Ahhhh!  Home sweet home.

We arrived home yesterday around 4:30, a whole day earlier than we thought.  The drive home was very smooth and fast with very light traffic on I-80. 

Here are some of our stats:

Drove 9,070 total miles
Spent $1984 in fuel (averaged around $2.45/gal)
Stayed in 28 RV parks
Went through 31 states plus D.C.
Walked a bazillion miles
With only a few minor disputes :)

We are still pinching ourselves about all the things we did and saw.  It was all absolutely amazing.

We racked up 515 miles today to Elko, NV, Elko RV Park, $29, very adequate park.  We planned on taking 5 days to get home but at this rate we'll be home tomorrow night (4 days).  I have to say, I-80 is fast and pretty much stress free and that's the only reason we're getting home as early as we are.

We celebrated our last night on the road tonight with our last steak in the freezer and reminisced about the amazing, incredible journey we've had.  We are so thankful that Denny's back held up so well and that we were able to do all the things we've done. No more searching for RV parks--we will come home to our favorite campground in the whole world

This is the first western sunset we've seen for quite some time.  This is the first day since we left Iowa that we've been able to go outside and enjoy a walk after dinner.  It got down to high 30's last night in Rawlins, WY....brrrrrrr.  Elko is about 5,000 ft elevation and it's in the 70's...very pleasant.  One last post tomorrow and we'll cross this fabulous journey off our bucket list.

No pix today, just 460 miles under our belt.  We are at Rawlins, WY, Western Hills Campground, $31, an adequate Good Sam park with the basic necessities. One thing about boring I-80 is that you can really put away the miles without a lot of stress...nice straight highway, light traffic, fast.  At some places, it was 80 mph speed limit.  Only problem....the cable TV is not broadcasting the Greenbay/49er game so Denny is sitting in the truck listening to it on Serius SM radio:(  Oh well, last I heard, Packers were ahead.  (Sorry Steve:/)

At this rate, we will be home by late Tuesday afternoon, a day earlier than planned. 

We traveled about 420 miles today to Kearney, NE, Kearney RV Park, $41/night, pretty over-priced even though it's convenient and the park is good, the "wifi" is non existent PLUS they charged us $5 for an extra person (Booker).  Oh well, not many choices here along this strip of I-80.  Denny finally let me drive today and it was a piece of cake.  You don't even know the trailer is back there with this new truck.  Nice and straight, low traffic just the way I like it.  That way we were able to travel farther than we normally would.

We enjoyed our stay at Amana Colonies.  It was Octoberfest there and being a German settlement, they really celebrate big time.  They have wonderful gift shops, woolen mills, bakeries, and smokehouse/meat shops.  I bought an authentic, hand made straw broom.  Can't wait to give it a try.

Denny and sister Charlotte at her apartment in North English, IA

A giant walnut rocking chair. I FINALLY get to feel tiny at the Broom and Basket shop in West Amana.

Denny, Lola, Leroy, Charlotte, Diane, Rick.  Missing are Les and Greg.

Rick and Jackie, Denny's youngest brother and wife at their home in Luzerne.  They prepared an absolute FEAST for our reunion.

It's cold here and a little rainy.  Definitely fall-ish.

A nice easy drive today and we arrived in Amana, Iowa around 2:30.  This is a huge RV park, Amana RV Park, $31.  They put us in the south 40 in what feels like our very own "field of dreams" right up against a huge corn field.  I keep waiting for a bunch of baseball players (preferably Kevin Costner) to come walking out!

And, this is the most fun Booker's had since we left home.  He ran and ran in this huge field of grass.  We had dinner with Rick and Jackie at a place called Ronnenburgs where they serve family style.  Pretty good!  Tomorrow we'll go visit sister Charlotte and possibly sister Lola, then we'll have a big get together on Friday evening at Rick and Jackie's.  The weather is getting cooler but still clear and sunny.

It's a one night stand here in Champaign, Illinois, D & W Lake RV Park, $30/night , very nice park and it's actually on a lake!  We did see a little bit of color today along the way.

We gained back an hour today and tomorrow we will land in Amana, Iowa for 3 nights.  Rick and Jackie, Denny's youngest brother and wife will meet us there for a Amana family style dinner.  Can't wait to see them.  Weather has been rainy off and on today and the north wind came up this afternoon.

Fall is definitely in the air but the weather for Iowa shows full sun all three days and 65ish so that will be fine.  We've been very fortunate on the weather so far, except for the first few days of our journey.  We plan to be home for Tyler's football game next Thursday night, Oct 8.  By the way, as a freshman, he is STARTING on offense and defense plus getting A's and B's in honors and college prep classes.  So proud of that boy.

Hugs to all and see you soon.

We left D.C. this morning after a fantastic experience there.  I must say, though, we were not sorry to leave the heavy traffic in the D.C. area.  We're now in Zanesville, OH, Wolfies RV Park, $36/night, a very nice park with 2 major drawbacks...1) no cable TV for Denny to watch ESPN, the Packers/Kansas City game, and 2) can't get ABC for me to watch Dancing with the Stars:(  We will survive.  It rained on us a little the first half of the day but is beautiful now.  We are about 1/3 of the way to Amana Iowa where we will stay to visit the family on Thursday and Friday.

All is well and it feels good to be heading west.

Saturday, we decided to be brave and drive into the College Park Metro Station rather than take the bus and it turned out to be just fine....much quicker and the parking was abundant and free on weekends.  We jumped on our train like pros and transferred easily and quickly.  We even knew right where to catch the Big Bus at the huge Union Station to continue our 2-day tour. 

First stop, the Pentagon.  They dropped us quite a ways from the Pentagon so we probably walked a mile and a half to get to the Memorial and back to the bus stop.  You have to reserve a least 2 weeks in advance to tour the Pentagon (which we didn't do) but were able to enjoy the beautiful memorial there.  184 lost their lives that day and each person has a beautiful granite bench either pointing to the building (if they died there) or pointing the opposite direction if they died in the hijacked plane.  Very moving and your stomach does flip flops to visualize what happened that day.

We spent the rest of our day at the Smithsonian Museum of American History and of Natural History.  Both spectacular. 

 A piece of Plymouth Rock where the Pilgrims landed in 1620.

 Apples first desk top computer from the 1980's

Our Flag made entirely of Legos

The Hope Diamond

Denny transformed into a Homo heidelbergensis cave man!  Don't really love the unibrow!

Today is Sunday, our last day in D.C.  It's lightly raining and we are pooped.  We may take this day to catch up on laundry, shopping, and rest.  Not sure yet.  We've seen so much and it's all been incredible.  It's been amazing the watch the Pope's visit places we just were!  To me, his visit here shows how people are hungry for peace and a better world no matter what your religious beliefs.

OMG Washington D.C. is just a mind boggling experience in so many ways.  This morning we took the Big Bus Tour.  We thought Metro Bus (our of our park) was taking us directly to the Big Bus pick up area but found out while riding on the Metro Bus (from some other nice RVers like ourselves who had made the trip a few times already) that NO... you are going to be let off at the Metro train station, on which you will need to take the green line and transfer to the red line at which time you will transfer to the Big Bus tour!!  By the time we got on the Big Bus and were actually starting our tour, it was 11:30:/ We left at 9:30.

After getting lost numerous times at Union Station, we finally made our way to our bus.  By this time, we were ready for lunch and a nap!!  After almost a complete breakdown on my part, we arrived at the correct location to pick up the Big Bus and had time to take a few deep breathes before going on our way.  At the end of the day, it all worked out fine but just a little rough start.

On our first stop we saw the Capitol (covered in scaffolding for repairing the dome) and got a tour with this cute little girl who made it really fun.  We really enjoyed it and decided it would be nice and quick to have lunch at the cafeteria there.  Not great atmosphere or much chance of seeing any Senators but still fairly good and above all, quick.

Next stop, the Museum of Air and Space.  Not my favorite cup of tea, but still it is hard to believe how far we have come in just 100 years from just trying to get off the ground to space travel.  Amazing. 

We had time for one more stop and it was the Viet Nam Memorial and the Korean War Memorial.  Both very moving.  We had seen them both in the D.C. at night tour but much more impressive in the daylight. 


Getting home went much smoother as everyone told us it would be.  We did get to see a little excitement while we were waiting at a bus stop.  All of a sudden, all the surrounding streets were blocked off by police officers' lights and sirens for no obvious reason.  After a while, we saw a procession of motor cycle cops and a string of black vehicles evidently carrying someone important.  The President of China was meeting with our President today so we speculated that it was either or both President Obama and/or the President of China.  Pretty cool.  

I have so many great pictures but will try to post the highlights.

Tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington Cemetery where we saw the changing of the guard.  Sooooo impressive.

I had no idea Arlington was so vast.

This was taken at the night time tour.  As close as we could get to the White House.

The Lincoln Memorial at night.  This gave us chills.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial at night.

The Washington Monument at night with the Capitol in the background and reflection in the reflection pool.

Iwo Jima Memorial at night.  Unbelievable.

Me with FDR, an amazing president.

The US Capitol.  Amazing even though covered in scaffolding.

Inside the Capitol dome.  This building is so impressive.  Our representatives probably take it all for granted but if they could stop and see it through new eyes and feel it as we did for the first time, they might do things differently.

Air and Space Museum.

Korean War Memorial.

Viet Nam Memorial.

Tomorrow, we'll re-do our trip into the city but I'm sure with a lot more confidence.  We plan to see the Pentagon and possibly take the river cruise on the Potomac.

Bless his heart, Booker just stays home and holds down the fort. 

Just a quick note to check in.  The drive to College Park MD was nice and easy.  We arrived at Cherry Hill Park here in College Park Wednesday around 1:00.  This is where we will commute back and forth to Washington D.C.   Dick and Renee where here on their last day at the park before moving on so we got to have a little reunion dinner with them.

Since Pope Francis was here on his final day on Thursday, we decided to drive to Arlington to see the Arlington Cemetery in the morning.  It was sooooo incredibly impressive, moving, stiring... all of those things and more.  I had no idea it was sooooo vast.  Watching the changing of the guard was amazing.  Then last night we took the D.C. at night tour which was also amazing. 

Today we will get on the hop on/hop off bus for a 2-day tour so we are really cramming in as much as possible in this once-in-a-lifetime experience.  As soon as I can, I will send pictures but just wanted to check in. 

What a day in Philadelphia!!  We chickened out driving into the city and took the train.  Den just didn't want to face that traffic and above all...the parking (which was $20+ for the day).  The train only cost us $6 and was fairly stress free (until we came home at a very busy time).  We got off within 2 blocks of the historic district and the visitor's center.

The weather today is starting to cool off and a bit cloudy but we got by without any jacket (around 70 degrees) but a little blustery.  We decided to do a self-guided tour to the Liberty Bell, which was awesome!  The free tour of the Independence Hall was amazing and gives you chills to think we stood right where our forefathers wrote the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.  We had a great volunteer tour guide who really brought it all to life for us.

After that, we walked over to the Christ Church Cemetery where Ben Franklin and hundreds of other pioneers of our country are buried.

We then walked over to the United States Mint building and had a great tour which included being able to actually watch coins being made. We also saw a short exhibit of the Federal Reserve Bank and got our $100 worth of shredded currency.  They shred somewhere around $20,000,000 in old and damaged currency daily (not totally sure about that but it's a LOT).  Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed in either of these buildings.

Of course, no visit to Philadelphia is complete without a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich.  The folks at the visitor's center recommended Sonny's so we enjoy an official classic Cheese Steak, which believe it or not is made with Cheese Whiz.  It was darn good too!!

We HAD to fulfill a promise to Tyler to get a picture with Rocky Balboa at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which was clear across town from the historic district.  Well, the city is literally buzzing with preparations for the Pope's visit on Saturday.  Lots of the city is inaccessible because they are setting up all sorts of bleachers, fences, porta-potties, tv screens, you name it, and the buses are detouring around much of the museum district.  But, hey, a promise is a promise and we made it to the Museum of Art and got our pictures for Tyler.

The train ride home was REALLY crowded!  In fact, I was surprised they let us all in.  People were crammed in like sardines.  Thankfully, the trip doesn't last long.

Great day in Philadelphia and once again, we feel proud to be Americans!  Tomorrow we are off to see the frosting on the cake... Washington D.C.

Yesterday's drive was up there on the stress charts with our 400 mile drive in northern Washington State on Aug. 14,  in a dust storm, fires, etc.  We drove about 380 miles yesterday through MA, CT, RI, NY, and NJ!!  But it wasn't so much the distance as driving through major cities like New Haven CT, and New York!  We tried to avoid going across the George Washington Bridge on I 95 but just couldn't. We were warned that RVs cannot use the lover level of the bridge so we were looking for signs (among a bazillion other signs) and they kept saying passenger cars only.  We thought we had missed the sign for trucks/rvs.  We panicked a little and pulled off on a side street in a busy and narrow-streeted area and by luck or the grace of God we found a place to pull over and decide what to do. Our hearts pounding, a guy walking his dog came by.  I am convinced this guy was our guardian angel.  He talked us through our delima (in his Bronx accent) and convinced us we were just fine and should just get back on and follow the signs for the upper level.  We pulled right back on and did just that.  We came through it just fine.

We were planning on staying the night somewhere on the other side of the bridge but there wasn't an
RV park to be found without going a long way off our route so we decided to just push through and go all the way to Clarksboro, NJ, Timberlane RV Park, $42/night, which is the closest park to Philadelphia on the other side of the river. 

Today, we just plan on relaxing and we'll see the city tomorrow.  I don't know how Denny did it last night but he stayed up til midnight watching the Packer/Seattle game.  Thankfully, the Packers won.  I, on the other hand, was in bed before 9:00 and it sure felt goooooood.

We really lucked out getting a spot in this park, Campers Haven in Dennis Port, MA, $53/night.  It was the last spot they had on this beautiful weekend on Cape Code.  It has it's own white sand beach and one block away from a beachie little cafe/bar that had live music (Beachboys-ish) on Friday night for our Calimari and Fish & Chips dinner. 

On Saturday, we just went exploring the area and ended up in Orleans which is on the (north) Cape Code Bay side (we're on the south side), at Skakat Beach where at low tide, the beach goes out for a really long ways.  The water is crystal clear and the sand is fine white.  We walked a long ways out and came across a strange sight.  There was a fishing boat sitting next to some nets on the sand and it looked like the boat had sunk. The owners were there working and we asked them about it.  The nets were an oyster farm and they bring their boat out there at high tide, wait for the tide to go out, do their harvesting, wait for high tide again, and take their boat and oysters back to the harbor.  Incredible!!  Really an amazing experience. 

Around noon, we drove to Chatham, which we were told was a neat little town and had lunch at Captains Table and walked to town.  Great lunch!  This has been a really fun little side trip that we didn't have planned.  Sooo glad we did it!

We're a little nervous about our drive today toward Philadelphia.  We will go through New York, New Jersey and Connecticut (I think) and over the George Washington Bridge that is a double level bridge and very narrow.  Plus, there are no RV parks where we hope to stay for the night?#!  Keep your fingers crossed for us. 

We hit the streets on our second day feeling like we knew pretty much what we were doing and what we wanted to see.  We hopped on the trolley and headed to stop #4, the USS Constitution and the Bunker Hill Monument.  The Constitution is in dry dock for 3 years for refurbishing but we could still get a glimpse of it.  Pretty amazing and hard to picture what things must have been like 300 years ago.  The Bunker Hill Monument and museum was really interesting and makes you stop and think..this is exactly where the US Government began.  Of course, everyone here is well-versed on American Revolution history and it was good to get re-educated on it.  We even saw the building, built in 17?? where Paul Revere read the Declaration of Independence to 10,000 Bostonians.  Wow! 

Next stop was the Boston Commons and Granary Cemetery where Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and Ben Franklin's parents are buried.  Fascinating!  We walked most of the Freedom Trail.  Somehow, we got busy and forgot to visit Cheers:(  The finale was a Boston Harbor Cruise then back to catch the 3:40 ferry back to Hingham.  Poor Booker has been left for the past two days, 8 hrs + each day.

Taken from the ferry

The Old North Church

The building where the Declaration of independence was read to Bostonians from the balcony in 1775.

 The Bunker Hill Monument

State Capital Building

Today we will head to Cape Cod and spend a couple of days in Dennis Port right on the water before heading toward Philadelphia.