What did we learn today?

We keep a journal and every travel day we have written the beginning mileage and time that we leave for the next camping spot.  Along with these stats are sketchy notes and bumpy handwriting, i.e., the primary source material for our motorhome adventures. At the bottom of each entry is the "What did we learn today" closing remark for that travel experience. This is an ever-expanding list. Here are some notable things we have learned:
  • If you can't remember how to light the gas burner on the stove, it's faster to read the directions in the manual than to experiment with intuitive possibilities.
  • Our old GPS has never actually sent a mapping crew to Texarkana, Texas. They have never been in Texarkana, Arkansas either.
  • Never ever begin a new project--even a small, easy project--after 9:00 p.m. when you want to go to bed before midnight.
  • If our GPS navigation tells us to turn left even when we can clearly see the destination building on our right, turn left. Our Garmin Dezl is routing us safely as a 42' truck hauling a car. There is no snaking through parking lots with concrete barriers or making tight right hand turns on secondary streets that big trucks cannot navigate.  So--does this really work? Yes, it does. I forgot to change our profile from truck to car when we used our Garmin to route a quick automobile trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts on a recent visit in Gresham. We followed a long circuitous path finally arriving in front of Jo-Ann. We arrived safe and sound, but it was no quick trip! Thank goodness we have never been in car profile when driving the motorhome. 
  • Judging from anecdotal evidence, corn is the top crop in the USA.
  • When we drive the motorhome with our tow vehicle attached, we need to follow truckers' rules of the road. We are a truck. So we try to follow the Truck Route signs, avoiding the middle of downtown.Sometimes the truck route plows right through the center of small and large metro centers.
  • Any interstate highway that announces on reader boards that truckers are required to carry chains from September 1 through May 31 needs to be on our Summer Only list. FYI--It had snowed 12 inches on Pike's Peak (which we could clearly see from I-25)  on that September day when we traveled I-25 and I-70 in Colorado.
  • Slow down, learn to relax, and stay several nights at each RV park. On our next trip, when we want to, we will just sit and read in camp chairs under the awning. 
  • Choose any time besides summer to visit Texas or Kansas or Oklahoma or Missouri.  We want to be the people who sit under the awning because it's cool enough to even think about sitting outside.
  • How many miles are in a travel day? 300 tops. 250 is comfortable.
Annual mileage for camping trips:
    • 2010   4674 miles
    • 2011   9174 miles
    • 2012   2305 miles
    • 2013   2492 miles
    • 2014   4058 miles 
    • 2015   1977 miles
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