The State of the Tour
(Our First 30 Days)

We’ve been on the road for a month now, boy it went by fast. I have to say; right now I’m not missing our stick built house one bit. The new locations, new people we meet and adventures are keeping things pretty interesting. We have been moving around a lot more then I would like but that’s due to staying on schedule to be in Santa Barbara, CA by November 22nd. Once we get out west and through the holidays, the pace and mileage will slow down. We plan on spending longer periods of time in places we are actually considering moving too.

Some misc stats from our first 30 days:

•Miles traveled so far, 3,420. Current location Roswell, New Mexico.

•Gallons of gas used in Coach, 488.5. Giving us a solid 7 mpg, not bad for a house! We can get as high as 8.1 on the flats with the air off. A measly 6.1, struggling up the mountains.

•Highest price paid for gas, $3.09 in Atlanta Georgia. Lowest price $1.99 in Sallisaw, OK.

•Number of states past through so far 16.

•Number of free overnight Wal-Mart stays, 3. I can’t believe I’m actually becoming a Wal-Mart fan, the traveling RVer’s best friend.

•Worst roads encountered (since leaving Michigan, of course), Mississippi. Best roads, Georgia.

•Coolest town we have visited and would consider living, if we wanted to move east (we don’t), Asheville, North Carolina. The town is laid back, friendly, clean, surrounded by mountains, and has some the best biking, both road and mountain in the country! Imagine a smaller Ann Arbor, surrounded by mountains and you got it!

•Best adventure to date. Riding an off road tandem with Laura in Georgia. Bei ng part of a four tandem train thundering down some pretty technical single track to stares of the people on singles!

•Worst adventure. 4 days of cold, solid rain in a campground, in a valley in Wellsboro, PA. The valley kept us from getting cell, TV, or internet signals of any kind. The grand canyon of the east was pretty cool on the one day it stopped raining for us to check it out.

•Mechanical issues dealt with. Routine oil change, loss of tire pressure from bad valve core (had them replace cores in all 6 tires). Slide-out, became misaligned and would not come back in, able to repair myself. Wind in Okalahoma ripped awning over slide-out, currently repaired with duct tape, the wonder material (this will probably need to be replaced by first of year). Knocking on wood veneer, that has been it so far.

•When your house is in for service, you are homeless. On the 2 occasions it was in the shop, Laura, Snuggles and I were left to fend for ourselves for a couple of hours in the Suzuki.

•The stops for the remainder of 2005:

1. Albuquerque, NM (205 miles)
2. Winslow, AZ (255 miles)
3. Sedona, AZ (98 miles)
4. Kingman, AZ (190 miles)
5. Barstow, CA (208 miles)
6. Santa Barbara, CA (200 miles)
7. Las Vegas, NV (380 miles)
8. Home for the holidays (December 22 through Jan 3rd)

Without question, the absolute best part of the adventure so far, has been the variety of people we have met. There is an amazing diversity of people out there doing the very same thing. From the former business owner, in the big conversion bus, pulling a Hummer, who just got tired of the rat race. To ‘Earl’, who looks like he’s lived a very hard life, walks around the campground barefoot in the evening with a Coors in hand, willing to share a story with anyone who will listen. And every economic situation in-between. (It just proves, no matter what your economic situation is, they only thing required to do this is desire and guts!) We all have a common denominator, boredom with the 9-5 rat race, sense of adventure, and desire to see what’s down the road. In ‘regular’ life, these people of very different economic status would never even exchange glances. On the road, they share stories, have a brew together and help each other with RV repairs(the RV, the great common denominator!!) and just getting through life, I find that very cool!

For now we’re going to keep on Truckin’

Rich