Year number eight! Can we slow it down a little please? Eight years of RV travel and living. It is our lifestyle, our normal routine, and it doesn’t feel different anymore – we just take our house with us (most of the time) where ever we go. It will end someday, but for now we still have the passion and desire with plans for the next year in the works.

A quick recap of year eight:

We left Michigan in late August with our new towing system in place to flat tow the car. What a big improvement! Much easier to maneuver all around.

Our Fall trip took us to Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Texas. Such a great time of the year to travel with nice weather and less crowds.

Highlights of this trip included Devils Tower, Big Horn Recreation Area, Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, Dead Horse Point State Park and Arches National Park in Utah.

On to western and southern Colorado hoping to catch the Aspens in full Fall color. We traveled through Grand Junction, Pagosa Springs, Durango, Silverton and South Fork. Turned out to be a really good year for Fall color in the San Juan Mountains.

Our last stop in Colorado was a return trip to Pikes Peak to check out the new Cog Railway Train and Summit Visitor Center (altitude: 14,115 feet). Both are a big improvements.

Heading back toward Florida, stops in Texas included Palo Duo Canyon State Park, College Station/Bryan area and Galveston. We saw the Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 steam locomotive on it’s tour through Texas and enjoy our first stay on Galveston Island.

We returned to our Florida property in mid October and enjoyed the cooler Fall weather with a short trip to nearby St Joseph State Park.

Air travel took us to North Carolina in October and early November, Thanksgiving in Michigan, and New Years in Maryland.

We experienced a cold January including rare winter storm producing ice and snow in all areas of the panhandle.

It felt good to escape to Hawaii in February for a great trip that included the Big Island, Maui and O’ahu. (Many thanks to friends Susan and Darrell!)

Heading north in early May we made stops in Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland on our way to Michigan.

We stayed at Indian Creek Campground near Tecumseh again this summer and took trips to Colorado (Red Rock Amphitheater), North Carolina, and Mackinaw Island. Whew! What a year!

New parks we enjoyed this year include: Colter Bay RV Park (inside Grand Teton NP), Lucerne Campground in Flaming Gorge Recreation Area, James M.Robb-Colorado River and Cheyenne Mountain State Parks in CO, Seven Mile RV Park, Moab; and Palo Duro Canyon State Park and Galveston Island KOA in TX.

Other notes: Medical Insurance stayed the same, as did our RV Insurance (Progressive through Overland Insurance Services in Arizona). Routine RV maintenance done by Jim has continued to pay off with no major problems. We had to replace one rear tire on the RV in the fall.

I have continued my tax and accounting business, and contract work for the CPA firm in Port Saint Joe, including some summer remote work. T-Mobile cell phone and internet service have worked great.

We still use RV Trip Wizard for planning, and Open Roads diesel fuel discount program.

Plans for year nine? Fall trip includes more Colorado, continuing south to New Mexico for the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta before returning to FL. We will fly to Michigan for Christmas with family. In January we will spend a few weeks farther south in the Jupiter Florida area.

Blessed and thankful for this time in our lives!