This has not been a good year for me. After the Phoenix rodeo in mid-February, I decided to head to Florida to visit my sister. For several years, I've been trying to come up with something else to do in Florida other than just visit because it's a 2,000 mile drive from New Mexico to Tampa. A museum in Tampa was to host a display of gay rodeo photos shot in the 1980's which was due to open in late February. So that made a perfect second thing to make the trip more worthwhile.

In route, I stopped for a night in Abilene Texas. During the night, I began to have pain in my abdomen which got worse. Around midnight, I called for an ambulance to take me to a hospital. It turned out to be appendicitus which was removed that night.

After a day of rest I moved on to Grapevine Texas, a suburb of Dallas where I met up with my sister who was doing a gig for her AV rental company in the area. She spent several nights in the trailer which saved her a hotel bill and gave us lots of time to visit and talk.

I then moved on and stopped in a campground in north western Florida. That's when the lockdown happened.

After a couple of weeks I moved down to a campground near Tampa which was about 10 miles from my Sister's house. I stayed in that campground for 21 days, using my Honda Rebel motorcycle to commute to her house and back.

In the meantime, the museum decided to close, and all the rodeos scheduled for 2020 ended up being canceled. However, the visit with my Sister and her husband was great.

After leaving Florida, I spent several weeks headed for Las Vegas. I try to drive no more than about 150 miles a day. More than that becomes very tiring.

While headed for Las Vegas, I had taken the motorcycle out a few times and began to have a problem where I would go about half a mile when the motor stopped. With difficulty I was able to make it back to the trailer. This happened several times.

I was to spend a month in Las Vegas and took the bike to a Honda dealer who couldn't find anything wrong with it. And it worked fine for me for a while. After leaving Vegas, I have had the same issue several times, which makes the bike unreliable, so it has spent most of the time on the back of the trailer.

The last time it failed, I was in Reno Nevada. I took it out and it quit on me again. I was able to get back to the trailer with difficulty. When I put the bike on the lift at the rear of my trailer, I have to tilt the bike about 20 degrees to the left to get the gear shift and foot pedals past one of the hydraulic pistons of the lift. This usually isn't a problem but this time when I put my left foot down to hold the bike up I found my foot was still 6 inches off the ground. The lift was hanging over a curb. By the time I realized that, it was too late and I went over with the bike, skinning my knee rather badly and bruising a rib.

I think I just got a lemon. I plan on replaceing the motercycle with a newer model sometime this spring.

After leaving Vegas, I headed to central California where I had a 100 gallon auxiliary fuel tank installed on the truck. I can now hold 148 gallons and can go about 1,000 miles without having to fill the tank which was a daily thing before.

In September, I was headed for an RV rally in Creede Colorado. In route my trailer hitch broke and damaged the talegate of the truck. I had to have the trailer towed to a nearby campground and thought I was going to miss the rally.

Another couple at the rally drove their big tractor rig 160 miles round trip and took my rig to Creede while I followed with a broken tailgate on my truck.

I got the hitch fixed but the tailgate was badly damaged. With some help I was able to remove the tailgate and put in the trailer basement where it sat until December 22 when I moved it back to the bed of the truck. I found a nearby body shop and while they were checking the damage, they took the tailgate and stored it for a couple of weeks until I actual repairs will start on December 29.

In late August, I began having trouble urinating which has continued getting worse, until. I had an appointment with a urologist yesterday and she found a growth in my urethra which apparently has been growing blocking the flow. I now have a box of catheters to use until January 6 when I go in for a biopsy. I will update this page in a yellow box with results as soon as I know them.

I've had continued problems with the water in the trailer. Currently I can't get any water into the normal plumbing system... again... for the 3rd time. After I finish whatever I need to do here in Denver health wise, I will have to go back to the factory... again... and have the entire utility cabinet replaced. I've been able to fill my onboard tank via a roundabout way which is too complicated to explain so I'm ok for now.

And to finish out the year with a final blow, the antique Christmas tree light string I have had on my little tree since Tom and I had our first trailer Christmas back in 1989 has gone out. I've checked all the bulbs but there must be a break in the feed wire. The light string is tie wrapped to the tree so will have to completely dissemble the entire thing to find the problem.

I've been upgrading my Internet connectivity closet with a new computer, which in itself has been painful trying to get the Windows server operating system to work properly, and I've added several different ways to connect. That process has made the inside of my trailer a real mess. Hopefully I will get it all cleaned up in the next few days.

I have had a lot more issues with life this year but I guess I've depressed all of you enough for now.

As in last year's card, I'll just include pictures of the campgrounds I have stayed at over the year.

Here's a wish that you and yours have a good holiday season and a better new year than I've had so far.

Frank