The Summer Trip of 2013 has come to an end

We have returned from our fantastic trip across the country.  What a whirlwind of travel,  that we are just now digesting.  We traveled for 4 months and 1 day.  We logged over 10,000 miles of travel in the Motor Home.  We never checked the mileage in the car, but I would image there must be at least a thousand miles on it.

It was a trip of a life time.  It is impossible to say what our favorite town, or activity or National Park was.  Everything was just so fabulous and different.  We met wonderful people, saw beautiful sights and will never forget it.......But now, we are back home and settling into a "normal", for us, life.  We are back in Lakeland, Florida.  We really love it here, however, we can't quite shake the gypsy life style.  Originally, we thought as soon as we returned, we would move into an apartment or a house and settle down.  But that is not what has happened.  We are so content living in our little house on wheels, that we will probably wait until the summer to find a stationery place to live. We do miss all  our "stuff" that is in storage, but we have no  problem making do with what we have in our motor home.

We thought by now we would be antsy and need something to do to keep us occupied.  But so far we are content doing a lot of nothing.  We have renewed our annual passes to Disney World and spend time just people watching and enjoying all that is offered there. We love taking our grand daughter Claire.  It is so much fun to watch her enjoy it.  Elliot is still a little too young to appreciate it, but when he is a little older we'll take him too.

This is Heaven

Our Favorite Lady!

In early December, Peter had a doctor's appointment with his Oncologist for his 6 month check  up.  We had also booked a 5 day cruise during that time. We drove the motor home down to Fort Lauderdale and stayed there.  He had all his tests when we first arrived.  We visited with many dear friends and then we took the cruise.   The cruise was great fun as usual.  We had fun in the ports. When we returned we had the doctor's appointment and we got fabulous results on Peter's tests.  Cancer free for 18 months now.  Hallelujah, what a great Christmas present!!!

Christmas decorations on board our ship

Papa and Claire making a Gingerbread House

  






We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We celebrated both holidays at Paul and Erika's house.  Before Christmas Peter (Papa) and Claire made a gingerbread house.  This is becoming a Christmas tradition that Claire looks forward to.  She also helped make Christmas Cookies.  She did all the sugar cut out cookies by herself.

We have joined a church here and have made many new friends. Next week some of us are getting together for a Roast Duckling Dinner.......and guess who the Chef will be???? Chef Peter, who makes the best roast duck in the whole world!!!! It should be a fun evening.


New Years Eve was a quiet evening for us.  We had Claire with us for a sleep over.  She wakes up VERY early in the morning (5:30 to 6:00) so we opted to forgo the hoopla on TV and get to bed early.

We have now been retired for a year.  It has been the best year so far, and we are looking forward to many more.