Well, it’s official! We’ve made it 100 days living in our travel trailer.
We left with 3 people, we still have 3 people, and they all happen to be the same people! I know, I’m as amazed as you are! I’ll be honest, it hasn’t always been easy. It’s taken a lot more work to get along in this little house than it was back in Maine. But we’ve all worked on our communication, and we are still going strong. (mostly, lol)
We left with 4 dogs, and unfortunately, they are all still with us… just kidding. They are all still with us and we love them all. I don’t think I could choose one to give up, even temporarily, but man… 4 dogs in a tiny house. It’s a lot. Would I leave again with 4 dogs? I kinda don’t think so. But it’s what we’ve got, and we love them all.
We left Maine at -9 degrees and we’ve seen the temperature get up to 104 degrees so far (that’s a gain of 113 degrees!)
We have driven through 19 states. We have stayed at least one night in 9 of those states, and camped in 22 individual, unique, and amazing places.
Top 3 camping spots...
Dog Canyon BLM, New Mexico
Padre National Seashore, Texas
Ashley Campground, Florida
Best Sunrise: Padre Island National Seashore, Texas
Best Sunset: Dog Canyon, New Mexico
Top Family Outing: Buffalo River Kayaking trip, Arkansas
We spent our days...
29 days “pre-COVID”,
14 days of social distancing,
40 days in quarantine,
17 days and counting of social distancing (current status).
We've spent our nights…
60 nights using our Thousand Trails membership … Paid in advance
23 nights spent Bookdocking … Free
10 nights spent at National Parks … 6 Free, 4 Paid
7 nights spent Wallydocking (Walmart) … Free
5 Nights using our Good Sam membership … Paid
*AND* 1 night at a Cabelas … Paid
Remember I was trying to stay free for as long as we could? Here’s our stats at day 100:
31 nights have been completely free
69 nights paid (some upfront, some as we went)
And if you add everything up and average it over the 100 nights… we’ve spent $12.15 per night to camp
We’ve driven approximately 6500 miles.
We’ve used approximately 725 gallons of premium gas.
We stopped tracking gas costs a long time ago, it just got way too depressing.
I have personally had 4 close encounters:
2 with scorpions (remember the giant mound this week? I'm still having nightmares about it, by the way…),
1 with fire ants (another just mound), and
1 with a (teeny tiny) snake
Everyone else has remained safe.
Most popular question we are asked…When are we coming back?
Well, if you look at the COVID map, the Northeast is so concentrated with sickness. Where we are on the map just isn’t as sick. We aren’t coming home until that map improves. We can't risk driving through the hot zone. On another note - we haven't finished out tour yet anyway!
We are so sorry to hear about the losses we’ve had this week due to COVID or otherwise:
Baldwin “Dom” Domingo, always a friendly face at Garrison School and the Junior High
Fran Hopkins, lifelong friend of Jean Katsonis and the Katsonis family, who will be so sorely missed.
And Steve Hodgson, husband of our elementary school music teacher, Sue. If you've ever watched a recording or the Minitones or another school musical - he was the man behind the camera.
May all of these souls be welcomed into the arms of God.
Well guys, that's the re-cap. Today is another moving day, so I'm going to sign off and get packing.
Happy Memorial Day (although I don't think that is the point of the day... Somber maybe?)
Thank you to all those who have served to protect these United States.