Terrific Travel

Planning Big Years

I just got back from a quick trip to Kansas City last week.  I took my Jeep down there to see some sights, including a Disney 100 Exhibition that was going to end on Labor Day weekend.  While I was in the area, I even drove up to Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri – the inspiration for Disneyland’s ‘Main Street USA’. 

It was a great Summer roadtrip with a lot of interesting & quirky stops along the way.  It built on a dozen other trips I’ve taken over the last 2 years to all corners of the Midwest.

While I was driving the 1100+ miles on this most recent trip, I was thinking about trips for the next handful of years.   We already have some more trips planned for 2024 and an overseas trip in 2025 (European/Danube Viking Cruise).  

Beyond that, I’m starting to think about 2026 & 2028.  These are going to be HUGE years for events in America with the USA’s Semiquincentennial / 250th birthday in 2026, and the XXXIV Summer Olympic Games in 2028.   I’d like to make plans for a number of trips around these events – similar to what I just did in the Midwest.

First, I’ve been planning for the USA’s 250th birthday party for a long time already. One of my side projects has been creating / researching America’s Top 250 Historical Moments.  I’ve partnered with friends and family (over a lot of beers) to create a list of nominations.  You can find it at this LINK – or more detail on the events on Facebook @USATop250.  

In celebration of 2026, I’d like to hit some classic patriotic sites.  A trip to Washington DC to see the museums & monuments, visit to Boston or Philadelphia, and maybe some National Parks.  Ideally we’d have 2-3-4 trips during the year.  And … watch the fireworks at Walt Disney World on the Fourth of July, since our vacation place is there!

In 2028, we’re planning on going to the Summer Olympics in LA.  I love watching the Olympics and am such an Olympic nut that I have even visited Ancient Olympia in Greece.  I had planned to go to the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics the year I retired, but was scared off by the concerns about crime & cost.  I’m sure LA won’t be any cheaper, but much easier to get to and very familiar to us. 

Still, I’m going to have to learn about how to get tickets to events, a place to stay, and transportation to the various venues.  Track & Field at the Coliseum and Swimming at SoFi Stadium would be great. My parents went to the 1984 Olympics in LA and it would be fun to revisit some of their experiences – 44 years later …

I’m thinking of 2026 as an East Coast patriotic trip and LA28 as its West Coast counterpart. Four years of visiting some of America’s best known spots would be awesome. In addition to the Olympics, the West Coast year could include some National Parks and LA architecture. I know to some it is politically unpopular to be patriotic nowadays, but I’m going all in for these special two years!

🇺🇸 Will you try to organize any special trips for these two big upcoming events in the USA?

Images: MrFireStation, Pixabay, US Parks Service

9 thoughts on “Planning Big Years”

  1. Good call on Rio for safety. I used to travel there on business and safety was always a concern.

    I am skeptically hopeful about the 2028 LA Olympics bringing improvements in LA’s infrastructure. The 1984 Olympics brought big improvements in LAX. LAX used to have one flat parking lot and the first time I flew into LAX it took over an hour to get out of the parking lot. I swore I would never live in LA. The multi-structure parking structures and one level for flights out with another for arriving flights really helped traffic flow. Recently we took a family trip to Wisconsin and LAX just got a pre-pay parking at about half off. I printed my parking pass, just in case, when I drove up to the gate there was a message that greeted me by name.

    Here is where the skepticism comes in. LA currently has a Communist Social Worker Mayor, Karen Bass. I call her Communist because she spent her summers working in Cuba during the 1970s and she’s a Social Worker. She beat out successful real estate entrepreneur, Rick Caruso, who wanted to give back to LA. The improvements during the 1984 Olympics were driven by a partnership of a few smart businessmen with Peter Ueberroth being the primary face. He delivered the Olympics on budget.

    Bass has already closed part of Wilshire Boulevard, which is a major thoroughfare to create a walkway and bike path, just what LA needs to resolve congestion. She is a big fan of mass transit and walking. Currently, mass transit in LA is slow and not very safe because of the criminal homeless. Until they fix these problems, mass transit in LA will be a poor person’s conveyance. Bass has declared the LA Olympics will be car-less. She is sounding a lot like the WEF’s 15 minute cities.

    However, she may get rid of a sacred cow which is venues getting to charge outrageous parking fees. The incentive to collect huge parking fees results in many car trips to gathering places, such as the Coliseum, SoFi, The Rose Bowl and LAX itself. I actually missed a Dodger Game once because they had a ‘free’ fireworks show, which resulted in the 10 being gridlocked and a full parking lot of tailgaters who were only there to only see the fireworks. Hopefully this means satellite parking for these venues with improved mass transit from the parking to the venues, and even better inter-connecting them.

    Another area ripe for improvement are the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, where containers are offloaded from ships onto trucks. The trucks then get drayage fees to drive the containers 66 miles to Fontana, to off-load to the Union Pacific’s Intermodal Railyard. The railroad wants to load directly at the ports. The teamsters want to protect the union drayage jobs. The longshore union wants to protect their teamster brother’s jobs. Politicians want to convert the diesel trucks to EV. Taking all these trucks off LA highways will help clear congestion. One of the steps taken during the 1984 Olympics was barring trucks from entering the LA area during certain hours. Traffic was expected to be horrible, but turned out to be much better than normal.

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    1. The success of the 1984 LA games is a testament to Ueberroth’s ability to run the Olympics like a business. He unlocked a lot of value that most host committees (totalitarian or collectivist) governments don’t care about.

      The Olympics rarely lead to any improvements in civic infrastructure. Many times, it is the opposite. Since the pitch made to the games was that they were going to use all existing infrastructure, I don’t think they have anything big planned. I think they are just waiting for the new LA Clippers arena to be built.

      Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, was in Paris last night to receive the Olympic flag. They are on the clock now. I think Paris said a high standard for how the games utilize a city. I can’t imagine that California is much more socialist than Paris, so I think we should expect the best.

      I don’t have a good solution for transportation. Metro areas that just build more lanes, still never have enough lanes. Public transportation, as you say, ends up being a conveyance for the poor that have to put up with crime. The only city and the United States I have seen do a good job with this is Washington DC and their metro service. It is one of the few places in the US. You can fly to and not need a car … (other than Disney World!).

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      1. Disney World was the result of Walt Disney’s vision.

        NYC was okay from Rudy Giuliani’s time in office until it was allowed to revert back to the 1970s because of their past two mayor’s administration and their Soros’ DA.

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  2. One other thought for you being a big Walt Disney fan. He was a visionary, and he wanted to clear LA traffic by building monorails down the center of LA’s freeways. We need more of his type of thinking.

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    1. Yes – I think he even wanted to meet with the mayor of Los Angeles, who wouldn’t take him seriously. I’m not sure if that’s the transportation solution we need, or not. I can tell you that Disney World seems to have no interest in building more monorails at this point. They are investing only in buses, boats, and their new Skyliner, which works very well. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/skyliner/

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      1. If you look at a political map of France, there is Paris and then everywhere else. Paris is a hotbed of Socialism. Everywhere else was for Rassemblement National.

        Not meeting with Walt Disney was LA Metro’s loss and Florida’s gain. Think about how much harder it was putting Disney World in Florida, than expanding in California? They had to drain swamps, build to withstand large amounts of rain and hurricanes, and keep the mosquitos away.

        https://themouselets.com/how-disney-world-controls-mosquitoes

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      2. I don’t notice any mosquitoes in nearby Celebration, either. I’ve been in that Gen. Joe Potter boat many times!

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  3. Don’t forget that while in Congress, Karen Bass was given a full ride scholarship for a Masters in Social Work from USC. How on earth does a member of Congress qualify as a person in financial assistance?

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