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!
summary
End-of-year summaries of posts in the previous year.
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.
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:
Another variation of the map, with more detail:
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:
The same map as an animated GIF, adding each year:
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):
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.
Slide topper bracing to reduce flapping in wind:
Micro-Air EasyTouchRV smart thermostats:
Replaced more recessed lights:
Replaced carbon monoxide detector:
Water softener regeneration and backflush hoses and adapters:
Professionally cleaning gray and black tanks:
Adding a bedside Spyder touch panel:
Jenn’s movable height-adjustable desk:
Ceiling fan motor replacement again:
Engine compartment door stop replacement:
A bubble level helps us check when leveling our coach:
Replaced chassis batteries and more at Oregon Motorcoach Center:
15 amp to 50 amp power adapter:
Truck canopy, slide tray, lift kit:
Replacing bathroom faucets and soap dispensers:
Fixing windshield washer hose:
Fixing bathroom vent lid motor:
Replacing fuse for solar controller:
Replacing fridge drawer cover:
I hope you found these posts interesting and useful.