3. Plan the Trip!!!

These stops came from my time as a student, then later instructor at the U.S. Air Force Weapons School. As an instructor in that hyper-competitive community, the third part of the Weapons Officer credo of Humble, Approachable, Credible, continuously came into play. I pushed daily as I continued my development along that path to retain and improve my credibility along the way.

The next level of training came as I went through the US Army’s Command and General Staff College, where I learned not only how the US Army plans operations at various levels, but also how to how to integrate those and run joint operations. I next got to exercise the combined package of these lessons over the next couple years as an action officer for US Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa.

All of this is really just a long way of saying I learned how to plan over time. Now this affliction shapes how I conduct my life overall – pushing everything I do into a strategic sense of figuring out what my desired end state is for whatever that thing is.

Our family’s entry into the RV world was no different!

My family and I decided that our overall goal as part of our travels, and how we were going to live our life in the pursuit of happiness ahead was all about Faith, Family, and Fun.

I quickly learned however, that Faith-Family-Fun wasn’t executable as we transitioned out of one phase of life into another…at without some type of framework in place…which came back to my planning overall.

We went with the assumption that fun and time with family and supporting faith ultimately is enabled by the level of planning we put into it.

One way I learned in the aviation world to support that planning was to have a thorough checklist.

One checklist that we developed over our learning time (still happening…) was our pre-departure planning checklist. This is something we would run in the days or week ahead of an impending departure to make sure that we were fully prepared for the journey ahead of us. This pre-trip planning supported reaching and maintaining Faith-Family-Fun because we had thought critically through the trip before we went…preparing us for possibilities, emergencies, and fun along the way…This became a way to get us on the same page, reduce stress, and set us up for success as a family!!!

I’ve included some of those items below. Use them as a point of departure for your travels and as a way to support getting after that fun with minimal distractions along the way.

Happy Trails!!!