2018 Year In Review

What another great year it was! I feel so blessed and fortunate to be able to live this lifestyle of adventure and travel. Pat and I are continuing to enjoy the RV travel and seeing all that this great country has to offer. It has now been a year and 8 months on the road! Sure, there are some down sides such as missing the family during holiday. But, man oh man, what we have enjoyed this year! This post is to provide a recap of 2018.

Where to start? I guess let’s look at some of the highlights:

  • Time with family – we made two stops in Virginia and three to Indiana to see the kids and the moms.  Can’t top that.
  • Mother Little’s 90th birthday celebration
  • My mother’s Florida home sale and move to a retirement center in Indy
  • Our son Bryan’s wedding to Jennifer in Washington DC in October
  • More family: Spending a month in Savannah (a favorite) and a week with family (Mike and Lorna) and a week at Port Aransas with family (Tom and Ginny) (blog update coming soon)
  • Spending four locations with new RV friends Sue and Calvin
  • A week with RV friends Bob and Lois in the NY Finger Lakes region
  • Two months in Maine during the summer and Acadia National Park
  • Many other bucket list destinations

Mileage in 2018

We drove many miles from Florida at the start of the year up to northern Maine for the summer, then a slow travel pattern south to finally end up in the southern most point in Texas. The total miles driven while pulling the 5th wheel coach were 6,900. Of course, we had many other miles driven at each location to explore.

This route plan looks a little crazy, but we were able to visit family and many other locations on our list.

Our 2017 Ford F-350 diesel dually truck now has 22,500 miles on it of which 13,000 were from this year and 9,500 were last year in eight months of travel.

Other Stats

We stayed at least one night in 21 different states. The most was Florida and Maine with both about two months. We stayed at 46 different RV parks. A few just for one or two nights, but most were for a week. Again, in Florida and Maine, we stayed a month each at RV parks.

Our 2004 Ford Explorer that we used to explore (instead of driving the large truck), finally started showing too many signs of age, so we sold it and bought a new Honda CRV. We really love having that small car to zip around. Much easier than a crew cab, long bed, dually F-350. And better fuel mileage.

Wrap Up

We are currently at our winter destination in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (a new blog forthcoming). We saw and did many things this year and did it ever go by quickly. Soon, we must begin our serious planning for 2019. We know it will include New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. Just need to take a week and plan it all out.

When we started this little RV Journey, we thought we would be done seeing the 48 states in three years, but it is looking more like a 4-5 year plan at this time. We have much still to see and some places would like to return again for another visit.

In Maine, we were able to cross paths with Randy and Pam Warner of the Roadrunner Chronicles (LINK). After more than ten years of being full-time RV’ers, they are discussing a home base and getting a smaller RV. Big changes for them. I’m not sure if we will stay on the road that long, but if we continue to enjoy it, who knows.

Our travel pattern has been to travel 150-200 miles and then stay a week at a location to explore and then move on. That can become tiring after awhile, so we may slow it down a bit this coming year with more of the month long stops like we took in Savannah and in Maine.

I would like to thank everyone for following along with us. It means a lot to hear your feedback either in the comments section, on Facebook, , a phone call, or a text message. We look forward to the opportunities and blessings that 2019 will bring.

Happy New Year and God Bless

Here are a few photo highlights:

My mother’s last day in her beautiful waterfront retirement home. She sold it and moved into an Independent Living center in Indy.

What a year it was!! Happy New Year!!!

8 Replies to “2018 Year In Review”

  1. We are excited for both of you to continue your tour of the states. We look forward to connecting this summer in Colorado and who knows where else.

    Hope you enjoy the Texas winter in the valley. Be careful and keep us updated.

    Robert

  2. Lorna and I had a great time with you guys in Savannah, truly unforgettable! We also really enjoyed your visit during Thanksgiving and having an opportunity to spend some time with Bryan and Jenn during their short stay.

    Let us know when you finalize your travel plans for 2019, we hope to meet up again with you somewhere out west next year.

  3. Hey Randy and Pat, looks like another fun travel year shaping up for you guys. I see you plan to visit Arizona this year. Lots to see there for sure. Spent the month of April in the Tucson area (Green Valley) a few years back, great weather. I am spending January in Scottsdale right now. Happy New Year to you guys and happy travels for 2019.

    1. Hi Rick! Enjoy the month in Scottsdale! We have never been to Arizona as adults, so looking forward to it. We still have not finalized our 2019 travel plans, but need to get busy on it very soon. Happy New Year!

Leave a Reply