2025 in Review
Year four of our “two year plan” is in the books! Living in a motorhome and traveling the country has become the norm for us and anything different just seems frightening. What a change from all the initial anxiety of giving up our “normal” life four years ago and jumping into this new life adventure.
2025 was a tale of two journeys which makes it seems like much longer than just a year (in a good way). After wintering for a bit in Big Bend with friends, we headed out to the sunshine state where we were guests of Forest River at the largest RV show on the planet in Tampa. We enjoyed touring the natural springs in central and northern Florida before heading up the east coast.
Many people look at the lower and middle east coast simply as that beach spot or golf vacation, and it is. However, what it also unveiled to us is a real life early American history lesson. As we traveled from place to place, we were able to piece together many stories of early settlement, slavery and the struggles and triumphs of (what was at the time) this new land. Taking a step back makes you appreciate and understand this country even more. The history lesson culminated in Williamsburg with a visit to the America’s Historic Triangle, a place that everyone should visit at least once.
Of course we visited several national parks along the way, some lesser known ones this time such as Congaree, Shenandoah and Cuyahoga Valley. Our national parks are certainly the crown jewels of this country. Whenever you see a park ranger be sure to thank them for what they do. Oh, and don’t forget about those hidden state parks. Blackwater Falls and Ohiopyle were a real treat.
We really enjoyed traveling with good friends again for a while and sharing these experiences with others. It’s different traveling with people and you find yourself mixing things up and enjoying different aspects of this lifestyle. We were even able to sneak away for a week to go on a cruise. What? A vacation!
Then things got a little different. Shannon flew back to Texas as me and the dogs continued on to Indiana to get some work done on the coach at the Georgetown factory service center. I soloed for three weeks before reuniting with my partner in crime. It was quite different traveling alone and taking care of all the tasks – I even had to learn how to use the washer and dryer – while my better half visited family and friends while taking care of business in Dallas. But we all survived.
Our time in Texas was a good opportunity to catch up with family and friends as we endured the summer heat, but it was time to head to higher ground… Rocky Mountain high.
We spent three and half months in the Rocky Mountains, from late summer until old man winter started gently knocking on the door. This is a place we had only visited in the dead of winter for ski trips, and we quickly learned just how much more Colorado has to offer, from natural hot springs to Native American cliff dwellings, and from dramatic mountain vistas to deep majestic canyons, Colorado did not disappoint.
We spent a month in the quaint little town of Silverton and did the most incredible off-roading in the Jeep that one could imagine. We loved everything about this town and the San Juan mountain range, including the Durango/Silverton steam engine which would come and visit us daily (literally) in our own backyard.
We also spent a month in Estes Park visiting Rocky Mountain National Park. This quickly became one of our favorite national parks. The high altitude of this park brings a whole new world much closer to many. Hiking at 13,000 feet is truely (and literally) an experience not for the faint of heart!
After spending more time in the Dallas and Houston areas to visit family and friends, we now relax in Galveston with the sounds of the surf and seagulls flying overhead. It’s time to recharge, look back at 2025 and be thankful for what we have been able to do, and set our sites on a new year of adventures.
2025 by the numbers looks something like this:
- 7,875 miles driven across the country in our motorhome
- 44 stops at RV parks within 14 states
- 6 national parks visited
- 1 Carribean cruise
We hope 2025 was wonderful for you as well and want to wish you all a Happy New Year. We hope you enjoy reading our blogs and continue to follow along as we carry on our journey for another year. Let’s make 2026 the best year yet!
Hello Brian,
I enjoyed your year in review and the little video map outlining your travels for 2025. I would love to know how you did that? If you care to share?
I have also enjoyed reading your destination blogs accompanied by your beautiful photography and have learnt a lot from your travels. Your information is so useful and very helpful to the RV’ing community. Thank you for sharing. I was hoping to pick your brain a bit for your expertise and guidance.
A little bit of back ground about myself and hubby and our travel style. Retired, 70 ish and not very active. Limited mobility. Appreciate and enjoy the scenery we can see through the front windshield. We live in Eastern Canada and have made the trip out West three times in our 2022 34M5 GT5 Georgetown without a toad.
Last year we did Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica with a diversion to Grand Canyon. We wanted to do the Mighty 5 while so close but ran out of time as we continued North on PCH 1 up to Canada and then looped back South through Yellowstone/Tetons and South Dakota and made our way home heading East. This was our second time through Yellowstone/Tetons and SD after doing Northern BC/Yukon, Alaska and Glacier National Park the year before.
Would you be willing to have a look at my wish list and perhaps recommend or give be a sensible routing to make this trip?
We want to make it back out west in May and would like to see Colorado and the Mighty 5. I am somewhat geographically challenged and wanted to get your advice and recommendations on the best route we could take with our RV that would be safe and we could see the most without off- roading or going over high mountain ranges with steep grades and switchbacks with no toad. Will for sure take a hard pass on the Million Dollar Highway!
I have made so many itineraries but I am not sure about elevations or grade or the best way to travel that makes sense.
Would like to do a big loop combining CO and Mighty 5. Just want the scenic drives (no hikes) not sure where to start and check out the highlights.
If you were driving from the East towards Colorado would you start in Denver and go up to RMNP? What interstate would you recommend for entering into Colorado?
We would like to do a portion of the RMNP but I saw a youtube video that warned of the steep elevation and did not recommend taking Trail Ridge Road 48 miles through the middle of the park that connects to Grand Lake to Estes Park. Would you or did you take your Motorhome or just your toad? Do you have any other recommendations or route to take to see some of RMNP? Do you think we could safely do it with the 38’ motorhome? We heard it is very scenic and worth it to take National Scenic Byway I-70 West but that is out of the park. Or any other suggestions or routes we could take?
• One video suggested west on I-70 from Denver to Idaho Springs to Green River-Torrey-overnight? In that case we would miss RMNP
• Capital Reef for the orchards
• Canyonlands for petroglyphs
• Can deviate to Moab or Arches?
• Scenic Route 12
• Escalante
• Bryce Canyon
• I-89 to Mt. Carmel Junction
• I-90 Zion Park Scenic Byway
• Park in Springdale to take shuttle into Zion Park
• Along that parkway will we have to go through the tunnel first with the motorhome or is that after Springdale when we are on the shuttle?
• From Zion what would be the most direct and best RV route for us to travel to Durango, CO?
• Would like to take the train in Durango to Silverton
• Do not want to drive the hwy between Silverton and Ouray.
• Routing for Durango to Colorado Springs for Garden of the Gods?
• Will give a hard pass to Mesa Verde NP and Great Sand Dunes NP and Grand Canyon as we have already seen it.
Google maps has got me into a lot of trouble and I even invested in RV Life Pro Wizard but I find it a challenge to figure out as I am not very techy.
Don’t feel obligated to honor my request but I would be grateful and appreciate any words of wisdom, recommendations or a map with routing that would help me navigate this trip. My husband is technically challenged and stays away from the planning and routing so it is left up to me. He just loves to drive and camp….we are fortunate to still have our health to travel and I am very blessed I have a chauffeur to tour me around since I don’t drive anymore.
Many thanks Brian for your time and I am looking forward to following your future blogs! May God bless you and your wife!!
Hi, Debbie I’m glad you’re enjoying the blogs and find it useful. Lots here but let me summarize a few points…
That cool little video is from an app called TravelBoast.
For your routing, the first, and most important thing I would recommend is a RV/truck GPS app that has all of your rigs height/length etc parameters programed into. Do notrely on a standard GPS app such as Google or Apple Maps. This will assure you don’t take an inappropriate path.
If your goal in visiting CO is strictly RMNP, I would say taking either highway 34 or 36 to Estes Park would be fine. Regarding traveling Trail Ridge road,although there are a few tight switchbacks, it should not be a problem, but that is very subjective. Your main problem will be challenges with pulling off the road to enjoy the overlooks etc. You also won’t be able to do the Bear Lake part of the park. You might consider renting a car while you’re in Estes Park and enjoying RMNP a lot more from a smaller vehicle.
Leaving Estes Park to go to Utah, you would have two primary choices (1) taking 24 into Grand junction, which is fine but then you would have to cut south to get to 24 through Nederland. This isn’t horrible, but it’s a narrow 2 lane road. (2) would be taking 40 towards Vernal. I haven’t driven the bulk of this so I can’t comment on it but I believe it is a fairly easy rout, although you still need to pass through RMNP on Trail Ridge road.
Feel free to PM me via Facebook if you want to drill down on any of this further. I love that you guys are still finding a way to travel and fulfilling your passion. That’s the whole reason you got that Georgetown, right?
Hi Brian, I just noticed your response today when I went in to read your new blog. Thank you so much for the helpful tips and information. I just started using the RV Life Trip Wizard Pro App that allows you to customize your RV size. So do you think I would be safe using this app on my phone and connect to my car play on the dash? I will move forward taking your suggestions into consideration and working on my itinerary. Thanks for the cool little TravelBoast app….looking forward to playing with that….yes, indeed, we are happy traveling in our Georgetown not living fulltime in it but vacationing and living the RV lifestyle had been amazing!!! Stay safe and I will continue to look forward to your blogs….