31 states in 31 days in a new RV

How much can you see if you could spend a month on the road? A reader "Dave" recently shared the story of his family's first adventure in their new RV. Here is Dave's story:
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On my birthday in January 2006 we purchased a new 31' Winnebago Outlook Motor Home. On Feb. 1st we set out from our home in Torrance California, my Wife and I, our two kids, two dogs and two hamsters on a journey. Our goal was to see as much of the US as possible in 30 days, as we needed to be back in Phoenix Arizona on March 3rd for my wifes fathers 90th birthday.

The trip's objective was to determine where in the US we would decide to relocate to from our current home in California. I drove all 10,000 miles that we put on our new MH in the 31 days of driving we did. Some days were longer than others, but it would average to be 350 miles per day. Other than a couple of days parked in relatives driveways, we would stay in a RV park for the night, or for maybe 1/3 or the time we would stay in a motel room with the van in the parking lot.

I thoroughly enjoyed doing the driving, while my wife and kids did their daily routine of being home schooled. As we entered a new state, my wife would get out the map and go over the State Capital, State Bird and any interesting facts about the state as part of the geography lesson.

We traveled through a couple of snow storms and no matter if we were going up hill or down, with the wind in front or at our back, we got 7 mpg on the V10 Ford Chassis Winnebago. But we did see a lot of the USA in a short period of time.

There was some retracing of our trip so we could visit with some relatives, but the following will give you the state-by-state rundown of our first family adventure in our vehicle nicknamed "Motee".

California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinios, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsyvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, kentucky, West Virgina, (back tracked back through Ohio and Kentucky) Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

31 different states in 31 days, for 10,000 miles. No problems, used a lot of gas, but had a great time.

Now I live in Georgetown Texas, work at a Mercedes Benz dealership where we also sell the Sprinter Vans, and wish I had bought the Winnebago View with the Sprinter Chassis instead of the Ford. I can just imagine getting 18-20 mpg instead of 7. Maybe just a little less power and room, but would have been worth it for the economy. Oh well, that's for the next family adventure.
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Thanks Dave for sharing your story. Do you have a great story to share? Email me.

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