Travel Update Sept 2019

The Fall Season is almost upon us. The nights are getting cooler while we are in Wyoming and now South Dakota. The RV parks are much quieter and not very busy as the family vacations are over and the kids are back in school. Both a good thing in my full-time RVer opinion. Today’s blog is a travel update and some other thoughts…

My blog updates have fallen a little behind due to no cell or wifi service during the last week. I’ve got updates coming about some great South Dakota locations: Spearfish, Deadwood, Sturgis, Custer, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and some crazy drives through Custer State Park. Hopefully, with a little Verizon and WiFi, a few updates will be on the way.

2019 Travel So Far

We are now in the Badlands area of South Dakota. Our total distance while traveling between locations is 3,800 miles. That is going from point A to B. Total miles driven including exploring at each location is probably three times that amount. Most of the exploring is done in the new Honda CRV. The heavy lifting is still done by the Ford F-350 dually.

The number of different RV parks is 32 since leaving the Rio Grande Valley. The average stay has been 5 days with the longest at 14 days (4 times) and the shortest at 1 day (5 times). That’s a lot a setting up and breaking down camp. But a very small inconvenience to be able to see this great country.

The states visited have been six, although Montana was just an overnight and probably should not count. They are Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota. We really got a good taste of all of these except Montana. Save that one for another year.

The average miles between locations has been 119 so far this year. Just enough to get to the next interesting community or feature. We enjoy traveling in slo-mo mode. Traveling around 150 miles and staying about a week to really be able to melt into the community. Try the local establishments and see the sights.

What’s Next?

This winter we are staying in Florida for a month in three different locations. Our first monthly location is precisely 1,900 miles from here! A long way for sure, but we are actually taking the long way around to see more sights, visit with family and friends in Indiana and Virginia, plus our annual medical appointments.

From here in central South Dakota, our pace will need to pick up some to accomplish our goals above and be at our first winter location by December 1st. More road miles between stops and fewer days at each stop.

Final Thoughts

It has been 2.5 years since I retired from my accounting career and we began this incredible full-time RV journey around our country. It is very hard to believe how fast the time has gone by. Would it have seemed as fast if I would have simply retired to work on my hobbies? Not sure.

Our initial plan was to travel for around 3-4 years and then decide on a new home base location, buy a smaller home, and then just travel south for the winter. Pat and I have been spending to time discussing this and now we may extend the full-time traveling to two more years. We’ll just have to see…

Thanks for following along! Take care and God Bless.