The Year in Review

2011 was our first full year on the road full time.  We visited 26 states and spent one or more nights in 16 of them.  We added 7,350 miles to Lucie, our trusty home on wheels and 19,400 miles on the Gray Ghost, some of those in some really beautiful and memorable off-road areas out West! 

Crossing the Geo Washington Bridge - one inch at a time!

We broke winter camp in the Florida Keys in March and headed up the East Coast.  We visited friends and family along the way to RI where the granddaughters and their handlers were.  But, we did not want to get there too soon as it was COLD.  We enjoyed again a stop in our nation’s capitol. Then we moved on north and spent a day in Philadelphia!   As we neared RI we decided to take the direct route through NY City versus the longer detour around the city.  We were slowed to a crawl as we neared the George Washington Bridge.  That was the time I got a terrible cramp in my thigh and could not sit behind the wheel any longer!  Fortunately, the traffic was stopped so BJ and I could swap positions.  I then walked and stretched in the RV as BJ inched us across the George Washington Bridge and out of NY City. Later that day we arrived in RI and saw Reagan and Addison and all was well!

Lechtworth St Prk in western NY

Spending a month with the girls, including a week in western NY camping with them was a great highlight of 2011 for us.  But, we also visited some great friends along the way and made some wonderful new friends.

Old Faithful at Yellowstone

The top of our bucket list (for CY2011) was Yellowstone National Park which we finally arrived at in mid-Sep.  It was all the we expected and more.  We decided early on that this was a matter of prioritizing what we would see this time and what we would see on a return engagement at some future date.   We spent a week there and then when weather turned wet and cool we headed south. 

We enjoyed a week in Ogden UT at Hill AFB FamCamp as we prepared to hit the canyons south of there, Bryce, Zion and Grand were on the bucket list.  By now we realized each would be like Yellowstone in that we would have to decide what we would see or do on this trip and what we would leave for the next!   When we left Hill AFB we were headed south, still talking about which of the several canyon parks we would visit first.  We knew Bryce and Zion would be last because they were further south.  We were headed toward Canyonlands National Park, but as we were travelling east on I-80 we saw the exit for Capitol Reef National Park and took it!  We would be closer to Bryce and Zion and reduce our travel time some as we were watching the weather now as it was turning cooler. 

BJ in the snow at the North Rim

We spent nearly a week each at Capitol Reef and Bryce and then headed to Zion.  After several days there they were predicting the first snow fall of the season.  We had in the meantime decided we would do the north rim of the Grand Canyon since it was significantly closer to us then the more popular south rim.   And, we further concluded we would be better off there in the first snowfall which was forecast to be light then at Zion.  So we moved to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and the next day night got 2 inches of snow.  The first snow we had seen while living in Lucy!  The roads were cleared quickly and much of the snow was melted in a day.  So it was not a big impact and we got to see plenty of the north portion of the Grand Canyon.

However, we did decide at this point to move on to NM and get through there before the winter really got serious.  So we left and in beautiful weather traveled to Farmington NM in the northwest corner (4 corners area).  From there we went to a Corp of Engineer campground outside of Santa Fe.  Weather was bright and sunny both places and we moved on to Albuquerque.   After a week there we moved further south and spent some time at Holloman AFB then Rock Hound State Park in Deming NM.  BJ has taken up rock hounding and that was what the State Park was all about.  She had a ball and we stayed there for about 5 days.   I enjoyed some good hiking and some great off-road trips in the Gray Ghost.  Visited a couple of abandoned mines nearby, but did NOT venture into any of them. 

Finally, we left and moved into AZ, our final resting place (for the year)!  We spent about 10 days at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson and took a number of side trips, including one to a former Titan Missile complex.  The Titans were our largest ICBM with a single multi-mega ton nuclear warhead but some serious safety issues as they aged and were decommissioned in early 80’s after a particularly bad accident with one of the missiles.  So BJ got to sit in the launch commanders chair and was the queen of the complex for awhile.  Think about that – BJ with her finger on the nuclear trigger!  Sleep well, it was an inert training warhead!!

Lenore and BJ in beautiful Sedona

BJ in Steve & Lenore's backyard with some wild life!

BJ at the missile command desk!

We left Tucson and headed to Sedona for Thanksgiving week with our friends Steve and Lenore.  An unexpected delight was Lenore’s Mom was there from Melbourne.  What a great time we had.  And, Sedona was even better then we imagined.  Steve and Lenore’s wonderful house backs up to some beautiful federal land and we could walk out of their back yard into beautiful hiking and scenery.  And, we met many of their neighbors during a drop in on T-day.  It is a close friendly community they live in.

After that we moved to Phoenix and met up with some friends we had met in Aug at an RV rally and stayed at a park they go to every year for the winter.  It was in Buckeye a suburb west of Phoenix.  Weather was colder than we expected and windy and rainy!!  And we were told it was uncommonly bad weather for Dec.  Same think we had been told in the previous Dec in the Keys.  (It turned out that Dec 2010 was the coldest Dec since they started keeping records in the Keys!)

We enjoyed our time there despite the weather and moved on south to Gila Bend after  the New Year arrived. 

For 2012 the big bucket list item is summer in Alaska.  But, we are looking forward to traveling up the west coast seeing some friends along the way and, especially seeing Oregon, the only state I have not visited.  After Alaska we will start working our way toward Norfolk, VA where the girls are.  We will spend Christmas with them and then we will head for the Keys.  

Always at home, no matter where we are!