Now, We Begin Again

These intaglios were unknown to western man for hundreds of years because it was impossible to "see" them from ground level. They're near Blythe, CA.

The question before us is quite simple: Can we cross America aboard our 37-foot motorhome and keep our living expenses below $250 a month. By living expenses, I mean our overnight campground costs. Usual campground costs range, for us, between $19 and $35 per night. They can go as high as $100 a night but you’ll never find us spending that kind of money. Seems pretty tight, I know. But Jo and I think we can do this. Anyway, we plan to give it a go.

How can we accomplish such a feat? We installed four large solar panels on the roof of our rig. They have the capability to generate 960 watts of electricity – and that should provide us with enough power to maintain the quality of our lives for multiple days between running the engine on the coach. In addition, we do have a pretty hefty diesel generator which we will try not to use. Its purpose is to provide enough energy to allow us to operate our air conditioner in the event the weather gets a little too warm. 

The solar installation was accomplished over a period of three days at Tarpon Springs, FL. We moved into the side yard at Hotwire Enterprises. The owner of Hotwire is John Gambill, a long-time sailor who has swallowed the anchor (as we sailors call it) and set up shop to sell the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) wind generator to sailors and an occasional motor-boater.

We set out on a journey to the west from our current base at Honeymoon Island State Park on the west coast of Florida. Current plans are to journey to Choudrant, LA, where we’ll stop for a couple of days to have our ac/heat pump serviced, along with replacing the seals on both our slides aboard the motorhome. The mechanic there has expertise specifically in the Alfa motorhome that we own.

Then we’ll wander westward across 1,000 miles of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. We’ll linger for around 10 days in Arizona, attending a rally for owners of Alfa Motorhomes.  This should be our most expensive stop since we are all together in an RV resort and have to pay for the privilege.

Then we’ll roll farther west to stop off in Mexico for a day or so for dental work in the little town of Los Algonodes before heading on to California, turning right and heading for Nevada, Arizona again, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and South Dakota. We’ll roll eastward, eventually coming to Ohio, then Michigan and cross over to Canada. Eventually we’ll end up in Vermont before sliding south through Massachusetts, with a side trip to New Hampshire, then on to Connecticut. 

We hope you’ll come along vicariously on our journey as we drive approximately 8,000 miles in the coming six months. We’ll be stopping off at some of the natural wonders of this country – like the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Yellowstone National Park, Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. But we’ll be taking the side roads to wondrous and mostly unknown treasures along the way – like the moving rocks of the Death Valley, or the 250-feet-long intaglios, created by Native Americans, that can only be seen from the air, near Blythe, CA. We’re looking forward to the grandeur of Monument Valley on the border between Arizona and Utah, as well as The Wave also between Arizona and Utah.

We can fit an unknown number of fellow travelers in the basement of our motorhome…so there’s room for everyone!

The Wave is hard to get to...but worth the hike...so we will get there!