Season Five Recap for 2023 and Season Six Plans for 2024

Season Five: Southern States was a great season, despite the heat wave and change of plans. Our plans for Season Six: West Coast should be an interesting year as well.

Season Five in 2023 started out with snow, but what we remember the most is how hot it was. But we survived and had very enjoyable experiences along the way. We started out heading to Florida, then popping up to Ohio to visit family only to return south to continue the southern states west over to Arizona. Unfortunately, we had to skip a few items on our itinerary to beeline it back to Ohio for a memorial service, but was able to return in time for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

Season Five was a longest season yet, with 232 nights on the road, that’s about seven and a half months. We covered over 18,000 Miles, through 19 different states, stayed in 66 different campgrounds, along with four different hotels (mainly during our beeline back to Ohio, as we had a passenger with us). The states included Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Kansas, and Illinois. As you can see, they are not all southern states, but that was our theme during 2023 and what guided our itinerary planning.

During 2023, we visited 11 national parks along with an additional 13 federal land areas. These included Big Bend National Park(Big Bend National Park: Chisos Basin, Texas - July 24th to 27th, 2023), Biscayne National Park (Biscayne National Park, Florida - April 28th, 2023), Carlsbad Caverns National Park (Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico - August 6th, 2023), Congaree National Park (Congaree National Park, South Carolina - May 21st to 24th, 2023), Dry Tortugas National Park (Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida - April 24th, 2023), Everglades National Park (Everglades National Park, Florida - April 13th to 17th, 2023), Grand Canyon National Park (Grand Canyon North Rim in Depth - September 1st to 5th, 2023), Guadalupe Mountains National Park (Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas - August 4th - 7th, 2023), Mammoth Cave National Park (Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky - June 16th to 19th, 2023), New River Gorge National Park (New River Gorge National Park, West Virginia - May 29th to June 1st, 2023), Petrified Forest National Park (Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona - September 10, 2023), Natchez Trace Parkway (Natchez Trace Parkway: Meriwether Lewis - June 23rd to 25th, 2023), Canyon de Chelly National Monument (Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona - August 28th to 31st, 2023), Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona - September 21st to 24th, 2023), Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument (Winslow, Arizona - September 9th to 12th, 2023), Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (St. Augustine, Florida - May 5th to 8th, 2023), Big Cypress National Preserve (Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida - April 8th to 13th, 2023), Cane River National Heritage Area (Cane River National Heritage Area, Louisiana - March 16th to 18th, 2023), Bandelier National Monument (Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico - August 14th, 2023), Gulf Islands National Seashore (Davis Bayou Area, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi - March 19th to 21st, 2023), Blue Ridge Parkway (Black Mountains, North Carolina - May 25th to 28th, 2023), Choctaw Lake Recreation Area (Natchez Trace Parkway: Tupelo - June 29th to July 1st, 2023), and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Glen Canyon, Arizona - September 5th to 8th, 2023)

Also on our route were 32 different state parks, including Cheyenne Mountain State Park (Colorado Springs, Colorado - March 1st to 3rd, 2023) in Colorado, Black Mesa State Park (Black Mesa State Park, Oklahoma - March 4th to 6th, 2023), Little Sahara State Park (Little Sahara State Park, Oklahoma - March 7th to 8th, 2023), and Talimena State Park (Talimena State Park, Oklahoma - March 9th to 12th, 2023) in Oklahoma. In Arkansas, we visited Crater of Diamonds State Park (Crater of Diamonds State Park, Arkansas - March 13th to 15th, 2023). The state parks in Florida were Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park (Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park, Florida - March 22nd to 25th, 2023), Three Rivers State Park (Three Rivers State Park, Florida - March 26th to 29th, 2023), Silver Springs State Park (Silver Springs State Park, Florida - March 30th to April 2nd, 2023), Myakka River State Park (Myakka River State Park, Florida - April 3rd to 7th, 2023), Long Key State Park (Fiesta Key, Florida - April 18th to 22nd, 2023), and Anastasia State Park (St. Augustine, Florida - May 5th to 8th, 2023). Skidaway Island State Park (Savannah, Georgia - May 9th to 12th, 2023) was the one in Georgia. South Carolina included Hunting Island Sate Park (Hunting Island State Park, South Carolina - May 13th to 14th, 2023), Huntington Beach State Park (Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina - May 17th to 21st, 2023), and Poinsett State Park (Congaree National Park, South Carolina - May 21st to 24th, 2023). In North Carolina, we visited South Mountains State Park (South Mountains State Park, North Carolina - May 15th to 16th, 2023) and Mount Mitchell State Park (Black Mountains, North Carolina - May 25th to 28th, 2023). For West Virginia, we stayed in Babcock State Park (New River Gorge National Park, West Virginia - May 29th to June 1st, 2023). The park in Indiana was Charlestown State Park (Charlestown State Park, Indiana - June 12th to 15th, 2023). In Tennessee, we camped in Cedars of Lebanon State Park (Cedars of Lebanon State Park, Tennessee - June 20th to 22nd, 2023). Tishomingo State Park (Natchez Trace Parkway: Tishomingo - June 26th to 28th, 2023) and Natchez State Park (Natchez Trace Parkway: Natchez - July 2nd to 4th, 2023) are in Mississippi. In Louisiana, there was Bogue Chitto State Park (Bogue Chitto State Park, Louisiana - July 5th to 8th, 2023). Texas included McKinney Falls State Park (Austin, Texas - July 15th to 18th, 2023), Big Bend Ranch State Park (Big Bend Ranch State Park, Texas - August 3rd, 2023), and Palo Duro Canyon State Park (Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas - October 15th to 19th, 2023). The three in New Mexico we went to were Manzano Mountains State Park (Manzano Mountains State Park, New Mexico - August 8th to 11th, 2023), Hyde Memorial State Park (Hyde Memorial State Park, New Mexico - August 12th to 15th, 2023), and Cimarron Canyon State Park (Cimarron Canyon State Park, New Mexico - August 16th to 18th, 2023). The final three were in Arizona, which were Homolovi State Park (Winslow, Arizona - September 9th to 12th, 2023), Dead Horse Ranch State Park (Sedona, Arizona - September 13th to 16th, 2023), and Lost Dutchman State Park (Lost Dutchman State Park, Arizona - September 17th to 20th, 2023).

All of those national and state parks allowed us to do a lot of hiking along with some cycling and paddle boarding. We completed our 52 Hike Challenge for the fourth straight year in a row. In addition, we did a two night backpacking trip to the Wheeler Geologic Area in Colorado (Wheeler Geologic Area, Colorado - August 19th to 23rd, 2023).

In addition to national and state parks, we strolled some towns. Some of them were large cities, like Savannah (Savannah, Georgia - May 9th to 12th, 2023) in Georgia, Dayton (Dayton, Ohio - June 7th to 9th, 2023) and Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio - June 10th to 11th, 2023) in Ohio, Louisville (Louisville, Kentucky - June 13th to 14th, 2023) in Kentucky, Nashville (Nashville, Tennessee - June 21st, 2023) in Tennessee, Fort Worth (Fort Worth, Texas - July 9th to 14th, 2023), San Antonio (San Antonio, Texas - July 22nd to 23rd, 2023), and Austin (Austin, Texas - July 15th to 18th, 2023) in Texas, along with Santa Fe (Santa Fe, New Mexico - October 5th to 6th, 2023) and Albuquerque (Albuquerque, New Mexico - October 9th to 14th, 2023) in New Mexico. Others were smaller towns like Key West (Key West, Florida - April 22nd to 25th, 2023) and St. Augustine (St. Augustine, Florida - May 5th to 8th, 2023) in Florida, Tupelo (Natchez Trace Parkway: Tupelo - June 29th to July 1st, 2023) in Mississippi, Fredericksburg (Fredericksburg, Texas - July 19th to 21st, 2023) and Terlingua (Terlingua, Texas - July 31st to August 3rd, 2023) in Texas, Creede (Creede, Colorado - August 24th, 2023) in Colorado, Chama (Chama, New Mexico - August 24th to 27th, 2023) in New Mexico, and finally Winslow (Winslow, Arizona - September 9th to 12th, 2023) and Sedona (Sedona, Arizona - September 13th to 16th, 2023) in Arizona.

Then there were a couple of destinations that are in a category all their own, such as Disney World (Disney’s Fort Wilderness, Florida - April 30th to May 4th, 2023) and the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, New Mexico - October 7th to 14th, 2023). The fiesta was a great finale for Season Five.

As we’re summarizing Season Five, it seems like a whirlwind of a tour, but it didn’t feel that way during the season. We believe we’ve found a comfortable pace for us, averaging about four nights at each destination. Four nights, with three full days in an area, is a great amount of time to explore an area at a leisurely pace. There is even time to explore on the arriving day and the departing day, as we typically didn’t travel more than four hours to our next destination.

Our plans for Season Six in 2024 are coming together nicely. We feel lucky that we were able to snag some camp sites inside Yosemite National Park in September. The theme for Season Six is the West Coast. We’re starting in southern California, heading north to Washington as the temperatures rise, then returning south to California again in the fall. There are also some stops in Utah and Nevada on our way to and from California. We can’t wait to start sharing these new adventures with you.

We also took a few winter trips without the RV along with a short RV trip down to Texas for the Total Solar Eclipse. We’ll be sharing those trips with you as well.

Well, that sums it up for the season. We hope you’re enjoying following us along on our adventures and using them as inspiration for your own adventures. Happy trails and safe travels!

Check out our related video: Season Five Recap for 2023 and Season Six Plans for 2024

(Ann)