And That’s a Wrap: Our 2021 Road Trip Summary
“As long as we don’t die, this is going to be one hell of a story.” - John Green
It’s so hard the believe that we’ve been home for a month already. The best part of being home has been catching up with our family and friends and of course, being reunited with our dog! We’ve gotten lots of questions about the trip which is fine with us because we love to share our experiences! Some questions are easier to answer than others though. How many miles did we drive? Easy! How many days were we on the road? Easy! How many states did we visit? Again, easy. Did we get tired of one another in such a small space? We’ll both plead the fifth on that one. Just kidding. We really truly didn’t.
Other questions have been a lot more difficult to answer. What was our favorite place? Our favorite state? Our favorite memory? We visited so many places and did so much that it’s almost impossible to pick just one of anything but we put our heads together recently and compiled a list of our favorites, (in no particular order because we didn’t always agree 100 percent). This blog is post is intended to hopefully answer all those “favorite” questions as well as share some statistics about our trip that you might find interesting.
Our Route
Our travel route was primarily based on two things: sites we wanted to see and the weather. Charley and I first started talking about this trip in early 2018 when we each came up with a list of things we wanted to do and see. We plotted our “must do’s” out on a map and thanks to google., figured out the best time to visit each location weather-wise. From there, our route and time frame began to take shape. This process took several months to fine-tune but we’re happy with the end result. We feel lucky to have missed the tornadoes and hurricanes in the southern US and for the most part, the wildfires in the western part of the country. We enjoyed mild temperatures with little rain for most of our trip. Below are some screenshots of our route and the dates that we traveled that particular section of the country.
Travel
We put a grand total of 17,175 miles on the Excursion and about 11,424 on our travel trailer. Of the 161 days we spent on the road, 51 of them were “travel days” - traveling from one camping location to the next. Our shortest travel day was one hour (Deming NM to Lordsburg NM) and our longest was nine hours (Crescent City CA to Morgan Hill CA) but on average we drove about four hours per travel day. We knew we’d be camping in some amazing places but didn’t anticipate how incredible some of the drives would be. Below are photos of some of our most memorable travel days (most photos were taken through a dirty window).
States
We visited a total of 27 states. Except for Charley’s work trip to New Mexico several years ago, 17 were states that neither of us had ever been to before. Here’s a breakdown of the number of nights we spent in each state as well as photos of our favorite states.
California: 20 nights
Arizona & Utah: 19 nights each
Montana: 16 nights
Wyoming: 15 nights
Texas: 10 nights
Florida & New Mexico: 5 nights each
South Carolina, Oregon, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, Illinois, Michigan: 4 nights each
North Carolina, Louisiana, Nevada, Indiana, Ohio: 3 nights each
Mississippi: 2 nights
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, Washington: 1 night each
Camping
I didn’t give much thought to how many camping locations we had been to until we got home and tallied it up. We stayed at a grand total of 48 unique locations! Of our 160 nights, 89 nights were spent at private campgrounds, 32 nights in state parks, 25 nights in National Parks, 9 nights at Harvest Host locations, 4 nights “mooch docking” (parked in Charley’s aunt’s driveway), and 1 night boondocking (in the parking lot of Bass Pro Shops). Our least expensive paid camping location was at Leesburg Dam State Park in New Mexico at $10 per night and our most expensive camping location was at Colter Bay RV Park in Grand Teton National Park at $93 per night. We selected our favorite camping spots in three categories: state and National parks, private campgrounds, and Harvest Host locations.
National Parks
Coming up with a list of our favorite National Parks was really difficult. They’re National Parks for a reason. All beautiful and each one unique. We visited a total of 17 National Parks and our lengths of stay ranged from ten days to one hour. No doubt our lengths of stay affected our perceptions of each and you might be surprised that a few of the most popular ones didn’t make our favorites list.
Other National Park Service Units
In addition to the seventeen National Parks that we visited, we also enjoyed thirteen other National Park Service units - memorials, monuments, historical sites and recreation areas. These are our favorites:
Museums
Of the seventeen museums we visited, a few stood out to us as the most informative, well laid out, and tastefully done.
Tours
We also toured about fifteen other “non-museum” type locations. These are our favorites:
Hikes
Some day I might try to tally up how many miles we hiked on this trip. For now, you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was A LOT. We never experienced a bad hike but some were more spectacular than others - mostly for the views either during or at the end. These are our favorite hikes.
Activities
It wasn’t all about hiking. We also enjoyed a ton of other fun activities. Here are some of our favorites:
Food & Beverage
Vacation usually means lots of eating out. That wasn’t exactly practical on our twenty-three-week vacation so we didn’t eat out as much as you’d think. Eating out adds up quickly and making our own meals the vast majority of the time was one way we were able to keep our expenses in check. Also, if we set out to hike or explore a city, we just found it easier to already have meals prepared rather than trying to find a place to eat. Most often our travel days spanned the lunch hour but finding a restaurant to pull into with the camper in tow wasn’t easy. Pulling into a rest area, quickly eating our lunch, and getting back on the road was just a whole lot more convenient. That’s not to say we never ate out or didn’t treat ourselves.
Our Most Memorable Moments
As we’ve adjusted to being home, we’ve talked a lot about all the incredible memories made on our trip. It’s really kind of overwhelming when we stop to think about it. What made this trip extra special for us is that we had very few things go wrong - no major problems with the Excursion or the camper, we never got caught in any major traffic delays, we didn’t get sick or hurt, we had great weather the vast majority of the time and most importantly all of our loved ones that visited arrived and got back home safely. Call it luck, call it good planning - whatever it was, we’re thankful that we can look back with nothing but good thoughts. From start to finish, our trip was incredible! With that said though, we have come up with a very short list of moments that stand out for us.
Dollars and Cents
A huge part of our planning process was figuring out what a trip like this would cost. Thankfully there are lots of people out there willing to share their experiences including the financial end. Most of the YouTubers that we watched were full-time RVers, meaning they live, and often work, from their RVs. Some of those people warned that you can’t, or shouldn’t, treat a situation like theirs as a vacation. Some of them did initially and quickly learned that they were spending more money “living” than they wanted to. I think of our situation as a bit of a hybrid situation, we were technically taking an epic vacation, but also, since it was such an extended trip, we had to live within a budget to even make it possible. Also, during our research, we came to understand that a trip like ours could truly run the gamut in terms of cost. We learned that living in an RV for an extended period of time could also fit nearly any budget. You could boondock more, travel slower (saving money on fuel), stay in less touristy areas (cheaper camping), or eat-in (like we did). We had a budget to guide us but also knew that we would likely only do this once so we knew we’d splurge when we wanted to, particularly when our family was with us, and we weren’t going to beat ourselves up about going a bit over budget at times. I kept track of every penny we spent and I’d be happy to share that info with anyone that is interested (just send me an email). Since this is a website that google will let anyone find, I’m most comfortable sharing percentages here.
Campgrounds 31.58% of our budget I like to think we planned this trip perfectly but if I’m being honest, I think we made a mistake in planning our campground reservations. We had about 3/4 of all our reservations made before we left home. I was hesitant to reserve the last leg because I didn’t want to have to cancel reservations if something didn’t go as planned along the way. Because we planned the first part of the trip well ahead of time, we were able to secure a lot of state and national park spots which are generally a lot cheaper but they also fill up quickly. By the time we got to reserving campgrounds for the last leg, we were left with private campgrounds which tend to be more expensive. Our last month of camping was our most expensive.
Fuel 23.54% of our budget It’s no surprise that fuel was one of our biggest expenses. Our Excursion averaged about 11 miles per gallon (of diesel) so we definitely expected it. Fuel prices also rose steadily as we traveled. The most expensive fuel price that we saw, but thankfully didn’t need to purchase, was in Death Valley National Park (CA) at $5.50 per gallon.
Groceries 11.65% of our budget We did the vast majority of our grocery shopping at Walmart. There’s nothing worse than trying to navigate an unknown grocery store chain just to pick up a loaf of bread. Walmarts are consistent for the most part and they’re easier to find. We often stopped for groceries on travel days and Walmarts are typically easier to get in and out of with the camper. We shopped at 28 different Walmarts throughout the country.
Entertainment/Attractions 8.75% of our budget This would include museum admissions, park admissions, our dinner cruise, etc. All of our admissions to National Parks were free because we received a yearly National Park Pass as a gift which saved us over $500 in admission fees.
Restaurants 8.07% of our budget We didn’t eat out much yet we still spent almost as much on eating out as groceries. Proof that eating out is expensive! Although this category includes coffee stops, ice cream stops, and brewery/winery visits which also add up pretty quickly.
Maintenance/Repairs 7.13% of our budget This category seems pretty high but oil changes for the Excursion aren’t cheap. We also had some repairs that needed to be made on the camper - a replacement water pump, a new table base, caulk for our shower that wouldn’t stop leaking as well as other minor repairs. We’re thankful that Charley was able to do all necessary repairs and change the oil otherwise this category would be much higher.
Miscellaneous 7.00% of our budget Our catch-all for expenses that didn’t fit into our other categories. This would include things like tsirts, gifts, postage, books, car washes, haircuts, items purchased at Harvest Host locations and many other miscellaneous items.
Laundry 1.00% of our budget An expense we don’t have to think much about at home so I kept track of it separately just out of curiosity. I thought we’d have a much harder time finding laundry services than we did. Most campgrounds had washers and dryers on-site and prices ranged from $1 to $3.50 per wash/dry.
Tolls/Parking 0.80% of our budget More interesting than how much we spent on tolls and parking is where we spent the most money on tolls and parking. All of our toll expenses were incurred either in the south (Florida and Texas) or the midwest (Iowa and Indiana). We paid no tolls in the western part of the US. Parking fees were mostly incurred in big cities (New Orleans and San Fransisco in particular).
Propane 0.48% of our budget We use propane to fuel our stove, Blackstone Griddle and also to keep our refrigerator cold and heat our water when not plugged into electricity. I thought we’d have to fill our two twenty-pound tanks more often than we did but only had to do it about once a month. We found that the cost to fill our tank varied widely based on location. We paid $15 to fill both tanks in Quartzsite Arizona and $46 to fill both tanks in Colter Bay in the Grand Tetons (WY).
What’s Next?
In all honestly, we have no idea what our next move will be. Charley was only retired a few weeks before we left town so he’s enjoying being retired at home for now. One or both of us may (or may not) go back to work one day. We just don’t know. We do know that we want to do some more traveling at some point. We saw a lot in 23 weeks but we certainly didn’t see everything.
