We’re in Santa Barbara the 17th no make that the 18th no the 16th.

Mapping out this next trip is a challenge. We leave June 15. First we decide where we want to go — up the West Coast. Then what we want to see — the beach, Big Sur, redwoods, wine country and the Oregon Coast, going on up to Washington State.

The return trip may be through Idaho and over to Wyoming to Yellowstone National Park then down through Utah. We haven’t decided that leg of the trip yet. I honestly thought there would be no campsites available in Yellowstone and checked on a lark. Dogs are allowed in the campsites but can only visit Old Faithful. They’re not allowed on the boardwalks. So we have to consider that.

First step is to choose the campgrounds and make sure that we don’t drive more than 4 to 5 hours a day, then book the campsites.

That last part is the trick. we want to reserve the campground sites for the first part of the trip, just to give us a bit of security. Weekends book up fast so we want to get the entire trip mapped out before we leave. Believe it or not every California state park on the beach is booked every weekend through mid-July.

If we have to camp dispersed — not in a designated campground — so be it.

We had to redo our route and dates 4 times, but finally we’re booked all the way up to Tillicum campground in Oregon from June 29 through July 1.

Now it’s getting the route to Washington State and see if we can manage getting to Yellowstone and home by July 15 more or less.