At the Tampa RV Show we met many friends and a newspaper reporter wrote an article about us and our travels for the Tampa Tribune. We needed to go to Kentucky for the month of February for Linda's mother's total knee replacement surgery and our motorhome broke down in southern Georgia. Linda drove the CR-V to Louisville while I stayed with the motorhome and got it repaired, then I joined them in Louisville for a freezing month.

While in Louisville we bought a new Honda CR-V and did not have time to get it ready for towing so I drove the motorhome south with Linda following in the CR-V. We spent 2 1/2 months at Rainbow Plantation while I did projects and Linda taught crafts. Gloria (my sister) and Don Martin joined us and we began our summer travels together traveling up the Great River Road from south of New Orleans to northern Minnesota. Other than New Orleans we stayed in small river towns and it was a very relaxing and educational trip. After 74 days on the road and staying in 20 campgrounds we finally reached the source of the Mississippi River.

During the last part of the trip I noticed a growth in my jaw and throat area so we canceled plans to travel around Lake Superior in Canada and returned to Louisville. My doctor found a fast growing tumor and removed it and started me on daily radiation. That ended our travels for the year.

Linda bought a new sewing computer ($$$) to add to her many hobbies. We also bought a new laptop computer, digital camera, an air card and WiFi router for internet access and spent money on other hobbies and fun things. These items along with the new Honda CR-V and higher than normal medical expenses made a very expensive year for us.

After the Newmar Rally at Quartzsite, Arizona we took a Newmar caravan to Puerto Penasco, Mexico and after the rally we stayed another week. We love Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) on the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) and we plan to return. Still traveling with the Emonds we visited southern Arizona and San Diego and Palm Springs, California. In the early Spring we settled in Mesa, Arizona and twice flew to Louisville, Kentucky, once for medical checkups and family visits and once for a wedding. We toured northern Arizona with the Emonds and then bid them farewell as they started their trip to Alaska.

The next several months we visited southern to central California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. Wow, what a great summer visiting national parks and relaxing in gorgeous weather with sunny skies every day. We visited twenty-two national parks and national monuments and the highlight was spending a week with my son Troy, his wife Sandy and boys Luke and Logan, at Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. Other interesting places we visited were Salt Lake City, Monument Valley, Four Corners, Durango, Cripple Creek and many other places. During the entire trip we stayed off interstate highways and enjoy driving backroads and staying in small towns.

The weather could not have been better with warm to hot days, warm to cool nights and eleven months and three days without driving in rain. For months and months we never wore long pants or long sleeve shirts. After crossing the Rocky Mountains and driving east we felt a sadness as the mountain disappeared in our rear view mirrors.

We stopped in Chicago for a wedding and family reunion and then spent a month in Louisville getting medical checkups, visiting family, and before we left my 96 year old father passed away. We attended a large rally in Ohio and spent several days at four world-class auto museums in Auburn, Indiana.

Our seventh year of fulltiming was a perfect year and convinced us we want to stay on the road many more years. We drove the motorhome 10,387 miles, drove the Honda CR-V 13,560 miles, visited 19 states (plus Mexico) and spent the night in 70 different places.

During our stay we had medical and dental checkups and I had six weeks of daily hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatments and major oral surgery. Being near family we had many family visits and saw two of our grandchildren often. My mother passed away shortly after reaching her 90th birthday.

We tend to spend more money when we're sitting and we bought a new laptop computer, a computer backup system, a Garmin Quest GPS unit, a new cell phone, a infrared thermometer and some other neat toys. We replaced the tires on the Honda CR-V and later spent over $1200 getting it ready for another 100,000 miles.

After discussing if we wanted to continue traveling fulltime or buy a house and settle down we decided we want to fulltime another ten years. That set into motion ordering a new motorhome. We did a lot of research, spent a full day at the Newmar plant, and ended up ordering a special order 2005 Dutch Star diesel motorhome with many non-standard features. We ordered the motorhome in March and took delivery in May.

Our travels started at two of our favorite campgrounds, the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY and then the Escapees Raccoon Valley near Knoxville, TN for a month. We stopped in Nashville, TN and enjoyed the Grand Ole Opry and other interesting places. Next we attended the GLASS FMCA Rally in Michigan and continued to tour that state forty days, mostly in the beautiful Upper Peninsula. We spent a couple of weeks along the Mississippi River in Wisconsin and visited my son's family in Minnesota. Then we met my sister Gloria and her husband Don Martin and we together toured parts of Iowa and Wisconsin.

We returned to Louisville for six weeks and Linda stayed busy getting things ready for her daughter's wedding. After many family visits we hit the road again and toured southern Indiana and Illinois.

This was an unusual year as we sat for six months and only drove the motorhomes a total of 3,740 miles, but we drove the Honda CR-V 21,510 miles. We only visited eight states, only boondocked 13 nights and only stayed in a Wal*Mart parking lot one time. Year number seven will be back to normal (we hope) as we tour Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Arizona, Mexico, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado.

From Kentucky we began our sixth year with a slow sightseeing trip south to Florida. During our six weeks in Florida we encountered cold temperatures, daily rains and winds. After a quick trip to Kentucky for Christmas we spent New Years in one of our favorite campgrounds - Isle of Capri Casino Campground in Vicksburg, MS. We boondocked our way across TX, NM and AZ, finally reaching Quartzsite where we boondocked in the desert with 150,000 other RVs.

After an enjoyable stay in Puerto Penasco, Mexico we returned to boondocking in the deserts of southern AZ and CA and riding the motor scooter everywhere we went. We met my cousin Troy Harper and his wife Carole and continued boondocking in southern CA before going to Desert Hot Springs, CA. Our trip there was cut short when we received word my parents were in need of immediate help. In 4 1/2 days we drove from CA to KY. The next 76 days we worked daily to get my parents in a very nice nursing home, sold their house, car and furnishings and took care of many other matters. It is amazing we got everything done in two and a half months.

Traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail had been in our plans for years and we had read everything available on the history of the Corps of Discovery and their travels. On May 12 we met Don and Gloria Martin in St. Louis and we followed the Trail the next 99 days. We not only had fun - we got an education. Some of the highlights were storms, floods, near misses of 22 tornadoes, high winds, extremely cold temperatures, dead motorhome batteries, a chipped windshield, getting run out a parking lot after dark and bug bites. Yes, traveling fulltime can be an adventure. The good times were traveling and studying the route Lewis and Clark took 200 years earlier, visiting four State Capitols, touring forts, visiting Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, spending 41 days in Montana learning the state's history and trout fishing, power-boating the Snake River, boondocking on the Columbia River, touring lighthouses, etc. It was most interesting visiting small towns and meeting the people who make this country great.

After 99 days we completed the Trail and headed south along the beautiful Oregon and California coast. We walked on beautiful beaches, toured lighthouses and walked among giant trees. After reaching Sacramento, CA we received word my and Gloria's mother was in rapidly failing health so we cut our trip short and returned to Kentucky immediately.

(My parents are ages 94 and 89 and both need help with daily needs. They are in a very nice nursing home and that is the only reason we could travel. During our trip we talked to my parents daily and to the nursing staff several times a week. Fulltimers are never away from family needs.)

We headed south down the Natchez Trace during heavy rains that followed us through Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, back to Louisiana and into Mississippi again. Other than several days at Betty's RV Park in Cajun Country we fought wind, rain and mud daily. We tried to enjoy New Orleans but we could only see a few feet through the sightseeing bus' window and water flooded the downtown streets making walking impossible. Finally we said enough is enough and hightailed it to the desert in Arizona where it rained nine days in a row setting a record. On our way west we stopped at Big Bend National Park, Carlsbad Caverns and several other places. From Benson, Arizona we did many sightseeing trips and drove to Mexico seven times to eat and shop.

After Christmas we traveled to Florida with Don and Gloria Martin and we spent nearly three months together. We also met Rich and Diane Emond and traveled with them a few weeks. Central Florida was having unusually cold temperatures so we kept working our way south until we hit Key West and ninety degree weather.

Back in Kentucky we bought a Honda Reflex motor scooter that thinks its a motorcycle and had a platform installed on the rear of the motorhome. Not liking the platform we drove to New York and had Overbilt Lifts install a heavy duty lift that works great. Then we boondocked our way westward to central Minnesota and visited my oldest son and his family. From there we boondocked our way east again and met the Emonds for a month of traveling and two rallies where we met many other friends. Our next rally was the Great Northern American RV Rally in Louisville that turned out to be a disaster.

The first day of July we hightailed it to Maine and met the Emonds for a two month trip in the Canadian Maritimes, a trip we have planned for years. We toured New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador. We put the motorhome on three ferries and the CR-V on two more ferries. There were many highlights including an FMCA rally, deep sea fishing, Hopewell Rocks, the Cabot Trail, whale watching (seven miles at sea in an inflatable boat with 70-ton whales surfacing beside the boat), seeing icebergs, becoming Vikings, being Screeched-In as Newfies, moose hunting trips, eating lobsters and mussels often and most of all, traveling and enjoying everything with Rich and Diane Emond.

After coming back to the states we went to Maine and New York with the Emonds and bid them farewell after traveling together 130 days during the year. Then we made a stop in Elkhart, Indiana to get our refrigerator and awning repaired. Oh, we did have some problems during our travels. We almost rolled the motorhome in Mississippi and it took two wreckers to pull it out of mud, broke the CR-V windshield in New Orleans and cracked the motorhome windshield in New Brunswick, unfurled the large patio awning in Prince Edward Island and the refrigerator sprang a leak and lost the coolant in Newfoundland. We went 33 days without a refrigerator, but life on the road is still great and we're looking forward to year number five.

We had to be back in Louisville, Kentucky on March 1 for me to have reconstructive surgery on my jaw. During the surgery cancer was found and to make a long story short we stayed in Louisville over six months for many tests, two surgeries and radiation therapy. Due to the cancer we drove the motorhome only 4,739 miles and visited seven states. We certainly hope our fourth year on the road is better than the third year.

We began the year traveling down the historical Atlantic Coast of the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. At Charleston, Savannah and St. Augustine, if it happened before the United States was formed, it is recent history. We thoroughly enjoyed soaking up the history and tasting the foods of that area. After a month in Florida we went to Summerdale, Alabama and stayed on the lot of friends Tom and Tinka Dooley for seven weeks. From there we made three trips to Kentucky in the Honda for Christmas and the birth of a new granddaughter. A quick trip, visiting friends along the way, took us to Quartzsite, Arizona where we boondocked in the desert thirteen days. Then we spent two months in Mesa, Arizona and helped host the RV America Rally. As Spring beaconed we headed north to Las Vegas and national parks in southern Utah. From Zion National Park a snow storm and road grader greeted us heading into Bryce Canyon National Park. From there we ventured to Death Valley National Park and temperatures over 100 degrees. We walked on the lowest elevation in the United States (-282 feet) and a short time later were hiking and peering at 14,000 foot mountains.

At Yosemite National Park, Linda learned her brother-in-law had died so she flew to Kentucky. Our travels picked up again in Sacramento, California and the Napa wine growing country. We followed highway 101 through California, Oregon and Washington. It was a beautiful drive through fertile valleys and redwood forest and along the Pacific Coast. It took two months to complete the drive and we recommend everyone visit that area. We visited Crater National Park, Mt. Rainier National Park and Mt. St. Helens. A beautiful drive through the Columbia River Gorge took us to Moscow, Idaho and the Life on Wheels Conference where we met many old friends. After a few days in Rocky Mountain National Park (you gotta see it to believe it) we attended Cheyenne Days and the rodeo. We visited many interesting places in Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota including camping on Buffalo Bill Cody's ranch.

After a few days visiting family in Minnesota we toured the Great Lakes region including Mackinac Island. Then we spent two weeks getting routine service and warranty repairs on the motorhome. We finished our second year of fulltiming back in our home town of Louisville, Kentucky visiting family and getting medical and dental checkups. We are looking forward to our third year on the road and hope we have many more.

There were too many highlights to talk about each one, but we will mention some of the most interesting things we did. At times our backyard was ocean waves, the Rocky Mountains, rivers and lakes, glaciers and snow covered peaks, deserts and cactus, dense forest and plains. Our visitors included squirrels, raccoons, jack rabbits, elk and deer. In Texas we took a rowboat with Mexicans across the border, rented horses to tour a town, then brought three illegal aliens back to the states. We returned them later. At another unmanned Mexican border crossing we got lost in the desert and wondered if we could find our way back to the USA. We did. At a Star Party we gazed at distant planets through telescopes and marveled at their moons and rings. We hiked through deserts, over mountains, along rivers, and hung to sheer canyon walls. We visited large and small museums in large cities and small towns. We camped in hot weather, windy places, sub-zero snow storms, and lived through a hail storm that beat the motorhome and Honda into submission. We picnicked by spewing geysers, emerald lakes and with wild buffalo. We ate in expensive restaurants and in some small dives, but never had a bad meal. We attended small town festivals and happened on the Oak Ridge Boys giving a concert in the street. In Canadian Icefields we walked on a glacier and drank melting water from snow that fell 150 years ago. We rented a canoe and rowed across a glacier fed blue lake.

But the best thing about fulltime traveling is the people we met. We have enjoyed meeting people from all parts of the USA, Canada and Mexico - people of all ages and walks of life. Many of these people have become our friends for life and it is a pleasure as we meet them again on the road. After spending one year fulltiming we have decided it will take at least another ten years to see everything we want to see. This is a great life.