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Dutch Adria Sonic 700 SL in the USA
2023 - What a great year of travel!

We obviously enjoyed all the beautiful nature and the animals we spotted immensely. What made everything even more special, however, were the many friendly people we met: Americans, Canadians, Swiss, Germans, Belgians and Dutch. There are nice people everywhere on this earth!

To make such a special trip is a dream come true and especially to be able to do this with each other and our own Dutch camper. But the icing on this delicious "cake" has been traveling with Carmen & Lorenzo. Thousands of photos, videos and facetime cannot compete with personally sharing the experiences!

In the story below, we list the links (click on the underlined sentences) to our relevant blog.

Zion NP-USA
Zion NP-USA
A brief review of the start of our adventure

While traveling in Spain, we heard of the possibility of the shipping your Dutch motorhome to Canada & America. This idea did not leave us. We applied for a visa filed with the U.S. Embassy, where we were able to come for an interview in October of that year. From then on, we began to explore insurance and shipping options for the motorhome.

We found the insurance after much sleuthing. The shipping unfortunately did not go well. In fact, we had paid the full amount, but the Dutch broker turned out not to have made any reservations for us with shipping company ACL. Unfortunately, our trip began with a financial mess and a very bad feeling. 

Rederij ACL
The motorhome arrives in Halifax - Canada
Our route

We usually travel without planning, but had two factors we wanted to consider:

  1. Enjoying Canada and not crossing the US border too soon. The USA visa is activated immediately, even when you return to Canada
  2. Our daughter Carmen & son-in-law Lorenzo had plans to travel with us

We started in Halifax - Nova Scotia - Eastern Canada and ended in Galveston - Texas - America. We drove a total of more than 22,000 km.

Onze route - deel 1
Our route - part 1
Onze route - deel 2
Our route - part 2
Destinations

We have seen so much! In the pictures you can see an overview of all the blogs we wrote. Want to read more? Click on this link or on the destinations button in the main menu!

Canada 2023
Amerika 2023
Accommodation

We made great use of boondockers spots offered by individuals and companies through the organization Harvest Host / Boondockers Welcome. We have also often camped in campsites in national parks. These parks are often very large, overnight camping outside the campgrounds is not allowed, a camping spot in the park is nice for those reasons.  

Overnight stays at private boondockers are free, and at, say, a bee farm, brewery or restaurant you are expected to buy something. We always like that because they usually have nice products. 

Campground rates in the national, county and state parks range between $15 and $35 per night; for commercial campgrounds you pay between $40 and $100 per night.

We stayed in 90 different places last year. The overview below contains (blue) links to the respective websites. This overview only works well on a desktop. We are looking at making it work on a mobile application.

What do you do with power, water and waste discharge when you are free camping?

For starters, we have solar panels and rarely use electricity. A lot of Hosts offer electricity and water (sometimes for a fee). On the app/website iOverlander are lots of locations where you can dump gray (dishwashing/shower) water and black water (toilet waste). 

Convenient equipment camper

We are very happy with our RV! We enjoy being self-sufficient and therefore we are very happy with:

  • the Solar panels and new battery (we have access to 220V everywhere)
  • the Ogo composting toilet with suction (no odors in the camper and super easy to empty)
  • the Clearly filtered water jug (no more lugging around bottles of water, which contain chloride and junk anyway)
  • We made a screw cap on our gray water drain. We screw a flexible hose onto that when we go to dump gray water, really handy!
  • We carry hard plastic plates that we place under the hydraulic levelers. The levelers do not sink into soft ground
  • We had good mattresses made, but the Froli bed system also contributes to good mattress comfort and ventilation
Handige camper accessoires
Useful motorhome accessories

Handy to carry:

  • In Canada and America, everything is based on 110 volts. Should you want to buy appliances in these countries, you cannot use them in your Dutch (220V) motorhome. We brought a kettle, Nespresso, hand blender, juicer, rice cooker and airfryer from the Netherlands.
  • If you want to connect the RV to electricity, you need an inverter. Our 110V to 220V inverter has too light fuses, heavier fuses are not available here, so handy to bring from home. By now we have heavier fuses and the air conditioner is also doing fine. We do not promote this inverter, but then you have an idea of the device you need.
  • Plenty of quilts. We like to travel in nice weather, but it can cool off considerably in the evening. Comforters are plentiful here, too!
  • Do you like to cook outside on gas? In Canada and America, they don't have Campingaz or bottles with similar connections
  • A 220V extension cord in the camper. Always handy if e.g. you want to work on your laptop outside. Is not easily available in USA
  • We use the Omnia "oven" very much, they don't know these here
  • Here we bought a surge protector . This is a voltage protector/monitor. Is there peak voltage in the grid? This device captures it
  • Basic tools, of course, are also available in abundance here

What we could have left at home:

  • The outdoor carpet. We used these many times in Europe, now none at all
  • Our beautiful windshield from Reda, also this one has not been used at all yet
  • We brought a petroleum heater, also not used once
  • The bike rack. We left our bikes at home, due to prohibition of shipping the battery. The bikes for sale here are of a very different quality
Carmen & Lorenzo's itinerary

In this blog share the itinerary they put together and what we love about it.