Our 2012 Travel Route

Our past maps & wrap-ups :  2007, 2008, 2009 , 2010 and 2011

One of our intentions with switching to a larger home on wheels was to transition from having nimble sleeping quarters to enable hyper-mobility to having a comfortable living space that can easily move.

In 2012, we had the opportunity to put our intentions into practice. The slower pace was especially appreciated after our very chaotic 2011 that involved multiple modalities of travel.

We began the year at the Arcadia Bus Rally, bringing in the new year with our friends Sean & Louise.

The first quarter of the year was then spent scrambling to find available RV space in Central Florida, as we circled the wagons to be near my parents as we dealt with the diagnosis of my dad’s lung cancer coming back.

By April, things were looking up so we ventured up to some much needed social reconnection with some fellow NuRVers and fell in love with Cedar Key, FL.

After some more bus projects in the Tampa area, we ventured westward to Austin to fill out the spring as we worked on a huge in-house custom iPad development project for a client. While in the area, tickets to the sold out Burning Flipside fell into our laps, and we enjoyed a very chill regional Burning Man event with friends.

Once our project was complete we ventured northward to celebrate Chris’ grandma’s 90th birthday in St. Louis, and enjoyed a fabulous 4th of July on the banks of the Mississippi with our fellow nomadic friends Sam & Tracy.

With no calling to head back to Florida right away, we ventured further north to visit with a friend who just moved to Madison, Wisconsin – and fell in love with the area.

And then we hatched an idea. Since my father was unable to go on his epic summer road trip to visit all the Great Lakes, we’d surprise him by bringing back water from each lake to dip his toes in. We called it Operation: Dip Toes.

The secret mission provided a marvelous get away from record breaking heat to head into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, an area we had not yet explored. The routing and timing also allowed us to attend the EAA Airventure Air Celebration in Oshkosh.

In late August we turned south, anxious to get back to Florida to focus on fully taking over the family business allowing my parents to retire. Along the way we hit two bus rallies, had some bus maintenance done in Chattanooga, attended Dragon*Con in Atlanta and meandered on into Melbourne, FL in a slow roll.

We got a monthly spot near the beach for the remainder of the year, and enjoyed our first extended stationary period in a long while – aside from taking two cruises.

The last week of the year found us heading back to the Arcadia Rally, and then on into Cedar Key to join up with our NuRVer friends to bring in the New Year.

In 2012 we put 6,447 mile on our bus, Zephyr – which is a mighty comfortable pace for us.

In comparison, in year’s past we’ve averaged nearly double that – 11,925 /year.

It’s hard to believe that we just completed our 6th full year on the road together for a total of 66,077 RVing miles (plus many other travel adventures), and still no end in site for these technomads!

See you in 2013!