Sept. 22nd Getting Home & Birthday girl

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We left The Smokeys at about 4ish (pm) and drove until 8 something (pm) stopped for gas & KFC (we haven't eaten out much during this trip, but I was tired) in Alabama, after driving through the rest of TN a small part of georgia. We went on to the next rest stop and ate there and I decided to just get some rest there.

I woke the kids around 12:30 am to get back to the road. I could sleep well, there was about 20 trucks & me and they all had the engines running the whole time (like they always do when they stop to sleep) and with a hole in the roof it was quite noisy as well as the one that was being worked on and then towed away.

I drove until 6:30am and stopped to sleep a few more mins. By 8 something we where back on the road again. After finishing up Alabama and Mississippi and most of LA I decided to see what way the GPS lady would tell me to go. Well seems she wanted me to stick to Interstates at all costs. One way brought me through Dallas the other was go all they way to the coast and then back up again. So I decided on my own way I20 to Marshall, Tx then down. But right before Sherport (I'll have to check the spelling on this one) I check if she has any "better" ideas. She does, looks like she knows a short cut, so I listen to her. She brings we almost straight south west (they way I need to go) but right through the back woods of LA. Some of these "highways" didn't even have devideing lines. I went past many "towns" that didn't even have a gas station (at least not one that have been opened in the last 10 yrs). As I'm plulling into the first town with a street light we have come to and I'm needing gas, the man in front of me (he had just passed me) stops and walks back to my car and says, "Did you know you have on back right tire? you run it clear off." No I do not know this, but luckily this is the only town for a while that happens to have a tow/ tire/oil change/ parts store. So they men end up "saving my rim" by sanding it a little and putting one two new tires (he said the others on the other side need replacing too, but you could make back to Houston on those....said I didn't have good tires and that they "wasn't very good to be run down after 8k miles".

So after that we carry on and never been so happy to cross that Texas state line. We came in near Lufkin and had about a 2-2 1/2 hr trip from there.

We got home around 4:30ish and found the electric still off, the pool green, the sewer starting to back up, The fridge needing to be cleaned out as lots had spoiled and everything just a mess. But It was Delaney's 4th birthday and had told Mark to bring home a small cake and he made potato soup (we have a gas cooktop). We where told that power would be back on no sooner then Thurs but maybe later as there was a tree still on the line near us. Well power came back at about 8pm but only to the lucky four of us that live on the Cul-d-sac. So now starts the clean up.....but so glad I don't have to continue camping after 4 weeks of camping.

Would I do it again.......yes, It was great. But there are things that I would do differently. I would plan for less time out at once (1-3 weeks), see smaller areas at a time and spend more time at each (setting up nightly was one of the hardest things). It would be easier with another adult, husband or even another family. I would plan on getting less school work done and mostly planning on learing about where you at, there was always more then enough to do at most places. Things I'd pack and things we never used. But it was fantastic and I'm hoping to make another few trips this year. Anyone want to join me? This was our first RV trip so it was learning the whole time. Our milage total was about 8000 miles in 4 weeks and 1 day (almost a month).

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Photos

Birthday Girl
Happy 4th