Reflections (7/5/2014)

Well, here I am, sitting in my “work” room back in Etowah, NC. It’s so hard to believe that the last time I was sitting at this desk was back on April 25^th! Since returning, I’ve shredded a stack of mail, waxed the top of the trailer and stowed it until the next trip, loaded up 7 bags of weeks from our butterfly garden, etc. Back when we planned out this trip, I felt that this was going to be our education on how to travel with a trailer. Boy did we learn a lot! So, how did we do?

·         Create the itinerary as we went – worked out well. Eliminated some places, and added many others.

·         Stay in State & National Campgrounds – only stayed in 1 commercial campground.

·         Keep average towed distance to 100 miles per day – 6798 miles in 62 days = 110/day

·         Expected fuel cost per day towing $25 – actual = $24.88

·         Expected fuel economy towing 11 mpg - actual = 15.5 mpg

·         Budgeted for campground fees $25/night – actual = $19

·         Enjoy each other’s company during the 10 week trip – we did great, sharing responsibilities, relaxing, taking up card games at night, deciding where to go next

·         Big bonus – spending 2 weeks in Texas with Kelly, Chuck & the 2 grandsons!

Trip surprises

·         Don’t believe “campground full” signs

·         Big difference between campers & “vacationers with tents” (This especially applied to holiday weekends)

·         Other than state & federal campgrounds there are city, county, Parish (LA for county), utility

·         Finding Laundromats & taking care of laundry was a challenge

·         Use all forms of technology available when planning on the road – Garmin Satellite GPS, iPhone Apps, DeLorme Mapping on Laptop, atlas, word of mouth, etc.

·         More campgrounds had cell service than expected

·         1 National Campground had Wi-Fi @ all sites (but no cell service)

·         How healthy a diet we could maintain with the trailer kitchen and smart shopping

·         How well we could do “off grid” (no electric hookups) as we camped ½ our nights without hookups

·         How scenic Utah & Colorado were (We could have spent a couple months at each)

So for now, the trailer is in storage. We have already made reservations for 2 weeks from now as well as for ringing in the New Year. I’ll shortly be uploading pictures and sending a link. The speed of Wi-Fi on the road was so slow, it wasn’t practical to upload onto this blog.