Was the 2023 timelapses video not fast enough for you? Hey, I understand; 40 minutes is quite long, even at 20x the original timelapses speed. This video combines the 2021, 2022, and 2023 timelapse videos, and makes them eight times faster (i.e. 160 times faster than original timelapses), so you can see about 20k miles of motorhome travel in about 10 minutes!
Month: January 2024
2023 stickers
On the passenger-side slide-out, we have a large sticker with the Sinclair Trails logo, a map of the US showing the states we’re visited, and stickers with the SinclairTrails.com domain name and @SinclairTrails social handle:
The states sticker consists of separate stickers for each state, applied to a base sticker. Our rule used to be that we have to spend a night in a state for it to count (and only since purchasing our coach), though we’ve recently relaxed that a bit to just having done something in the state, e.g. camp, eat in a restaurant, or explore something. Not just driving through. Though we still do plan to stay in each state. Once we have done something in a new state, we add its sticker. So far, we’ve visited 23 of the 50 states:
We’ll probably have to replace these stickers at some point; the earlier ones are looking very faded.
Visiting Alaska is going to be a major project. And of course we can’t take our motorhome to Hawaii, but we’ll count that when we next visit there.
On the driver-side slide-out of the coach, we have stickers for each of the National Parks we have visited, that being another of the goals in our travels. We visited 8 more parks in 2023 (plus revisited several), so have visited 35 of the 63 parks; still lots to go:
Of course, we’ve also visited numerous National Monuments, National Historic Sites, and other classifications. With 428 parks of various types in the National Park System, not to mention parks administered by states, forest services, etc, we had to cap the memorializing of them somewhere! National Parks are the goal; others are gravy.
However, inside our coach we have a framed board with a wooden map of the US, around which we add stickers and pins for any kind of attraction we visit. It’s populated a bit more since last year, though still lots of space for future attractions:
The wooden map has pins for states we’ve visited; the pins feature the state flags:
2023 selfies
I thought it’d be fun to create an animated GIF of selfies and other pictures of Jenn and me from 2023. We’ve been to some interesting places!
2023 special posts
While most of the posts on this blog are about modifications, travel, campgrounds, and attractions, I sometimes post about other topics. This is a summary of those posts from 2023. (See also those from 2022.)
As with previous summaries, for each I include a link to the corresponding blog post, and a sample picture; see the post for details.
The two most frequently asked questions:
How we work full-time in our coach:
Open Roads fuel discount card:
Open Roads Freedom Pass toll transponders:
Second anniversary of buying our motorhome:
Towed from Santa Rosa to Moriarty, New Mexico:
2023 attractions, part 4
Concluding the summary of some of the attractions we visited in 2023. With some sneak peeks of places we visited recently that haven’t been posted about yet!
This is part four of four, covering October through December, inclusive. Start with part one, or check out part two or part three, if you haven’t already.
October 2023
Yellowstone Old Faithful area:
Yellowstone Tower-Roosevelt area:
Yellowstone old west cookout and wagon ride:
Buffalo Bill Center of the West:
Devils Tower National Monument:
November 2023
Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit:
Theodore Roosevelt National Park South Unit:
Pitchfork Steak Fondue and Medora Musical:
Mount Rushmore National Memorial:
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site:
December 2023
Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico:
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta morning sessions:
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta evening sessions:
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta flight:
Hot Springs National Park (blog post coming in January):
Garvan Woodland Gardens (post coming in January):
Graceland (post coming in January):
Natchez Trace Parkway (post coming in February):
New Orleans (post coming in February):
New Orleans airboat swamp tour (post coming in February):
New Orleans Oak Alley Plantation (post coming in February):
New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Sunday Brunch Jazz Cruise (post coming in February):
The National WWII Museum (post coming in February):
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve (post coming in February):
New Orleans St Louis Cemetery Number 1 (post coming in February):
New Orleans Celebration in the Oaks:
Lambert’s Cafe (post coming in February):
Fort Morgan State Historic Site (post coming in February):
USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park (post coming in February):
Lots of fun activities!
2023 attractions, part 3
Continuing from yesterday, a summary of some of the attractions we visited in 2023.
This is part three of four, covering July through September, inclusive. Start with part one, or check out part two, if you haven’t already.
July 2023
Bruce Munro: Light at Sensorio:
Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center:
Napa and Sonoma wineries: Domaine Carneros, Iron Horse, Korbel:
Mariners at Athletics baseball game:
Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt Redwoods State Park:
August 2023
Redwood State and National Parks:
Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area:
September 2023
Olympic National Park beaches and rainforests:
Seattle Mariners vs Chicago White Sox baseball game:
Ferry to Seattle, Mariners team store:
Craters of the Moon National Monument:
Snake River whitewater rafting:
Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion, tomorrow.
2023 attractions, part 2
Continuing from yesterday, a summary of some of the attractions we visited in 2023.
This is part two of four, covering April through June, inclusive. Check out part one, if you haven’t already.
April 2023
May 2023
The Beatles Love Cirque du Soleil:
Death Valley Furnace Creek Visitor Center and The Ranch:
Death Valley Star Wars locations driving tour:
Death Valley Badwater Basin hike:
June 2023
Death Valley Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and Stovepipe Wells:
Joshua Tree National Park day 1:
Joshua Tree National Park day 2:
Joshua Tree National Park day 3:
Japanese Friendship Garden of San Diego:
Stay tuned for part three, tomorrow.
2023 attractions, part 1
One of the main reasons for traveling the United States in a motorhome is to explore the many wonders around the country. This is a summary of some of the attractions we visited in 2023. Again, you can also see the ones from 2022, and from 2021.
We’ve seen so much, I’ve split this topic into four parts, one for each quarter of the year. This is the first part, for January through March, inclusive.
As with the previous summaries, I’ll include a link to the corresponding blog post, and a sample picture. Click or tap the link or picture to see more.
You can see all of the attraction-related blog posts via the exploring category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.
January 2023
February 2023
March 2023
Waco Mammoth National Monument:
US Virgin Islands sailing & snorkeling:
US Virgin Islands: Magens Bay Beach:
US Virgin Islands National Park:
US Virgin Islands power boat circle of St. John:
Check out part two, coming tomorrow!
2023 campgrounds
Another interesting summary of 2023 — the places we stayed during the year. See also the posts for 2022 and 2021.
Read to the end for some sneak peeks of places we stayed that I haven’t yet posted about!
For each location, I’ve included a link to the corresponding blog post, so you can click through to see a lot more information, and a picture of our site. Enjoy!
You can also see all of the campground-related blog posts via the campsite category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.
Thousand Trails Colorado River RV Campground:
Thousand Trails Lake Conroe RV & Camping Resort:
Thousand Trails Lake Texoma RV Campground:
Tombstone RV Park & Campground:
NIRVC Phoenix service to fix DEF head failure and more:
Death Valley Furnace Creek Campground:
San Francisco North / Petaluma KOA:
Giant Redwoods RV & Cabin Destination:
Crescent City / Redwoods KOA Holiday:
Thousand Trails South Jetty RV & Camping Resort:
Thousand Trails Oceana RV & Camping Resort:
LL Stub Stewart State Park, Dairy Creek East:
Mt Hood Village RV & Camping Resort, again:
Fishing Bridge Campground, Yellowstone National Park:
Devils Tower / Black Hills KOA Journey:
Spearfish / Black Hills KOA Holiday:
Badlands / White River KOA Holiday:
Hidden Lake Campground and Resort:
Ogallala Tri-Trails KOA Journey:
Circle Drive Campground, Lake Scott State Park:
Tucumcari / Route 66 KOA Journey:
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park:
Oklahoma City East KOA Holiday:
Lake Dardanelle State Park (post coming in January):
Catherine’s Landing (post coming in January):
Graceland RV Park & Campground (post coming in January):
Red Bay Acres RV Resort (post coming in January):
Meridian East / Toomsuba KOA Journey (post coming in February):
New Orleans RV Resort & Marina (post coming in February):
Meaher State Park (post coming in February):
Ho-Hum RV Park (post coming in February):
Lots of interesting (and not so interesting) places to stay this year.
Video: 2023 motorhome travel timelapses
See a summary of driving our Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome throughout 2023!
This combines all of the motorhome travel timelapses for 2023 into one video, at 20x the speed of the original timelapse videos.