We have been traveling together since the Spring of 2017, having purchased a new 21-foot Coleman Light travel trailer and set out on adventure after adventure. Even though John was already an RV’ing veteran by the time he met Shannon, it took little convincing to get her on board with the fun of regularly traveling to new places and experiencing new cultures and historical sites.
Our first big trip was in May of 2017, when we spent two weeks exploring northern New Mexico, John’s adopted home state. From Tucumcari to Santa Fe, Mountainair to Alamogordo, and finally the lush mountain village of Ruidoso, we Newtons traveled some 3,000 miles and Shannon’s eyes were opened to the beauty and magic of the “Land of Enchantment.”
We also started collecting fabric patches to commemorate our travels, buying a bulletin board each year to display them. We just completed our eighth board of patches (with some stickers and magnets thrown in when patches weren’t available) in 2024.
In the now nine years of travel, we have visited 11 states and stayed in state parks, national parks, Corps of Engineer sites, RV parks and KOAs. We’re on a mission to visit as many national parks sites as possible, and each trip we take gets us closer to seeing them all.
In October 2024 we decided to start documenting our travels on video, editing “episodes” for YouTube so we can share our adventures. Each long trip is a “season” and we document RV life, local culture and new discoveries. Check it out!
As you can see from the list below, a few states are annual or semi-annual destinations for us. We live in Northwest Arkansas, Shannon is from Kansas, we own land in New Mexico, and we have to go through Oklahoma and Texas to get there. So these places are every-year places for us.
- 2017 – New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Maryland
- 2018 – Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas
- 2019 – Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri
- 2020 – Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas
- 2021 – New Mexico, Missouri, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas
- 2022 – Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Missouri
- 2023 – Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma
- 2024 – Florida, Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama
- 2025 – Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico
The Great Adventure 