Year Seven Summary

THE LIST..............................Year 5.......YEAR 6.........Year 7
Motorhome Miles...................11,209.........5,300...........9012
Average Miles Per Day..................30.6..........14.1.............24.6
Average Trip................................180............160............180
Gallons of Diesel Fuel.................1467............747..........1223
Average Cost Per Gallon.................3.86...........3.84...........4.15
CRV Miles...............................8776.........11344.........9138
Bicycle Miles..............................180............107...............0
Camp Sites...................................62.............33..............50
Average Nights in Each..................5.9..........11.1...............7.3
Number of Frosty Nights............very few.....none..........a few
Number of Windy, Stormy Days. very few....few........too many
Number of States(Provinces).........17(4).........11(0).......14(3)
National Parks & Monuments........25.............10............12
Blog Posts.....................................79.............61.............71
Days of Exercise (Jim).................161...........193...........185
Days of Exercise (Nanc)..............223...........238...........259
Number of haircuts (Jim).................0...............0.............0
Old & New Friends & Family..Priceless...Priceless....Priceless

This marks seven years that we have been retired and living on the road. The lifestyle continues to exceed all expectations of travel and spending time with friends and family all over North America. We are in Alaska to celebrate this anniversary so we have been to all 50 states and 11 of the 13 Canadian provinces since 2007. While we have seen so many beautiful places and have had many great experiences, meeting old and making new friends is the real highlight of what we do. We started the year in the East and traveled across the country to the Southwest and then north to Alaska while putting 9,012 miles on Opus and 9,138 miles on the CRV. We stayed in 50 places and paid an average of $20.29 a night. This was a bit over the $600 a month we try to keep under but not bad at all considering how expensive it is to stay in Canada and Alaska. The biggest expense increase this year was the cost of fuel at $4.15 a gallon. It was very expensive in Canada and some of the smaller towns in Alaska. It is what it is!!

We started year seven in WashPA where we spent two months taking care of doctors and dentists and getting together with family and friends. While we travel all over North America we will always consider Western Pennsylvania our home, it's a Burgh thing. Our first stop was at Duncan RV Repair in Elkhart where we had a few minor and a couple of major issues fixed. One was replacing the fridge cooling unit that died while in WashPA and the other was replacing the house batteries with AGMs that do not require maintenance. While there we explored the Lake Michigan coast and the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. We then did a week of everything Mark Twain in Hannibal, a neat little Mississippi River town. It was then on to Branson where we did a show and visited nearby Eureka, Arkansas. We drove a bit of Route 66 with stops in Oklahoma City, Amarillo to see the Cadillac Ranch, and then to Las Vegas, NM. This was followed by a stay at Ojo Caliente to soak our bones in the refreshing waters. Anytime we are anywhere near Ojo we will make it a priority to visit.

Our WashPA friends Mike and Sherri visited us and we went to Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque. They loved the balloon fiesta and we once again worked with Mike and T Liberti and got to soar. We saw Class of 07 mates Jim & Bobby, Ron & Linda, Leland & Cathy and Marty while in New Mexico. This was followed by two plus months in Mesa. We got to spend time with Sun Life friends Rene & Susanne, Earl & Kathleen, Lance & Carol and Dick & Lynn who were staying there for the winter. We got to balloon a couple more times, did a couple of art shows with Allan and Sharon and spent time with WashPA native Linda Rocks who now lives in Arizona. We had a great visit with John and Patrice who spent a couple of nights with us on their Western trip. While we did not get to Betty's RV Park this year we got our fix of Betty's friends when Dave & Sara, Dan & Merlene, Jim & Cookie and Tony & Marybeth stopped while in Mesa. We did a lot of exploring around the Phoenix area and took a vacation to Secrets Capri in Mexico for our anniversary. We really are not having any problems finding ways to spend the money we have since Nanc went on Social Security.

To start 2014 we met many RV friends, Omer & Sylvia, Trish, Marty and Ron & Linda in Quartzite. We then had extended stays in Lake Havasu, Yuma and Desert Hot Springs. This was our first time in Havasu and Hot Springs and we enjoyed both areas. While in Havasu there was a balloon festival and the winter blast pyrotechnics events. While there we saw Boomer friends Luke & Judy who we also saw in Albuquerque, Gilbert and Desert Hot Springs. We did day trips to the Desert Bar, Oatman to see the donkeys and Laughlin, NV to the casinos. In Yuma we got to see Dick and Joan Morgan, PA friends who we had not seen in years until we went on the road. We took a couple day trips to Mexico and explored the Center of the World in Felicity, CA. Allan and Sharon came to Yuma and Desert Hot Springs with their rig and we did some exploring together. While in Desert Hot Springs we had the full SoCal experience with wind, smog and an earthquake. We went to Joshua Tree National Park and Sunnylands estate. We really loved the hot springs at Sam's Family Spa, the RV park where we stayed. Tom and Georgie did a personal mail delivery and stayed with us for a week. We had great time exploring the area and local restaurants. We next went to Tehachapi to see the famous railroad loop over the mountains and then on to Las Vegas where we had Opus serviced, filled our larder with supplies for the trip to Alaska and contributed a few dollars to the local casinos.

From Vegas we headed north with the goal of being in Alaska, 3200 miles away, by June 1^st. We added some national parks stamps to our book in Nevada at Great Basin, in Idaho at Craters of the Moon, in Montana at Glacier and in Alberta at Waterton. We spent 9 days in Twin Falls where we got a new clutch and tires for the CRV while waiting for the weather to improve. We next stopped in Butte where Dan and Merlene caught up with us and we had a fun time checking out the town and a couple of drinking establishments. In Coram, Montana we explored the area, washed Opus and took care of a few last minute details before crossing the border into Canada. Then it was on to the start of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, the official starting point for our Alaska Highway adventure. Because we were in the Western mountains so early, we did experience several nights of frosty weather, but are happy to report that we have not had any freezing weather since the middle of May when we crossed into Canada.

The trip up the Alaska Highway was wonderful with a few exceptions that all involved the road conditions. There were several stretches in the Yukon with miles of frost heaves when we were heading north and most of these were miles of gravel where they were rebuilding the road as we headed south. In northern British Columbia we saw a lot of different wildlife along the road and soaked our bones in Liard Hot Springs. In the Yukon we stopped at the sign forest in Watson Lake and spent a couple of days exploring Whitehorse. In Whitehorse we chose to stay on the Alaska Highway rather than going to Dawson City. A good decision that was reinforced every time we talked to anyone who had driven the Top of the World Highway this summer. Missing Dawson City was really my only disappointment of the trip.

Our first destination in Alaska was Fairbanks where the highlight was going to the Arctic Circle. We also did a riverboat cruise, visited local museums and drove to Chena Hot Springs. In Denali National Park we took a bus into the interior and saw a lot of animals including the big five, wolf, moose, caribou, Dall sheep and grizzles. We became 30%ers when we got a peak at Mount McKinley several times and then finally were able to see the whole mountain with a beautiful blue sky background.  From Talkeetna we went flight seeing and got to see the top of the mountain above the clouds and another real highlight, landed on a glacier. WOW!!! Our next stop was Wasilla, our base to explore Anchorage, and meet up with Class of 07 mates John and Lora who served as our tour guides. We went to Hatcher Pass, Independence Mine and Iditarod headquarters. In Anchorage we went birding at Potter Marsh, visited the Native Alaska Heritage Museum and enjoyed some of the summer solstice activities. Other then the highway conditions we had our biggest bump in the road in Anchorage where we had to have the head gasket replaced on Opus. An unexpected expense, but something that could have happen anywhere and fortunately happen were there was a Cummins repair facility.

From Anchorage we headed to Seward were we had a beautiful site right on the water with a view of the bay and mountains. We hiked in Kenai Fjords National Park and on Marathon Mountain, took a wildlife boat cruise and visited the Alaska Sealife Center for an up close look at some of the animals we had seen at a distance in the wild. Next we moved to Ninilchik where we ended up staying for two weeks because we found Country Boy RV Park and its owners Chuck and Jerrie who made us feel right at home. We had a couple of potlucks at the park and made many new friends, Larry and Molly, Don and Pat, Roger and Merv. From our base in Ninilchik we explored Homer, Kenai and Soldotna. Homer is a neat little town with many shops and a big fishing fleet. My highlight here was catching a 71 pound halibut on the fishing charter. My disappointment was not catching any salmon, but I made up for that at our next stop in Valdez. In Valdez we took a boat tour to the Columbia Glacier and saw a lot of sea life.  Also while there we ran into SKP friends Wallace, Wanda, Bennett and Bea for the third time during our travels in Alaska, how neat.   We are ending year seven in Haines where we once again have a beautiful site on the Lynn Canal with a great view of the surrounding mountains. We enjoyed exploring the area and spent a couple of evenings with Marcel and Sonya who we have crossed paths with several times the last few weeks.  We did a day hike to the top of Mount Riley to one of the most beautiful views we have experienced during our travels.  We always like to check out micro breweries, so we visited nearly half of Alaska's and found most to be very good with a big variety of beers to choose from. Only one in Anchorage seemed to be an overpriced tourist trap.

Overall year seven has been fantastic and we already have big plans for year eight. When we leave Alaska we will be heading cross country to WashPA for two months of family, friends, doctors and dentists. When we leave there in October we will be going to Cleveland for our third Yanni wedding since we have been on the road. We will be spending a few weeks at Betty's over Thanksgiving before heading to South Florida for the holidays and the Keys for the winter. In the spring we want to return to Louisiana for another stop at Betty's and possibly a return to the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Next summer we plan to explore the Southeast, an area we have not spent much time in while fulltiming. That said, our plans are always written in sand and are subject to change depending on what we encounter along the way. No matter what, we will continue running down our dream.