Happy New Year! Hope you brought in 2017 in a way that made you smile. Our New Year’s Eve was low key. The weather in San Diego has been on the temperamental side – lots of grey skies and rain. We opted to stay dry and enjoy homemade lasagna and a bottle of red wine. Both were exceptional.
Around midnight I asked Other Half about his annual resolutions. He responded in his annual manner – opting out. In fairness he was half asleep.
My resolutions are more or less the same every year – more of the good stuff – less of the not-so-good stuff. I’m guessing yours are similar.
Looking back on 2016 we enjoyed a lot of good stuff, and of course, our share of the not-so-good stuff. We started the year with the not-so-good stuff. Thanks to my annoying clod gene I spent some serious time in the San Diego health care system. They did not disappoint. It took three surgeries and considerable whining but my ankle is back in working order. I also needed a San Diego dentist as one of my crowns decided to dethrone itself. Not fun.
The Big Rig itself gave us a few not-so-good moments. It took several attempts to fix a persistent water leak that drenched the microwave. Not fun. And Other Half had an unfortunate Oh S#&t incident. Also not fun.
Lucky for us the good stuff far outweighed the not-so-good stuff.
This year we made a point to spend as much time as possible doing touristy stuff. That might sound weird considering we live in a motorhome and technically are always in tourist mode. But here’s the thing – when you live in a motorhome, aka the Big Rig – you actually l-i-v-e in it. The Big Rig is our home and like any other home we’ve ever lived in – you tend to settle into routines and routines tend to lead to ruts and ruts tend to sidetrack you from touristy stuff. Thus the need for a decision to embrace our inner tourist. It worked.
Here are a few highlights of our year.
We made good use of Other Half’s National Park Senior Pass. We love that thing. We zipped by the youngsters forking over $30 a car and got in free to Joshua Tree National Park, the Painted Desert, The Petrified Forest, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, Kolab Canyon and the mother of all canyons – the Grand Canyon.
We spent an amazing week in Albuquerque NM at the International Balloon Fiesta. We ate oysters while standing in the ocean off the coast of Plymouth Mass. We had a great lunch at the Haunted Hamburger in the ghost town of Jerome AZ. We “Ubered” for the first time after an all day brewery tour in San Diego. We had the best buttermilk biscuits ever at a campground diner in Fort Stockton Texas. Loved the view but took crappy pics of the super moon in Yuma AZ.
The best part was time with family and friends across the country. Other Half ranked in the money with his golf buddies in Florida. Played UNO with the grandkids in Maine. Spent my winter vacation in OH seeing as many family and friends as possible in 7 days. Invested in slots with my GF in NY. Had a girl’s weekend at Lisa’s Lake House in MI. Enjoyed a couple wacky parties with our Bucket Buddies in OH. Spent time with old friends in Vegas. Had a great time at Disneyland with daughter. And lots more.
We started our year and ended our year in San Diego at Mission Bay RV Resort. Over the course of 12 months we visited 16 states and stayed in 41 different cities. We put 9218 miles on the Big Rig and on our keesters. We enjoyed every minute of it. And on a personal note, after finding out I was mildly obese, 2016 became my year to downsize my keester. I committed to my FitBit Frenzy. So far so good.
Our year was definitely one of more good than not-so-good. Hope yours was too. Looking forward to more of the same for 2017.