New Year's Eve in Cedar Key

Since we have been full-timing we have had some pretty epic New Year's Eve experiences. Within our first six months on the road we were meeting the people of NuRVers.com for a month in Quartzite, commencing with New Year's Eve. Little did we know at the time the effect these people and that month would have on our travels. That night certainly set the bar high for informal gatherings of like-minded people and our second New Year's Eve in Slab City raised it even further. I'm not sure if it's the people, or the place, or maybe even a little bit of each that have made those events so epic. This year things were a bit different as we were at an rv park, not out in the open desert, but we tried to rekindle that same feeling.

There is a huge space of land right behind our rig that is used for storage during the spring and summer months when the snowbirds fly home and leave their rigs here. Sam and Tracy are parked right next to that and staged their rv backwards so they open up to us and the open storage area. Our Nu friends, Clarke and Elaine, have this awesome firepit (an old washtub) which they brought over and, along with Chris and Cherie, they filled it with wood for our evening under the stars. It sits high and has numerous holes in it for superb heat distribution.

We headed over to the Tiki Bar to begin our celebrating there. People were bringing snacks to share so I roasted a ton of red potatoes with garlic, olive oil and red pepper flakes and brought them along. They are an easy vegan snack that others seem to enjoy as well. We meandered back to the "Nu" party and settled in for some chill fire-dancing by Cherie and Sam and Tracy's cool huge sparklers that we played with for hours. Bill made his yummy key-lime bars and I think if Marie and Brian hadn't showed up when they did we would have all missed midnight we were having such a good time! We toasted with several bottles of champagne and hung out for just a bit ...most of us left around 1-ish but a bunch of the boys hung out for some bonding time. One of the super cool things about getting together with our rv-ing friends every now and again is that you are able to bond with other people who are having similar experiences to yours. Most of us spend a lot of time as "couples," which we all love, but there is something special about hanging out with those of the same sex and having the opportunity to have different types of conversations.

Nu friend, Jay, who also takes all those great pics from Slider Magazine

Maria and Brian's friend's Shaun and Erica came to visit from Austin

Brian on the right and Pat tending bar

Tracy and Elaine getting their party on!

Maria and I always having fun...

Jay and Bill - watch out Jay's going to pull out the bar dice!

Shaun and Erica again

Russ, who's staying at our park for the winter and Tina, a visitor to the Low-Key from the SF Bay area.

Maria, always happy to play with fire!

Maria sporting her awesome mask from the Tiki Bar

I just love it when Bill is outside working on the rig and Sammy wanders over to see what he's working on, and vice-versa...it's getting to pick your neighbors, one of the great perks of rv-ing...if you don't like yours, well, just find a new one!

2012 ended and 2013 started with no great fanfare but a mellow continuation of a life that I am getting better at living each day, what about you?