Our 2024 Review

                          WE WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2025

and hope your 2024 went well.

Where do the years go???? They seem to go quicker as we get older. We started and finished off the year camphosting at Nas Jacksonville after a break in winter 2022/2023.

After our big trip to Europe last year we scaled down a bit this year. 

We visited Ryan, Christina and the boys during one of our weeks off in January.

Playing at Norfolk Zoo

They started preparing for the expansion to the campground and had to remove some of our trees. We had to move for a couple of days. It was quite sad seeing some of the old trees being removed. On a lighter note, someone saw a squirrel at the top of the tree, shown below, as it was being taken down. Bryan asked the crew if they could rescue it, which they did. The two trees shown here were on either side of our site, and we miss the shade but also the squirrels throwing nuts on our roof!!

We had some medical things to take care of after our camphosting ended in May and so we stayed in Jacksonville until the middle of July.  We moved to the lower half of the campground and loved our spot down there.  We even saw a deer one night but couldn't get a picture of it.

Bryan had a photography class at the zoo, where he got to get some great pictures of the tigers. The fact they were focusing on the tigers was one of the reasons he went.

Once my class at the Mayo had finished and we finished up some things, we headed out. 

On our way up to Virginia Beach the motorhome had a couple of mechanical issues.  It took us about a week to get those fixed and we eventually arrived in Virginia Beach. We stayed at Sea Mist at Dam Neck, with the beach behind us.

Dam Neck Beach

We had a day out with Trystan and visited Virginia Aquarium. This lady was telling us about a sharks skull. Trystan already knew a lot about it, and was having an interesting conversation with her.  Nana learnt some new things from them both!!!

It was nice spending some time with the family and we got some other issues we had with Lily fixed. Ryan got into some tighter places that neither Bryan or I could access!!! Oh, to be a little younger sometimes!!

All to soon it was time to head back south but we still had some places to visit and friends to see.

We returned to Pelican Point RV Park in North Carolina and visited with friends that we have made in the campground at Jacksonville.

Bob & Rhea invited us for dinner at their lovely condo, and we had a lovely time chatting and catching up. 

We have been in this area before and been to the Hatteras National Seashore which is relatively close to here and worth a visit if you haven't been.

We did visit the small Civil War Memorial Park nearby which had a recreation of buildings and history from that period.

Civil War Memorial Park

Next, we headed west to Lexington, South Carolina and returned to Barnyard RV Park.  There is a swap meet next to the campground that we looked around but didn't find anything we had to have!!!

We went to the Saluda Riverwalk in Columbia and it was a nice place to walk along the river.

We also visited The South Carolina Military Museum.

Heading south into Georgia we stayed overnight at 4 County RV Park in Danville, Georgia. A lovely family owns this relatively new campground and are trying to get word out about it. Its on GA-112, close to Highway 16 and 80 between Savannah & Macon. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of it. Here's a LINK to it. 

Next was MCCS Albany RV Park where we refilled prescriptions and didn't do very much.

We looked forward to seeing Falling Waters State Park and staying in their campground.  Unfortunately the waterfalls and sinkhole were dry and there was nothing to see while we were there. 

On to one of our favorite campgrounds, Blue Angel Recreation Area. We spent three weeks here and managed to get a site at the front overlooking the water. As usual we saw some wonderful sunsets.

Bryan had his usual outing to the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola.

We visited Bryan's mom for a few days and caught up with her. 

We found out Ryan made "Chief" and decided to fly to Virginia Beach to attend Ryan's "pinning". 

There was a possible hurricane coming in and it was touch and go which way it went.  Fortunately for us it headed away from Pensacola but the Florida Gulf Coast and North Carolina got badly hit. 

We told Christina and it was supposed to be a surprise for the rest of the family but I think Ryan had worked it out. Anyway, it was a wonderful occasion and we were proud, and grateful to be able to be there.

It was also our anniversary while we were there and we went to watch Trystan's baseball practice.

Colton liked playing in the grass

We got back to Blue Angel in time to pack up and move on toward Talledega. 

We stopped at Gunter Hill COE campground on the way. This was a return visit and there is a speedway across the street from here.  Unfortunately there were no races while we were there. 

We arrived at Talledega for our 5 night stay at the infield full hook up RV park, which also happened to be at the Finish Line. This was a bucket list trip for Bryan. 

Here's a picture of him signing the finish line on the track before the big race.

We saw a lot of crashes right in front of us but after camping in the Infield at Las Vegas and Daytona, Talledega was a bit of a let down. It was a lot smaller and less things to do than at either of the others, however it is an iconic racetrack and we're glad that we have been there. 

After leaving Talledega we started to head back to Jacksonville.  Next stop was Uchee Creek Army Campground where we were welcomed by a herd of deer.  What a welcome!!

View from our window

We visited Providence Canyon, which was small but amazing.

We stopped at Eastbank COE and Madison Golf & RV Resort on the way back to Mayport for our normal two week stay before going to Jacksonville for our winter stay. 

Mayport was cold and windy and we didn't get out very much except for our appointments. We did manage a visit to Sandollar Restaurant with our friends Tom & Kathy. 

We arrived back at Jacksonville and are now in the middle of our camphosting again. 

Ian, Kris, Bailey and Kai have been keeping busy. Bailey started college this year focusing on car repairs/welding. He also had prom at school, so it seems the UK is adopting some US traditions. Kai is still involved in sports, and he and Ian have started fishing again. 

We bought a new truck as our trusty car needed to be replaced after 14 years and 168,000 miles.  She has seen a lot of the country with us.

The truck got a trial run when we spent Christmas with Ryan, Christina, Trystan & Colton. 

Our travels may change slightly as we don't want to tow the truck behind the motorhome, so we will not be making any long trips in the motorhome but use her as living accommodation here in Jacksonville.

This summer we hope to go to Mount Rushmore & Yellowstone National Park in the truck. We will stay in AirBNB's like we did when we toured the UK in 2023. 

It looks likely that we will retire here in Jacksonville and we are on the waiting list for a retirement community here, but will probably continue to travel in summers until that becomes available.

If you have time to let us know what you're all up to, send us a message or e-mail.  We would love to hear from you. 

Love to you all, Bryan & Sue