In March 2013, I had one of my most productive national park road trips. I called it my #BattlefieldsandBeginnings trip, and it primarily focused on as-yet-unvisited national parks in Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland. I also snuck in a quick jaunt over the Pennsylvania border to hit Gettysburg and the adjacent Eisenhower National Historic Site.

My original plan was to add about 10 days onto a work trip that would bring me to rural Virginia and DC, adding about 15 national parks to my list. In the end, I was able to add a few extra days and more than double my original goal.

It was a fast-paced trip, but with some serious strategizing, early mornings and late nights, I was able to see everything I wanted. It helps that my targeted parks were located in an area dense with mostly historically-focused national parks.

I wasn’t able to make many other stops, most notably for the state high points or roadside oddities that have recently found their way onto my trip itineraries, as there were simply too many national parks available to visit. Of course, it’s not like I was passing many must-have photo ops along the way—unlike Kansas and the other fly-over states, there’s a dearth of fun roadside oddities near our nation’s capital (insert your own joke here).

Finally, one word about all of the battlefields I visited on this trip. I enjoyed them. No, really. After a battlefield-laden trip to the Deep South several years ago with Kim, I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy another battlefield in my life. However, watching Ken Burns’ excellent Civil War series this spring, I had a better appreciation for the various battles. Although, I’ll admit, I had really wanted to include Harpers Ferry to officially finish off all of the Civil War battles.

The national parks I visited:

1. Manassas National Battlefield Park
2. Prince William Forest Park
3. Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park
4. Fort Washington Park
5. Piscataway Park
6. Richmond National Battlefield Park
7. Maggie Walker National Historic Site
8. Petersburg National Battlefield
9. Appomattox Court House National Historic Park
10. Booker T Washington National Monument
11. Guilford Courthouse National Military Park
12. Moores Creek National Battlefield
13. Cape Lookout National Seashore
14. Wright Brothers National Memorial
15. Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
16. Cape Hatteras National Seashore
17. Fort Monroe National Monument
18. Colonial National Historic Park (Jamestowne & Battle of Yorktown)
19. George Washington Birthplace National Monument
20. Thomas Stone National Historic Site
21. Greenbelt Park
22. Gettysburg National Military Park
23. Eisenhower National Historic Site
24. Monocacy National National Battlefield
25. Catoctin Mountain Park
26. Antietam National Battlefield
27. Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine
28. Hamption National Historic Site
29. Clara Barton National Historic Site
30. Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial
31. Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts

Other relevant links

You can also find my national park passport stamps for the trip here.

Here’s an archive of my tweets and foursquare check-ins during the trip.

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Last week, I took what is probably my last national park road trip with Betsy: a long overdue visit to Chaco Culture National Historical Park—one of the first places we had intended to go once we got it. It was a last minute change of plans that had me take the Forester on that trip, but it was great to bring her out one last time, and especially to a remote park that requires a significant drive on dirt roads to access.

With 175,000 miles on her, and several significant repairs I’ve been delaying, and only one long national park road trip to the Pacific Northwest remaining (I’ll fly to the northeastern parks from now on), she’s likely finally retired from her road trip career. While I’d love to do some more long roadtrips with her, I’m also happy shuttling around my kayak and mountain bike around the state. Thanks for all of the lifelong roadtripping memories.

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The idea was to start the blog, build a bit of a readership, immerse myself in the travel writing world, and improve my writing. One day, I reasoned, I might want to write a travelogue of my own, which would focus on my quest to visit various places that played key roles in the history of public land protection in America.

Of course, the best laid plans, right? While I snagged up a few domains, continued stockpiling writing ideas, subscribed to a ton of travel blogs and sought out travel and national park related social media opportunities on Twitter, I’ve yet to write a single freaking post.

Most of that is certainly due to a lack of time and energy – things have been very busy recently, and it doesn’t seem like the right time to try to squeeze something else into the mix. But that’s not all of the reason. I like planning things out, making sure I have done the required homework, and not necessarily one to jump in without giving something a thought. Since I haven’t had time to commit to spending any money getting the blog designed, nor have I had the time to fumble through doing it myself, I’ve procrastinated on doing the most important thing you need to do to have a successful blog – write something compelling, interesting, and useful. Instead, I’m concerned that I haven’t learned the art of Google AdSense, or am wondering which sidebar items are the most important to highlight.

There are some possible big changes afoot, and I’m wondering how much time and/or energy I’ll have to actually get this thing going. In short, I’m wondering if I should, indeed, commit to this project. Am I willing to forgo relaxing after a long day at work to write yet another post? Am I willing to skimp on dinner so I can afford to invest in the blog? Right now, the obvious answer is no. We’ll have to wait and see if it stays that way.

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