Week 23: Itinerary (noun)

Ya'll, can we talk about itinerary planning?

I have gone on a few trips in my life that involved a hand-made itinerary, and they were all great experiences. But I've never written one myself.

Ten's National Park Service covers fifteen national parks, a national forest, and two state parks. That's nineteen campsite reservations and over 70 hiking trails. My brain fries every time I spend over an hour working on it.

Right now I have forty pages. I don't want to over-saturate my time, but I also don't want to walk into these parks completely unprepared.

What trails get super busy in peak season? What major points should I hit in this park? Which hikes are appropriate for my fitness level? What weather does Northern California expect in early August? And Southern California in late August? Which parks provide shuttle buses and what are their routes?

The research ensues. The chaos ensues.

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I started listening to this podcast, "Parklandia" now "Hello Ranger". A couple from Chicago sold everything they owned to buy an RV and travel National Parks full-time.

(I initially skipped the show based on it's cheesy description, until I realized it was a gay couple. Interest peaked.)

Their conversations are so detailed about so many minute things like trailheads and traffic patterns. I now feel under prepared.

I think of the panic attack I had in the bathroom of the New York City Subway/Amtrak/LIRR.

Enter, itinerary.

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My therapist and I have been talking recently about "my" way of doing things, and not to invalidate that process. She says it's healthy to embrace impulsive behaviors, on the condition that you think through and understand your steps.

My attempt to observe this condition has manifested into a forty page, three-month, cat-friendly, National Parks itinerary.

Itinerary (noun)

Mid-15th century, "route of travel", from Late Latin itinerarium "account of a

journey, description of a route of travel, road-book". Noun use of neuter of

itinerarius "of a journey", from Latin itineris "a journey", from ire "go".

The thought, "Where does the word "itinerary" come from?" popped in my head. I figured I might share the search engine results for those like-minded, generally curious folk.

Although I still have a lot of research and 10am visits to recreation.gov ahead of me, I also have a surplus of time. Five months.

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Last week, I spent a while editing this website to better organize my pieces. I realized my older posts were drowning at the bottom, and that there wasn't any system of categorization. Very proud of the results :)

My "Week 22" blog mentions Tatiana's travel business and adjacent podcast, I spoke on earlier this month. The "Car Camping in a Prius" episode of Tatiana's "Life's a Voyage" podcast goes live tomorrow, 01/24/22!

Tatiana's travel business hosts all kinds of group trips and travel guidance, visit her website for more information.

xxoo Ten