Our Final Harvest Hosts Stays as We Return to Texas to Tally Our Summer Travel Stats

After leaving Eureka Springs, Arkansas, we overnighted at 2 final Harvest Hosts locations as we made our way back home to Texas. Tilley’s Market in Guy, Arkansas, is a wonderful family-owned café and farmer’s market that offers fresh baked goods, home-made soups, made-to-order sandwiches, gift basket items, seasonal produce, and other delicious edibles. Mom was happy to pay Tilley’s Market to provide us with a meal (1 less she had to cook).   The owners are super friendly and accommodating to their RVing guests.

View from South Mountain Overlook enroute to Tilley's.

The owners of Tilley's are very accommodating.  They let us park right in front of the cafe/market rather than in the field since we were going to hit the road very early the next morning.

 

My new friend!

The folks at White Tale Ranch in DeKalb, Texas are wonderful as well.  Their property is lovely and totally secured with a gate.  We enjoyed chatting with them, visiting with their donkeys, and traversing along their hiking trails.  We bought farm-fresh eggs, jams and jellies for our bellies.

 

White Tale Ranch offers a huge, level field in which to park, surrounded by nature.

Who could resist visiting with these guys!

Views from the hiking trails.

And, at last, we arrived home in Livingston, Texas!  We had a blast travelling this summer, but I am glad to land for a spell.  It gives me a chance to compile some statistics to share:

 

Number of States Visited:  19

 

Total miles travelled over 120 days: 7,406, of which 5,648 was towing the Jeep.  There were several states where it is illegal to double-tow, so I rode shotgun with Mom in my Rambling RV Rat Pack Rubicon for 1,758 miles.

 

Fuel: $5,764.  This includes $1,867 of gasoline for the Jeep and our motorcycle rides.  Big Boomer, our medium duty truck that tows Suite Retreat (our DRV Mobile Suites 5^th Wheel), consumed 1,010 gallons of diesel, averaging 6.3 miles per gallon (towing the Jeep reduced our mileage considerably), at an average cost of $3.86/gallon.

 

RV Parks: $4,585, representing 89 days across 27 locations, averaging $51/night.  We utilized private, State, and County parks, and we had no problems getting reservations despite the size of our set-up and the fact we did not begin making plans until mid-April for a June through September trip.

 

Harvest Hosts: 30 days across 26 locations.  We spent an average of $26/night based on donations and/or purchases we made at each location for goods/services.  (We could not patronize Route 66 Skyview Drive-In because it was closed on the night we stayed, we had no need for solar equipment purchases/installation at Panels Up, and my parents would not jump out of a perfectly good plane at Skydive Chicago.  Hence, our average was slightly below the Harvest Hosts $30 “suggested” amount).

 

Civil War Battlefields Visited:  26

Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Visited:  5

Great Lakes Visited:  3

Number of “Incidents”:  4 (None of which were attributed to Big Boomer!)

Radiator replacement on Jeep; Flat tire on RV; Front brake seizing on Jeep while towing; Severed brake line on RV.

 

Number of Jeep “Ducks” Acquired:  7.  We were gifted rubber ducks from 4 anonymous fellow Jeep owners as a gesture of kindness.  They were keeping the tradition started during COVID by a young Canadian woman.   “Ducking” among Jeep owners has morphed into a world-wide trend.  The other 3 ducks were souvenir gifts (Elvis, Rosie the Riveter, Peabody Hotel) to Dad from yours truly, Rambling RV Rat.

Well, it is time to sign off.  Talk to you again soon!