The Band Bus

Ok, so, I've been giving this a lot of thought, and the only way to win back some sanity is to go back to Moab and see everything again. Either it'll help, or it'll make things worse. The picture seen above is a road trip I've been planning in my head for quite a while now. The first major stop is Moab (C), where we'll stay for a couple nights, and have time to go see Arches and Canyonlands. After we've had our fill, we depart for Kanab (E), and go through Monument Valley on the way (D). Kanab is centraly located, and from there we can easily access Zion Nat'l Park, Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park, and Grand Canyon Nat'l Park (can you see a theme here?). From there, though, the canyon leg of the trip ends and we head for Yosemite, but not before passing through Las Vegas and Death Valley Nat'l Park first. We'll stay in Mammoth Falls (F), a town close to Yosemite, for a couple nights, giving the park the attention it deserves. After then, we'll cut across to the coast, passing through San Francisco (G) and up to Eureka, where we'll stay the night. From there, we'll travel through Redwoods Nat'l Park and up the coast to Newport. After spending a few nights there, we'll head on home.

From what I figure (from some recent research), the cost for lodging will be about $1200-$1300. I estimate the cost of gas will be about $450ish. Food and entertainment, well, I don't know. We can usually bring food time down to a snack and dinner, so for 12 days, it shouldn't be that expensive. Each park should be about $10 to get into, and we're going to eight. Actually, I think the year-long national parks passes are $50, so we'll probably just end up getting one of those. The total shouldn't exceed $2000, which is pretty good, I think.

I need this trip. More than I'm sure you can understand. I'm not going to drive it, though. Oh no. I couldn't appreciate the scenerey if I did. Or take pictures. God, if I couldn't take pictures, I'd go insane. So, right now, I'm just bouncing the idea around with the parents. My dad sounded eager to go back to Arches, so that's a good sign. If dad's on board, then that means the hard part's over. Now, I hope we have enough money....