Part 3 of our exclusive series for The Independent Travel is now online, highlighting the glories of both Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park, including the Bison of Yellowstone and the astounding Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier:
Highlighting our fourth month on the road and the route so far – all 5,929 miles of it
After three months of fairly hectic traveling, our four-month mark shows that we have come the shortest distance for any month of the grand RV trip to date, from Wheatland in Wyoming to Fillmore in Utah (via what looks like a strange detour to Declo in Idaho, but which was the best way to see some of Idaho without putting too many miles on our RV).
Our mileage for Month Four was therefore just 868 miles, compared to 1,318 last month, 1,239 in Month Two and a whirlwind 2,504 in the opening month.
The total distance in Indefatigable (or Fati for short) since we left Orlando is now 5,929 miles.
The slower pace has been deliberate, of course. We realized that we were trying to pack too much in to this crazy 10-wheeled adventure and we have purposely changed both our itinerary and our pace of travel to avoid the mental and physical breakdowns we experienced in the first two months.
The key has been to identify an area that allows us to explore in multiple directions for a week or so, and then use our tow car, Nippy, to do more of the exploration.
To that end, we have actually gone an additional 9,621 miles in Nippy in those four months, almost 3,000 of them in the past month alone. That total includes a spur-of-the-moment trip into Canada from Montana, our overnight excursion to Rocky Mountain State Park in Colorado and an extensive day trip to the Flaming Gorge in Utah, both from Wyoming.
Our total mileage for the trip so far is therefore a whopping 15,550, or 3,887.5 a month!
The next month could see us top that record for Nippy, too, as we plan on basing ourselves in southern Nevada for trips into Southern California. As ever, this is an – ahem – moveable feast, but you can be sure to read all about it here!
The second installment of our exclusive RV travel series for The Independent Travel has just been published, highlighting the second month of our ‘Year on the Road’ from Minnesota to Montana, and including the wildlife-rich Theodore Roosevelt National Park, eye-popping Badlands National Park, and extensive Custer State Park. Check it out on this link:
On August 14 we celebrated the third month of our grand ‘A Year On The Road’ RV adventure, with a chance to tot up our mileage and chart the latest course of the scenic route we are forging across the US.
Having ended Month Two at Fishing Bridge RV Park in the heart of Yellowstone National Park, we have basically undergone a bit of an about-face on our original planned route and gone “freelance” for a few weeks. Our third month covered a total of 1,318 miles, giving us a whopping 5,061 for the trip to date.
As you’ll see from the map, we continued north from Yellowstone to Glacier National Park, but then broke away from the proposed westward trek to Washington and Oregon via a bit of Idaho in favor of seeing more of Montana and Wyoming, two states which we have found utterly enchanting.
We have tried not to cover any of the previous route, apart from a few miles along I-90 in Montana, and have dived much deeper into Wyoming in particular, including side trips to Cheyenne and Laramie – very much the heart of the Old West – in Nippy to avoid putting too many miles on Fati. From here, we’re looking to turn West again, with each of Colorado, Idaho and Utah on our radar – and more of the magnificent Rocky Mountains.
Our second month is in the books, and we are now 3,743 miles into the grand year’s adventure. The arrival of July 14 sees us having reached the magnificent Yellowstone National Park in the Northwest corner of Wyoming (albeit, a small part of it is in Southwest Montana). The driving has been astounding, the views panoramic, and the wildlife absolutely everywhere.
From Orlando to Yellowstone – a 3,743-mile adventure (s0 far!)
In truth, we HAVE slowed down in the second month. The first month chalked up a whopping 2,504 miles, meaning we’ve traveled just 1,239 miles in the second stanza of four weeks. In truth, we’ve gone much further than that with our localized sight-seeing in Nippy once we reach a new destination, but the official distance is measured by Fati’s odometer, and she says 3,743!
In the meantime, we’re considering our next move. In theory it is Glacier National Park in Northwest Montana, and then through Idaho to Washington and Oregon. But we have discovered something wonderfully captivating about Montana and Wyoming, hence we may well explore further here…
While we are charting the almost day-by-day story of our grand year-long RV adventure here on the Veness Travel Media blog, we’re also writing a monthly considered piece for The Independent travel section, featuring the full lowdown on how to do this great American road trip. Part one is now online here:
Want to see how far we’ve come in a month? This is the 31-day update of route – and distance – so far.
We now have a full month of our scheduled 12 officially in the books, and we have so far traveled a whopping 2,504 miles from home. We have crossed nine states, two time zones, and stayed in 14 different campgrounds and Harvest Host venues.
We have slowed down since our initial 7-day warp-speed approach (1,289 miles in that period; 1,215 in the 3 weeks since), and are paying more attention to savoring the sights as we travel. And we’re seeing some pretty stunning sights.
We are now in uncharted territory – for us – and ready for more adventures in the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming. This is a hugely exciting part of the journey, with the areas rightly renowned for the wide open spaces of this huge country.
Having just arrived on the edge of The Badlands of North Dakota, the landscape is truly outlandish and full of intrigue. We’re here for the best part of a week, and will have a LOT more to report in due course.
For those keen on geography and geology, the term “Badlands” is a specific geologic feature of sedimentary rock erosion, and it creates some captivating and bizarre landscapes. We hope to see a lot of it in the next few days, as well as wildlife that should include bison, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, deer, feral horses, and – Simon’s favorite – the prairie dog.
The first week of our grand “Year On The Road” adventure – and a LOT of miles!
Considering how far we’ve come in the initial phase of our great American road trip by RV, we thought it was worth highlighting our route, and how much ground we covered.
In reality, the first week of our ‘Year On The Road’ was effectively the “shakedown cruise,” the testing ground for our ability to actually drive this remarkable vehicle (that’s Indefatigable, or Fati for short, plus our tow vehicle or ‘toad’, Nippy).
In all we covered 1,289 miles through the first seven days, traveling from our home base in Orlando to Lansing, Michigan. That’s a LOT of miles for an RV in such a short time, and we had some challenges along the way but, in general terms, Fati handled it with aplomb.
Our first target was to reach Michigan, to set up the second phase of our route, which will take us into the Northwest of the country, via Minnesota and the Dakotas. Realistically, we achieved our main target and have got the hang of the driving and setting up camp at each location.
Normally, regular RVers wouldn’t travel and set up camp every day, but we wanted to see if we could manage a tough schedule before moving on to Phase 2. We certainly have a few issues to deal with (including the lack of hot water!), and we’ve had to consult various RV authorities, including the excellent MyRVResource.com, but we’re happy that we’ve grasped some of the essential principles of RV travel, and we’re ready for more adventures in the weeks and months ahead!
One of the reasons to take a road trip in the USA is for its gas stations. Yes, seriously. You can find some of the most, well, American experiences at these refueling outposts along the main highways. And, if you think you’ve seen them all, you haven’t seen Buc-ees.
We’d arrived at northern Alabama, close to Athens, and turned off I-65 at the sight of this vast, mirage-like complex of buildings that seemed to stretch towards the horizon. Not only is it, jointly, the largest gas station on Earth – with a mind-boggling 120 (yes, one hundred and twenty!) fuel pumps, it has a gigantic supermarket attached to them, as well as a dog park, huge car wash and enough parking space for half of Alabama.
In short, Buc-ees is a cultural phenomenon, drawings fans from all over the south and south-east (especially Texas, where this remarkable brand originated in 1982) for its mix of the cute, kitsch and collectible. You want great barbecue? They got it. Candy? Jerky? Fudge? Got them, too, in multiple triplicate. There are coffee stations, soda fountains, bakery items and ice creams galore, along with thousands of plush Buc-ees (he’s actually a beaver) and other types of themed merchandise, from T-shirts to jewelry. It’s totally bewildering.
Buc-ees’ other claim to fame is they have the cleanest restrooms on the Interstate, and Susan can confirm that, yes, they are as clean as a whistle. Spotless and shiny, in fact. Another trademark is their Beaver Nuggets, crispy corn nuggets that have various types of coating, including white cheddar and sea-salted caramel. Sure, it’s a cheap and cheerful approach, but that is its charm (along with a general level of cleanliness that would put many hospitals in the shade), and it is utterly captivating. We’ll keep an eye out for more Buc-meister outlets as we go.
Oh, and the barbecue was delicious.
If that was today’s lunch, we finished up at our latest Harvest Hosts discovery, another overnight stop, this time in northern Tennessee, just past Nashville (no Grand Ol’ Opry for us on this trip, sadly). However, Sumner Crest Winery more than made up for missing out on the Tennessee musical icon. This little gem in Portland, Tennessee, features a truly darling wine bar and cafe, with local wines, their own chicken salads and pimento cheese (our tip: try the one with candied jalapenos!), and both indoor and outdoor dining and sampling.
You can try their wines by the glass, flights or bottle, and some of their creative fruit wines and slushies are absolutely sipping sensations. The interior Chandelier Room would be great for a special occasion, and their gift shop was another dazzling collection of cute trinkets and souvenirs, with plenty to interest most wine-drinkers.
Tonight, we are hitched up to one of the winery’s three electrical posts, putting us in pole position for the road to Kentucky and Indiana tomorrow. It was a good day. A Buckin good day, you could say.
How the day started: waking up in an empty farm field with all the RV windows and the door open. Our Harvest Host location was the Von Glahn Farms family business in Baconton, Georgia. Pure rural bliss.
Breakfast included beautiful picked-fresh blueberries, and blueberry honey. Truly delish.
How the day continued: stopping to help a (very) slow turtle cross a busy road before he got crushed. And Simon copped for a broadside of turtle pee for his troubles. And that’s a sentence we NEVER thought we would write.
Later on: A truly excellent drive through rural Georgia on Highway 82, avoiding the usual I-75 route north so we could A) Avoid Atlanta and it’s bad traffic, and 2) So we could dodge the mountainous part of the highway through Tennessee and Kentucky. The scenery was wonderful and the route easy to drive.
How it finished up: Alabama did not impress us. At all. Instead of avoiding the traffic of Atlanta, we hit road construction south of Montgomery, and heavy traffic in Birmingham. Instead of missing the mountains of Kentucky, we hit the potholes of I-65, and it felt like an ongoing earthquake until we were finally able to get off the highway for an RV campground (Carson Village in the Birmingham suburb of Pinson). We also got cut up and cut off about a zillion times by Birmingham commuter traffic as we tried to navigate by GPS. Not a happy experience, and we won’t be back in a hurry, if at all.
Neither photo even hints at the gruesome nature of the road surfaces we encountered, and even now, having stopped at the RV park, we can still feel the shocks and shakes in our back teeth.
Tomorrow we head north for Tennessee and a potential Harvest Host brewery in the town of Franklin. Turtles not invited.
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