Tuesday, December 30, 2014

What a year! A recap of our travels

A look back on an incredible year.  Starting from the very southeast part of the country, Florida, going all the way to the most northwest part of the country, Alaska, including 3 ferries, a bit of Canada, with a little Hawaii thrown in for good measure ending up back in our winter escape, Venice, FL.  We spent about half of the time caravanning with Karen and her rig, and the other half by ourselves.  And we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves 99% of the time, even when fighting a horrible leak in an overwhelming storm in Alaska, replacing a rotted floor, and finding out recently we'd have to replace our entire Aqua-Hot heating system.  One thing about this freestyle life is the unexpected and ever-changing views.  

We covered a lot of miles this year, 15,688 with the motorhome and another 16,000 miles with the truck.  The coach consumed 2,810 gallons of diesel fuel at an average cost of $4.08, with the highest being in Watson Lake, Yukon at a converted $5.94, and the lowest in Knoxville, TN this fall at $3.23, and averaged 5.79 mpg.  We stayed at 62 different campgrounds and 16 more than once.  Our campground costs were much higher than normal this year, and averaged $36.14/night, with the highest at $81.52 at a KOA in West Glacier, MT.  We worked on shortening our travel days and did quite well, our average travel day was about 186 miles with our longest being 447 between Slidell, LA and Cornersville, TN, and our shortest was 38 between Rio Rancho, NM and Santa Fe, NM.  

We had several unexpected repairs needed, capped with the worst and most expensive being the Aqua-Hot replacement, with our rotted floor a close second, and with little exception we handled them ourselves.  We elected to do quite a few upgrades and changes as we went, new slide topper awnings, a new wood and tile floor, new TV's, new batteries, replaced a couch with a Stressless chair, added a TPMS, and new tires.  We bought a canoe, and sold a canoe.

Now walk through our year with us.........
Disappointment

Repairs begin

John and Diane getting ready to fly

Before

After

The installation of the new awnings
Out with the couch



In with the chair

New tile

More demo

Wine with Larry and Mary Ellen

Jan, the "diesel mechanic" hard at work

Lunch in Colorado

Hiking in Colorado

Our caravan

Tom and I solving the world's problems

Onto the ferry

Sunset on the ferry

Porpoise along the way

Hiking near Juneau

Off the ferry we go

Welcome to Alaska!

And really welcome to Alaska

One of the Alaskan natives

And another

A nice show

What scenery!

Happy Karen!

Sisters on a hike

A young guy

Idyllic Halibut Cove, AK

The intrepid fishermen

Flight to a glacier

We made it!

A big guy

Road to Denali

John and Diane having a good time

And so is Karen

The mountain, Denali or Mt McKinley

Flying out

Our little group

Lunch in Haines, AK

Beautiful, peaceful Meziadin Lake in British Columbia

Denizens of Yellowstone

Intent on something

Better than a zoo!

Hello Hawaii

The beautiful Oregon coast

And more

And more

Back to Colorado

Wow, what a beautiful fall

Our floor finally complete!!!!

Enjoying New Orleans

Snow in Kentucky

Our wonderful grandchildren

Happy Thanksgiving!

Faith is happy on horseback


Christian mesmerized by Bert

A rare shot of our son, Jason

And our daughter, Kelly
And finally back to Florida with Harvey, Harlene, and Scott
around Jack and Betty's fire

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!





2 comments:

Cathie and Bruce said...

Happy New Year! see you soon!

Bill said...

Can't wait!