Putting out the April report only a week into May?  We’ve come along way from being five weeks or so behind like we were back in March.

The Distance: 1,793 miles as we crossed the majority of the country from Pensacola to Phoenix.  Our biggest month so far this year, and one of our longer ones for our overall fulltime RV adventure.  We had several significantly bigger mileage months in 2015 when we were running wildly around the country, but only one month in 2016 exceed this month’s total: back in October when we sprinted home from Minnesota to Florida we did 1825 miles.  Our 2017 total is 2,855 miles.

The Places:  We finally left Florida, stopped for one night at Farr Equestrian Center in Louisiana, and then another one nighter at a Cracker Barrel in Texas before pushing on to Fort Sam Houston in San Anotonio.  We lingered their for eight days and then pulled into Balmorhea State Park, a place we had missed in 2015 due to mechanical difficulties with the old bus.  There we ran into Dad and Marcia, also full time RVers, neither of us having planned it at all!  Then it was on to Davis-Monthan AFB Family Camp in Tucson, AZ after a one night Walmart stop in Las Cruces.  We would end up staying in Tucson for 12 days, most at the AFB, broken up by a two day stay in nearby Gilbert Ray County Park along with a one night in the hotel Radisson in Phoenix so Rosemarie could catch a morning flight back to Florida.  That day Serenity stayed behind in Tucson getting her windshield repaired.  While I held down the fort back at Davis-Monthan, Rosemarie spent five days in Orlando for the big family trip to Disney World’s series of parks.

We spent 20 days in military parks, 6 in public campgrounds (3 state, 3 county), 2 in parking lots, 1 night in a hotel (though Rosie did five more during the Orlando trip,) and for the second month in a row only 1 night in a private RV resort.  We had utility connections of some sort for 27 days (usually full hook up, but 4 with power and water only, and 2 with just 30 amp power) and dry camped for 2 nights.  We had the traditional military subsidized rate for 20 nights at Fort Sam and Davis-Monthan, one free night at Davis-Monthan by using one of our Air Force Frequent Camper certificates, obviously camped for free at Cracker Barrel and Walmart, paid for the hotel night with points, but received no discount for the seven days at the county, state, and private parks.

The Budget:  We really turned it around this month after our budget blowing March. Despite a huge expenditure on gas ($610 just for Serenity’s four full tank fill ups) as we sprinted across the country, we still ended up nearly 15% under budget, which means we are back under for the year so far as well.

We were able to keep this otherwise big budget month on track because of our participation in seven market events, six of which gave as a satisfying boost.  Much like we did back in November and December, we let the markets have a major impact on our schedule and route, lingering in San Antonio to do two events, and staying in Tucson for a weekend full of markets rather than moving up the road to Phoenix.  This has put us in a good position leading into May, the first week of which entails significant dental work in Mexico.  While the costs of that may be only 25% of what you would pay in the states, it will still be a budget buster, so we are happy to have a small buffer to take into next month.

The Drama and the Improvements:  We finally paused long enough for our insurance company to arrange replacement of the passenger side windshield, which is a big deal both in terms of having a clear view and in reducing the wind noise since part of the gasket had failed.  We had a bit of drama in San Antonio when unexpected wind gusting collapsed our awning and broke one of the supporting struts.  I was able to get that fixed on the cheap by purchasing the $21 part and installing it myself.  We have a tear at one section of the awning that still needs to be addressed, and one of the lower mounting brackets has a crack and should be repaired as well.  Hopefully we can knock that out in May.

Here are our monthly reports for the year so far:

• March
• February
• January

And here are our 2016 and 2015 annual summaries, each of which have embedded links to the individual monthly reports from those years.

Well, just for a week and only so Rose can attend the big family event at Disney World in Orlando while I hold down the fort in Arizona.  When last we posted, we had not decided how we would handle the last week of April:  Should we transition our rig two hours up the road to Phoenix since Rose would be flying out and back from there?  Or should I just drop her off in Phoenix and return to Tucson?  In the end, the market availability in Tucson versus getting shut out in Phoenix made our decision easy.

We started off, however, with a two day stay at Gilbert Ray County Park near the Saguaro National Park boundary.  This is a truly beautiful section of the Sonoran high desert, and a place we loved during our 2015 circuit of the west.  We would have spent more of our Tucson time here this year except that, as mentioned last post, this was a working port visit, and the things we needed to do benefited from both the central location and the full hook ups at Davis Monthan AFB.  But feeling like we had marked off quite a few items from the ever evolving “to do” list, we rewarded ourselves with a couple of nights of isolation at Gilbert Ray.

Two years ago the park astounded us with how much vibrant life exists in this type of desert, and this visit did not disappoint.  The sheer beauty of your surroundings goes a long way towards compensating for some of the limitations; the place just isn’t for every RVer.  They don’t take reservations, have a seven day stay limit, no water or sewage connections just 30 amp electricity, and it is cash or check, no credit cards accepted.

We don’t mind any of that: First come first serve suits our lack of a fixed schedule, we rarely stay in places more than a week, we don’t mind using our stored house water and dump stations, and at $20 a night cash/check only is hardly a major sticking point.  And since our last visit two years ago the park has added a modern flush toilet facility, which is a big improvement over chemical pit toilets.

During our stay we solidified plans for the rest of the week.  The fantastic folks at Windshields of Arizona were scheduled to replace Serenity’s windshield Tuesday morning, but were fine with us leaving the rig there one night.  This meant we could drop off the motorhome, drive Loki up to Phoenix, stay in a local hotel (on points of course!) that night, drop Rose at the airport the next morning and then I would drive back to Tucson and pick up Serenity.  From there it was back to Davis-Monthan’s family camp to prepare for a series of markets I would do alone.

Of the five markets that would work for me in terms of timing, we were approved to participate in three.  So after a couple of days of free and easy geographic bachelorhood, I headed to the Tucson Botanical Gardens for the first event late Friday afternoon.  It was a nice location in a walled garden setting under a pavilion, so no tent required, which made the set up that much easier.  Despite the walls the wind picked up dramatically and made things a bit stressful.

The good side was we saw a steady stream of people coming in for the last night of the Botanical Gardens’ Frida Kahlo celebration, and most of them appeared to have a bit of disposable income.  The bad side is they didn’t use it.  Sure, we cleared the table fee and a bit, but it was a pretty disappointing evening, definitely in our bottom 20 or even 10% of market experiences to date.

Somewhat irritated I packed up and drove home hoping for a better Saturday, in which I would have two markets to attend.  Early the next morning I headed to Rincon Valley for a more traditional market outside of a large barn structure.  The wind was quite heavy, to the point that I took the shade top off of our pop up awning and just used the frame to hold some of our displays.  It seemed like we had a slower through put than the Botanical Gardens event, but those that came: they came to buy.  We ended up with a noticeably better result, and cash in hand I raced back to our campground to knock out a couple of chores before heading south to the evening event at Desert Diamond Casino.

Now this was my kind of event!  All the vendors were situated within the plaza of a large, multi-building casino complex with a steady stream of patrons passing through our vending area.  There were a handful of food trucks, always a favorite for me, and live music.  The wind remained a factor, and I elected to just put the tent frame up, which was fine since I was located under a decent shade tree.  The only downside was how close I was to the live music and their speakers, which heavily limited my ability to interact with potential buyers.  We got them to make an adjustment to the speaker position and volume, and in the end I made a solid profit, turning the three event weekend from disappointing to quite successful.

Meanwhile Rosemarie spent the weekend at Disney World.  Now, I know what you are thinking: I really got the raw end of that deal, stuck with working three market events while she was in “the happiest place on earth.”  No.  Emphatically: No.  What she had was a family gathering in the Florida summer with eight children under the age of eight!  I will take my alone time in Tucson, thank you very much.  Seriously, this was a big deal; Titi Linda wanted to have all of her grandchildren together at Disney just one time, and the family made it happen, with her husband Jayson and all three of her sons doing what it took to take time off from work and get their respective families on board for a three day extravaganza through the various Disney properties.

Rosemarie was able to contribute as the only adult Florida resident (which meant a hefty savings for her ticket and five of the kids) and a gifted adult entry from one of her friends (thanks Bertha!), while Jayson covered everything else on his dime and through the generous donations made to their Go Fund Me account.

Then end result was a close knit family of 17 spending three days giving their children their first exposure to The Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.  While some of those younguns might be too little to hold those memories, I know the adults will remember it forever.

Sunday morning, still reeling a bit from three markets in less than 36 hours, I prepped Serenity for the road and hooked up Loki for the two hour drive to Phoenix.  Once there I I got the rig situated at the only RV site I could find in the entire city or Glendale (at least the only one for someone under 55) and then picked up an exhausted Rosemarie from Phoenix airport.  We chose to stay in Glendale as that is where Rosemarie’s long time friend Brenda lives, whom we had not seen since our last visit to Arizona in 2015.

We went straight from the airport to her apartment, where she cooked Puerto Rican style rice and pork chops while enthusiastically catching us up on her life for the last year or two.  Stuffed to the nines, we retired for the evening to Triple T Mobile Home Resort.  I am not gonna lie: this place was overpriced and poorly managed.  Though we had full hook ups for the $35 a night cost, management did not answer phones, return calls after messages, or even show up on time for their posted business hours, and even then it was one of the more disorganized front offices I have dealt with.

The upside is it was positioned right for a one night stay, and the handful of residents I met were extremely helpful.  From the moment I pulled in after office hours, two helpful men directed me to the site where “they always put the overnighters, just check in with them in the morning” to the next day when I had accidentally killed Loki’s battery, people just helped me there.  When a young women, maybe 22, with a good number of tats and wearing carefully adorned basketball attire insists that she be the one to push the car while I sat inside and steered, well, I could either be happy for the help or take some sort of age related offense.  I went with the former, so thanks Ashley and company for the help.

That’s April.  I should mention that just before Rose left for Disney her passport came in, so we are ready to get this show on the road and sprint to Yuma and Los Algodonas for our dental work.  More on that coming up!

After our three day stay at Balmorhea State Park, we picked up the pace and sprinted to the West Texas border and into New Mexico.  I-10 in Texas is 880 miles long, so it is almost a relief to finally cross into a new state.  We pulled over just across the New Mexico line to eat lunch and do a bit of research via Gas Buddy on where exactly to fuel up and finalize where we would stay the night.  Unlike many a day during our first year fulltiming, it was nice to pull into a rest area for something mundane rather than due to mechanical problems.

Knowing we would have a tight budget this month, we decided to save a few bucks with a one night parking lot stay at a Walmart in Las Cruces before continuing on to Arizona. We had just topped off the gas so had plenty to spare for the big generator, allowing us to run the AC until the cool desert evening made things comfortable.

The next morning we pushed deep into Arizona, stopping at Davis-Monthan AFB’s Agave Gulch Family Campground in Tucson.  The RV park here is another great deal: $20 a night for full 50 amp hook ups with sewage, free park wide wife (better than “RV Park average” but still slow or unavailable at times), very well maintained facilities and all the amenities that a big military base provides.  We also used one of our free night certificates from the Air Force Frequent Camper Program we had purchased late last year.

The scenery is about as nice as you can make a desert military base, with extra care having gone into the landscaping, and the interesting view of the aircraft bone yard nearby.  Hundreds of retired military planes stripped of components, windows and entry points covered in plastic, slowly degrading in the hot desert air, surrounded by cactus and other desert flora.

The length of our Tucson stay would be largely dependent on our ability to gain vendor access to the local farmer and artisan markets.  After our success in San Antonio we had finally found enough forward planning space to seek events along our route.  While still in Texas we submitted email and online application requests to three different market managers, but did were not accepted in time to participate in anything the weekend of our arrival.  We made the best of it and scoped out one of those events on Easter morning to get a feel how we might do there.

We finally received approval for a couple of markets the following weekend, and had to make a tough decision about whether to linger in Tucson a full week.  Since we were still waiting on Rosemarie’s passport and she would be flying out of Phoenix a few days after that market weekend, we chose to extend.

While killing time there we took advantage of all the great outdoor hiking and cultural activities.  Haha, just kidding, Tucson in late April is freaking hot!  The sun just blazing down on you all day, temps in the 90s with limited shade, so we just tried to keep cool while turning our stay here into a “working port” rather than a “liberty port.”

Rosemarie did a thorough cleaning of Serenity’s interior, reorganized all of our jewelry displays and finished items, and spent the rest of her waking hours creating a a slew of knew offerings.  I repaired part of our damaged awning, changed the water filter, cleared a clogged line, started the insurance claim process to replace our cracked windshield, fixed our leaking potable water hose, finally installed our new shower head, cleaned our AC inlet filters, did our taxes (on the last day, of course) caught up the blog, cleaned out the heating vents, and bathed the cat.  Yeah I know how they are supposed to be a self cleaning item, but our odd kitty loves to roll in the sand.

Late on Friday afternoon we headed south towards Ranch Sahuarita for the early evening market run by Food In Root.  We met with manager Tim who got us set up on the manicured lawn of the resort.  Along with roughly 20 vendors we had a small but steady stream of potential buyers, and ended up doing quite well.  I have developed a loose “profit margin happiness scale” ranging from depressed and on up through disappointed, grudgingly satisfied, content, happy, excited, to ecstatic.  This one cleared happy by a comfortable margin.  We spoke with Tim about other markets his organization runs, and we have the option of coming back next weekend for a couple of those events.  I plan on being in Phoenix then, but if we don’t get accepted at markets there I might just back track while Rosemarie is out of town.

That same Friday Rosemarie came down with some sort of bug resulting in cold sweats, shivers, general discomfort and the like.  She soldiered on through the evening market, but the next morning was in no condition for that day’s event.  Not a problem; she had prepped everything, it was all loaded and ready in Loki, and I had done one event without her in Key West last year.  So early Saturday I headed north to Sabino Canyon to participate in the market at Three Canyon Beer and Wine Garden run by Art Lounge Productions.

Market Manager Janna settled us in and assigned us a spot in between a baked goods chef and an organic tea vendor.  It started extremely slow, and more than an hour in to the four hour event I was not sure we would even clear the $25 table fee.  Fortunately we had a last hour rush that saw me still selling things 20 minutes after the market technically ended, so we ended up nicely into a “content” result for the day.

That’s our eight day stay at Davis-Monthan AFB.  The remaining week of April is still mostly in the TBD category: the only things we know for certain is our shift over to the wonderful Gilbert Ray County Park just outside Saguaro National Park and Tuesday appointment to get our windshield fixed.  After that I know we will be driving up to Phoenix for Rosemarie’s Wednesday morning flight, but whether I stay there or return to Tucson while she is in Florida will, as I mentioned earlier, depend on what markets, if any, we get accepted to in Phoenix.

After extending our stay in San Antonio far longer than we anticipated, we resolved to push west hard, all the way to Balmorhea State Park.  This would be a 375 mile jaunt; at least six hours of drive time given our 68 mph comfortable interstate speed.  This is significantly longer than our preferred 250 mile, four hour drive.

It’s worth a separate post to talk about why we don’t travel like young people in cars doing 10 or 12 hours or even pushing through the night.  The short answer is that driving a big RV is far more tiring.  Our’s weighs more than ten tons, is two feet wider than a car, with Loki in tow is about 50 feet long, takes a lot longer than a car to stop, wallows sickly, and has such a massive sail area that gusts of wind really shove us around.  And the cat gets sick.

Anyway, having put ourselves in the mindset to make an extended drive, we left mid to late morning, took a half hour break at a rest stop to make lunch, and arrived at the park in the early evening.  But all that was preceded by a couple of odd phone calls with the park staff and reservation desk.  I had made reservations for a two night stay starting Monday.  Once we realized that the weekend markets in San Antonio would be all day affairs, we decided to slide the reservation back a day to arrive on Tuesday.

So I called and the park office, who asked if I wanted to slide both my reservations?  What?  They indicated I had two spots secured.  Confused I told them I only needed one and to please cancel the second, assuming it had been a case of internet lag causing me to hit the enter key on the final acceptance page of the online reservation system more than once.

We arrived at the park after the office was closed, but found our name on the check in list with a site assignment, maneuvered through the park counting down the numbers, only to see a women in an electric green shirt waving us around and directing us to pull wide to the right and come at the spot form the other side.  Park host no doubt.  Energetic woman, grey hair in a short bob.  Looked familiar.  Looked like this:

Yep, stepmom Marcia was waving us in, Dad a few steps behind looking on.  This was totally unplanned by either of us.  We had both selected the same Texas state park for a brief stopover during our westward trips, and had even initially reserved the exact same days.  Since I am a “junior” with the same first middle and last name as Dad, when I called to slide mine back, they assumed the two reservations were both mine, and I ended up cancelling one of them.

When they arrived (a day before us since I had pushed ours back a day) they sorta figured it out, but weren’t a hundred percent sure it was me rather than someone else with the same first and rare last name.  In any case, it worked out great: having resolved to try a bit harder to RV together this year, we managed to spend a day in a campground together without even trying.

Balmorhea State Park was on our intended visit list in 2015 before our first significant roadside breakdown in Big Bend National Park altered our plans.  This was a great make up opportunity, positioned close enough to I-10 to be convenient for our westward sprint.  The park itself is fantastic: Built by the Civil Conservation Corps in the 1930s, it is a smallish, 44 acre park centered on a major natural freshwater spring that they converted into a huge free flowing pool before the water continues on to irrigation fields.

In addition to the fantastically clear, chlorine free swimming and diving, the grounds are teaming with interesting and in some cases rare animal life.  Roadrunners all over the place in the morning, some small quail like species everywhere, more rabbits than you thought possible in such a small area, pupfish and headwater catfish in the pool and streams, large soft shell mud turtles, coot, etc etc.  You could spend all day wandering the grounds, especially near the cienegas, or desert wetlands, and not get bored.

Pad Kee Meow was particularly taken with this park since the rabbits seemed to have so little self preservation instinct; like with the ground squirrels in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, had it not been for her harness and leash there would have been a rabbit bloodbath at our campsite.  Between the rabbits, the only slightly more careful road runners, and the slew of small wrens nesting in the eaves of our shade structure, kitty was in alert mode and begging to be outside as much as we would let her.

We enjoyed our second day so much we extended for another, which is sort of an unofficial rule we have developed for travel this year: if it’s a destination, stay at least three days, preferably even longer.  In 2015 we did a lot of two day stops, and it is really difficult to enjoy even a limited geographic area at that pace.  This year we are doing a lot more “sprint and stop” stuff, i.e., running hard with single day stops until we get to a nice place, then stopping for a week or so.  Once we get to the West Coast, we will have to reassess the travel pattern since there are a LOT of places we want to visit.

After a relaxing third day at Balmorhea, we got back on the road and continued our sprint west, aiming for Tucson.  And thanks to Marcia for the first four pictures in this post, as well as this one:

We put in over a thousand miles in March, but much of that involved crisscrossing Florida while visiting family and friends.  This month we truly head west and put a lot of miles on the odometer in the process.  Following our unexpected extended stay in Pensacola, we cruised across the Florabama border and passed right through Alabama and Mississippi before stopping for one night in Farr Equestrian Center Park in Baton Rouge, LA.

I had gotten a bit mixed up during my research, and had mistakenly included this very well reviewed park in my short list of very affordable options like the Passport America participants I was comparing.  It was not.  At $35 a night it is pretty steep for a county park, but it was very nice, with views of the pastures and horses from our site.

The only downside is the difficulty in finding someone to make payment to during the weekend, especially since they lock the electrical junction boxes during low demand periods.  This park would be ideal for anyone needing an RV park near the LSU campus, but make sure to call ahead and sort out the payment and access to electricity during standard week day business hours.  Lastly, don’t be put off by the google directions: yes, you will pass through some smaller streets and over a pretty hefty railroad track swale, but it will get you there.

We left after one day and continued along I-10 with a stop in Lafayette to get what Gas Buddy suggested was about the cheapest gas in the country ($1.89/gallon at the time) before plowing onward.  We were aiming for a Passport America park on the far side of Houston, but Mother Nature had other plans.  Light drizzle turned into rain which turned into a maelstrom forcing us off the road at a random exit.  We waited for it to abate while looking at our options for a revised night stop close to our current spot.

Finding no cheap RV park options, we eased ten miles up the road during a rain break to the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel in Baytown, TX.  The spot was just big enough that we could fit the rig with Loki still attached.  For you non-RVers: several store and restaurant chains allow overnight RV parking: most Super Walmarts, Home Depots, Lowes, Cabellas, K-Marts, Flying Js, and surprisingly, Cracker Barrels.

We settled in for the night before pushing on to San Antonio the next morning.  Originally planning to use one of our Air Force Frequent Camper Program free night certificates at Lackland AFB, when we learned they were full we shifted plans and secured three nights at Fort Sam Houston.  You here that?  Three nights.  That was the plan.  We’ll circle back around to that down post.

So we connected at the spacious, pull through, full hook up site on a concrete pad to relax for a couple of days after our hard push west through wind and rain.  The base is huge.  Not huge in the way that say, Arnold Air Force Base is with its few people and thousands of acres of woods.  I mean a large chunk or property filled with soldiers, sailors, and airman, buildings everywhere, confusing roads, schools for the kids, and something like five different Exchange posts.  We got lost a couple of times, but the upside was it felt like the safest place on earth:  in the heart of Texas, on a big military installation filled with battalions of troops.

While there we did the obligatory trip to The Alamo.  Seems like they had great rental options, but we will stick with Thrifty.  Hah!  No, we went to the mission and gave ourselves a self guided tour.  The place is well organized for tourists to gain an appreciation for the nature of the siege and battle, and the grounds are gorgeous.

I could have done without the holier-than-thou response from one of the period actors I interacted with though.  After reading part of the letter from Bowie to Houston in which he expected an imminent attack, and that it would come “by land” I asked the actor if this was some sort of gallows humor on the part of Jim.  He replied something along the lines of “I don’t think anyone was making jokes at a time like that.”  Oh please, get over yourself, the dark humor in the letter gave me greater admiration for the event, not less.

Without meaning to we also stumbled across the city’s amazing Riverwalk, one of the nicer versions of such a thing I have seen in our travels.  The part we explored appeared to be a diverted loop from the San Antonio river, with elevated platforms and shops on each side, periodic arched pedestrian bridges, and even tour boats cruising the narrow channel.

Anyway, remember that three day stay we paid for?  Shortly after our arrival we discovered that blog acquaintances Dan and Lisa of Always On Liberty were in the park.  And then we found a bunch of weekend farmers markets that, on a whim, we applied for and were quickly accepted to as vendors.  The combination was enough to make us extend through the weekend.  We had evening cocktails with Dan and Lisa nearly every night along with two excellent meals (one out: Southerleigh, just outstanding, and one in: Lisa’s experimental work with her new air fryer, fried chicken without the oil!)

We were accepted as vendors by two conflicting events, and chose to participate in the Saturday and Sunday Legacy Farmers Market just 20 minutes up the road from the base. Manager Shari was very helpful and accommodating, and generally runs a laid back but successful set of markets.  Unlike some FM managers, she doesn’t require a seasonal commitment, doesn’t assign spaces, keeps the table fee very low ($10), and is apparently flexible enough to not worry about her long term vendors skipping a day or two to take advantage of other monthly or annual sales opportunities.

We walked into the market with a sales goal that would leave us satisfied, and a higher one that would make us happy.  Saturday was better than Sunday, but averaging out the two days, call us happy with results that hit right at the average for our scores of markets during the last year.  A nice result considering we didn’t expect to have any sales options at all in Texas.

Having basically “worked” the weekend (five hour market, set up an hour early, drive time, damn, its basically like having a job!) on Monday morning we chose to extend one more day.  We desperately needed to do laundry, stock up at the commissary, prep Serenity for the long drive, and spend one more evening with Dan and Lisa.

The hardest part was the one day extension:  the RV office is very accommodating, but they seem to be dealing with a lot of cancellations and no shows, but assume “worst case” as far as site availability goes.  We had observed the strange process when we extended from three to five and then again to seven nights, and for this final extension we actually had to move sites.  No problem for us; the move would serve to get us ready for the real journey a day later, but it was disconcerting to move, and then watch as the spot we vacated stayed empty the entire day and night.

There its, a deluge of posts, more than one a day this week, and we are basically caught up.  Next up, a big surprise in West Texas.

Just three days ago we were a month behind, but after a flurry of posts we have cut that down to two weeks.  Progress!

The Distance: 1,060 miles as we meandered our way from Key West to Pensacola, pretty much the entire length and breadth of the state.  Since we barely moved in January and February, our 2017 total is only 1,062 miles.

The Places:  For the first eleven days of the month we continued our lengthy winter stayover at Sigsbee Park, Naval Air Station, Key West, before finally leaving after the March yard and craft sale.  From there we made our way through southeast Florida with a run up to Cutler Bay to visit friends and then on to Coral Springs to see Xavier and Joy.  A few days later we crossed over to the Gulf Coast to see Bill and Gloria in Venice before moving back northeast to Mount Dora and Trimble Park.  We finally began to truly work our Western Route Plan by shooting though Gaineseville into the panhandle, stopping for one night at Beaver Lake RV Campground in Quincy before pushing on to Oak Grave and then Anchor Cove campgrounds in Pensacola.

We spent 19 days in military campgrounds, 7 in parking lots, driveways, or storage areas, 3 in public campgrounds (county), and a grand total of a single night at a private park.  We dry camped for 3 days, had at least partial hook ups for 22, and stayed with family for 6.   The one night we had in a private park was on the Passport-America discounted rate.

The Budget:  Oh man, we completely blew the budget this month, almost entirely because we needed to take care of some issues with Serenity before beginning our big western adventure.  That meant over a grand poured into the rig to make us safe and fully functional for the coming Spring and Summer travel season.  This left us 40% over budget for the month!  And that is despite making some minor market sales and keeping things tight in other areas, e.g., our campground fees averaged only $16 a day this month.

Fortunately we were way under budget in January and February, so the year is not looking to bad, only 2% over for the quarter.  The problem is that April is tax time, we will really bump up the gas expenditures from now until the fall, and we plan to get significant dental work done in Mexico, which may be cheap but will add up.  Gonna have to tighten those belts in the coming months!

The Drama and the Improvements:  As alluded to above, we completed our phased replacement of the old motorhome tires with the purchase of three new ones.  These aren’t little car tires you can get for $70, these are big ole honking truck/rv tires that cost over $200 each plus installation and disposal fees.  At least they aren’t as bad as the even larger bus tires we had to buy for The Big Kahuna. In addition, we had a small mechanics bill to help sort out our last electrical issue, and we purchased two new deep cycle house batteries since the old ones were done.

Here are our monthly reports for the year so far:

• February
• January

And here are our 2016 and 2015 annual summaries, each of which have embedded links to the individual monthly reports from those years.

Last post I offered up two competing route plans for our 2017 adventures; one that took as back west like in 2015, the other east like in 2016, but left it unanswered as to which we chose to execute.  The answer is “The West” plan.

After departing Mount Dora we headed north to visit cousin Robb, Colleen, and the twins, Maeve and Nola.  Unfortunately I misunderstood their Spring Break plans and we were unable to connect since they were not even in Gainesville.  Promising to catch them in the fall, we simply accelerated our departure by a couple of days and turned northwest towards the panhandle, researching a one night Passport-America stopping point on the fly.  We made it as far as Quincy, just passed Tallahassee, for a stay at Beaver Lake RV Park, a no frills place conveniently located just off I-10.  Full hook ups in a grass field for $20, not too shabby for Florida in the early spring.  If I had more time to research we would have aimed for Pat Thomas Park just a few miles further off of the interstate, but with near perfect five star reviews and only $15 a night.

The next day we pushed on to Pensacola, planning to stay at the Blue Angel Naval Recreation Area with our Key West friends Bob and Michelle.  Unfortunately I had misjudged the season and assumed they would have sites available without reservation.  Wrong!  We had to do some scrambling, but ended up at another military campground, Oak Grove, a few miles up the road,  We got their last full hook up spot, but at $27 a night it was a bit more than we are used to paying for military campgrounds.  It was, however, a great location, with decent amenities and a very short walk along the boardwalk to a nice beach.

The next morning we went back to Blue Angel having gone through the reservation process like we should have done in the first place.  Blue Angel actually has two RV campgrounds: Anchor cove, which is heavily wooded, provides power and water only, and is on compact dirt/gravel sites, or Battleship Row which is a bit less wooded and offers either full hook up or electric and water only sites, most on concrete pads.  Bob and Michelle were in Anchor Cove, and at $15 vs the $23 a night charge, we were happy to join them there.  They had scoped us out a great site just across from theirs, and we pulled in late morning ready for a solid three day stay.

Remember those plans we wrote up last post, especially “The West” option?  There is a saying in the military that the first casualty of battle is “the plan,” and between Gainesville and Pensacola is where our’s began to need, shall we say, serious adjustment.   First, having selected the western route, we decided to take advantage of the very, very affordable yet ostensibly high quality dental care available in Los Algodones, Mexico.  But someone, and I wont say who (except that their name rhymes with Hosemarie) had procrastinated getting a new passport after his or her old one had expired.  This meant emergency applications with additional expedite and overnight delivery fees and an adjustment of our westward sprint.

Before I move on to other factors that had us adjusting our schedule, let me say how much of a pain in the ass the US passport application and renewal process can be, and hopefully save someone some trouble.  First, we googled passport application locations, which took us to a post office.  (We did this in our RV, with Loki hooked up, on our first day in Pensacola before we even checked into the campground.)  They told us that only certain USPS offices do passports, they weren’t one of them, and pointed us to another office.  That office informed us that yes indeed, they would be glad to process it, once we had made an appointment, which was not available until next week.  BUT, they pointed us downtown to the courthouse were we could get it done easily since they had, like, six full time passport people.  So we manuevered Serenity, Loki in tow, through some narrow streets in downtown Pensacola only to find that the court house (with one employee working this issue) does not do passport renewals, only initial issues.  The bottom line is this: don’t go to the post office or courthouse at all, just print out the forms from the online website, get your photo taken at a CVS, and submit the whole thing yourself.

OK, back to route plan revisions:  My Dad and Stepmom Marcia are also full time RVers and they too are working a western route for 2017.  In 2015 and 2016 we had been unable to coordinate a joint RV venture despite occasionally being within striking distance.  I think this was because we were all new enough to full time RVing and wanted to work our plans, and not be subject to the fluid demands of others.  But in late 2016, beginning with our joint stay at Wekiva Falls followed by their visit to Key West, I think we had sort of mutually decided to make a bit more effort in 2017.

So a couple of days after we checked in to Blue Angel, I thought to ask about the ability to sponsor friends and family in the park, something just not possible in the ultra high demand Key West Naval Air Station.  We got a green light, I called Dad, who was at the time headed for the panhandle anyway, and after some negotiation they cancelled an existing reservation and pushed on to Pensacola.  They flexed their schedule by skipping past some central panhandle locations, and we flexed ours by extending our three day stay to a full week.

So we had about four days to hang out with Bob and Michelle, who showed us around town and across the FL_AL boarder for a meal at the world famous Lambert’s, home of the throwed rolls.  We have been to our share of what I’ll call “Southern Comfort Food” type restaurants, and this is near the top.  A ridiculously large amount of food because pretty much every entree is a big portion that comes with two hefty sides, and then top that off with the constant “pass arounds,” an assortment of additional sides that the wait staff brings around in unlimited buckets, except for the freshly baked yeast rolls, which are, as you might have guessed, thrown to you.  And even with that amount of food, they don’t bat an eye at giving you a take out box that you can fill with those pass arounds for your next several meals at home.

Dad and Marcia arrived and we had three days to hang out with them, enjoying several fine group meals, a lot of wine, and a few hours at the truly impressive Naval Aviation Museum on the base.

Eventually it was time for all of us to move on: we were still sorting out our revised schedule but wanted to sprint through the south at least as far as New Mexico before slowing down, and they had reservations in Alabama and Mississippi.  Though we would be a bit ahead of them on the westward march, we figured there would just might be additional opportunities for us to RV together down the road.

During our third winter in Key West we developed a rough plan for our 2017 travels.  You may recall that in 2015 we made a 15,000 mile clockwise tour of mainly the west half of the country, hampered by four months worth of mechanical delays and the limitations that come with not having a tow vehicle for most of the year.

In 2016 we did the opposite: a 10,000 mile counter clockwise tour of the east half of the country with but a couple of days of mechanical delays and aided by a great little tow vehicle, our 1997 Geo Tracker, Loki.

We really loved both of those years, and longed to get back to all of those fantastic spots that had given us the most joy while discovering new ones as well. A second trip through any region would allow us to skip over some areas, spend more time in our favorites, and catch those places we had simply not had time for during our somewhat rushed first two years.

In the west, we really wanted to return to California and the four national parks we had missed as a result of The Big Kahuna’s ongoing issues, to explore more of Washington State, to revisit Idaho’s Salmon River, and cut back down into Utah and Colorado to see four National Parks we had missed there as well. We roughed out a plan like this:

• March: meandering exit from Key West to Gainesville visiting family and friends
• Late March – early April: Sprint across the country to Southern California
• Late April – June: work our way up the west coast to north Washington state
• July and August: Work east through Idaho into Montana and the Dakotas
• September: cut back south west into Utah and Colorado
• October: sprint east to Iowa before turning south towards Florida
• November: Arrive in Florida for family and friend visits throughout the state
• December: Get back to Key West for another winter.

In the east, we had loved Maine so much we wanted to spend half a summer there again, and had been so surprised by Michigan, especially the Upper Peninsula that we had visions of spending the second half of the summer there, broken up only by a bit more time in New Hampshire and Vermont and some excursions into Canada. We made a back of the envelope plan along these lines:

• March: the same meandering exit from Key West to Gainesville as “The West” plan
• April – early May: work our way up the east coast all the way to Maine.
• Late May – June: Maine, especially Bar Harbor region, but other areas as well
• Early July: New Hampshire and Vermont
• Late July – August:  Michigan Upper Peninsula
• September: The Dakotas and east Montana
• October: Sprint back to Florida by way of Iowa
• November: Back in Florida just like “The West” plan.
• December: Back to Key West

The plans are basically the same though March and also in November and December, but radically different April though October.  A few pros for each:

• The West allows us to make up for those four months in 2015 that we spent in mechanic shops
• The West takes us to a lot more National Parks
• The West is actually less weather risky, seeing as how we depart the true North earlier
• The East is far easier from a mileage perspective
• The East allows longer stays in our key preferred areas
• The East has enough slop built in for Canada trips

Cost wise its hard to tell.  The Northeast is pretty expensive, but so is California.  The West has more BLM and other public land allowing you to boondock cheap, but the gas expenditures will be much higher with so many more miles to drive.  Anyway, we made a decision.  For those that don’t already know, our next post should make it clear.

As of this writing we are exactly one month behind on the blog.  Travesty!  And made worse so by my frequent promises to catch up!  So let’s do catch up by almost two weeks right now.

After our 73 day stay in Key West, we departed in March, making a one day stop in Cutler Bay (a score miles south of Miami proper) to visit the Nieves.  They again arranged for us to parking lot camp in their subdivision’s club house area for a night.  We enjoyed a great meal together, and hope we get to see them all again sooner than our return to Florida in the fall.

From there it was a short run up to Coral Springs for three days at Xavier and Joy’s, with Serenity parked in their just-long-enough driveway.  We had a comfortable few days in an actual house with cable TV and unlimited Netflix, you know, all those first world amenities we missed in The Keys.  I continued my quest to find all the nearby areas of geocaches, and we had a visit from our Miami Beach friend Alex, who drove up to see us after work one evening.  Perhaps most importantly, we were finally able to visit a bridal store for Rosemarie to select a bridesmaid dress for our friend Roseann’s July wedding.

Then it was across Alligator Alley and up the Gulf Coast to Venice.  Gloria and Bill found us a place to stash Serenity: an RV park right across the street fronting their subdivision that let us park the rig (no hook ups) for less than $4 a night. While there we got to visit with Jerry and niece Laura (boyfriend in tow) and Bill’s daughter Bobbi and Steve for a big St Patrick’s day meal.  We had Puerto Rican style food, as is traditional.

While there we took Gloria on a spree through several local thrift shops, and we finally resolved our sporadic 12V issues by replacing both of the deep cycle house batteries.  We pretty much blew our budget this month as a result of significant motorhome related expenses.  Three new tires, house batteries, and a minor mechanic bill really added up despite our frugality in other areas.  Ah well, there is always April.  Oh wait, taxes…

One very disturbing aspect of our visit: there has been a change in rules regarding Pad Kee Meow’s roaming area.  Whereas previously “Grandma” let kitty have the run of the enclosed pool deck area, now she has to be supervised because Gloria has partially tamed two enole lizards by feeding them tiny grub worms she found in a bad papaya.  Yes, this happened.  She fed one of them so much it fell over on its side in a food coma for a couple of hours.  PKM is most displeased by this new state of affairs.

We left with their usually insistence that we take a bunch of food and other sundries with us; this time it was a container of bacalaito (cod fish fritter) mix, a couple of big freezer bags filled alcapurrias, pasteles, empenadas (come on, you know what those are, right?)  Bill contributed a huge helping of his home made cole slaw, Italian soup from Amores Restaurant, and a bottle of horseradish.  Loaded for bear, or at least able to feed them, we continued north.

From Venice it was back to Central Florida and four days in one of our favorite places, Trimble Park near Mount Dora.  Our departure date and itinerary to this point had been driven by my Mom and Stepdad’s (Tim) trip to Florida from their home in North Carolina.  Down for Tim’s daughter’s wedding near Jacksonville, the pushed further south once those festivities were complete.  We even convinced them to stay one night with us in the RV, a first, but hopefully not a last.

Mount Dora is within convenient striking distance of much of my Florida family, which we took advantage of with a big dinner at Aunt Judy’s with son Jackson, mom, Tim, Uncle Bill, and cousin Brian.   We missed seeing Uncle Bob and Aunt Terri this round, so next fall we’ll make that a priority.

So that’s it, now we’re less than three weeks behind.  Next post: Our route plan for 2017.

The Visitors:  We have an open invitation to family and friends to come camp with us wherever we are, but with our continual movement and uncertain itinerary, it is difficult for people to make plans to see us on the road.  Key West, however, is different: it’s reasonably close to a lot of our Florida people, it is a desirable location to visit, and we are there long enough to allow actual vacation planning.

We started off the season with The Nieves Clan spending a weekend with us, just as they have during our past FL Keys stays.  Goddaughter Kai used to be able to sleep on the folded back driver’s seat of our first two motorhomes, leaving more room for the adults and older girls.  But with everyone growing so fast we are quite thankful that our latest rig has easy sleeping accommodations for six, so its just a bit of a stretch to make four adults and three kids work out.

Dad and Stepmom Marcia came down in February to stay a few days as well.  Marcia had not been to the FL Keys, so this was a great opportunity for us all to be together and for them to enjoy a new spot.  They are full time RVers with their own rig, but because the Naval Air Station’s RV parks are full of retired and active military people during the winter we were unable to sponsor them here like we can in less popular military campgrounds, so they just drove the truck down and stayed with us in Serenity.

They also did something we have yet to do: they took the high speed ferry out to Dry Tortugas National Park.  It just was not in the budget for us to join them on that journey this year, but their absolute rave reviews convinced us it needs to be a priority next winter.  And not just for a day trip, we look forward to doing what they did and staying overnight in a tent for the amazing stars, waves of nocturnal hermit crabs, and bioluminescent creatures in the fort’s mote.

Geocaching:  Rosemarie and I have been geocaching for a few years, finding hundreds of caches in 43 states plus the UK so far, but we have never been out caching with other fanatics.  The closest we ever came to that was a meet up with Ken and Ginny in Sanibel, fellow RVer’s who were at the time volunteers at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge and the owners of about a third of the caches on the Island.

Early in our latest stay at Key West, however, Bob from Michigan coordinated a meet and greet for all the fellow cachers staying at Sigsbee Park.  We had about 20 people show up, some of whom we had met but did not know were cachers, some who were completely new to us, and even a couple of people who had never cached but came out of curiosity. The end result, aside from an enjoyable evening of trading stories, was a nascent group of, er, group cachers.

In the following months we would coordinate gatherings of thee to eight people exploring the lower keys cache environment.  Man, geocaching is so different in groups! We took newbies Stan and Steve around, locking them into this new obsession.  Rusty coordinated day long adventures as far as Big Pine Key, highlighted by our short hike out to the Rock House, a lower keys land mark.

And I managed to get my first ever “First To Find” cache after Bob led me through the process of setting up email alerts for new caches in anticipation of his new one on a mangrove island off Dredger Key.  Once I got the email alert that the cache was up, I borrowed Bob’s kayak, toted it down to the water and paddled furiously the full mile to the island, smart phone barely responding to the demands of my wet fingers, wrapped as it was in a plastic bag, to secure the find.

We cached by car, van, bike, kayak, and foot all winter.  For me the final result was an entirely “cleared” island, having found all 51 on Key West plus dozens more northward.  We really look forward to more events like this next winter, and possibly even finding something along these group caching lines during our spring, summer, and fall travels.