Many Changes Since September of 2019

Posted from Brooksville, FL 

 Our last post was dated 9/11/2019. A lot of changes have occurred in the world and in our personal lives since that date. I stopped writing blogs for quite some time because, to be very honest, I just got tired of the work involved in putting out new posts. For anyone who has ever published blogs on a regular basis I'm sure that you know what I'm talking about. 

 This blog post will not be a "blow by blow" re-cap of what we've done and where we've been since September of 2019, but rather a generalization of the highlights we've experienced.

The first thing that you might have noticed if you attempted to reach the site using the old blogger URL was that it re-directed you to our newly acquired domain name.  Cheap Steve finally broke down and purchased GoneByRV.com. Hopefully, this will make us easier to find us for folks trying to recall our URL.

If you are interested at all in seeing where we traveled in 2019 and 2020, just click on the date link here to view our travel maps.

In 2019 we made a major change in the way we travel when unhooked from the motorhome.  We purchased a 2020 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk Elite to enable us to get to more adventures than our Honda Fit would allow.

This is a picture of the Jeep on Red Mountain Pass in Colorado in September of 2020.  Suffice it to say that the Honda would not have made it up the trails.  We love everything about the Jeep so far. Well maybe with the exception of the fuel mileage versus the Honda Fit!

Karen and I both had true road bikes, a Specialized Allez and a Cannondale, which we just didn't enjoy riding as much as when we were younger.  We decided to sell both of the aforementioned bikes, and our two small folding bikes (which we never really used in the folding mode), and purchase a pair of hybrids. In May of 2020 most bicycle shops had very low inventories. We were lucky to find a Trek shop near Tucson, AZ where we purchased this pair of Trek Dual Sport 3s.

This purchase has turned out great!  We love our hybrids and are now able to ride on a greater variety of surfaces than before.

In 2020 I purchased a drone to capture video of places we've been.  Being new to the world of drones I didn't want to break the bank by purchasing a high end unit which I might or might not enjoy.  I purchased the DJI Mini 2 in November of 2020 from Amazon. I must admit that I've been very impressed by the quality of the footage obtained from this drone, and by the ease of learning to fly it. I've only put together

one short video of a campground we stayed in back in January of 2021, but this should give you an idea of its' capabilities.

As we all know COVID-19 in 2020 changed the way everything was done. Our hearts certainly go out to many of our friends who had personal family losses due to this pandemic.  Our family suffered a great loss in September of 2020 as Karen's Mom passed away.  She did not die of COVID, but the loss felt by our family is certainly no less.

Rest in Peace 1939-2020

Our winter lifestyle also changed at the end of 2020. After spending eight winters at Palm Creek Resort in Casa Grande, AZ we decided it was time for a change. Without getting into the particulars of why we left, we just decided it was time for a change. We left Palm Creek on January 1, 2021 and headed east. To Florida to be exact. We have tried out different parks in January, February, and March to enable us to make an informed decision for our winter stay at the end of 2021.  Stay tuned for updates on that one.

The final item in this post will be the COVID-19 vaccinations we received yesterday. As Fulltime RVers who are both under age 65 and due to leave this area on April 5th we were very concerned about how we would get the vaccination.  Fortunately, everything fell into place for us as Florida lowered their age restriction to 60+ on the day before our vaccination.  They also are giving shots to non-residents. As an added bonus, the shot was of the Johnson & Johnson brand and meant that we only had to take one dose. Everything really worked out well for us on this one, and neither of us had any negative side effects to boot.

That is Karen under all of the masking!

So for now, thanks for dropping by to take a look and hopefully I'll be posting more frequently again.