Future Travels: National Parks

In yesterday's post about our future travels, I mentioned that National Parks will play a big role in where Steve and I go in the near future. Steve would like to visit all of the National Parks someday (with the possible exception of the ones that are only accessible by tiny plane) so I will do what I can to help him achieve that. Step 1 is making a stand-alone list of which parks Steve has visited and which are still on the to-do list.  

The last time I charted which National Parks we'd visited, I used a single list (by Earthrekkers) highlighted with four different colors to represent the parks Steve, Trevor, and I had visited together, the ones Steve and Trevor had visited without me, the ones Steve had visited without either of us, and the ones I had visited without either of them. This time, I'm simplifying and made three separate lists. I gave Trevor his, which he can choose to update or not if/when he visits more National Parks. 

This is Steve's. He has been to 24 of the 63 National Parks.  

This is my list. I've been to 16 of the 63 National Parks. 

I've enjoyed all of the National Parks I've visited and look forward to exploring more of them with Steve. That said, I will not be visiting any that are only accessible by sea plane or that have no services within the park. He is more than welcome to visit them without me, but I have agoraphobia: I experience extreme anxiety (and panic attacks) if I'm somewhere where help is not immediately available. As much as I hate long car drives, I've had Steve take a longer route to avoid deserted roads in the middle of nowhere, where I'm afraid the car would break down, there'd be no cell service, and nobody would drive by to help us. I cannot go somewhere that I have to pack in potable water, food, and everything else I would need for any situation that could come up. Even thinking about that makes me upset. I'm willing to travel by boat to island Parks, but only if seasickness is not going to be an issue. When I was a teenager, I spent the entire time I was on a whale watching trip to the Farallons vomiting. I was trapped on that boat for hours, miserable, with no way to escape. Never again. 

Even with those restrictions, there are plenty of National Parks for me to explore. In fact, I'm working on putting together a springtime trip that will include several Parks neither of us have visited. I'm looking forward to seeing more of our beautiful country.