HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2024!
We hope our holiday greetings find you happy and healthy. You might have noticed that we didn’t find the “energy” to update the blog this year. Sorry. We will try to do better next year.
After a very busy 2023, the basic overall plan this year was to go a little slower, avoid the summer heat and see every zoo 
along the way. While our annual RV routine is similar (finish the winter/Florida, spring/Raleigh, explore during the summer, Texas/fall, then start winter in FL) each year has its extra excitement.
along the way. While our annual RV routine is similar (finish the winter/Florida, spring/Raleigh, explore during the summer, Texas/fall, then start winter in FL) each year has its extra excitement. This “slow” year’s highlights: 12 zoos including seeing the spotless giraffe in Tennessee (2 more skipped zoos due to weather), an RV Show, Winnebago’s national rally, a castle, a lighthouse, botanical gardens, another presidential museum, several other museums and cultural centers, ferry rides, a harbor ballet by water taxis, a combined distillery/winery/brewery, a (coin) Mint, 9 hotels and even a Polynesian Luau! Not bad for a slow year.
This also included 44 campground stops, passing 100,000 miles on the odometer and our first motor-home tow to a Freightliner dealer for a busted coolant hose. We averaged 5500 steps a day (2 million steps!). Every year I still see 5+ allergists across the country for my allergy shots. We could have done without the 6 stops at Ford dealers, the extra dentist visits (both), my surprise Mohs surgery, and a few (minor) Urgent Care clinics for each of us.
As for our “escaping-the-heat” plan, we got to Canada three times! The RV made it as far north as Winnipeg, Manitoba, where it still got warm. The other two trips were during spring and fall visits with mom Sheila in northwest Washington state. In May we visited Victoria, BC on Vancouver island. In October we got up to Whistler, BC and saw the leaves changing and the snow start to fall on the mountain tops. Happy to enjoy the cool temperatures and happier to get out before it got too cold. When up north, we always look for aurora borealis but have never seen them. This year we saw them twice!
There was a bonus trip from Minneapolis to see Sheila in June when someone else’s horse caused her to come off her horse! We told her that she really didn’t need to do that to get us to visit.
As we slowly wandered from Manitoba back to Texas, the heat reached out to welcome us. I would say that we successfully avoided the worst of the heat this year, but once we reached Fort Worth, TX, the ground was so hot that the water coming into the motorhome made taking a cool shower almost impossible.
On the other side of the coin, when washing the car in June in Iowa, the water coming out of the ground was so cold that it cracked the car’s windshield that was facing the sun! Oops. It’s hard to schedule Safelite to replace a windshield when you are almost always on the move.
The 2025 (and 2026) plans are still evolving but you can guess we will head north again, finds more zoos and hopefully avoid extra doctor visits.
Please note: While we get very little USPS mail these days, USPS did change our mailing address, from 171 to 101 Rainbow Dr. The old street address will work for a while, just don’t forget the box number #7173.
Regardless of what the world throws at all of us, we hope your new year will be the best ever. Stay safe, stay healthy and God bless.
Jeffrey & Maren 
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