The Adventure Begins Again -- Part 2

September wildflowers in Canada

Our goal when we started our adventure last June was to follow the wildflowers as they bloomed going north and the fall leaves as they turned colors going south.  We wanted to do this on the west side of the country one year and then do the same for the east side of the country the next.  Going west last year we made plans to see things we’d never seen before, but mostly we let the weather and other natural forces guide our journey.  That seemed to work fairly well so we are ready try it again counter clockwise.

We began a bit late last year for following wildflowers as we didn’t get on the road until June.  Starting out in April this year should give us a better chance. So far the dogwoods and wild azaleas have been amazing although we are missing the Cherry Blossoms in Washington DC right now.  Well, it isn’t possible to see it all but we will give it our best effort.  And there are always nice surprises – last September we lucked into some pretty great wildflowers in Canada.  You just never know.  Our travels have reinforced for us that things in nature are hard to predict and dependent on so much more than ‘dates’ on a calendar. 

Wild Azaleas in East Texas

Since we are starting our eastern journey, David thought it would be interesting to sum up our mileage so far.  After leaving Texas in June last year, we traveled 9,223 miles in the RV in the western states and Canada.  Upon returning to Texas in mid-November, we traveled another 6,580 miles!  Well, it is a big state, but that surprised me.  

And that was just driving the RV.  On our Honda CR-V, which we tow behind our motorhome, we drove 8,201 miles in the West and then another 5,550 miles in Texas this winter (that's not including the towing miles).  We did  even more sight-seeing, driving to trailheads and running around our destinations than I thought.

Mount Hood, Oregon

 

It is hard to think of ourselves as ‘green’ when driving that many miles and using that much gas and diesel.  I’d don’t even want to know, but I am sure David does know just how many gallons and how much money we spent on fuel.  We probably won’t improve our green status this year going east, but we have a plan once we get back to Texas in the fall to do less back and forth driving across the state. 

Maybe not too surprisingly, we are green in other ways.  Not having a house helps a lot.  I do miss my house sometimes but mostly the yard.  And now I have a much bigger, way more beautiful ‘yard’ and I don’t ever have to water it!  Speaking of water - we use so much less of it, around 40 - 50 gallons a week for the both of us.  I have become a master of the 3 minute shower.  We wash clothes about every 10 days to 2 weeks at the campgrounds so that does add several gallons to our overall weekly total.

Fall Aspens near Torrey, Utah

 

 

We often don’t have electricity and because David likes to be where ‘the weather suits his clothes’ we don’t run the air conditioner or heat pump much when we do have electricity.  We do use propane to cook, heat water and run the furnace but it is very efficient.  We’ve only filled our propane tank, which holds 12.7 gallons, 3 times in 11 months.  Our solar panels charge the 12 volt system so we can have lights and music (some things are essential) when we don’t have electricity at the campsite.
 
Recycling is a challenge.  I am surprised at how many campgrounds and parks don’t recycle anything.  Some recycle aluminum only.  A lot of commercial campgrounds around the bigger cities will also recycle plastic, glass and paper.  We try to recycle; it hurts to throw away plastic or glass.  In San Antonio we practically didn’t have trash.  Our neighborhood even took compost waste.  On the road, it isn’t that easy.  David won’t let me carry too many bags of recyclables in the RV and there isn’t that much room anyway. There should be an ‘app’ for that, showing the location of recycling centers wherever you are.  Maybe there is, let me know if you know of one.

We don’t have any statistics on actual miles hiked, elevation gained, etc. from our time in the west.  But with David’s new GPS unit, we will be able to keep track of those miles this season ‘On the Road with Maya...’