Happy New Year (Ooops, a Bit Late?) – Holidays in Melbourne & Arcadia Bus Rally

It seems like just last evening we were toasting each other with NyQuil (of the cherry vintage) to bring in the new year.  And wow, now it’s the 9th.

Just how does the time fly so quickly??

Yup, we started our new years off ever so romantically, both of us fighting some sort of crud we picked up over the holidays. We’re just now really shaking it off actually.

Aside from coughing, sneezing and lots of naps – we’ve been keeping super busy trying to stay alert, cohesive and comprehensive in a year that started off with major mobile internet news for our community.

I’m not sure I’m going to find the time or energy to do a proper travelogue of our two stops in December that rounded out 2016. So I’m going to cover them really quickly here and get things back up to date (which may actually be a trend going forward for our blogging.)

So, for a speedy recap:

Christmas in Melbourne

After returning from our Panama Canal Cruise, we settled into Wickham Park in Melbourne – and old favorite. It was weird and whacky as ever, this time the host of the county’s holiday light fest. Sometimes requiring 30-45 extra minutes to leave the park or return in the evenings.

To make matters even more interesting, there was conflicting information being spread around by park staff as to if us campers were allowed to walk the park & lights at night – one would say yes during the day, only to end up with being escorted home that evening by the evening ranger on duty. Quite annoying actually.

Oh well, we weren’t going to let scrooge ruin our holidays.  The reason for the season for us was family this year.

Chris’ parents came across the state to stay with my mom – and many fond memories were made:

Arcadia Bus Rally – Arcadia, FL

Next up was heading down south and central to the little town of Arcadia for the proclaimed largest bus rally in the world. Around a 100 bus conversions have gathered here for many years, and this would be our 3rd time attending since we become bus nuts ourselves.

The rally is held over New Years Eve, which makes it difficult to route towards sometimes. But this year we had no plans, so why not?

It was a great gathering, but as we were both fighting holiday crud, we made ourselves a bit scarce. We met up with fellow bus friends, and took advantage of an onsite detailer to have Zephyr properly washed and waxed (important to protect our new paint job).

We did manage to get the camera out and take our Facebook followers for a live walk-thru of the buses – and have the archive now up on YouTube for those who’d like to geek out on some bus porn with us (careful, it’s about 40 minutes long).

Mobile Internet News

At the end of each year, we write a pretty epic post trying to summarize all that has transpired in the mobile internet industry and how it impacts RVers – with looks ahead. 2016 was a pretty busy year, and we got that post out last week.

Here it is if you haven’t already caught it over at RVMobileInternet:

It even contains a 30 minute video if you prefer watching & listening instead of reading.

In the past week, there’s also been two pretty major stories we’ve been tracking that I’ll share here too incase they apply to you:

Breaking News: Verizon Aggressively Moves to Cancel High Usage Unlimited Data Plans

T-Mobile ”Uncarrier-Next” Includes Taxes & Fees, Drops Simple Choice Tablet & Hotspot Options

 

With new routers and cellular boosters on the  market to work into testing – it’s shaping up to be a busy work year ahead for us!

What’s Up Next?

We’re now drifting around the state of Florida, snagging up cancellations in state parks and such. Our personal focus is now – BOAT HUNTING!  (Which we’re about to hit the road for our next showing.)

We think we’ve got our preferences pretty narrowed down – now just to find our vessel, make an offer, pass through all the inspections and move aboard. Sounds easy, right? We somehow doubt it won’t be.

Blogging wise, we’re going to continue our intentions of keeping our sharing something we do when we have the time & energy to do so to avoid burn out. We may just stick to some quicker recaps like this in the future. After all, writing about sitting at our desks with pretty views all the time just isn’t fun (or inspiring) for anyone… least of all, us.  We’re going to continue to strive to achieve that work & life balance somehow.