2016 YEAR IN REVIEW

2016 YEAR IN REVIEW

I did not track our financial spending or mileage drove this year as we pretty much stayed in one spot all summer before going to Tennessee to work at Amazon. After crisscross America and Canada the last two years it was nice to just sit back, relax and spend time with family before hitting the road for the next two years. We set new milestones, checked somethings off our bucket list, while adding more to the growing list. We had RV and car issues that we did not expect. We then topped it off with another successful peak job at Amazon.

This year we hit a pretty large milestone of 1,500 days Full-Timing. We can't believe that four plus years have gone by so fast. There is so much we have seen & done and there is still so much more we want to do. We are thankful for our health as we have not had an major issues that would keep us from living this dream.

This blog, WOW... not in my wildest dream I thought that I would get this many views. I started this BLOG so my family & friends would have a way to follow along with us on our journey. Never did I imagine in 2012 I would have people from all 50 US States and 64 Countries interested in our stories.

For being on the road only three weeks after we arrived in Ohio, we have seen our fair number our tour buses and custom paint jobs.

It was nice to be around family this summer, but when you sit in one spot the bucket list grows longer and not much gets crossed off. A big one for me did get crossed off, to be a season ticket hold for a baseball team. Even though it was only a minor league team it still counts. The Akron RubberDucks AA Affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, The best part of it all was the team hosted the All Star game and won the league title. How lucky can I get.

We added more baseball stadiums, State Capitol Building and National Parks to our list. Our new totals now stand at 41 US State, 5 Canadian Provenances, 65 different baseball stadiums, 19 State Capitol Buildings and 117 National Parks.

We toured two chocolate factories in one week and much, much more, if you want to see every where we went this year please read old post from 2016 (For our whole journey start from day one in 2012). 

Like so many times when something goes wrong, everything goes wrong. One of the most important things I did when we started Full-Timing was have an expense account for RV and car issues. The hard part is trying to keep money in the account. This year alone we had the RV roof resealed & coated, replaced our toilet, three tires, front headlight that burned out and the front glass that cracked from a rock hitting it. The car was just as bad, we had to replace the cooling/ heating unit as it rusted on the inside, the turn single unit as the handle never turned off after making a turn, new battery and two tires, one blew out on Hiromi when she was on the highway.  

I started my YouTube channel this year, but it's been a rough start. I played around with it for the past few years posting a few slide show and videos. I started Life-in-RV season 1 in late June. In the first three months I released only five videos then we arrived in Tennessee for our commitment to Amazon. There was just no time to do everything I wanted (working the night shift and 50 hours weeks) so I had to prioritize and pushed the channel to the back burner. With the New Year season 2 will start back up in January.  I hope to be able to put the time needed to grow the channel (currently only have 13 subscribers) while trying to make good videos. When we do something big and exciting I'll try and do a video at the same time then post the link at the end of the blog post. This way after you read it you can watch it too. If you have not already seen our previous videos, please click on the YouTube link in the side panel. Let me know what you thing and if you like them please subscribe.  

Finances is a touchy topic for me. I learned the importance of finances at a young age that you can't just want something and hope that someone will give it to you. Putting in the long hours, sweat, tears, sacrifice and away from family to earning the money to pay for the things I want makes it that much rewarding when I finally got it. That is the reason you will NEVER see a "donations button" or have a "support us funds" on my blog or YouTube channel like so many others. Don't get me wrong, if that is how they want to pay for their journey that is their prerogative, it just not my way.

When October rolled around it was time to stop having fun and get serious for the next three months. I probably blogged about Amazon enough lately so just read the post below. However, when all we work is 12 weeks a year its nice to know that the next nine months we'll have extra money in our pocket and see that our hard work paid off so we can enjoy the next adventurers in our journey.

2016 was great and 2017 is going to be another awesome year, as we discover a new way of living where travel, adventure and home are one in the same. We have plans to stay out West with a surprise vacation, as long as everything goes right. When the time comes I'll share it, but we don't want to jinks it. If not, there is always plan B. I will track our spending and miles in 2017 to see the cost for staying out West (ie campground, groceries/ eat out, RV/car gas ...etc).We'll continue to check items off our bucket list, while forging unforgettable memories that will last us a lifetime.

Live your dream, travel safe and hopefully see you on the road.