Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Our Summer Trip

Well bless my heart - this morning I've managed to set up and get working my new Nook AND our new TV remote that uses Google Assistant. With it I can get to things I never knew we could get to. Only problem is I can't figure out how to get out of them. Well eventually I can. Hate it I have a remote that is smarter than me! I dread the day my cell phone quits working - I'll never be able to figure a new one out. 
Been tying up the loose ends from our summer trip. 
This picture is the new trip planning program I am using, not real fond of it and have to be online to use it and it eats up a lot of data. Called RVTripWizard. And it is $40 a year. If I can find anything else, I will drop it at end of my year. Cannot reload my old Streets and Trips cause Microsoft no longer supports it so I can't get the serial number uploaded and without it no activation. No way to activate it. Crap. 
So back to the trip. We were gone 59 days. And most of those days it was above 100+ in Las Vegas! Most of the trip it was somewhere in the 80's during the day. But on the other side, we did run into some pretty cool weather in northern Montana. Cool enough we had to run the furnace all night and part of the day some days.
We drove the motorhome 3609 miles, spent $1300 in gasoline. Didn't check on how many miles we put on the Jeep but I figure around 1500. Another $250 in gas.
Our campgrounds averaged out about 39 dollars a day. We stayed in 26 different campgrounds. KOA's are not cheap. A few were Passport America and several accepted Good Sam. The cheapest one we stayed at without discounts was $20 - full hookups and WiFi and really nice near Fort Laramie, WY, most expensive was $125 A NIGHT - BE SURE to make reservations if you are going to any National Park. We didn't and that was the only campground we could get near Jackson Hole. [I didn't tell Bill about that price until we were home.] I know some of you are wondering why we didn't boondock. Well it is because I am spoiled. I want electric, AC, TV, Internet and all the rest of the comforts of home. 
We visited fourteen National Parks and Monuments. Thank goodness for Golden Age Pass. Several of them we went into more than once. Also went to Monument Valley a Navajo Tribal Park. Had to pay for that one.
And along the way visited some really neat little towns and explored them. Bills favorite was Spearfish and Spearfish Canyon. Mine I think was White Sulphur Springs and all the barn quilts and history of the town. Both places had great scenery and nice campgrounds. 
Took thousands of pictures. Still sorting through a bunch of them. Blog posts yet to come.
Our second highest expense after campgrounds and fuel was eating out. I had plenty of food in freezer, even fixed more meals then I usually do when in RV. But it still averaged out to about $22 a day. Had some great food, one little restaurant in Guernsey, WY had amazing food. Some places especially National Parks had expensive and just okay food. 
And I bought several t-shirts and pins from the parks we hadn't previously visited. Also two books. One about White Sulphur Springs and one about Women Homesteaders. It is a good thing I didn't live in those eras, I wouldn't have made it. 
No repairs or work on either the RV or the car. But did have to get propane when using the heater so much.
I learned that I don't like traveling so many miles, would rather go shorter distance and spend more time there. We both found we don't like having to travel more than 120 miles a day. We both get tired and restless. 
Just one picture for each place [I think]

6 comments:

stephen said...

Stick with RV Trip Wizard for awhile. It is, imho, the only thing out there for long, multistop planning, really like how it shows avail campgrounds at the end of a days trip. Miss Streets and Strips too.

Mind sharing your milanese techinque?

Kathy Tycho said...

Nice recap on your summers journey. I agree short days are better and we only ever boondocked for a night at a time. When are you leaving for Mazatlan?

Carol and Bill said...

We'll probably leave Vegas around end of October, but kind of plan on stopping in San Carlos, Huatabampito and El Fuerte all for a few days before getting to Maz. But all depends on results of doctors findings. Hoping for the best. Bill is already freezing in Vegas ...

Carol and Bill said...

A lot of the campground info on RV wiz is outdated, lot of them no longer open. And a lot of campgrounds we passed were not listed. Did use it for walmarts, flying Js and most of the campgrounds though. sometimes it was a pain to change things. Also use of data when it is limited or weak...grrr.
Bill makes the milanese - he pounds the chicken flat then marinates in a mixture of eggs, milk, wine, parsley and I don't know what else overnight. The next day he uses Italian breadcrumbs then fries them in olive oil. I probably left something out will ask him later.

Belgique said...

That sounds great! We ordered it all over Mexico and love it. My experience with Wizard on this year's out west 6000 mile trip differed. Guess we got lucky. Thanks again! Looking forward t your MX blogs.

SandyM said...

Hope you are Bill are OK - so unusual for you to not post for so long - not that I mean or want to put pressure on you. Perhaps you just need a break after all the wonderful posts you made from your trip.