10,832 miles 62 Days

[GeneF]

Rather than make this a real long post about the trip, I thought I would share some reflections about the trip.

Although we did this in a hybrid, we could have done it in the popup also.  In fact, we did a 47 day cross country trip in 1991, DW, DD, DS and I in an 8 foot Jayico.  Still talkabout that trip.

I have started this post out talking about living in the Kiwi, I do not intend to do a comparison of living in a popup verses a hybrd,  I am honestly giving you my impressions of what worked for us on this trip.

Living in the Kiwi 23B

I have seen some posts about living in a hybrid for an extended period of time. I can honestly say that neither DW or I ever felt crowded in the Kiwi. We both had plenty of room to walk about and do whatever we wanted. Very comfortable all of the time. We had a friend travel with us for a week and we were all very comfortable.

The ac worked great in some of the hottest weather like 94 degrees in Arizona. Heater worked fine in 30 degree weather in Utah.

We found that if we had the bunk end down in hot weather, putting the privacy curtains down in the day time helped to cool the Kiwi faster.

DW found it easy to use the stove, microwave and sink. The exhaust fan over the stove helped a lot. She also appreciated the pantry storage space.

The shower is a bit crowded but doable especially if the cg bathrooms are not the greatest. The 6 gallon hot water heater provided plenty of hot water for the two of us to take showers right after each other.

What we didn't like was the water around the kitchen sink faucets from your wet hands using the faucets. The bathroom sink could be a bit bigger and again water would collect in front of the sink from your hands or face washing but these seem to be common problems.

Kiwi Versatility

We used the Kiwi in just about every configuration. Both ends out, one end out, and turtled depending on the situation. For most of our one nighters, we turtled. DW used the couch and I used the dinette. Both proved to be comfortable. Also discovered that we could use the front bunk without unhitching for the night. Only problem was that the bunk end was about 6 inches from the truck cap and we couldn't get into the back of the truck.

We got so we could set up the Kiwi in about 15 minutes.

Campgrounds

On this type of trip, we tended to use campgrounds that were close to the highways. Besides traffic noise, many a night we also had to contend with trains blowing their whistles and in one campground, it seems they added an airport. We were surprised to see how long those trains are and how many there are of them out West. Not a lot of them in the NH area.

Many of the campgrounds were not much more than parking lots and we felt small amongst the bigger Class A's, 5th wheels and larger travel trailers. Most of the cg's west of MI did not offer fire rings. We did miss having a campfire.

We found that state parks offered good value. Reasonable prices and many offered at least electricity. In a Texas state cg, we had water, elec and cable for $19.

We also noticed that there does not seem to be as much of a social element at these cg's than we were use too. People were friendly but you didn't see the socialization going on that you see at some cg's.

We used state, national and private cg's plus one night at WalMart. AAA, Good Sam, and my Golden Age Passport saved us a few dollars. Camping fees ranged from 0 at Walmart to a high of $28 at one private cg. Average cost was about $20 a night.

We only used two KOA's but we really felt good about one of them. In Louisiana, the KOA we stopped at offered free transportaton to New Orleans. Definetly worth the money alone for that as I do not like to drive in large cities. Taxi fair would have been $52.

Other thing I liked was when I asked the manager where I could go to get the Kiwi washed. His reply was "Wash it here, we have our own well." Most cg's won't let you do that. So off to WallyWorld for some RV wash, sponge and nozzle.

We found most of the cg's bathrooms to be very neat and clean. Some were elaborate with tile floors and large showers and others were cement buildings with small showers. Only one we didn't care for was one that had gang showers. I hadn't seen those since I was in the military.

Books

We used Woodalls, AAA Triptik, maps and cg guides. Biggest book that DW loved was Next Exit. Highly recommend this book for a long trip. She was my expert navigator on this trip.  We had a choice of three different Atlases but after DW reviewed them, we took along the Reader's Digest one.  Main two reasons was that it had the best city maps and she could read the print on the map.

All of this info came in handy when we changed our northern route home from what we had on the TripTik.

Gasoline

This was one thing that put a hole in the budget. Gas prices ranged from $173.9 to $239.9 a gallon. We found that if we drove a few miles off the highway, we could find gas 5 to ten cents cheaper. In Williams, AZ it was $2.39 right of the highway and $2.05 in town.

I just figured it out and we spent $1808.23 in gas. If I did my math right, that is about 17 cents a mile just for gas.  We averaged about 11 mpg ovreral driving with the a/c on and in third gear using tow/haul.

I also had the oil changed three times, the tires rotated once and a new set of shocks put on.

Food

This is an area that we found could quickly eat up your budget. Eating out can be expensive, even breakfast could cost more than $10 with tip. We tended to have coffee and cereal in the morning and DW would make up some sandwhiches for lunch. We generally cooked supper after we set up.

We did eat out on some occassions. Mainly for a special occassion or if we were visiting friends. Of course in areas like New Orleans, we had to try the local cuisine.

Trip Worry

My main concern was getting a flat tire or having a wheel bearing go but we lucked out and had no such problems. Why was I worried, well when you see signs that say "Next Gas 107 miles" you know there isn't a gas station or mechanic nearby. There are some very long stretches in the West that only have cows for inhabitants.

Here are a few other tipos if you decide to take a long trip.

Use the Welcome Centers that most states have as you cross into a state.

You can find discount coupon books that can save you a few dollars on attractions and meals.

Also, many have camping guides and maps for free.

Plenty of pamphlets on local attractions. You might find some places that you hadn't thought about visiting.

We found them very helpful on giving us the best way to get to an attraction that we were planning on visiting. All personnel were helpful and courteous.

At some of them, there are phones available for you to make reservations.

On our way home, we had planned on stopping at Fort Sumter. Lucky for us that we stopped at the Welcome Center. We found out that the last boat to the fort left at 2:30. There was no way we could make it so the stop saved us a lot of frustration.

Cell Phones. If you plan on using a cell phone to keep in touch with family back home, be aware that there is no service in some areas. We had no service for the three days that we were at the Grand Canyon and on the road we found service to be very spotty at best.


Would we do another trip like this again in the Kiwi? Well, current tentative plans for next year are Ohio, Missouri and Montana.



2003 Kiwi 23B
2002 Chevy Silve

[byrdr1]

Grest post/s Gene!
Where was your daughter?
Was it just you and the miss'es?
Did you come through NC like 3 years ago?
Just wondering?
Randy
This is a trip I hope to make someday..

[GeneF]

Grest post/s Gene!
Where was your daughter?
Was it just you and the miss'es?
Did you come through NC like 3 years ago?
Just wondering?
Randy
This is a trip I hope to make someday..

Randy

This trip was just the DW and I.

DD is now a Freshman in college.

You are correct that we came through NC about 3 years ago.  We spent some time there looking at colleges and touring on our way to the Tennessee Rally.

I just hope that all of you that dream about taking this type of trip does come true for you.  It was a long time dream for DW and I.

I was talking to a kid at a Jiffy Lube who was changing the oil on the truck..  He asked me whee I was travelling too. I told him.  He said that he hoped to take a trip like that some day.  I told him all he had to do was "Get old and save a few dollars."  First part is easy, second part takes some planning.

[dee106]

it was great reading, thanks!

[mowalker]

Excellent advise Gene!  We also love the Next Exit Book.  I also play navagator while DH drives, that can be a tough job when changing lanes can be a turn only and you are wanting to take the "next" turn but want to be prepared for your upcoming turn.
 
Glad you had a fun and safe trip!
 
Brenda

[SkipP]

Excellent post Gene..... and a fun read! Man, that sounds like a lot of fun...... aside from the gas/gas prices part.

Did you run into any problems with full CG's?

[GeneF]

Skipp

Travelling this time of year presented no problems with campgrounds whether state, national or private.

We generally stopped at a cg around 4 or 5 in the afternoon.  If we thought there might be a problem, we called ahead on the cell phone but never had a problem.

The only area that had a full campground was at the Grand Canyon.  The Trailer Village campground was full mainly because it had full hookups.  We had no problem getting into Mather's CG in the Grand Canyon.  This was dry camping and there were plenty of open sites.  We actually liked Mathers better because it wasn't a parking lot.  Nice site with some elk that liked our site for their afternoon siesta.

North of Connecticut campgrounds became a bit of a problem because many had closed for the season.  We spent the last night in a motel.
Main reason for that was I had drained and flushed the black and grey tanks and wasn't sure where I could do that again.

By the way, we did find that many rest areas, particularly in the West, had dump station facilities.