It’s hard to believe it, but we’ve been on the road full-time for over a year now! When we first set off on this great adventure, we knew that we were going to be on the road for awhile, but there’s still something special about hitting the one year mark. We wanted to take a look back at some of the crazy adventures we’ve been on and all of the places we’ve seen.
States Visited: 21
We started off in Texas, headed west to visit Hayden’s family in California, headed back to Indiana to visit Aaron’s family, before finally doing our first run down the east coast. When all is said and done, we visited a total of 21 states in 2017 which puts us close to the halfway point of visiting all 50 states.
Texas, Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida
National Parks Visited: 9
Our other big dream is to visit all 58 of the national parks in the United States and this year, we crossed off 9 from the list. We knew that the majority of the parks are in the western part of the United States, so the first year we were not going to hit too many of them. But we still saw some incredible parks with wildlife, waterfalls, and amazing hikes!
Big Bend, Joshua Tree, Grand Canyon, Hot Springs, Mammoth Caves, Cuyahoga, Acadia, Shenandoah, and Smoky Mountains
Parks / Campgrounds visited: 31
We’ve stayed in RV Parks, National Parks, State Parks, and County Parks, and each one of them has their own set of pros and cons. We definitely prefer to have a little more space and privacy, but that usually comes at the cost of not having a full sewer hookup or sometimes, even no water hookups. We hope to add some boondocking next year if we’re able to get solar installed which will give us the least amount of amenities but with the most privacy
Pace Bend, Bolivar Flats, Pecan Park, Big Bend National Park, Lake Pleasant Regional Park, Joshua Tree Lake RV Campground, Dockweiler RV Park, Malibu Beach RV Park, Hitchin’ Post RV Park, Greer’s Pine Shadows, Cochiti Lake Campground, Cadillac Ranch Campground, Gulpha Gorge Campground, Singing Hills RV Park, Northwest Michigan Fair Campground, Oak Knoll Family Campground, Woodland Village Mobile Home and RV Park, West Branch State Park, Keystone State Park, Four Mile Creek State Park, Sned Acres, Ames Brook Campground, Sunset Point Campground, Cape Ann Campground, Liberty Harbor RV Park, Endless Caverns RV Park, Wilson’s Riverfront RV Park, Styx River RV Resort, Fort Desoto Park, Koreshan State Park, Ponderosa RV Park
Miles Traveled: 9,106
We drove the camper almost 10,000 miles in our first year on the road and that’s pretty crazy when you think about it like that! We’ve definitely put more miles than that on our truck with all of our driving at each location, but it’s pretty crazy to know that we’re going to cross over 10,000 miles very shortly into 2018.
Restaurants: 76
When we started putting this post together, we tried guessing how many restaurants we had eaten at over the year, but we didn’t realize that we had eaten at a total of 76 different restaurants. That’s a different restaurant every 5 days! At this point, we feel like we are definitely experts at staples such as buffalo wings, Reubens, and mac and cheese. We’ve tasted some of the best of the best in the country and look forward to trying more restaurants in 2018.
V-Eats, The Beer Plant, Viva Vegeria, Arlo’s, BBQ Revolution, Conscious Cravings, Li’l Nonna’s, Sundaze, The Vegan Nom, Unity Vegan Kitchen, Rice, True Food Kitchen, Doomies, Shojin, Mizumi, Terrace Point Cafe, Wazuzu, Ronalds, Vegeway, Nacho Daddy, Vegenation, Beerhaus, Panchos Vegan Tacos, Andreas, Panevino, Whyld Ass, Picazzos, Thai Vegan, Tosha Kitchen, Dragon King’s Daughter, Chicago Diner, Pizza Rev, Red Mesa Grill, Taproot Cider House, Right Brain Brewery, Maru, B52, Sugar Spell Scoops, Gluten Free Goat Bakery, Onion Maiden, Hogtown Vegan, Doomies Toronto, Yamchops, Grasshopper, Bunners, Poutini’s, Empire Chinese Kitchen, New Style Asian Food, TGI Fridays, Flying Saucer, V02 Vegan Cafe, Veggie Galaxy, Organic Garden Cafe, Sugar and Spice, Two Boots, Cienfuegos, PS Kitchen, Dirt Candy, Urban Vegan Kitchen, Hangawi, Cinnamon Snail, Terri, Little Grill Collective, Asheville Brewing Company, Bean Vegan Cuisine, Laughing Seed Cafe, 9 Mile, Blue Dream Curry, Plant, Rosetta’a, Vortex Donuts, Gypsy Queen, Cider Press Cafe, Love Food, Thai Am #2, Pure Kitchen
Wineries: 10
We didn’t start visiting wineries until we hit Michigan in July so this number probably should be higher, but we’ve come across some beautiful wineries with incredible wines. We’ve brought home a bottle of wine from just about every one of them and can’t wait to see what we come across in 2018!
Bonobo Winery, Bowers Harbor Vineyards, Inniskillin, Pondview, Reif Estates, Riverview Cellars, Sunnybrook, Thirsty Owl, Jefferson Vineyards, First Colony Winery
Breweries: 12
Much like the wineries, we didn’t start officially visiting breweries until we were in Michigan but what we have visited have all been absolutely astounding. Aaron has found that he loves Porters and Stouts on top of his reds, so he’s been pretty excited to try all kinds of new beer.
Right Brain Brewery, East End Brewing Company, Novare Res, Sebago Brewing Company, Asheville Brewing Company, Sanctuary Brewing Co, Wicked Weed Brewing Co, Green Man Brewing Co, Burial Brewery, Catawba, Twin Leaf Brewing Company, Green Bench Brewing Co
Distilleries: 3 / Cider houses: 2
We haven’t put too much focus into either of these categories, but we have found that we are starting to like cider. We definitely are looking forward to expanding our numbers in both of these categories in 2018 as we have enjoyed all of the ones we’ve visited.
Stitzel-Weller, Jim Beam, Wayne Gretzky Distilleries, Taproot Cider House, Sunnybrook
Overall, we couldn’t have asked for a better year, filled with so many adventures! Cheers to 2018 and beyond!
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