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Published: August 29th 2016
August 27
th, 8:15 AM, 526 miles; that’s what the mileage said when Michelle loaded our home address into the GPS and hit GO as we sat in the truck just outside of Knoxville. 526 miles, that was all that was left of the Great Adventure we had started on January 21. It was the last of 20,466 miles, the last of 52 RV parks, the last time to dump the tanks, disconnect water and power, bring in the slide-outs, check the turn signals and brake lights, check the oil, kick the tires, double check that the pin was in the hitch, check the straps on the motorcycle, and verify all the RV doors and windows were locked. The last travel pictures. Now all we had to do was safely negotiate that final day of travel and we would be home. And yes, we were ready. Like the day we left Alaska, it was a quiet ride as we took US 40 to 81 and crossed into Virginia. Maybe we were both just a little talked-out after so many days on the road but eventually we began to reminisce about where we had been, what we had seen and what we accomplished.
We talked about our favorite places, how we were so glad we did it our way and that we would never do it again. Once was enough. When we hit 95 North out of Richmond and joined four lanes of bumper-to-bumper idiots, all driving too fast and talking on their cell phones, we longed for the hill country of Texas, the wilderness roads of Alaska, the wide open prairies of Montana and the pristine mountain roads of South Dakota. Finally we made it to familiar territory and Magnolia Drive. We had been asked so many times “Aren’t you worried about your house?” No we weren’t, and Liz and Tony did not let us down. The property looked like a park and our home was so clean it could have been ready for an Open House. They did not let us down, it was better than when we left and we are so proud of both of them. Yes, our own bed feels great and our big shower is perfect. We spent a lot of our first day unloading the RV and getting reestablished in the house. For those of you who were in the military and have been there it’s a lot like coming home from deployment and you will understand perfectly when I say some things have changed but mostly it’s about the same as it was before you left and there is some readjustment required by everyone. And finally, since this will be my last blog post I want to thank all of you that have followed our amazing journey over these past months. You have made me a better writer and Michelle and I are both much better photographers. At every stop I would think of you and how I could adequately describe it to make you feel like you had been there with us. Hours were spent selecting the perfect photos to help tell the stories and when I would finally get the chance to sit down and pull it all together I thought of all of you as I wrote each line. I was always amazed when there were 30-40 hits per blog in just a few days and when some reached over 60-70 I knew that many people were sharing our site with others. Thank you for that. I still can’t believe that the Denali blog has 116 views. For those that commented often, both on the blog page or on Michelle’s Facebook page, it was good to hear from you and you kept me going. It’s a little sad now to think that this will be our last post but I hope you have all enjoyed our journey together and I want to thank you all for coming along with us. Now we get to start our retirement and enjoy our time off, we are both looking forward to the rest of our summer and who knows, maybe another adventure. I understand there’s a ferry that runs from Boston to Nova Scotia. R and M
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Diane
non-member comment
:)
Home Sweet Home.......nothing like it!! xoxo