Mia and I are now home. Our month-long vacation of #vanlife was a success. I don’t have much to complain about (minus two flat bike tires and a dog bite) and we definitely had an overall great time.

By the numbers Rhodes Trip 2022 looked a bit like this:

• 8,728 miles traveled
• 17.8 MPG average for gas consumption
• $2,287 spent on gas
• 53 MPH average speed
• 161.75 hours of driving
• 29 different states passed through
• 16 campsites
• 3 cabins
• 1 friend’s house
• 1 family’s driveway
• Avoided one natural disaster by several hours

Weather

We experienced the gambit of weather (minus snowfall). When we left Oregon on June 9th we were in the wettest April, May, June on record. That rainfall followed us off and on for the first few days before breaking out into full on “Summer Mode” for most of the rest of the trip. We had a very angry thunder and lightning show during the evening in South Dakota on day 3 and were outrunning a line of severe storms coming into Pennsylvania/New York at the end of week one. The only other rain we really saw was a few hours of showers while coming into our campsite the first night in Colorado.

Traveling with a dog

Since we had Codi with us, I tried to book lodging at or near places with lakes, rivers or some other body of water so he could cool off, especially in the warmer/humid states.

Family & Friends

It was also nice to get to spend some time with family and friends along the way. Many whom we haven’t seen face to face since prior to the COVID pandemic.

Going through pictures I realized I didn’t take any from the night we got together at my sister’s house in Pinardville, NH. I believe I was just too preoccupied with spending time with my side of the family, and it has been waaaayyy tooooo loooong since that happened outside of a funeral (or two) in the past few years.

Bucket List Items

I’m not a fan of the term “Bucket List” it implies a bit of just checking something off. With that being said though this trip allowed us to make some (a few were very brief) stops at a decent amount of USA famous (and some lesser known) landmarks.

There was also the incredibly desolate Highway 50 through Utah and Nevada. It has the moniker “The Loneliest Road in America“. Having now driven it in almost its entirety I don’t think there is much reason to ever have to do that again. But then again there are hot springs, Great Basin National Park, and others to see……so maybe I take that last statement back.

Over the one month on the road, we had no issues with the van. The electrical system I put in worked flawlessly. Mechanically the van worked great, though at some point we broke the lens on one of the fog lights, probably from a kicked-up rock.

That’s about all I got for this summary. Next up I will be writing about the campgrounds/cabins we stayed at. The good, bad and ugly of it all.

Thanks for reading,
-Pete