On The Road Summer 2015

The Summer of 2015 presented us with a unique opportunity to take a long awaited RV trip.

We have had two RVs in the last 20 years. Our first was a 1994 27' Ford / Coachman Leprechaun Class C which we picked up used in 1995. We very much enjoyed that camper and were able to bring our kids to all 48 contiguous states and 6 Canadian provinces over the 12 years that we owned that rig. In 2007, we replaced the Leprechaun with a used 1999 31' Class C Ford / Dutchman.

One of the great things about traveling is documenting and remembering the places we have been and the things we have done. The first camper had a map of north America outside next to the entry door that we nearly filled in - minus Alaska, Hawaii, and 2 western Canadian provinces - with the appropriate colored state and province stickers as we visited them. When we got the "new" camper in 2007 we put a new empty map on the exterior with the hopes of eventually filling that one in as well.

Over the first 7 years of the Dutchman we had managed to fill in the USA east coast pretty quickly and had also added some of the beautiful eastern Canadian provinces, but had not managed to get very far west since our 1998 and 2000 family cross country trips in the old camper.

As the Summer of 2015 approached, we decided it was time to fill in some more states.

We left Cape Cod early on July 5, 2015 and headed west with some general goals and a loose schedule to do what we could to see as much of this beautiful country as we could in the time we had available. Over the next 6 weeks we added 24 new states, put 9,737 miles on the odometer, and had a positively wonderful summer adventure. We took tons, about 15,000+ photos, of the scenic drives and sights, as well as a fair number of fire stations, apparatus, and related images.

This feature documents some of the places we went to and the things we did on our Great Summer of 2015 Cross Country Adventure. Enjoy!

DAY 36 - AUGUST 9
We left New Orleans and headed north making our way via Interstate into Mississippi with a stop in Hattiesburg to check out the fire department. We stopped in Meridian, MS for the night. Added Mississippi to the map. 238 mile day and 8,252 miles for the trip.

DAY 37 - AUGUST 10
Another day of making forward progress via the Interstates. Got through Alabama and into Tennessee with a stop for the night in the Music City, Nashville. Added Alabama and Tennessee to the map. 326 mile day.

DAY 38 - AUGUST 11
We hope to fill in the rest of the map today. Left Nashville, drove through Kentucky, through West Virginia, and into western Pennsylvania for the night. We had set out to fill in the map and today we were able to add the final states for this trip.... KY and WV. Stayed in a nice campground along side a river in PA. It was a 580 mile day with 9,098 miles for the trip so far.

DAY 39 - AUGUST 12
We made our way across Pennsylvania and ended up spending our last night on the road in eastern PA. 318 mile day.

DAY 40 - AUGUST 13
Our trip began July 5th. We accomplished nearly everything we had hoped to. We filled in 24 new states on the map, traveling through a total of 30 states during the trip. We traveled through 8 state capitals and many major cities. We went to some spectacular state and national parks. We visited family, went to 5 baseball games, 2 rodeos, took a train ride, went to several awesome museums and took somewhere near 15,000 photos. Total mileage was 9,737 over 40 days.

We were blessed in many ways with a safe trip. We met many friendly and interesting people. The weather was favorable and we had a wonderful time.