Friday, October 16, 2015

6th YEAR SUMMARY

Friday, October 16 – Today we are celebrating the end of our 6th year of traveling. Even though we now have a summer base in Ohio, we continue to travel seven to eight months a year.

Wine tasting…Dave, Kelly, Paul, Marsha, Katie, Rodwine tasting

Last winter, we returned to the desert Southwest. We love that area and wish it wasn't so dang far across Texas to get there. :-) We love the outdoors and there are just so many activities to enjoy in that area.

Marsha and desert

How can you beat Palm Springs in the winter. It almost wants to make us take up golf :-) We had some pretty fantastic hikes in the mountains surrounding the area, but one of our favorite areas was down the road in Borrego Springs. What an amazing area and hiking in those slot canyons was terrific!

Marshall South Hike.
Marshall South Hike

Slot Canyon.
Slot Canyon

  Granite Mountain Hike.
Granite Mt. hike

As a matter of fact, one of our favorite campgrounds this year was the Stagecoach Trails RV Park & Ranch in Borrego Springs. Camped out in the mountains with the place nearly to ourselves! Priceless!

Stagecoach Trails RV Park & Ranch in Borrego Springs

Stagecoach Trails RV Park & Ranch in Borrego Springs

Some additional favorite stops we shared together were our hikes around Tucson, especially the Saguaro National Park and the Holbert Trail in the South Mountains. Marsha enjoyed searching for crested Saguaro cacti and ended up pretty successful.

Holbert Trail.
South Holbert Trail

crested saguaro cactus

Living in the shadows of the Superstition Mountains is pretty amazing. There sure is “gold in them thar hills.”

Superstition Mountains.
superstition mt.

And of course, what would spring be in Phoenix without spring training baseball. We sure enjoyed our visit to the Cleveland Indians practice session, and the several games at the stadium. And as an extra bonus, we attended the Indians opening game series against the Astros in Houston on our way east with our daughter, Carrie.

Astros game.
Astros game

We did enjoy a mid-summer trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the month of July. Some of our favorite memories in the U.P. are Picture Rock, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, collecting Petosky stones at Whitefish Point, the Soo Locks in Saulte Ste. Marie, Mackinac Island visiting Paul's old fishing hangouts and the Ford Museum and truck plant tour. We had such a great time, we definitely plan on continuing those mid-summer trips in the future.

Picture Rock.
Picture Rock

Paul and his Petosky stone.
Petosky stones

Soo Locks.
Soo locks

Mackinac Island
 Mackinac Island

Paul’s Memory Lane Tour. One of his favorite bars, Bumpas’.Bumpas

We finished our 6th year of travels with a 6-week whirlwind tour of Florida. We wanted to see Florida before the prices increased when the Snowbirds arrived. We ventured down the entire Florida Atlantic Coast to Key West and are currently in Ft. Myers, FL, on the Gulf coast. St. Augustine, the Keys, and Fort Myers were some of our favorite campsites. And how can we forget the Everglades and those amazing mosquitos...ha ha!

Ponce De Leon Hotel, St. Augustine.Ponce De Leon Hotel, St. Augustine.

Our first kayak trip.
kayaking

Hobe Sound Beach.
Hobe Sound Beach

Florida Keys Elks.
Flordia Keys Elks

Iguana

Key West.
Key West

Everglades.
Everglades.

Below is a little statistical comparison of our six years. It appears that the 6th year was a little bit of a trend buster! We were pretty busy and moving around quite a bit!

6th YEAR STATISTICS:

Starting Date: 10/17/14
Starting Location: Mission, TX
Ending Location: Alva, FL (Fort Myers, FL)

 

YEAR 1

YEAR 2

YEAR 3

YEAR 4

YEAR 5

YEAR 6

Different Cities Overnight 54 34 40 27 18 37
Longest Length of Stay 79 69 70 138 172 85
Location of Longest Stay Livingston, TX Mission, TX Canton, OH Canton, OH Canton, OH Canton, OH
Average Length of Stay 7 11 9 14 20 5
Number of States Visited 20 11 16 15 10 12
Number of Days in Home State of TX 166 195 127 153 199 104
Average Campground Cost $12.80 $12.25 $15.33 $13.52 $14.21 $18.15
Gallons Diesel Fuel Used 1,678 974 1,038 687 705 1,508
Highest Price for Diesel Fuel $3.22 $4.05 $4.60 $4.16 $4.03 $3.38
Lowest Price for Diesel Fuel $2.54 $2.83 $3.57 $3.46 $3.26 $2.08
Average Price/Gallon $2.84 $3.63 $3.92 $3.82 $3.65 $2.71
Average Miles/Gallon 7.36
motorhome
7.21 motorhome 7.31 motorhome 11.54
fifth-wheel
11.50
fifth-wheel
10.36
fifth-wheel
Motorhome Miles Driven 12,357 7,428 8,641 NA NA NA
Car Miles Driven 22,186 15,631 18,496 NA NA NA
Truck Miles Driven NA NA NA 18,777 14,287 19,153

It was another great year of seeing God’s great country, meeting up with old friends and making new ones.

Ingrid, Al, Pam, Marsha, Paul, John.
us with Ingrid, Al, John, Pam

Harry.
harry

Quartzsite.
Quartzsite

Looking forward to Year Seven.Florida Keys Elks

Sunset Florida Keys Elks

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!