Monday, October 16 – Tomorrow is the beginning of our 9th year of traveling. We no longer “full-time,” but we continue to travel more than six months per year. We completed the circle by ending the year at the same location we started – Houston, TX. I guess that's why we refer to this as our “Southern Home.” It is also home to our youngest daughter, Carrie, which we enjoy spending some time with each year. It didn't seem like we did much exploring this past year, but looking back we were pretty busy. Here's just a sample of where we ventured and what we saw during our eighth year of travel.
Langtry, TX – Judge Roy Bean Museum and Pecos River. An out-of-the-way place, but a great place to visit.
El Paso, TX – Explored the city, Chamizal National Memorial, Missions, UTEP. There is a ton to do and see in El Paso. It was a nice surprise.
Las Cruces, NM – Old Town, White Sands Missile Nat'l Monument & Missile Range, N.M. State University, Dripping Springs Hike. We had a wonderful visit with our good friends, Pam and John, while we were here. What fun.
Maricopa, AZ – Reunion with long-time friends from Class of 2009-10, the Dwarf Car Museum. We had a fantastic boondocking place. What fun having happy hour each day and sitting around the fire enjoying each other’s company.
Yuma, AZ – Los Algodones, NM, Cloud Car Museum, Yuma Proving Grounds. A visit to Mexico is always in order when we are in Yuma.
Organ Pipe, AZ – Organ Pipe Nat'l Monument, Hickiwan Trails hikes, the “wall.” “The Wall” was one of the highlights for Paul…Marsha not so much. The Nat’l Monument is an awesome place to see so much beauty.
How much excitement can one person take? 
Tucson, AZ – Saguaro National Park, Hiking. One of our favorite places to visit.
Sedona, AZ – Red Rock country, Hiking, Truck towed for repairs (yuk). Sedona is gorgeous, but way too crowded for our liking. Even when we went out for a hike at 8 a.m., there were already tons of cars in the parking lot. Not fun.
Usery Mountain Park, AZ – Hiking and relaxing. We will be back!
Apache Junction, AZ – Superstition Mountains, Hiking. Always a beauty.
Phoenix, AZ – Spring Training Cleveland Indians Baseball. Love those Indians!
Back to Houston – Rodeo time, Art Car Parade, Visits with daughter, Houston Ship Channel and Kelly & Dave (daughter & SIL) arrived from Ohio for visit. What a wonderful time we had when Kelly and Dave arrived. We did more in three days than most people do in a year. The kids are young and can go nonstop. We try our best to keep up. After they left, we chilled for a week…lol
With May heating up in Texas, it was time to head north. We arrived back in Ohio to spend most of the summer. Long-time friends, Duane and Louise, were in the area, so we met up for a nice long lunch.
We did scratch off another “must see” on Marsha’s bucket list. We made a trip to Gettysburg, PA, to visit the Civil War Memorials. We really enjoyed the history of the area and recommend it to fellow travelers. While in the area, we added Harrisburg, PA, to our list of State Capitols we've visited.
Right before our departure from Ohio, we had a wonderful lunch with our dear full-timing friends, Margery and Paul. They spend all summer in Ohio Amish country. How could they be so near us all summer, and we had to wait till September to meet up. Boy does time fly!
Marsha always takes photos of everything, but for some reason didn’t take one this visit. Probably because she was yacking so much. Anyway, this is a photo back from 2012. This works better anyways because we all look so much younger…lol
We did add a new state to our map of “States Visited,” …Pennsylvania.
SOME INTERESTING STATISTICS FROM OUR 8TH YEAR ON THE ROAD:
Starting Date: 10/17/16
Starting Location: Houston, Texas
Ending Location: Houston, Texas
Truck travel miles: 13,574
Number of different cities visited: 23
Average length of stay per visit: 4.52 days
Average campground cost: $19.93
Highest price paid for diesel fuel: $3.099 (Sedona, AZ)
Lowest price paid for diesel fuel: $2.05 (Houston, TX)
Average price for diesel fuel: $2.45
Average miles per gallon: 10.005
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
