Day 44 -- Wednesday
We started our final leg today, heading home. We'll stay near I-15
tonight, then probably spend a night and a few dollars in Las
Vegas. After nearly seven weeks on the road -- very enjoyable weeks
-- it will be good to be home and it will even be good to be back
in the office. We've touched a lot of territory, a lot of memories,
and seen a lot of family and friends on our trip.
In retrospect, there are a few things we would do differently:
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We'd bring our bird, tree, and flower books with us. We've seen
many bits of nature we couldn't identify.
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I'd bring some needlework to do. There are times, when we're
traveling, that working or reading isn't satisfactory, but a
little something to do with my hands would be good.
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We'd have AAA coverage on our RV -- although just having AAA
coverage on our regular vehicles was handy when we had a tire
changed. AAA located someone for us, but our benefits would
have been better had we had our RV on our contract.
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I would check out digital internet better. We have it in the
west, as far east as Denver, but not in the east or in Canada.
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We'd bring along a good tour book for the areas we planned to
visit. We've always done that when we traveled abroad. We
fooled ourselves into thinking we didn't need one while
traveling domestically. We did purchase an almanac when we
arrived in Pennsylvania, and it helped.
There are also some things we accidentally did right:
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We brought a digital camera, a digital-analog cell phone, and a
computer.
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We packed in plastic boxes and filled spaces so that things
wouldn't slide back and forth while we were driving.
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We brought powdered milk, paper plates, canned foods, and other
nonperishable foods with us. We purchased melmac plates and
bowls on the way.
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We arranged most of our bills so that we could either pay them
over the internet or by phone, or they were automatically
deducted from our checking accounts or charged to a credit
card.
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We brought a dictionary, maps, a Rand McNally Atlas, AAA
campground books, and the Trailer Life campground book.
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We brought over-the-counter medicines, bandaids, packages of
batteries, film, bunji cords, and many of the little things you
reach for every day. We stopped and bought clothes pins and
clothes hangers.
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We brought a little electric dust buster to vacuum the carpet
and seats -- cat hair and debris from outside would have filled
up the RV without it.
For the most part, we had what we needed when we reached for it. RV
traveling is a good thing for us, and we recommend it to anyone who
loves to go. The biggest thing that can spoil RV traveling is
vehicle trouble and bad weather. Bad weather, and especially
broadside winds, can make traveling difficult. We're lucky that we
are still young enough and flexible enough to make a trip like
this, that we generally ran ahead or behind bad weather all during
the trip, and that we could afford to spend the money it takes to
take a trip like this.
RV traveling isn't cheap, but if you disregard the cost of the
vehicle, it seems to be slightly cheaper than travel by car. By the
time we are home again, we will have traveled about 6,000 miles. We
get a little more than 7 miles per gallon with the Bounder, towing
the Tracker. That's about 920 gallons of gasoline. Our campground
fees are about $20 per night, and we've stayed in campgrounds about
32 nights -- we've been able to stay free with our families about
11 nights. We roughtly estimate the cost of the trip, for gas,
lodging, and repairs has run about $2,500. You couldn't do this
kind of trip by airplane, so we would disregard that as an
alternative. In a car and paying motel bills, staying with family
the same number of nights we did in the RV (but we probably
wouldn't have done that had we been traveling by car), we figure it
would have cost us at least $500 more in travel expenses. If we
considered the cost of the vehicle and the wear and tear on that
more expensive vehicle, RV travel probably ends up being more
expensive.
In the final analysis, RV travel is a good alternative for us. We
have gone wherever we wanted to go and always had our home with us.
Our cats are with us, too, so home has truly been home. We have
thoroughly enjoyed this experience.
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