Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Andre & I have had our nose to the grindstone getting through the last two months of "Working Winter" here in Tampa, Florida, while trying to have a bit of fun on the side.
While we weren't looking, we passed the 2 year anniversary of our life on the road (February 23rd), which went without a post, but not without some thought and joyful reminiscence! I am in the process of gathering some fun "Stats" from our first two years on the road - a project that started out modest, but has taken on a life of it's own so it might be another few weeks before it turns into a comprehensive post.
I started out just trying to gather some fun facts about how many states we've visited, how many National Parks, how many breweries (eagerly awaiting that fun number), and a few other interesting stats, but eventually decided to widen the scope and capture a great deal more data to be potentially used down the road in a book, and in the near future, in an article or two I plan to submit for publication in a few RV-related magazines.
So I'm slugging through the data-gathering piece of it now, utilizing a spreadsheet, old blog entries, maps, financial records, the stamped pages of our National Parks passbook, and of course, good old memory (surprisingly unreliable on my part, but highly reliable on Andre's part!) It should make for interesting analysis once it's fully compiled and I look forward to sharing our perspectives on our first couple of years of "Van Life" once it's complete.
The weather has just turned the corner here in Tampa (from 60's to low 80's) and it's beginning to feel like full-on Summer. Tomorrow we are heading to Orlando for a day at EPCOT that we had originally planned for our wedding anniversary back in late January but never quite got to. The forecast is for sunny and 85 degrees so I think the unintended wait might have been inadvertent "good planning".
As of today, I have about 7 weeks left to work here and the excitement is starting to build for packing up house (or van, in our case) and hitting the road for parts unknown! We are looking forward to another round of catching up with family and friends via visits up and down the East coast, before heading out toward Yellowstone.
Look forward to sharing that adventure with you as well... In the meantime, here are a few quick photos to share.
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| Enjoying the start of Tampa Beer Week last weekend |
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| Amused by this Armadillo during a visit to Honeymoon Island State Park in Dunedin, FL a few weekends back. |
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| Andre enjoying one of his favorite weekend activities - Checking out the used CD selection at "Old School" local record shops |
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| Have enjoyed the Florida Orchestra in St. Petersburg twice in the last few months with the free tickets we won at a beer festival |
