The Last Day!
We got up bright and early at 5 a.m. for what promised to be a 650 mile driving day from Havre, MT to Richland, WA.
After 21 days on the road – we were both eager to get back home to Washington. I had my fresh brewed coffee in hand, Aurora was happily nestled in her travel crate, and Noel had a list of non-work things to do from the passenger seat. We were ready to roll!
While I do the majority of driving on our trips – we tend to split it up a bit more on the longer days.
I enjoy driving and relish the opportunity to see the many road side attractions and interesting places to consider stopping in the future. I always watch for cool RVs while driving – on this trip I saw 4 different Newell Coaches on the road (these run $2.5M+ and are custom built) – so there is always something interesting to see. We have XM satellite radio in the Atlas – so we can listen to music everywhere. I also like to listen to podcasts or curated playlists on Apple Music.
In short – I am always in my happy place when on the road!
We spent the majority of the day once again driving through Montana – and it felt we were almost home once we hit the Idaho border and road signs started listing the mileage to Spokane, Washington.
We pulled into Richland around 5 p.m. with time to stop by the house and unload the refrigerator, freezer and dirty clothes before taking the Atlas to our storage facility.
4900+ miles in 21 days.
7 different states – Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington.
KOA campgrounds, small private family owned RV parks and State Parks all provided great spots to spend the night.
Would we do the trip again?
Absolutely!
In addition to the amazing places we stayed – we did learn a few things that we will keep in mind on future long RV trips (more than 5 days) –
First, while we have the “take down and set-up” down to a science – we would prefer to have several days of travel and then settle into a single spot for 4 or 5 days before extensive travel again.
Second, renting a car and leaving the camper in one spot in Traverse City was a game changer for us. As we do multi-week trips in the future, we will certainly tow a small car or Jeep to drive around when we are stopped in one place for a few days.
Third, we are doing better at not over-scheduling ourselves. Having a few days without specific things to do allows a lot of flexibility to take into account the weather and in general how we are feeling. Some internet sleuthing ahead of time also provides some options to consider – as well as local advice on things to do and places to see.
Fourth, we continue to really enjoy finding hidden dining spots that reflect a regional flair. We enjoyed fine dining, local diners, food trucks and produce stands – in addition to our own cooking. The varied dining options are all part of what we like about RV life.
Fifth, Starlink has been a life saver for “workamping” to ensure good internet connectivity regardless of location. Several of the campgrounds had excellent WiFi – but the significant majority do not have the bandwidth for video conferencing or serious work while on the road.
Sixth, we are starting to get a good idea of our eventual RV space needs on longer trips. The Atlas is the fifth different RV we have owned and is our first motorhome. Our RV experience started with a pop-up camper, then went into a hybrid Jayco camper with A/C and more space but still had canvas covered sleeping areas. We went to a completely hard shell next as we purchased our first Airstream trailers (each one a bit larger), and then finally to a Class B+ motorhome. I think we have a better sense of how much space we would like to have for longer trips – and I am not sure we would have known that without having a variety of different RV configurations over the past 20 years.
Last – and not least – it was a blast camping with other family members. While this is not easy with us being on the west coast and immediate family members being on the east coast (or Europe!) – we will make these experiences a priority moving forward.
At the end of the day – it was a fun trip – and I feel we are ready to do a month long trip back to the East Coast. A current “final destination” on this trip would be the Shenandoah Valley with significant time spent at Smokey Mountain National Park.
I already have my maps out for a long 2027 trip – so planning is underway!
As we wrap up this trip – I will pick my Top 10 highlights for another posting – and will ask Noel to pen a guest posting of our trip as well with her impressions and thoughts.
For those of you who have followed us along for the last 3 weeks – thanks for reading our daily posts. I hope you have enjoyed them as much as I have liked writing them.
We have several more RV trips planned for 2025 – so more posts will be coming soon!
Kirk’s Travelogue 