Steve & Alea's Second 25,000 Miles

On 1 Aug 2015 we sold our house, having taken delivery of our 2015 Ford Transit Connect LWB Cargo Van the week before. We hurriedly put 1,000 non-towing miles on the van, outfitted it for towing and life on the road, and took off. The first leg of our of little adventure was a trip from Idaho to Washington State to Wisconsin to Louisiana to Florida. We then spent a bit more than four months in Florida, constantly moving from campground to campground, as space was available (it is a good idea to book well ahead for camping there during the winter, especially the farther south you go).

In early spring 2016 we headed out again. Our first goal was Maine, then Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky, Louisiana, California, two months in Baja, Mexico, and finally a drive to Boise, Idaho. When we rolled into Boise on New Year's Eve 2016, the van's odometer read 36,600 miles, the vast majority of which were towing miles. If less than 70% of those miles where towing miles (likely at least 85% was while towing), then we managed more than 25,000 miles of towing in 17 months.

We occupied our Camp Inn continuously from 30 Jan 2016 to 30 Dec 2016 (with the exception of one night in Lake St. Louis, MO, amid 105 degree heat and high humidity), totaling 335 nights in 2016 (we had already applied for our 100 night pin for 2015). So that is three 100 Night awards for 2016.

We already claimed our 5,000 mile pin for our travels in 2015. In 2016, our van's odometer read a bit more than 16,000 miles (it was about 12,000 miles when we had claimed our Long Haul award in 2015). So we racked up 20,000 miles in 2016, with easily 3/4ths of that being while towing our camper. So that is at least 15,000 miles towing, so we easily earned our Long Haul award for 2016.

Temperature extremes during our travels ranged from around 14 degrees up to 105 degrees, with humidity from barely more than 10% to well over 90%. Our altitude ranged from below sea level (around El Centro, CA) to over 7,000 feet (crossing the mountains in New Mexico).

Links from our blog to some of the more interesting days in 2016:

• An odd form of Southern Hospitality.
• A visit with a new found 4th cousin.
• A reunion with Alan Stillman, whom I met cycling in Europe in 1986.
• Encounter with a crazy woman.
• A reunion with Travis Hodgdon, whom I met cycling across the US in 1985.
• A near disaster near Todo Santos.
• Our encounter with a live power line in Baja, Mexico.

A selection of photos from our blog:

 

Steve and Alea,
I have really enjoyed following your travels on your tag team blog. Look forward to when they start again.
Gina