1/1/2021 Annual Summary of My Travels

Well, as you all know, last year was quite the year.  For me, it started by returning to Florida after doing a round trip of the U.S. via airplane, visiting my sons and their families in both Ohio and California.  I spent most of January in two of my favorite Florida campgrounds--Gamble Rogers State Park near Flagler Beach and Midway Campground on Tamiami Trail in the Big Cypress National Preserve.  During January and February, my uncle, for whom I was Power of Attorney, was in a memory care facility but started going downhill fast, both physically and mentally, and spent most of those months in and out of the hospital.  As he got worse, I ended up cancelling campgrounds and finding a place to stay nearer where he was.  This was not easy in very busy Florida.

He passed away in March, which is when COVID-19 started to affect us.  Due to rising numbers, Florida cancelled all state park reservations and the Corps of Engineers cancelled the rest of my reservations from March through May.  The states' travel bans and lockdowns were intended to make people stay at home, but my home is always in the parking lot, so to speak.  I ended up ditching a LOT of plans in 2020, including my plans to drive the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah Drive. 

I did a lot of scrambling last spring to find safe places that were still open to stay during the pandemic.  I chose to spend part of March and April in northern Florida, which is very rural and was almost free of the virus then.  There were a lot of RVers in commercial parks doing exactly what I was doing--waiting for the weather to get warmer so we could head back north. 

In May, I slowly worked my way north, trying to get into Ohio, but they also had cancelled my reservations and closed most campgrounds, so I ended up hanging around Georgia and Tennessee until early June when the Ohio parks started to open.  I had intended to spend more time in Ohio and Michigan last summer, but that was cut short.  By the end of June, I was headed north through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and west across the most northern tier of states, visiting Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana, before meeting up with my California son and his family in Idaho for a week of co-camping.

I had plans to travel around Washington and Oregon, but by August, they were cancelling campgrounds in those states, as well, but I did manage to spend a few weeks near the eastern end of the Columbia River in Washington.  It seemed as though as soon as I scheduled some place, they closed the campground, so I had to find something else that was open and had space available.  In early September in Washington, I spent several days in heavy smoke, which messed with my allergies and kicked off my old asthma!

Late September and October were better because I headed south and farther away from the smoke.  I was able to spend time in Dead Horse Point state park near Moab, Utah, plus visit Bryce Canyon, Zion, Lake Powell, Grand Canyon, and finally two places near Las Vegas that I really like--Willow Beach and Valley of Fire.  In November I headed west to southern California and finally to Napa in early December.  I arrived just in time to experience California's new policy on more stringent shutdowns.  This was based on available ICU beds in an area.  Once the percentage for an area dropped below 15% available ICU beds, the area had more rules, including closing all campgrounds. 

I had planned to drive down to Borego Springs in mid-December, but Anzo-Borego Springs state park shut down because almost all of southern California was below the 15%.  I decided I had better stay where I was for the rest of December at the EXPO Fairgrounds in Napa.  But eventually, the Bay Area, where Napa is located dropped below 15% and ended up being part of the more stringent shutdown! All state and county campgrounds in the Bay Area were supposed to shut down in early December, but the fairgrounds people argued with the state that the EXPO was an RV park, not a "campground," and that people who stayed there were from out of state and spent money in Napa!!  Apparently, it worked because they never shut us down at all, although it was a constant worry.  Whew! 

Frankly, California had me and the rest of the full-timing RVers in a Catch-22 bind. We were supposed to stay in our homes somehow, and not use campgrounds, but we were also not supposed to travel!  The problem is that we have to "camp" in order to live in our homes, or we have to travel to get out of the state!  Gotch-ya!  If they had shut the EXPO RV park down, I would have had to drive to Nevada and spend Christmas there all alone.  

So, now I am in Nevada near Las Vegas and planning on spending the rest of winter here and in Arizona and New Mexico, assuming New Mexico lets me in for my February reservations.  New Mexico has a strict quarantine policy for people coming into their state and have closed their state parks to "foreigners" or non-residents until at least February 1.  State, federal, and county campgrounds in Nevada and Arizona are still open, luckily. 

Anyway, here is a summary of my adventures in 2020:

• I drove a total of 14,937 miles through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada.  Whew!!
  
• I spent $4,312 on 1,814 gallons of gas. (Yes, I know this is only 8 MPG, but I use only about 15 gallons of water per day, and also use very little propane, as shown in the next bullet.)
  
• I also spent $265 on propane for cooking, heating, and hot water.  (About 100 gallons per year.)
  
• I spent $4,019 on RV repairs and service.  (I spent $5,619 in 2019 and a whopping $11,094 in 2018, so 2020 was not too bad. Motorhomes are not cheap to maintain. Tires cost about $225 each, and I have six of them, for example.)
  
• I averaged about $900 per month on campgrounds.
  
• I ate in only one restaurant last year, although I did get takeout several times. 
• I bought a new, light-blue electric bike last summer, put 110 miles on it, and then fell two weeks ago in Napa, messing up one leg and foot.  Almost healed, but no bike riding until it does. 
• I stayed healthy this year, which is admirable! 
• I also taught seven online college classes (two per semester, except for only one class in the summer) while I traveled in 2020, for a total of about 170 students.  Some were even happy with their grades.  (A few who did not pass have already signed up for my winter class.)  

And, some things I didn't do:

• I didn't get COVID-19 or have a kidney stone attack.
  
• I didn't get lost too many times.
• I didn't run into much of anything with my motorhome.  No backing up into trees or poles this year, at least.  Scraped a few branches, however.  And no tire blowouts!  Yea!  
  

All in all, I visited a lot of my favorite places this past year.  Saw a lot of birds in Florida, met up with a lot of alligators, had a gopher tortoise hiss at me while I was taking a close-up, and watched some river otters munch on fish.  In Grand Canyon National Park, I rode my bike all the way to the west end of the park and then to the east end.  I also had a very thirsty female elk try to sneak a drink as I was filling my fresh water tank.  I could easily have touched her nose, she was so close.   (I used the hose to give her water when I was done. The drought has been very hard on animals. Did you know Grand Canyon elk can turn on campground water faucets on their own?  True, but they aren't very good about turning off the water when they are done, and when a faucet has a hose attached, it does not do them much good to turn on the water for a drink.)  

So, I am looking forward to 2021 being a much better year with fewer campground cancellations and everyone staying healthy.