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pigdoc's avatar
pigdoc
Explorer
Jul 29, 2016

RV Life

My DW and I have owned a 5er for about 7 years now, originally got it to take her dogs to agility trials around the Midwest. I retired about 18 months ago, and I've really wanted to see some of our great national parks. This month we tried out our first 'long' trip, Iowa to Glacier NP and back. We took three days to travel out, spent four days in East Glacier KOA, then took three days to travel back. The three days traveling out and three days back were really tiring. But the time at Glacier was extremely satisfying. So, our feeling now is that we enjoy the time camping, but any travel over one day is hard on us. We now plan to confine our RV trips to those within a days drive of home. But if you draw a circle around Iowa about 500 miles radius, there is still a lot of great places to visit and adventures to find. I write this because I'm curious how many others have come to the same conclusion. For those that travel for long periods of time, I have a great of respect for your stamina.
Pigdoc
RV Lifestyle
  • CloudDriver's avatar
    CloudDriver
    Explorer
    Jul 29, 2016
    Des Moines to East Glacier is about 1300 miles. That's 430 miles/day to get there in 3 days. That would tire us out too. We usually drive 250-270 miles/day when going cross country.
  • lc0338's avatar
    lc0338
    Explorer
    Jul 29, 2016
    I guess it depends on how you travel. I do as much boondocking as possible. If you are retired you don't need to be in a hurry. Just reduce the amount of miles you travel per day. I would say that if you are overnighting in an RV park every night it is more work because you hook up your elect, water, and maybe sewer, maybe unhook and level. When I stop overnight I just pull into a walmart or other location and leave everthing hooked up. Maybe start my on-board generator to cook, etc. then in the bed. I took a 2500 mile trip a few weeks back. About every night in a different location. Biggest issue for me in doing that is fuel cost. staying close to home reduces cost for sure but hard to see all the national parks that way.

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