Our 2015 stats

It's time again to look back at our activity during 2015. We didn't cover as much ground in 2015 as we did in 2014 but it wasn't because we weren't trying or getting tired and lazy. Quite the contrary. As Pamela said the other day "2015 was really a very physically demanding year for us."

In the spring of 2015 Willy got a complete exterior overhaul - opened all seams and replaced any bad wood,  new roof fixtures, paint job, etc. It was a physically demanding project which we're happy having done. The project kept Willy out of commission for over 2 months during a time we would have normally had him out camping at Land Between the Lakes or other similar primitive camping areas.  We also went on a cruise which kept us out of the woods for a couple of weeks, but that trip gave us time to snorkel and scuba.  Also in the spring Pamela's surgeon agreed to do the total knee replacements she had been wanting.  She didn't want to be recovering when we were heading toward Glacier so the bilateral knee replacement was done on Dec 7th. Pamela now has two brand new knees. She has had one set back. A hematoma developed for some unknown reason on her right knee cap keeping her from doing her rehab therapy.  So the fact that she climbed a mountain in July with bone-on-bone knees just shows how strong and determined a woman she is.

In any case, as I've done just for the fun of it in the past two years, here's a summary of our adventures and activity in 2015.

Pamela near summit of Mt Oberlin

(1) Overall we traveled in excess of 9,580 miles with Willy, camping for >90 consecutive nights and a total of 116 nights.
(2) We only biked about 90 miles or so this year. Again, it wasn't our idea. Because of the unseasonably warm winter at Glacier the Going-to-the-Sun Road, which is generally not open to auto traffic until July, was open by mid-June cutting our cycling time almost in half. We did probably do another 15-20 miles around Fish Creek and during our trips to Raccoon Lake in October.
(3) We kayaked about 10 miles this year. You should have seen poor Pamela trying to get in and out of the kayak with her bad knees. By November we were pretty much pulling her up on shore in the kayak and rolling her out. Her knees were hardly working by then. I took grandson, Kieran, on Bowman Lake. Pamela and my daughter, Kelly, spent a lot of time on Lake McDonald with the two of us spending a great day on the Kentucky River in early November.
(4)  I hiked in excess of 150 miles this year.  A high percentage of that was our trail patrol. Pamela, of course, could not go much of the time because of her knees. She did a couple of shorter trails (<5 miles) in May and climbed Mt Oberlin in July. She's anxious to get back on the trail in 2016 with her new knees.
(5) We went diving and/or snorkeling in Hopkinsville, KY, Panama City Beach, the Bahamas and Lost Quay (a private island belonging to the cruise line).  Pamela is working on her open water certification. You might remember that I finished my Master Diver certification in Aug 2014, but that doesn't qualify me to supervise Pamela on a dive.

All in all 2015 was really a great year for us. Evansville is now home base and we're anxiously looking forward to being 100% Walden Pond Full-timers by the first of May when we head to Glacier. From there it's wherever our fancy takes us. It's going to be great!

Hope you all had a wonderful, exciting, adventuresome and productive 2015 and we wish you a very super wonderful, exciting, adventuresome 2016.

IN MEMORIAL:  2015 was not without loss.  Cubby, one of the G-3 (Glacier Three - the three small dogs that traveled and camped with us), died the day after Thanksgiving.  Fittingly he passed away while we were on the road. He loved to travel with us.  We miss him very much.

Cubby loved to sit on my lap as we traveled.
Usually he was looking forward as though watching the road.

Cubby at Glacier wearing his "uniform" jacket.