SIGNING OFF

I wanted to sum up some of our thoughts and experiences with this final blog and perhaps provide you with an interest perspective. So here goes:

Our journey started on November 19^th, 2012 and ended yesterday April 9^th, 2013 making it 142 days on the road. You would think the time would seem long but it went quite fast for us. During which we camped at 27 campgrounds some memorable and a couple we would rather not remember but over all we had good luck with our selections. During this period we traveled through 12 States, had two quick visits to Mexico and of course Ontario. Eight of the States we traveled through twice in different regions and saw a good cross section of their topography. We tried to keep ourselves busy at each stop by visiting the local attractions including tourist traps (you just have to do that). 

The total trip put 7,220 miles (11,620 km.) on the coach along with two catalytic converters sensors and a bull’s eye chip on the windshield. Not to mention lots of dirt from across the country. The Wing accumulated 4,430 miles (7,130 km.) and we were glad we took it rather than the Ural as it could keep up with the traffic on the freeways. 

Overall the weather was not disappointing; we had two incidents where we had contact with snow. Once in Phoenix, where it hasn’t snowed for over 10 years and again while driving the higher elevations in Nevada getting over to Las Vegas. (We can always say we were in Phoenix the year it snowed). There were a few days of rain while traveling but if we were stationary we made good use of the time by doing coach cleaning, computer duties and of course just relaxing.

The main highlights (not in order).

- the great people we met at Mercedes, Texas (American and Canadian)

- Happy Hour and dances

- picking our own fruit for juice

- the fantastic scenery (too many to list)

- the great riding roads (especially Hill Country in Texas)

- the tram ride in California

- San Padre Island

- camping just a few feet from The Mighty Mississippi

- The Peabody Ducks

General comments

- California was expensive

- southern Texas was very cheap

- Louisiana was interesting

- Texans were very friendly

- we met a lot of nice people throughout our travels

- the Texan high desert had strong winds

- Cathy and I didn’t see a live Armadillo (wanted to - only saw a dead one on side of road)

- the desert areas of Arizona and Texas were interesting at first but after several days of exposure it

  almost became depressing

- I was on allergy pills for most of the trip

- San Antonio is a great City to visit (river walk)

- don’t want to drive through Dallas again

- Michigan had the worst roads

- found the journey was quite educational

- seeing all the different animals in Texas was surprising  (like being on Safari )

In closing we want to put out a large “Thank-you” to our fantastic neighbours Marlene/Vic and Julie/Dave for attending to our mail, snow clearing, plant watering and general house sitting. We know it was a rough winter for snow and a lot of work. Wayne’s assistance with keeping all our toy batteries charged is also greatly appreciated. Without them, this trip could not have been possible.

This, our final blog, is number 138 and up to now it has had 4025 viewings, some from Germany,

Russia, Georgia, United Kingdom, Ukraine, U.S. and of course Canada. (Very surprising)

Thanks for watching our blog, hope it wasn’t too boring. It was primarily done so our families could keep track of us. It was a great trip - but it is always nice to get home!

Cathy and Larry

HOME AT LAST (SAFE AND SOUND)

I suppose Cathy and I were pretty anxious to start the trip home as we were out of bed by 5 o’clock. So we had a great breakfast of sausage, eggs and toast while waiting for the sun to come up.

Boy did we time the trip home beautifully; it was a little foggy when we left Jackson at 8:15 with a night time low of 6C and ended up being nice and dry the whole time we were on the road. The sun came out a couple of times and provided a high of 15C as we pulled into our driveway at 2:30. We managed to park the coach and trailer and even unloaded the major items before it started to rain. It has been raining ever since.

Light fog

Still foggy at the border

Oh yea, show us the way.

Still little patches of snow around in the sheltered areas.

Here I am sitting in my comfortable recliner doing this blog and it feels great. Wow, is our house ever big - after being in the coach for the almost 5 months we can walk around for 5 to 10 minutes here without seeing each other. Cathy currently is up stairs having a bath which she has been looking forward to for the last few days.    

Our great neighbours Marlene and Vic who helped look after the house came over with a box full of mail for us. We added the mail to the pile all ready in the house which was collected by Julie and Dave our other wonderful house sitting neighbours. It took me an hour to open and separate the urgent from the not so urgent to the read later piles. Of course the urgent pile is the income tax papers which we will have to get to the accountant in the near future.

I am hoping the rain will do a major clean up of the coach as it has not been washed since out stay in           

California and is in dire need for some attention.

 http://goo.gl/maps/Yq6dD

One more blog tomorrow before signing off.

ONE MORE SLEEP!

Well, we made it to Jackson, Michigan the last stop before home. Yahoo! We are both excited about getting home now. It has been a great ride. I plan on doing a final blog on Wednesday to give some closing comments and facts about our journey. Hope you will check it out.

When we were leaving Clarksville we saw these prison attendees doing garbage detail and an officer watching over them. Great idea.

We drove through a couple of showers and that was it, however, it remained mostly cloudy throughout the day. The temperature reached a high of 20C and it is currently 18 while I do this (5 o’clock). The winds are a little gusty right now but are to subside shortly.

This campground is quite large and had just turned the water on today. I am sure it was a farm with the farmer converting it all to a campground. The majority of sites are taken up by seasonal people and they seem to provide a great family atmosphere.  We don’t think they have many coaches come in or are really familiar with them as they wanted us to park on a grassed section. There was no way I was going to put our 12 ton unit on a wet, grassy area in the spring after some rain. After some site checking we talked them into letting us park on one of their roadways where our hydro cable would reach.

 So here we are parked on the road for the night.

 Not many pictures for today so I added some taken at Graceland.

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen

Pool room with fabric covering the ceiling and walls.

Ceiling

Jungle room with brick fountain and green shag carpet on the ceiling and floor. (wow!)

One last day with a 5-6 hour drive ahead of us.

http://goo.gl/maps/Fnu1L

MADE IT TO INDIANA

Today it was cloudy when we left West Memphis and as we drove through Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and into Indiana we hit a couple of showers (nothing serious), sunshine and then some clouds again. The high here in Clarksville, Indiana which is located across from Louisville Kentucky is 22C.   

The rolling hills of Tennessee.

It was a long drive which included a traffic jam just south of Louisville delaying us for one hour. We don’t even know what created the holdup. All of a sudden the traffic started to move again.

Not moving too fast here.

People really thought they were getting ahead by switching lanes all the time.

This KOA campground is pretty much empty but we talked to two other couples that rolled in today as well. One couple lives in Michigan and the other from Cornwall, Ontario. So it seems this time of year the campground is a stopping point for the northern people on their way home. The trees here are just starting to bud out and the grass is green.

We also caught up today with Ontario time, so no more adjusting the clocks. Yea!

http://goo.gl/maps/fVFxL

On the move again tomorrow.... (only two days from home)

DOWNTOWN MEMPHIS TENNESSEE

 It was a nice 22C today with a little cloud and winds.

Cathy was all excited about seeing the Peabody Duck March more than she was about seeing Graceland, so off we went to the Peabody Hotel. The “Duck Master” marches one drake and four hens out on the red carpet to the fountain in the middle of the hotel lobby at 11 o’clock and parades them back to their $100,000 penthouse “Royal Duck Palace” at 5 o’clock. They come down by elevator and when the doors open they make a mad dash to the fountain and are very excited to be in the water.

The Fountain - thought it would be larger.

Lots of people watching - the elevator is to the left of the fountain.

The Duck Master

The ducks have 3 stairs to climb to get up to the fountain ledge.

Once the elevator doors open they run straight for the fountain.

How it all began.

After the ducky event we took a walk over to Beale Street, they close a section off from vehicles on the weekend so you can walk down the street and look at the restaurants and stores. We had lunch on an outside patio here and then walked over to check out the Cotton Museum at the Cotton Exchange. This was a very interesting museum and was quite educational. It showed the different harvesters, covered the black labour, the impact of the cotton gin and the economical impact as well in the southern states.

    

Beale Street

Another T-shirt

A cigar box guitar for $350.00

A cotton bale (on the left!)

Boll Weevils

We passed this pyramid and found out it was a Pyramid Arena being renovated into a Bass Pro Shop Mega store.

 

We are on the road tomorrow.