Thank-You

Mike and I are starting our North American journey with very mixed feelings. We can’t shake the guilt of traveling in the U.S. right now, given the country’s threat of an economic war against Canada. We want to minimize our contribution to their economy, but the reality is, there’s no warm weather in Canada at the moment. I don’t believe that staying put in our apartment has been very good for our health—we’re feeling sluggish from too much sitting around. So, we’re heading south to restart our biking routine on the Natchez Trace, a 715 km stretch that should help us get moving again. Remember that with no local trains, this means that we will have to bike more than twice the length, as each ride will be a loop. We don’t expect to complete the trail as we are hoping to drive back to Canada in early June and visit our Eastern Provinces for the remainder of the year.

One of the biggest contributors to our guilt is the new RV we have on order—a Tiffin Phaeton 37BH. Unfortunately, Canada doesn’t manufacture any Class A motorhomes, let me tell you, we looked. We spent months debating whether to refresh our Georgetown RV, which has been our home for most of the last nine years, or take the plunge on something new. Every time we thought we’d made a decision, we’d change our minds the following week. We finally committed to keeping the Georgetown, even ordering new seat covers and getting exterior work done. At the last minute we decided to visit the huge Tampa RV Show, making it there for the last two days. Unbelievable, it had over thirteen hundred 2025 model year campers on display. Of course we flipped again and this time decided to buy a new unit. In an effort to support Canadian businesses, we went with a Canadian dealer, even though they were farther away from us than the U.S. dealers we’ve used in the past. Our contract is structured to protect us: if tariffs are introduced that increase the price, we can back out and get our deposit refunded. The Canadian dealer has arranged the same type of agreement with Tiffin.

We briefly considered the Tiffin Phaeton 40IH, which had a layout I preferred, and the price difference was minimal. However, despite its model number, the actual length is over 41 feet. Many campgrounds have a 40-foot limit, and some states impose different driving rules for vehicles beyond that length. All-in-all, we opted for the 37BH, which will be a 2026 model. It likely won’t roll off the production line until at least June.

Guilt or not, we’re currently driving south in the U.S. as I write this. The state of the highways has been shocking. Some roads have been so rough that I’ve genuinely feared about damage to our RV. In all our travels, we haven’t seen highways in such bad shape.

Our ideal way to travel is finding a great location, staying for two weeks to a month, and exploring the local area by e-bike and car. Unfortunately, North America makes this difficult. Distances are large, and campgrounds with full services are far more expensive than in Europe, with very few within walking distance of charming towns. That said, we haven’t paid for a single overnight since leaving home. We started the trip at a friend’s farm, where we visited for a few days and also stocked up on water. Since then, we’ve overnighted at Cracker Barrels and Cabela’s, always checking with managers, who have been very welcoming. I really want to thank these locations. Mike and I try to make sure that we eat or shop at each stop. Even without RV services they manage to make RVs feel welcome. I must admit that I won’t feel like our holiday has really started until we get off the highway and into a camping area for a week or two.

On Thursday, we were set to leave Cabela’s in Bowling Green, Kentucky, heading to a Cracker Barrel for one night before reaching our planned state park campground on Friday. When I called Thursday morning, to book a spot starting Friday, they told me they were shutting everything down due to a massive storm that was expected to arrive the next day. They hoped to reopen on Sunday, damage permitting. They warned us not to head that way, as we’d be driving straight into the worst of it. Mike overheard a local business advising their employees to secure everything outside or bring it inside. Bowling Green was also expected to be hit hard. The Cabela’s manager generously offered to let us stay put, so we moved beside the building for protection. The storm brought high winds, heavy rain, thunder, and lightning, but in all honesty, we’ve faced worse. We’ve been caught in the edge of twdo hurricanes in Newfoundland (2016) and experienced the Bura winds in Croatia, which were pretty bad. Tragically, this storm has already claimed 34 lives, including 12 in Mississippi, where our planned campground is located.

It’s now Sunday, and we’re heading to a Cracker Barrel just south of Memphis. Tomorrow, we’ll continue to our Mississippi campground. We haven’t refilled our fresh water tank since leaving our friend’s farm, nor have we emptied our black and grey tanks since Monday. We’ve relied heavily on our generator, but we should make it to the campground by Monday night, which will be very nice.

On a lighter note, I forgot to cancel a British streaming service trial before we left home, so we ended up paying for one month. Given the weather, it turned out to be a great mistake. On Friday, we binge-watched an entire six-part mini-series, and on Saturday, we did it again with a different series. The rain was so loud on the RV roof that we had to keep pausing the TV because the volume wouldn’t go high enough! Honestly, I feel like I got my $10.99 worth. We did leave the TV long enough to go out in the rain and shop at a Walmart and hardware store both days.

I have to say, everyone we’ve met has been incredibly friendly. The state park even gave us the gate code in case we arrive after they close at 5 PM on Monday.

I’ll check in again in a week or two with updates on the more fun and interesting parts of the trip.

P.S. WE JUST MADE AN AWFUL DISCOVERY THAT MIGHT BE SOMEWHAT DISASTROUS FOR US. I WILL TELL YOU MORE AS SOON AS WE KNOW MORE!