Amsterdam, Netherlands - August 15 - 17

A beautiful spot along the Grand River just outside the city of Grand Rapids. As that name indicates, there is a steamboat here that runs up and down the river playing music and providing dinner.  We were in town for the  the wedding of Jim's nephew Brendan and his amazing new bride Charlotte. Since they are both big runners and met through running, it was fitting that the morning of the wedding started with a 6 mile run with friends and family. There were somewhere around 25 runners for this fun event and we were met at the finish line with Jim's brother Brian and his wife Amy who put together a great breakfast spread for everyone.

Hard to believe it's been just over a whole year since we started this crazy RV journey! Here are some of the highlights and stats on the past year.

Three full weeks back in the Sacramento area visiting family and friends. Good time seeing so many folks.  Dana spent 2 different days at Skycrest Elementary School visiting teaching colleagues and kids from last year's class.  She came away convinced she made the correct decision to retire last year:  :}  

Decent 55+ campground with a few amenities. Woke up to find our tankless water heater not working.  Waited until Monday to call tech support. Took off Saturday morning for some fun.  First went to the downtown Farmers and Craft Market for a few hours. Really chill environment and beautiful morning combined with good people watching. After a few hours walking the 7 blocks downtown, we headed off to the White Sands National Park about an hour away. This was a surprising very cool national park to see. At 275 square miles and just over 145,000 acres, it's a lot of sand. Unlike any beaches we've been to, this is gypsum sand which is extremely white, fine and light.  Gypsum is the main component in drywall so for those that have remodeled and experiences drywall dust, you know what gypsum is. We did 2 hikes in the dunes.  The 2 mile marked hike was difficult slogging through the sand at times.  Very cool place and would recommend seeing. The dunes were tall enough that many families brought their sleds out and were cruising the hills. 

Arrived on a beautiful warm day. Very nice campground right on the Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. Campground had some boardwalk hikes, piers and a boat launches into the Bay.  We spent the better part of one day touring the USS Alabama, a retired WW 2 Navy battleship. Very cool tour led by a former Annapolis Naval Academy graduate.  Awesome detail and very engaging. Drove through downtown Mobile to check it out (nothing special). Learned that this was the original start of Madi Gras celebrations in the US, but New Orleans is obviously more well known. 

Miami (January 1 - 3)

Vero Beach, FL (November 23 - December 7)

Colonial Beach, Virginia (November 7-11)

Lancaster, PA (October 20-27)

Grand Island, NY (September 12 - 15)

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Monument, Colorado (August 6 - 12)

We've been very busy over the last 3-4 weeks with quite a bit of fun mixed in with our travels.