Founding Member Exclusive: Early Travel Thoughts for Coddiwomple 2025

I understand that our next trip is still five months away, and we are only now entering the sweetest part of summer in Northern New England, but I am already casually planning our upcoming journey.

I will start to plan more intensely as the date approaches. Currently, I feel like I am working on a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, and I've only started on one corner.

We plan to depart sometime between Christmas and New Year's Day unless the weather in December causes unexpected problems, as it did last year.

Here's what feels certain, or nearly so:

• We will stop at Jack Kerouac's grave in Lowell, Massachusetts. It had to be skipped in December, 2023.

• It's possible we may detour west to visit Amherst, where I haven't been since my time at UMass in the late 1980s. I want to see Emily Dickinson's home and grave.

• For our first trip to Long Island, we plan to visit Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay. We will explore the trails around Teddy Roosevelt's house and grave, where dogs are allowed.

• Our last literary p…