2016 – By The Numbers (That I Made Up)

As we wrap up the stupendously awesome disasterfest that was 2016, we figured we would put some of our statistics together. None of these are particularly detailed, and most are probably inaccurate, but that won’t stop me from posting them because that’s how we roll around here.

Also, these numbers are basically meaningless because we’ve only traveled for 5 months so far, and we got stuck in one location for almost 3 months on account of the vicious grizzly bear attack I suffered.

Remember: In 2016, facts were irrelevant!!

Anyway, without further ado, here are some random numbers I researched/made up.

Barney & The Xterra

Mileage added to Barney since starting full time travel: 2,008 miles

Mileage added to the Xterra since starting full time travel: 5,107 miles

Number of times we’ve filled up Barney: 15 (these were usually half tanks.)

Number of times we’ve filled up the Xterra: Countless. We don’t even leave the gas station. We drive to the end of the driveway and the Xterra is out of gas, so we just throw it in reverse and go back to the pumps.

Camping

Number of days spent living in Barney:  164

Number of campgrounds stayed at: 12

Number of times we’ve parked next to very nice, but very clueless, rock bands who were traveling the country in a converted bus:  1

Number of times one of us (me) has woken up unable to remember where we were:  3

Entertainment on the Road

Number of Hello Kitty cars we’ve come across while driving around:  1

Number of RV’s we’ve seen with serious wolf-howling-at-the-moon pizzazz!!!:   1

Number of people who’ve convinced us they are not fucking around when it comes to Christmas decorations: 4 (There were 4 houses in a row that looked like this:)

Number of people in Florida who thought to themselves: “Ya know where I should put my fireworks shop?  AT THE GAS STATION!!  Of course!  What BETTER place could there be to put a bunch of explosives than right there AT the gas pumps????”: 2

Seriously.  TWO people thought this was a good idea.  TWO!!!!!!!!!!

States Visited

Number of states where we spent at least one night camping: 9 (Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida)

Number of states where we camped, went sightseeing, or just drove through: 14 (Above, plus New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Maryland and North Carolina

Shortest visit to a state: one hour (Maine for lunch)

States we drove through but didn’t stop: 2 (Maryland and North Carolina)

Time Together

Number of days in which we’ve spent more than 3 hours away from one another since starting fulltime travel:  6

Number of arguments we’ve had since starting to spend just about every minute of every day together: 0 (What can we say? We really like each other!)

Number of minutes it takes for Kevin to get bored while I’m looking for sunglasses and start entertaining himself/annoying me by trying them on himself:  3

Number of times we’ve marveled at the fact Dixie doesn’t just murder us in our sleep for making her balance treats on her nose: 85

Disasters & Catastrophes

Number of times Barney’s gray water (sink and shower drain water) started overflowing and backing up into the house: 1

Number of times Barney’s main door got stuck, preventing us from getting out of the rig: 1

Number of times these two events happened at the same time, preventing us from stopping the flood: 1

Number of times I’ve heard Kevin string 15 swear words together in one sentence: 1

Number of unrelated plumbing, wiring, and mechanical issues that Kevin has had to trouble shoot: 1,874,928

Number of times I’ve silently given thanks for the fact that Kevin is an engineer: 1,874,928.

Social Media

Number of RVers and other full time travelers we’ve connected with in some manner over social media: About 500

Number of such RVers who are vegan: Probably 6, but it seems like 492

Number of times said vegan RVers have tried to convince people things like this tasted good:

100 billion.

Number of times I’ve refrained from posting this in response:

Every single time.

Oh I’m just kidding… We love our vegan friends very much.  Put down the steak knives. Oh wait, you don’t have any of those do you?  (HA!)

Number of times we’ve praised Youtube for helping us solve problems and making our lives easier: 150

Number of times I’ve started watching something useful on Youtube and then somehow ended up watching four hours of random clips from Cheers, cat videos, auditions from America’s Got Talent, and the highlight reel from the US/USSR gold medal hockey came from 1980: Countless.

Big Picture

Number of times we’ve questioned our sanity for doing this: I won’t even venture a guess.

Number of times we’ve decided we’re having way too much fun to even think about doing anything else: Every single time.

What Up, 2017??

So now that we’ve closed out 2016, it’s time to think about 2017.

One of our biggest priorities will be redesigning this website. When I started writing this blog, we weren’t quite sure what direction it would go, if it would go in any direction at all.  But we’ve been pleasantly surprised with its growth and the amount of traffic we’re seeing on a daily basis. (Thanks ya’ll!!) At the same time, what appealed to us when we first set it up, doesn’t necessarily work as well now. The current platform we’re using tends to make everything look dark and the layout is not conducive to finding things. Additionally, as we continue to gain experience as RVers, we feel we’ll have a lot more to contribute to the community that we’ve learned so much from.  As we work on generating more topical content, we want people to be able to find articles that might help them, and we want new visitors to be able to easily navigate the site.

So, over the last couple weeks, Kevin and I have been talking about how we could redesign the site and create content to more effectively meet these goals. As always, Kevin’s working on the technical side of things while I work on the content side of things.  We’re hopeful we’ll be able to relaunch it sometime in the next month or two. (If you go to the site and it says “ERROR 404” you’ll know why.)

In the meantime, we’ll spend the month of January slowly making our way across the Florida panhandle. Hopefully the weather will continue to be pristine, and we’ll be able to settle into a nice pace, balancing time spent outdoors, exercise (we’ve consumed an obscene amount of amazing southern food since heading south), working on this site, and just enjoying life.

We wish you all a very Happy New Year!