Captain's Choice blog: On the road again and headed home

There were many people that we spoke with that asked us about our journey; how long have you been on the road? Where have you been? Where are you from? Mark always had the same answer, “when we leave Florida in the beginning of April, we take our time going back home…we like the weather to improve a little more, but this year we decided to take the long way home”. Long way indeed! We left Buffalo November 29, 2024, and headed for Florida, where we stayed for 4 months. On April 1, we started our journey out west and arrived back in Buffalo on June 23, 2025. We were gone nearly 7 months and 16,050 miles. We can break it down several ways, from Buffalo to Florida hauling our 5^th wheel we went 1,831 miles but when you add all of our extra miles just being out and about the total on the truck was 4,650 miles. Then we left Florida April 1 and hauling the 5^th wheel out west and home was 7,730 miles but add in all the actual truck miles and we went 11,400 miles. Total miles getting to our destinations hauling was 9,561 and again total miles on the truck were 16,050. So, when we sang "on the road again", we weren’t kidding!

We left Custer, South Dakota Friday 6/20 and the next several days were filled with early ups and rather long days, 400+ miles a day. We hit the heat wave, and it was HOT, HOT, HOT, we saw 105 as the highest and very windy. When you're driving across the middle of the country it’s pretty flat and the winds don’t have anything to knock them down. We stayed at KOA’s for three nights, we really wanted to stay at Harvest Hosts, but they do not offer electric and with those high temperatures we opted for electric and air conditioning. We did make a stop just after we left Custer at the Minuteman Missile launch facility, but then after that it was time to go home. We arrived back home in Orchard Park Monday, June 23,2025.

Now that our trip is over, I know one of the questions will be…what was your favorite place? On our way home we discussed our thoughts on the trip, which I will share.

Neither one of us had a winner as far as favorite but we have to say for animal sightings Yellowstone was the best! For scenery the Canadian Rockies could not be beat. The others were amazing for so many reasons and each place offered a different topography. They were all beautiful.

Where could we live in the summer? Cottonwood, Arizona or west central Montana. They offered great weather, scenery and friendly people.

What did we feel like we really did right?

· We were really happy with the order in which we visited the parks.

· Starting in April and getting there before the summer was a big plus. It was already crowded, and we can’t imagine what it would be like in the “busy season”. Also, the temperatures in some places were already getting hot, July and August would be too hot for us.

· I’m glad I decided to blog the trip. We visited so many places that I will definitely be going back into the blog to revisit our stops.

· We loved staying at the state and national parks. The sites are large, the only drawback is they don’t have full hook ups.

· We had a great family reunion in Arizona, and we were so happy that my sisters could all be together while we were there.

· We definitely needed days to do nothing and I’m glad they were planned.

· Harvest Hosts worked out great. We will definitely utilize them in the future.

There really aren’t many negatives (thankfully).

· Having to book so early and really have a plan a year out is just a pain. Mark did a fantastic job, but it wasn’t easy, and he put a lot of time into it.

· Most of the RV parks will not refund any money if you leave early, the state and national parks are much more accommodating.

· Our least favorite campground was Lake Louise. Instead of 1 RV per site, the sites are wider, but they assign 2 RVs per site. We were just way to close.

Are we happy to be home? Yes, it’s always nice to be back home. We are looking forward to spending time with our family and friends, who we have missed. We were so blessed to be able to take this trip and see the sights we saw. This is a magnificent country we live in.

To everyone that followed the blog, thank you for following us on our adventure. It was always nice to hear from you letting us know how much you loved following our journey.