25,000 kilometres, 15,000 miles ! From September 1st 2018 to April 2nd 2019. Many of those miles on smaller highways and scenic roads where we felt safe pulling a 25 foot trailer. It has always been our way to travel, we are not A to B interstate travellers like many of our fellow Snowbirds. I certainly get why they choose the express lane to get to where they need to be. Less chance of mechanical or unexpected hazards, weather challenges etc but what might you miss? If we had skipped down to Arizona or California via the Interstates we might have missed Kayak Point Wa. where we had a beautiful campground to ourselves with fall leaves and a short walk to a campground pier on the Ocean. We might have spent far less time in Oregon which we fell in love with several campgrounds by the Ocean. One of our favourite campgrounds is here, Boice Cope County Park, which offered us the opportunity to golf at Bandon Crossing, walk the wild and deserted beaches at Boice Cope and enjoy limitless stars, night after night. All for $20 a night. All these places had one thing in common, very few campers and good prices. We learned to camp for free on Government managed lands and forests, some of these places right beside the attractions we wished to visit.
While many marvel at the freedom of full time RVing, it is work. There is alot that can go wrong. We witnessed it first hand on a couple of occasions as we encountered people that left their awning out, only to have it smashed on a tree, forgot to retract their steps, almost maiming a cyclist and backing the rig into a tree (also done by yours truly !)
Regardless of our dislike for Interstates and the romantic notion of taking the road less travelled, we had to take the big highways many times as there were little or no alternatives through mountain passes or to get to places like New Mexico. We HATED taking these major highways. SO many trucks, quite phenomenal really. I guess many of these trucks originate in Mexico or California and are bringing produce up north. It is something to see. We were sometimes rocked side to side and continuously had that feeling of being sucked towards a passing truck. Anyway we began to get anxious the night before a travel day. The fun and excitement of the next adventure was overshadowed by the thought of driving some crazy road or getting caught in some crazy weather event. All that to say, our set up was no longer working for us and how we liked to camp. We found it difficult to go into the free land areas and look for a more remote campsite for fear of getting stuck and not being able to turn around. On our six month journey we realized we have the wrong setup for our camping style. Many travelers opt for a 5th wheel and they seem to have far less issues with wind or truck wind. For us though, a smaller van (class B+, class C) will suit us for our next big adventure. For now though, Imagine’Inn will do just fine to explore this beautiful province.
Hopefully some of the blog posts will provide incentive and ideas for others to follow. While we certainly didn’t nail a blueprint on how to RV, we did it our way. Thanks for following, it meant a lot to us.