December 31, 2016 – Here we are again reflecting on God’s blessings. During our 2016 travels we explored all of the eastern states all the way to the top of our country in Maine, all around New York state and back down to Louisiana. Here’s a map showing where we traveled this year. Almost 6000 miles of travel through 20 states!!
Each year putting this particular blog post together is a big undertaking. However, each year this blog post reminds me of the wonderful adventures Roy and I were blessed to experience during the year. As always we are excited to share it all with you. Our 2016 in one place!
Each month of the year below is a link to our blog’s posts for that month. If anything below makes you want to find out more, please click on the link to take you there! It will open in a new window so you can always come back to this page.
JANUARY 2016
Roy designed signs for Dora, our motorhome, and Boots our truck. We ordered them from Build A Sign and love them!
Our son Chip and Misty were married giving us a new daughter in law and a teenage grand daughter!!
Roy and I traveled to Tennessee for Roy’s full knee replacement surgery. Quite successful! Plus we got to enjoy a little taste of Tennessee snow!
FEBRUARY 2016
Nothing much happened except Roy had a kidney stone – don’t worry there will be no picture of that!
MARCH 2016
We were given over 1000 flower bulbs, mostly tulips. That involved digging 1000 holes and planting them! So well worth it when we got to see them starting to bloom
Along with the 1000 bulbs, we purchased and planted three satsuma trees, two fig trees and eight blueberry bushes. Chip’s family helped us with this and this is Kallie (new teenage grand daughter) digging away!
We took our motor home Dora to Metairie, Louisiana (where Roy grew up) the night before the St. Patrick’s Parade and stayed there overnight. Sunday we were joined there by Roy’s family. We’ll be back for the 2017 St. Patrick’s Parade in Metairie. Hope more of the family can join us then!
The Amite Oyster festival in our hometown of Amite is always fun. We enjoyed the most delicious funnel cake there! 
Kallie’s 15th birthday was celebrated at Kirin Japanese Cuisine in Hammond. We enjoyed our first ever Hibachi meal!
Madisyn’s birthday was celebrated with everyone going to see Zootopia and then afterwards we enjoyed cake!
Roy installed a television in one of our storage bins so we can watch television outside!! It’s gotten a lot of use throughout the year!
We left home and headed to Mississippi where we enjoyed our time at TLC Wolf River in Pass Christian, Mississippi, some time on the beach and exploring the area. We discovered the All You Can Eat Dungeness crabs on the buffet at the Treasure Bay Casino. Wow oh wow!
Wilderness RV Park in Robertsdale, Alabama
Orange Beach, Florida where we played in the sand on the beach
Alabama and Florida border where we enjoyed dinner at Flora Bama Restaurant. We enjoyed eating our chicken tenders and fried shrimp on the second floor overlooking the beach!
Roy cooked his first large pot of gumbo and it was amazing! It’s good to pass this Chauvin tradition along to my hubby!
Strawberry Festival in Loxley, Alabama.
Dora’s dashboard air conditioner has been putting out only coolish/warmish air since we got back on the road. We took her to B&D Truck Repair and within a few hours we had her back blowing cold air!
APRIL 2016
Roy and I celebrated three years living on the road!!
Madisyn had her first softball game and Misty and Chip were great about sending us updates and photos throughout the game. About halfway through the game it hit me. We have no business being away from home while she’s playing ball. We loved so much the many years our sons played ball and have always hoped she would follow in her daddy’s footsteps and play ball. So after just having finalized our travel plans through the east and north east we cancelled those and headed back home to watch Madisyn play softball!
MAY 2016
We spent a lot of our time traveling from Amite to see Madisyn play ball in Ponchatoula. It was so much fun and I wouldn’t have had this time spent any other way!
Almost as soon as we got home Roy dug holes for and buried several railroad ties for Dora to rest her legs (tires) on.
We were able to get some family fishing time in with Chip’s family and some time having Madisyn visit us!
Madisyn was sick one week and Grannie had the opportunity to take care of her. We got creative!
Roy’s interest in flying remote control planes was renewed this year. He flew a few times with his cousin, Chris Fox and our brother in law, George Roussel.
Kallie graduated from Junior High, and Madisyn graduated from first grade. We got to see both events since we were home!
When softball season came to an end we hugged and kissed everyone and headed back on the road to start, once again, our Northeast Journey!
This is our home in Amite and Dora’s parking space when we pulled out!
Our destination when leaving home was Briarcliffe RV Resort in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
We ran across this amazing peach farm and factory, Lane Southern Orchards. We toured the factory and bought a bunch of fresh peaches!
Our home church, Trinity Baptist Church now has Live Streaming for the Sunday morning Worship hour. We have deeply appreciated Bob Anderson making it possible for us to watch our home church on our computer each week starting about this time in 2016.
JUNE 2016
Hardeville RV Park, near Savannah, Georgia
The Savannah Wildlife Refuge
Hilton Head Island in South Carolina
The scene from Forrest Gump where Forrest sits on the bench waiting for the bus to arrive was filmed here. They removed the original bench and replaced it with a nice big concrete bench!
Savannah Waterfront district was awesome
Tybee Island, Georgia
We feasted at Paula Deans restaurant The Lady & Sons in Savannah.
We joined Boondockers Welcome this year. It is a website that allows RVers to stay with home owners at various places around the United States and Canada for FREE!. We stayed at our first Boondockers Welcome host’s home in Delaware.
In Virginia we saw:
Historic Fredericksburg, Virginia
We stayed in New York State a total of five weeks. Our first stop was at Mountaindale at Hilltop Farms Campsites.
Orange County Choppers – two old folks quite giddy getting to meet Paul Teutel, Sr. from the television show.
Woodstock Festival Site and Museum – The 60s and 70s hippie in us loved this!
Bear Mountain State Park in New York
Touring New York City was the fulfillment of a life time dream. We rode on subways and trains, toured the September 1, 2001 exhibits, road the Staten Island Ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty.
Then we went on to Seaport RV Resort in Old Mystic, Connecticut. While there we:
Toured the USS Nautilus Submarine and Museum in Groton, CT
Enjoyed our first lobster roll at Sea View Snack Bar in Mystic, Connecticut
Shopped at Olde Mystic Village
Newport, Rhode Island – Cliff Walk and 10 Mile Ocean Drive – one of the prettiest places we visited.
Saddleback Campground in Northwood, New Hampshire. While there we saw:
Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire – a unique really old village where everything is still like it was in the early 1800s.
Kennebunkport, Maine where we ate lobsters at Nunan’s Lobster Hut – scrumptious!
Next we stayed at another Boondockers Welcome home in Vermont for a week. These folks were very kind and even cooked a Vermont style dinner for us one night!
While there we saw:
Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream factory
Cold Hollow Cider Mill
Braggs Farm Sugar house
Rock of Ages Granite Quary – amazing place to visit
Hope Cemetery
Robbins Nest Covered Bridge
Ladder 1 Grill in Barre, Vermont
Twin Ells RV Park in West Chazy, New York. While there we saw:
Lake Placid Olympic Center
We ate Lobster Rolls at McDonald’s – yes McDonald’s!
Ausable Chasm – known as the Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks
JULY 2016
Doubleday Campground in Cooperstown, NY. We went there specifically to visit the
MLB Hall of Fame – a baseball lovers dream come true!
Three Valley Campground in Holland, New York.
Niagara Falls was the highlight of this year’s adventures. I could sit next to the falls and listen to the roar of the water all day long!
A young couple we met in Indiana a couple of years ago were at Niagara when we were, so we met up and had a great time catching up!
Beaver Meadow Family Campground in Java Center, New York.
While there we saw:
Goat Island at Niagara Falls – the island that lies between the falls
The Museum of Neuroanatomy (Brains) at the University of Buffalo in New York was a special visit! Yes that’s me holding a brain!
AUGUST 2016
Rondout Valley RV Resort in Acchord, New York
We attended our first RVing convention, representing RVillage.com at the FMCA Convention in West Springfield, Massachusetts
We got to tour several 2017 motor homes and do a little dreaming! We found we still love our Dora the best!
Quakerwoods Campground in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania we saw:
Several things including the Liberty Bell
Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed
Gettysburg Battlefield Resort in Gettysburg, PA. While there we saw:
The Gettysburg Battlefield a few days – a lot of history there
President Dwight D Eisenhower’s home.
While we were away, rains poured and flooded our hometown and several other towns in southern Louisiana, including our home church and many close friends homes. As of the end of 2016 some are still not back in their homes.
The most delicious place we’ve visited is Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania. We enjoyed the 4D Movie and the Chocolate Factory tour. Lots of fun and delicious chocolate!
We toured Washington DC on a double decker Big Bus which allowed us to see so much of our nations capitol.
We saw the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space and awesome buildings such as the White House, the Capitol, Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial 
Discovered the fun of picking fresh peanuts and boiling them while at a Boondockers Welcome host’s home in Virginia. I’m now hooked on boiled peanuts.
Roy also enjoyed being able to walk out our motor home’s door and fly his remote control plane any time he wanted to!
Briarcliffe RV Resort in Myrtle Beach, SC where we saw:
Barefoot Landing with lots of fun stores to shop in and entertainment to enjoy!
The area is beautiful and we spent another day enjoying Broadway at the Beach.
Boondockers Welcome host’s home in North Carolina. Dorothy and Tommy were wonderful hots and we even attended worship with them at their church. They cooked an amazing North Carolina Style BBQ dinner for us topped off by the most amazing banana pudding!!!
While there we drove to Charlotte to meet my boss Deborah and her husband Aaron. They cooked for us too and we LOVED the time we got to spend getting to know them better.
We also toured the Billy Graham’s Library which was quite a blessing!
Yonah Mountain Campground in Cleveland, Georgia near Atlanta. We were busy while in this area seeing:
The Atlanta Braves play one of their last games in Turner Field
Seeing Cabbage Patch babies being born at BabyLand General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia
The amazing alpine like town of Helen Georgia
Anna Ruby Falls in the Chattahoochee National Forest
OCTOBER 2016
Sherman Oaks Campground in Gatlinburg, Tennessee where we saw:
Two amazing days at Dollywood
Ate at the Apple Barn Restaurant and shopped at the Apple Barn and Cider Mill
Toured Bush’s Beans Visitors Center
We toured the town of Pigeon Forge
Westward in Tennessee we went towards the Memphis area. We stayed at Big Buck Camping Resort in Hornsby, Tennessee and we saw
Mud Island River Walk in Memphis, Tennessee
We mailed in our presidential election ballots to South Dakota voting for Donald Trump!
Played in Tennessee cotton fields!
Roy’s 9 month post op visit with his orthopedic surgeon in Bartlett, Tennessee went great.
On our way back to Louisiana we stayed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast at TLC Wolf River Resort for two weeks:
Enjoyed the beauty of the coastal beaches
Gobbled up dungeness crabs at the Treasure Bay Casino buffet
NOVEMBER 2016
Chauvin’s RV Resort in Amite, LA – yes that’s us and that’s our home for a few months!
We have a new President Elect Donald J. Trump – yippee hooray! America got it right this time!
Roy and Chip installed new headlights in our sweet truck Boots! Yay she can see at night now!
We attended our great nephew Joseph’s wedding to precious Brooke!
Roy gave our house a good pressure washing
RVillage came out with a cell phone app and we have almost 55,000 members!
My work with RVillage was cut back, a lot!
Roy took a full time job as a Construction Project Manager for Henry Homes
DECEMBER 2016
Christmas Day was split between our youngest son Chip’s new home and our oldest son’s home. The very best Christmas a girl could ask for!
I don’t feel like I say this often enough but living and traveling throughout our country is absolutely a blessing that God has given to Roy and me. I think Him every morning and every night for allowing us to do this. We are far from wealthy people and know our travels have to include a lot of free things. However, its getting to see the amazing things in this country that is most important to us. We don’t have to eat at fancy restaurants, see Broadway plays, stay in fancy places or do everything there is to do. We are simply happy with what we can see and do what we can do! We will do this as long as we can. When He starts showing us signs that it’s time to stop, we will. We are seeing signs that we need to be home a bit more this year so our 2017 travels will not start for a few months. When we have plans set we will let you know!
That’s it! God Bless all of You and I hope your 2017 is the very best year yet!
Links to our Reflections on God’s blessings for 2018, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012 are below.
2018
2017
2015
2014
2013
2012
Happy New Year everyone from Roy and Rosalyn Chauvin!
We are looking forward to all that God has in store for us in 2017!
Click on the links below to go there!
Wacky Wonderful Wednesdays published on Wednesdays
Some Things I Learned About Dementia published randomly
BECAUSE HE LIVES 
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