The cost of one month on the road,Albuquerque and Vivian!

Today is day 31 on the road and I have added gas, campsite fees, food out, extra cell phone data, car washes, attractions and activities plus groceries for the month and our daily average $84. (Excluding wine and I lost track of wine purchases...oops - smile) Compared to traditional driving a car, eating out every meal, and hotel cost this is a great way to travel and see the country. On our first big trip, we visited parts of 15 states. We have traveled 5,800 miles. 

We have had a great experience and visited so many awesome places and we have only 4 days remaining 

 Mark would like to spend more time between travel segments. We did lots of driving and while not hard it gets tiring pulling the travel trailer. Having more down time is on his wish list. I agree, we could use additional veg out time. Mark quickly learned to back in spaces and navigate gas stations. 

We haven’t identified anything that we forgot- but on the next trip I will take my nespresso maker. I used a French press and while good coffee, dealing with coffee grounds is a pain. I will also bring a blender. I have missed Mark’s famous Mark-a-Rita’s. 

Kate has adjusted to the road trip but thinks we might leave her! Every time we get ready to start packing up she anxiously sits by the truck. As soon as we put her in she relaxes and sits patiently for us to finish hooking up. 

We don’t have a generator which is really needed if you want to boondock. Mark says we don’t have one “yet”.(smile)  It would have been cool to boondock on the ridges overlooking Arches National Park or in the Badlands. But would have been way to hot for us and Kate. 

We stayed at our first casino RV park last night in Albuquerque. Super super nice. We will look for more casino RV parks!  The ironic part it was a non smoking casino and we might have gone in but they were not allowing anyone inside from out of state. We did enjoy a cold beer sitting outside and watching this guy fly around. 

I have loved visiting with family and friends along the way and that has made a special trip for me. Last night, we had dinner with Rudy and Vivian Porter. Vivian and I survived our last two years of work in the immunization division together. Vivian was one of two CDC public health advisors assigned to immunizations. It was a horrible place to work.... just miserable for both of us. We were told we couldn’t talk to each other because were were too opinionated about the program. The only place we could talk was in the bathroom! We both expected the awesomeness of work in immunizations when Bob Crider, Jan Pelosi, Cindy Banister, Brenda Howell and I all worked together. So needless to say it was wonderful to visit and share an awesome meal on their back patio!