Our Big US Loop Trip Stats and RV Life Winding Down - June 9, 2023

 We left Washington (Vancouver, WA) on October 12, 2022, and returned to Washington (Crescent Bar  RV Park) on May 30, 2023. We were traveling the US for 230 days, with the intent to complete our USA travel sticker map by spending at least one night in our RV in each state.

We traveled in 35 states, 21 were new to us states and completes our travel map. The lower 48 completed!

On this trip, we set up our RV camp 70 times. Our average length of stay was 3.29 days per stop. We spent $1,627.91 for campground fees. That comes out to $7.08 per night. Thank goodness for our Thousand Trails membership, Elks, and boondocking.

We towed the RV 13,447 miles

We used our TSD card for our many of our diesel purchases. Washington state had the highest price for diesel (we did not go through California) before we left and when we got back.

We did spend $6,442.85 for diesel for the whole trip, with and without towing. Our average was 11.5 mpg.

We had a great time and saw & visited lots of our bucket list items and visited many of our friends.  Of course, you can't see it all in one trip, but we gave it a try.

We are just finishing up our stay at Crescent Bar. We have been here for 10 days and a week of that, we had our granddaughter Ally stay with us. 

Ally and her sister Jessi.

It is good to be back.

We have gotten ourselves pre-qualified to purchase a house and are in the searching process. It will be somewhere in eastern Washington. 

I have cancelled the auto-renew on several of our RV clubs and memberships, like Harvest Host, Passport America, RPI, Escapees, Elks, RV Trip Wizard, ect.

Kinda sad, but it is time to settle down. It has been quite an experience!

Since we sold our house in Washington back in 2012, these are the RVs we have had.

Wow!

The Fergs out .......

Back Into The Pacific Northwest! What A Trip! - May 31, 2023

 From Pathfinder Village, we went south 233 miles to get on Interstate 90. We will be taking I-90 all the way to Washington. We stopped at the city park at the Faribault County Fairgrounds in Blue Earth, MN. 

We just stayed one night here and visited the Jolly Green Giant and museum here like we did over 9 years ago.

As we got ready to head out the next morning, our TPMS indicated a low tire on our RV. It showed 48 psi. Upon closer examination, I discovered some nasty wear on the inside of the rear tire.

It was pretty bad. We were lucky it didn't blow. I replaced it with our spare.

Then we were off towards Rapid City, SD, 487 miles away. I did stop after 100 miles or so and checked for wear and to retorque the wheel. We had only 13,381 miles on the tire. Maybe a bent axle? I also pulled into a CAT scale and got weighed. Our truck was 4,580 front axle, 6,300 rear axle, and we have 7,680 pounds on the RV axles. That is really good. Our RV unloaded weight is 6,588 lbs. and with a payload capacity of 3,104, we were underweight by 2,012 pounds.

After a long drive and into South Dakota, 

As we passed through Mitchell, we had to at least drive by the famous Corn Palace.

Then on to Rapid City, we checked into the Elks Club there at the golf course. 

I had planned on buying a new tire since we now had no spare. Then I noticed another tire that was wearing bad. The other side front axle. 

Definitely an alignment problem. I bought a Goodyear Endurance tire and now all my tires look good, and we have a badly worn tire (that holds air) for a spare. We will figure it all out when we get back to WA.

We did do some exploring in Rapid City. We walked around town

and had lunch at the Firehouse Brewpub.

We stayed in Rapid City 3 nights. Besides fixing our tire issues, I was able to change out our truck fuel filter. Then we were off, through Wyoming. 

which looked like this the entire way. We did see lots of wild horses in Wyoming.

Then into Montana. 

We stopped at a Cracker Barrel in Billings, MT

and another one in Missoula. 

I also stopped several times to retorque lugnuts and make sure the tires weren't shredding.

Into Idaho.

Then one last stop at the Elks in Coeur d'Alene, ID.

And we were back in Washington state. We are camped at our old stomping grounds, Crescent Bar Thousand Trails. 

It is good to be 'home' again and will be stopped for a while. 

Stay tuned for a re-cap of the entire trip around the states. 

The Fergs out .......

The Lower 48 States Completed - Heading to the PNW - May 22, 2023

 We left New York and passed through a little piece of Pennsylvania, and into Ohio. 

It was a 176 mile travel day. We stopped at Kenesee Lake RV Campground near Jefferson, OH.

We were there for 4 nights. I was hoping to meet up with another old Army buddy. We were stationed together at Kirkland AFB in 1971 - 1972. But he was out of town and it didn't work out. Maybe some day ....

Then we were heading to the last state to camp in, West Virginia. We headed south 121 miles and ended up staying in a Weirton, WV Walmart.

Our first choice campground was full (and sketchy) so the plan B was Wallyworld. It counted and Donna put the last state sticker on our map.

Now that we have completed all the lower 48 states, we are going to head back to Washington. On the way though, we had to visit our Grandson Erik & family in Michigan. So it was back across Ohio

and into Michigan.

After our 316 mile travel day, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel in Brighton, MI.

This was our first ever Cracker Barrel overnight stop. Worked out good, and the food is pretty good too.

Our next stop was Craven City Park in Bellaire, MI. 

It was 228 miles and a nice FHU site while we spent the next 4 days with Erik, Elizabeth, and little man Elija. We had a real good visit.

When we left them, we decided to drive across the Mighty Mac bridge

and drive all the way across the U.P. We had been up here before, and across the big bridge before, but the first time to drive the Yupper highway.

It was a nice 273 mile drive to our next stop, and Elks Lodge in Ishpeming, MI.

After a couple of days there, we left finished driving through the U.P. of Michigan and passed through Wisconsin.

and into Minnesota, a 278 mile day. We are now at Pathfinder Village RV Resort in Hinckley, MN.

Just 2 days here, and it will be a fast trip back to Washington.

The Fergs out .......