Year Eleven Summary

Here is the summary of our eleven years on the road. The first column of the summary is the total for the whole time on the road, the second is the eleven year average of the total and the third is the info for the past year.

THE LIST........................ TOTAL.........AVERAGE.........YEAR 11

Motorhome Miles...................96517................8774...............7200

Average Miles Per Day..............24.1.................24.1..................19.7

Average Trip...............................173..................173.................171

Gallons of Diesel Fuel............12486................1135...............1020

Cost of Diesel Fuel.................41652................3786...............3023

Average Cost Per Gallon...........3.33.................3.33................2.96

CRV Miles............................118087..............10735..............10991

Camp Sites..................................555....................51..................41

Average Nights in Each...............7.2...................7.2..................8.7

Cost of Parks per Day.............79589.................19.81.............20.92

Number of States(Provinces)......50(11).............17(2).............16(0)

National Parks Monuments.........177.................16.....................8

Blog Posts....................................780.................71...................48

Days of Exercise (Jim)...............1949...............177.................116

Days of Exercise (Nanc)............2750...............250.................271

Number of haircuts (Jim)...............0....................0....................0

Friends & Family...........Priceless...........Priceless..............Priceless

Once again writing a yearly travel summary makes us realize how fortunate we have been. We have now been retired and living in Opus, our house on wheels, for eleven years. In that time we have put 96,517 miles on the RV and another 118,087 on the CRV while visiting all 50 states and 11 Canadian provinces. We have also vacationed in six countries; Jamaica, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Belize and the Bahamas. It has been, and continues to be, a wonderful experience that has exceeded all our expectations. While the opportunity to visit great and beautiful places all over North America is fantastic, it has been making and seeing so many friends and visits with family across the country that has become the best thing about our lifestyle.

All of that said we have reached a point where we are beginning to talk about an exit plan. We do not want to stop RVing, but we have decided to start looking for a place to grow some roots. Our eleven years of no extreme winter weather has convinced us that we want to be in the warmer part of the country. Last winter we explored the Atlantic Coast of Central Florida and liked the area. This coming winter we plan to look at some places and narrow down our options. We are just in the early stages of this plan and are thinking we will make a move in the next couple years.

This year we put 7,200 miles on Opus and 10,991 miles on the CRV while visiting 16 states. We stayed in 41 places at an average cost of $20.92 per night. This is $2.13 more than last year and $1.24 a night more than our eleven year average. We did spend a good deal of time in the East where the RV parks are much more expensive so we expected this increase. We did have 30 “free” nights, most while working or having Opus in for various repairs. The cost of fuel was $0.49 a gallon more than last year but still $0.37 less than the eleven year average.

While we do love our lifestyle, the one aspect of being on the road that causes the most frustration is repairs and service. In Florida we had a waterline leak and the AC not working. Both were repaired without any problem. When we left Betty's we had to have a tire valve stem replaced that should have been done two years ago when we had new tires installed and asked that they check the stem. In Texas we had the toilet valve replaced, a new faucet installed in the bathroom sink, a pump replaced in the washer and a leaking air suspension valve replaced. All this work was done to our satisfaction. The real problems started when Opus developed an intermittent acceleration issue. Spartan would not work on it and we ended up having the fuel filters changed three times at three different places and the problem still has not been solved. Two of the places checked the engine with the computer and found no fault codes. These kind of issues are really frustrating. As I write we are back in WashPA and hope to find someone here to fix the problem.

We started the eleventh year of our on the road adventure in North Carolina spending time with my brother and sister-in-law Rick and Denise at their place on beautiful Lake Norman. We had a fun time along with their friends Tim and Mary and Pedro and Samantha who drove down from Pittsburgh. We then headed back to WashPA for two months of family, friends, doctors and dentists. We see so many people while we are here it is impossible to name everyone. We enjoyed the weekly lunches with the teachers' lunch bunch, went to many of our favorite restaurants, checked out the local music scenes, and had a great time with so many friends. We played euchre with the old card club, went fishing a few times, visited a couple local museums and attended the 25^th reunion of the Wash High Class of 1997 that I taught when they were in seventh grade. We did get to share a bit of the local scene with RV friends Dan and Merlene who stopped for a couple days. We always have a great time back in our old home town. We have been replacing a few things in Opus that have started to show their age. We put a new back splash behind the sink and replaced the recliner in our 13 year old rig.

We left WashPA on October 1^st stopping near DC to see Nanc's sister and brother-in-law Michelle and Keith. While there, we drove into the city to see the new MLK Memorial and strolled the streets of Old Town Alexandria. Next we went to Hatteras Island for a week of fishing, food and fun. We got to spend some time on the beach with friends Tom and Georgie who were vacationing there. Next we sprinted a thousand miles to Florida where we had an appointment for annual service on Opus. We had dinner with RV friends George and Nan in Jacksonville on our way south.

We stayed in Naples for a month to explore the Gulf Coast as a possible place to settle down. While there we flew to Punta Cana for a two week vacation but were disappointed when Rick and Denise had to cancel their plans to join us for a week. We then moved to the Atlantic side of the state staying in Jensen Beach for a month. We really liked the area and have moved it to the top of perspective places to settle. While there, we had the carpet in Opus replaced, part of our ongoing up-grade. Next it was only 25 miles to Jupiter were we ended the year with our WashPA friend Mary Lou. We have spent the holidays here every year we have been in Florida since 2007. We love this area with its many great restaurants and great music venues. We got to see the manatees and the Capitol Steps New Years Eve show. We also got to spend time with friends we have made there over the years. While we are happy for her, we are sad that Mary Lou has sold her beautiful place in Jupiter. On January 1^st we moved to the Florida Keys Elks in Tavernier for a month. We had a great time with many old friends and made some new ones. We really enjoyed the Keys winter weather. Our biggest disappointment was the Steelers not making it to the Super Bowl.

From the Keys it was a four day 1100 mile sprint to Betty's RV Park in Abbeville, LA for two and a half month stay. We had a great time with many of the Betty's regulars and our Cajun friends while meeting many new people. We had a fun time at Mardi Gras events, enjoyed the local music and of course the wonderful local food. Rick and Denise came down for Mardi Gras and Tom and Georgie joined us for a week of Cajun fun. Betty's is always our favorite stop as we travel the country.

We then spent a week at Escapees RV park Rainbows End in Livingston, TX where we gave Opus a good cleaning inside and out. College Station, where we met up with RV friends John and Sharon, was our next stop. We toured the Texas A&M campus and visited the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library. It was then on to Hill Country where I was able to check out Hamilton Falls, that I visited in 1967, off my to do list. We toured the Lyndon Johnson Ranch NHS and Presidential Library, as well as the Nimitz National Museum of the Pacific War while there. We then stopped in Waco to see the Waco Mammoth National Monument and found to our surprise that Waco is a pretty neat city.

In Little Rock we checked out the Arkansas capitol off our list and then moved to Jefferson City, MO to tour that capitol. We have been to 34 of the 50 state capitols. In Missouri we worked at the 40^th Escapade in Sedalia. It was a busy couple weeks, but also a lot of fun seeing so many SKPs. From the Escapade we headed to Michigan where we had a service appointment at Spartan Chassis in Charlotte. This was when our plans took a big turn. We received word that our dear friend Tom had passed away. We were able to leave Opus at Spartan and drive the CRV to WashPA for the service and to spend a week with Georgie. When we got back to Michigan we toured the Gerald Ford Presidential Library in Grand Rapids.

Our plan had been to go to New England before going on an Escapees Head Out Program (HOP) to New York City and the Hudson River Valley. Because of the continuing issue with the RV, we ended up staying in Eastern Pennsylvania for a couple weeks rather than driving to New England. We did make it to the HOP and had a wonderful time. Our last blog post was about the two days we spent in the city touring the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 Museum, Time Square, and Empire State Building and seeing the Lion King. The next post will be about touring the CIA, the Roosevelt Mansion and Library, and West Point. We stayed in New York an extra day to tour the Vanderbilt Mansion and Eleanor Roosevelt’s home. We are ending our eleventh year on the road in WashPA for our annual visit. In our first week Richard and Valerie, friends we met our first year on the road, stopped by on their way to visit his aunt who lives in Pittsburgh. It is great seeing friends on the road.

As we start year twelve we will be in WashPA until October 15^th. We have the usual doctor and dentist appointments and will be spending time with our family and friends. While here we will be going on a cruise out of New Orleans in September to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Betty's RV Park. Nanc plans to run the Great Race and has her 50^th class reunion before we head south. We plan to see Keith and Michelle in Maryland and spend some time on Hatteras Island. Then we will go to Florida to look at some possible places to settle before spending six weeks in the Keys. We want to take a slow trip rather than our usual sprint to Betty's so we can explore the Gulf Coast on our way to Louisiana. In the spring we plan to head west to tour a few capitols and national parks while heading to Washington to see Nanc's brother Dave before turning east toward WashPA. As always, these plans are written in the sand and subject to change depending on what life throws our way.