Traveling to 45 states with Paso Robles and Mountain Lioness and ten states with Rascal over the last 8 years was a wonderful adventure. The only states we have not traveled to together are North Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, Alaska, and Hawaii. I’ve been to Missouri and Alaska, so I am only missing North Dakota, Nebraska, and Hawaii.
Driving over 48,000 miles, we were on the road for over 7300 days. About 150 of those days were in the Winnebago View Class C, with another 580 days in the Tiffin Phaeton Class A. I can remember each and every place we stayed.
Many of the states we traveled through more than once. We took three multi-month trips out west, and four up north. The average trip duration was between 90 and 120 days.
When we started this lifestyle, we traveled without a plan. I didn’t know where we were going. I only knew a general direction, west or north, then east or south. I didn’t even know which states we were going through. At night I would check the next day’s weather forecast to see where the weather was best.
Next, I would go to Google maps and see where 200 miles would take us. Then I would try making a reservation. Sometimes I would stay in a place for the night. If I liked the location, I would try to extend the stay. Sometimes I would make reservations for several nights, and if I didn’t like the campground, I would just leave.
I reached a point where I wouldn’t even try to figure out the plan for the next day until waking up in the morning. The decision to stay or leave was made the following morning. During these travels is when I finally learned how to live in the moment. This was true freedom.
The first long trip we took was in 2016. The Winnebago View Class C we first traveled in was christened the Sunwapta. We drove the Sunwapta up to my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then to my alma mater, Grove City College. I had not been back to Grove City for almost 40 years. We went through Georgia, South Carolina, and to our first destination in North Carolina. We stayed near the southern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway at the Moonshine Creek Campground.
Then we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway over several days. I lost track of time and forgot that Memorial Day weekend was approaching. There were no campgrounds to be found over the holiday weekend. I found a state park on the Blue Ridge Parkway where they let me park on one of the roads in the park. That was my first experience boondocking. Then we continued on the Blue Ridge Parkway until we exited the parkway at Boone. We drove over to Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and into Pennsylvania.
On the way home, we drove on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, America’s first superhighway built in 1940. We headed south through Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and back into Florida.
On the first trip out west, we traveled through northwest Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, to Shreveport, Louisiana. Then we drove by the south side of Dallas to Abilene. I always thought driving through Texas would be a vast endless expanse that would take a week. Crossing Texas in two days surprised me.
From Abilene, we drove north through the Permian Basin oil fields to Roswell, New Mexico. Next, we went to Albuquerque, then through Sedona to Prescott and Payson, located just north of Phoenix. While in Payson I met a dear friend I had not seen in 30 years. We had been good friends in our early 20s. One of the enjoyable aspects of traveling around the country is getting the chance to gather with friends from long ago who have scattered across America.
After leaving Payson we drove north to the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon has to be seen with one’s own eyes to comprehend the enormous volume, depth, and space of the canyon. We continued the canyon tour by going to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. Driving between the Grand Canyon and Arches felt like we were in a national park.
We resumed our journey north in Utah to Heber City, located near Park City and Salt Lake City. The temperatures plummeted into the 20s, and we spent several days there waiting out a snowstorm.
We continued north into Idaho and eastern Washington, before turning east towards Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. I became homesick in this town and decided to start making my way home. I was 4000 miles from home. We continued east to Missoula. I wanted to go home, but knew that Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park were so close by. So I decided to go there, and I am glad I did. We stayed in Jackson, Wyoming, until Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park opened four days later. We were there around the third week of May, and they were still clearing snow off of the roads. I could not understand why the parks were not open yet until I saw this scene while driving from Grand Teton National Park into Yellowstone National Park a few days later.
On the way home in Salina, Kansas, we had several tornadoes pass two miles to the west and east of us. All the campers huddled in the only structure on the campground, the bathrooms. Straight line 70mph winds howled for an hour.
Everyone’s cell phones were beeping incessantly with tornado warnings. We could see the red triangles indicating the path of the tornadoes on our weather apps. The red triangles were very close to us, but we could see the red triangles of death were to either side of us. We were all terrified. Every few minutes someone would open the bathroom door and we would peer out. Rain was going sideways. After an excruciatingly long hour, the storm passed.
I walked through water four inches deep that flooded the entire grounds all the way back to the RV. The ironic part was that the campground had a Wizard of Oz theme. The streets all were named after places in the Wizard of Oz. There was even a Tin Man Statue. I never did write a post about that experience. The tornadoes traumatized me too much to relive the storm by writing about it.
In 2018 we drove up to the rugged coast of Maine on the maiden voyage of the Mountain Lioness, a 42 foot, 38,000 pound, Tiffin Phaeton 40 IH motorcoach. We went through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Then we went up through New York, across Vermont and New Hampshire to Maine.
This trip was my first time driving the huge tour bus. The driving was stressful. I was not very good at driving the giant machine. Driving the smaller Class C RV helped prepare me for the larger coach. Still, I had several mishaps on this trip with the huge motorcoach. I see motorhomes at the same storage facility where I keep mine that are in perfect shape. I also have never seen those motorhomes leave the storage facility. If you drive around enough, you will eventually bump into something. That is part of the deal.
On the way home, we came through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania. These states had the worst roads I’ve driven on along with Louisiana. Of course, those northern states are the ones that charge you to drive on them. We continued south through Maryland and Virginia.
Driving east on I-64 immediately after getting off I-81 was among the most beautiful roads I’ve been on. Driving on the I-64 interstate felt like we were passing through a National Park. That portion of I-64 traverses the George Washington National Forest. Once we were back on I-95, we continued south to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and home into Florida.
We returned to Grand Teton and Yellowstone in 2019. This time we went through northeast Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and then entered Wyoming from the south. We encountered a snowstorm in West Yellowstone in June.
After 24 days in Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park, we traveled up to Glacier National Park for 14 days. Glacier National Park is magnificent and is called the Crown Jewel of the National Park system. Glacier National Park is also one of those places that has to be seen in person to comprehend the vast volume and depth and space.
Then in 2020, we started traveling together with Chris and Erica. They had their own RV, and we caravanned. We went through Texas, New Mexico, and Utah. The drive through Monument Valley in Utah was incredible.
Then we continued west to Arizona, Nevada, and to the California Coast. We stayed a few nights in the town of Paso Robles, the town Robles was named after. Then we drove up through California. We left the Pacific Coast on our way into the Redwood National Forest.
We drove through the Redwood National Forest into Oregon before making our way to Seattle, Washington.
We headed east to Missoula, Montana. The next day we drove south into the Bitterroot Valley. We stayed in our favorite place of all time, the Trapper Peak Winery. Trapper Peak Winery was a little slice of heaven. Situated between two mountain ranges in the Bitterroot Valley, we camped along a creek, next to a farm with horses on a very quiet road. The proprietor of the winery asked us if we would like to stay another night, and we all said yes at the same time. Harvest Host is almost always a one night stay. The Harvest Host site is near the town of Darby, less than a mile away from the Dutton Ranch used in the TV show Yellowstone.
We drove to Grand Teton and Yellowstone. The parks opened just two days before we got there. The Covid restrictions had just lifted. We had the good fortune to see both parks with almost no people there. We continued east to Mt Rushmore. We drove to Wisconsin, then into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and across the Mackinaw Bridge to Mackinaw City. We then went south to Duck Lake Michigan for several weeks where Chris’s Grandfather lives.
On this tour, I learned a life lesson. There is a common saying. The trip is not about the destination, it’s the journey. What I learned was what makes the the trip special is not the journey or the destination. What makes a trip wonderful is who you travel with. Where you go doesn’t matter, or how you got there. The meaningful part is who you went with. Traveling with Erica and Chris made all the difference.
In 2021, we again went to Duck Lake Michigan for several weeks. Then we drove east to Niagara Falls, and up to the Maine Coast at Bar Harbor. Then we came down the I-95 corridor past Boston, Rhode Island, Connecticut, to New York City, through the Bronx, over the George Washington Bridge to Newark, New Jersey.
That was some of the craziest driving I have ever experienced. I would not recommend that route. We stayed in Liberty Harbor New Jersey for three days. Manhattan was a 15 minute subway ride from there. We had a great time in Manhattan. From New York we drove south through New Jersey, Maryland, Washington DC, to North Carolina. Then I stayed on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina for almost a month before returning home to Florida.
I am immensely grateful for the good health and opportunity I’ve had to see this great land of America. Seeing America from the vast network of roads spanning the continent was beautiful.