Where’s Nico?

We mentioned in previous posts that we’re heading out on a sixth month trip, starting in March. 

Our plan is to be on the road in time to be at a good viewing point in the Path of Totality when, on April 8, the last total eclipse to hit the U.S. for the next twenty years comes through. 

One nice thing about traveling this by camper is we can be a bit nimble for the Path of Totality based on weather forecasts to give ourselves the best chances of clear skies. Our tentative plan is to head down to Texas for the event, if the weather there is looking promising.

After the eclipse, we plan to work our way west until we hit the Pacific, and then north until we hit Vancouver Island, before working our way back home. We don’t have any time frames that we’re stuck to, but we do have a bunch of sites and some friends and family that we’re looking forward to see along the path.

Kristen and I left Nico with our good friends back in September for a week and went out to explore parks and trails around Washington state and Vancouver Island. 

It was all wonderful (aside from missing Nico), but we were really captivated by the beauty of Vancouver Island. We took a ferry from Horseshoe Bay, just north of Vancouver, to Nanaimo, and then had a wonderful drive across the island to the Green Point Campground, a bit north of the Ucluelet area of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. On our way out, we caught a ferry in Victoria to take us down to Port Angeles. 

There were only two problems with our time in Vancouver Island – first, we would have loved to have more time to explore it! Second, we knew we needed our mountain dog Nico with us, because he would totally dig this place!

So Vancouver Island has become to us sort of the crowning jewel of this trip. We’re hoping to spend many weeks up there – maybe even a month – before heading back towards our home in Kansas City in October or so.

– Ken, 2/13/24