We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!! Bob got very good news for this Christmas when he found out his thyroid was benign.
Here is one of the cards we sent out this year.
This is the note we sent with the cards.
"We had another great year of
full-timing, we call it the ‘medical, UFOs, Colorado, family, friends, and
medical again’ tour. Jo’s neck and back pain are always with us but she just
said she was going to live her life and enjoy this great country as much as
possible. We have blogged (http://bobandjotravelblog.blogspot.com/) throughout the year and following our blog
is the best way to keep up on us. Our photos
of all the places we have visited
since we began fulltiming is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/. Here is a brief summary
of what has happened in our lives over the last year, both planned
and unplanned.
We spent
last Christmas at our normal winter spot
in Goodyear Arizona. Then in early January we had to leave due to health
insurance coverage for Bob and yet another ObamaCare insurance policy. The only
insurance Bob could get this year was an HMO based in Texas so we headed off to
Kerrville in the Hill Country. We traveled faster than normal with short stops
along the way. Once we got to Kerrville we established ourselves with a bevy of
doctors until late March. We then headed to our UFO portion of our trip –
Roswell New Mexico and the International UFO Museum. Here is where the
unplanned nature of our travels reared its ugly head again. We lost some of the
underbelly of our fifth wheel which we had replaced during an extended stay in
Albuquerque. That was not at all bad as it allowed time for our friends Bob and
Wilma to join us there and for multiple eating out journeys to our favorite
places to eat. We also met up with our friends TC and Linda who had us over for
a wonderful meal and companionship.
From Albuquerque we headed
north and spent a month in Colorado where we visited the Great Sand Dunes
National Park, the springs near Pagosa Springs and Mesa Verde National Park. We
followed that up with a week in Moab Utah and then it was back to Colorado
where had yet another unplanned event. The high pressure pump failed on the
F-350 and we limped along the last few miles to Rifle Gap State Park. Luckily Columbine
Ford worked us right in so we didn’t have to extend our stay. Rifle Gap was
followed by a couple of weeks in the Denver area.
Family figured in as we
headed to Nebraska and Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. We visited Jo’s nephew
and his family in Lincoln Nebraska and then went to central Iowa for Bob’s
family and friends. We then headed to the Kansas City Missouri area where we
met up with Jo’s family and friends. We also met up with our old unplanned
nemesis, this time for the inverter and other repairs. We had enough time in
the KC area to allow for all those repairs to be completed. After Kansas City
Bob met up with a cousin in Arkansas and then one in Texas. The highlight of
our trip to Texas though had to be our stop in Waco where we saw first hand the
‘Fixer Upper’ empire. Chip and Joanna Gaines have revitalized the industrial
area near a couple of old silos with shopping, dining and a bakery. Then it was
back to medical stuff as we headed back to Kerrville although we got a great
friend surprise when our friends Bob and Wilma surprised us with a visit on
their way to Arizona. We had a great time during their short stay.
We jammed a lifetime of
vacations into this year but there is still so much more to see and do. Next
year we plan on heading out as soon
as Bob can travel after his thyroid surgery. We plan to again visit “The Soo”
then hit the Midwest in the fall on the way back to Denver for Bob’s Beryllium testing.
After Denver it is off to Texas for the winter."
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
