Our favorite RV stays in our sixth year of travel

We started our sixth year of full-time RV living slowly, traveling only 8 miles to our first destination. We kept our drives relatively short throughout the summer, averaging 173 miles (2.5 hours or so) and topping out at 436 miles between Medora, North Dakota, and Bozeman, Montana.

We added three states to our map: Kansas, Nebraska, and North Dakota (leaving only four to spend a night in Tagalong in). And we snuck in a few flights — to Phoenix after the tragic death of our son DJ, to Barcelona for a transatlantic cruise, and to Scotland and Ireland. 

Highlights of our travels included: 

• Riding on the Durango-Silverton train
• Sampling barbecue from a Food Network “Chopped” champion
• Visiting Nashville and attending the Grand Ole Opry
• Seeing the full-size Noah’s Ark in Kentucky
• Making it to North Dakota, our 50th state

Of our 40 stops in nearly 7,000 miles, these were our favorite RV stays in our sixth year of travel.

Favorite boondocking spot

We really got into our groove with boondocking this year, doing so at 16 locations across Arizona, Colorado, North Dakota, Montana, and Utah. With plentiful Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest land, the western states offer abundant options for camping off the grid. 

We relished the quiet solitude in each location, which helped prolong our slow pace. Our favorite boondocking spot was a peninsula in Sweet Briar Lake, North Dakota, west of Bismarck. The location featured picnic tables, fire rings, and magnificent views of the water out practically every window. We enjoyed watching pelicans, Canadian geese, and occasional kayakers --
despite a scary thunderstorm passing through while we were there. 

Favorite Boondockers Welcome stay

In addition to our 16 boondocking stops, we camped on the property of six Boondockers Welcome hosts. These are people who allow RVers in the program to sojourn on their property for up to five nights, depending on the host. Some hosts offer electric hookups for a fee, which we find especially beneficial when the weather is warmer than we’d like.

We took advantage of this camping option in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Northern Arizona. We really appreciated our sweet host in Colby, Kansas, where we spent Mother’s Day not quite a week after our son’s passing. We told her we were grieving, and she went out of her way to make our visit pleasant and enjoyable, even offering to let us stay longer than we had booked.

However, our favorite Boondockers Welcome location for the year goes to Cortez, Colorado. The former farm was set up like a campground for six RVers. We were the only ones there for most of our stopover and savored the tranquility and expansive views, which included snowcapped mountains in the distance.

Favorite moochdocking stop

After boondocking, our next-favorite type of camping is moochdocking, where we stay on friends’ or family’s property and mooch their water and electricity. We did that in Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Michigan, Iowa, and Montana, catching up with dear friends and family members. 

We appreciated the warm hospitality at each location. If we had to choose a favorite, it would have to be our friends Norm and Susan’s, situated at the end of a dirt road in Idabel, Oklahoma, providing a wonderfully peaceful respite. They were gracious hosts who welcomed us with open arms, made us feel right at home, and provided us with unique memories, including a flight on a powered parachute. 

Favorite campground

Campgrounds are our least-favorite places to sojourn, but sometimes they’re a must so that we can see the things we want to see. That was the case this year in Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Dakota, and Northern Arizona. 

We liked our time at Two Rivers Campground in Nashville, but our favorite was Fool Hollow Lake Campground in Show Low, Arizona. It holds special meaning to us as we spent many nights there as a family while raising our kids. Our youngest daughter, Becky, and her husband and daughter joined us to make more memories.

Favorite state

We spent a month traversing Southern Colorado, a month with family in Michigan, two weeks in Utah, and a week and a half in North Dakota. Although we lived in the Denver area when we were first married, this was our first time in Southern Colorado outside of Colorado Springs. It was also our first time in North Dakota, and we thoroughly enjoyed both. 

If we had to pick our favorite between the two, it would be Colorado for its magnificent snow-covered mountains, wide-reaching prairies, tall evergreens, and extraordinary experiences. Although we got snowed on in Alamosa on Easter weekend, we spent time in the forests, really getting a feel for the land. And visiting my college, Colorado Christian University, and a couple of friends from my college days made it that much better. 

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