Road Trippers

Welcome to the Road Trippers Group Michimaize!
John-aka Jaybee

I'm a Geographile (if that's even a word). I have always loved maps. Guess that's the reason I opted to become a cartographer in the military, and majored in Geography in college afterwards. After that I worked for a time as a surveyor, then became a Land Use Planner, ultimately becoming a Director for a small California City.

Anyway, planning and maps are truly my passions. It's no surprise then that I love to plan our vacations. My daughter is fond of accusing me of "planning the fun right out of a family vacation" . Trouble is, there's some truth to that. So, I really have to control the urge to compile a rigid itinerary.

My wife and I are now "Empty Nesters". We love to travel and see new places. We've made some large road trips that I plan to describe on this site and hopefully discuss with others.

We live in far northern CA. To get anywhere east of the Rockies, we have to endure nearly two days worth of desert driving-with much of it unattractive. So, lately we've taken to flying to a destination and renting a car. Its worked really well so far, and we don't have the return trip thru the desert to deal with either.

This year we're headed to the Southeast. Flying to Nashville, seeing the Grand Ole Opry and spending one night. Next day we're headed for Chattanooga and perhaps Atlanta. We'll spend the night there and catch Six Flags-my wife loves roller coasters. Then on to Stone Mtn. and Savannah. Spending the night there and the next day headed for Charleston. I'm a bit of a Civil War buff and want to see where it all started at Ft. Sumter. After a night there we'll head up the coast to Myrtle Beach. We'd like to try out the new Rock & Roll Amusement Park there as well. Then after another night;s rest, we're off toward Asheville. That'll be a long driving day. We'll motel there before visiting the Biltmore Estate and heading west thru teh Great Smoky Mtns. We'll spend a night in Pigeon Forge before hitting Dollywood, then drive to Knoxville. We'll spend our last night there before returing to Nashville for our flight home.

If anyone has any pointers about "must sees" and "must avoids" along this 1400 plus mile route, please let me know-so I can work them into (or out of) my "informal" itinerary.