Oh man I did not realize we were this far behind. Ah well, nothing for it but to press ahead and pump out some posts to catch us up and at least January’s report is very easy.  Expect February’s report very soon after this one, and then a series of posts catching us up: a photo heavy Key West wrap up and some info on our stops to visit family and friends in Cutler Bay, Coral Springs, Venice, Mount Dora, and Gainesville.   On to the report!

The Distance: 1 mile!  Yeah, other than weekly trips to the dump station we only moved from the dry camping area in Sigsbee Circle to the full hook up area a mile down the road on “The Rock Pile.” Total mileage for the year: also one mile.

The Places:  We stayed in Sigsbee Park on NAS Key West for the entire month.  We spent 20 days dry camping in “The Circle” and 11 with full hook ups on the Rock Pile.

The Budget:   We kicked butt this month, ending up almost 20% under budget.  Aside from having no gas expenses other than for the generators, our average daily rate for the campsite was only $17.55 a night.  We also avoided going down town for overpriced food and drinks for all but a night or two.  With the base wide free wifi mostly working we also reduced out data plan significantly.  Finally, we sold a few more items on eBay and had an outstanding craft market day at one of the local medical facilities on nearby Stock Island. It’s fortunate that we started off so well this year since we will have some serious expenditures come March as we make preps, especially upgrades to Serenity, for heading out on our big 2017 circuit.  I wish I could say I’m all thinking ahead and making solid educated predictions y’all, but the truth is I am actually writing this report in March and can say with some certainty that we will totes bust the budget then.

The Improvements:  Having sold The Big Kahuna, we rolled most of that money into our current motorhome loan, but held back a small bit to purchase some much needed, or at least much wanted, items to make our RV life a bit nicer.  We purchased a RV Short Queen memory foam mattress to finally replace the terrible lumpy object we had been sleeping on, a large raft to use on the traditional afternoon floats here in The Keys, Turkish bath towels that take up far less space than traditional terry cloth, outdoor lights, a large outdoor carpet, some accoutrements for the grill,  and some basic preventive maintenance supplies as well.

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