Last night was the 365th night we have spent in our trailers. It took 10 years and 6 months to get that first year completed. The next years should go much more quickly!
We began in our 25 foot Laredo in March 2004. Our first trip was a week long adventure to Moab, Utah. Looking back, that probably wasn’t very smart considering how many things could have gone wrong on a maiden voyage. But, I live by the philosophy that Randy can fix anything and mostly, he can.
We decided right away to keep a journal of our RV adventures and have continued to do so all along. We would definitely recommend doing that as we will frequently meander through the journal or use it as a reference to what was happening when. I’ve even got a few Boise State football scores and records in the RV journal. Today I found some interesting (at least to us!) statistics.
From March 2004 to October 2011 we tracked our cost per night given the purchase price of our trailer. Our first night was $22,000 per night. Our last night in that trailer in 2011 was $103 per night. The experiences were priceless! (We stopped doing that exercise when we purchased our new trailer – we didn’t want to know!)
We spent 31 nights per year in our trailer in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Our lowest year was 19 nights in 2010. (Randy changed jobs that year and it wasn’t very vacation friendly!) Overall we averaged 26.7 nights a year from 2004 – 2013 – not bad considering we were both still working!
From 2004 to the present we have stayed in 63 different campgrounds and, of course, we have some local favorites.
We have stayed at Three Island Crossing State Park in Glenn’s Ferry 18 times! It is the perfect spring and fall getaway, close to Boise when you have to leave after work on Friday. We knew that we had been there the most, but we didn’t realize we’d been there twice as many times as any other!
We have been to Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park and Lake Cascade State Park/Ridgeview 9 times each. Following those are Farewell Bend State Park in Oregon (7), Ponderosa State Park in McCall (7) and Union Creek Campground near Sumpter, Oregon (6). We really like all those parks (obviously!) and recommend them to those of you in the area!
Serene Wandering 