End of Year 1 On the Road in the Bachelor Roadhouse

·      10,600 miles

·      44 RV parks (+2 side yards)

·      20 states

·      4 new truck tires

·      2 coffee makers

We set out on our adventure on October 1, 2015, from Hubbard Lake in Northern Michigan, hoping we knew what we were doing.  We’ve been from the UP of Michigan, down to Disney World in Florida, and Galveston Island, Texas; from the Outer Banks on the east coast, to the Grand Canyon in the west.  We’ve enjoyed lots of beach walking and shell collecting, visited many National Parks and Monuments, climbed rock arches in New Mexico, and golfed all we wanted at a park in Georgia.  We attended President Carter’s Sunday School class in Plains, and walked the path of the Wright Brothers’ first flight.  We barely slept in Louisiana, taking in all the Cajun and Zydeco music and awesome food.  We’ve walked through cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde, and stood inches from petroglyphs and Pueblo dwellings more than 700 years old in New Mexico, and have seen some amazing sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico.

We’ve learned so much about the history of our country, and have seen some amazing geography.  I’ve found myself speechless while walking on the Field of Dreams, and nearly brought to tears at Kitty Hawk and the Grand Canyon.  I sat alone at the clubhouse at a park in Georgia and bawled and yelled as my Royals won their first World Series in 30 years, and wondered how anybody else could be sleeping!

We’ve stayed at some really nice RV parks, a couple that were slightly sketchy, and everything in between.  We’ve been able to visit family, and go back north to see our Michigan friends that we miss a lot.  We’ve mostly had highs… Saw one boy get married, another buy his first house and helped him paint the inside, and got to find out about a new grandbaby on the way with the third boy.  We did have to bury my old dog, Hank, my friend for nearly 15 years, but thankfully we were visiting one of our boys at the time, and were able to bury him in the yard there.

Our 46 different “parking places” have included 34 stops of less than a week, 8 places for 1-2 weeks, and 6 places where we stayed a month.  One thing we’ve learned is that we don’t like to travel day after day after day to get from one destination to the next, so we’ve started building in at least 2-night stops when we can.  We also don’t like to drive more than 4 hours per day.  Sometimes that’s been impossible to stick to, but the majority of the time we hit that mark.

Something that still hasn’t happened:  I haven’t done any of the driving while pulling our fifth wheel.  This is something that is going to have to change.  I read a story on one of the RV pages I follow, from a woman whose husband had to have surgery, and he couldn’t drive to get them back home, and she was kind of stuck, unless they hired someone.  I need to get over my fear and just do it!

There’s still so much to see and do out there!  I think we’re in it for at least another year!