How many nights did we sleep in the van? How often did we pay for a place? Split a place with friends? Stay with family/friends? How many states did we travel to? How many plants did we run over? (2) How many bottles of hand sanitizer did we use up? (3) Our 2020 disc golf tour season, by the numbers.
With the 2021 tour season starting so soon, I've been taking time to look back on 2020. It is incredible to think about all of the places we have been lucky enough to visit (& call home), even if it is just for a night.
In 2020, we visited a total of 24 states, & 4 countries (not including the US). We traveled to: Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, & North Carolina! Some of these were only for a night or two, driving through & staying at free campgrounds or the occasional rest stop/WalMart parking lot.
We also traveled to Asia last January/February (which accounts for most of our non-van sleeping) and visited Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, & Japan.
In total, we spent 294 nights in the van, & 67 nights not in the van! That means we spent just a hair over 80% of our nights of 2020 sleeping in our Ford.
We paid for camping/hotels/shared airbnb for 71 days of 2020, the remaining 286 days of 2020 we camped or stayed for free! Since we do not pay rent, and are able to find free places to stay (friends & family help with this a LOT) our cost of living is incredibly low. Even with paid campsites/hotels/split airbnbs, our cost per night for 2020 averaged to $7.02 (total for the both of us).
Out of pocket cost for lodging:
January- $6
February- $338
March- $150
April-$0
May-$0
June- $50
July- $76
August- $725
September- $390
October- $835
November- $0
December- $0
For comparison, a person whose rent is $800/mo spends $26.67 per night, and someone with $1200/mo rent spends $40 per night (often in addition to utilities).
As far as our own utilities, our electric (including fridge, lights, fans) is entirely powered by our solar panels. We do buy ~2 gallons of water per week exclusively for drinking (plus tap water), and fill our 6 gallon water jugs for our sink at water fill stations (usually between 30 cents to a dollar per gallon) or using the spigot at a friend or family member's home.
Of the 286 nights we stayed for free, 201 of those were spent at family or friend's place, 25 of those were at free campsites, 11 were at a rest stop, 2 on an airplane, and 43 nights total camped at disc golf courses.
Of the 71 nights we paid for places to stay, 51 of those were split Airbnb/hotels, and 14 were paid campsites. (The rest of the days that are unaccounted for here were days we camped at the course, but paid.)
The state we spent the most amount of time in was Tennessee- 6 days in January, 10 days in April, 30 days in March, 5 days in May (pandemic lockdown at our friend Weston Issac's forest cabin), and 17 days in November (van projects & quarantine before holidays with the family).
We spent 34 days in Minnesota, visiting family such as my stepdad Tim McAnallen, and James playing in The Majestic & then The Preserve Championship. (And, my birthday!)
24 days of 2020 were spent in Virginia, visiting James' family & long time friends. James helped his dad Jim install a teepad at his home course (Direwolf) in Blacksburg. We were fortunate enough to celebrate Thanksgiving there with his family, outside & socially distanced with his uncle, aunt, cousins, sister, sister-in-law, grandmother, and kind parents (and their dogs Jasper, Henry, & Leo).
A grand total of 29 days were spent in Maryland, quarantining (again) with our wonderful friends Eric DeMatt & Jen Hizer before Christmas with my dad, stepmom, & two half siblings (full love) Sydney and Dylan. (And their dog, Daisy.) We were able to help plant 19 trees on Eric & Jen's property for added privacy (If you know me, you know I jump at the chance to plant anything).
Being able to spend Christmas with my siblings is incredibly important to me, and it was wonderful to share that with James this year.
In order to comply with local guidelines & be as cautious as possible, we quarantined in Vermont before the Green Mountain Championship at Smuggler's Notch in early fall, & logged 18 days in Vermont. We used the time to connect with our friends in our tour family playing games & going on epic hikes up Mt. Mansfield, around the pristine courses, & Sterling Pond.
We spent 15 days in Pennsylvania, driving through for a couple of those days but spending the majority with my spectacular mother (& her fantastic felines), & (safely) visiting with my grandparents.
My mother has a serious talent for renovating houses. She's just finishing up the almost 9 year renovation of a 7 bedroom 1880s Victorian, and just before the new year she bought a new project- a rustic block carriage house two blocks away.
Exactly 18 of our 2020 days were spent in Wisconsin. Fishing with friends, rounds of disc golf, and the Silver Cup tournament.
The disc golf tour fleet took up most of the parking lot at the Lighthouse, and the lake was out our front doors.
Monarch butterflies were hatching and eating in the patch of grass & milkweed between the lot and the lake. At any given point in time, you could walk over and see one in each phase of their lives, from egg, to chrysalis, to caterpillar, to butterfly.
In the spring, we spent 13 days in Arizona for the Memorial competition, and were able to get in some hiking as well as a rock hunting excursion searching for agates with our friends Nate Perkins, & Luke Humphries (& Hogan, of course).
We spent 11 days in Texas, and were in Waco at the Waco Annual Charity Open when the tour shut down because of the pandemic.
For 9 rather hot days of 2020, we were in Kansas for the Dynamic Discs Open. We rented a spot right near the course and spent a lot of time practicing, or playing 9 hole Makhani rounds.
Last year we stayed in Illinois for 8 days and camped at the course for the Idlewild competition. We foraged giant puffball mushrooms from the course near hole 5 & made pasta.
We were in Massachusetts in early fall for precisely one week, James playing the Maple Hill Open. We camped at the course there, on this beautiful farm with fir trees, ponds, & perfect weather.
For six days of 2020 in the spring we were in Arkansas, doing a small amount of crystal hunting and a large amount of spending time with friends while we figured out where we all needed to be for what would turn into quarantine and the shut down.
We spent 4 days each in California, & Ohio visiting friends, 2 days each in New Mexico, & Nevada, and one day in New York, Indiana, & Iowa.
I'm excited for the 2021 season. James & I have been working hard in the off season to step up our game for this next year & I cannot wait to see where else we go!