I’m working hard here to figure out how to say something about myself in the midst of the crisis our country and our world is in. I’ve written two complete posts this week and then deleted them for being petty compared to what I’m reading in the news and hearing from friends and family.
So, here’s a straight-forward post about our anniversary.
March 20, 2020, is the day we drove away from the house and never went back, so it’s been five full years we’ve been on the road. Coincidentally, Tracy just finished writing code to chart our route for everywhere we’ve gone, every year. He had one previously, but the results showing on a map became too crowded to be functional.
Kind of like this. This is a simplified screenshot of the results showing at once, with me adding years as separate, sloppy graphics. The point of Tracy’s current program is that it allows him to turn each of the five route layers off and on and see details about every single leg, every day we’ve traveled. It’s an astounding amount of detail about an astounding amount of travel.
Here’s how it breaks down.
| Year | Days on the Road | Miles on the Road | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 42 travel days | 6,200 miles | We started late |
| 2021 | 70 travel days | 11,072 miles | |
| 2022 | 57 travel days | 10,798 miles | |
| 2023 | 83 travel days | 15,364 miles (Alaska!) | Alaska! |
| 2024 | 53 travel days | 11,778 miles | |
| 2025 | 5 travel days | 703 miles | Come on, 2025, don’t let us down |
| 5-yr average | 61 travel days | 11,042 miles | Not counting 2025 |
| 6-yr total | 310 travel days | 55,915 miles |
I can’t get over the totals at the end: 310 travel days! 56k miles! And that’s with us staying in place during the last four winters. Nuts.
That’s Tracy’s data-driven version of our anniversary, Here’s my version, inevitably filled with selfies. Seriously, it’s a great way to document where I am and what I feel like.
If you use the photos app on an iPhone, you know the albums view creates a preview of this day on each year. I was looking for something else in my photos this morning and saw this handy recap.
On this day in 2021, I took a selfie by the Atlantic Ocean.
On this day in 2022, I took a selfie by the Pacific Ocean. (Jeesh, I can see my lip was still healing from where I’d smacked it with the power drill in Utah.)
In 2023, Banjo was sniffing turkeys and javelinas on the air in Texas.
In 2024 we shared a fabulous meal with Tracy’s sister in Florida.
Today we went to a mediocre brewery as we await word on the hitch, but we enjoyed each other’s company anyway.
More recent photos—from the two posts I ditched.
Couldn’t sleep, stepped outside to look at the moon, and found this. (My WordPress is set to squish images to save space, so the detail has been lost.) A better memory is that this was the same night that Tracy and I went on a walk after sunset because the temps had cooled to 80 degrees, finally. Picture up top.
Hiking the Colorado River Refuge Two Bridges Trail a few days ago.
Banjo among the early blue bonnets.
You guys take care.
Congrats on your five year road-a- versary!! Your smiles are just as big so I call that a win.
👍
I do, too. Thanks!
Happy semi-permanent-road-trip anniversary! That’s a heckuva lot of miles you’ve racked up over the years. Here’s to many more! (And for what it’s worth, as chaotic as the world is these days, “petty” posts are exactly what I’m looking for.)
Glad to be of service! And thanks for reading for a hunk of those years.
Wow! Congrats and looking forward to your posts over the next 5 years!
Thanks – and good to hear from you, Mark!
Congratulations on 5 years! What a ride, right?! 🙂
Indeed, as you know first-hand!