2018

2018 was a big year for us as it marked our first trip in a RV outside of the US. Our first year traveling outside of the US was full of new experiences and tested our resourcefulness.

A small example of a difference that took us a while to sort out. In Europe the grocery carts are very similar to ours as you would expect, except for one difference they are chained together. Each cart has a small chain that when you return it you connect to the next cart. The first time we went to the grocery we saw everyone getting a cart but could not figure out how to get the chain loose, so we skipped the cart and got a couple of hand baskets. This continued for our first couple of weeks which was getting old as we would end up lugging very heavy baskets around the store. We were too embarrassed, and did not have the linguistic skills to ask someone how we could get a cart. Finally one day I decided to figure it out and watched someone else retrieving a cart and realized that to get the cart you put a .50 or 1 euro coin in a slot and the chain popped out. When you returned the cart and stuck the chain from the next cart in your coin popped back out. The purpose is to get everyone to return the carts to the right place and not leave them all over the parking lot.

For 2018 we took two trips in the United States mostly to California to see friends and to explore San Diego. We also took two trips to Europe, the first except for one night in Spain, was entirely in France. Our second trip was focused on Spain, but we had a tough time getting out of France as “one more thing” would pop up.

In total for the year we traveled 113 days, and covered 4 countries if you count our one day in Gibraltar. We expected that RV travel in Europe would be more expensive than in the US and were surprised that our daily costs are almost the same in Europe as the US, they are just spent in different buckets.

Below are the entries for 2018.

November 4, 2018 Gron FR

The weather is definitely going towards winter.  No frost this morning but very dense fog.  Over night we were joined by 4 other RV’s so

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October 31, 2018 Mataro SP

The problem with traveling during shoulder season is the weather is unpredictable.  It has been a wet October in Spain, and it culminated with today.

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October 4, 2018 Orio SP

Plans change, sometimes by accident.  We had planned to go to the nearby city of San Sebastian to do some sight seeing.  Before we left

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October 3, 2018 Orio SP

After 16 days in France we finally reached Spain.  We could have spent the entire trip in France, and enjoyed ourselves, but this trip was

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August 11, 2018 San Jose CA

Today was much more relaxing than yesterday.  We started with a nice breakfast near our friends apartment.  On Saturdays they close the street in front

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May 4, 2018 Paris FR

The flight home was uneventful but long.  The only hitch was that American Airlines couldn’t be bothered to transfer our bags to Alaska Airline in

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May 2, 2018 Paris FR

Today was our day to be tourists.  You cannot go to Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysee, the Louvre, Notre Dame, etc.  We

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April 18, 2018 Rose SP

Well we thought we were going to head east towards Provence, but instead we found ourselves in Spain. We realised we were really close to

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April 15, 2018 Albi FR

The day started out with a visit to the cheese shop under the supervision of Patrick the campsite owner.  He also had a French couple

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April 13, 2018 Orcines FR

Today we reluctantly left Burgundy.  But before leaving we wanted to take a look at some more of the Beaujolais country.  Somewhere around Julien we

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April 4-5, 2018 Paris FR

Our travel day to France was nicely unremarkable.  The airline of choice was Alaska and American using points Ron accumulated from work.  We made the

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February 14, Coos Bay OR

The final day of “Good Brew Hunting” had us dealing with some disappointment.  The first two breweries we had planned to visit were not going

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January 28, 2018 Reno NV

Today was a driving day as we decided to get serious about chasing warmer temperatures.  The drive was long, but very easy as there is

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