Another Year And 8,000 Miles On The Road -> 2011 Reviewed

Boondocking in beast heaven, AZ

With Christmas over, bellies full and 2012 just around the corner it’s the perfect time to take a moment and reflect over the past year. I’ve been mapping our journey on Google Maps since we started RVing so it’s always fun to add it up at the end of each year and see where we’ve been. Kinda puts it’s all in picture so to speak. The math this year works out to a full cross-country ocean-to-ocean drive of just over 8,000 miles and 62 stops. Even with all that travel we’ve taken our time with an average of 4-6 days in each spot and drives of only ~150-200 miles. It’s the way we like it. Slow and smooth, baby!

Morning walk on deserted TX coastline

It’s also been an AMAZING ride from the sublime beaches of the Florida panhandle through the southern states to festive New Orleans. A month and a half in Texas with food to swoon for, our first boondocking of the year and the scare of a fire evacuation.The plan of a “quick trip” to New Mexico which ended up lasting 2 months ‘coz we simply fell in love with the place. Another month in summer-cool and gorgeous Colorado that draws us in every time we go. A stunning side-trip to Utah and a quick jaunt into Idaho followed by a speed-run to Oregon to get the rig slide fixed. That led to another month exploring the fabulous Oregon coast. We ended the year with probably the most beautiful drive ever down 395 to the splendors of the desert in winter. Oh, and of course we managed to do at least one totally idiotic thing…and a Nina special too (the year wouldn’t be complete without, would it?)

Phew! Did you manage to get all that in one breath?

A surreal red sunset in windy NM

We also managed to stick pretty closely to our flip-flop barometer. Early in the year with a longer-than-usual winter hanging in the North we hugged the Southern coast enjoying mostly sun and mid-warm weather. Once it started to heat up in Texas/New Mexico we escaped North to the mountains (8,000 feet and above is the key in summer!). We had a few really hot and dry days, a good couple of really windy ones, some crazy Oregon weather and a single really cold spell, but overall we avoided almost all the bugs (yeah!) and did really well.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so rather than blabber on for another 600 words, I’ll just go ahead and show you the whole enchilada. Blog posts for each location are linked to the corresponding site on the maps, so in good ‘ol web fashion you can just point and click for all the details you’ll ever want. Enjoy!!

PART I – Florida to New Mexico (~3,200 miles Jan-Apr 2011)

PART II – New Mexico to Oregon (~2,600 miles May-Sept 2011)

PART III – Oregon to California (~2,300 miles Oct-Dec 2011)

Travelling w/ The Weather -> The Flip Flop Barometer

Ahhhhh....flip flops

This time of year you can’t help but think about the weather. Seems all craziness is loose out there with massive cold-fronts and blizzards sweeping down on the North both here and in Europe. I write this, of course, from the sunny warmth of my RV sitting in my flip flops…and that got me thinking. One line of my convoluted brain went on a tangent of footwear ending up somewhere with ultra-plush-faux-fur-covered flip-flops (I would buy ‘em!) whilst the other more scientific penchant of my brain started analyzing the practical side of things. After all, one of the many beauties of RVing is that you can travel with the weather, and that means flip-flops all year around (with occasional sock-in-flops on chillier days -> it’s a fashion statement don’t you know). As the self-proclaimed original discoverer of this phenomenon I nick-named it the flip-flop barometer of RVing, and decided it was worth a post.

Scientifically speaking the ideal flip-flop weather is between 60 and 80 degrees fahrenheit (16-27 degrees centigrade) with a soothing breeze and complete lack of bugs. You should be able to sit comfortably, not bothered by excessive temperature or bugs sipping a drink (with mini-umbrella as occasion demands) in the sun. Got it?

Now, I really must admit I’m not the first person to think of this. Snowbirds are well-known for fleeing the North in the winter to go South for warmth. Although not so-named (as far as I know) summerbirds do the same in reverse running like mad chickens from the heat and bugs of the summer into the North for relative cool. 

Through our RVing we will attempt to perfect this travel with 365 days of perfect flip-flop accuracy. We failed this year, travelling South way too soon and thus spending way more time with bugs than we should have liked. Next year we will aim to do better and there’s a couple of spots that are helping us to plan the ultimate trip:

1/ US Weather Maps - The NCDC (National Climate Data Center) keeps a record of historical temperatures, visually mapped and color-coded as to whether they are above or below norm. It’s a very cool reference.

The NCDC Map for February 2010

2/ Local Data - Once you’ve got the big picture Weather Underground is a great resource for getting into details. For historical info, just plug in your city and date and the site will spit out details and maps of daily, weekly or monthly data on temperature, barometric pressure, precipitation and wind speed.

Weather Underground data for June 2010 in Denver, CO

3/ Bug Activity - There are limited resources for bug activity, but if you’re a natural-born-mosquito-magnet such as myself you’ll take anything you can get. Turns out the Weather Channel has a resource called the Mosquito Activity Forecast. Here you can get up-to-date info on how the little beasts are biting all around the US.

4/ Weather Alerts - Although these won’t affect your long-term planning, having access to severe weather alerts can definitely make a difference to your immediate safety. The NOAA issues the alerts and you can buy various weather radios to receive them as you travel cross-country. Certain media also offer cell-phone and e-mail alerts, but they’re usually limited to a given location.

Between these resources we’re going to re-try for the perfect flip-flop trip in 2011. Planning is in progress and will be revealed in due time. In the meantime here’s hoping your feet are free and footloose in the perfect flip-flop pose.

We Dip our Feet in the Atlantic!

Strolling on the Atlantic...even better than we imagined!

Well, I’m jumping ahead a bit here but I’m just so darn excited I can’t help it! After ~4,700 miles, open desert, high mountains, deep woods, grassy plains and what seems like a lifetime of experiences we’ve reached the East Coast and dipped our feet in the Atlantic Ocean. Whoo hooo!

It’s been one thumper of a ride. There’s been moments of deep awe, moments of doubt and cursing bugs, and moments of profound beauty, but I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.

When we made the plan to go East we envisioned ourselves arriving on a huge white beach and running in the ocean with Polly. Little did we know that our vision would be so potent. So, here we are…coast to coast, sand in our feet, stunning beach stretching to the horizon, the wind in our hair…and already planning how we’ll go West next year.

All I can say is this life is really addicting….

The whole journey...coast to coast