5000 mile trip in the US

W

World Traveler

Recycles dryer sheets
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Oct 2, 2014
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FIRE has enabled DW and I to explore our great country. Recently, almost 5,000 miles, 10 states, 4 breweries, 7 distilleries, baseball and football Hall of Fames, 2 National parks, 1 Revolution Battlefield and one Ark. One heck of a trip. We wouldn't of been able to do this if we were still working. I've traveled the world but wanted to see our country and Canada(2019 BC and AB).Boy! Did we.
 
Did you do the above in an RV? I did several long trips like that, and having the same bed every night is nice. Plus not having to look for a place to eat is also great. We ate out when we wanted to, not because we had to.

The two longest trips were 10,000-mi each. One was to the Canadian Maritimes. The other was to Alaska. Alaska was the greatest trip, because I could park anywhere off the road to spend the night.

When I bought my secondhand motorhome, it got 25K miles on the odometer. It now reads 68K, after 7 long trips, each from 1 month to 2 months.
 
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Yes, it was in a RV and it was nice for the reasons you stated.Most views you wouldn't get at a hotel. We bought our RV new because I didnt want somebody else's problems. We bought it the same year we FIRE'd in 2016. 45k and counting. Pacific NW next maybe AK.
 
World Traveler said:
Yes, it was in a RV and it was nice for the reasons you stated...
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Do you have a toad? We do, and the car comes in really handy for sightseeing, with the parked motorhome as a base. We logged quite a few additional miles on the car with each trip.
 
We have a sprinter van conversion with a slide out. We don't have a toad it takes 5 min to get on the road. It takes two car spots to park.We have electric bikes to get around. Sometimes a toad would be nice but i dont want another car sitting in the driveway.
 
Very nice. We do have some plans to see more of the USA vs. International.
 
World Traveler said:
FIRE has enabled DW and I to explore our great country. Recently, almost 5,000 miles, 10 states, 4 breweries, 7 distilleries, baseball and football Hall of Fames, 2 National parks, 1 Revolution Battlefield and one Ark. One heck of a trip. We wouldn't of been able to do this if we were still working. I've traveled the world but wanted to see our country and Canada(2019 BC and AB).Boy! Did we.
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We had a great trip like that this summer. 3500 mi. 8 states 3 natl. parks, some Hot springs,a great big Arch, an Ark, a Natural Bridge, a week visiting some very good "Old" friends and wonderful memories. We plan to do an even longer "wild west trip" next summer!! Ain't retirement great!
 
We keep a fifth wheel trailer in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and we're heading up there in a couple of hours. It's more of a second home as I don't cherish dragging it very far. It stays in our member owned campground in storage.

For long trips, we prefer to watch for low airfares on budget airlines and fly one way. Then rent a car for a week or 10 days traveling throughout a region. That way we can do numerous trips in a year's time. We recently flew to Las Vegas for $140 round trip, for example.
 
World Traveler said:
FIRE has enabled DW and I to explore our great country. Recently, almost 5,000 miles, 10 states, 4 breweries, 7 distilleries, baseball and football Hall of Fames, 2 National parks, 1 Revolution Battlefield and one Ark. One heck of a trip. We wouldn't of been able to do this if we were still working. I've traveled the world but wanted to see our country and Canada(2019 BC and AB).Boy! Did we.
Click to expand...

Awesome! Road trips around the USA is one of the things I'm really looking forward to in retirement. I always hate having to rush to get back home, or transitioning from vacation to work mode.

That said, I'm really lucky to live where I do. I've got a dozen breweries and almost two dozen wineries within 30 minutes from my house, and even more if I drive another 15-20 minutes. I'm also just a few hours away from several national parks including Olympic, North Cascades, Mount Rainier, Crater Lake, and a variety of National Monuments and Historic Sites. I'm literally less than two hours from my choice of ocean, desert, or mountain top. :)
 
World Traveler said:
We have a sprinter van conversion with a slide out. We don't have a toad it takes 5 min to get on the road. It takes two car spots to park.We have electric bikes to get around. Sometimes a toad would be nice but i dont want another car sitting in the driveway.
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I have been thinking about downsizing to a class B Sprinter motorhome. We have been very comfortable with our class C, and cannot go as small as a Roadtrek.

In fact, the reason I like a larger class B is that it can still tow a car if I want to. Our style of travel is that we park the motorhome and use the car to explore the vicinity. When near a larger town or city, we always want to visit it. Without the toad, that would require us to break camp and come back to the camping spot everyday. That's not a problem for something small like a Roadtrek, but again that's too small for us.

And speaking of class B RVs, I have never seen as many class Bs on the road as I did in Alaska.
 
We just completed a 4500 mile trip through the southwest. From Dallas through New Mexico, Arizona, and on to Vegas before returning through the same states in a different route. Interesting sites seen along the way:
- Albuquerque balloon festival
- 7 National Parks
Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Saguaro, White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains, and Big Bend
- meteor crater
- Route 66 and standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona
- Hoover Dam
- Vegas of course
- Sedona
- top of Texas (highest peak)
- Blue Origin launch facility. Less than a week after Captain Kirk was there
- Marfa lights
- Terlingua ‘culture’
- and even stopped off in Houston for our 40th high school reunion before returning to Dallas.

Was one of the best trips ever for us. Did so much hiking in the parks. Saw parts of the country we’ve never seen. Finally went to Texas’s two National parks after living here our whole lives. We played it loose and never had hotel reservations until the day of. Great fun.
 
Bamaman said:
We keep a fifth wheel trailer in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and we're heading up there in a couple of hours. It's more of a second home as I don't cherish dragging it very far. It stays in our member owned campground in storage.

For long trips, we prefer to watch for low airfares on budget airlines and fly one way. Then rent a car for a week or 10 days traveling throughout a region. That way we can do numerous trips in a year's time. We recently flew to Las Vegas for $140 round trip, for example.
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Does this mean your DW is doing better after her bout with Covid? That's good news...
 
We’ve road tripped since 2002. By car/suv/truck. Wish I had an rv.
 

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I must be cursed. We attempted a 1500 mile (one way) trip from AZ to SD in late Sept. We got to 40miles outside Tucumcari NM when the ECM on the pickup crapped out on I40 (very weak cell phone coverage there). There is no limp mode... it just shuts off. None of the repair shops in Tucumcari would touch it. It's 110ish miles E to Amarillo or 170 miles W back to ABQ.

Long story short, the nightmare and costs of getting the wife, dog, vehicle, and all our stuff towed home again has us aborting travel plans for a while.

Guess I should have answered those extended car warranty phone calls... I hear they cover everything except parts and labor.... ;)
 
Until COVID, I used to do a road trip of that length or longer at least once a year. Occasionally twice in a year. No RV, just my SUV and hotels. I've been doing that for decades and it's one of my special pleasures. I think I've explored nearly every part of this country and some parts of Canada.
 
Excellent! We are currently on a 8,000 mile 6 month trip. Also saw the Ark! Currently hanging in the Keys. Snorkeled with some sharks (and turtles) as big as me. The USA has a lot to see. We use a scooter and electric bikes as our “toad” to venture out.
 
Spock said:
I must be cursed. We attempted a 1500 mile (one way) trip from AZ to SD in late Sept. We got to 40miles outside Tucumcari NM when the ECM on the pickup crapped out on I40 (very weak cell phone coverage there). There is no limp mode... it just shuts off. None of the repair shops in Tucumcari would touch it. It's 110ish miles E to Amarillo or 170 miles W back to ABQ.

Long story short, the nightmare and costs of getting the wife, dog, vehicle, and all our stuff towed home again has us aborting travel plans for a while.

Guess I should have answered those extended car warranty phone calls... I hear they cover everything except parts and labor.... ;)
Click to expand...

Ugh, I’m sorry to hear that! Hopefully when you venture out again, all goes as planned.
 
We did a 15,000 mile trip around the US this summer. 5+ months on the road. About 20 different houses and hotels. No RV, just driving the car. The last night was in Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta. My wife and I were sitting in lawn chairs and watching the fireworks and chatting about how this was an incredible way to end our trip.

We had no plans this summer and everything just worked out. Don't know what we will do next summer.

Retirement is fantastic!
 
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