Our 2014 Travels in Review…

Reflecting on 2014, we began in our favorite place to stay in Florida, Bonita Springs. We stayed the whole month of January in Imperial Bonita Estates, a park we are likely to be spending next winter in. We made a lot of new friends there whom we remain in touch with and look forward to seeing again down the road.

February found us making the slow crawl north as we methodically made our way out of Florida staying in the warm weather as long as possible. We traveled through the heartland of Florida staying in places we hadn’t visited before. North central Florida's spring country was pretty nice and from there we headed west into the panhandle of the state. Traveling along the Forgotten Coast we met a few bloggers and just loved the laid back feel of the coast in this part of Florida. If it didn’t get so cold here in the winter we would surely spend a winter there…

Gulfport Mississippi was our first stop outside of Florida but our goal was to push forward to make it to an item on our bucket list. We stayed at a New Orleans favorite (Bayou Segnette State Park) and attended our very first Mardi Gras as March rolled around. The only downer was that when Fat Tuesday arrived it was cold and raining but we refused to let it t dampen our spirits as we were able to watch the festivities on TV in the comfort of our warm cozy home. We certainly had a blast at Mardi Gras and we still have some beads tucked here and there inside our coach…

Anytime we find ourselves in southern Louisiana we always make it a point to stay a few weeks at our all time favorite place to stay – Betty’s RV Park. Our two weeks there were filled with lots of socializing, happy hours on the porch, eating delicious Cajun food and listening to some lively Zydeco. Meeting old and new friends alike make Betty’s the most fun RV Park in the nation…

From Betty’s RV Park we made our way back to our old home town in College Station and set up camp for a month as we revisited many of our favorite places to eat. Seeing our old friends was a blast as we reconnected with many of them, We are never able to see all of our friends but find it interesting how we seem to socialize with different people each time we visit our old home town.

April found us in central Texas as we visited family and camped with our grandkids. We simply love visiting central Texas in the spring as the wildflowers reach their peak bloom during this time. Getting our fill of Texas BBQ and Tex Mex we left central Texas to head northwest..

May found us enjoying as many state parks we could stay at in the western hill country of Texas and the panhandle, and by the end of the month we left Texas and stayed at our first Escapee park in New Mexico – The Ranch.

In June we were in northern New Mexico visiting one of Sharon’s best friends in Albuquerque and it was here that we decided our summer plans. From Albuquerque we crossed the corner of Colorado and headed to Moab to see one of the best National Parks we have seen to date – Arches National Park. The last half of June we enjoyed a lot of great hikes in preparation for all the other more strenuous hikes we planned for our summer.

Leaving Utah we rolled through Idaho on  our way to Montana where we spent most of July and part of August. We hiked many a mile of trail in Glacier National Park. We really loved the gorgeous Big Fork/Kalispell Montana area and met so many great people there. One couple we met took us rafting on the river just outside of Glacier NP while another lady we met invited us to stay on her land near the end of our stay. In Big Fork  We also visited the beautiful home on the river of a new friend and had a great time huckleberry picking. Happily we were able to reconnect with several of our RV friends during our stay in the area. We certainly plan to revisit Montana in the future as we both really loved it there…

 

The end of summer found us staying for a month in our favorite western big city - Portland Oregon. Lots of great hiking can be found near Portland and as many know we love craft beer. Portland is known as beervanah as there are more breweries than we could visit in a month and we feel Oregon makes the best crafted beer in the USA . It is also always fun to visit CeCe and Bret who live in Portland as they share our love of the city and crafted beer. After leaving Portland we stayed a week in Bend Oregon to get to know the town better and visit our friends who recently gave up RV’ing to settle in the area. Yep we had fun there too as this town also has great hikes nearby as well as some wonderful breweries…

As summer ended we began to head south but wanted to explore Nevada so we traveled on the loneliest highway to visit Great Basin National Park. Nevada is a surprisingly beautiful state and not the brown flat desert that we thought of prior to our extended visit..

  

As a warm spell came into the western part of the USA we made a diversion from our Nevada journey back into Utah to visit Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. We had great long hikes there and decided some of the most scenic hiking can be found in the state of Utah, especially in their National Parks.

 

By mid October we left Utah and headed back into Nevada to stay a week in downtown Las Vegas where we enjoyed the Fremont Street Experience nearly every night. From Las Vegas we traveled down the Colorado River and stayed in Lake Havasu, yet another place we may have to revisit again as it surprised us how much we enjoyed our time there.

    

As November crept upon us we decided to spend a few months relaxing in San Diego where we are now. As the end of December comes to a close we will be leaving San Diego soon to begin another exciting year in our wonderful home wheels…