An Adventurous May On the East Coast – Travel & Expenses Review

This was a busy month for travel, and it doesn’t seem we got very far! We continued our journey north from Pennsylvania and into Maryland, New York and Vermont, enjoying some cool weather, before starting our way back south with an overnight in West Virginia and Virginia and towards the warmth. We saw a lot of rain and cold, especially in Vermont, but it beats the heat everyone had back home in Florida! We added 3 new states to our sticker map bring us up to 35 states we’ve RV’d so far (if my math is correct!)

We stayed in six different states this month! We started out at Gettysburg Farms Thousand Trails in Pennsylvania, then into Cherry Hill RV Park in Maryland for a job, and to get time with our kids–that was our favorite campground for the month–mainly for seeing the kids! From there we did a quick stop at Timothy Lake North Thousand Trails in Pennsylvania and into Alpine Lake Thousand Trails in New York to explore that area. We then went into Lake Bomoseen KOA in Vermont for a job and the Memorial Day holiday weekend before working south again. We did an overnight at a Harvest Hosts, Malta Drive-In, in New York, before spending a few days in Scotrun Thousand Trails in Pennsylvania where we caught up on chores and projects. Finally we continued our southward run with an overnight at Firefly Farms in West Virginia (Harvest Hosts) and into Lynchburg Thousand Trails in Virginia to end the month. If you counted right, you’ll see we spent our 31 nights at 9 different locations–2 Harvest Hosts, 2 private campgrounds and 5 Thousand Trails parks. You can find blog links to all the campgrounds, including the drive-in Harvest Hosts, on the travel map (some will be out later this month, so be sure you subscribe or check back).

Camping: $393 (budgeted: $300)
Propane: $26 (budgeted: $35)
Dump/water fees: $0 (budgeted $10)
Laundry: $0 (budgeted $10)

We are trying something different with travel this year, so are doing shorter hops and longer short stays. We are aiming for travel days to be 300 miles or less, but are doing fewer back to back travel days, no more than 500 miles total back to back, if we can help it. It’s just too stressful and we feel like we miss a lot. We either split a long travel with a Harvest Hosts stop, or a campground in our membership network to stop at for at least 2 nights. That means that travel days are easier and we are getting a down day for catching up on projects, chores, and rest, instead of being on the road so much. But it also means we aren’t staying places as long. So far, it’s been a decent trade off while we’ve been on the East Coast in areas close together or that we’ve been in before.

Travel miles: 1,416
Fuel/Def: $699 (budgeted: $750)
Open Roads savings for the month: $78.82

We’ve had some minor repairs, and no major issues this month, thankfully. We started our month with one of our truck batteries going dead. Luckily, it was still under warranty, so a quick trip to Wal-Mart and it was swapped for FREE. We had a set of drawer slides break on a travel day and need replaced ($18) and it was time to grease the slides and replace a blown fuse ($16). Some tools also got warranty exchanged from Harbor Freight (FREE). We ended up being in the right place at the right time and found ourselves the proud new owners of a ducted Chill Cube for FREE, we just had to purchase the air distribution box ($147) and some parts for installing and modifying the duct work to fit ($22). We are still in cooler weather now, but as we head back to Georgia and Florida in June, we will be glad to have it, and since it’s designed to run off a 2,000 watt generator, we should be able to use it if we are boondocking without much issue.

Maintenance: $204 (budgeted: $200)

Everyone stayed healthy this month, so health and life insurance payments were all we had there. We did find a lot of ticks in the Northeast, so invested in a set of tick nippers ($7) for our med kit for us and the pup so we didn’t have to keep using tweezers. Super happy to say, Luna’s K9 Advantix II works amazingly well, and the ones she got on her that tried to bite/dig in, died and came off easily.

She needed a grooming, but we delayed until heading back south and were happy to find a groomer with an opening while staying at Scotrun in Pennsylvania (the Poconos area), albeit at a higher price than back home ($80), but such is life when traveling. Luna was just happy to get a pup cup out of the deal! Her next spa day should align with when we are home and she can see our local groomer. She needed a restock on her food, treats and medicines this month, so we had a bigger than usual Chewy order ($147). Absolutely love that we can get her prescription food delivered someplace new every month and not have to find specialty stores all the time.

Medical/Health & Life Insurance: $225 (budgeted: $360)
Personal Care: $7 (budgeted: $100)
Pet care: $181 (budgeted $150)

We stayed pretty close on budget this month by meal planning and bulk buying. New England is more expensive than what we are used to, especially Pennsylvania and New York, along with price increases, but the quality was so good, being in Amish country and having access to farmstands and markets, and overnighting at a farm. Staying at a Harvest Hosts and purchasing food put us just over, but it sure was nice to watch a drive-in movie and eat concession snacks from the comfort of the RV, and get food straight from a farm we could see!

Groceries/household items: $839 (budgeted: $800)
Dining out: $210 (budgeted: $200)

We did some bigger excursions than normal, but kept the budget pretty close, even with the added expense of New York tolls. We played tourist and explored an Amish Farm and House in Lancaster that we had visited when Luther was only 5 (he’s going on 14 now!) and see how it had changed–check out that Amish Country blog HERE ($47).

BJ and I got a date day to explore in Hershey while Luther finished a school project and wasn’t interested in the museum. Since we have Annual passes with reciprocity, both the Hershey Story Museum and the Botanical Gardens were free, so that was a nice bonus (check out the Hershey blog HERE)!

We also loved getting to tour the Star Trek Original Series Set reconstruction and feel like we were on the USS Enterprise and 1960’s sci-fi —check out the Star Trek blog HERE ($68).

We also did a Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory tour, getting to hear their story, see the Vermont factory, and sample flavors–and yes, see the flavor graveyard–check out the blog when it drops on 6/4 HERE, it isn’t scheduled until after this blog ($13).

We spent $30 to overnight at Malta Drive-In in New York, a Harvest Hosts that allowed us to park at the drive in and watch two movies, then stay there for the night–check out the Malta Drive-In overnight experience blog when it drops on 6/11 HERE ($30). It was quite an experience and, while we planned the stop several weeks out without knowing the movies until that weekend, it was still a cool experience.

We also decided to explore a Coal Mine while in PA, a pretty neat experience since many people on both my mom and dad’s side of the family worked in the mines in PA. The Coal Mine blog will be out 6/15 but you can find it HERE.

We did a lot of driving on the New York Throughway, but there’s a delay in them sending those expenses to the Unipass/Epass company, so it took 2-3 weeks for those $34 in charges to show up. Just a head’s up if you are using one, it may be a delay, they didn’t even show in the system when we scanned the New York tolls by plate!

Entertainment/Tolls & Parking: $242 (budgeted: $200)

Recurring expenses were same this month, although we did spend about $20 on some new iTunes songs for the playlist–I may need to start collecting funds for my music addiction, I’ve got over 1,000 songs on my phone right now! As for volunteering–We weren’t able to get any of the food pantries along our route to return our call to schedule a time for volunteering to complete our SeRV challenge for the month, so instead we did a campground clean up after some windy storm days. I am expecting our budgeted expenses to decrease in June since our Verizon plan will reduce this month by about $20–not much, but I’ll take it!

RV Loan $939 (budgeted $939)
Technology $438 (budgeted $417)
RV/Truck Insurance: $327 (budgeted $327)
Donations/fees: $0 (budgeted $100)
Volunteer hours: 1
Gifts: $0 (budgeted $100)

Even with all the adventures and traveling, Luther finished up his last course for the year, and has officially finished 8th grade and middle school. We are going to give him a nice long break this summer before starting high school in the fall. It was nice to have a month where we were under budget! Be sure to follow along for our upcoming journeys, both on the blog and social media–we have a lot more plans in store for summer, including possibly leaving the rig behind for some tent camping adventures and heading out to the West Coast!

Total Monthly expenses: $4800 (budgeted $5039)

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Our Travel Map links to blogs for places to see and stay
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Thanks for being here, we’ll see you out there!

If you’re not a Thousand Trails member, but are interested, use our referral sign up, linked here, and we will get your information to Sharon and Warren Lewis, our specialists, to help you find a membership that works for your budget and camping style!