We don’t write a year-in-review post every year, but when we do, I always start by thinking, what the hell did we even do this past year?  And after going through our pictures, I’m like – wow – we did a bunch!  Of course, this is not an historical world view of 2021 – just our little slice.

Not unlike 2020, 2021 was a strange year.  Long-awaited Covid vaccines became available to most every citizen at the same time half the population suddenly became experts in molecular and microbiology studies, and shared their knowledge on public forums.  DIY medical diagnosis and vaccine analysis… apparently it’s a thing.  I don’t even change my own oil, just to give you my perspective on relying on experts for the job at hand.

Clearly, beyond a doubt, the highlight of the year was seeing our kids.   After practically non-existent time with our kids in 2020, we got to see them both, with their significant others – twice this year!  Boom.  So nice.  All the rest of our activities were minor compared to seeing our kids.

But since this is purportedly a travel blog, where did we travel and what were our highlights?

We should probably start with the fact that we bought a new (to us) trailer this year!  What’s it going to take to put you in this 2019 30-foot Airstream Classic?  Well, apparently, not much.  We called our financial advisor and told him that we were not going to live as long as we had previously suggested and for him to shorten our lives in our financial plan so the plan would still balance.  Catch us while you can!

Now I won’t lie – our travels each year have been a little less with a cottage up in New Hampshire.  Summer travel has just about ended for us.  In a good way.  We are no longer out there in the heat competing for campground spaces with young families who in many instances only have the summer to conduct travel.  Now it seems people are traveling to see us!  Whoa.  Time to change our address.

But that still leaves the winter, spring and fall!

Even based in the Atlanta area, winters can be long and cold without a break.  So this past January we headed for a trip to several Florida state parks.  Florida state parks are some of the best places to camp – anywhere!  Just great.  We visited Lake Griffin, Oscar Shearer, and Fort Clinch State Parks this year, and while not technically a state park, visited one of our favorite campgrounds – Fort Desoto Regional Park.

Florida state parks, because of their quality and the volume of RV’rs looking for an escape, are extremely difficult to get a reservation.  Sadly, it requires much more planning these days than it ever did in the past.  But if you can plan, and have some flexibility, it is well worth the effort.  Easy for me to say – my bride does all the planning and reservations.  I just drive.

Come April, we headed west, essentially to see our son, but as is our norm, made it into a road trip.  We hugged the southern route via New Orleans to a state park (Goose Island) just north of Corpus Cristi. Obviously I am omitting a few details.

From there we headed north for our Carnivore Tour – a visit to several BBQ joints in the Lockhart, TX area. Can I get an amen?

A stop at Palo Duro Canyon was another great place to visit – a canyon in the middle of flat lands.  This is a great place to have bikes as well.

Just to add a little art to our sensory palette, we headed towards Santa Fe and Meow Wolf.  Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.

And, of course, on to Denver, where we were met with snow and cold.  When visiting Denver we stay at our go-to campground at Cherry Creek State Park – practically downtown Denver.  Such a great campground!

We made our way back to the ATL and then headed for the summer to NH, via one of our favorite places TCPC (Tennessee Cumberland Plateau Campground).

Now NH is flat out great.  We get there and plant ourselves for a few months.  It is not awful.

While our travels were limited this past year, we still saw some fabulous sights – thanks entirely to my navigator/bride.  If you have ever experienced Karen’s travel planning acumen, you will clearly recognize her as some sort of travel savant.  Smootch!

We hope to be a bit more social in 2022 if conditions allow, and we do have plans to head out west later in the year, so stay tuned!

Happy New Year – let’s make 2022 great!