My next 8 week sabbatical from work starts in less then a week. I've been scrambling at work over the last few weeks getting things ready and people spun up on what they need to do while I'm out. It always seems like you can never prepare co-workers enough before going on sabbatical. I hate leaving loose ends, but I just need to cover what I can and believe the unknowns will work themselves out.
My wife and I are loading up the Golf R and hitting the road for Yellowstone National Park on May 26th. It's about 12.5 hours from Hillsboro, OR to West Yellowstone, MT so we are splitting the drive up into a couple of days, stopping in Coeur d'Alene, ID for a night.
We'll be exploring Yellowstone NP for 5 days, staying in West Yellowstone, MT for the first half, then moving north to Gardiner, MT for the second half. Unfortunately, my wife can't take 8 weeks off of work, so I'll be dropping her off in Bozeman, MT to fly back home.
After that, I don't have a detailed plan for where I'm going. The high level plan is to head down to Grand Teton National Park, wonder through northern Wyoming then eventually out to the Black Hills and Bad Lands in South Dakota. The idea is to stay off of the freeways, sticking with highways to enjoy the drive in my Golf R and explore the countryside with my camera. On the way home, I plan to stop in Helena, MT to visit family and maybe stop off in Boise, ID to visit a friend of mine from high school.
I have created a new album on my Flickr page where I'll be uploading photos during my road trip: Sabbatical #3 - U.S. Road Trip The only photo uploaded right now is one I took earlier this year of my mode of transportation, a 2016 VW Golf R. I bought her 10 years ago just before my last sabbatical in 2015. She has 292 hp, 280 lb-ft of torque, a 6-speed manual transmission, All Wheel Drive and is a blast to drive. Put her in "race mode" and the suspension tightens up, the steering is stiffer and the throttle is touchy, letting you attack corners and haul *beep* on the straightaways. Put her in "comfort" mode and the ride smooths out while everything else loosens up so that she becomes a gentle cruiser to enjoy the scenery in. On top of all this is she is a hatch back with lots of storage for your road tripping gear. In my personal opinion, she is the ultimate road tripping vehicle. Until the next time.
It's just a Golf.... R
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