Here is the Year 5 Recap: We began Year Five at Elks Lodge #1087 - Idaho Falls, ID - September 5, 2017
From the Elks Lodge in Idaho Falls, ID, we headed South to the Elks Lodge in Provo, UT. It was there, that we met up with our friends, Tim & Bev. We then travelled together throughout Utah. We camped several days in Moab and Panguitch while we visited the 5 National Parks in Utah. It was a wonderful time.
Then to Lone Rock Campground on Lake Powell. From here we all visited the Page area and the incredible Antelope Canyons and Horseshoe Bend. Tim & Bev headed their own way, and Donna and I headed to the Grand Canyon for several days. Then to complete a major Bucket List item, we made it to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Awesome! Then we pretty much headed right to Yuma, AZ where we were going to spend the winter.
We made it to Yuma in the last part of October and moochdocked on Tim & Bevs property. One thing led to another, and we found a nice place to buy too. We closed on our 'new' home on December 14th. We are very happy with the decision, a little bitter sweet, going from full-time to part-time.
We attended an Escapees Christian Fellowship rally in Quartzsite in January. We later traded our old Jeep in for a Nissan Sentra sedan, and our Fleetwood Southwind for a Thor Hurricane. The motorhome switch was probably not a good idea, but it was good while it lasted. The first trip in the new RV was to the RV Dreams boondocking rally in Quartzsite in March.
The middle of April, we headed north to visit our family in Washington. Most of the trip was on Interstate 5, stopping to see a couple of relatives on the way. We travelled all over Washington visiting our kids and grandkids. Our daughter Kim, gave birth to our first grand daughter, Ally Rey Reider while we were there.
We left WA and headed back south on July 28th. We chose the Redwood Highway, Highway 101 for most of the trip through Oregon and Northern California. We ended up in Menifee, CA when we decided to just go ahead and head to our home in Yuma.
We made it back to our place in Yuma and got rid of the motorhome and became 'sticks & bricks' folks again. September 5th, 2013 to 2018, our full-timer years, is in the books.
Where we have stayed in year 5 (# of days):
Thousand Trail parks - 88
RPI parks - 2
Elks Lodges - 29
SKP parks - 7
Passport America parks - 0
Good Sam parks - 0
State/National Parks - 4
Moochdocked - 60
Casinos - 3
Misc RV parks - 23
Desert camping - 12
Yuma Home - 136
other - 4
28 days we boondocked
And some year 5 stats:
Miles traveled - 6,668 - 2,291 in the Southwind, 4,377 in the Hurricane
States visited - 7 .. New States - 0
Number of times camped - 41 (at campgrounds)
Average days camped per stop - 6.19 (at campgrounds)
Campground fees for the year - $1,798.97 - that averages just $7.86 per night (at campgrounds)
Highest average camping fees Month - $731.67 --- $24.39 per night for September
Lowest average camping fees Month - $0.00 --- $0.0 per night for November, December & February
Highlights - Birth of Grand Daughter, Utah National Parks, Alb. Balloon Fiesta, New house
Lowlights - letting go of RV
After selling our house, we have lived in our RV, full-time, for 5 years, 5 months. We travelled full-time for 4 years, 3 months, and were part-time RVers, 8 months. During that time, we had 2 fifth wheels (Cameo and Bighorn) and 2 motorhomes (Southwind and Hurricane). We have travelled 41,162 miles since hitting the road back in 2013 and stayed in 25 states.
Our campground fees for the last 5 years were $ 9,368.96. Which averages $ 5.55 a night, not counting our time at our place in Yuma. We have been to 43 out of the 60 parks in our Thousand Trails membership, and have visited 27 National parks. We have attended 3 RV Dreams rallies (2 educational, 1 boondocking), 2 National Good Sam rallies, 2 Escapees National rallies, and many other rallies and get togethers with other groups and friends.
We have met soo many great folks on the road. We do follow many blogs, Facebook, and RVillage and always watch for a chance to meet up with anyone close to us here in Yuma. We even have room at our place to park visiting friends in their RV, with hook-ups too! Just let us know when you are in the area.
It has been a wonderful experiance, this RV lifestyle, and hope to start it up again as soon as we can. No regrets. We still want to explore the East Coast and Alaska. We were blessed to be able to do these last few years. Now we are content with our life right now. I plan on building an Arizona room and maybe a casita out back. I want to add a few more cacti in our yard. And we are doing good getting used to the heat during the summer.
The Fergs out .......
