Home Again~

Hi All!

We have been home for a week now. We spent the last week of our trip in Santa Fe, New Mexcio, arriving in Northern Arizona on Sept. 2nd. We stayed in Flagstaff for 2 days so we could buy supplies to go camping over the Labor Day weekend with our friends and family at Hutch Mountain.

To be honest, I was not all that impressed with Santa Fe. The weather was nice, and down town was nice to walk around and see shops, and the southwestern architecture, but New Mexico as a whole is pretty barren. I guess coming from the East and all the green I just wasn't quite ready to see brown landscape.

Our first night in town we thought we would find a mexican food restaurant since we had not had any since we left Phoenix. We both agreed that we were close enough to our home territory to find some good food. We found a place on the pamphlet the camp ground gave us, so we decided to check it out. Well, it just didn't cut it for us. It was not like sonoran mexican food that we are use too, and it was really expensive! That was kind of a bust, but one thing we learned on this trip, you have to try something at least once. Live and learn. We decided the only place to have really good mexican food is in Phoenix, Arizona, so that was at least one insentive to get home again........We spent an afternoon walking around the old square in Santa Fe. This town was settled by the spanish long before the English came to America. Santa Fe has a large hispanic population. Most follow the Catholic religion. There was a beautiful church in the center of town that was very old. It was the gathering place for the people of Santa Fe. We went inside and saw the beautiful stained glass and paintings. We bought some stuff at a few of the shops, then headed back to our "home".
Allen did his golf day while I hung out and relaxed. The drive to Flagstaff was uneventful, but I have to say we were really glad to get back into the pine trees. We were both so excited to get out in the woods and do some real camping with our friends. It turned out to be a beautiful weekend and a great way to end our 3 month journey.

Now the sappy stuff.........

We enjoyed every moment of this trip, and we feel so fortunate that we were able to take the last 3 months to visit our wonderful friends and family. How lucky are we to be welcomed into so many homes and visit with such really wonderful people. "A trip of a lifetime" is understating what this experience meant to us. We learned a lot about our country and its people, and we learned a lot about ourselves, as well.
I have to say there were some testy moments, but overall, Allen and I really worked well as a team, and we had a lot of laughs, and even some happy tears along the way.

There are so many hightlights it is hard to name all of them, but the time we spent with our daughter, Chrystal, son in law, Rob, and our precious grandsons, Matthew and Chase was by far the most important to us.
We are sad that this trip is over, but we are already planning another one for "someday"! We know what to expect now, and we look forward to another challange. I think the most important lessons we learned was that; Yes! This is an amazing country and we are so proud be an American. And, really the people of this country are more alike than different if you just leave religion and politics at home. We all want the same simple things in life, and most people are willing to give a helping hand to total strangers if needed.

The landscape of this country is breath taking and I am in awe of every part we drove through. We went from the mountains and low lands of the west; driving through the praire and farmland of the midwest; into the rolling hills of Upstate New York; then on to one of the farthest tips of this country, Long Island. We took a train into New York City and we saw a wonderful show on Broadway. We visited the historical towns of Gettysburg, PA, and Washington DC. We drove through the southern part of this country, and enjoyed the southern hospitality of Tennessee. Coming home and hanging by a campfire with our friends and family could not have been a better way to end this trip.

So, this ends the blog. Thank you to everyone who commented and enjoyed reading about our wild and crazy adventure:
Thank you to Erin, Kymmie B. , Lisa & Lary, Kimberley, Ronnie & Taylor, my beloved Aunt Hilda Myers, Dad & Gloria, Larry & Famiily, Michael & Family, Ellen & Family, my beloved Auntie Flo Fink, Liz & Fred & Barb, and Vic & Hillary, and my long lost Brenda Frienda for being a part of our lives and this trip. Thanks to our family that was here at home looking after things for us, Wade, Carol, Mom. June & Rick helping Wade with the truck.
Last, but not in anyway the least, our love to Chrystal, Rob, Matthew and Chase to whom we owe our deepest gratitude because without them we never would have considered taking this trip in the first place. Life does work in mysterious ways..........

Well, today is my birthday, so I think we will go out and eat some really good Mexican Food! Cheers!!

Love to all,
Allen, Donna & Bailey Boy

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