An update from Mark and Debbie …

Hi friends! Looking back, I can’t believe it’s been a year since we documented our travels. Since we last posted about Alaska, we:

• Finished our Alaskan travels with visits to Katmai and Wrangell-St. Elias National Parks
• Spent several days at Mt Rainier National Park and drove south to spend time in our favorite parts of Utah
• Left the van in storage in Phoenix (Oct – Jan) while we enjoyed the sunshine in Florida and Hawaii
• Explored Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and Yosemite National Parks as well as the Pacific Coast Highway
• Returned to Cleveland in mid-March to spend time with friends and family (I was VERY homesick after being so far from our loved ones last summer)

And now we have a bit of news to share about our future plans!

Something that I didn’t think about when we sold our Michigan home (almost 3 years ago) is that the winter months are very dark very early. Although the southern states are warm year-round, the sun still sets at 6:00 pm. It makes for short days and long, boring nights in the van. We traveled during our first winter on the road. However, once we realized that we were spending more time in the van than outside hiking, we started to rent in Florida for the winter months. We have enjoyed our time in the Sunshine State so much that we recently bought a small condo in the St. Pete – Clearwater area!

This doesn’t impact our plans to travel and we will keep the van in our storage unit for future adventures. However, it does change our summer itinerary. Instead of traveling to New England as planned, we are going to Florida to renovate our new condo. We plan to take a break from Labor Day through early November to travel and visit family. However, our new permanent winter ‘home base’ is in Redington Shores, Florida.

We are excited to have a place with comfortable furniture, indoor plumbing, reliable internet and a bit of room to spread out. We look forward to welcoming our friends and family as well as meeting new friends in the area. If you find yourself in Tampa / St. Pete / Clearwater, please look us up!

Hope all is well in your corner of the world and that you have your own adventures planned for this summer!

Mark and Debbie

A few of our favorite things to do in the Sunshine State: Thanksgiving at the beach, paddle boarding with dolphins and manatees, bird watching and the annual Lake Ashton Golf Cart Parade!