A Recap of Grammi and Grampa 2.0

Now that we’re home, we are getting back to a normal routine, albeit I must confess I’m not sure what normal is anymore. We’ve been busy. There is always much to do after being away for so long. We’ve barely had time to reflect on this year’s adventure. 

We’ve talked to some friends and neighbors since coming home and they all seem to have the same questions, “How was you’re trip?”, “Where did you go?”, “What was your favorite place?”, “Was it hard to find campsites?”, “Is it expensive to travel the country in a camper?. I hope to answer all these questions in future post, but in this post I’m going to recap all the places where we camped. 

First a few facts. We’ve been planning this trip for months, if not for years. We arranged for our daughter and her husband to house sit while we were away. They were at the end of their lease so it was a beneficial arrangement for us all. They sold much of their belongings and boxed up the rest before moving in. On March 1, we hitched up the travel trailer and head off.

News of a virus from China was just beginning. We had no idea of the seriousness at that time. We were on our way to Big Bend National Park when the lock downs began. The national parks closed down and we were notified our camping reservations were canceled. What are we going to do? We weren’t sure. You can read about our struggle in our past posts from that time. We didn’t feel that going home was the best option so we hunkered down at Medina Lake RV Resort in Texas. We were there for seven weeks.

When places started to reopen we moved forward. Things were different. Many places remained closed. We had to come up with a new plan. We decided to take it one day at a time. That meant most of the time we didn’t know where we were going next. We would pick a direction then try to find a campground along the way.   

We made the best of the situation as we looked for socially distant adventures. We took precautions, stayed to ourselves and wore masks when we went out. Scenic drives, quiet picnics and backcountry hikes were our mainstay. Visiting national parks was our goal from the beginning so we stayed with that theme, although some parks remained closed or limited access throughout the summer.

Our adventure lasted 229 days. We camped at 48 locations in 20 different states. I’m not going to give a review of every campsite, suffice it to say some were better than others but none were so bad I wouldn’t go back. Most of the time we were just happy to find a spot to park for a few nights. We’ve come to realize it’s more about what the surrounding area has to offer and less about the actual campsite.

Below is a map and a spreadsheet showing all the places we stayed. I didn’t include the distance between sites but we drove a total of 17644 miles during the entire trip.

It was an epic adventure. We had so much fun, saw amazing places, and created lasting memories. We can’t wait for next spring as we are making plans for next year. Hopefully the situation with the pandemic improves.

Until next time…happy days and safe travels.