HAPPY NEW YEAR! - 2014 YEAR IN REVIEW

Currently in Goodyear AZ (Low 31 Mostly Sunny High 46)

Happy New Year! What a year we had! It was another year of adventures both planned and unplanned. Here is a brief summary of what has happened in our lives in 2014.

We spent last Christmas in our winter spot in Goodyear Arizona just west of Phoenix leaving in early April for the Lake Havasu Arizona area. Again this year we were able to check off a lot from our bucket list on our trip along the west coast circling back to Goodyear. We celebrated our 5th year of living fulltime in an RV in September. Among the bucket list items were the London Bridge, Da Vinci Exhibit, Reagan Presidential Library, Hearst Castle, saw a grizzly bear, saw bighorn sheep, Buffalo Bill gravesite, Mother Cabrini Shrine, and we saw a crested saguaro.

We also visited a number of National Parks (every National Park is on our bucket list); Joshua Tree, Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite, Lassen Volcanic, Crater Lake, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens and Glacier.

We were along the coast for some great scenery, lighthouses and seafood in Morro Bay California, Moss Landing California, North Bend Oregon, Newport Oregon, and Long Beach Washington. 

We also attended our first RV Rally, the Oregon Cascaders Rally in Westfir Oregon. Another first was lot sitting at Escapees North Ranch where we did ATVng in the desert, target shooting, crested saguaro, etc. We added California, Oregon and Washington to our map of visited states. These were the planned adventures.

What we did not plan on was some maintenance issues that caused some distress and time delays. Our old nemesis the dining room slideout problems reared its ugly head again this year. While staying at the Emigrant Lake Recreation Area near Ashland Oregon we needed a new gear and this time we were able to make the modification that Bob read about on the internet. The slideout worked the rest of the year. We had a new nemesis this year, no trailer brakes. Long story short is that we would replace something and it would work for awhile, then replace something else and so on. Finally in Albuquerque New Mexico we found that the wire that ran along the axle from one set of brakes to the other had worn down to bare wire and was shorting out. We have had trailer brakes since then. Finally we had some hail damage while in Colorado.

Every year we jam a lifetime of vacations into one year but there is still so much more to see and do. This year we plan on heading to Maine for summer then work our way down the east coast to Florida for the winter adding a number of visited states.

We hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Till next time,

Bob and Jo