December 31, 2009. Happy New Year.

Its December 31st and we are in Miami, technically Homestead FL, for New Years Eve. We are staying at The Boardwalk RV park because they made special pricing for us to leave the RV’s here while we take our cruise to the Carribean January 3-10. They are only charging us $7 dollars a day to stay plugged in to all hookups while we’re away. That’s an amazing deal. The park is nice and mostly populated with french Canadians from Quebec. We met a couple, Nicole and Rock, on the afternoon we got here and they invited us to a party that night in the clubhouse. They even supplied us with party hats and noise makers. After dinner we went to the party and we really enjoyed watching a French New Years celebration. They line danced all night to poka type music with a few country and western songs mixed in. Even Jim and Jamey got out with them and danced some. It wasn’t a “bring down the house party” but it was a party and without them we wouldn’t have had one at all. We also didn’t stay very long either. None of us wanted to stay up till midnight anyway so at about 9:30 we said goodnight.

December 31, 2009. Day 165 Year end summary.

We can’t believe how fast this trip is going. We are still amazed every day that we are even doing this. It was just a dream trip Kevin talked about for so long that even though we’ve been on it since July 20th, 165 days, it still often doesn’t seem real. We absolutely love it and every day has been a blast. That’s not an over statement. We haven’t had a bad day. What a blessing it all has been. The RV has been perfect for us, the weather has been better then we could have hoped for, the people we’ve met, the old friends we’ve visited and the new friends we now have are amazing, the places we’ve seen have been awesome and spending time together as a family has been the most surprising blessing and benefit of all. We are all so close and we really enjoy spending time together.
It has been almost two months since we shown any trip numbers so this last day of the year is a good day to do that. Here goes:

165 Days
16416 miles in the RV
6400 miles in the Jeep
2535 Gallons of fuel
2 Countries
2 National Capitols
3 Provinces
2 Provincial Capitols
37 States
36 State Capitols
56 Campgrounds and RV Parks
7 Major League Baseball Parks
6 National Parks
5 Great Lakes
1 Ocean

The map is the route we’ve traveled so far.

December 29-30, 2009. Days 163-164 Melborne Beach FL.

On December 29th we arrived in Melbourne Beach FL to spend two nights enjoying being near the ocean and to go up to see the Kennedy Space Center. We stayed at the Outdoor Resorts Melbourne Beach RV Park. Outdoor Resorts is a series of RV parks that are located around the country and most every space is privately owned. The Parks are very nice and well kept. A lot of the owners have placed small cabins on their pads and live there long term. They are very nice RV Parks to stay at and we will probably look to do this a couple more times on the trip when we find one. This one was right across the street from the ocean and had its own private entrance to the beach. It also had a real nice pool on the ocean side. When we arrived on Tuesday afternoon it was windy and cold so we couldn’t get in the ocean or the pool but we enjoyed walking on the beach a little then went for an early dinner at The Surf and Turtle Bar and Grill only a mile south of our camp, Grandma Celine’s treat. It was very good.

On the 30th, after school we started to get ready to go up to see the space center but the weather was so nice and since we had not been to the pool or got to play in the ocean the kids said they would much rather do that. We agreed too and had a wonderful afternoon on the beach then in the pool. For dinner Jim again grill us up some great food and we all went to bed happy again from another wonderful day on this trip. It just doesn’t get any better than this. Kevin says he could do this non stop and has begun thinking about what he needs to do to make this a long term way of life. Kathleen and the boys aren’t so sure yet but aren’t totally against it so you never know. This NA Tour could become our way of life. Keep posted.

December 23-28 2009. Days 157-162 Christmas in Lady Lake FL.

Christmas at The Villages in Lady Lake Florida was just as good as we thought it would be. The Villages were all decorated so nice and we loved driving around at night looking at them. We had hoped for warmer weather though but compared to what the rest of the country was getting we were lucky. It was so good to see Kevin’s mom, Allie, and she was so excited we were there. It had been 6 years since we had spent a Christmas with her. She had done so much to make the house look decorated for Christmas and it did look beautiful. When we got there on Wednesday afternoon she surprised us with the news that the next morning we were to be interviewed by the local newspaper about the trip we are on. Apparently she had been to a meeting recently and told someone there about our trip who was either with the paper or knew someone who was and they told her they wanted to interview us. What a surprise. The next morning we were interviewed by not only the paper but also the local TV station. They asked Kevin several questions on camera and then took a lot of pictures of us all and the RV. They did all this on Christmas Eve too. It will be out in mid January here in Lady Lake but of course we expect it to be picked up by the Associated Press and distributed worldwide. Yah-right! That night we went to a wonderful Christmas Eve church service at Allie’s church then had a traditional family dinner of fish and pasta. Christmas morning was so much fun too. Because we are on this long trip plus we try not to over-do it on gifts, the kids each only had 3 things under the tree from us plus whatever else the grandmas had given them. We’ve taught the kids that Christmas is Christ’s birthday and that’s what we celebrate, not a bunch of gift giving. They were very happy with what they got. Andrew finally is getting the phone he’s been wanting. Thomas got a nice camera. Daniel and Rachel each got a new scooter they both asked for plus they got some Georgia Bulldog clothes. Kevin is still forcing his kids to be Dawg fans. After all the gift opening we went to see the movie Avatar. It’s been a Christmas tradition for us to go to an afternoon movie on Christmas. Usually it’s something more like an animation film but I guess the kids are getting older because they all wanted to see Avatar. On the 26th we drove Thomas down to the Orlando airport for his flight to Albuquerque. We had been with him for a week now but we were still not happy to see him leave. He was so excited to go to see his friends though so we had to be happy for him. The drive back from the airport was very hard for Kathleen. No matter how much we think about how well he’s doing in the Navy and how good it all is for him it doesn’t seem to make it much easier to not have him with us all the time. He’s definitely grown up though. He’s so confident for an 18 year old in a very good way. We’re very proud of him. We spent a couple more relaxing days with Allie before leaving on Tuesday morning the 29th to move over to Melbourne Beach FL to then go see the Kennedy Space center.

December 18-22 2009. Days 152-156 Pensacola FL.

Late on the 18th we arrived at the Pensacola Naval Air Station where Thomas met us at the gate to take us to the campground. It was so great to see him even though this time it had only been 3 weeks. We came to Pensacola to pick him up to take him to Lady Lake FL for Christmas with Kevin’s parents. He wasn’t going to be able to leave until the 23rd but we wanted to see him more than the 4 days he was going to be with us in Lady Lake so we came here 4 days early. The day after Christmas he is going to fly to Albuquerque to see his girl friend Lauren and all his friends. We also didn’t mind being there at the NAS because the CG is really nice and sits right on the water. We were also able to get most all our Christmas shopping done since we really had not done anything so far. One day Thomas, Daniel and Andrew went golfing at the base golf course. They got started a little late so they only played 6 holes but they had fun. We went to the Aviation museum again too. Grandma Celine wasn't with us the first time we went and we really wanted her to see it. She was just as amazed as we were. It was a very productive stay in Pensacola. On Wednesday the 23rd we left early to head to Lady Lake.

December 13-17, 2009. Days 147-151 Disney World.

Wow! Who knew it would so much better to go to Disney World during Christmas. We just finished 5 wonderful days at the Fort Wilderness Campgrounds on Disney World property and we loved it. For those of us with RVs it’s really the best way to do Disney. You get a great site with level concrete pads and all the hookups. You have access to all the Disney transportation via numerous buses that serve the campground or you can take a boat ride right from the CG to several other places like the Contemporary Hotel or even go straight to The Magic Kingdom. Once you are there to those places you can get right on the Monorail system and to many other places too. On two days that’s all we did was take the Disney transportation around to see the hotels all beautifully decorated for Christmas and for the kids to ride the Monorail and boats. Of course they loved that. We also went one day to The Polynesian Hotel in our bathing suits and had a fun, relaxing day at the pool. You aren’t supposed to do that because each hotel has signs that say the pool is for the guests of that particular hotel but because we did this on December 12th the pool was more than half empty and we don’t think they really cared because there was plenty of space available.

One day we left the park and went to a place called The Fun Spot. It’s a small carnival type amusement park with several rides but best of all it has 4 different go-cart tracks. For one price you can ride everything all day as much as you want. We had asked the kids if they wanted a day at The Magic Kingdom or a day riding go-carts and they instantly yelled “Go-carts!” Kevin and Jim were very glad they did because they seemed to have the most fun of all although once Kathleen got started driving we couldn’t get her off the tracks. We ended up spending 8 hours there, from 12 noon to 8 PM. When we left we were all exhausted.

Each night there was plenty to see. The CG had a Character Review and sing along near the pool and then you could walk a short distance to the lake to see the fire-works from The Magic Kingdom. Speaking of the CG pool it was great too. It had a nice big slide and a great water play area for the little kids.

The best part of this whole stay is why the beginning of this blog entry says Christmas is a great time to come to Disney. You should have seen the many RV sites decorated for Christmas. Some RVs were as decorated as any house we’ve ever seen and probably more decorated based on the size of the campsite they were parked at. We went out each night to the different CG areas to see new and better sites than we had seen the night before. It was truly amazing and really brought us The Christmas spirit we had not felt yet. We loved it all and were sad to leave on Friday the 18th but we were still happy too because we were heading to Pensacola to see our son Thomas.

December 10-12, 2009. Days 144-146 Daytona Beach FL.

We just spent three fun days here in Daytona Beach FL. We got here on the 10th after driving down from Savannah, mostly along the coast of Florida from Jacksonville to Daytona Beach along the A1A Highway. We took that route to see the ocean and to see if we could find an RV park right on the water. For most of the drive however, between the highway and the ocean are houses, built up on a mound so you cannot see the water at all. I think they are built up on a mound to act as a high water protection for the houses and the highway. We did have some periods where we could fully see the ocean so it made the drive worth it. We also found one RV Park on the ocean that we could have stayed at but it was too far from our destination and it was high priced too. We stayed in Daytona Beach at the Nova Family Campground. It was a nice park with very friendly staff in the office. Mary, who claimed to be the owner, was very fun as she gave Jim and Kevin just as much trouble, maybe more, as they gave her. We also met some nice people that live there for extended periods. One was Mr. Mike, an elderly man Kevin got to know, who was going to be 90 on his next birthday. The 11th was mostly a day spent at the RVs doing school work and business for Kevin and Jim. Kathleen, Jamey and the girls did go do some shopping too but mostly the day was spent in the park. On the 12th, we all went to a huge flea market to do some shopping. We had also gone there the day before but got there right before it closed so we had to come back. They say if you walk up and down every aisle you will walk 3 miles. It certainly seemed like it after we were done. After the flea market we went down to the beach and Kevin and the boys actually got in the water and body surfed in the waves for a couple hours. Rachel and Maddie got in a little too. It was very cold at first but then they got used to it. The waves were good and high enough to really have fun. We all enjoyed driving on the beach too. Kevin had come here 32 years earlier for his senior trip after graduating high school and he pointed out the hotel he had stayed in which was still open. Unfortunately much of Daytona Beach is nothing like it used to be. Many places are in poor shape or closed. There are some new buildings south of the old area, that look good, but the main area is very depressed. It was sad to see. When we got back to the RV park Kevin took the kids to the pool to swim some more. It was also to wash all the salt water and sand off themselves too. We really enjoyed our time here in Daytona.