Goodbye 2018 – hello 2019! The last year held many adventures for us. It was the second highest mileage year we’ve had since we hit the road in 2013. We traveled 9,227 miles in our coach last year – our highest mileage year was 2015 when we covered 9.596 miles. We average around 7,500 miles per year.

People often ask me about fuel mileage and the cost of running a motorhome. Fuel isn’t really that big of an expense. We average around eight miles per gallon of diesel fuel. Since we average less than 8,000 miles per year, we burn under 1,000 gallons of fuel per year. So, our annual fuel costs for the motorhome is around $3,000. I’m sure there are plenty of people that spend $250 /month or more commuting in their cars. Of course we also have a small fuel bill for gasoline in the Spyder, but it’s not much.

We started and ended 2018 here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona. Last year we left Mesa in early April and headed south. We made a stop in Benson for a week then moved on through New Mexico. Our destination was Austin, Texas – I had tickets for the Moto GP race at the Circuit of the Americas there. Next up we went to the Gulf Coast at Aransas Pass, Texas and visited with my daughter, Jamie, and her family.

Then we were off to Louisiana. Donna and I have been to New Orleans several times, but we always arrived there via airlines. We wanted to see something other than the French Quarter and we found real downhome Louisiana in Abbeville. What a hoot. Then we traveled to Mississippi, Alabama and onward to Tennessee and Kentucky. Along the way, we toured the Tobasco distilery in Avery Island, Louisiana and the Buffalo Trace distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky.

We met some great people in our travels and went to areas that were new to us. We traveled north to the shores of Lake Erie and stayed at the Elks Lodge in Erie, Pennsylvania. Then we headed east to Watkins Glen, New York. After an unexpected delay for a mechanical issue, we made it to Bennington, Vermont where we visited Donna’s parents and set up on their property. From there, we made our easternmost point in Little Deer Isle, Maine where we stayed on the property of our friends, Roger and Georgia Eaton.

After having a great time in Maine, it was after the Fourth of July and time to start heading back west. We stopped again in Bennington, then headed south to Gettysburg where we spent a day with my youngest daughter, Shauna. From there we went south again into West Virginia, but weather soon chased us westwards. By the third week of July we were in the land of Lincoln – Springfield, Illinois.

Writing this now, it seems impossible that we went to so many places in 2018 – but we continued on through Iowa and stayed in South Dakota. Then we explored Colorado and went to familiar places and also found new adventures in Cañon City, Montrose and Durango. And we drove the Million Dollar Highway.

We stayed at several Elks lodges across the country in 2018 and also did a fair amount of boondocking. We found a great boondocking site on BLM land outside of Williams, Arizona. This was at an elevation of around 7,000 feet and heavily forested, giving us some respite from the late summer heat in September.

We found the heat again in Lake Havasu, Indio and Hemet though before we made our way to San Diego. We stayed at Mission Bay RV Resort for three months and regrouped after six months of travel. Now we’re back where we started the year in Mesa and will be here until the end of March.

We like to split the fall/winter months between San Diego and Mesa. San Diego weather in September and October is usually near perfect. By Christmas, the rainy season starts and some day are wet and cold. Arizona is usually mild at that time, so we move here. This year is a little different so far. We arrived in Mesa just as a cold front pushed down from the north. It brought rain on New Year’s Eve and through the night. It has been unusually cold – in early January, we see overnight lows in the low to mid 40s and afternoon highs in the upper 60s most years. This morning it was 34 degrees outside and today we expect a high of only 52 degrees. The temperatures should return to more normal levels by the weekend though.

We’re back in the same site we occupied for the last two winters.

Donna kicked off the New Year with a great dinner – chicken piccata served over capellini pasta with steamed asparagus and peppers.

Happy New Year to all and I hope 2019 is every bit as good as 2018. We wish you good health, lots of adventures and safe travels wherever you go.