Until we finally got around to posting about our stay in Chetek River, we had fallen nearly four weeks behind on this blog again. Now that we have The Big Kahuna update posted along with our Minnesota stay and this monthly report, we have closed that down to only about ten days behind. Progress! Our Where Are We Now tab is usually more updated than the blog itself, so if you are ever wondering where we really are despite having not posted in a while, you can always check that.
The Distance: 580 miles, a significant slow down from the last two months as we lingered in the Michigan Upper Peninsula and only slowly worked out way through Wisconsin to Minnesota. We only hit those two new states, and averaged nearly a week in each town. Our 2016 total is 6,406 miles. Expect October to see a big increase in our pace, and might even be our biggest mileage month yet.
The Places: After finally leaving Grand Marais we hit five new campgrounds in September, starting with a three day stop at Perkins Park in Big Bend to be positioned for our second Marquette market. After that we left Michigan but stayed on the shore of Lake Superior, in the Ashland-Washburn area, with one night at the clean and attractive but management challenged Prentice Park, and then a week at the excellent Thompson’s West End Campground. We continued through Wisconsin with a five day stop at Chetek River before crossing into Minnesota, spending the last six days of the month at Lebanon Hills Park, a county facility on the outskirts of the Twin Cities.
For the second month in a row we did not drycamp at all. We had at least electrical, usually water, and occasionally sewer or even cable the entire month. We stayed in private campgrounds for 5 days and county parks for 25.
The Budget: 18% under budget! Of course, the seven farmers markets we attended accounted for pretty much all of that and allowed us to live a bit higher on the hog than we otherwise would. The budget was helped by only having to fill up Serenity’s tank once, but challenged by the high campground fees we experienced. All those $33 and $37 a night stays pushed us up to nearly $27 average per night. We had a 14% discount for three nights in Grand Marais and a free night at Thompson’s West End both based on weekly stay rates, and two 50% off Passport America nights at Chetek River, but the rest of the month was at full cost.
The Drama: We had a minor glitch with Serenity’s automatic door steps when we were in Minnesota, and of course the entire ordeal of picking up The Big Kahuna in Charleston and getting him stored in Florida, which also entailed having to purchase new starter batteries.
The Improvements: We finally have Kahuna back in our position, running better than ever, with new starter batteries to boot. We will be putting him up for sale online in the next week to two.
All of our monthly reports, as well as our first full year report, 2015 in Review, are linked below.
2016 Reports:
Shell On Wheels 
Love your blog! Just curious if you would share what is your monthly budget to see if I’m realistic about ours. Realize lifestyles differ as do fixed costs, but wondering if we are in the ballpark! We leave on our adventure & plan on boondocking when possible to save on CG costs. Thanks, Debbie
Debbie, sent you a direct reply via your blog.
Fair enough, we are looking at a $3000 per month budget, some months may be less if we are boondocking or workamping, some months may be more, depending on CG fees. Just wondered if we are being realistic! Thanks
I think $3K is plenty realistic. Our budget would be far more flexible if we did not have the current motorhome loan, moved less frequently, and took advantage of weekly or even monthly rates more often.
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