THE BEST THING ABOUT OUR ADVANTURE IS . . . .

FLEXIBILITY!!! Today finds us heading south on I-81. You know Anthony didn't pack any long pants?? Well, when we got up this morning and started cooking our breakfast at the West Virginia rest stop, we decided we needed to go back home and get him some warm britches.

Just kidding, but there are things going on now that we decided it was best if we turn around and head back. (And it's not because we aren't getting along, because we know that's what you were thinking, ha!) 

So this adventure may continue some other time.

But here are a few things that we wanted to share before we close out this chapter.

We had a really nice sleep going on until this 18 wheeler decided to pull up right next to us at 4:00 A.M., and it sounded like he was pressure washing his truck. So Anthony got in the driver's seat and drove to the other side of the parking lot where we continued to sleep until 7:00 this morning. Very nice.

We also saw an RV in the parking lot and had to take a picture of it and send it to our neighbors, Jim and Sheila, as they will be joining the ranks of retirees within a few days. They just got a REAL RV and will be hitting the Walmart parking lots soon between here and who knows where on their journeys.

We definitely risked life and limb taking this picture. Side of the interstate. That's another benefit of taking the back roads is not feeling like you are going to get killed stopping on the side of the road.

Here is Anthony doing his stretches on top of the picnic table at the rest stop. Next time you are at a public picnic table, just picture this first.

Here is our delicious breakfast this morning, eggs and bacon. Why does it taste so much better eating outside? (Please notice what Anthony has in his hands, Cholula. His very favorite condiment)

An observation we have made on this trip is that there are lot of Dodge Grand Caravans on the road. What's up with that? Anthony said he doesn't look at them as mini vans anymore, but could we sleep in there?

An observation we made on our trip out west was that there were a lot of Prius' on the road, everywhere. We were wondering if we got a Prius for the much better gas mileage could we sleep in the back of it. Well, of course, there are videos and blogs about people doing just that. So we decided to go to the Chattanooga dealership and see if we could both fit in the back of one comfortably and if we could store all our gear in there too. Well, instead of us driving it first, we asked if we could put the seats down and lay in the back. You won't believe it, it was very roomy. I think we could do it. And the roomier Prius V was even better, but of course, not as good gas mileage, 42 mpg instead of 51 in the regular Prius. Not sure what the salesman thought about us laying in his cars, but that was the most important thing to us, as will probably be any vehicle that we purchase in the future. When we got back home and took the purchase price of the Prius and figured out the difference in mpg in the van vs. the Prius, we figured we would have to drive almost 200,000 miles in the Prius before we would break even, so we decided that we would keep driving our 1998 Toyota Sienna until it dies, which I hope won't be any time soon. But the Prius will be a nice option if we had to get rid of this van.

But if that ever happens, I am not sure I could come up with any words that rhymes with Prius??!!??

THE MAINE E'VAN'T

Friday, October 3, 2014

In the continuation of the man, van, plan saga, our adventure finds us heading north to a state I have only been to one other time, and only for a few hours, just to eat and drive up the coast a short ways about 28 years ago, and it was about dark when we got there. Anthony has never been, so this will be pretty new for both of us. This was a bit of spur of the moment as we only decided to do this last Sunday. We knew that one day we wanted to go to Maine, and it needed to be in October, so here we go. Our plan is to head up the interstate to get there, and head back down the coast. But we shall see. 

We didn't know what next year might bring us. It's funny that when you retire, people start giving you ideas for jobs that retired people have. A few suggestions have been for us to work in a national park, Dollywood, or even at Disney World. Who knows, we may give one of them a try next year. So we wanted to go ahead and hit the road before winter sets in and one of us decides to get a job.

We have been driving through rain just about all day, pretty dreary. But the traffic hasn't been too bad. I know that a cold front is supposed to be coming through, but I am hoping not too cold as Anthony didn't pack any long pants, ha!! What was he thinking??  Maine, HELLO!!

We will be interested in seeing the leaves changing colors as we are heading north, so here they are in Chattanooga:

And here they are in northern Tennessee.

Already a bit of a change.

 

We had to stop and get lunch, so we pulled out our chicken salad from our cooler and made sandwiches before we got on I-81.

Then we made it into Virginia:

And when we are this close, we always like to stop and take a picture of the Roanoke College sign as we feel like we paid for a small part of it as Hannah went to college there for a semester.

Tonight we are hoping to make it to Winchester. It looks like there is plenty of free parking/camping in each of the three Walmarts in that city. Something interesting about Winchester, VA is that during the civil war the town changed hands at least 72 times, including 13 times in a day. (The AAA book is a wealth of knowledge.) Also, as an early landlord in the Shenandoah Valley, George Washington required each tenant to plant 4 acres of apples and as a result, there are extensive apple orchards around Winchester.

We both are looking forward to this trip and seeing more of the country that we have never seen, but this time it will be all in the Eastern Time Zone.

Q & A

After 5 weeks, 9,300 miles, 23 states, 7 state capitols, 4 time zones, and 17 National Parks/Monuments, we just wanted to take a minute to recap highlights of what we saw with a few questions and answers.

1) Favorite National Park

Anthony: Badlands, because of up close encounter with the bison

Lisa: Glacier National Park.  It is difficult to describe, just try to experience it for yourself.

2) Favorite campground in which to sleep

Anthony and Lisa: Badlands, again because of the bison grazing beside campground, the coyote howling at night, the stargazing, and just the people watching. We also liked it because it was free:)

3) Favorite City or State Park

Anthony: Valentine, Nebraska, small city park, small community, allowed camping for nominal fee, and good scenery. We cooked breakfast here one morning.

Lisa: Spearfish, Montata City Park to sleep because we were camped right beside the creek.

3) Weirdest happening

Anthony and Lisa: the trumpet playing When The Saints Go Marching In in the middle of the night in the Walmart parking lot in Steamboat Springs, CO.

4) Most interesting person met

Anthony: Dewayne Makescoldweather in Montana.

Lisa: Doc, the fella on the horse at the Dinosaur National Park who was on a mission to feed the hungry children

My close second were our kindred spirits from Canada:

5) Very favorite day

Anthony and Lisa: the day our whole family was together in Seattle, and Alyssa was our tour guide. A very close second is being able to be with Hannah on her birthday and climbing Gray' Peak.

6) Worst thing about trip

Anthony: Driving on the interstates (Interstates have no personality. The only thing they are good for is getting from point A to point B fast unless you are stuck in a traffic jam. Fortunately we haven't spent much time on the Interstates)

Lisa: Listening to Anthony complain about driving on the interstates. 

7) Favorite street name

Anthony and Lisa:

8) Favorite state sign

Anthony and Lisa:

9) Favorite city sign

Anthony:

Lisa:

10) Favorite meal

Anthony: Every breakfast cooked outside

Lisa:

Santa Fe

11) Favorite hike

Anthony: Hiking a 14'er on Hannah's birthday, Grays Peak, with Lisa and Hannah, and the view was phenomenal.

Lisa: ^ this one was great. But I only made it to about 13,000 ft. So I will put our most unique hike, Part of The Narrows in Zion National Park. I just think the picture is pretty cool.

12) Favorite part of the country visited

Anthony: the Northwest, specifically Washington and Oregon. The cooler temperatures were nice in the summer.

Lisa: Although Utah was steamy hot, the scenery was spectacular.

13) Favorite thing that got checked off bucket list

Anthony: extended adventure with my wife. Good quality time together.

Lisa: ^That was really sweet, and I agree. But I always wanted to go to Yellowstone and see Old Faithful.

14) Best shower

Anthony and Lisa: Flying J truck stop

15) Favorite animal seen:

Anthony: Camel Rock

Lisa: (that man^ cracks me up) 

The whales! even though I could just barely see them, it took my breath away.

16) Highest gas price:

All gas in California was over $4.00/gallon, but the highest we paid was $4.95/gallon outside of Yosemite Park. Anthony purchased just enough to get us to the next service station.

17) Favorite City:

Anthony: Omaha, Nebraska, because of their bicycle trails and the bike/pedestrian bridge over the Missouri River, that links to Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Lisa: Spearfish, Montana, because of the campground, and bicycle trails. It also had any amenity you might need or want. 

Anthony: on a trip like this, we quickly learned that our windshield was our TV, sunset is bedtime, sunrise was our alarm clock, eating out literally meant eating out(side), gazing at the stars was our late night entertainment, and our interaction with people was our reality TV. All of these experiences were very positive, but the best part of the trip was the time spent together with little distraction. 

We decided our theme song is definitely Zac Brown Band's, "Free."

We are planning on doing this again, and highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity.

New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama AND Georgia

Sunday night after we left our friends, we decided to find the closest Walmart parking lot and pull in and settle in for the night. We thought we would head to the Ski area and sleep there, but it was a bit far, and we didn't even know if there would be space for us to camp. When we woke up, we fixed our normal egg and bacon breakfast in a city park and headed out to explore Santa Fe for the morning and then head East. We got to go to the Plaza and walked through the Native American vendors selling their wares. Lots of silver and turquoise all made into rings, bracelets, necklaces, and other trinkets. 

We also made our way to St. Francis Catholic Church.

You may recognize the church from the movie, "Twins."

Picture Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito walking about in this spot.

We also just strolled around looking at the other churches in the area. 

And also went to the Capitol.

We saw this statue on the outside and Anthony did his regular pose with another Native American.

Would somebody please just pull the man's finger??!!?? They just aren't falling for it, and I don't blame them.

We found one of our favorite stores:

Ate lunch, and then we decided it was time to head home. This is when we got completely out of character of this whole trip. We found the nearest interstate and got on it. 

We were able to get a shower at Santa Rosa State Park. When we take showers, we have been sharing towels, so after I used it (he always let me take a shower first so I didn't have to use a wet towel:) I then walked a few feet out of the bathroom with wet hair, and by the time I handed it to him and walked back to the bathroom, my hair was practically dry. It was crazy. 

We drove through Texas.

I don't really need to say anything, but can you tell it was sunny and windy?

When I have driven through Texas on Interstate 40, my nose always knows when I am coming up on this area for miles before I get there. My stomach gets queasy, and here's why:

Not a blade of grass anywhere for these cows.

I am not going to go into a long speech, but would you rather eat these ^cows?

Or these ^?

Anyway, we made it to Elk City, Oklahoma, and slept for the night.

Look carefully, it really does say Oklahoma.

The next morning we pulled up our GPS, and it said we had 790 miles before we made it to Huntsville, Alabama, my mom's and dad's house, our destination for the night. We put rockets on our van, and made quick work of:

(Lots of construction work, take alternate route if possible)

And finally:

Yay!! Home sweet almost Home!!

We had a few people in our welcome party when we arrived. Some very friendly faces I was so glad to see:

:) <3

We even probably smelled, but we got hugs anyway!

The bed felt exceptionally good, and the shower was especially welcome, but it was good also being in familiar territory.

After spending a wonderful night and most of the next day in Huntsville, we decided it was time to make our way home. So we made it to Tennessee again:

Dipped down in Georgia:

User error, sorry.

And then in Tennessee again!!

Lookout Mountain^

Some familiar sites that make me smile:)

Thank you for taking this journey with us. I have loved all the words of kindness and encouragement from so many of you throughout this Advanture.