I guess that my wife and I will be bucking the "stay close to home" trend. We will be taking a road trip from Tucson, Arizona to Glencoe, Ontario, Canada to visit my wife's sister in July. The last time we made this trip, we took the scenic route, logging some 8,500 + miles. Our return route included stops at Gettysburg, the Assateague National Seashore, Chesapeake Bay, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Memphis, among others.

This time, we'll just be heading there and back by a more or less direct route. When we take our road trips, we like to avoid the interstates and stick to the back roads. We really enjoy visiting all the small villages and towns that are the backbone of America.

Whenever we see a sign for a local landmark or attraction that catches our fancy, we make a detour for a visit. There are a ton of tremendously beautiful and/or interesting places in this country that are virtually unknown except to the locals.

Factoring in side trips, I expect the drive will end up at less than 5,000 miles this time around. With the price of gas topping $4.00 a gallon, we could have flown a lot cheaper, but we would not have seen as much.

Unfortunately, the only National Park remotely close to our route is Point Pelee National Park in Ontario. It is supposed to be an excellent location for birders (which I am not), but I would guess that there is not much doing there in July. I plan on spending a day there anyway.

If I had had any sense, I would have scheduled this trip for the fall, when the leaves change colors. As it was, I picked July so I could sneak off to the big Antique Radio Show and Swap Meet in Lansing, Michigan while we are there.

We'll probably take the pop-up out for a month or so in September (after all the kids go back to school) and do a big Northern Arizona/Southern Utah loop again.

Jim