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For various reasons we decided not to work in Dollywood last summer. Instead we hitched the trailer to the truck and headed west. While we did not work in Yellowstone we did spend two weeks outside the west gate at West Yellowstone, MT and spent the time visiting with friends in and out of the park and playing tourist. We made it as far west as Seattle, WA and spent a good amount of time traveling as near as possible to the Lewis and Clark Trail. With no schedules to keep it was a most enjoyable summer. We also had the opportunity to visit with relatives and friends in Iowa. We were in Indiana sort of meandering towards home when Hurricane Ivan hit the Mobile, AL and the Florida Panhandle. That cut our trip short and were back home a few days after the storm. Fortunately things were not as bad at our home as we had been led to believe. In October we hitched up again and spent a couple weeks in Liousianna Cajun Country with the Kings on the Road RV club. Jim had knee surgery in late November and we missed our annual pilgramage to Key West thsi winter. We are however, making our summer plans.
December 2003 In May of 2003 we ceased being full time RVers and bought a home close to our two sons in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. This was done with a heavy heart but we both thought it best considering our health situation. We still have the King of the Road fifth wheel that we purchased in November of 2000 and since buying the house have been on the road for nearly 50% of the time. We don't plan to stop traveling, just have a bit more permanent "home base". Owning a house has reminded me of all the reasons we sold our last one and moved into a box on wheels. We did not work in Yellowstone this past summer (2003) for the first time in ten years and we did miss that. We are planning to work in Dollywood next summer, a little closer to home. One thing is still for certain. Things change! Read On For 13 years we traveld (pull the trailer) an average of 8,000 to 10,000 miles each year and put an average of 20,000 miles on the truck. The record was in 1994 when within one calendar year we towed the trailer from Key West, Florida to Fairbanks, Alaska and back to Key West. We have been accused of getting ourselves into a rut. For nine years it was Yellowstone National Park in the summer and Florida in the winter. Not a bad rut mind you, but still a rut. For several years we owned a RV lot two blocks north of the Gulf of Mexico in Destin, Florida. That's close to our two boys and we always spent two or three months a year there. Destin is located about halfway between Panama City and Pensacola in the western half of the panhandle. Closer to Alabama than Disney World. It's not unusual to hear locals refer to the area as LA, as in Lower Alabama. We have lived in the area since 1977 and have saw Destin grow from a sleepy little fishing village to wall to wall condominiums. It is still a beautiful location with some of the whitest natural beach sand in the world. It is popular with the college crowd at Spring Break time, a great family beach destination in the summer, and a winter Snow Bird heaven. A Yahoo search of "Destin Florida" will turn up a lot of links. Key West is still our favorite winter short stop area. Truly paradise! A paradise that was found and turned into a parking lot -- but still a paradise. The best January and February weather we have found in the continental United States and definitely on par with Hawaiian weather. The above comment will probably draw a lot of sour e-mail from the folks who love the desert in the winter. I too like the Arizona and southern California dessert in the winter, but I guess I'm more of beach bum. Key West temperatures in the winter are from 50 to 85. Yes, it's humid. When you live surrounded by the sea its going to be humid, but there's always a breeze blowing in from the water. Key West has never seen a freeze. The record low is somewhere around 40. We saw it get to 44 one winter and the natives were having a fit. None of the houses are heated and I think the local K-Mart had run out of electric heaters early in the cold spell. We first visited the Key's in 1978, shortly after moving to Florida. The boys were about ten years old then and we made the trip with a pop-up tent camper. It was a lot of fun then and we still enjoy it. My recommendation would be to stay away from the entire Keys during the July through October Hurricane season. Lots of Links on the Web for Key West. For several years the summer was for traveling and sight seeing and as noted elsewhere we have been everywhere in the continental US except for New England. For nine years we worked for Hamilton Store's in Yellowstone National Park. I guess the reason we kept going back is that we fell in love with the park and the Rocky Mountains. We have seen Bear, Elk, Moose, Deer and Bison in our campground. The mountains, valleys, canyons, forests, creeks and rivers make for some of the greatest scenery in the world. And the 10,000 thermal features make it a singularly beautiful and unique phenomenon in the world. We like a lot of the other national parks, but if you can only get west once in your life, Yellowstone is a must. Start your Web search at www.yellowstone-natl-park.com. When Hamilton's lost the concession contract in 2002 we decided it was time to find something else to do with our summers. While that has not been a problem we will dearly miss the mountains and the friends we had made. |
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