Well, we have come full circle. This weekend we went camping in Sunny at Horseneck Beach in MA which happens to be the first camping trip we took with Sunny back in April when we first got her and this trip was a gleam in our eyes. It felt like the completion of the adventure circle.
We had a bit of a hard re-entry coming home to no heat and hot water and the fridge dying 3 days later. Sunny came to the rescue providing us with shower options and our wood burning stove saved us in the heat dept but all is well again. It took some wrangling but we are now back to what counts for “normal” around here. Heading out to Horseneck Beach was a remembrance of the past few months and felt a bit like coming home ironically.
Things we have ruminated on the past two weeks: We loved the trip more than we could have thought, camping is now a part of our lives, we now have a renewed excitement for bike riding and will be doing a lot more of it, less went wrong than we thought it would, our relationship not only survived but thrived, North America is diverse and beautiful, people are generally good and yes, we would do this again.
I learned about myself, my partner and also the differences between my life and the life of so many other people on this continent we share. We strove to speak to people and find out differences of life and opinions and perhaps understand our differences a bit more. In that I think we were, at least, partially successful. The actual (as opposed to just intellectual) understanding of how much farmland makes up North America and the job of feeding the country and the world. We have also gained an appreciation of what we have here, at home and how beautiful our little corner of the world really is.
Some stats we thought you would find interesting:
- US States: 24 (ugh, one shy of half!)
- Canadian Provinces: 3
- Miles: 12,500
- Number of nights: 71
- Harvest Host Stays: 27 nights/21 locations
- Campgrounds: 20 nights/ 9 locations
- State/National Parks: 15 nights/ 7 locations
- Hotel: 2 nights/1 location
- Family stays: 7 nights/2 locations
Cost Breakdown:
Camping $ 163.50
Entertainment $ 422.66
Fees & Adjustments $ 7.21
Food & Drink & Sundries $ 3,070.82
Gas $ 2,984.35
Gigi Maintenance $ 154.21
Misc. Costs/Gifts $ 400.89
Hotel $ 370.64
Parks $ 25.92
$ 7,600.20
Cash $ 2,000.00 (not broken down into the above categories)
Total $ 9,600.20
Gas and food were certainly our biggest expenses. Sundries (included in the food cost) covered things like fly swatters, Raid, small pan and other items that we bought along the way that we needed/wanted for the camper. We kept our food costs in check by eating at the Camper a lot and our lodging stays were minimized by the use of Harvest Host, Boondockers Welcome and free State Park Campgrounds. We did occasionally splurge on some nice meals out so that increased our total but I am not sorry 
. Entertainment included things like going to museums, renting the pontoon boat, etc. We certainly could have done it cheaper by being even more diligent about eating lunches at the camper instead of on the road, not splurging on dinner at restaurants when we did, not staying at the hotel in KY and cutting some of the entertainment costs but I am happy with how it was done and it was certainly within our estimated budget so I am pleased. All counted it came out to $135.21 per day for both of us.
I am including a picture of our trip highlighted on a map below. It is a bit hard to see because we used a yellow highlighter but if you blow it up a bit you can see it. It looks a bit like we were drunk because there are not a lot of straight lines but we took pains to avoid highways as much as possible to get to see the small towns and neighborhoods. It is still hard for me to believe that we did all of that.
We are still processing everything that we have seen and done. It is taking a while to settle. We need to spend some time re-reading this blog and going through our pictures. Jonathan is going to be writing a follow-up piece with his own thoughts on the trip. So there will be one more post to go. One thing I can say – I highly recommend going out and meeting the people, seeing the land and learning about the world out there and yourself. If you can – please do. We realize how extremely lucky we are to have been able to do this. Happy Adventuring – whatever that looks like for you!
Full Map
Horseneck Beach
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