The Family Clan in Orlando

I need to plan an upcoming roadtrip stemming from my parents getting a house for our clan in the Orlando area.  The clan includes my folks, my siblings, my kids and my nieces and nephews. I figure since I’ll be driving to Florida for this, I should take advantage of warm weather and see where I can explore.  Based on the timing of the Orlando reservation, I think the most I could spend on the road, before needing to be back, would be up to 11 weeks.

Here are my original thoughts for the best strategy to approach this trip….

• Get an Airbnb in Raleigh for the week and work there on the way down.  This will break up the trip nicely and allow me to get most of the driving done on the weekends.  Besides MaidPro Raleigh located there, I have a few friends in the area that I have not seen in way too long. Raleigh is one of those areas in Virginia that I’ve yet to visit. It will also give me a good working location as I really enjoy working and living out of AirBnBs.  I get to experience, rather than just visit, locations.
• Then I’ll take a vacation week while at the rental in Orlando with my family.
• From there I’ll head down the east coast and stay with my Uncle and/or his daughter and family in Boca Raton for a work week.  I’ll be able to visit a handful of Florida offices from Boca.
• Go down to Miami and the keys for a week.  The Keys, especially Key West, has been on my list for a long time and I’ve never had the opportunity to get there.  This will also allow me to visit our Miami and Miami Beach offices.
• Cut across the Everglades and head up the west coast to my folks in Sarasota for a few weeks.
• During my stay in Sarasota, I’ll take a week trip and do a northeast loop to work and visit MaidPro offices including Tampa, Orlando and The Villages.  I’ll do this while based at my folks but be on the road for the week.
• Leaving Sarasota, I’ll head north and follow along the gulf coast around the panhandle to New Orleans and stay with an old friend that I have not seen in decades!  I’m really looking forward to catching up with him and revisiting the city that I lived in for about 18 months.  I haven’t been there since I left in 1993.  I’ll also visit the Baton Rouge.
• Head out to Lake Charles, up to Shreveport and across to Jackson, MS.  I think I can do that in a weekend while working that Monday in Jackson, MS.  When I lived in New Orleans, my work territory was Jackson.  I wonder how much it has changed.
• Birmingham, AL looks to be at the right distance to fit into the drive home.  I’ll take the opportunity to see as many of our Alabama offices as possible.
• Drive home through Tennessee, Virginia and maybe a stop over with cousins in NJ.

Mapped out, it looks something like this (the green pins are MaidPro locations).

I like the thought of following the full Florida coast.  This will end up being a full investigation of Florida and if possible, get to see all of the Florida offices.

I also like that I’m going to explore alot of Louisiana and follow along the length of the Texas border without actually getting into Texas.

I did consider traveling a little further out west to the Texas offices. It would add about a month in order to get to all of those offices and there isn’t enough time on this trip.

I also considered heading home north through Arkansas, up to Kansas City and through St Louis.  We have alot of offices in those areas I’d like to see.  Unfortunately, again, there isn’t enough time on this trip.  These will just have to wait for another time. Possibly when traveling to or from the river trip later next year.

We’ll see how this develops!