TrailManor Owner's Forum - View Single Post

06-26-2009, 06:33 PM

Thank you everyone for your comments. They are very much appreciated.

Hopefully there will be many times when “smelling the roses” will be the main mission of the trip, but then there will also be times when the end destination is still priority one.
DW and I are still working, and will be for some time, so we still must fit trips in a designated period of vacation time for now.
My initial question was based on a theoretical trip to Yellowstone. This is a 2000 mile, one way trip for us. I fully understand the concept of “nothing concrete”, but the bottom line is if you have a fixed amount of vacation days, and you want to fit as much time in at this great park as you can, priority one would be to get there as soon as you can.
Another example of this are planned trips to sports car racing events. The event is a fixed day and time so you need to be there on time or miss what you going for. If the race is 900 miles away, we could easily make this now in 1 day in the van, but with the TM this would become a 2 day drive, meaning we would need to leave a day earlier.

As for Yellowstone, it would be sometime before we could devote 8 days of drive time just to go and come back, not to mention the much needed time to enjoy the park. This info alone may make us do a “fly in”, or “car only” trip soon, and possibly follow up later with a TM trip.

My thinking is when planning a longer trip, I would try to plan daily drive time around state parks. Shooting to make a park that is in the 400 mile range every day.
The comments about arriving before dark and “pick-up/setup” time are invaluable as it makes me realized that all of this needs to fit into your daylight hours of driving.

For now, the TM would be primarily used within 1-4 hrs away from home for several reasons…
1) to first fully learn all there is to know about the TM
2) so friends and family could possibly meet us, spend the day, and then drive back home for the night
3) quick getaways for long weekends
4) we have family obligations that require us to be relatively close
5) limitations of my TV (I wouldn’t attempt mountainous terrain with the Astro, at least until I know how it performs with the TM.)

06-26-2009, 06:33 PM	#13
ED-n-KEL Guest Posts: n/a	Thanks! Thank you everyone for your comments. They are very much appreciated. Hopefully there will be many times when “smelling the roses” will be the main mission of the trip, but then there will also be times when the end destination is still priority one. DW and I are still working, and will be for some time, so we still must fit trips in a designated period of vacation time for now. My initial question was based on a theoretical trip to Yellowstone. This is a 2000 mile, one way trip for us. I fully understand the concept of “nothing concrete”, but the bottom line is if you have a fixed amount of vacation days, and you want to fit as much time in at this great park as you can, priority one would be to get there as soon as you can. Another example of this are planned trips to sports car racing events. The event is a fixed day and time so you need to be there on time or miss what you going for. If the race is 900 miles away, we could easily make this now in 1 day in the van, but with the TM this would become a 2 day drive, meaning we would need to leave a day earlier. As for Yellowstone, it would be sometime before we could devote 8 days of drive time just to go and come back, not to mention the much needed time to enjoy the park. This info alone may make us do a “fly in”, or “car only” trip soon, and possibly follow up later with a TM trip. My thinking is when planning a longer trip, I would try to plan daily drive time around state parks. Shooting to make a park that is in the 400 mile range every day. The comments about arriving before dark and “pick-up/setup” time are invaluable as it makes me realized that all of this needs to fit into your daylight hours of driving. For now, the TM would be primarily used within 1-4 hrs away from home for several reasons… 1) to first fully learn all there is to know about the TM 2) so friends and family could possibly meet us, spend the day, and then drive back home for the night 3) quick getaways for long weekends 4) we have family obligations that require us to be relatively close 5) limitations of my TV (I wouldn’t attempt mountainous terrain with the Astro, at least until I know how it performs with the TM.)