The problem with trying to write a dozen paragraphs with relevant photos for every place we visit is that it tends to become a bit like work (and thus something we can procrastinate,) resulting in the blog routinely being a couple of weeks behind. That wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for some of you giving us fantastic recommendations on things to do and see at our latest stop, but because of our delinquency those recommendations often come a week or more after we have already left the area in question. Thus we missed Jim’s craft beer brewery recommendation and barely managed to incorporate Amy’s Michigan pointers. So we are making a big push to catch up. This post finishes off our July travels, meaning we are 18 days, 7 stops, and 4 states behind. That will be mostly fixed this week.
The Distance: 1,022 miles, the first 1/3 finishing our tour of New England, and the latter 2/3’s of it winding through upstate New York. Not our biggest month this year, but we have definitely picked up the pace since our languid June in Maine, and August looks to be an even bigger mileage month. Our 2016 total is 4,653 miles.
The Places: Eleven stops in July, almost evenly divided between New England and upstate New York. We extended our stay in Maine with a one week stop at the “no reservations” Bar Harbor Campground before renewing our westward journey. After a one night stopover at Walmart, we entered New Hampshire, spending five days drycamping in the White Mountain National Forest at the Blackberry Crossing and Pasaconaway campgrounds. We finished off our New England travels with two days at Groton Forest Road Campground in Vermont, with day trips into Montpelier and Waterbury.
We entered upstate New York very close to the Canadian border, skirting around the north end of Lake Champlain for our first stop at Twin Ells RV Resort on the edge of the Adirondack Mountains. We continued around and through the range to Adirondack Gateway Campground for a few days of relaxation before picking up niece Kalynn at Syracuse airport. From there we would hit two more New York private RV resorts, Cherry Grove and Niagara Heartland, and two NY State Parks Robert H. Treman and Letchworth to finish off the month.
We had full or partial hook ups for 21 days, and dry camped/parking lot camped for 10. We stayed 19 nights at private campgrounds, 11 in public campgrounds (all state parks) and one night parking lot camping at Walmart.
The Budget: Exactly on budget. We were on a path to be 7% or 8% under, but we paid for the unaccompanied minor airline fees for niece Kalynn, and a small medical bill from a few months ago caught up to us, putting us within $1 of dead even. Aside from the flight costs, having a kid with you really challenges the finances. Who knew?! We are actually pretty happy with the way the month turned out; despite challenges and some pricey tourist destinations, we put our finances back on track after an ugly June.
The Drama: Serenity and Loki didn’t give us any problems this month, aside from an electrical cut out issue associated with the hydraulic slide outs and the ignition switch, which we resolved easily and appears to simply have been the result of me turning the ignition key on while we were parked with slides out for a few days. The true drama, as you can imagine, was from having an 11 year old RV with us for the last ten days of the month. Exhausting!
The Improvements: Really now, nothing significant to report.
All of our monthly reports, as well as our first full year report, 2015 in Review, are linked below.
2016 Reports:
Shell On Wheels 
Pingback: Into Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley | Shell On Wheels
Pingback: 20 Months Fulltiming: August 2016 Report | Shell On Wheels
Pingback: 21 Months Fulltiming, September 2016 Report | Shell On Wheels
Pingback: 22 Months Fulltiming, October 2016 Report | Shell On Wheels
Pingback: 24 Months Fulltiming: December 2016 Report | Shell On Wheels
Pingback: 2016 in Review (Two Years Fulltiming) | Shell On Wheels