Travels with haRVy

Recently (October 2nd) we hit the one-year mark for traveling in our modern-day gypsy wagon. While I can’t say that every moment has been carefree and fun, it has been an incredible experience and we both look forward to continuing our exploration (quite different from a vacation).

From Rhode Island… (October 2013)

to Vancouver Island… (October 2014)

and MANY places in-between.

During our year on the road:

We drove a circuitous route of 17,452 miles (on mostly secondary roads) and burned 965 gallons of diesel fuel at an average rate of 18.08 miles per gallon. We visited 24 states plus two Canadian provinces. Click here to see a map of our route. 

We took a total of 9,681 photographs and 651 video snips.

We camped overnight in just about every imaginable setting:

• national, state, county, and city park campgrounds
• rest stops
• farms
• wineries
• empty lots
• dead end streets
• front, back, and side yards
• driveways
• motels
• hospitals
• libraries
• churches
• court houses
• residential streets
• county fairgrounds
• alpaca ranch
• Bureau of Land Management property
• shared campsites
• construction sites
• hot springs
• Army Corps of Engineers land
• ball fields
• ferry terminals
• Walmarts
• restaurants
• train depots
• oceanside cliff
• Marfa Lights Viewing Area

We’ve hiked and biked on more trails than we can count and paddled our kayaks on the James River in Virginia, the lake at Fort Yargo State Park in Georgia, Telegraph Creek in Olga, Florida, Choctowatchee Bay in Fort Walton, Florida, twice on the Rio Grand River between Texas and Mexico, around the Granite Dells in Watson Lake, Arizona, and on Lewis Lake in Yellowstone, Wyoming.

We dropped in to visit friends and relatives (some of whom we hadn’t seen for decades), stayed with folks we’d never met before who welcomed us to camp out in their driveway (thanks to Boondocker’s Welcome and Harvest Hosts), met some of the most interesting people imaginable, and even made a few new friends. Thank you all for enriching our travels!

I have created over 200 posts for my blog, which has received 9,504 views, 318 comments, and over 50 likes. I have 52 regular followers with more signing up nearly every week.

We have been shocked by the depth of poverty we have seen as well as the height of excess many Americans feel they need.

Not one location or attraction has turned out to be as we expected, which usually presents a pleasant surprise.

There is SO MUCH to see and do on this vast continent. We are beginning to understand why some people continue their lives on the road for years… 😉