Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Home Again

Since we have been home for 5 days I thought I should finally get around to writing a wrap up blog for our travels.

We left Monte's Mom's house on Wednesday, Aug 13.

For those of you who have followed our travels throughout the years, you know how many tire problems we have had in the past. This time – we had been on the road for 3 months (minus 3 days) and so far – so good. And then in Virginia on I-81 at mile marker 281.5 to be exact - KAPOW. A blow out of the right rear inner tire. So we called our road service and they found someone to change the tire – the only thing was he was 60 miles away so we sat and waited. All in all it was not too bad. A total of 2 hours on the side of the road but, since we were in the motorhome we were pretty comfortable. At different times 2 Virgina State Troopers stopped to check on us and make sure that we were okay which was nice.

We arrived home on Thursday in the late afternoon. It was necessary to get home when we did because Shelley's brother Tom (you met him in Colorado), drove in on Saturday. He was getting his daughter Kelly situated in college in Tallahassee. On Sunday Tom and wife Marsha (she flew in), son Jamie, daughter Kelly and Shelley's Dad, Gene were at our house for a cookout. It was great to have the family together in Florida except for the looming threat of Hurricane Fay which thankfully has stayed in south Florida (so far).


It was a super trip. We had a wonderful time, visited with lots of family and friends and got to see much of the USA that we had not seen before.
The only states that we have not been to together over the years are Oregon, Washington, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, and Alaska.

We hope that you enjoyed our trip and we thank each of you for traveling with us.

Final numbers for the trip are:

Days: May 16 – Aug 14 91 days

Miles driven in the Motorhome: 7,847
Miles driven in the car: 2,794
Total miles: 10,641

Highest price paid for gas: $4.47
Lowest price paid for gas: $3.38
Average price paid for gas: $3.91

Visits that you made to this blog: 1,198

This is the last entry for this trip but forewarned – there will be more trips to come and we will make sure that you are included.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Family Time - Coatesville, PA

When we left Mackinaw, MI we could not figure out anything that we really wanted to do between there and Coatesville (northern Ohio being so very exciting). So for the last 10 days we have been spending time with Monte's family in Coatesville, PA.

We are parked in the driveway at Monte's Mom's house and we get to see his brother Jim and brother Gary and wife Linda and one of Monte's sisters, Nancy who lives in South Carolina but happens to be in town now also. There are also numerous Aunts, Cousins, In-laws, Out-laws, and friends who drop by.

Each time we come here we make plans to go into Philadelphia to see the sites – but never make it. This time is no different. The only sites we have seen are those of the horses running at Delaware Park Race Track and those of the blinking lights on the slot machines in the casino at the race track. (Just how many casinos have we been to on this trip??)



To sum up. These days have just been hanging out with family – and it does not get much better than that.