My wife and I got back from Machu Picchu and Peru at the beginning of June and since then we have been “stuck” here in “boring” Cincinnati.   We’ve had a busy summer (my older son has gone to THREE Scout camps this summer, just as an example) but it’s now time to get back on the road!  After booking 2 more trips last night, I realized that my family has 8 trips coming up in the next 13 weeks!

Fall family travel

Here’s what we’ve going on

1. First up, my son and I are headed to Sweden.  This is one of our “long distance dates” that my wife and I do to spend 1 on 1 time with each of our 6 kids each year.  Now if only I could manage to book that last night’s hotel
2. A few weeks later, my wife and one of my other son’s are heading on another long distance date up to Columbus at COSI.  Originally I had booked a Point Breaks hotel but then we had to change the date and the hotel we wanted was sold out for award stays 🙁
3. The week after that, we have 2 trips in one.  First I have my 20 year LDS mission reunion out in Salt Lake City on a Friday night.  I served a 2 year church mission in the Dominican Republic and I have not seen most of my fellow missionaries for 20 years!
4. Then I take a redeye flight in economy from Salt Lake City to Indianapolis (via Atlanta), where Carolyn will pick me up on her way to our friend’s wedding in Illinois on Saturday afternoon

5. Then in late October, I’ll be speaking at the Chicago Seminars 2017, where my talk will involve this worm I once found in a hotel pool.  Hopefully I’ll see some of you there too!
6. Next up, I just booked a trip down to Austin where I will be doing a county trip in East Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.  I realized I had only visited an embarrassing 51 new counties in 2017 – how am I ever going to visit every county in the US at this pace!  I’ll be going with my friend Brandon, the same guy I visited 3 states, and 2 countries with in 2015 and coined Roadtrip Rule #1

7. Over Thanksgiving, my daughter’s marching band is marching in the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade.  For a fee, the school offered an 8 hour ride on a bus.  Instead I’ll be flying up on a $49 Southwest flight and staying on points at the site of one of my worst hotel stays ever (The Palmer House Hilton)
8. A few weeks later, my wife is taking my daughter on HER long distance date out to visit cousins in California.  We’ll see if she can spend less than $600 for a week of travel in California

And that doesn’t count my dad coming to visit us one of the (rare) weeks that we’re home!

Aren’t miles and points fun?  Where is your next trip?

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