Steam at the overflow hose below the radiator cap?

I have to agree. If the radiator was filed to the top, it would spill some coolant at shut down but not a gallon. A failed or low pressure cap along with clear water could cause it to loose more over time. If it is a head gasket, the copper colored liquid head gasket fix from Barsleak really works. It cured my 96 4cyl. Camry with same symptoms over 2 years ago. Only time I could see steam at the tailpipe was at cold start and that wasn't much. Its close to 293000 miles now.
I have no water in the oil. It is clean. Until I can fully flush the system, then I'm of the mind its the temps combined with the fact that I just don't know what the PO did with the thermostat and it looks to me that it's straight water in there and that's what I topped off with to test. After the flush, I will go with the normal coolant/antifreeze and see what happens then. To be clear, there hasn't been a "loss of coolant" as when I added the water to the radiator, I hadn't added anything to that point in the time I owned the car. I was too busy fixing the fuel issues (which now I have to fix again as my grandson broke the bracket on the carb for the choke pull off arm. Yeah, not happy about that.) Once I replace the cap and flush and get the right coolant in it, I have a feeling it will be fine. I had a similar problem with my 63 Chevy PU at one time. One day it just stopped doing it when the heat of the Texas sun died down in the fall of that year and it never happened again.