Trip Stats

If you’re a nerd like I am — and hey, who isn’t? — you’re probably curious about the statistics behind this trip. What kind of gas mileage does the Bigfoot get? How far do we travel in an average day? How much are we spending on food? On RV parks?

Naturally, I’m tracking this stuff. I have a spreadsheet on my computer with daily stats about our driving and spending. (And, in case the computer breaks or gets stolen, I also have paper documentation of all these numbers.)

At some point, I may post a daily log here. For now, though, I’m simply going to update a summary table whenever I get a chance. Here, then, are the stats for our cross-country RV trip…

These stats are up-to-date as of our pause in Savannah for the winter.

Money Spent

First up, let’s talk about money. Here’s a run-down of the trip costs so far.

Last update: 30 September 2015 (Day #190)
Time traveled (RV) 230.5 hours
Distance traveled (RV) 10,421.0 miles
Cumulative speed (RV) 45.21 MPH
Avg. travel per day (RV) 54.85 miles
Fuel used (RV) 1325.3 gallons
Avg. fuel consumption (RV) 7.7 MPG
Avg. fuel price (RV) $2.72 per gallon
Avg. price/mile (RV) $0.354
Avg. fuel-up cost (RV) $103.48
Total fuel expense (RV) $3580.75
Total operating expense (RV) $586.74
Total Mini expense $1354.12
Total lodging expense $3085.84
Total grocery expense $3022.77
Total alcohol expense $848.14
Total restaurant expense $2896.48
Total fun expense $963.78
Total miscellaneous expense $798.45
Total cumulative expense $17,137.07
Average daily expense $90.20

As of 30 September 2015, the actual total number of miles we’ve traveled in the RV is 10,608.7. (Some miles aren’t trip miles; they’re miles taking friends and family for a ride, etc.) The total number of miles traveled in the Mini Cooper is 12,991. We’ve driven a total of 23,600 miles on this trip so far in 190 days, for an average of 124.2 miles per day.

Please note that we’re not tracking some expenses. We’re logging shared trip expenses (those that come out of our joint account) but we are not logging personal, discretionary expenses. If Kim wants to buy a pair of cute sandals for herself, that doesn’t show up here. It’s not trip-related. Nor does this log record the Thursday night “date nights” that J.D. is paying for every week or his ever-growing collection of “lapel pin” souvenirs.

Alcohol expense generally means bottles of wine or wine-tasting fees, though it might also include beer here and there. We share these bottles with friends and family. (And, okay, we drink some ourselves.) Fun expense is stuff like museum admissions, movie nights, and so on. Miscellaneous expense includes gifts for friends and National Park passes, etc.

Important note: We’ve also spent $1261.73 in unplanned maintenance on the Mini Cooper (new fuel pump, new battery, four new tires). And in mid-July, we had to replace the engine on the motorhome, which cost several thousand dollars. This spending isn’t included as a budgeted expense, but we are tracking the costs. There’s no question these are part of our trip expenses, but we they don’t come out of the actual trip budget. They’re extra-budgetary, as it were, and won’t affect how long we’re on the road. I’ll probably just pay for them out of my own pocket. Total unbudgeted Mini Cooper and motorhome expenses so far: $9950.00, which is mostly the new engine.

Places Visited

I’ve also been tracking other stats about our trip, such as how many nights we stay in each state. Here’s some of that info.

Of our 190 nights on the road so far, we’ve spent:

  • 48 nights (25%) in Thousand Trails campgrounds
  • 50 nights (26%) in other campgrounds or RV parks
  • 21 nights (11%) sleeping in somebody’s house
  • 15 nights (8%) parked in a driveway or taking advantage of Harvest Hosts
  • 37 nights (19%) drycamping/boondocking
  • 19 nights (10%) in a hotel (12 of those nights were in September because of Fincon and our search for a winter home)

So far, we’ve relied on extensive generator use for 22 nights (12%).

How long have we spent in each state? Great question! For this info, we’re going to use a different methodology. Instead of just counting trip days, we’re also going to count our months wintered in Savannah. That means we’ll total the weekends in Florida and South Carolina, as well as our Christmas vacation to New York City.

Through 31 January 2016, we’ve been away from Portland for 313 days. During that period, we’ve slept in 26 states. Here’s the current run-down (in the order we visited each place):

  • Oregon – 1 night
  • California – 33 nights
  • Arizona – 19 nights
  • Utah – 5 nights
  • Colorado – 16 nights
  • Wyoming – 8 nights
  • Idaho – 7 nights
  • Montana – 8 nights
  • North Dakota – 1 night
  • South Dakota – 15 nights
  • Nebraska – 1 night
  • Minnesota – 2 nights
  • Wisconsin – 9 nights
  • Michigan – 4 nights
  • Indiana – 9 nights
  • Illinois – 1 night
  • Ohio – 13 nights
  • West Virginia – 2 nights
  • New York – 12 nights
  • Pennsylvania – 4 nights
  • New Jersey – 9 nights
  • North Carolina – 8 nights
  • South Carolina – 5 nights
  • Florida – 6 nights
  • Georgia – 113 nights
  • Maryland – 2 nights

We’ve “skipped” (or are in danger of skipping) a handful of states: Iowa, Kansas, and most of the Northeast (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island). We won’t hit the New England stats on this trip, but will probably fly out to see the fall colors in 2017. We drove through Delaware but didn’t stop.

Final Note

If there are other stats that you’d like us to track, let us know. If we can provide retroactive data, we will. Otherwise, perhaps we’ll begin tracking from wherever we are on the trip.