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, Rod
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.
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.
Slot Canyon.
Granite Mountain 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!
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.
Living in the shadows of the Superstition Mountains is pretty amazing. There sure is “gold in them thar hills.”
Superstition Mountains.
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.
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.
Paul and his Petosky stone.
Soo Locks.
Mackinac Island 
Paul’s Memory Lane Tour. One of his favorite bars, 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.
Our first kayak trip.
Hobe Sound Beach.
Florida Keys Elks.
Key West.
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.
Harry.
Quartzsite.
Looking forward to Year Seven.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
