Wow, another year flies by! When we finally get back here to our site in Florida, it almost seems a blur that describes the past year. We had a few stumbles this year, like every year, but nothing too big or too bad, and especially nothing that stopped us. So all in all, another great year!
We had some goals, to do more fly fishing and take a couple float trips, which we did; to use the heck out of our new inflatable and motor, which we kind of did, although nowhere near as much as we thought; slow our travel down and spend weeks instead of days, which we improved on, but found, surprise, surprise, we get antsy; do more hiking, which we really didn't as our emphasis was on fishing; to take the grandkids with us for an adventure, which we did and loved; and to have a fantastic time which we certainly did!
The summary of our travels breaks down like this, we traveled 8,974 miles, a little on the low side for us, the shortest leg was 17.4 miles from Henry's Lake SP in Idaho to West Yellowstone, MT, and the longest leg was 471.2 from Watson, IL to Big Cabin, OK. We had 48 travel days in all and were in 16 different states. We stayed at 49 campgrounds overall, 3 public, 1 parking lot, and the rest were all private. Campground costs are rising, we averaged overall $42.05/night, $42.82/night private, and $30.21/night public. The cheapest stay was $25/night at the Purcival Springs Airport in Watson, IL, and the most expensive was Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone, MT at $78.16. Be sure to check out the map of our travels, the link is on the right and low on the page, 2017 Travel Map. We used 1613 gallons of diesel fuel and averaged 5.96 mpg, slightly lower than last year which we attribute to the increase in bio diesel which is not as efficient. Diesel average cost was $2.60/gal, with the highest in Montrose, CO at $2.99, and a tie for the lowest at $2.28 in Springfield, MO and Anna, TX.
We were fortunate and lucky to start the year enjoying the company of family and friends, and continued to be able to visit more along the way, and now have been rejoined with many, with our arrival back in Florida. We also had a wonderful 2 whole weeks when our grandkids, Faith and Christian joined us for, hopefully, an adventure and good times.
Our repair items were fairly few, starting off here in Florida with finally replacing our main patio awning motor, and along the way, replacing our auxiliary air compressor that keeps the coach level, having our long time not working tail lights fixed, replacing the rear air conditioner which turned into a total fiasco, the totally unexpected blown out hydraulic oil cooler, the surprise bay door latch failure with the "almost" problem of our slides not working. We got our normal maintenance done, oil and filters change and chassis lube along with changing our transmission filters and fluid. And oddly enough, no significant improvements this year, yeah we finally have everything pretty much where we want it.
So here come the pictures, some are repeats and some are new.
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Our big "Tiki Bar" group about to say
Goodbye for the summer |
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Our used to be Maine friends who live here in FL now
Bruce and Cathie |
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| Some more our our winter "family" |
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| Jack and Scott pulling the bad awning motor |
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| The old bad motor |
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The new and much different motor
Slowed us down while I got a new part |
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| Harold and I installing the new motor |
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| Harvey, Harold, and Scott inserting the fabric |
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| Harold and I adjusting the fabric, finally done! |
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| Building the motor box |
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| All in place |
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| Loaded in the truck |
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| Success with the wheels |
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| Friends John and Diane flew down in their plane to visit |
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| John and Diane on their way back home |
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| A nice afternoon |
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| Ready for TV |
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| A nice site in Alabama |
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| Ready to launch at Lake Allatoona |
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| The intrepid skipper |
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| Up in the Smokies |
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| Out on Lake Fontana |
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| Picture perfect trout stream |
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| Trying my luck |
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| Jan working her way upstream |
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| Getting ready to fish |
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| Picking up the grandkids |
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| All together |
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| Exploring Mesa Verde |
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| The slot canyon at Tent Rocks |
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| On the boat at Williams Reservoir, CO |
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| Faith patiently trying to catch a fish |
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| Visiting their Great Grandmother Viv, Jan's mom |
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| Christian gets a fish |
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| Faith's fish |
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| Said goodbye to the kids and moving on down the road |
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| Lazy fishing |
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| But productive |
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| Getting ready for the rapids in Buena Vista, CO |
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| Here they come |
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| Oh yeah! |
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| Bert's impressed, high five |
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| Jan gets a new lens |
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| It works! |
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| Impressive moves in the runoff on a SUP |
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| A wonderful hike |
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| Just gorgeous |
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| Look how high the snow gets |
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| Interesting place, Florissant Fossil Beds Nat'l Monument |
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| Installed a dashcam |
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| Wonderful day fishing on Clear Creek, CO |
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| Should be on the cover of a magazine! |
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| Even results! |
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| Meeting with the deer |
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| Ouch |
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| Wind River Canyon |
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| Wow |
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| Wyoming |
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North Platte River,
our first float trip |
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| A great first trip |
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| Definitely |
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| Double definitely!!! |
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| Finally we get the rear AC |
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| All done! |
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| Target practice |
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| A lone antelope in the early morning in, where else, Yellowstone |
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| Bison |
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| Follow the leader |
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| Black bear looking for breakfast |
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Jan and my favorite overlook in Yellowstone
at the best time, sunrise! |
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| The beginning to our second float trip, Yellowstone River |
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| And it is flowing! |
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| A pampered lunch at the riverside |
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| Paydirt! |
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| Jan tackles the Big Hole |
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| Looking over the famous Madison for the first time |
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| The Madison on a cloudy day |
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| The Madison just above Quake Lake |
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| Beautiful Henry's Lake, ID |
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| A traffic jam in northern Yellowstone |
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| Just before trouble in Wyoming |
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| Trouble! |
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| What a mess! |
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| Fixed |
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| Hermosa Valley north of Durango |
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| Spud Lake |
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| Engineer Mountain |
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| It's cold at the Lobo Overlook near Wolf Creek Pass |
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| The view at our site at Alpen Rose, Durango, CO |
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| Big Meadow on a blustery day |
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| Beautiful view behind Purgatory |
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| Picturesque Silverton, CO |
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| Near Kennebec Pass on the Colorado Trail |
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| Jan trying her luck at a high altitude lake |
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Jan's mom Viv's 95th Birthday lunch with
Tom, Karen, Nancy, Viv, Jan and CT |
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| Sunset in Santa Fe |
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Visiting Bandelier
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| Seeing friends in Atlanta, Brett and Sandra |
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| Wonderful sunset in SC |
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| And back with the gang in Florida!! |
I hope you had the fortitude to make it all the way through. We sure had a great year and hope you did as well, we love sharing it with all of you. But one more thing:
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
