Summer 2015 in review

Well 2015 all went pretty much to plan...ish. After visiting Vancouver Island and the Alaska cruise we picked up Badger and took him round the central and southern rockies and west coast for about 6000 miles, with another 5000 miles in Toad as side trips. We modified our original plans slightly to see Bryce and Zion canyons before the monsoon rains on the advice of someone I met on a chairlift, and that proved to be a good decision - people were killed by flash flooding in Zion at the time we had originally planned to be there. We also had an unexpected trip to Tijuana for dental treatment but that worked out well - much cheaper than getting treated in the US, and my travel insurance paid out to the policy limit which helped temper that pain.

We had a couple of issues with the car (serpentine belt) - and coach (ice maker, jacks and charger/inverter) but there is always the possibility for things to break, and we paid a lot less for an older coach than we had originally budgeted, so you expect a few more issues but I think its still working out a lot cheaper than buying a newer coach and suffering greater depreciation. I guess the one thing I have learned is that the west was won by greed, corruption and screwing over everyone else, and that ethos is still alive and well in many of the people and businesses we've had to deal with, so it really does pay to shop around and be willing to vote with your feet and wallet....

It was great to meet the Reynolds and a bonus to catch up with Xav and Reika, and of course Pris and Bill who we met in our first year in California. Shame Yvonne and Tony couldn't make it out to San Fran, but we will probably be back there again in 2017...

Hadn't planned on a trip home but we'd always said that if house maintenance needed it we would fly back, and again that proved to be a good decision as I was able to fix a lot more problems and do a lot more preventative work than just the two headline issues that paid for my flight.

We've now been in the new apartment in Whistler for a week and are getting sorted out, so I think we're on track for this winter. Doug, my ski buddy from last season is due back here in early January, Blair and Cheryl, Knees and Clive and Kevin are all booked to come out to visit and ski in the new year and we should be good here until the end of April...

Looking ahead we are planning to go through the northern US states next spring - Glacier national park, Yellowstone, Devils Tower, Mount Rushmore, Milwaukee and Chicago. From there we may loop down through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas before working our way up the east coast for fall in New England. And Maria has already been looking at apartment rentals in Banff for winter 2016/17.....its good to have plans :-)