One Year on the Road

One year ago today, Deb, Pancho and Lefty, and I took off on our tour of the United States and Canada. Over the past year, we have visited 26 states and 5 provinces. With a little luck, we will add ten more states by November. We have seen places we have always wanted to see, and places we never knew we wanted to see. Tip – The U.S. Parks Interagency Pass is an outstanding bargain.

When we started talking about doing this trip, Deb continued to ask if I really wanted to do this. She never really believed me when I said yes. I grew up watching Charles Kuralt’s "On the Road” segments on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Those stories captured my imagination, and have lived in the back of my mind since then. Such a dream seemed irresponsible I finally get to do it. Thank you Deb for wanting to do it and for taking the leap.

This trip has truly been a grand adventure. Deb and I have become closer. Pancho and Lefty seem to like the smaller space. We continue to evolve our travel style – trying to find the right pace. We’re committed to roaming for at least another year.

Thanks for letting me share these thoughts and post about our stops. To paraphrase Charles Kuralt - We’ll see you out here, on the road.

Our Next Three Stops

For the past two weeks, I have tried and failed to find a RV site near Savannah, Georgia. Parks in the area have been booked for months by people streaming into Savannah for St. Patrick’s Day. Until this year, I did not know St. Patrick’s Day was so big there. I am disappointed. However, Savannah is definitely on our radar the next time we travel through the Southeast. Thanks for your feedback.

Tomorrow, we will be heading to Asheville, North Carolina. We have many friends there and hope to see some of them. On Monday, we drive to Atlanta for a week. Deb will be fly to Hartford for two days for work. After that, we think we will be heading to Nashville. Any suggestions of things to do in the three cities will be appreciated. See you on the road.

How Are The Places Where We Have Camped

A friend asked “Question: How are the majority of the places you stay on these travels? Are many of the parks nice?”

Depends on what you mean by nice. RV parks range from primitive to luxe. We have found we don’t need to stay at the top of the line parks as we don’t need or use the high end amenities, like golf courses and spas. Our needs are pretty basic - reliable 50A power, water, sewage and a level site, preferably at least 20 feet wide.

We have hated only one park we stayed in, and that was because it had way too many rules, like prohibiting walking pets within the park’s confines and no parking on the street from 11 pm to 7 am. If we wanted a restrictive lifestyle we would have moved to a retirement community.

The primitive parks have their advantages – rustic environment, quiet, lots of space – but don’t have sewage. That means either using their facilities, which often aren’t the cleanest, or using the sewage dump. Depending on how often I used the shared facilities (Deb won’t go there unless absolutely necessary) we have to dump every two or three days. We don’t have a portable waste tank, so we don’t often stay in the more rustic parks. We are considering buying one because we have enjoyed our stays in the parks that don’t offer sewage and it would give us more flexibility in choosing a place to camp.

As for safety, I have never felt unsafe in any of the parks we have stayed. Some may not have been in the best part of town, but most are fenced in and have controlled access. We try not to stay in the parks that have a reputation for having a large number of permanent tenants who do not take care of their property or for not being well maintained. We rely on online resources and apps like Good Sam Club, RV Park Reviews, and RVParky to research locations.

To summarize, most of the place at which we have camped have been clean and have met our needs, so I would say they have been pretty nice. We would return to most of the places at which we have camped.

Thank you to the 60 people who voted in our survey of where to visit next. Overwhelmingly, you told us to visit Charleston and Savannah. You can see the results here (Where to Stay Next Survey) Based on your input, our itinerary for the next three weeks is as follows:

  3/7 - 3/11 - Saint Augustine, Florida
3/11 - 3/16 - Charleston, South Carolina
3/16 - 3/22 - Savannah, Georgia
3/22 - 3/29 - Atlanta, Georgia

We expect to tour around the southeast through the end of April then begin the trek back to Houston and Kerrville for the Kerrville Folk Festival.