STATS on 2020 RV Trip

February 10, 2021/Kay Wilson/Comments Off

It’s been a crazy year with COVID and such, and yet, still trying to travel for our job.

On the Road for 2 years, 8 months, 3 weeks and 1 day

I can’t believe we are finishing up our 3rd year and going into our 4th year of living in our RV and traveling fulltime. We wouldn’t trade it for the world. We are loving life!!!

2020 was a different way of traveling. After traveling the west and central states for two years, we found ourselves a little bored. We met a great couple at our RV park and they recruited us for this job. We were hired in December 2019 by a company called AGS that creates guest guides for RV parks. Bob sells ads and I design the guide and do the admin work.
2020 started out with training for AGS. We are excited to get started!!

43 Days on the Road…..the first time..

We left, the first time, February 15, 2020 for our training week.

We made it through training and ready to get our first park

Oak Creek/Coffee Creek RV Park

Our first park was Oak Creek/Coffee Creek RV Park in Weatherford Texas. We spent two weeks selling ads and designing their guide. We knocked this one out of the park!! We did a 29% increase in ad sales for this park. We were so excited!!!

AGS Annual Meeting

Next up was our annual company meeting. It was held at the Conroe KOA and was so fun to put names with faces and meet everyone associated with AGS. We spent several days there and were able to hook back up with our trainers and the reps that recruited us. We got all pumped up to get back out there!!!

We met for a couple of days, and on the last day we have an awards dinner. Our trainers were number one in the company for 2019.

Back to work…

We were pumped and ready to get back to work!!! After the meeting we head to Victoria Texas to work two parks simultaneously. It all started out well and good, however, after the first week of arrival, COVID hit with a vengeance, and the world came to an abrupt stop.

We were immediately shut down and the County park we were in was closing. We ended up across the street at the other park we were working, but we quickly realized we would soon be out of business. Not knowing how this thing was going to play out, we decided it was best to head home to sit this one out. On March 28^th, we put our travels on hold and headed back to the ranch.

We decided to hang at the ranch longer than a couple of weeks, and were about to venture out, when on April 23^rd, Bob comes in crawling up the stairs with tremendous back pain. We made two wasted trips to the ER, several trips to the back doctor, and ended up having almost 2 months of rehab, for a bulging disc pressing up against the sciatic nerve. Due to us not being able to get back out on the road, we had to give up two of our scheduled parks. While Bob was convalescing, I had the opportunity to attend birthday parties, swim in the pool, photograph my grand nieces and nephews, and work on my flower photography.

163 Days on the Road…….the second time.

Time to get back on the road, and we were finally set to leave June 20^th and head to our first park in Oklahoma, then on to Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, and Texas. We did 11 States, and 27 parks. We knew it was going to be a long year, with all the unknowns, but we had to get back on the road. Luckily, we take our home with us everywhere we go so we are around our stuff and not in hotels.

COVID

We wore masks everywhere we went, but I can’t say the same for others. I would say, for the most part, people complied and wore masks, but we ran into many who did not. We worked hard not to be in crowds. It started getting bad again while we were in Ohio, and we were worried we wouldn’t be able to get into New York, but we had to get to work. I had to get after some kids at Niagara Falls for not wearing their mask when they got close to me. It drives me nuts when people were it under their nose, they don’t realize just how stupid they look. There were a lot of people who didn’t think the masks were working. I would say MO was the worst state for not wearing their masks.

Everyone got creative with the masks, and we saw some crazy things. Vermont put a mask on a cow statue, interesting shrub art at a cemetery “Pray for us” in MA. In Michigan, we saw the bubbles around the tables outside of a restaurant. I’ve never seen anything like that and I wonder if they were hot.

Visited 11 States.

Texas is not pictured

27 RV Parks and 2 Hotels

We worked 13 parks (0 cost), paid for 14 RV parks ($1,675.00), and 2 Hotels ($282.14). Total cost of housing $1,957.14. This is way down from last years total of $6,780.21. The hotels were in New Bedford MA and Grapevine TX.

2 National Memorials, 1 National Historic Site, 1 Presidential Library & Home, 2 State Parks

FLIGHT 93 NATIONAL MEMORIAL – A highlight for me was visiting the Flight 93 National Memorial. I was prepared for sadness and anger, but it really is a beautiful and peaceful place.

OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING – The second memorial we visited was the site of the Ok bombing. We had been 20 years ago but wasn’t able to tour the museum. Since we stopped in OK on the way home, I decided we need to see it again.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT INAUGURATION SITE – While in the Buffalo area we took advantage of visiting the site of where Teddy Roosevelt was inaugurated into office after the assignation of President McKinley. Due to COVID, the house wasn’t open so all we got to see was the statue outside.

FDR LIBRARY & HOME – While in New York we were able to get on the grounds of FDR’s library and home. Due to COVID, it wasn’t open but you could walk the grounds. On this trip, we would have had the opportunity to tour Ford and Truman’s libraries, but, due to COVID, they were not open.

NIAGARA FALLS STATE PARK – We were here back in 1998 with Mom and Tommy but we stayed on the Canada side. Since the border was closed we were forced to stay on the US side and see everything we could. It’s a beautiful and well done park and worth a visit.

KEYSTONE STATE PARK OK – This was actually our third park to work. It’s a beautiful place with lots of hills to walk. We got to see some pretty sunsets and a wonderful firework show for the 4th of July.

OTHER THINGS WE DID AND SAW……

We really enjoyed our time in New York and other northeast states. With COVID a lot of things weren’t open, but we made do with what we could. Some places will be repeated in 2021 so we will be able to see the difference. For all the fun we had, our miscellaneous tab was $6,277.47. This includes entrance fees, parking fees, Walmart trips, clothing, Dollar Stores, gifts, memorabilia and other miscellaneous shopping.

Two Favorite Parks

All the parks were great, and had their own personality, but we did have a couple of faves. Pine Acres Family Campground wins the prize for the most beautiful, well run, great family owned park. The same family has owned this park for 61 years.

Beautiful park and area. Pine Acres is in Oakham MA, pretty much smack dab in the middle of MA. There are several towns surrounding the park that are rich in history. They are a large park and I had some great hills to climb in my power walk, so I LOVE this park.

Lake Milton/Berlin KOA wins the prize for the most active owners, fun and festive park. This is the destination of Lake Milton OH. They have live music on Friday nights, bon fire on Saturday nights, and some of the best sunsets.

Craziest Park

Towards the end of our tour we made our way over to Monroe/Toledo N KOA in southern Michigan.

People up north celebrate Halloween for about 6 weeks. They take it as seriously as Christmas. We arrived on a Saturday right in the thick of a weekend Halloween celebration. We had to back into a space that was very thin and with an audience. Bob got a round of applause when he was done. WWOOOOOWW!!!

Coldest Park

On our way home, and second to last park for the year, we worked the Basswood RV Resort. It’s a beautiful park that was well known to celebrities in the 50’s. Bess Truman and Bing Crosby were regulars. Mathew McConaughey has stayed there in recent years with his family. It snowed our first week.

There are some great towns in the area. We loved Weston MO and Leavenworth KS. Beautiful park with hiking trails and a lake.

5,862.5 RV Miles + 17,567 Car Miles

$1,864.80 Diesel cost for the RV (down from last year $585.36). We averaged 7 miles per gallon.

$882.65 Gas cost for the car (up from last year $58.80)

Prices ranged from $1.60/gallon to $2.90/gallon

$2,747.45 TOTAL FUEL COST, down from last year $526.56

1 Misdirection, 1 storm, 2 Near Mishaps, 1 Tire Blow Out

FIRST – On our first day drive, our GPS took us a very weird unnecessary route to our first park and sent us under a bridge that was 13′. Our coach is 12’10”, so it was a close call. I had to jump out and inch us through it while we backed traffic up for a while. Always my favorite way to start a trip.

SECOND – That first night we woke up to a serious storm. We jumped out of bed to pull the slides in. It’s the first time we have ever had to put our slides in due to wind. Sadly, we couldn’t get to our door awning in time before the wind ripped it off the coach and threw it across the bus. We were able retrieve it and we hauled it around until we were able to get it fixed in Tulsa.

We couldn’t go anywhere but around the cones when we came upon the AC in the road

THIRD – Our second day drive, we were headed down an OK turnpike and nearly hit an AC that was left in the middle of the road. UNBELIEVABLE!! We thought geeeezzzzz, give us a break!!! That’s three in a row, so we were ready to settle somewhere for the next two weeks.

FOURTH – After the two parks in OK we headed to Ohio, but it would take us a few days to get there. On our second day of driving, once again we found ourselves nearly on top of a large aquarium that was left on the road in our lane. Bob reacted very quickly, again, and was able to get around it.

Both items in the road would have caused major damage to the front end of our coach. We were very blessed to have been through those near mishaps unscathed.

FIFTH – Coming home we had a blow out on the car tire in Edmund OK, so that cost us about 6 hours. We had a heck of a time getting the tire off the car because we didn’t have ANY tire tools that comes with the car, and it being a Sunday, roadside assistance wasn’t helpful at all (nobody wanted to get out on a Sunday) . After several hours of trying to get it off, plugging the hole, borrowing tire tools, we were very frustrated. Luckily, there were angels on the road that day who happened to be in town clearing all the tree damage from a bad storm in the area and had the magic tool to get our tire off. It took this man seconds to get the bad tire off, and the donut on. Since we still had several hours on the road, we decided to get a new tire. All in all, it cost us 4 hours!!!!

Luckily nothing was too bad. Including an oil change, a new pump & installation, a new door awning and installation, car washes, a new tire, etc….our RV maintenance total was $2,876.33.

Most Unusual Site

On our way from Oklahoma to Ohio we kept seeing these billboards for Visit Uranus!! Neither of us really understood what we were seeing. When we got to our park for the night, we realized it was close. We had to go visit. It’s a great tourist trap and when we bought a few things and checked out, as we made our way to the door and was heading out, the lady yells, THANK YOU FOR PICKING URANUS!!!! hahahahaha, we now get emails with all sorts of stuff about Uranus and we still laugh.

Laundry Expense

One of the things I miss the most are my washer and dryer. If we ever change coaches, I will be looking for one that has a stackable washer and dryer. For the most part, we had decent laundry facilities. I think I only had to go to a couple of laundromats outside of the RV park. Our total expense for laundry was $219.72.

Groceries & Restaurants

COVID sure changed the way we shopped. I have to commend the grocery stores for getting their shelves stocked as quick as possible. In the beginning, I couldn’t believe the empty shelves. Luckily, we like healthy food, so there wasn’t much of a run on what we eat, ha! We ran into several produce stands on the side of the road.

The store below is Adams Fairacre Farms in Newburgh NY (1 of 4 locations). This was such a cool store!!!!! This store started out as a produce stand back in 1919, and has grown to include home goods, landscaping, and even a boutique!!! It is still the same family run business with the third generation at the helm. I could spend hours in this store.

We love to explore the town we are in and check out the local grocery stores and farmers markets. They have some good stores and I was even able to find one or two health food stores along the way.

We spent $10,090.87 on groceries, that averaged into $48 per day, $24 per person, 3 meals a day works out to be $8 per meal (actually down from last year by $2.78). I feel like that’s a bit much but we didn’t always just buy groceries at the store, so that number is a bit skewed.

When we end a good job, we try to treat ourselves with a night out for dinner. COVID made it a little more difficult this year, but we had some wonderful dining experiences this trip. Our dinning out tab totaled $3,344.25. We ate out 66 times (includes breakfast, lunch and dinner) during our trip so that averages about $48 per meal for two. Things are expensive up in the northeast!!

Our dinning out tab also included a very nice dining experience for my birthday. I am lucky to have been born smack dab in the middle of summer and since we are traveling during that time we are in a different place every year. Bob goes out of his way to find a nice experience for us. This year we were in Tulsa OK so we went to the Hard Rock Casino and had a lovely fine dining experience.

It really was some amazing food!!!

Tolls

We were surprised about the amount of tolls up in the northeast. We spent $160.50 on Tolls.

We had to stop for each one because we don’t have their EZ Pass, but we are thinking about getting one this year.

Met up with 2 family members

We always enjoy meeting up with family and friends on the road. This trip we didn’t get to do that very many times. We were lucky on a couple of occasions.

We were driving back to our park in Lake Milton OH when we get a call from Melody (Bob’s daughter). As we were talking we asked where she was and she was talking how she was in Independence OH on business. OMG, that was just a little over an hour away, so we dropped what we were doing and drove out there to pick her up and have dinner.

It was great to see someone we knew from home.

On our way home to Texas, we stopped in Edmond OK for a couple of nights so we could hook up with Lauren, (our granddaughter). We were excited to see her world. We toured her campus, had lunch, and then she took us to the Oklahoma version of a Riverwalk.

Some parks were better for power walking than others, so I only did 1,721,246 steps this year, that’s 200k down from last year. 🙁

Total of 211 Days on the Road

Our 2020 year was educational, frustrating, interesting, and fun!! We are thrilled to be able to work on the road and still have adventures.

All in all, for the year we have had, it was a great time. We met some super people, had some fun, made some money, and ate some great food. We pulled in November 27, 2020. We are here for 2.5 months before heading back on February 13, 2021 for our 4th year on the road.

Our grand total for this year is $27,475.96 being on the road for 211 days. We are actually down $2,276.17 from last year, and we were on the road 29 days longer in 2020.

We are about to leave for our 2021 trip and we will be repeating about 4 parks, but headed to some new territory……..stay tuned.

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