Like most people around the world, 2020 held a lot of ups and downs for us.
Most of our domestic and international travel plans had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Thankfully though, we’d already planned to be near family at the end of March. So we were able to pivot quickly when everything shut down.
After 10 weeks in a single place, we resumed our travels very, very cautiously around Memorial Day. We ended up visiting lots of remote locations to avoid the crowds and spread of the virus. Nonetheless, 2020 was filled so many things we couldn’t have ever predicted.
OUR BEST OF THE BEST LIST
- Favorite states we visited: California, Montana, Utah
- Favorite campgrounds: Lake Pleasant Regional Park (Phoenix, AZ); Roost Resort (Custer, SD), Jordanelle State Park (Park City, UT), Boise Riverside RV Park (Boise, ID)
- Favorite adventure: Whitewater rafting in Oregon
- Most scenic national park visited in 2020: Glacier National Park & Grand Canyon (tie)
- Most memorable adventure: That hike in Theodore Roosevelt NP where everything went wrong
- Best food: BBQ pizza (from Crust Pizza in The Woodlands, TX)
- Best dessert: Peach cobbler (from Black Hills Burger & Bun Co. in Custer, SD)
- Paty’s favorite memory: Hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail
- Keith’s favorite memory: Ocean fishing charters in San Diego
- Finn’s favorite memory: Spending time with his cousins in Texas
TRAVEL TRIVIA
- Where we started the 2020: Roseburg, OR
- Where we ended the year: Conroe, TX
- Total number of states we visited in the RV: 13
- Miles driven in the RV: 12,966
- Times we made the LONG drive between Texas and Oregon in 2020: 3
- Number of windshields broken: 4 — ouch!
- Hottest temperature we experienced: 122°F (Death Valley, CA)
- Number of states Finn has now visited: 49 (he’s just missing Alaska now!)
- Completely new states our RV drove into this year: 8
- Total number of state the RV has driven in since March 2018: 44!
WHO & WHAT ELSE WE SAW IN 2020
- National Parks visited: 8 (Joshua Tree, Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains, Death Valley, Glacier, Theodore Roosevelt, Saguaro)
- Seasons in which we visited Grand Canyon: 2
- Most unusual thing we did: Fulfill a final wish to spread someone’s ashes
- Consecutive weeks Finn spent with his cousins in TX: 10
- Weeks spent with family in OR: 7
- Weeks spent visiting family in NJ: 3
- Number of flights we had to cancel due to the pandemic: 4 (Germany, Turkey, Italy, NJ)
- Hiking permits also cancelled because of it: 2 (Mt. Whitney & Grand Canyon)
- How many of us contracted Covid-19: All 3 of us (in early Nov. 2020)
- Inches of snowfall that fell within 18 hours of our arrival in NJ this December: 14”
- New microbreweries we visited this year: 20
- Favorite new beer finds: Deep in the Green DIPA (Grand Canyon Brewing) and Cerveza Chilebeso (Great Basin Brewing)
HIKING TRIVIA FOR 2020
- Long distance trails Paty successfully thru-hiked: 3 (Trans-Catalina, Tahoe Rim, North Umpqua)
- Miles completed during her PCT winter section hike: 110
- Miles Finn & Paty backpacked together on the Tahoe Rim Trail: 50
- Most challenging hike: Uinta Highline Trail (DNF due to early season blizzard)
- High temp when Paty got trapped in a blizzard above 11,000 feet elevation: 15°F
- Amount of snowfall in the 18 hours she was up there: ~3 feet!!
- Number of ER visits related to hiking mishaps this year: 2 (May & September)
- Most unique wild animal sighting on trail: a mountain lion in northern Arizona
- Scariest animal encounter: Finn & Keith getting charged by a herd of bison in North Dakota
- States where we came within 100 feet of bison: 4 (CA, ND, SD, NE)
- Favorite animal sighting in the backcountry: a moose in the high Uintas
- New state high points summited in 2020: 8 (TX, AZ, ND, SD, NE, UT, ID, DE)
- Times Paty had to attempt Idaho’s high point before success: 2
- High point tally at the end of 2020: 25/50 states complete!
FISHING TRIVIA FOR 2020
- Number of fish Keith & Finn caught: 1,493
- Different species caught: 55 (17 new species for Keith)
- Lakes fished in: 23
- Rivers fished in: 9
- Oceans fished in: 2
- Fishing charters taken: 4
- Heaviest catch: 12 pound carp (in Nevada)
- Biggest catch: 28″ catfish (in Utah)
- Favorite fish Keith caught in 2020: sculpin
- New kayaks purchased: 1
- State fishing licenses Keith purchased: 10 (click here for our fishing advice for nomads)
WHERE WE STAYED IN 2021
- Public campgrounds: 19
- Privately owned campgrounds: 26
- KOA campgrounds (our reliable standby for one-night stops): 13
- Military campgrounds: 1 (NAS Corpus Christi)
- County fairgrounds we camped at: 1
- Night spent in hotels: 4
- Nights in an RV dealership parking lot during services: 4
- Longest drive between consecutive campgrounds: 450 miles (Sutherlin, OR to Lodi, CA)
- Shortest distance between campgrounds: 45 miles (Park City to Provo, UT)
- Longest stay in one location: 73 days (Lake Conroe, TX)
WHAT’S AHEAD FOR 2021
Looking back on our predictions from last year and horribly how far we missed the mark thanks to Covid-19, it feels perilous to try to make any major predictions for 2021.
None of us could have foreseen the impact a global pandemic would have on our goals. And we still can’t predict when things will return to normal once again.
Nonetheless, we do have some *general* ideas of what might emerge this year based on a few major life events.
When we started this journey back in 2018, Finn wasn’t 100% onboard with our nomadic dream. He worried about how it would impact his education and social opportunities as a teenager.
So we collectively agreed to try the full-time travel lifestyle for three years (while he was in 6th – 8th grade). Then we’d reevaluate the decision once he hit his high school years.
These past few years have flown by in a blink of an eye and it’s been a wonderful adventure. However, Finn will be ready to enter 9th grade in fall 2021. And he’s expressed a real desire to have a more traditional high school experience in one place where he can play sports, join clubs, and develop some deep friendships.
So we’re going to press “pause” on our nomadic journey and find a special place we plan to call home for the next four years.
Seeing so much of the US over the past 2.5 years has really opened our eyes to more than a few wonderful locations around the country. Thus, trying to narrow down our choices to a single place to live for four years will be immensely difficult.
Nonetheless, we are up for this next challenge. Paty still plans to tackle some long distance hikes on the West Coast. Keith wants a location where he continue to fish year-round. And no matter where we end up, we still plan to spend several months of the year traveling to places the still sit on our respective bucket lists.
WE HOPE 2021 FINDS YOU EQUALLY HEALTHY AND EXCITED FOR LIFE’S ADVENTURES!
Curious to see how our 2020 travel compares to prior years? Check out our other YIR (year in review) posts: