Orange highlighted route = Mark and Laureen
Yellow highlighted route = Vince and Kim
28,766 km, 8 provinces, 34 states and 3 countries in 7 months. Amazing!
The Roles:
We all did a little of everything, but we tended to shine in our own ways. Vince and Mark took on the role of finding places to camp and the best place to park for the day.
Kim took on the role of finding the best places to eat and figuring out where we could dump our holding tanks and get fresh water.
Laureen took on the role of tour organization and researched what the best things to see and do and for the best prices.
Nobody felt we missed out on anything, and everyone felt they were contributing.
Our route – Starting point
Alberta for Mark and Laureen and British Columbia for Vince and Kim
Montana, Idaho, Utah and Nevada
Arizona
Mexico
California
New Mexico
Texas
Louisiana
Mississippi
Tennessee
Georgia
Alabama
Virginia
Washington
Maryland and Delaware
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
New York and Connecticut
Rhode Island and Massachusetts
New Hampshire and Maine
New Brunswick
Newfoundland
Nova Scotia
Prince Edward Island
Quebec
Ontario
Michigan
Wisconsin and Illinois
Iowa
South Dakota
Wyoming and Montana
Saskatchewan
Alberta (for Mark and Laureen )
British Columbia (for Vince and Kim).
Most memorable place: New Orleans during Mardi Gras for all 4 of us.
Best city tour.
Laureen: Memphis
Mark: Quebec City
Kim: Boston most enlightening and Quebec most beautiful
Vince: Washington DC
Best City Activity
Laureen: Boston Red Sox baseball game.
Mark: Driving supercars.
Kim: Broadway Play
Vince: Broadway Play
Best Museum
Laureen: Border Patrol in El Paso and Phoenix Botanical Gardens in Arizona
Mark: Houston Nasa Space Museum
Kim: Civil Rights in Memphis
Vince: WWII Museum in New Orleans
Favorite State
Laureen: Tennessee
Mark: Louisiana
Kim: Unsure. They were all beautiful.
Vince: Tennessee
Favorite Province
PEI. We all agreed.
Best Food.
New Orleans and Boston. We all agreed
Best meal.
Laureen: Boston Clam Chowder, New York Pretzel and Spinach, apple and Brie crepe in Montreal.
Mark: Louisiana Gumbo, Boston Clam Chowder and Anniversary dinner in Newfoundland
Kim: World War II Museum restaurant in New Orleans and Salem with Lobster Roll.
Vince: Boston Clam Chowder, Anniversary dinner and Salem Lobster Roll.
Tips:
1. CAMPING SITES.
ioverlander is a great app for finding free informal (no services) camping. People post where there are places to stay overnight or for a few nights. They give a description of the place, size of area, road noise and any tips that might be useful. It’s not 100% fool proof, we did find ourselves in a few tight spots or having to look elsewhere because we didn’t fit. We never felt unsafe at any of the places. This type of camping takes a bit to get used to. Vince and Kim are pros at this, and Mark and Laureen were just learning. Hats off to Vince for biting his tongue and keeping his thoughts to himself (mostly) when Laureen started to question the places we were staying and when Mark was getting frustrated trying to fit his rig in (Vince’s 5th wheel is 23 feet and Mark’s pull trailer is 31 feet). Vince saved us thousands of dollars by camping this way.
We joined Harvest Host but didn’t find them overly convenient for us. You can stay at some neat places (wineries, farms, golf courses, breweries, restaurants, museums, etc) but it’s limited to 1 night stay, and you are expected to support their business. With wanting to tour the area for a couple of nights this wasn’t our best option.
Campgrounds were our last resort. They were great for doing laundry, topping off water, recharging batteries, emptying tanks, etc but mostly seemed like a waste of money for the time we were there. We only needed a place to sleep.
2. TOURS.
When booking more than one in a city, the visitor center is the best place to go because they can give discounts on tour packages. Check different websites because the same tour can be more money on different sites. Full day tours are the best for time management and really give you a feel for the place.
3. LOYALTY CLUBS.
Join them as often as you can to get the discounts offered. Free car washes, money off gas, loyalty points, etc. We didn’t go out of our way to stop at a particular one, so we joined them all.
4. DINING OUT.
Split meals when eating out. More often than not, you get enough for 2 people in one order because portion sizes are big. Not only does this save you money, you sometimes have room for dessert.
5. GROCERIES
When buying groceries, buy frozen vegetables instead of fresh. They last longer in the freezer and won’t go bad as fast as fresh in the trailers.
We started out buying groceries for a week, then changed it to once every couple of days. We found we weren’t sure when we would be eating at the trailer and food was going bad. You are always driving by a grocery store so stopping is easy. We kept soup, pasta and a quick-prepare frozen meal (skillet dinner) on hand at all times for quick meals.
6. GARBAGE
With no easy access to household waste disposal, we learned to unbox packaged food, prep veggies and repackage meat in the store parking lot to use their garbage cans.
7. WHAT TO PACK
- Throw in coveralls and work gloves. These really came in handy.
- Comfortable lawn chairs for sitting around your rig and light weight folding chairs to take with you. It was surprisingly how much we used both of them.
- One outdoor game that is quick to set up and doesn’t take a lot of room. We didn’t use it a lot, but it was nice to have.
- Power inverter. We bought a couple of small power inverters so that we could run the TV and charge some accessories, but it did not work very well. After getting home, we installed a large power inverter in the trailer that will work much better.
- Cell phone booster. Vince has a built-in cell booster in his trailer that we used a few times when boondocking in an area with bad reception, but for the cost of installing one I am not sure if it is worth it yet. Will see how we do on future trips.
- Fold up table for BBQ, etc. Most places don’t have picnic tables and having one that you can easily set up works great.
We couldn’t imagine doing this trip with anyone else. The 4 Amigos will ride again!
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