Six days and counting!

Barbara and I have wanted to travel cross country again since we traveled from NY to California and back as part of our honeymoon in 1975. During that trip, we drove a Ford Pinto, stayed in motels (Friendship Inns and many others averaging $40 per night), burned $.40/gallon gas and had the time of our lives! We were fortunate to have 4 weeks off and covered 9,200 miles. We have dreamed about returning to the open road with a beginning and end with a very loose itinerary in between. In 2011, we started to actively look at small towable trailers. Since our daughter, Kelly, lives in Texas, we stopped by the Casita factory to check them out on one of our visits. The Casitas were OK, but..... when I asked the salesman about changing out lighting to LEDs, I was told, you can do that after you buy it. This just didn't seem right! Purchase something, then tear it out and throw it away. Over the next couple years, we read up on the Eggcamper, out of Grandville, MI and the Scamp out of Backus, MN. They were interesting, but not quite what we were looking for. Then in early 2013, we came accross the Escape Trailer, built in Chilliwack, BC, CA. The more we read, the more we liked it. There is a forum about the trailers called www.escapeforum.org. As I read the forum, something became obvious, Escape Trailers had Raving Fans instead of Satisfied Customers - we had found the company to build our trailer! We came to realize that every trailer that they build (5 models) is one of a kind. We didn't foresee having a lot of changes, but boy were we wrong! We saw our first Escape Trailer in April of 2013. Within 2 weeks of that we had a brand new GMC Acadia (the tow vehicle) in our driveway. Another 10 days and our 19' Escape was on order! Today is Monday, April 21st. This coming Saturday, our 39th wedding aniversary, we will leave for BC. It will take us 6 days and 3,000 miles to get up to Chilliwack. But, we will also be starting retirement at the same time, so the trip home is scheduled to take an additional 9 weeks! Due to the massive amounts of business travel I have done over the last few years, I have decided to keep the itinerary very loose - thus the title of this blog The Crooked Road Home! To plan out the trip, we have purchased a laptop and installed a DeLorme Mapping Program to "plan out" the big picture while using a Garmin GPS for the "day to day" travel. We expect to meet many travelers in our wanderings and tap into their expertise as to wonderful places to visit. The book of this travel will be "written" as we go. Looking forward to adding to this blog!