In that year we have traveled over 19,000 miles, visited 20 states, two Canadian provinces, and crossed the border briefly into Mexico. We have babysat granddaughters in Illinois, toured 4 national parks, 2 state parks, and three Canadian national parks. We have also visited Sue's 91 year old aunt in Arkansas, our daughter Jami and her family in Hawaii, (our only plane trip), high school classmates of Jeff's in Florida we have not seen since the 1980's, aviation friends we have not seen in 15 years, and very dear friends we raised kids with in the 1970's. We have also had time to stop and see friends from the 1970's, Sue's family in Washington, Arizona, Illinois, and Arkansas and Jeff's parents in Florida.
We have renewed many old acquaintances and made many new friends in our travels. The nature of the lifestyle makes most happy full timers gregarious, out going personality types who are easy to meet. A few become close and for us they are spread out from New York to Arizona to Washington. It is amazing how our paths continue to cross as we all travel.
Our home has been golf courses in Florida and California , Branson Missouri for New Year's, the desert of Arizona, airports in Illinois, Arizona, and Washington, Deadwood South Dakota, Yellowstone NP, Flathead Lake Montana, Banff and Lake Louise Canada, several Wal-Mart parking lots, and wherever else our roaming has taken us. We are currently parked at Leisure Lakes in Joliet Illinois enjoying Laurie's family and waiting for Jami, husband Dan and little Emily to arrive.
We have traveled too much and rested too little in this first year but couldn't resist the lure of sights unseen. It would be nice to say we are planning to slow down but from here we travel to Florida and back to Phoenix by Christmas. In January we return to Quartzite Arizona, will spend 42 days on a caravan down the Copper River Canyon of Mexico on a flatbed car and from there a ferry to the Baja and drive up to California. In May we head to Utah, Washington, and up to Alaska for the summer.
Our biggest incident of the year was our awning getting ripped in the wind while driving up out of the Columbia River Valley in Washington. Since Jeff has wanted to replace the awning with an automatic electric one since we have owned the motorhome it was not a great tragedy to him! The Tradewinds has been a reliable rolling home and has many miles scheduled for the coming year.
This past year has been an exiting year with many new adventures and experiences. At this stage of our lives we are not getting bored! Year Two holds the promise for many more!
