Loyal readers will have noted a flurry of posts this week as we did our usual “catch up at the end of the month” with further motivation provided by Rosemarie’s desire to have our 2017 in Review post come out before January 1st.  You should see it pop up later this evening, this is just the December report.

Sanibel Luminary festival

The Distance:  563 miles while making a big inverted “U” up the Florida Gulf Coast, across the north central part of the state and back down the east coast to Coral Springs.  This puts our 2017 mileage total at 10,639.  Next month will be a little higher than we originally expected since I will be running the rig back up to Central Florida to see daughter Andrea before turning around four days later and heading to the keys, picking up Rosemarie in route.

The Places:   We started the month with nearly two weeks at Periwinkle Park in Sanibel, one of our favorite (and most expensive) spots.  After that we covered the weekend at Lake Monroe County Park, followed by 10 days Lake Wekiwa State Park that took us through Christmas.  Then it was back to Lake Monroe for two days before we headed south for our final stop of 2017: Xavier and Joy’s house in Coral Springs.   As she has once each month or so for the past few, Rosemarie flew up to Norfolk, VA for a week long visit with Linda and family while I manned the fort (and the markets) in Florida.

This month we had 13 days at a private resort, 3 in a house, and 15 in public campgrounds (10 state, 5 county.)   We enjoyed full hook up services for 18 days, power and water for 10, no drycamping, and 3 days in a house with the rig in the driveway.

Dolphin, not a shark.

The Budget:  We had a decent month, finishing 8% under budget, despite 13 days at our most expensive park, Christmas expenses, and a few investments into our market readiness.  It was only possible because of, for the second month in a row, our participation in 10 markets before Christmas.  It was not quite enough to put us on budget for the year, technically we ended up 2.8% over budget, but there is a major self imposed artificiality in there that makes it better than that sounds, which I will go into in more detail in the 2017 annual review.

The Drama and the Improvements:  Nothing of note this month, other than we finally got word about the post hurricane repairs opening date and associated restrictions for our winter home at Naval Air Station, Key West.  We will be arriving there on January 7, length of stay TBD.  We purchased a few minor items to improve our market preparation, but nothing more than that.  Our stay in Key West should generate some significant improvements as Rosemarie has big plans for some interior changes.

2017 monthly reports to date:

• November
• October
• September
• August
• July
• June
• May
• April
• March
• February
• January

And here are our 2016 and 2015 annual summaries which include monthly report links.