Bucket List Check Mark

[JABURKHOLDER]

Third try posting this.

We started our RV lifestyle 21 years ago. We had no specific plans or specific destinations in mind, just enjoy the adventure. I knew I eventually wanted to travel the 48 contiguous states. We dipped our toes in with a 2003 Layton 25' TT. After just 2 trips, we determined that RV was too small for our needs. We stepped up to a 2005 Flagstaff 30' 5th wheel. We kept that RV for 10 years and made 19 trips. In 2015, we moved up to our current RV, a 2016 Montana 3791RD 41'6" 5th wheel. Notice we kept creeping up in size. Can you call adding 5' then 11'6" creeping up? Anyway, up to this point, our trips mostly consisted of single destination trips. An example would be; we live in Ohio and would travel to Las Vegas. Drive all day, overnight at a Flying J, drive all the next day, overnight in another Flying J, then arrive in Vegas for 5 days then repeat trip home. I was still working at the time and had limited vacation time.

In 2015 I retired a second time and started looking at more trips. Sadly, my mother passed away that same year and I spent several months sorting out her affairs. We spent the rest of that year and the next just taking small trips. Then things changed.

In 2017 I got off my butt and started planning my goal of touring the states in an RV. We went big that year, 27 states in 75 days. Quite a daunting task since all previous trips were 10 days or less. It took months to plan but was well worth it. That trip has been the most memorable in all our years of RVing. I even planned around meeting up with a buddy from the Navy whom I hadn't seen since I retired from the Navy in 1994 and arranged to be in Smyrna, TN to see totality of the eclipse. The RV park provided free burgers and dogs and Sunkist soda and Moon Pies. (nice symbolism)

In 2018 we embarked on 2 trips totaling 89 days. One trip even included a Western Regional Montana Rally in Heber City, UT.

And so the trips continued till now. Later this summer we will complete our RV tour of the states by taking a 39 day, 12 state trip through New England. We will have seen many, many wonderous things. Numerous National Parks, rodeos, state fairs, drove across the Golden State Bridge, museums, military bases, seen the Navy Blue Angels preform at their home base, the Great Salt Lake, the high desert of Utah, (so friggin hot), dinosaur fossils, all 3 coasts, the list goes on and on and on.

Now you might be asking yourself why it took 7 years to tour the contiguous United States ? Life happens. One trip, we got caught in hurricane Florenece and had to cancel/re-route portions of that trip. Next, our oldest granddaughter got injured in the Army. She was a Combat Medic. After a period of recovery, she was medically discharge with a 100% VA rated disability. Then came THE PANDEMIC ! Then the DW got a cancer diagnosis, so there was chemo then radiation therapy. After that, my DW's sister's husband (long winded way to say brother-in-law) passed away. I actually knew him from the Navy before they got married. In 2022, we made no trips whatsoever. Like I said, life.

Some interesting (at least to me) stats about our journey across the states;

Total days ... 343
Total RV parks ... 130
Total RV miles ... 41,399
Total costs ... approx $32,529 (that's RV parks, fuel, meals, entertainment, etc.
Average daily cost ... approx $95


Camp with the Montana in each of the 48 contiguous states ... CHECK

We may downsize after this and just do small trips in the future.
Thanks for listening.

yeah, after three tries, this finally posted

[MandK]

Third time was the charm….Thanks for posting. I doubt we will make all the continental states in our RV, that’s a great accomplishment, but we’re working on beating a pretty good trail between Western NY and Florida every winter. We are also boaters (we have completed The Great Loop) so we spend our summers floating around the Great Lakes, which cuts into RV destination dreams, at least until I decide I’m getting too tired to take care of a 5er and a boat.

[mlh]

Looks like you are enjoying your life. Congratulations lots of people don’t.
Lynwood

[twindman]

Good job! I had a similar goal - see all National Parks you can drive to - the original definition of national park. I think there were around 49-51 total, but 6 in AK, 1 or 1 in Hawaii, and 1 off the coast of Ca that you can't drive to.

I haven't been in RI nor camped in Ma, but I think I have camped in the others.
To AK twice, camped at the RV park at the Naval Air Base(??) in Chicago. That was, ahem, interesting - getting awakened by the morning reveille ( I am a late sleeper!)
Yes, Utah is REALLY hot - even in the fall. We hit the parks in October and I think it was still near 100.
Oh, I wasn't as ambitious as you - it took me 17 years but spent around 80-90 days a year and usually hit maybe 10-15, and sometimes 20 states at a trip.

[Mikendebbie]

Jerry - $95/day is good information.
Do you have a recap of any breakdowns or issues experienced from tow vehicle or the RV?

[JABURKHOLDER]

Originally Posted by Mikendebbie

Jerry - $95/day is good information.
Do you have a recap of any breakdowns or issues experienced from tow vehicle or the RV?

Not much to report.
2017, passenger side den slide motor failed.
2018, driver side den slide motor failed.
2019, bedroom slide motor failed.
All repaired under extended warranty.
Weird that all the electric slides failed but the 2 hydraulic slides worked flawlessly.
2021, cracked rim on truck.
Other minor issues occurred but were easily fixed by myself.
We also survived an earthquake and a hurricane in the RV with no issues.
The only “mod” I did prior to embarking on those journeys was to replace the tires with the Goodyear G614’s

[1wayhighway]

Thanks for being patient with the technology. Love the story. Thanks for sharing, hopefully we will get to all 48 one day.

[JABURKHOLDER]

An addendum to my original post:

The next coolest thing to the actual travel around the country is seeing the same things on tv.
The Smithsonian Channel has a series called “Aerial America”. I would be watching and saying “I’ve been there, I’ve seen that, I have a picture of that.”
Kinda neat.

[ACKLM8]

The "27 states in 75 days" grabbed my attention. During our first RV "circumnavigation" of the country we camped in 21 states (and 1 Canadian province) but it took us 300 days. And when we were done with that circuit we concluded that we still weren't spending enough time at our various destinations!

[Mark7]

Great story! Thank you for your persistence!

[Foldbak]

Wow sounds like a concert tour I did back in the 80's

[JABURKHOLDER]

Finally finished our tour of the 48 contiguous United States.

It took 7 dedicated trips, starting in 2017, to complete. The just completed New England trip was by far the most expensive, per day avg, trip to date. I don’t know if it’s inflation or just the fact that everything in New England costs more.

Now that I’m back home for a while, with too much time on my hands, I calculated out numbers related to our tour of the U.S.

RV miles - 29,679.9
Truck miles - 39,880.0
Fuel used - 3,968.7 gallons
Fuel cost - $11,447.58
Campground cost - $12,864.36
Total days - 347
Toll cost - $547.25

Add in food, entertainment, etc., total cost comes to $38,974.30.

Sounds like a lot and it is, but for a daily basis it’s only $112.32/day.

WOW ! I have way too much time on my hands.

[Mikendebbie]

This is good info! Thanks for putting pen to paper.
The $112/day seems to be a number close to my calculations.

Your campground average per day is $37.09. Might be tough for me to make that goal. Not being a vet - I can't stay in the military campgrounds. Since you have too much time on your hands - How many of those nights were at a military campground? How many state parks? Any KOAs or "high-retail" places?

[mlh]

Wow sounds like wonderful trips.
Lynwood

[dannyrver]

We are going to the National Rally and after that will visit our last three states..Minnesota, North Dakota and Nebraska..The funny thing is we both retired from airline jobs but prefer our RV travels..

[JABURKHOLDER]

Originally Posted by Mikendebbie

This is good info! Thanks for putting pen to paper.
The $112/day seems to be a number close to my calculations.

Your campground average per day is $37.09. Might be tough for me to make that goal. Not being a vet - I can't stay in the military campgrounds. Since you have too much time on your hands - How many of those nights were at a military campground? How many state parks? Any KOAs or "high-retail" places?

Me answering these questions proves I am anal retentive with WAY too much free time. Here goes:

23 military campgrounds for 79 nights. $20 - $48/night. One exception Fort Jackson, Hopkins, SC at $97.50/night. Didn’t matter, I was there for my granddaughters graduation from Army basic training.

No state parks

11 KOA for 33 nights. Most I ever spent for a campground anywhere was $163/night at Lebanon/Cincinnati KOA in 2019.

Others:
19 Coast to Coast campgrounds for 58 nights. Mostly free except for cable and maybe $5/night for 50 amp.

2 Thousand Trails campgrounds for 4 nights. Free, but hands down, the worst campgrounds I’ve ever been in.

Notable campgrounds:
Deer Creek Valley RV Park, Topeka, KS
Grand Casino Hinckley RV Resort, Hinckley, MN
Shenandoah Crossing Resort, Gordonsville, VA (best campground I’ve ever been in and it was a Coast to Coast and free)
Mountain Valley RV Resort, Heber City, UT
Roadrunner RV Park, Oklahoma City, OK
America’s Best Campground, Branson, MO
Oasis RV Resort, Amarillo, TX
Windemere Cove RV Resort, Langston, AL

I try to avoid campgrounds that exceed $100/night. However, I have about 7 exceptions.

[BB_TX]

Awesome! I am envious. We had high hopes of lots of travel (not quite the full 48) when we bought ours but were never able to pull it off.

That is a lot of money, but scattered over 6 years it’s not so bad. Time to start over again? Or at least hit all your favorites again?

[JABURKHOLDER]

[QUOTE=BB_TX;1280394 Time to start over again? Or at least hit all your favorites again?[/QUOTE]

I thinking of trying to hit every state fair. That could take YEARS since they all occur around the same time of year. Don’t know if it’s even doable at this age of my life.
So far I have Ohio State Fair, California State Fair and the State Fair of Texas. I’ve even been to the Hawaii State Fair when I lived there.

[twindman]

I just calculated my costs! YIKES. Pretty much take JABURKHOLDER times 4! I traveled for 17 years, and 4 times the days and miles. It was worth it, but after the last 3 years of stock market performance, I am getting a little worried about the rest of my expenses until the end!! LOL

[JABURKHOLDER]

Originally Posted by twindman

I just calculated my costs! YIKES. Pretty much take JABURKHOLDER times 4! I traveled for 17 years, and 4 times the days and miles. It was worth it, but after the last 3 years of stock market performance, I am getting a little worried about the rest of my expenses until the end!! LOL

I hear ya.
I know my expenses are more than I posted. I did not keep track from 2003 thru 2016. I only kept track of my dedicated tour of the U.S. starting in 2017. I estimate $100,000 since 2003. Not a contest I want to win. Add in the RV purchases (3 so far), tow vehicles (3 so far), insurance, service plan, maintenance, etc., the mind boggles. How did I come up with all that money.
Like you said, worth it.