Wrap-Up of 2011 Trip

Thursday, August 18 - Well, we've had a few days at home - busy, busy, days, so I thought I better do my final blog and get on with life in the desert.  Our second "retirement trip" was wonderful, ran a very close second to last year's trip to Alaska.  We just didn't see any bears this year!


As with last year, when we left (March 29), we had no definite return date set, but I really expected we would be home sometime in July.  Wrong.  This year's trip was 139 days, 2 days longer than last year!  That was a surprise, although it felt like we had been gone forever.   This year's trip took us through 16 states--(Arizona, New Mexico, Texas (3 times), Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana (2 times), Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Oklahoma.  We saw severe storms, severe flooding, followed by severe heat and severe drought.

We drove 9,695, only 595 less than last year.  We didn't keep track of the mileage on the Explorer, but we're guessing around 6,000 driven (in addition to the 9,695 it was towed).  Our biggest unexpected expense was repair on the Explorer in Florida -- and that was a chunk.  Unfortunately, we need to take it in now for another noise it has developed. Joe fought the whistles around his window the entire trip, so that is definitely something we need to track down during our "off season."  But the RV served us very well, and we love traveling in it.

We saw lots of deer, and turtles, and alligators, a few dolphins and a few antelope.  Our most exciting sighting was probably the armadillo in Louisiana, although those alligators were pretty cool.  We saw lots of exotic birds, especially in Florida, and especially Bridgette's favorite, the sandhill cranes which we saw frequently.

We didn't wear our rain jackets very many times, although we did wear complete mosquito netting coverage in the Everglades, and we got to enjoy the beach and get in the water (more than just a toe) in both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.


Our most exciting "event" was getting to see the last shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral.  We had not planned on that one, but were delighted that it worked out so that we could witness that awesome event.  That is certainly a highlight of a lifetime.  However, maybe even more of a highlight was watching Bridgette get hooded as she received her Ph.D. in May.  Congratulations again to Bridgette.

We toured the Daytona 500 Racetrack, as well as the one in Homestead, Florida.  And we got to attend the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis (thank you, Cathy and Joe), another totally unexpected opportunity.  We also toured the Kennedy Space Center a month before the launch, and got to see the shuttle sitting on the launch pad.  We went to our first horse race.  We got to see Indiana harvesting the melon crops, which was fun to see after so many years away from that (and we were so glad we were not out in the fields picking those melons.)  We toured the Oklahoma City Memorial, which was very emotional, but well worth a stop.  We also got to spend a couple days in Branson, Missouri, which was totally entertaining except for the heat there.  We went snorkeling at Key West, toured several museums and old forts, and explored two National Parks -- Big Bend, Texas, and the Everglades in Florida.  We drove by Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, but didn't have time to explore it.  Another trip, I guess. 

We spent a lot of time with family this year, in Indiana with all our relatives there, and in Florida with John and Bridgette for 5 weeks.  Since we were in Vincennes to celebrate Lucille's 95th birthday, we got to see almost everyone in the immediate family, and some of the extended family as well, cousins that we hadn't seen for several years.  However, in addition to our Indiana family, our trip included visits to a nephew and his family in Florida, a niece and her husband in Tennessee, a cousin and his family in Tennessee, and we made new friends with Dave and Mazie's nephew and his family in Ruidoso, New Mexico, where we also hooked up with a couple of our friends.  So last year's trip was all about travel; this year's trip was a lot, but not all, about visiting. South Carolina was the only state we visited this year that I had not been to before, but Joe had even been there, although we took different highways and byways than we had ever taken before, in almost all the states we crossed.

The trip certainly counts as a success.  And there are some of the places we went that we know we want to go back to.   There's a canyon near Amarillo, Texas (Palo Duro Canyon) which is the second largest canyon in the U.S. that sounds very interesting.  They put on a show in July and August out there, so we hope to catch it sometime.  Also, we would like to go back to Branson more "in season," maybe in the fall some year.  And Ruidoso is definitely someplace we will probably return to, maybe every year in August. 

Our grandkids grew while we were gone.  Cody is just 6 weeks away from getting his driver's license.  He just started his Sophomore year, and Kaylee just started 5th grade.  We miss them so much when we are traveling, and that's the driving force that gets us home.

Of course, we have a "to do" list now.  The first thing we had to take care of was getting the license plates for the truck.  It has to have emissions every year so we could not renew that while we were on the road.  But, alas, the batteries died on it while we were gone.  After leaving it on the charger overnight, Joe decided there was no life left in them, so we replaced them yesterday, then Joe drove it down and ran it through emissions.  So we are now just waiting for the new tag to arrive in the mail.  The TV didn't work right when we got home, and we found out the  Direct TV box was bad, so we are waiting for the new box to arrive in the mail (we had error code 14-200, which was apparently fatal).  The shower nozzle in our shower was plugged up with calcium, sand, or something, so when I went to take a shower Tuesday morning, no water would come out.  So Joe changed that out, soaked it in vinegar, and we are back in business on that front.  And our box trailer has a flat tire, as does the little trailer we pull behind the quad.   And at the top of our "to does" is to lose the 10 pounds we gained on this trip, then work on the next 40-50 pounds we need to lose.  That, of course, is the toughest "to do" of them all.

On the horizon, Joe has to have surgery on his other foot as soon as we can get that scheduled.  We hope to do a little fishing this fall.  I've joined the bowling team from my ex-work, so I'm looking forward to that.  And we are going to Big Lake (Arizona) over Labor Day Weekend with Jeff and Brenda.  We are not making plans any further out until we find out about the foot surgery.

We have no big trip planned for next year at this point -- we're leaving all our options open at this time, but we will be going to visit Lucille sometime so we always know Indiana is an annual event (I am trying to skip April in Indiana, though, since that seems to be the height of Indiana Tornado Season).   And probably Florida will be an annual trip as well, although that is a very long drive from here!

I'm sure I've forgotten some important events and visits, so please forgive me for that -- it is not intentional, but early senility has certainly set in.  We loved the trip, and we are very happy to be home now.  For a while.