Later today I’m going to Canada to curl in Windsor on Saturday. This will be my first trip out of the U.S. since July (ack!).

Expect to see something about my trip next week. Also in the works is a post about how to plan a trip. I’ve decided there are three different types of trips a person could be planning:

1. You have absolutely no idea where you want to go or what you want to do, but you know you want to go somewhere. I, for instance, want to do a bit of touring in Ohio, but the only places I know about are the places I’ve already been. Or, you could know that you want to go to a beach or the mountains or to see wilderness in Canada, like a lady I was talking to in the library while I was straightening travel books on Wednesday.
2. You know exactly where you want to go and what you are going to do. This typically involves one home base, and you do touring in a one- to two-hour radius. I, for instance, know that I am going to go to Portland, Ore. to visit a friend, and while there I will see the roses, Mount Hood and the Pacific Ocean.
3. You want to see a handful of sights far apart but close enough together that you want to combine them all into one trip. There is no home base involved in this type of trip. I, for instance, want to go to Grand Teton National Park in Jackson, Wyo. But if I am going there, then I am also going to Yellowstone National Park; Cody, Wyo.; Thermopolis, Wyo., where there are free hot springs in which you can soak; Mount Rushmore in southwestern South Dakota; and the Badlands, also in southwestern South Dakota. How I will ultimately combine these is quite a puzzle. If I would drive the entire trip, that would be around 70 hours just to get to all of my stops.

I will write about these different types of situations by sharing how I am preparing for each of the trips I want to take, based off of knowledge I have gained from already planning for trips that meet each of these styles.

Until then,

Happy travels!