Home at last

A true Road Trip! 7,062 miles on the motorhome. 6,746 miles on the Toyota truck. 2,400 miles on the Prius! (More about that later)
It was a grand trip but about 3 months too long for us. We saw a lot of beautiful country and scenery as well as meeting lots of really nice folks along the way. All that and we got to visit with family and friends as well.
The route we took was down through California with stops in Whiskeytown and Roseville with Ken and Jackie Coyne (who took us to the great wineries in the Gold country and taught us the Mexican Train dominoes game). We had breakfast with Kelly, Will and Carlie in Castroville. We stopped to see Jon, Kirsten and Amalia (goodness, she is beautiful). It was a real pleasure seeing all the "cousins" again. We visited with Marty Burns and Michelle in San Jose and had a very nice dinner with Marty. From there, we headed down to the CA coastline south of Monterey and meandered our way down the coast highway to San Simeon and Solvang. Lou bought some really nice quilting fabric in Buellton just outside of Solvang.
Leaving the coastal area we found ourselves on the Ventura Freeway at rush hour. Not a great place to be as the brakes overheated causing us to spend the first (and last) night in a Wal-Mart parking lot! The next morning all was well with the world and the brakes so we continued onward to the desert oasis of Blythe, CA. Fairly nice campground there on the river but nothing to encourage us to stay any longer so we hit the road again towards our Christmas destination of San Antonio.
We pushed on to the Phoenix area and "camped" in front of Mike Burns house for a few days. We enjoyed getting to talk with him and Eva and got to visit with Kevin Burns too. We had our Thanksgiving dinner at Kevin and Cindy's house. Very pleasant gathering.
Our outbound journey ended in the beautiful city of San Antonio where we enjoyed the fantastic hospitality of Al and Cecelia Hernandez (our compadres). The Riverwalk is everything is was made out to be. Really special, especially with good friends along. Christmas was awesome with all the kids and grandkids that were a central part of the celebration. We missed having Debbie and Tom with us however. Lou found some more neat quilt material just outside of San Antonio.
December was in San Antonio and January was in the gulf coast area of Aransas Pass, Corpus Christi and Padre Island National Seashore. While it wasn't "balmy" by Florida standards, it did beat the almost 100" of snow in Spokane by leaps and bounds.
We were blessed with the opportunity to visit some of the prettiest country the USA has to offer.
Big Bend National Park was a real surprise We had heard that it was pretty but were not prepared for just HOW PRETTY it really was. Spectacular is the best description.
There appeared to be a lot of desert like country in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. We found out that February in New Mexico is dedicated to the arts. (Yes, more quilt shops & neat fractal art). You kind of realize that when there are National Monuments named Saguaro National Monument and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Of course, there was also the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. All were very different and still, very beautiful in their own right. All worthy of being seen if you venture anywhere in the vicinity. If it's a little out of the way, like Big Bend Nat. Park, take the side road and experience it! Some are good for a single visit like Death Valley and White Sands but should not be missed if possible.
Even in the Las Vegas area (where we did NOT have a good time for 2 1/2 weeks) there is the Red Rock Canyon and the Valley of Fire State Park to visit. We left Las Vegas 3 times. The first time the motorhome had an engine problem on the way to Death Valley. The second time was when we drove home in the Toyota truck to await word on the engine status. The third time was when we had driven the Prius down to retrieve the motorhome. We went back to Death Valley to see it before we headed home at last. It was really pretty but I won't go back. We have seen enough desert to last us a good long time.
We are now back to the trees, rivers, lakes and hills of Washington State. We have returned both richer and poorer from a great venture (for us) that was a long time in dreaming and planning. We are convinced that "full timing" is not for us and will keep our "long trips" to 2 months max. Now we will do a few short trips in the Northwest for the summer and plan on staying home next winter. Maybe we'll hit 150" of snow next year! Wahoooo!! At least I won't be commuting in it:)
For those of you that have been following the blog, you get a break as this is the last entry. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed 95% of the trip:)