Back home (At last or darn it?)

Westward Ho



Thursday, April 9, 2009
We stopped yesterday afternoon after only a couple of hundred miles. We went by a Sierra Trading Post outlet outside Boise and decided to check it out but found out that the prices were the same as their catalogue so we came out with nothing. We found a great little RV campground for $12 using our discount and decided on grilling a steak as our “last dinner” of the trip. Afterwards, we played some cards and watched a little TV on our last night on the road. (Harris won again…by some incredible score this time. Something like 400-70). This whole trip back went incredibly fast lasting only 6 days. Although we were hoping for sun, heat, and wearing shorts, we lucked out by dodging several major storms that predicted high winds, rain, snow, and flooding in many parts. We arrived home a little after 7 PM and as we turned the corner of the walkway we were surprised by a welcome home poster on our door created by our neighbor/house caretaker Lynne. We felt warmly welcomed home and grinned as we scoped out the pictures from our blog that bordered the sign. Judy was tired, but Harris, who has done all this driving, was ready to go out again in search of the sun. He loves this vehicle. He loves driving. He loves traveling with it. Judy loves Harris. Still.
Final stats:
Miles= 7912
Gallons =393
Ave Mpg= 20.2 (range from 18 to 24)
Ave cost of diesel 2.02 (range from 1.79 in OK to 2.32 in West Virginia) cheapest in WA was 2.29 on 4/9
Cheapest campground $12 (several using CampClub USA to $34 in UT)
Days=39

Welcome Home

In Idaho

Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Today we decided to make it a shorter day. We wanted to beat the storm that was coming into Utah, so we left very early in the morning. (for us!) The day started out in the 60’s, but continually dropped into the 40’s. Snow flurries were predicted for Utah, but we made it over the pass into Idaho before they came. We got some rain, but no snow! We’re stopping outside Boise for the afternoon and evening, hoping to get some good sleep before going home tomorrow.



Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The weather didn’t improve much, so we drove and drove today. It was sunny, but cold, cold, cold. People debate the route between Denver and Salt Lake City, the choice between route I-80 and I-70. Most people choose I-70 even though it’s about 2 hours longer because of the dramatic scenery; They also describe I-80 as being boring and desolate. We chose the shorter route and found that the scenery was anything but drab. We drove all the way across Colorado and Wyoming today. The eastern part of Colorado was flat, scrubby land. We climbed very gradually to the mountains, and through the continental divide at 7000 feet. The view out our windows changed from dry scrub land, to bits of snow on the sides of the roads, to totally snow covered hills and mountains. After we crested the divide, beautiful wide valleys ringed by those snow covered mountains made us wish we could stop and stare. We finally stopped about 9 outside Ogden, Utah for the night.

We're not in Kansas anymore

Monday April 6, 2009
We woke up and decided to go as far as we could since the temps were hovering around 30 degrees. Wind gusts were constant and sometimes threatened to push us over a lane. Of course the winds were headwinds which brought our gas mileage down to the lowest levels of the trip. The clouds cleared and with the heater on we could pretend it was a pleasant spring or summer day until we stopped. The wind would try to snatch the door from our hands and it would be a tug-a-war to control it. We put on 650 miles today (St. Louis, Missouri, through Kansas and into Colorado). If the weather warms up we will slow down, otherwise it’s onward.

We were in 4 states today!

Lunch at a ballfield (with no game in progress)


Sunday, April 5, 2009
So, no snow yet….yet! It’s predicted for tonight and tomorrow…so we’ll still see!
We drove through Kentucky, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and we’re in Missouri now. We’ve been following I-64, then I-70 after St. Louis. Sounds impressive, but it was done in about 10 hours. It was cool but sunny when we left. Harris kept a running commentary going about the temperature, grinning when it hit 74! BUT! That was short lived. As we headed west, a storm was moving east. It started to rain, and the temperature started to fall. Rain turned into a torrential downpour, (with lightning), so hard and fast we almost couldn’t see even with the wipers going full blast. We were just about to take the next exit off the freeway and wait it out, but the exit was closed! So, we bumbled on, and then it began to lighten up a bit. The rest of the trip was just “regular” rain, although it’s coming down pretty good now at our campground. Current temp, 40 degrees and falling fast. We must be eager to get home, cuz we’re not stopping to see any sights….either that or we’re just fair weather tourists!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Leaving DC, heading west
We broke camp at 8:30, the earliest on this trip, on a sunny but very breezy morning. Winds must have been gusting to 40 to 50mph as we drove. Harris felt that his arms got a workout by the end of the day. Once we were out of the city, Maryland was beautifully rural with large expanses of green. Driving through W. Virginia on interstate 68 (National Freeway) was very scenic. Judy read that WV has the highest mountains of any state East of the Mississippi and it showed. We could imagine what fall colors must be like as we traveled west, as some of the trees still had colorful leaves on them. Other trees were full of white blooms, and pink ones were starting to show. It was almost like being on a giant roller coaster…up a mountain, down a valley…up a mountain, down a valley…repeat across the whole state. When we crossed into Kentucky, on I-64, it seemed like spring was definitely here. More trees were turning green. There was lots of green underbrush along the road. We loved seeing large horse pastures with white fences. We pulled into Carter Caves Resort State Park around 6:30 and it was nice to be out of the wind. It seemed like a long day, but we only went about 460 miles. Home is a long way away! It’s a pretty morning as we prepare to leave. We listened to the St. Louis forecast on our XM radio…snow showers. Judy suggested going south. Harris thinks we can do fine… I guess we’ll see! (gulp)

We

In Washington DC

The Capital Building as seen from the Washington Monument


Washington DC March 27th - April 3rd


We are here and the wet/cold weather finally caught up with us. Although we can’t complain too much when we check the Seattle area weather. We’ve had temps in the fifties and lower 60’s with occasional showers. We found a national park called Greenbelt which is only 13 miles outside of DC. Around DC distance is measured in time instead of miles. When we first drove from downtown DC to Greenbelt, a distance of 12.5 miles according to the GPS it took just over an hour. We can see why people use mass transit here. Greenbelt National Park is within 2 miles of two separate metro stops (College Park and Greenbelt on the Green line) and Judy has become an expert in determining route of travel including transfer points to the various other red/blue/yellow/orange lines. On our first trip, Kyle met us at our Greenbelt stop and showed us the ropes of getting a smart card. We were jealous of his Obama smart card and so he took us to the metro center where we were able to purchase our very own Obama card (for a $5 surcharge). When we were stopping at other RV resorts, our rig seemed very small in comparison to most of the other RVs. When we have been traveling on the highways next to big trucks, our rig has seemed very small. When we drove through the heart of DC to Kyle’s apartment and out to the campground, our rig seemed huge! Harris did an excellent job of negotiating the horrendous traffic on city streets.

White House from a distance


We have seen some of the sights. On our second day here after Kyle dropped us off at the aforementioned Metro Center we continued on to the Mall getting off at the Smithsonian metro stop. It was a cool pleasant day. We strolled the mall coming up on the Washington monument around closing time. A family thought they had extra tickets from a packet they found on the lawn and gave us a couple and so we found ourselves riding up the monument just before closing time without having to come early in the day and lining up for the tickets. The view was great even though the glass could use some cleaning. You look out one window and see the White House. Look out another and see the Potomac River where you can rent paddle boats. Look out another and see the Lincoln Memorial and finally look out yet another you can see the Capitol building. It was a very impressive beginning to our sight seeing.

The buzzer Judy pushed!


We’ve seen Kyle’s acupuncture school, the American Indian Museum, the Portrait Museum, the American History Museum, the Natural History Museum, The White House Visitor Center, the National Building Museum, all the war memorials. We walked by the White House and Judy pushed the buzzer at the front of it but no one answered. We figure that we will have to speak with our congressman and get tickets to see the inside. We spent parts of our days walking 14 blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue, Old Town Alexandria, and some of Georgetown. We have walked our little tootsies off and then some. If we had to pick our favorite, it would be the American Indian Museum. It is the newest and we have seen the others before (although we enjoyed seeing the gems including the Hope Diamond again). There was so much more to see in the Indian museum than we could cram in the few hours we were there.

"I don't care!" statue at the Indian Museum


Judy is rethinking the name of the van. We thought it was going to be Howie but she is considering The Turtle because we carry our belongings in our little house wherever we go. Right now it is a TBD. One morning when Harris turned off the generator, all the electrical circuits in the house part of the van went dead and he couldn’t turn anything on including the generator. After checking the circuit breakers and finding nothing tripped he was worried that something major was wrong with the van. He called Pleasure Way and they told him about another set of circuit breakers that might have been tripped by a power surge that sometimes happens when turning off generators. Sure enough, that was what happened. He reset the circuit breakers and the circuits were all back on line!

As close as we could get w/o tickets


We took a day off sight seeing to visit Mike and Eileen Donahue. We’ve known Mike since he was a kid in Juneau and Harris had him in his class as a seventh grader. They live in a very pleasant neighborhood that was only 20 minutes away from our campground and it was great to catch up on their lives. We thought it was very appropriate that after Mike’s dad served on the Juneau School Board, Mike should be on his son’s school board. It’s now been a week that we’ve been in DC and it’s time to start back home. We are thinking about sticking around for the Cherry blossom parade on Saturday before we leave. As we post this on Friday morning, we are on our way to pick up Kyle and take him to his school for an appointment and it’s raining like crazy (but it’s warm—in the lower 60’s). Hopefully it will be sunny and warm tomorrow for the parade.

Marine One?? seen from WWII monument


The hardest/saddest part of our trip occurred here. Kyle and Jen are breaking up and it has been hard on them and us. It’s been awkward as well as difficult for all 4 of us. We can only hope that there is a positive for each of them that comes out of this emotionally wrenching time.


Kyle and Judy