Mike looks back at the wonderful places and people he and Jennifer — and their furry new traveling companion, Bo — have visited during 2016.
The last month of the year traditionally is a time to take stock of where we’ve been, what we’ve done, and the lessons we have learned — both good and bad.
For Jennifer and me, 2016 has been a year in which we have traveled every month, in all sorts of weather, through white-out blizzards, thunderstorms, hail, wind, and those picture-perfect cloudless blue skies that we post on Facebook to make our stationary friends jealous.
And it’s been good. All of it.
But this has been a year unlike the others, a year in which we traveled more slowly, covered less distance, saw and experienced things we would have missed had we stuck to the interstates.
This year, we did not embark on a westward cross-country trip. Instead, we generally stayed east of the Mississippi, but we widely ranged from the far North to the Deep South.
January — We began the year by taking our motorhome north to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in northwestern Michigan, driving up on New Year’s Eve and waking up January 1 parked in the woods near Empire, Michigan. It was a quiet night, under lots of stars, and we were surrounded by about a foot of snow.
We did another stint of winter camping midmonth at Tahquamenon Falls State Park in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I’ll write more about winter camping next month, but suffice it to say that not only is it very doable for everyone, it is, for us, as much fun as summer camping.
February — Our lives — and our travels — changed permanently in February. Jennifer and I share birthdays just four days apart in February (mine is the 8th; hers the 12th). This year our three grown kids surprised us with a 10-week-old Norwegian elkhound puppy as a gift. I remember our son Scott saying, “This dog is going to have a great life, seeing the country.” We spent most of February recovering from the gift and going through puppy training classes with Bo.
March — March saw us in Perry, Georgia, for FMCA’s international convention. We presented a couple of seminars, caught up with lots of old friends, and realized again how the motorhome community is like one big family.
April — Two big snowbird migrations take place each year. The first occurs near the end of October, when Northerners head south for the winter. The second happens sometime around early April when they return home. For us, that means some choice beachfront camping spots opened up on the Emerald Coast of Florida’s Panhandle in the spring. So, that’s where we headed. We parked right on the beach along the Gulf of Mexico at Camp Gulf near Destin and gave Bo his first camping experience.
May — As the dogwoods bloomed, May found us in Nashville, Tennessee. We shared on our Roadtreking Facebook group that we were headed there, and, lo and behold, a small group of others thought Nashville sounded like a great place to be, too. A bunch of us attended the Grand Ole Opry together.
June — Every year, Jennifer and I organize several gatherings. We limit them to about 50 people and keep them very informal. The early summer one is always devoted to photography, and this year we gathered at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We did lots of hiking and held a week’s worth of seminars devoted to the topic of taking better landscape and wildlife photos.
July — July found us back at the beach on Florida’s Emerald Coast, where we stayed pretty much the entire month. Our three kids and seven grandkids joined us for some of the time. Swimming, fishing, kayaking, and lots of fun around campfires made the days pass quickly.
August — In August, Jennifer and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. We typically use the to explore one state. This year we chose Georgia. We drive through Georgia several times every year, usually on Interstate 75. But this August, we took only backroads, learning history, visiting Civil War battlefields, Pine Mountain, FDR’s summer White House, and the beautiful Callaway Gardens.
September — We headed north to Canada and Bruce Peninsula National Park near Tobermory, Ontario, for another one of our Roadtreking gatherings. Tobermory is known as the fresh-water scuba capital of the world, because the crystal-clear Lake Huron water makes it easy to see lots of sunken shipwrecks. Some of us snorkeled (in wet suits!), but mostly we hiked and explored.
October — As I write this column, I am sitting in our Roadtrek CS Adventurous XL overlooking Lake Michigan’s northern shore in a little park off U.S. 2 in the Upper Peninsula. We are returning from our most recent Roadtreking gathering, held in Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park on the shores of Lake Superior. This event coincided perfectly with peak fall color, and we were surrounded by hardwood forests in all shades of yellow, gold, and red.
November and December — Since this column has to be finished before November and December arrive, I can only say that we have trips planned for each month. In November we hope to be in Pennsylvania and Ohio, along Lake Erie’s shoreline. December has us heading to Florida on Christmas day.
The year passed very fast. Jennifer and I would be hard-pressed to name our favorite trip, or our favorite site. We spent pretty much half the year traveling and half at our sticks-and-bricks home north of Detroit.
We have been stunned at the growing audience for our Roadtreking: The RV Lifestyle Podcast. We have had more than 2 million episode downloads, and as we’ve traveled, people have recognized us and said how the podcast has inspired them to get out there.
The RV industry, of course, is booming. More young people and young families are traveling in motorhomes these days. And advances in solar and battery technology have made many motorhomes — particularly the Type B “camper van” style we use — energy independent, so campers can go off the grid and boondock in state and national forests.
As we look ahead to 2017, we are planning new adventures. We know we want to head west again in the new year. Maybe we’ll travel to Alaska, too. But maybe not.
See, that’s the beauty of this lifestyle. The whole continent awaits. We can tackle as much of it as we want, on our schedule, in our way, taking our time.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hope to see you out there in 2017.