2016 Travel Map
On June 13, 2016, we took possession of our RV, Barney, from a dealership in Tupelo, Mississippi. After a couple days of learning about our new home, and learning how to safely drive it, we headed back to Virginia where we finished winding up our old life and preparing for our new one. We hit the road for real on August 3, 2016, heading up the east coast, with the intention of visiting my family and going to Acadia National Park. Our plans were derailed in Massachusetts when I broke my leg, leading to a three month encampment there. Once I was medically released, we high tailed it down the east coast to spend Christmas with Kevin’s family in St. Augustine.
2017 Travel Map
After spending the holidays in northeast Florida, we began making our way across the Florida panhandle, stopping in New Orleans, Galveston and our westernmost point, San Antonio. In order to be back in Virginia for a wedding in May, we started curling back east, stopping in Austin and Dallas. We then visited Memphis and Nashville, before stopping in Lexington on our way to the 143rd Kentucky Derby. In May we started east, stopping briefly in West Virginia, before visiting Virginia once more. After catching up with our friends, we made our way north, stopping in Vermont, before heading on to Acadia National Park in Maine. We spent most of the summer touring the Canadian Maritime Provinces, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia, before heading across upstate New York on our way to Indiana. After watching the Chicago Marathon, we made our way south through Indiana, visiting Nashville once more, and ending the year in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
2018 Travel Map
We began the year in Gulf Shores, Alabama and then started west, pausing for a brief return to New Orleans before beginning the long slow trip across Texas. We stopped in Las Cruces, New Mexico to visit White Sands National Monument and then continued on into Tucson and Lake Havasu, Arizona. As the days began to lengthen, we crossed the border into California. We visited Joshua Tree National Park before making our way to San Diego where we spent a wonderful month with friends, old and new. We then headed into the desert, visiting the Hoover Dam, Zion National Park, the town of Kanab, Bryce National Park, and Page, Arizona. Next up was Monument Valley and Mesa Verde National Park before shifting gears and heading into the mountains of Colorado. After a somewhat exhausting stay in Colorado, we headed for beautiful Idaho, where we stayed while visiting the incomparable Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. Next, we headed for Boise, Idaho and Bend, Oregon, where we met some of our fellow Xscapers. Portland had its benefits and its drawbacks, but we had nothing but love for the Oregon coast. We spent some time in the desert near Phoenix before meeting up with friends in Las Vegas. We then spent another month in San Diego before winding up the year back in Tucson.
2019 Travel Map
We spent the first six weeks of 2019 in one of our favorite haunts, Tucson, socializing with friends and checking out all the fun things to see and do in this snowbird paradise. We eventually headed north for a stay near Phoenix before continuing on up into a Sedona, Arizona, stopping at some oddball campgrounds along the way. As the temperatures began to rise, we headed east to Albuquerque, stopping along the way in Winslow, Arizona. We then headed north to visit Santa Fe, Colorado Springs and Longmont, where we continued our battles with mother nature. Next, we headed to South Dakota to visit Mount Rushmore and Badlands National Park. We then took a right and headed straight across the country to visit family on the east coast. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong, but eventually, we got to spend a month in Connecticut with family. We then revisited Vermont, before heading across New York to Niagara Falls. We spent the summer touring Michigan, Mackinac Island, the Upper Peninsula, Traverse City, and Ann Arbor. On our way south, we stopped at the beautiful and haunting Flight 93 Memorial and our old stomping grounds of Northern Virginia. Finally, we headed for North Carolina where we visited The Biltmore and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and Nashville, before reassessing our plans and taking a breather in Florida.
2020 Travel Map
We began the year skipping around the interior of Florida, enjoying several beautiful Florida State Parks, and were wowed by the incredible technological triumphs on display at the Kennedy Space Center. After heading directly across the panhandle, we had an absolute blast at Mardi Gras. Like everyone we were caught off guard by the pandemic, but, fortunately, we had decided to rent an Air BnB for a couple months in Austin, so we spent most of the lockdown in a regular house. While it was nice to be in a stable home, it was a time when we really felt the weight of being so far from friends and family. We ended up spending 3.5 months in Austin, split between the rental and our RV, before hitting the road once more for a lengthy but quick trip from Texas to Idaho. Once we got to Northern Idaho, we used our spot at beautiful Henrys Lake State Park to re-visit Yellowstone, and then headed up to Missoula for some attempts at normalcy in a Covid world. Next, we headed even further north for a month-long stay at the stunning Glacier National Park (Part I and Part II.) After Glacier, we headed due west for a two week stay at the beautiful and lightly visited North Cascades National Park, followed by a week at Mount Rainier National Park. We then headed to Portland for what we thought would be a quick visit on our way down the eastern side of the Sierras, but we got caught in the historic wildfire season that engulfed the Pacific Northwest and had to change our plans. That led us to several wonderful weeks in Bend, Oregon. While there, we visited the stunning Crater Lake. Finally, we made our way south to San Diego, where we spent the entire winter.
2021-2022 Travel Map
We started the year in San Diego, splitting our time between a beautiful, green county park, and a crowded but convenient commercial park. Before it got too warm, we visited Death Valley National Park, before doubling back toward the central coast of California. We loved our time in Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, and Paso Robles and marveled at the dramatic Pacific Coast Highway. We then made quick visits to Yosemite National Park and Sequoia National Park before heading up the scenic Route 395 on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. There, we visited the one-of-a-kind Bodie State Historic Park as well as completed one of the most scenic hikes we’ve done. Next we headed back to Southern Utah where we visited the lesser known size of Zion NP, Cedar Breaks NM, and Capitol Reef NP. We then headed east where we were pleasantly surprised by the architecture in Omaha and Des Moines and were blown away by the food, museums, and monuments in St. Louis and Kansas City. As we continued east, we stopped in Ohio and New York to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Corning Museum of Glass.
