2023 travel route

Let’s look back at our coach travel in 2023. You may also want to check out the 2022 travel summary and the 2021 travel summary.

We bought our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP diesel pusher motorhome on September 2, 2021, and other than a few times when we’ve been out of it during servicing appointments or flying vacations, we’ve lived in it full-time since then.

When we bought the coach, it only had 5,161 miles on the odometer. In 2021 we drove it about 2,300 miles. In 2022 we drove another 8,772 miles. In 2023 we added 9,945 miles, so have driven it 21,017 miles on our adventures so far, for a grand total of 26,178 on the odometer.

One of our goals is to visit every state in the US. In 2023 we stayed in 11 new states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida. These join Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas in 2022, and Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, California, and Arizona in 2021, for a total of 23. Not quite halfway! (We only count states visited since purchasing our coach.)

We also revisited several states last year, as we headed back to our Pacific Northwest domicile. So all the states we visited in 2023 — in order — were Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida; a total of 20 in the year.

Here’s a map of our coach travels and stays in 2023, via the excellent RV Life Trip Wizard website, using a variation of their maps that more clearly shows the state borders and color-coded time zones. We started the year in southern Texas, then the route headed north then west to the California coast, north to Washington, east to North Dakota, south to New Mexico (a detour for the Balloon Fiesta), then east to Alabama (barely), south to Louisiana, and finally east to the panhandle of Florida, where we finished the year:

Map with time zones

Another variation of the map, with more detail:

Map

Here’s the route map with the travel in 2022 and 2021 also displayed in different colors; our 2023 travel in purple, our 2022 travel in blue, our 2021 coach travel in green, and our 2021 Yellowstone rental trailer trip in brown:

Combined map

The same map as an animated GIF, adding each year:

Route map GIF

We actually revised our route a few times from what we planned for 2023; here’s an animated GIF that compares what we had originally planned (as shown in last year’s 2023 travel plans post), and what we ended up doing (as above):

2023 maps

Fascinating!

2023 modifications

Happy New Year! 🎉

As we begin 2024, let’s look back at 2023, as I did this time last year.

I will have a series of blog posts reviewing topics from last year. I schedule my posts following a pattern: Modification Mondays, Travel Tuesdays, Whereabouts Wednesdays, and To and Fro Thursdays and Fridays (okay, those last ones are bit of a stretch). So I will post my annual summaries in that order too, starting with modifications today.

We have done a number of modifications to our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome, to make it more comfortable as a full-time home, to improve the features, or to repair issues. This is a summary of some of the changes done in 2023; also check out the changes from 2022 and 2021.

For each modification topic I include a link to the corresponding blog post, and a sample picture; see the post for details. (Tip: you can click or tap on either the link or picture to go to the corresponding post.)

You can see all of the modification-related blog posts via the modifications category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.

Upgraded TST TPMS display:

New mattress:

Slide topper bracing to reduce flapping in wind:

Micro-Air EasyTouchRV smart thermostats:

Improved tow bar pins:

Govee smart thermometers:

Replaced more recessed lights:

Replaced carbon monoxide detector:

Dryer magnets:

Water softener regeneration and backflush hoses and adapters:

Professionally cleaning gray and black tanks:

Water filter bag:

Adding a bedside Spyder touch panel:

David’s lap desk:

Jenn’s movable height-adjustable desk:

Ceiling fan motor replacement again:

Phone holders:

Engine compartment door stop replacement:

Hat hooks:

Fridge latch repair:

A bubble level helps us check when leveling our coach:

Extended cup holders:

Fresh tank flush:

Replaced chassis batteries and more at Oregon Motorcoach Center:

Tire covers:

Dryer vent padding:

Flagpole for Starlink dish:

15 amp to 50 amp power adapter:

Truck canopy, slide tray, lift kit:

Basement subwoofer:

Replacing bathroom faucets and soap dispensers:

SnapPads:

Replacing wiper blades:

Fixing windshield washer hose:

Fixing black tank flush:

Fixing bathroom vent lid motor:

360 camera mount on truck:

Replacing fuse for solar controller:

Replacing fridge drawer cover:

Braking: Bad:

I hope you found these posts interesting and useful.

Flagpole for Starlink dish

The Starlink service is a great option when we don’t have cellular service (or when we only have a network with limited data). But not so great when there are trees or other obstacles that block the signal.

RVs with a ladder will often use a FlagPole Buddy kit, that enables mounting a flagpole on the ladder. But our coach doesn’t have a ladder, so I needed a different solution.

Inspired by a post by Rick in my Tiffin Allegro Bus 2016-2018 Owners community on Facebook, I purchased a 20 foot telescoping flagpole and accessories to mount it on our coach, so we can raise the dish above our coach, giving it a better chance of a clear signal.

Another nice benefit of this system is that I can position the pole and dish anywhere around the coach, to have the most clear view of the satellites.

I bought the items Rick suggested:

20 foot telescoping flagpole from Harbor Freight
TEYOUYI adapter bushing for Starlink from Amazon
FCHO glass suction cups from Amazon
Wrap-It heavy duty velcro straps from Amazon

Flag pole, adapter, velcro, suction cups

Dish

To attach the adapter to the flagpole, I removed the two screws that hold the top of the flagpole on, then the adapter simply slips in. I used the same screws to attach the adapter, only screwing one of them in partway, to avoid intruding into the tube space:

Bushing adapter

The Starlink dish simply slides into the adapter and clicks in place on the pole:

Dish on the pole

On this occasion, I put the Starlink modem in the wet bay, running the cord through the hose space:

Modem in wet bay

The cable and the flagpole sitting on the ground:

Cable

Suction cups and velcro straps holding the flagpole:

Suction cups and velcro straps holding flag pole

The dish has a nice clear view of the sky:

Dish

The dish on the flagpole:

Pole and dish

Later, the flagpole with the Starlink dish and a Mariners flag, mounted at the front of the coach:

Flagpole with Starlink dish and Mariners flag

With a US flag:

Flagpole with Starlink dish and US flag

At another campground, mounted lower without a flag (more stable that way):

Starlink on flagpole

Video

Video: 2021-2022 motorhome travel timelapses in less than 6 minutes!

Was the 2022 timelapses video not fast enough for you? Hey, I understand; 38 minutes is quite long, even at 20x the original timelapses speed. This video combines both the 2021 and 2022 timelapse videos, and makes them eight times faster (i.e. 160 times faster than original timelapses), so you can see all our motorhome travel in less than six minutes!

2022 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:

States

The states sticker consists of separate stickers for each state, applied to a base sticker. Our rule is that we have to spend a night in a state for it to count (and only since purchasing our coach). Once we have spent a night in a new state, we add its sticker. So far, we’ve visited 12 of the 50 states:

States

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 just by the next time we visit (and may or may not rent a camper of some sort, depending on how strict we want to be).

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. So far, we have visited 27 of the 63 parks:

National Park stickers

Of course, we’ve also visited numerous National Monuments, National Historic Sites, and other classifications. With 423 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 other objects) for any kind of attraction we visit:

States and stickers board

The wooden map has pins for states we’ve visited (in their capitols); the pins feature the state flags:

Map

Some of the stickers above and below the map:

Stickers

2022 selfies

I thought it’d be fun to create an animated GIF of selfies and other pictures of Jenn and me from 2022. We’ve been to some interesting places!

2022 special posts

While most of the posts on this blog are about travel, campgrounds, attractions, and modifications, I sometimes post about other topics. This is a summary of those posts 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.

Making a multi-year route map:

Introducing the Tiffin Allegro Bus 2016-2018 Owners group on Facebook:

Sinclair Trails logo:

Sinclair Trails merch!

Washingtonians:

Anniversary of buying our motorhome:

RV floorplan and square footage:

RV trip planning:

2022 modifications

As with previous summaries, for each I include a link to the corresponding blog post, and a sample picture; see the post for details.

You can see all of the modification-related blog posts via the modifications category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.

Security cameras:

Telescoping ladder:

Spyder control panel and shades issue:

States map:

Jack pads:

Bolts to secure our outdoor rug:

An extra step:

Truck windshield rock chip repair:

Wine rack and liquor holder:

Steering wheel table:

Cummins for check engine and malfunction lights:

Magne Shades:

National park stickers:

Foldable wagon:

Dash cover:

3-stage water filter:

Safe T Plus and Koni shocks:

Chair armrest adjustment:

Water quick connectors and gauges:

Coach Proxy:

Starlink internet:

Window latch repair:

Ceiling fan motor replacement:

Replacing 3-stage water filters:

Lectric XP 2.0 ebikes:

Propane fire pit:

CLAM screen tent:

IKEA storage cabinets:

Reflectix insulation in cupboards:

Heavy-duty security chain and lock for bikes:

Bike lock

Sinclair Trails stickers:

Half-bath door hinges:

Hammock:

Map and sticker art:

Theater seating and cabinets:

Mirror glass replacement:

Firefly Vegatouch Mira:

Unclogging macerating toilet:

Automatic paper towel dispenser:

Water softener:

BlueFire diagnostic adapter:

Power Watchdog dimmer shade:

RV fire safety:

Wash Wax All waterless cleaner:

VIAIR tire inflation compressor:

2022 attractions, part 4

Concluding the summary of some of the attractions we visited in 2022.

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.