Trip 1, Group 1
I retired on July 30, 2021. On August 20, my daughter will be returning to a dormitory at her university. I decided that I would drive from my home in Florida up to Iowa to help her move, as her car would not have enough space for everything. Plus it was a chance to visit her and the very nice campus.
I’ve done very little planning for my post-retirement National Parks tour to date and won’t have time to do much before I have to leave for Iowa. Nonetheless, it seemed like a waste if I don’t begin visiting some sites along the route. I considered taking one route going there and another coming back, but when I stepped back and thought about the number of days I planned to be in Iowa, plus the number of days the trips each way would take if I made multiple stops, I ended up with a trip that was longer than I wanted.
So I decided this trip would include park visits only on the return trip, and I would drive to Iowa in as few days as possible. That route is up I-75 to Chattanooga, then through Nashville and on to St Louis, up the Mississippi to Iowa, then across to Des Moines. The bigger question was “How shall I come home?”.
I lived in Ohio for over 30 years, and have friends there I haven’t seen in a while, and places there I miss visiting, so I decided I would head over to Ohio, then south through West Virginia eventually back to Florida. This presented me with a large selection of parks from which to choose. The first choice was obvious, as I would be heading east from Des Moines on I-80, passing right by the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. Stop number one has been chosen!
Continuing on the Cincinnati, around which I lived all of those 30+ years, another choice was automatic. In all those years, I never ventured over to the William Howard Taft National Historic Site within the city limits. Now that I lived hundreds of miles away, it made sense to finally stop in and see it. Stop Number two was chosen. While in Cincinnati, I knew lunch would be at a Skyline Chili restaurant. I chose the one near Eastgate Mall where I had enjoyed so many three-ways in the past!
I had wanted to try and meet up with two friends during this trip: my college roommate who lives east of Columbus; and the GIS Coordinator and cartographer for the Buckeye Trail Association in Shawnee, located in southeastern Ohio. If I’m lucky, I might even get a sofa to sleep on one night. This meant heading east out of Cincinnati toward Chillicothe, the home of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. Stop Number 3 picks itself!
After visiting the park and both of my friends over a few days, I plan to head south to Charleston, West Virginia. I graduated from High School here and always enjoyed the area with its beautiful hills and parks. Almost heaven! From Charleston, I’ll head east up winding US 60, climbing above the New River Gorge. We came out here often when I lived in Charlestown, and this also was the “main” road I would drive between my duty station at the Norfolk Naval Station and home.
Some 40 years later, it appears mostly unchanged: narrow and winding. There was a small state park at one point along the road, looking down into the New River Gorge, but just a few other local parks. Now I will be visiting the newly designated New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. Stop number 4 was seeing an old stomping ground in a new light!
Finally, it will be time to head south on I-77 through the Carolinas and Georgia and into Florida and home. But wait! What have I found? There is a national park in South Carolina. This must be new! Nope, it was redesignated a National Park from a National Monument in 2003. It is only 10 minutes east of the highway around Columbia. This is one I need to see. Thus, Congaree will be stop number five, and the final stop of this “shake-down” initial trip of my National Park Retirement Tour.
Five parks will not make much of a dent in the 423 I want to visit. It does, however, provide that immediate kick start to the adventure, less than one month after retiring. It will hopefully validate some of my planning, and reveal things I forgot or show better ways to do things. With time on my return, I will shoot for a second, more comprehensive trip in October, when I hope to have a far more detailed long-range plan for seeing everything.
