Pat's Great National Retirement Tour by the Numbers

May 18, 2016:

I was on the road for 96 Days from January 15 thru April 19, 2016

Traveled 10,543 miles

Spent roughly $1,110 on gas, oil, windshield washer fluid, two oil changes, and a headlight replacement while on my trip. This does not include the costs for getting hit in Brent’s parking lot in the middle of the night by a hit and run driver. That could just as easily have happened if I had stayed home. My mother always kept track of all the gasoline we used on our family trips, and it seemed like a nod to tradition to do it for this trip too. And, in case you are wondering, I really do love Love's!

Stayed in 10 states, did some sightseeing, and visited friends and family: New Mexico, California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Illinois

Traveled thru parts of another 9 states: Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and Wisconsin (sometimes very small parts).

Most of my travel happened on Interstate 10, which stretches from Los Angeles, California to Jacksonville, Florida. I drove all but two segments of that road all across the USA (skipping one small segment from L.A. to Palm Springs and one larger segment from San Antonio, Texas to Baton Rouge, Louisiana). I have, however, on another trip in another year driven the segment between Lafayette, Louisiana and San Antonio, Texas.



Spent 28 nights sleeping in my Palomino camper on this tour, bringing my initial cost of ownership down to $140 per night. This does not count the amounts spent at each campground and RV resort. I will add that up later. It also does not include the 4 nights that my camper stayed in Sliddell, Louisiana while I stayed at a hotel in the French Quarter. For eleven (11) of them I had company in the camper: Carol for 3 days at Joshua Tree National Park, Mary for 6 days in two different states (Florida and South Carolina), and my grandkids Naima and Nasir for 2 nights in North Carolina.

I also stayed with one complete stranger (although an old friend of Carol’s), three cousins, one high school BFF, two sons, two friends, and one college room-mate. They were all gracious hosts and I thank each and every one of them for making my tour so fabulous. And my friends Trudie and Mary took the “Train They Call the City of New Orleans” down to spend 3 days in New Orleans’s French Quarter with me. They all eagerly joined me in creating adventures in each location as their work schedules allowed.

I met a 91-year-old Navajo code talker from WW2, a young man who sells art on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, some distant cousins whose parents owned a trailer park in a popular movie stage location in the mountains around Palm Springs, a retiree who gets dressed up in 19th Century cowboy gear to hang out in Tombstone several times a month, a grandfather of a 3-year-old with a dream of being a rodeo cowgirl, a Brit who was in the USA to try to break into the country music songwriting business, a couple from Iowa who are big fans of the Grand Ole Opry, a young couple who are on a mission to visit every Presidential library/museum/home in the USA, and a large number of friendly Appalachian Trail hikers who were concerned about my stamina on the hike.

I used up and threw away 5 ball point gel pens on my trip writing in my journal, on post cards, keeping track of my gas purchases, and gift card debits on a yellow legal pad. Oh, and writing up directions to get to my next location which I taped onto the radio – yes, that was my GPS.

I lost 10 pounds on the trip; not intentionally.

I added 15 stamps at National Parks and National Historic Sites to my National Parks Passport book. I spent time in Bandolier National Monument, Joshua Tree National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, San Antonio Missions (Concepcion this time), New Orleans National Historic Site, Gulf Shores National Seashore (and Fort Pickens) in Pensacola, Fort Sumter in Charleston, the Great Smoky Mountains, and the Appalachian Trial in Tennessee, as well as a couple of Presidential libraries/museums. BTW, if you are over 62 years of age, get yourself a National Park Senior Pass – this is the best deal in the whole darn country!!!

In 2008, I set out to show the vast expanse and variety of America to my grandkids by taking them to Chickasaw National Park, Oklahoma City National Monument, Hot Springs National Park, Pipestone National Park, the Badlands National Park, Black Hills National Forest, and Wind Cave National Park. We have since added Vicksburg National Cemetery, Rocky Mountain National Park, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park and the Grand Canyon to our list of great American landmarks visited. This was the first time I have traveled mostly by myself to see the great sweep of America. It is an item on my bucket list to visit as many national parks as I can fit in during the time I have remaining. Mission partially accomplished.

While America’s national parks are all treasures that tell the story of our geography, our geology, our native flora and fauna, the immense power of water, our wars, our settlement patterns, as well as the good, the bad, and the ugly of our Western expansion, it was also great to visit a lot of major U.S. cities along Highway 10 from the West Coast to the East Coast to see the things each place holds most dear and is most proud to show off to visitors. People all along Interstate 10 are very proud of the great places they have built, and for the most part they deserve to be (there was a whole lot of absolutely nothing in west Texas, and Charleston kind of creeped me out). I am overall so happy that I went on this tour and so happy that I went now when I am still healthy and can still walk around, and climb around, to truly see what each place has to offer the inveterate traveler. We really do live in an amazingly vast and varied country.

Oh, and having sunshine and warmer weather all winter long was a bonus!