What would you do if you had 100 days free? For Penny and David Scott, the answer was easy - go see their children and 4 grandchildren spread out across the United States in a Tiffin Motorhome. "We don't get to see our children that much, so the time with them is just wonderful," Penny Scott says, "So the three main points of our trip were seeing them in Raleigh, NC, Los Angeles and Whidbey Island, Washington
What resulted was an epic trip of over 11,000 miles on their motorhome and 6,000 miles on their Jeep. "We'd park the motorhome by a National Park or somewhere and would just go exploring," Scott recalls. She made daily entertaining entries on her Facebook while on the trip, as well as shared her experiences with the RV Bunch Facebook Group.
Getting to the point of doing a trip like this was a lifetime in the making. "I grew up camping," Scott says, "Since I was about two-years-old we camped every year in a pop-up camper." Scott and her husband live in New York State. "When we got married, we tent camped for a while with our kids and then we got a popup," she says. But they couldn't go very far so they primarily stayed on the east coast. Penny was a first grade teacher and her husband was a software engineer. The kids got involved in sports and Penny got involved in coaching, so getting away camping became more and more difficult. "We got a place up by Lake Ontario that we used as our retreat which was great," Scott recalls. And then her kids got married and moved away across the country.
"Three years ago, we were sitting up at the lake toying with the idea of retiring and doing some traveling," she explains, "And we didn't really know anything about motorhomes, but decided we wanted a Class C or a Class A motorhome. A 5th wheel was not an option because we are not truck people." After some research, they found Tiffin Motorhomes based out of Red Bay, Alabama, and they fell in love with them. "My husband did a lot of research and became an expert on sizes and layouts," she laughs. They found one for sale in New Hampshire and went to look at it, mainly to visualize what they have been researching, but instead ended up purchasing it, sold the place at the lake and took little trips here and there. "I retired, but David was still working," Scott explains, "So I think the furthest we went was Hilton Head, but we mostly stayed around the east coast and going to local campgrounds. We were really enjoying it."
The Scotts at Crater Lake in south-central Oregon [Photo/Penny & David Scott]
Then, unfortunately, tragedy struck. "My best friend ended up getting cancer and died very suddenly," Scott says, "And it was really eye-opening. Many of the people we knew were getting sick and couldn't do the things that they dreamed of doing after retirement." Her husband retired early and they started planning their dream trip. "My husband retired March 1st and we were on the road for our 107 day trip on March 22nd," she says.
At that time of year, there was still a lot of snow to the north, so they headed south first to Raleigh to visit their youngest son and his family. "Our plan was to get to our children and then take them camping with us in the area so we could all be together doing what we love," Scott says. Unfortunately, their transmission went out in their Jeep in Raleigh and was to be in the shop for a few weeks. But, as she writes in her entry, "Things happen, but it’s how you deal with it is what matters.” It was a good spot for it to happen because they could all still go camping in the motorhome. They spent some time in Myrtle Beach. When the jeep was fixed they continued on down to Red Bay to get their motorhome outfitted with solar panels for some boondocking. "We toured the factory down there and it was amazing!" she recalls.
Then they kept going west. "We are big hikers, so we headed to Utah to see some of the National Parks and things like that," Scott says, "It was so great because some of the places we didn't know about, but the locals would tell us it was a must do." They woke up early to see sunrises and watched sunsets, visited with other campers and hiked. She writes of the Fiery Furnace hike in Arches National Park, "They only let 75 people get permits a day. It was the best hike ever! Basically you go in and there are tiny arrows to guide you IF you can find them . You squeeze through slots, climb over boulders, find surprises along the way and sometimes get lost. It’s like an escape room but only better."
"David plays guitar so anytime there was a campfire on the trip, he'd play, and other campers would come join us," she recalls, "We became close with our camping neighbors and, one day, they knocked on our door and asked if we wanted to go four-wheeling with them… YES!” They went and had a great time.
From there, they went on to LA to see the middle son and his family, went camping together in Ojai and spent some quality time together, before moving on to see their oldest son on Whidbey Island in Washington. “The coast in Oregon is just so beautiful”, she says. They also visited the Olympic peninsula and took a ferry to Whidbey Island, WA. Together with their son and his family, they camped and hiked in the North Cascades, and Mount Rainier.
They went into Montana and went to Glacier National Park. “Glacier was our favorite,” she says, “It is just so pretty and relatively quiet as compared to Yellowstone and there are great hikes.”
After Yellowstone, the Scotts explored Grand Teton National Park, and then headed into South Dakota, visiting Mount Rushmore, Jewel Cave, and other attractions using Custer State Park as a base camp. Penny really enjoyed feeding carrots to the wild burros in Custer State Park. And they found a great boondocking spot just outside of the Badlands National Park.
“Then we basically made a straight shot back,” she says. Overall, the trip was exciting, happy and interesting. They were able to visit 15 National Parks along with many National Monuments and State Parks. They did a combination of camping in National Parks, Harvest Hosts camping (on wineries, farms, etc), and boondocking. “We averaged about $22 a night and, except for one night at Yellowstone, did not have any reservations made before a day or two in advance,” she says.
The favorite parts of the trip were hiking and the other RVers. “We loved doing the canyon hikes,” she says, “Where you get to squeeze through these little slot canyons.” They also were surprised about how many full-timers there are out there. “There are people that are retired, some homeschooling their kids and working, single women and more” she explains, “We just had no idea.” And the best part? “Everyone was just so friendly,” she says, “No one was disgruntled, everyone was just happy. It was all wonderful and great.” Dreams do come true!