikes Peak and I spent the next couple hours driving towards the top and then slowly back down to avoid burning up my brakes. This was the most spectacular drive I have ever made, and so worth the $15 admission fee. After leaving Pikes Peak, I went west towards Buena Vista and then north to Leadville before making my way back to Denver for the night. I booked a free night at the Springhill Suites for 20,000 Marriott points and went to bed early (8:30ish?) so I could wake up early and head to my next National Park.

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Around 5am, I checked out of the hotel and headed towards Estes Park and the eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Due to overcrowding issues in the summer months, the National Parks Service had instituted a policy requiring reservations for the busiest parks during the busiest times of the day, but if you went into the park early (or late), you didn’t need a “timed entry pass” so I went through the entrance gate around 7:45am and watched the sun rise over the mountains from inside the park. This was another incredibly beautiful drive, with switchbacks and thousands of feet of elevation gain. I experienced tundra for the first time, and saw a pika and a moose while climbing to the Alpine Visitors Center. I waited around 45 minutes for the visitors’ center to open, but unfortunately, they did not have any hot chocolate (even though it was on the menu), so I left there to continue traveling west and south through the Grand Lake exit point.

I drove through Granby and had lunch in Breckenridge, before detouring through Vail and Glenwood Springs on my way to Grand Junction.

That same Wyndham promotion was still running, so I booked another 2-night stay at a cheap Travelodge (using my AAA discount) and it was truly the worst hotel experience of my life. I gave the property a 1-star rating on Google and encouraged others to read and believe all of the 1-star ratings that had already been left. I was never sure that my door to my motel-style room was actually closed/locked, and when I left for the in-between day to visit more parks, I took all of my belongings with me in my car because I couldn’t get the door to feel fully shut, even though the wooden door itself was almost cracking with the force I applied to try closing it. I made sure to hop in the pool both afternoons (105° days) instead of trying to use the decrepit shower/tub combo in the room. To top it all off, they actually CHARGED me a $100 deposit, rather than ringing up a pending charge. When I called to complain, they said this is standard procedure and I assured them that it is not, in my decade+ of traveling all over the country for work and pleasure. It took more than a week, but the charge was refunded.

On that in-between day, I headed southeast to visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and then Colorado National Monument when I returned to Grand Junction. Both of these are very cool rock formations with scenic drives along the rim of the particular canyon. Black Canyon is half a mile deep and only about a quarter mile across, so it is a very deep V-shape, while the Colorado National Monument is more varied with painted rocks, 3 tunnels and the road spits you out in the neighboring town of Fruita.

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I woke up early and got out of the hotel/motel from hell as soon as I could, and headed north to the Dinosaur National Monument. The drive there was probably the most spectacular part of the day, as it winded through Bureau of Land Management land and cows were grazing all up and down the mountain road. This was near the Douglas Pass View Point, if you want to check it out on Google Maps. Since I was tired, I didn’t actually spend much time at either of the two Dinosaur visitor centers that I stopped at, the Canyon Visitor Center and the Quarry Visitor Center, since I was going to be driving a few more hours west into Utah for my next two-night stay.

On my way into the Salt Lake City area, I took a detour through Park City, which hosted giant slalom and snowboarding events in the 2002 Winter Olympics. I then made my way down into Salt Lake City to visit an auto shop. This wasn’t any old body shop though, it is home to Kindig-It Design, which is featured on the television show “Bitchin’ Rides.” I picked up a t-shirt, a coozy and looked around for a little bit before heading down to Provo for a relaxing 2-night stay.

After arriving in the Provo checking into my Hyatt House near the BYU campus (booked with 10,000 points from World of Hyatt, 5k per night), I spent some time in the pool (another 100+ degree weekend). The next day, I drove up into downtown Salt Lake City, checking out the State Capitol building and the Temple square, before heading west to the Great Salt Lake and then back down to Provo for more exploring. I went to Timpanogos Cave National Monument and then drove up through an old rail line that has been paved into the Alpine Scenic Loop in American Fork Canyon. It took me past Sundance, home of the famous film festival, and then I drove through the BYU campus and down to Utah Lake before going back to my hotel for some more pool and relaxation time.

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It was at this point where I was pondering which direction to go next, and I was leaning towards making a 15-hour drive straight-through to Seattle, but I got an Instagram message from a friend who had been following along my journey and wondered where I was going next. She was actually in Dubrovnik Croatia at the time, but would be heading to Las Vegas in two days and offered her spare bedroom if I wanted to spend 3 nights there. I jumped at the chance to hang out with my friend who I’d met at FinCon in 2018, but had only seen one other time (in Fort Myers, near where we both actually live). I was about 500 miles away and had 1 more day in between, so when I checked out of my hotel the next morning, I went through the mostly-rural parts of Utah.

While driving through Utah, I stopped at Bryce Canyon National Park and saw that I was only about an hour away from Cedar Breaks National Monument, so I backtracked and visited there, too. I have been thoroughly impressed by the national monuments at this point, so I’m not going to let an hour detour stop me from visiting whenever possible.

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From there, I went alongside the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument on my way into Page, Arizona for the night. I stayed in another Marriott property (this time Courtyard) on my remaining 35k free night certificate for holding the Marriott Bonvoy credit card. It was 108° when I arrived, so I spent a couple hours in the pool and then enjoyed a cold shower and the air conditioning.

Later that evening, I met up with a fellow Florida Floodplain manager who was passing through Page on her own grand vacation with her husband and granddaughters. We met up at the Wahweep Marina on Lake Powell, inside Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and we ate at a floating restaurant called Latitude 37. I want to point out that on this day, I more-than-paid-for my National Parks pass, since I would have spent $35, $30 and $30 on three park admission fees, whereas my $85 spent on the pass allowed me to enter all 3 for free.

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The next morning, I set out to visit my friends Ali and Alison from All Options Considered in Flagstaff for brunch. We had an awesome time chatting for a couple hours, but I needed to hit the road and head towards Las Vegas. I picked up the tab, but somehow the little hand-held credit card machine must’ve added another table’s order to our bill AFTER I paid the check, so I found out the next morning that the bill was approximately double what it should have been. I didn’t ask for a receipt, so I could only ask them to remove a couple items I KNEW we had not ordered. At least I did get a few dollars back, but not everything that should have been owed to me. Oh well!

I arrived in Las Vegas on a 118° afternoon, no exaggeration. My friend was still working for the afternoon, but I got unpacked and started a couple loads of laundry, then we got ready and went to explore the city a little bit. She’s a Vegas expert, having ties to the city that go back 40 years, so she has status at multiple hotels/casinos and we tried to make the most of that fact. I dropped her off at Caesar’s Palace so she could check into the rewards that were offered for her Diamond status, and I drove the Strip for about 30-45 minutes and saw things in a different way than I had in February 2020 when I visited the city for the first time (albeit for less than 24 hours). I got a text that she was ready to be picked up, so I went back to Caesar’s Palace and then we walked through the newly-opened Resorts World hotel and casino, even though this property apparently had been under construction for more than 6 years, and that’s after several years of delay in design and permitting. We decided we wanted a little more quiet atmosphere for dinner, so we went downtown to the Downtown Container Park, which is a very cool urban shopping/dining/entertainment space made out of old shipping containers. We had some Mexican food and called it a night.

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The next day, I slept in a bit and then decided to go spend some time at the casinos on the Strip. Thanks to the prior night’s expedition, I knew I could park for free at Resorts World but also at Treasure Island. I spent several hours walking through the casinos, playing a little bit here and there, but then went outside the city to check out two other features: Clark County Wetlands Park on the east side of the city, and made a loop around to the west side of the city where Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is located. I enjoyed the 13-mile scenic loop (and the air conditioning inside the visitor center) and went back to my Vegas home base. Since we had scoped out the Caesar’s rewards benefits the prior evening, we now had plans for the second night: The Body Exhibit at Bally’s, and then the High Roller (looks like a ferris wheel, but is actually a giant pod for 15-20 people). We timed sunset perfectly for the top of the High Roller, and then we had dinner at an Old Vegas institution: Peppermill and Fireside Lounge.

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The next day, I spent several more hours wandering the Strip during the daytime, and I stumbled upon my friends Scott and Sam (and 4 others) from Southwest Florida, who were in Vegas celebrating both of their birthdays. I spent a couple hours wandering around more casinos and shops with them before heading back to home base to pack up and grab dinner with my host at a very cool pizza shop downtown called Pizza Rock (which seems to have every type of crust, style, you-name-it on the planet). Then we walked over to Circa to visit the highest bar in downtown Vegas and thanks to a very windy evening, we were two of only a few people outside on their rooftop lounge. We caught another spectacular sunset over the mountains, watched the lights turn on along the Strip and went home.

I woke up really early and hit the road, since I wasn’t sure of a good place to stop for the next 12+ hours, but I needed to head towards Colorado to visit some more friends the next day. This day, I drove through the Virgin River Gorge in NW Arizona, through St. George, Utah and made a stop at the Kolob Canyons Visitor Center, which is at the NW portion of Zion National Park. This included a short 5-6 mile scenic drive into the park, and some gorgeous scenery in the mid-morning sun. After that, I drove non-stop for the next 8 hours to get into western Colorado and eventually used up all of those Wyndham points I had earned from the two crappy Travelodge stays to get a decent night’s sleep in a LaQuinta in Rifle, CO.

Around this point in July, there were almost daily closures of Interstate 70 through central Colorado due to flooding and landslides after a wildfire destroyed the vegetation that kept the hillside in place. So I decided to avoid that potential mess and take the scenic route up through Craig and Steamboat Springs, on my way through the “back side” of Rocky Mountain National Park, which is actually the lovely State Forest State Park.

I was finally back in Fort Collins (wasn’t mentioned for day 3 of the trip, since all I did was get an oil change there), a few hours before I needed to get to Carl and Mindy’s house for a FI-friend gathering and meal. It was there that I met up again with Kristy, Ben and Owen (from the Columbus area pizza gathering in Ohio) the Jensen family, the Waffles on Wednesday family, and another FI couple from the Denver area. I spent the night in the Jensen guest bedroom, and woke up early the next day to finish up the 6,000+ mile drive with the final 1,208 miles in one shot that took me 17 hours and 18 minutes of driving. Fortunately most of that was pretty flat and pretty straight as I was leaving the Denver area and heading through Kansas and Missouri. By the time I got through St. Louis, the sun was fading fast, but I was determined to get through Illinois and Indiana to get a good night’s rest in my own bed.

I kind of rushed that last day because I needed to get home for a family funeral. My mom’s close cousin passed away after a few years battling cancer, and I wanted to be there to attend with my parents, grandma and aunt & uncle. We celebrated her life and the countless ways she had helped others, and ended the evening with a pizza party at Marion’s Piazza, a pizza chain that is famous in southwest Ohio where she lived most of her life. One more night in a Home2Suites (a Hilton chain) and I was back in Indiana for the next couple weeks. The rest of the month is filled with golf in the mornings, naps after lunch, and pool time in the afternoons and evenings.

The next several months of recap can be found here: Fall 2021.