Year One in Review

Ok, we just passed the one year mark of living life on-the-road!  That’s 365 days since we left the Chicago-area as wide-eyed RV newbies.  Unsure of what we were doing we were off on this great adventure.

We traveled south to Memphis, then headed west until we hit the Rockies, north to Wyoming where we spent a week at the Newmar rally to really learn about the coach that we just purchased.  Wow, so much to learn!  I still don’t know it all and continue to learn about Busse Bus every day.  From Wyoming we headed north to see Yellowstone, the Tetons and Glacier National Parks.  Up through Canada and hit the Alaskan Highway (now called the ALCAN) to go to Alaska!  In Alaska we experienced so many adventures, like: Glacier cavings, grizzly bears, helicopter rides to mush dog sleds, and Mt. McKinley – now renamed back to Denali.  Absolutely beautiful!  Then traveled back down through Canada to the Pacific Northwest following the ocean to San Diego.  From Southern California across to Texas and all the way down to South Padre Islands.  Following the Gulf of Mexico all the way around to Key West, Florida making stops along the way like Mardi Gras.  From Key West back up towards Chicago to attend our daughter, Ari’s wedding next month.  Here’s a map of our travels so far:

Or here’s a visual:

That’s 25 states in the USA and three provinces of Canada already completed!  We have put just less than 19,000 miles on the Busse Bus.

Our coach had just under 1,000 miles on it when we picked her up in Virginia.

Things that we have learned along the way:

1.  The United States of America is a gorgeous country.  The rivers, lakes, oceans, mountains, deserts, forests, and agricultural fields are just breathtaking.
2. The residents in RV Parks are really, really nice.  It reminds us of back in the day when neighbors helped neighbors and you could let your kids play outside unsupervised all day.  Simpler times.  Like when we were children.
3. There are a lot of casinos in the USA.
4. There are a lot of homeless people in this country.  In places that you would not expect, like Alaska.
5. It is extremely satisfying to make these travels with the love of your life.  Sharing adventures along the way and taking everything in that you see and experience.

Since we have only hit 25 states (it’s a big country) we have decided to continue our travels much longer than we originally thought we would go.  We need to hit the northeast and the entire eastern seaboard yet.  Then there are places that we would like to re-visit as we felt that we needed more time to explore the area.

Happy travels……