If you followed along with our road trip in 2018, you’ve probably seen our monthly stats posts where we share how well (or more frequently, how badly) we did with our budget, how many miles we drove, how many points we earned and redeemed, etc.
We set off on our 5 year, 50 state road trip on January 1, 2018, so we’re a year in. I thought it’d be fun for me – and hopefully you too – to look back at a year in stats.
This list will cover even more things than we usually share each month, so buckle up!
Miles Driven
We drove 27,643 miles in 2018 which is an average of 75.73 miles per day. Given how far some people commute each day for work, that’s not bad.
27,643 miles could get you from the east coast to the west coast and back again five times. We effectively drove a longer distance than the Earth’s circumference seeing as that’s 24,901 miles.
Number Of Countries Visited
3 – US, Canada and Mexico. Well, we sort of visited Mexico – I think. While visiting Big Bend Ranch State Park, Google Maps seemed to suggest we crossed the border while walking down alongside the Rio Grande.
Number Of Cities Visited (Officially)
58. That’s the “official” number based on how many cities we stayed in for more than one night.
Number Of Cities Visited (Unofficially)
~63. In addition to the official stops, there are a number of places we stopped at for one night on our way through to somewhere else. There are also a couple of other cities included here, like Portsmouth VA when we went back for a few days for Shae to go to Mom Prom and Indianapolis IN where Shae went for a long weekend to meet up with her best friend.
Not included in this number are cities we visited while staying elsewhere, like Waco TX when staying in San Antonio, Chippewa Falls WI when staying in Eau Claire, Galveston TX when staying in Houston, etc.
Number Of States Visited (Officially)
10 – South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio, Vermont, Wisconsin, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado.
Number Of States Visited (Unofficially)
21. The unofficial states we drove through, visited quickly or stopped in overnight were Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Indianapolis, Missouri and New Mexico.
Number Of Hotel Brands Stayed At
25. Here’s a breakdown of how many nights we stayed in each brand, along with how many of their different properties we stayed in. The hotel chain they’re part of is also listed in parentheses.
Number Of Nights In Airbnbs
103 nights in 18 different properties. 6 of those were properties where we stayed with the hosts or other guests, the other 12 properties we had to ourselves.
Average Accommodation Cost
$1,181.51 + 90,417 hotel points per month. The cash part is pretty good going as that’s less than our total accommodation costs used to be for rent, electric, internet, water, etc.Β The cost of $1,181.51 is made up of $1,035.57 for accommodation itself and $145.94 for pet fees.
As for the average number of hotel points, that’s across all the different chains and so it isn’t a particularly representative figure. For example, most of our free Hyatt nights cost 5,000 points per night, whereas our Hilton nights were closer to 16,000 points per night. Still, we’re replenishing our hotel points as quickly as we’re using them, so we’re doing pretty well on that front.
Hotel Status Levels
Seeing as we spend a lot of time in hotels, we’re able to earn hotel statuses fairly easily. That said, some of our hotel status levels come as a benefit of credit cards we hold. Here are the status levels we’ll have throughout 2019 and how we earned them:
Average Daily Spend
$108.82. For reference, our budget is $100 per day so we need to do better going forward!
Number Of Blog Posts Written
274.
Total Website Visitors
99,059.
Total Page Views
160,788.
Number Of Photos Taken On My Phone
11,791, or an average of 32.3 per day!
Question
Are there any other numbers you’re curious about from the first year of our road trip? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll try and provide them π
I enjoy looking at your stats. However, I’d love to also see a post about the more personal side of being on the road for a year. How’s like to have no home just roam for a year? How’s it changed your life and relationship with one another? Has it changed your perspective on anything? Is there something you miss from your ‘regular’ life? What is it that you love the most from being a rolling stone? Do you have a routine? Even moving around from place to place becomes a routine after a while…
P.S. I look forward to reading about your adventures in 2019. Cheers!
Thanks Gisele! Shae wrote a post after 6 months of the road trip called ‘The Ultimate Road Trip: Marriage Edition β6 Months In & No Oneβs Deadβ’ – here’s a link https://nohomejustroam.com/the-ultimate-road-trip-marriage-edition-6-months-in-and-no-ones-dead/
I also wrote a post around that same time about 12 things we’ve learned while traveling full-time – https://nohomejustroam.com/12-things-weve-learned-while-traveling-full-time/
I just re-read that latter post and I’d say that it all still holds; I’ll do some thinking though to see if there’s anything additional we’ve learned in the 6 months since then.
There are a few things I miss from my regular life. Back when we owned a house, I had a vegetable garden in our front yard and on our porch. I miss fresh tomatoes, peppers, carrots, onions, cucumbers, etc. – store bought just aren’t the same.
A lack of routine is hard as I don’t feel like I’m as efficient. I used to work 7 hours a day, jogged a few miles several times a week, wrote blog posts every day, etc. I still keep myself busy with this site, writing for Frequent Miler part time, working on other websites I own, but it feels like I let a lot of time go to waste too.
What do I love most from being a rolling stone? Seeing different things all the time. Moving every 5 days or so isn’t so fun, but when we stay somewhere for longer than that I tend to get itchy feet and am ready to move again and go on to the next thing.
As for a routine, we don’t really have one, although we tend to have four different types of days. Like I mentioned above, I write part-time for Frequent Miler, so Tuesday and Sunday we tend to stick around the hotel so I can work on blog posts for that site. The other three types of days are ‘do nothing’ days, ‘do something’ days (e.g. exploring a city, hiking, etc) and moving days. Moving day involves packing everything up, loading a luggage cart, loading the car, driving to our next destination, unloading the car, unloading the luggage cart, settling in, etc. We often stop and do something on moving day too – maybe find a roadside attraction or something else to see along the way.
I hope that gives a better idea of what life has been like over the last year. I’ll try and craft my thoughts a little better and write a longer post about your questions π
thanks for the reply!
You’re welcome – thanks for the questions!
You guys are amazing. We travel more than average American, and still get this feeling when it we like the place we want to move and settle down there. Very interesting to follow you, Thank you for the posts
Thank you – I’m glad you’re enjoying the journey too π
Loving the stats π
Thanks!