What a Year It Has Been! Our Favorite Spots, Yearly Summary, and Future Plans...

Wow!  8800 miles in 26 states driven in our new-to-us motorhome, Pearl, and it all began with a flight back to the US from Mexico, where we'd been living in Playa del Carmen for most of the previous year.  

The map above shows our 2016 travels in purple.  We made it as far north as Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana; as far west as eastern Idaho and Utah, and to quite a few spots in the midwest and southeast. There are obviously many places we didn't get to, but for one year, we traveled far and wide!

Our Top 10 Campgrounds of the Year.

During our first year on the road, we've been to lot of camp spots of all styles, from one night to a month at a time, from county and city parks to commercial parks to national parks.  We've enjoyed the luxury of full-hookups at times, and other times we've boondocked with no hookups at all, and everything in between.

We've been in sites with no internet/cell/TV signals at all to the occasional "luxury site" with cable TV and plenty of bars on our Mifi (internet) jetpack.  We've stayed in quiet, dark spots where sleeping came easy and bright, noisy parks where we had to use ear plugs and put black plastic over our windows to keep the intrusive sound and light out.  

In the order in which we stayed in them, here are our favorite spots where we camped this year.  You can click on each one for our blog post telling more about them.  These all happen to be public parks; although we've stayed in some nice commercial parks, none of them quite cracked our top 10.

• ​Petersburg Corps of Engineers Campground - Appling, GA (no blog post for this one, but here's a link to the campground site)
• Mount Magazine State Park - Ozark National Forest - AR
• Brown Park South - Jackson County, MN
• Cottonwood Campground - Theodore Roosevelt National Park - Medora, ND
• Rosebud East Campground - Forsyth, MT
• Horseshoe Bend Campground - Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area - near Lovell, WY
• Allred Flat Campground - Bridger National Forest - south of Afton, WY
• Green River Campground - Dinosaur National Monument - near Jensen, UT
• Dumont Lake Campground - Routt National Forest - near Steamboat Springs, CO
• Caesar Creek State Park - near Waynesville, OH

It's been kind of amazing.  We started the year as novice RVers and now, after living full-time in Pearl for nearly a full year, we still have much to learn, but we have come a long, long way. We've had to make our share of small repairs, buy new house and starting batteries, and install a new water heater, but have not had an accident or a breakdown along the road...knock wood!  

We've driven back roads through many charming small towns, been awed by the beauty of our country in national public lands, and have explored some interesting cities.  We took some incredibly beautiful hikes in numerous states, but as you know, our number one passion is bicycling, and over the course of the past year we've been privileged to ride in some super special spots.  

Our Top 10 Places to Bicycle of the Year.

In the order visited and ridden, these are the cycling spots that were highlights for us over the past year.  Click on each for a blog post, if you want the deets!.

• Longleaf Trace bike trail, MS
• Katy Trail, MO
• Spirit Lake, IA & Jackson County, MN area bike trails
• Lake Wobegon Trail, MN (two posts: Riding East and Riding West)
• Heartland State Trail & Paul Bunyan Trails, MN
• Teddy Roosevelt National Park scenic loop, ND
• Bighorn Canyon NRA roads, WY
• Grand Teton National Park & Jackson Hole, WY (two separate posts)
• Dinosaur National Monument roads, UT
• ​West Orange Bike Trail/South Lake & Lake Minneola Trails, FL

So What Is Next?

After racing around all over the US this year, we're really enjoying staying put for awhile -- especially since we're in Florida, one of the only spots we'd even consider spending the winter months since we are not fans of cold weather.  We're getting some improvements and much-needed maintenance projects done on Pearl and need to take her in to the dealer where we purchased her last January for some service also.

After this?  We haven't decided what 2017 will bring but are mulling over a few ideas. In the meantime we are planning to do several posts sharing some of our experiences in Mexico, since we'd taken a blogging break in the latter part of 2015.  We'll bring those to you this winter.

To those who are still with us, thanks for following along on our travels. We hope that our posts have been interesting and perhaps even inspiring.  

​Best wishes to all our readers for a happy and healthy New Year!