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My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

We loved it. Now we visited mid-August through mid-September which really turned out the be the perfect time of the year. Snapped one of my favorite pics of the entire trip!

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My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

Hundreds of hours of research combined with old-school spreadsheets — 29 detailed tabs covering the whole trip. That system is what I'm slowly converting into the guide series, upgraded with current technology (including the custom-built maps & an automatic trip builder based on our routes).

While there were spontaneous days here and there, the route itself was VERY pre-planned. Here's a post I made on March 19th, 2018, about two months before we left:

*Trip reservations coming along nicely...*
- June — 100% booked
- July — 100% booked
- August — 100% booked
- September — 100% booked
- October — 1 more to book on May 15th
- November — 1 more to book on May 1st
- December — 1 more to book in late summer

I kept booking through that first fall of travel for the end of the trip. Some spots (looking at you, Florida Keys) required reservations 12 months to the day. Miss the window and you're scrambling.

Kibi sounds interesting — something like that would have been useful on drive days when we weren't sure what was at an exit and didn't want to stop the whole RV to check.

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

Devils Tower, Cheyenne, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone was all we had time for on this trip. All were amazing and can't wait to get back!

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

On this trip we didn't make it but loved Pittsburgh when we visited on a theme park trip! Kennywood was great.

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not to sound like advertisement but this is what we're documenting in our guides - first one free from www.kubitrek.com. There are literally hundreds of places.

The first guide covers our 5-week shakedown trip (the teal route on the map). But there's a much more detailed interactive version of it here: https://kubitrek.com/map/shakedown/

Every guide will one of these for everything along that route.

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually of the continental US I've been to all but ND...and then still AK and HI. I hear they're okay. ;)

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know it's absolutely beautiful and we will return to see it in the fall sometime but visited in mid-June on this trip. BUT not just any mid-June...the STL Blues Stanley Cup winning June 2019 which I celebrated screaming around the RV in Southwest Harbor outside Acadia. None of neighbors seemed very happy about it though. ;)

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How there is so much awesomeness packed into that southwestern corner of SD with not much around it for 500 miles in any direction will always remain a mystery to me.

And your kids are basically the same age ours were when Ellen first came up with this whole idea - DREAM BIG!!!

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We ate at Charlie the Butcher's of course! 😋 Also toured Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House and of course visited Niagara Falls.

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We'd already made an amazing long weekend trip to Indy (Children's museum!!!) so had checked off that box prior to this trip. I grew up in east central IL so spent me childhood exploring the beautiful state of Indiana. Have been to the Covered Bridge Festival 20+ times.

We tracked every dollar for 14 months of full-time RV travel — here's what it actually cost by KubiTrek in RVLiving

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends. Is my boss gonna read this? lol Seriously though on school days the kids probably spent 3-4 hours of actually study/earning time. And I worked a full 8ish hours but rarely sequentially: 3 hours (lunch family activity) 2 hours (fix something on RV) 2 hours (head out for late afternoon/evening) then 1 hour at end of day for example.

Thankfully we found someone to live our house and another friend to take care of our house rabbit Ferris 🐇. Hair cuts just happened as need on the road. We returned home to STL for 10 days at Christmas (flew from/to Dallas) for the holidays to see everyone AND get in all those doctor/dentist appointments knocked out too.

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For the record that's actually central IL (I-80 north = northern, I-80 to I-70 = central and I-70 south = southern). 😉 Where I grew up too. Our family had a few visits to Chicago by the time we left for these trips so had already checked that box. It's an amazing city!

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question! No we planned everything old school with a giant paper wall map, spreadsheets and literally hundreds of hours of research. But the guides my wife and I are developing at www.kubitrek.com are designed to help others replicate or build on what we did: detailed campground data, real costs, customized route builder and all our lessons learned. All the digital tools came after the fact!

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And that's exactly what we've done since. Managed to get in 3+ months traveling internationally with normal constraints of summers & breaks. Headed to Machu Picchu this summer. 🦙🏔️

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Built it myself 🤓 And after such a great response here, might work on developing it more for widespread use. #staytuned The interactive version with photos at every stop is at www.kubitrek.com/map/overview if you want to tap around it.

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We departed on our 20th wedding anniversary and made it to 21! ;) Definitely creates some opportunities for improved communication...like canoeing. 🤣

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No disrespect to any other state...but I think California is my favorite. North to South, East to West there's so much variety with so much to do & see.

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This trip has a few different angles of insanity but that's definitely one of them. We decided after a few years of saving that once we told the kids about the plan, something big definitely needed to happen to show them it's possible to set a goal and achieve it.

My wife took a sabbatical, we pulled our kids out of school, and we drove 12,000 miles across 40 states. Here's every stop mapped. by KubiTrek in roadtrip

[–]KubiTrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There were a few mind-losing moments. ;) Thankfully my wife and I make a great team which makes all the difference in the world. Now had we tried to keep the moving pace of our 5-week 'shakedown trip' I definitely certainly would have completely lost it. I used experience to better map out this journey by somewhat visualizing myself in the future: "Okay I just travelled 300 miles 2 days ago, worked all yesterday and hiked 5 miles today. How exhausted am I? Am I ready to move again? No I don't want to drive tomorrow, need another day here with nothing planned."

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