12/31 2016 Yearly Summary

Life is good for me.  I am grateful for my health and being able to live the kind of life I live.  I hope to be able to continue for at least a few more years—the longer the better.  My goal is to continue until I become too sick or feeble to continue, and for as long as I can afford it. 

I’ve had a couple of mild colds, but missed the flu or any major illnesses.  Living alone pays in that you aren’t around many people to catch things from!  My only problem has been trigger fingers on both hands, which has meant using various devices to overcome difficulties gripping things.  I recently had one finger surgically “released” and hope to get the other done next year.   

I spent most of last winter in Florida, and then quite a bit of time in Ohio and Michigan in May through July.  I was able to visit with both sets of grandkids, which was nice, and introduced my California grandkids to some Michigan camping.   I took a short trip into Ontario to try to find some of the homes and burial places of my great-grandparents and got bit by vicious deer flies.  In August, I headed to New England and spent September in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia.  I enjoyed seeing the 35’ tides at the Bay of Fundy and visited Anne of Green Gables country in Prince Edward Island.   I loved Nova Scotia!  Had a lot of lobster and lobster rolls in Maine and Canada. 

After a few more days in Ohio and Michigan in October, I headed west through Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, then down the Mississippi Great River Road to Louisiana, where I headed west through Texas.  The temperatures really started dropping by the time I got to New Mexico, so I found myself with some very cold nights.  It was also really cold through Arizona, Nevada, and into California. 

The best part of traveling, besides a lot of gorgeous views and interesting things along the way, has been the interesting people I have met.  I’ve made some friends on a blog for women who have the same RV “travel bug” as I have.  It has been fun to meet up with many of them over the past three years and share experiences and tips for this kind of living.  I also have met a lot of friendly people in campgrounds and places I have visited. Talking to strangers is one of the best things you can do when you travel because people are sometimes the best part of the landscape!  (I have not met any ax murderers yet, in spite of warnings.)

Here are some statistics for this past year:

·       Drove through 21 states, adding New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania to my map of states visited in my motorhome.  I also visited 4 Canadian provinces.

·       Drove 19,172 miles, and used roughly 2,395 gallons of gas.  That’s about 8.5 MPG, which is typical for me and my vehicle.  Amazingly, these numbers are almost identical to what I drove in 2014! 

·      Spent $260 on propane to heat water and my motorhome, cook, and run the refrigerator while driving.  That compares to spending $365 propane in 2014.  I use a small electric heater to supplement the two propane furnaces, which is one reason I used so little propane.   I did not keep track of the number of gallons I used, but a good estimate would be about 100 gallons.  Not bad for heat and cooking! 

·       I average about 10 gallons of water per day for a hot shower and washing dishes once a day, so that totals about 3.650 gallons per year.  (That does not count a couple of loads of laundry every 7 – 10 days or a very occasional RV wash.)  Most individuals use 80-100 gallons per day, or 29,200 – 36,500 gallons per year, so I do well on water usage.  

I hope all of you who are my family and friends have had equally good years and hope you all have a happy, healthy, and prosperous year in 2016!